Sep 30, 2022

GARDEN SURROUNDINGS: Fall Into Fall

By Francesca Filanc, for Let’s Talk Plants! October 2022.

We fall into fall and look forward to cooler weather with leaves changing colors. Where we live in San Diego County, autumn is the time to start planning and planting our winter vegetables and prune back perennials. It is the time to stop feeding plumerias and other tropical plants and trees as well as roses. Traditionally this is the time for plants to start going dormant and resting for the winter. Check out my mum’s website PatWelsh.com or refer her book Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening- A Month-by-Month Guide for details and tips to follow that one should be doing in October.

Climate change is setting new challenges for the back-yard gardener and also for the growers and farmers around the world. We might need to try growing new varieties of plants and vegetables that will produce better with the influx of climate change. Hundreds of years old gardens in Italy are finding that certain plants that did well for centuries are getting diseases and dying.

In my own garden, I have had vegetables that always produced well in years past, that did not produce well this spring and summer. On a positive note, people are getting together in committees and discussion groups around the world to work on solutions for the future.

Part of working toward solutions is staying positive, which is sometimes difficult to do in our changing world.

In The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Deepak Chopra says:

“Commune with nature. Silently observe the intelligence within everything. Watch a sunset, listen to the sound of the ocean, or simply smell the scent of a flower.”

I recently bought a porch swing for my garden and with the help of one of my granddaughters we picked a secluded area in the garden that has plenty of shade all day long. This spot has become a sanctuary for me where I go every day to go into my dream world. The views look beyond my garden walls and are a “borrowed landscape” as the Japanese call views that are as far as the eye can see.

As we move into autumn and enjoy gardening, take time every day to commune with nature. It helps to give a reset and calm in our ever-changing world and lives.