October 2025 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Robert]

On 2 October we received 1.35 inches (34.29 mm) of precipitation at our El Dorado County farm. This is an excellent start to our winter precipitation season, however it comes about 2 weeks earlier than average. In addition, this storm was warm – there was no snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, just rain. During this rainy period temperatures have been below average. The week ahead looks to be warm and dry with average temperatures for this time of year. It appears we will have perfect temperatures for our trip to the Sierra Nevada Mountains this week.

In many ways summer is a dormant period in our part of California. The native bulbs are dormant, as well as many of the native perennial plant species. Our native annual wildflowers will only start germinating now that there has been significant precipitation and temperatures have cooled from the summertime highs. Pictured above is a typical late summer scene in our part of Northern California. Our home garden also reflects this pattern.



Our Sacramento home is a working mini-farm. We grow agricultural crops to feed ourselves. Thus I attempt to use borrowed scenes to create beauty in our garden. Much of this inspiration comes from 50 years of observation of living in farm country and from many of the paintings of the artist Claude Monet depicting scenes from the French countryside. The scene of the dry corn stalks and the fading Zinnia elegans flowers is a familiar one for me. I find it very appealing and enjoy these scenes every autumn. For me, this is an extremely important aspect of gardening.



This is a current scene of our backyard ornamental garden. Most plants are dormant and there are few flowers.



I have almost finished mulching the ornamental garden with shredded leaves. I am a bit late with this task this season.



Zephyranthes mesochloa continues to produce flowers. We get far more flowers from this species than the other Zephyranthes species we grow in our garden.

A few weeks earlier many Colchicums filled our garden beds with flowers. They are all finished now. Soon the few autumn blooming Crocus species we have will start blooming. I will move some to these garden areas to continue the autumn blooming cycle. Other than these autumn blooming species there will not be much action in our garden until early January. Managing the garden is an on going learning experience for me.

[Robert]

Helianthus giganteus ‘Sheila’s Sunrise’ is a very common, tall, late blooming species. It is a bit invasive, however I would not garden without this species. I greatly appreciate this “end-of-the-season” perennial.



Our tall, single flowered, Dahlia coccinea hybrids are at their prime late in the season when the summer heat is over.



We are getting close to having something special with this Tithonia rotundifolia hybrid. This is a very common, annual species that we enjoy growing in our garden. It does no take special, rare plants to be creative with plants or create beauty in the garden.



Here is another example of being creative with plants. Pictured is a thick stand of alfalfa grow hours after I finished harvesting a crop of buckwheat from the same bed. In the Northeastern part of the U.S.A. buckwheat is used as a smother crop to reduce weeds and smother any plants growing under it. Here I used buckwheat as a nurse crop for the alfalfa. It worked perfectly. The alfalfa was not suppressed as if it was a weed. The main difference was being able to think outside the box of perceived outcomes to come up with a different outcome. High levels of solar radiation in our region helped a lot!

As you can see we also grow Zinnia elegans at of El Dorado County farm. A sweetly scented autumn clematis blooms on the fence in the background with fragrant David Austin shrub roses and Honeysuckle.



A final garden scene as I head back to the house after a day of pleasant work in the garden/mini farm.

[Jeffnz]

I assume that you grow the alfalfa for it benefit on the soil fertility and structure.

[Robert]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, next growing season I will get 5 or 6 alfalfa cuttings for compost making. The roots go deep and bring up many minerals from deep in the soil. Some of the leafy parts can be dried and used as a fertilizer for potting mixes and soil blocks. I spent most of the day today planting out fall/winter vegetables, ornamental annuals, and California native annuals. I enjoy growing ornamental annual species a great deal. Farming has been my passion since I was about 10 years old or maybe less. I remember visiting Mr. Barrett's farm and Mr.Jones was a friend. Mr. Jones had 10 acres of almonds. Uncle Elwin had the cattle ranch across the road. He had a small but very nice Orchard. He gave me a piece of Champagne Peach that I still have to this day.

Tomorrow I will start sowing winter cover crops. My favorites are Hairy Vetch, Crimson Clover, and Fava Beans. Fava Beans fix nitrogen and produce a great deal of carbon biomass. In our climate it is a great one for building the soil. I produce many tons of compost for our garden each season. There is no need for fertilizer or to buy anything for the soil. Right now I do not produce enough dried alfalfa for potting soils so I still need to buy a little bit. Beyond that both the El Dorado County and Sacramento farms produce all their fertility needs.

[Jeffnz]

The prime growing of alfalfa here is as a winter dry feed for animals but it does have use on organic vineyards.

[ashley]

Beautiful flowers Robert.  Perennial Helianthus are so good at this time of year.  In our garden 'Lemon Queen' gives us (& pollinating insects) great pleasure from August to October.  Slightly invasive yes, but well worth the trouble.  I really like your Dahlia coccinea too.  Some years ago scarlet and dark red forms grew here, but have faded away since.  I must look out for it again in the exchanges.

Here in SW Ireland several late clematis have begun flowering.  Unfortunately seeds mature so late that they miss the exchange deadline by a couple of months.
Fuchsia magellanica is also flowering heavily & continues into December, although 'Arauco' is perhaps a bit more tender.
By contrast, Tropaeolum smithii & argentinum are coming to the end of their long season & will soon succumb to frost.
Witch hazels (Hamamelis) are in full if transient autumn glory around now.  A joy every year.

Clematis aff. akebioides


Clematis connata


Fuchsia magellanica 'Arauco'


Dahlia merckii


Tropaeolum smithii Cally form

[ashley]

[Robert]

Hi Ashley,

Thank you for sharing the photographs from your garden. You have some very interesting species, some of which will not grow in our part of Interior California. The Clematis and Tropaeolum species are never seen in our area. At one time I grew a number of Fuchsia magellanica varieties. Most of them did well despite the heat. Fuchsia mites eventually wiped them out. Climate change and 46 C summertime high temperatures did not help either.

My tall, single flowered Dahlia hybrids are based on Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandoff’, D. coccinea, and common dwarf bedding Dahlias that are sold at our local nurseries. I threw out all the dwarf and semi-dwarf plants and continued breeding with yellow and red forms of Dahlia coccinea. Recently, I have used tall double hybrid Dahlias. The polyploids are much more resistant to the heat, but I am not interested in large double flowers. This is definitely a work in progress.

Hamamelis grew well and was spectacular during the autumn up at our El Dorado County farm. At one time I had a large ornamental garden in addition to the agricultural row crops and fruit orchard. Climate change and shortages of water for irrigation led to the demise of the ornamental garden. Today where the ornamental garden was located there are dry invasive annual grasses, such as Bromus diandrus, and a few native Blue Oaks, Quercus douglasii.

Here are a few photographs of this ornamental garden 35 years ago. Today, in our Sacramento ornamental garden we need to be very thoughtful about what we grow.



Springtime in the garden.



Springtime in the garden.



More springtime in the garden.



Acer palmatum ‘Ornatum’ with Berberis thunbergii ‘Aurea Nana’ and Arrhentherum elatius var. bulbosum ‘Variegatum’.



Japanese Maples, Stewartias, and other species in autumn colors.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Robert,
those pics are reminiscent of gardens in the Dandenongs east of Melbourne - quite different to where I garden these days. I guess we can't go back to what we had but must grow what we can in a new environment!
cheers
fermi

[Robert]

Hi Fermi,



I feel fortunate that I have been able to adjust to the changes well and feel very optimistic about the future of our garden here in Sacramento. I turned 70 recently and came up with a new 10-year plan for the garden. The main goal is to create a garden that is well designed and filled with color and interest during all seasons. I enjoy breeding plants, so I will continue with these projects. Anything that does not fit into the plan has been or will be terminated.

Except for a back injury (from 35 years ago) that flared up, I seem to be in good health. On my recent botanical outing I easily hiked 14 miles with an altitude gain of 1,690 feet (515 meters) in 7 miles (11.3 km), from an elevation of 6,530 feet to 8,220 feet (1,990 meters to 2,505 meters). Most of the altitude gain was in the last 3 miles (4.8 km). Except for near the end of the outing, I did not get tired and had no sore muscles the next day. The goal is to keep doing this until I am 80 and beyond.

Above is a chart of the average summertime temperature (1 June to 30 September) at our El Dorado County farm from 1986 through 2025. You can see from the linear trend line that our summers are getting hotter. If you use boxcar averaging to create the trend line, things started to change dramatically around the year 2000. The vapor pressure deficit, a measure of aridity, is also increasing during the summer. Our garden practices are being adjusted to these changes.



I am drawing some of my inspiration from the landscape flora of Interior California. This is a beautiful scene during the spring in Bear Valley California. There is also a great deal I can learn from the gardens and plants shown on the Forum. Obviously, I need to adjust the plants and ideas to fit our gardening environment and goals.



This is a scene from the serpentine barrens a short walk down the road from our El Dorado County farm. Lasthenia californica ssp. californica is combining well with Platystemon californicus.



Here is another scene from the serpentine barrens – Playstemon californicus, Lasthenia californica, and Gilia tricolor.



Annuals are a prominent part of the Interior California landscape and are also a prominent part of our garden landscape. Platystemon californicus, seed from the local serpentine barrens, is a new accession to our garden. I will be planting the seed shortly. Platystemon californicus is a highly variable species with many possibilities. I am very excited to be incorporating this species into our garden scheme, along with many bulbous species and very small heat loving perennial species – similar to what I see here in Interior California. Currently, summer and autumn are, more or less, the dormant season in our garden, however I am experimenting with ways to change this situation. It is a very enjoyable gardening journey.