In San Diego gardens, conditions for planting are still ideal this month. If you don’t have a clear plan on what to put where, take a look at my Landscape Design Help post.
Add Fall Color with Trees
Deciduous trees add beautiful yellows, golds, oranges and reds to your San Diego garden this season. Look for them in nurseries now.
- Chinese pistache has good fall color even in mild climates. It prefers well-drained soil.
- Crape myrtle has many hybrids that can be small trees or large shrubs. The hybrids are mildew resistant, have showy summer flowers and brilliant fall color.
- Maidenhair tree is an ancient tree with golden yellow leaves in the fall. Plant a male gingko tree to avoid the messy and smelly fruit.
- Liquidambar trees are beautiful all year long. The American sweet gum has several varieties developed in California for good fall color. Look for ‘Burgundy’, ‘Festival’ and ‘Palo Alto’. Plant sweet gums away from buildings, sidewalks and patios. They have broad, shallow roots that will damage them.
- Japanese maple trees can be large shrubs or small trees colorful in both fall and spring. Protect them from hot, dry or constant wind. Give them occasional very deep watering to avoid salt buildup, and mulch to keep soil moist in summer.
- Japanese persimmon trees are great ornamental and fruit trees. Their leaves turn bright yellow, orange, or red in fall. They also have brilliant orange delicious fruit. There are multiple varieties you can grow in San Diego gardens. ‘Fuyu’ is probably the best known.
- Redbud trees are known for their beautiful spring flowers and bright fall foliage. Provide good drainage.
- Birch trees are ornamental trees with lovely bark and yellow fall foliage. Choose a variety that works in your climate zone and planting location.
There are water, drainage, spacing, root and other requirements that can be quite different from tree to tree. You can check these issues and more on Cal Poly’s SelectTree guide.
Prepare for Rain
The National Weather Service predicts that this winter will begin as a La Niña year with drier than normal conditions. Despite that, it’s best to prepare for rain. Lace trees to help protect them from wind damage. Clean out gutters, and add the leaves and muck to your compost pile. Refresh mulch and protect hillsides and bare areas from erosion with jute netting, straw wattles and plantings.
Plant hillsides with evergreen, native plants and deeply rooted shrubs and trees. Fill in the gaps between the larger plants with groundcovers, but avoid ice plant. Not only can it be invasive, it gets heavy with rain and has shallow roots. This can cause it to slide off your slope in sheets carrying the top soil with it.
Grow a Salad Bowl in Your San Diego Garden
Our mild winters allow us to grow lettuce along with many other salad friendly vegetables like radishes, peas, carrots, spinach, beets, and many other leaf vegetables in our gardens. Although we think of summer as vegetable growing season, there are twice as many vegetables we can grow over the winter. Take a look at the “Cool Season” list in the Master Gardeners’ Vegetable Planting Guide. It’s packed with great information on what you can plant and how to grow it.
San Diego Gardens Tips Source
A lot of information for San Diego Gardens comes from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County. They are a great resource for all of your gardening needs including planting, pests, vegetables, and water use. They even have a free hotline where you can get your home gardening and pest control problems answered.