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Photo: Elm tree leaves turn for Fall

Douglas E. Welch — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:25:15 +0000

Elm tree leaves turn for Fall, originally uploaded by dewelch.

It seems like the Elm and Locust trees just discovered it was Fall. Within just a few days they have changed color and are dropping leaves at a high rate.

We don’t get a lot of Fall color here in Los Angeles, but these provide a splash of color both on the trees and on the grounds.

One more rain storm or bout of high wind and they will all be gone, I imagine.

Photo: Elm tree leaves turn for Fall is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Wine bottle edging in the garden

Douglas E. Welch — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:35:14 +0000

Wine bottle edging in the garden, originally uploaded by dewelch.

An overview of the wine bottle edging shown in my latest video.

Photo: Wine bottle edging in the garden is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Fig harvest from our large volunteer tree

Douglas E. Welch — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 18:10:18 +0000

Fig harvest from our large volunteer tree, originally uploaded by dewelch.

We are getting 10-15 figs a day from this volunteer (well, bird-seeded) fig tree in the back garden. It s behind our little garden shed. This is good because it doesn’t take up a lot of space, but bad because it wants to reach up so high that it is difficult to get to the fruit.

My wife discovered that she loved figs a few years ago when she gathered some from another neighborhood tree, so it is nice to be able to provide her fruit from her very own garden. She found this delicious recipe for fig cake that she has made on several occasions. I will get that recipe from her and post it as soon as I can.

Once the fruiting is done for the year, I will probably try and prune this fig back into some sort of manageable shape in preparation for next year.

Photo: Fig harvest from our large volunteer tree is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Plums (Italian: pruna/susina) with ash from Mount Etna

Douglas E. Welch — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:20:24 +0000

Plums (Italian: pruna/susina), originally uploaded by dewelch.

Here are some lovely, tiny, plums that were growing in our cousins garden in Sicily. Such a nice little mouthful, although it did have some fairly large seeds inside. Juicy as all get out, too.

That “dirt” you see on the leaves is actually sabbia, or ash, from a previous eruption of Mount Etna nearby. This ash makes for some very fertile, black soil, but the ash can negatively effective leaves and can prove toxic to grazing animals. Overall, though, it tends to allow for some amazing fruits and nuts. We tasted quite a few directly from the trees on this visit and they were quite amazing.

Photo: Plums (Italian: pruna/susina) with ash from Mount Etna is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Olives near Morgantina, Sicily

Douglas E. Welch — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:58:40 +0000

Olives, originally uploaded by dewelch.

Morgantina is an ancient Greek city her on the island of Sicily. It was taken over by the Romans in 211 BC. Substantial ruins remain and we toured them the other day. In the parking lot, the major patch of shade on this extremely hot day was provided by this olive tree.

Olives are everywhere on the island, from front yards to back gardens to large fields covering the hillsides.Our cousin, Serafino, says that even his small collection of olive trees yielded a substantial amount of olive oil for his own personal use.

There is something so appealing in growing something that you can use throughout the rest of the year and share with friends. Olives seem to grow well in Southern California, too, so perhaps this might be a tree to add to the garden when I have to remove the pine trees that are infected by beetle. Hmmm, always a possibility.

Photo: Olives near Morgantina, Sicily is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Espresso Cups planted with small cacti

Douglas E. Welch — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 09:20:51 +0000

Our cousin, Vito in Regalbuto, does some wonderful plantings, including bonsai olive trees. Here, he has made great use of the traditional cups used for coffee in the ubiquitous Sicilian bars that are on nearly every corner. I love the effect gained by massing a bunch of these together on a shelf. I think it is very striking and would be a wonderful centerpiece for any succulent or bonsai garden.

Espresso Cups planted with small cacti is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Grape Vines and grapes in monastary vineyard

Douglas E. Welch — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:35:23 +0000

Grape Vines and grapes in monastary vineyard, originally uploaded by dewelch.

I saw this amazing scene when we visited a restored monastery last night in Nicolosi. For me, this sums up the beauty of the outdoors and of Sicily itself. The sun, the vines, the grapes all together.

I have had a small dream of growing a vineyard and making my own wine. Scenes like this only reinforce that dream. I can easily imagine this in my own garden in California.

Photo: Grape Vines and grapes in monastary vineyard is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Zinnia

Douglas E. Welch — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:14:52 +0000

Zinnia, originally uploaded by dewelch.

Another lovely flower from our cousin’s garden here in Sicily. Francesca loves flowers and lovingly raises large pots of annuals from seed each year. These zinnias fairly glow in the sharp Sicilian summer sun.

We were making plans for a few road trips around the island yesterday and several gardens were metioned as candidates to visit. I will make sure the camera is charged and the memory cards are emptied to make way for that.

Photo: Zinnia is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Cucumber flower

Douglas E. Welch — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:21:46 +0000

Cucumber flower, originally uploaded by dewelch.

Cucumbers are on the way in our friend’s garden. They already have corn and some tomatoes on the vine, too.

I don’t really have enough sun exposure here to grow veggies, so I have to live vicariously through others. (LAUGH)

Photo: Cucumber flower is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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Photo: Mimosa Flowers and Choosing trees

Douglas E. Welch — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 17:14:27 +0000

Mimosa Flowers, originally uploaded by dewelch.

Another photo from our neighborhood walk a few days ago.

These are the flowers of the Mimosa tree. We have several in out neighborhood. The leaves are supposedly sensitive — if you stroke them with your hand they will begin to close up their leaves.

Unfortunately, these trees due leave quite a bit of “litter” when they drop these flowers. I have seen cars quite covered with them. You can see a few older flowers at the bottom of the picture.

Choosing Trees

Choosing trees is a bit of an art form. If they cover large portions of your lawn or house, you don’t want something that drops a large amount of debris. Our lovely, purple, jacaranda mimosafolia looks amazing, but people often complain about the cleanup. the flowers fall in to a sticky mass that covers everything beneath.

Another popular street tree here in the San Fernando Valley is Liquidambar styraciflua or American Sweet Gum tree. They provide what little Fall color we get here, but also drop these nasty seed pods everywhere. Not only are they hard to rake up, I have slipped on their hard round shapes during other neighborhood walks more times than I like to remember.

Finally, our local sycamore can be beautiful, but if you are a lawn geek, the large leaves can quickly brown patches of your grass if not raked up.

Think carefully about your environment when choosing a tree. Not only do you have to choose one that grows well in your area, but also one that brings as few problems as possible. Unfortunately, this sometimes means that we can’t have our favorite trees, but that is probably better than coming to hate a tree you used to love because it doesn’t fit in your current situation.

What are your favorite trees? Your least? Tell us you tree stories in the comments or on the AGN Facebook Page.

Photo: Mimosa Flowers and Choosing trees is a post from: A Gardener's Notebook

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