Words by Mike Evens
As the 2025 calendar year draws to a close, we approach the end of an era, as Tree of Life Nursery finishes 45 years in business, and the California Native Horticultural Foundation starts. Please check out the new nonprofit at calnativehort.org
Next month, “December 2025 In the Natural Garden” will be the last one in this 10-year series from Tree of Life Nursery.
I will continue writing a new monthly newsletter starting in January, which will be available at calnativehort.org.
If you would like to receive a monthly newsletter similar to this one, starting in January 2026, please sign up to be included on the mailing list at calnativehort.org
Current events, history, review, and notes
It’s fun to watch the weather forecasts this time of year, always hoping for a “chance of rain.” We have .75” in the gauge for the season, which is of little long-term consequence as it did not soak very deep and has definitely evaporated away. But all the plants benefited, and the cool nights, short days, and humid weather have reduced the stress on our gardens.
Watering
In the absence of rain, do not be too hesitant to apply water. Nothing beats rainfall; irrigation is a close second, but you can jump-start your garden’s growth into the season and have the soil ready to absorb the next good rain we might get. Of course, if you see a significant rain event in the forecast, hold off, because nothing beats a good rain.
The seed germination house. No más.
Related to Watering
Remember the Three S’s… Spread it out, slow it down, soak it in. In preparation for the rainy season, clean the roof gutters, make sure the water is channeled into your garden through swales, rain chains, etc., build little check dams and shape the microtopography into contours, basins, troughs, mounds, etc., to get the next rain to soak in, not run off.
Pruning
All manner of pruning, thinning, heading back, shaping, etc., may be safely done this month.
Weeding
By the tail end of the dry season, most gardens should be weed-free, due to the diligence of the gardener, and the fact that there is usually very little moisture in the top 1” of soil, where the weed seeds are. If you have a weedy garden now, a clean-up is overdue, and you definitely want to do it before we get into the rainy season.
Mulching / Top Dress
As a reminder, the best organic top dress will always be the leaf litter that accumulates over several seasons, directly under the plant in view. Almost all plants drop a few leaves from the interior of their branches as they put on new leaves at the tips. If you want to cover some bare dirt with imported organic “mulch” or top dress, always choose a clean source. For natives, the preferred make-up will be chunky wood, i.e., 5/8” redwood bark (or equivalent), applied about 1-2” thick.
Possibly the last transplanting at the “canning pile.” TOLN. This has been a way of life for 45 years, with thousands of transplanting events, and perhaps 20,000,000 plants coming off of this site.
Feeding
November is a safe month for feeding. Prior to an irrigation or rain event, you can evenly spread organic fertilizer (dry, from a bag) on the entire garden, and scratch it in with your three-prong scratch. You might want to toss a little organic top dress on as well. For most natural gardens, applying fertilizer is not absolutely necessary, but the results make it worthwhile, typically in Oct/Nov and Mar/Apr.
Troubleshooting – Varmints, Pests, and Diseases
Any injurious plant pests you see, especially insects, are probably established populations from summer infestations. See a few of the summer months “In the Natural Garden” posts for more details. Plant diseases are not active in fall/winter.
Annual Wildflowers
Perfect, ideal, absolute, sublime, unmatched, stellar, awesome, excellent time of year for sowing wildflower seeds. Come on over or give us a call. We have 6 distinct mixes. Come March/April, you’ll be glad you did.
Adding New Plants
See above. Ideal time. Rains they be a-coming.
Special Note regarding Adding New Plants: Tree of Life Nursery has been scheduled to finish business at the end of 2025. However, as we continue to reduce our inventory, plants of all sizes will be available, as long as quantities last during the first few weeks in 2026. Tell your friends, stop by again soon, and thank you.
My Patio Re-wild
Small space nature gardening is best represented within the confines of a ceramic pot. Coastal bluff plants in a pot we built during a workshop in Newport Beach. The planting is entitled “There’ll Be Scrub Jays Over the White Cliffs of Dover… Drive.”
Phytophilia
Our love of plants and their love for us. When I look and listen over the natural landscape or into a natural garden, this month I see and hear the words “We’re ready.” As we transition from dry to (presumably to come) wet seasons, the native plants and animals around us are definitely ready.
Re-wild
Practice re-wild this month by spending a little while standing or sitting in your garden… in the rain. Make it a plan. Have your rain gear or umbrella (in southern California, we’re likely to have misplaced them months ago) at hand, and find time, day or night, to be out when no one else is. I guarantee you will come back inside enlightened, a little closer to your garden, and refreshed… maybe a little cold, but if you plan it right, you can have a nice fire to come home to.
Important Review:
- Chance of rain
- Water, if no rain in sight
- Work the ground for a good soaking
- Pruning yes
- Dry soil, few weeds, rain coming
- Top dress natural – yes, imported – OK
- Feeding yes
- Insects/Disease at bay
- Seeds absolute
- Plants positive
- Potted nature, always fun
- Nature at the ready
- I’m Singing in the Rain
Engage
The following is an excerpt from a book by Robert Macfarlane. He writes:
“ ‘As I watch the world,’ wrote Nan Shepherd in 1945, ‘it arches its back, and each layer of landscape bristles.’ It is a brilliant observation about observation. Shepherd knew that ‘landscape’ is not something to be viewed and appraised from a distance, as if it were a panel in a frieze or a canvas in a frame. It is not the passive object of our gaze, but rather a volatile participant – a fellow subject which arches and bristles at us, bristles into us. Landscape is still often understood as a noun denoting fixity, scenery, an immobile painterly decorum. I prefer to think of the word as a noun containing a hidden verb: landscape scapes, it is dynamic and commotion causing also instant by instant, incident by incident.
I prefer to take ‘landscape’ as a collective term for the temperature and pressure of the air, the fall of light and its rebounds, the textures and surfaces of rock, soil, and building, the sounds (cricket screech, bird cry, wind through trees), the scents (pine resin, hot stone, crushed thyme) and the uncountable other transitory phenomena and atmospheres that together comprise the bristling presence of a particular place at a particular moment.” Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways, 2012.
P.S. I believe this book by Robert Macfarlane is helping me redefine my nature experience, with his unique focus on language, map-making, place names, and path finding. I have read a few of his other books, and I highly recommend this author.
ME
Not far from the Middle of Nowhere. Photo by amigo Dave Buchanan.
Middle of Nowhere (center of photo). Photo by amigo Dave Buchanan who finds these places and then tends to settle in for a few days, later to share photos with me upon his return to the Ubiquitous Somewhere. Thanks, Cardón Hugger.
Let’s keep makin’ it.
From NOVEMBER in the Natural Garden,
Mike Evans
Questions? Help is just one call or one email away. Call (949) 728-0685 or email (with pictures if you like) our special helpline: gardenhelp@californianativeplants.com
