Summer Details at Filoli

Can you feel it? The slight change in the air that indicates the seasons are changing. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the change from summer to fall is very subtle. But you can feel it in the morning and evening fog, and you can see it in the long afternoon shadows and the leaves changing from green to shades of brown. As for me, I’m hanging on to the late summer beauty as long as I can.

Glimpse of the Filoli Garden House through summer plantings

Bold summer border

Late summer beauty, like what my aunt and I experienced in our recent field trip to Filoli (see Filoli in Summer). The colorful borders. The beds of roses and dahlias. The shady allées of trees and bushes.

Rose garden. The roses are well cataloged and signed for easy identification

Dahlia garden. The dahlias are also cataloged and signed.

Shady olive orchard provides a Mediterranean feel

I’m also filing away some of the details for future garden ideas – the interesting signage, the cataloging of plants, and the use of containers to extend summer color for as long as possible.

Citrus tree	Row of containers on the stairs
Burgundy inflorescence	Interesting signage
Splash of purple	Containers add color

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We have a month or two of summer heat ahead of us, but the shorter days are coming, and with them, incremental seasonal changes in nature. Luckily, my aunt and I can visit Filoli in any season to see something new, and we always have Fentons Creamery and Restaurant!

Filoli in Summer

My aunt and I made a mid-summer excursion to the historic Filoli house and garden, located in Woodside, CA about 30 miles south of San Francisco. The country estate of the Bourn and then Roth families is now a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and operated by the not-for- profit organization, Filoli, with the help of about 1200 volunteers. The estate is beautifully situated, surrounded by hills near Crystal Lake. We visited a few years ago in the winter (see Filoli Gardens, and Filoli in Winter), so looked forward to comparing and contrasting the feel of the garden between seasons.

Courtyard and entrance to the Filoli mansion, now all leafed out

A great photo op in the courtyard

This time we took the self-guided tour of the house and gardens, and grilled the knowledgeable docents for information. It was a perfect, warm summer day after several weeks of cool temperatures in the San Francisco Bay Area. We explored the (air conditioned) house at a leisurely pace, so were able to make new discoveries.

The main kitchen, with early 20th century uniforms

The ballroom where our docent played show tunes on the grand piano

The kitchen, library, and ballroom are always favorites. I was pleased to see Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and Their Gardens included in the library collection, and my aunt and I both enjoyed the brief piano concert of favorite show tunes given by one of the docents in the ballroom. A special exhibit of antique clothing was also interesting.

Filoli - "Fight for a just cause, Love your fellow man, Live a good life."

Summer art in the garden - "English Bulldog" by Patricia Vader

Then out into the garden! Several art installments have been added for the summer, so we enjoyed encountering them as we strolled about. The garden was an explosion of color with orange and purple plantings around the sunken garden.

The Sunken Garden with its brilliant orange and purple border and glass sculpture

The swimming pool looked appealing in the heat of the afternoon sun

Shady allee

The hydrangeas and roses were in full bloom, and the fruit trees bore crops of apples and pears (they are used for the jams and jellies sold in the gift store). I was fascinated by their deer proofing on a grand scale, and think that the Garden Room is still my favorite part of the garden, with its beautiful light and views of the garden!

Serious deer proofing

Light and airy Garden House with subtropical plants

On the way out at closing we dashed through the Garden Shop, but with no time to shop. Looks like a great collection of succulent starters at really good prices (grown on premise). I saw an interesting bird bath bowl that is the perfect scale for the little brown birds that frequent our garden. Next time!

Apples ready to harvest	Strawberry signage
Succulents for sale	An appealing bird bath bowl

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My aunt and I had a great time exploring, soaking up the beauty, and spending time together. We ended the day with dinner at Fentons Creamery and Restaurant in the East Bay, with BLTs and Black & Tan sundaes, and lots of great conversation!

Deer Proofing the Raised Bed

This summer, inspired by ideas from the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, I decided to deer and bird proof my vegetable garden. The raised bed is already gopher proofed from below - protected with a hardware cloth mesh underground cage that prevents tunneling. Time to protect from the air.

Deer proof raised bed, with newly planted tomatoes in June

Using material on hand, I constructed a framework of wire tomato cages (some collapsed, others assembled). The deer and bird netting is draped over the sides and top, and secured into place with small plastic ties. On two sides, the netting is anchored into the soil with U-shaped sod nails used for irrigation, but can be rolled up for easy access for weeding (and hopefully harvesting). The results may not be glamorous, but seem to be effective.

Two months later and tomatoes are thriving

It has been two months, and no breaches in the netting security so far! The two cherry tomato plants purchased at the Merritt College Spring Plant Sale are thriving (they are kept watered via the drip irrigation system installed several years ago). The blossoms are just giving way to green cherry tomatoes, but need some heat to bring them into full ripeness.

More Deer Proof Ideas

I am always on the lookout for great garden ideas, and solutions to common problems. Our small vegetable garden has been ravaged by wildlife every summer for the past few years. Every tomato plant, lettuce green, and broccoli plant has succumbed. I chalk it up to the drought – what creature wouldn’t want those tender, non-native plants after a steady diet of tough, drought-resistant vegetation?

Temporary netting-and-pole barrier

A few years ago I reported on a clever deer-proof solution in Bend, Oregon. More recently, while at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, I learned a few of their deer proofing secrets. The cemetery is full of beautiful trees and plants, and one of their annual attractions is the tulip display in late March. Mass plantings of yellow and red tulips are breathtaking, and a favorite delicacy for most deer. The secret to protecting these plants is deer and bird netting, used on a grand scale.

Netting cages over the tulip beds

Of course I’ve seen rose bushes and hedges wrapped in netting, but had not considered using netting in a grander, almost architectural way. Surprisingly, the netting is fine enough that it blends with the background and is not intrusive. The architectural framework used to hold the netting can be temporary, and does not have to be substantial (compared to constructing a six to eight feet high fence). These are definitely good ideas to consider for protecting our flower and vegetable gardens in the Oakland Hills from marauding deer and birds.

Birds and Bees – Fruit Development

There is nothing better than summer fruit – nuts, peaches, nectarines, apricots, cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, berries, and more. They provide delicious nutrition and refreshment in the heat of summer, whether you eat them as is, whirled into a smoothie, or baked in a pie or crumble. Made into jam or jelly, or dried and preserved, you can enjoy the taste of summer in the cold, dark days of winter.

Fruit is the term used for a ripened ovary, typically from fertilized flowers (called true fruits). The term is also used for fruits that develop from other specialized cells in the ovule, other than the fertilized egg (called accessory fruits). Different fruit types develop related to the nature of the flower blossom (for a terminology refresher see: Birds and Bees – Flower Parts).

Fruit types, and their development.

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• Simple fruit (first column) – develops from a single carpel or fused carpel of a single ovary. Examples: nuts, beans, peas, tomato, orange, grape, melon, peach.
• Aggregate fruit (second column) – develops from more than one carpel, but all in the same flower. The mature carpels fuse together to form a single fruit. Examples: blackberries and raspberries.
• Multiple fruit (third column) – develops from an inflorescence or a cluster of flowers, which fuse together to form a single fruit. Examples: pineapple.
• Accessory fruit (fourth column) – does not develop from the ovary, but from another flower part such as the receptacle or hypanthium. Examples: strawberry, apples, pears.

The purpose of most fruit is to produce a seed. For some species the ovary develops into the fruit wall (the pericarp), and become soft and fleshy as the seed nears maturity (stone fruits, such as peaches). For other species, the pericarp becomes hard and dry (pea pods). Dry fruits may scatter from pods (poppy), or become very hard and retain their pericarps until they rot (acorns, almonds). When the fruit matures, it may be eaten, or remain in seed form until ready to germinate.

Learn More:

• Botany for Gardeners, by Brian Capon (Timber Press 2005). See Part V Reproduction, Chapter 9, “From Flowers to Fruits: Fruit Types”.
• Pollination and Fertilization, derived from Pollination and Fertilization, by Robert Bear and David Rintoul, for Open Stax, Rice University (Creative Commons).