107 The Secret Garden
September 26, 2025
109 The Art of Giving Gardening Gifts
January 31, 2026
Fall Into My Garden
D on’t you just love Fall Days in the garden? I do.
When visiting nurseries, no matter the season, I’m always thinking about Fall Color. I try to prioritize purchasing plants that—along with whatever beauty or interest they bring—will also make my fall garden as stunning as in spring and summer.
Take, for example, this assortment of Coleuses I put into pots during summer…
Coleus doesn’t really shine until it reaches maturity in fall. What beauty!
For more fall color, see posts #20 and #94.
This season, instead of another post on seasonal color, I’m in the mood to share some odds and ends and fascinating developments from my garden, starting with a visit some time ago to Cascade Nursery in Oregon where AP and I each bought a Variegated White Wandering Jew for $1 each…
Tradescantia albiflora ‘Variegata’ (Variegated White Wandering Jew)
Why only $1? This plant is so easy to propagate, nurseries have zero reason to sell them any higher.
It’s usually sold as an indoor plant, but I say “no way, José!” Put it outside under a tree to brighten up a shady spot, like I’ve done here…
I call that “The Tower.”
AP’s Variegated Jew died—go figure. But since I immediately propagated mine when putting it in the greenhouse for overwintering, I gave her one of the babies.
(Propagation is a gold mine when you learn a plant’s secrets.)
Last year during our annual Half Moon Bay trip, AP and I popped into Highway 92 Succulents (a succulent nursery, shocker!), where I grabbed a Pink Wandering Jew. Look at it now…
Tradescantia nanouk (Pink Wandering Jew)
The Pink does not grow as profusely as the White, but a year later, and what a beauty! That’s why patience is one of my “things.”
Okay, fess up, Readers! Who doesn’t have one of these Wandering Jews?…
Tradescantia pallida (Purple Heart Wandering Jew)
If you don’t have a Purple Heart, there’s no excuse. This is definitely a Bang-for-your-Buck plant!
It makes a fabulous container plant, especially when used as a “spiller.” It’s also a great ground cover, meandering through its neighbors.
In my Zone 7 garden, it does die back in winter. But a purple Coral Bell emerges to take the stage and hide the mess.
Purple Heart is especially appealing planted among succulents. I just had to include it in this courtyard succulent garden I installed for a client…
Love, love, love those fabulous contrasting colors!!!!
Plant Delights is one of my favorite online plant sources. In 2023 I bought a Little Volcano Bush Clover there. Here’s a photo of it at maturity from their website…
Lespedeza thunbergii ‘Little Volcano’ (Little Volcano Bush Clover)
It cost $24 and came in a 3-inch pot.
When it arrived I potted it up in a 1-gallon and put it in my holding area where it stayed for 2 years. (Like I said, I’m patient!)
I knew I wanted it in a pot and knew where it would go in my garden, but I needed to watch it grow through an entire year to see how it performed.
Plus y’all know I often need time to find just the right pot for a plant. Lucky me, I found a one at Pottery World for 50% off. I got it for $200, and what a steal!!!
Little Volcano can grow up to 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. But the pot is only 3 feet high and 1 ½ wide—which will no doubt reduce the mature plant size. But the shrub will still canopy over my shade loving plants beneath.
Here’s Little Volcano today, doing exactly what I wanted and a closeup of its flowers…
Its beauty is hard to capture in a photo. You’ve got to see it in person. (I had to take 20 photos of the damn thing to get those 2!)
I did some stem cuttings of it a few weeks ago. Fingers crossed, they may appear at next year’s Master Gardener’s annual plant sale. Again, patience, Readers.
(By the way, some of you came to this year’s “Fall Into Gardening” event at the Sherwood Demonstration Garden. Thank you. Hope you enjoyed yourself!)
Speaking of the Sherwood Demonstration Garden, seven years ago at Annie’s Annuals & Perennials , I bought 2 of these…
Hibiscus mutabilis ‘Rubrum’
One went to my garden in part shade, the other to Sherwood Demonstration Garden’s Perennial Garden in full sun.
The label states full sun, but of the two, mine did much better. Sherwood’s suffered terribly in the heat. It was near its end last winter, so I ripped it out.
As I’ve said, gardeners shouldn’t always trust labels. If a plant doesn’t do well according to the label, try changing the growing conditions.
Now. If you ask me, the most beautiful grasses in the world are these…
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Cosmopolitan’
I featured Cosmopolitan in my post on ornamental grasses.
It’s been 7 years since I installed them, and in all this time I have never seen them offered in nurseries.
My “little gardening friend” propagated some from her garden for me and my clients.
They sit along a walkway at the top of a very steep slope.
Mike and I put them there as an evergreen “railing” so those darn grandkids wouldn’t fall and roll down the slope.
But the little darlings are getting older and becoming a menace. I knew some rolling was bound to occur—especially during the 5-month dormant season when the grass is cut back and there’s nothing to break a fall.
I didn’t want the kids hurt, but I also didn’t want any earfuls from their parents! So Mike and I decided to build an actual railing as a permanent barrier.
First, though, we had to do a different project for that steep slope.
Every January I cut back those massive grasses and have had to struggle up that slope from the bottom to do it.
I don’t know how often I said to Mike, “One of these times my legs are going to break or something worse will happen!”—like while using my trimmers and trying to avoid falling backwards, I was bound to cut a leg off!
So before the railing at the top, we installed a better retaining wall at the bottom.
That’s an “after” photo taken this year.
We actually completed these projects last winter with the grasses dormant and cut back. I did not want them destroyed during the build.
If you’ve read this blog over time, it’s no spoiler for me to say these projects did not go 100% smoothly. Mike and I always seem to create unforeseen problems (including this time with a little blood-letting!) And unfortunately, we had to loose a few grasses in front of the Cosmopolitans.
After removing an enormous amount of dirt, we built a concrete stem wall to hold back that slope.
(Yes, Mike over-builds everything.)
On top of that wall we intend to construct a 5-foot deck extending into the slope. That way I’ll be able just to stand there and cut the grasses without risking life and limb.
But that’s next year’s project. Maybe.
Now for that top railing backing the Cosmopolitans. In this photo, Mike is dumping some backfill, and you can see the dormant grass clumps at the bottom of the new posts…
Here’s detail of the finished railing…
I chose the black powder-coated 4×8-foot hog wire panels and designed the irregular scalloped edging.
To fit the wire panels to the redwood frame, Mike had to cut them with his grinder. On the final one, the panel slipped and the grinder went through his glove and damn near sliced off his index finger.
I tell ya’, Mike sure gives me good content for this blog!
And yes, Readers, while he was bleeding to death, I had to get a shot of the blood all over my beautiful DG walkway.
Sparing you some gory details….
Did I forget to mention this happened on the day before he was going in for back surgery? We were worried the open wound would put surgery off. But a little glue and staples did the trick, and now Mike can walk again.
At the bottom of the grassy slope is our pool and deck area. Our next project was to replace a walkway leading to that area. The walkway was sloped and made of plain ole’ dirt which turned to plain ole’ mud when it rained.
For 25 years I slipped and slid along that path. I often said to Mike that I was going to break some legs. (See a pattern?)
Since the other projects did not result in someone dying or suing for divorce, Mike agreed we could install concrete steps.
At last! Now if I miss a step this winter and break a leg, I won’t land in mud and shoot down a Slip-N’-Slide!
We have more work to do there “someday.”
Gawd forbid we complete a project all the way before 1) leaving it to start a new one, or 2) a pause that might never end!
But that’s the way it is when you obsess over every need in your landscape and have a husband who owns the necessary equipment but enables your obsession in his own timeframe.
That said, I came across this Instagram post that confirms Mike is the right man for me…
Whenever I get down or upset with a difficult client—or with Mike, LOL—he asks me, “Do you want to go to a nursery?”
My answer is always, “No shit, Sherlock.”
