Napa

Now that we're finally getting some rain, don't let it fall off your house, down your gutters and into the storm drain. Catch some of it and use it in your garden. I do two things to catch rainwater. I have eight swales, which are open ditches that are closed at each end.

With winter's official start less than two weeks away, it's rose pruning time. For rose lovers in Napa Valley, that can be hard to accept. With our relatively mild winters, many of us have roses blooming until Christmas.

A well-planned garden brings delight to all the senses.

It's fall and time to get your worm compost bins in order. Thicker bedding protects the worms during cold weather as they move to the center of the bin to keep warm. It is sometimes hard to work a compost bin and rebuild it during winter. It's cold, or it's raining.

I grew up on a tree-lined street, with large carob tree canopies arching over to provide shading and cooling during the heat of summer. In the fall they filled the evening air with their pungent, earthy smell, and in spring they dropped their edible pods.

After the wildfires in Napa and Sonoma a few years ago, the problem remained of how to handle the toxic waste left behind.

A Master Gardener recently visited the Oak Knoll District vineyard of a fellow Master Gardener and saw a rose bush at the head of each row of Cabernet Sauvignon. You may have noticed the same practice in other vineyards in the valley.

The wonderful monarch butterfly has suffered a huge decline all over the United States. Here in California the situation is even worse. Although I have a big stand of milkweed, the monarch's favorite plant, I have not even seen a monarch this summer or fall.

One of my daughter's friends from college co-authored a book, Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast, by Noah Siegel and Christian Schwartz (Ten Speed Press).

A few years ago I found a new plant growing in the back of my butterfly garden. It was about three feet tall and had red blooms. Butterflies, hummingbirds and pollinators seemed to love the plant so I left it alone. The next year it came up again and a visitor identified it as Jupiter's Beard.