PART III: THE CALIFORNIA GARDEN YEAR. 

 CHAPTER XII. 



CHARACTERS, ADAPTATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS 

 OF THE MONTHS. 



There are various reasons why the attempt to prescribe specific 

 things to be done in particular months of the year, is difficult in 

 California. First, there is the difference in climatic conditions in dif- 

 ferent localities which may render some prescriptions unfit for certain 

 places, while they may apply well in others. Second, there may be 

 variations in seasons which may render a prescription suitable for one 

 year and not exactly timely for another. Third, there is, in most 

 California regions, an absence of extremes of heat, cold and of excess- 

 ive moisture and a lack of association of either with definite dates. In 

 fact what are commonly called, in wintry climates, "well-marked 

 seasonal changes" do not occur in California, except upon the 

 mountains, and we have, instead, a gliding movement from one to the 

 other of our two seasons, a lack of definiteness in the beginning and 

 ending of each and an absence of marked difference in heat between 

 the two. Such a moderate climate gives a plant a great latitude in its 

 acceptance of growing conditions and bestows upon him who grows 

 plants a long period during which he can successfully minister to their 

 requirements. Considerations of this nature have already been outlined 

 in Chapter II. We have to repeat reference to them in connection with 

 our effort to indicate the timely duties of the different months, to 

 reduce if possible the reader's displeasure at our indefiniteness. The 

 fact is that California climatic conditions give so many chances of 

 being early, so many chances to catch up if not too neglectful and so 

 many chances of reasonable satisfaction even if late, that the precise 

 reader will search in vain to find designation of the one exactly best 

 time to do a thing. As has been indicated in the chapter on climate, 

 one characteristic of the state is -a very long growing season and there- 

 fore there may be, taking the years together, no absolutely best time, 

 but several very good times. The conclusion for the reader, therefore, 

 must be not to refrain from doing a thing, because no exact time is 

 designated as best, but to keep doing things at different times and 

 thus enjoy the full breadth of reward for this comes, as the scripture 

 saith, to those who do not weary in well doing. 



Out of respect to the ancients we begin the roll-call of the 

 months with January. Really one month would do about as well as 

 another for a starting point. In prescribing activities for the months 



