Moving North

Over the next month I'll be moving up to my new place (rental) in Cambria. I'll have close to a half acre to garden on, with many beautiful plants already in place. It's really a wonderful place and I'm very excited. How do I figure out which zone I'll be in? I know there's a way on DG to find it, I just can't seem to find it right now. I think the closest active member will be Chuck1260. Who else is around there? I'll need some advice on the differences between here and there. Here's a shot of one corner of the yard.

OK, I found the zone map, and it looks like it'll be very similar to what I have now. Maybe a touch more rain, which will be welcome. And a few more quakes, which won't. Here's another pic, this one of the furthest part from the house, with it's nice clean little garden shed. The weeds had just been cut the day before so by now it's probably knee deep again, but I plan on attacking those babies and mulching, mulching and mulching. Anyone know of a good source for mulch in the area?

Stella, I'm so excited for you! The new place looks great. Best of luck.

You can count on the fog to bail you out in your zone denial. Somewhere between nine and ten depending on how close to the ocean you are. Cambria is a wonderful place. There is a great nursery there. It is good now and keeps getting better. You will be able to grow almost anything you want except for things that require winter chill or summer heat and even some of those will work depending on where you are in Cambria. The farther from the ocean the more it is like zone 9. Lotsa micro-climates.

Do not get carried away with all that space, take your time. A half-acre can be a lot to take care of, depending on how you do it.

I am not sure what the closest place for mulch would be, but you should be able to get it in bulk, delivered. Remember, just like Laguna no summer rain, so once the weeds are cut they stay mostly cut until it starts raining again, unless you water them.

Welcome to the county. Cambria is only about 45 miles away from where I live. It gets quite a bit more rain than we do, is a little cooler in the winter, but the same basic weather pattern.

Thanks Zuzu, I'm very excited about it. I have been scouting for a new place for a while and was also looking in the Jenner/Bodega Bay/Tomales regions. But, as you know, I've already "done" Sonoma County and you guys have just a tad too much rain in the winter for me. Having lived in both places I knew I wanted more rain than we have here in Laguna but not so much as Occidental. I know, picky, picky, picky! Cambria seems perfect.

Chuck, thanks for the welcome. I'm looking forward to it. The house is on Lodge Hill, so named because Cambria Pines Lodge is up there, pretty close too. But this piece of property is so nicely tucked away and quiet, you'd swear there wasn't another soul around. It's a tad further from the ocean than I was planning on and will probably be a bit hotter this summer than I'd prefer but I can always garden at dawn and dusk when it's cool and work during the hottest hours. I work from home, over the internet, which is why I'm able to move pretty much anywhere and keep my job.

Thanks for the reminder about the weeds. You forget these things when you live somewhere that has a gardener maintaining the grounds once a week. Cambria has a limited water supply so I'll be moving, removing or letting die anything that needs excessive watering. It's had a couple of months already to see what survives without watering and I can't be up there full time for at least another. There are hordes of gophers there too. I had that problem in Sebastopol and solved it by digging out the soil, building raised beds with double chicken wire bottoms and having the sides at least 2.5-3' high. That way they couldn't climb over the wood and the soil level was much higher and easier to reach without straining my back. It worked then and I'll probably do some of that again. I will take my time though. I don't have enough of it (or money) to go too crazy out there right away. I'm just thrilled to have the chance to get my hands in the soil again. It's interesting the things that have survived with no water. The ones that did and that I like a lot, I'll probably repeat. The ones that are struggling but I like I'll probably move either to a container or closer to the watering source. You know, clump all the greedy guys together and keep them watered without wasting water on plants that don't need it. I plan on setting up a container garden too, for veggies, herbs and flowers. Maybe get a few earthboxes, I like the sound of those. The nursery looks great and I live right around the corner from them. I'm going to have to severely curtail my spending when I'm there though. It's soooo tempting to go crazy and buy all kinds of exciting things and then not have the time to either plant or maintain them. Let's see if I can find another shot of another corner.

Lodge hill is a great place. Weather is very good there, not too hot or cold. If you keep things natural there is seemingly a lot less work. At least you can do it when you want to. It is still a lot of work if you want it to look "natural".

If it gets completely out of hand, I'm not too proud to hire someone to help. Just supervise and let them do the rough stuff. I wanted to to the Plant Files and find the actual name of this Princess Flower that's happy as a lark in the dry heat. I never would have guessed, though I should have. I had one die here for lack of dry/sunshine. This one seems happy as a lark and I can't wait to see her bloom. I love their intense violet-purple. Oh, the name is Tibouchina urvilleana.