What's Growing: December 2024
More than you might think.
I’m not sure if it’s midlife, or the fact that I’ve moved back to natural landscapes of my childhood, but I notice trees and plants far more than I used to. Each month here on Home Again I’ll share a photo roundup of what’s growing around my home, neighborhood, and city. Glad you’re here!
1. Toyon (California Holly, Christmas Berry)
We don’t have Toyon plants on our property but I see them on my neighborhood walks and have always delighted in how the berries show up in December looking so much like Christmas holly. I learned this year that they are native to the area (yay!), edible (!!), and that there’s disputed lore surrounding their being the inspiration for naming the city of Hollywood.
Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), also known as Christmas Berry, is an evergreen shrub in the Rose family (Rosaceae). In the summer it produces bunches of fragrant white flowers. In the winter it develops vibrant clusters of scarlet berries. The flowers attract butterflies and other pollinators. The berries are eaten by many birds, including Mockingbirds, American Robins, and Cedar Waxwings. Mammals including coyotes and bears also eat and disperse the berries. For humans, the berries are edible after cooking, or drying and crushing, in order to break down the small amounts of cyanogenic glycosides. Indigenous People use the berries to make cider, and a granular sugar. (Calscape)
2. Ketchup & Mustard Rose
We have many rose bushes on our property, all but three of which were part of a landscape design that pre-dates our arrival in 2020. The three we did plant last spring include the Ketchup & Mustard variety, which is thriving this month. As its name suggests, the blooms are deep red AND bright yellow, in fairly equal proportion.
3. Late Autumn Colors
I’ve long experienced autumnal envy, especially in October, when we’re prone to heat waves and it seems like everybody else has sweater weather. Living in Arizona, Southern California, and now on the Central Coast, we don’t get much in the way of changing leaves during what most of the country would consider ‘peak fall’. But if you know where to look, fall colors do come our way just before the Winter Solstice.
This young White Crape Myrtle tree sits just outside my bathroom window, and I can admire its fiery display while I get ready in the morning:
Our stone fruit trees, especially the plum tree, also make a valiant effort at fall foliage in late November. I managed to pick a branch and use it as a little centerpiece (along with some rosemary from our yard) during the lead-up to Thanksgiving:
4. Citrus
We have the very best juicing oranges I’ve ever tasted. In my complete unscientific analysis, I’ve determined that every other year produces the fresh-squeezed juice1 that blows everyone’s minds.
Technically this orange tree is always producing, but this month I’ve been picking and juicing the fruit that I think has been on the tree for nearly two years. The oranges don’t look like much on the outside, but the juice is magical.
5. Carrot Harvest!
My husband is the vegetable gardener in our house. This year our raised beds were a bit neglected due to his travel schedule, but we both have hopes for more abundance in 2025! I pulled this creatively co-mingling bunch a couple of weeks ago and used it up in a soup.
6. Future Guacamole
I will have much more to say about our avocado trees in the coming months as the fruit matures, but guac season 2025 is going to be … abundant. (Like our stone fruit and the juicing oranges, the avo trees also appear to produce more - like, 10x more - in alternating years.)
I think we could start picking avocados in the next month or two and letting them ripen on the counter, but they’ll be at their peak in the spring.
7. Old Succulents in New Homes
Late this fall I finally tackled a task I’d been putting off for months: pruning and re-potting the various succulents we have in pots and planters on our front porch and back patio.
(Okay, I mostly tackled it and still have some seriously wild and woody overgrown succulent situations sitting in the corner of the patio.)
Happily, I’m seeing new growth on almost all the repotted plants, including a couple that had been looking very despondent after a summer of neglect.
I was at least 35 years old when I learned that starting new succulents from clippings is as easy as plucking a section or stem off an existing plant and sticking it in some dirt. Like, any stem. Any dirt. Water it? Sure. Forget about it? It’ll probably still take root. If you don’t think of yourself as a plant person, give it a try; it’s a great baby step toward plant-person-hood!
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what’s growing where you live this December. If you’d like to get my writing delivered to your email, click the button below:
I have this juicer and love it