Our incredible climate and more to be thankful for

Gardeners in our area can give thanks for many things. I am sure all of us could come up with a long list of items for which to be grateful, and many of our choices would be similar or would overlap. The holiday has inspired me to write down my top picks.

I am eternally grateful that I garden in the climate of Santa Cruz County. Having moved here 11 years ago from the hot and steamy southeastern United States, I am always aware of being thankful for our mild and cool summer weather, with winter temperatures that rarely freeze. Being able to comfortably garden year around is a gift that I can never take for granted.

I am also grateful that our mild climate allows us to grow, and grow well, an astonishing variety of plants, from woody flowering and fall-coloring deciduous plants to subtropical or Mediterranean fruits and flowers. After gardening for years in heavy clay soil filled with rocks, I am also ever grateful for my deep rock-free sandy loam soil that drains perfectly and in which the vast majority of plants thrive.

In a drought year, I am especially thankful for fresh water. That gratitude has me expending effort toward safeguarding that precious water supply, by installing drip irrigation and filling more and more of my garden with low-water need plants. And I am thankful for the many excellent local growers, nurseries and suppliers that furnish the materials and plants to help preserve our water. I am grateful, too, for the continuing efforts by many local folks to keep our air, soil and water clean and safe. Local resources like the Organic Materials Exchange make possible the safe treatment and distribution of animal manures to help keep our streams clean and our soils rich. The many local activists and responsive officials who expend great efforts to safeguard our environment, making organic gardening practices feasible, are my heroes.

Two local colleges have wonderful agricultural and horticultural programs, which welcome local gardeners' participation. We can all be grateful for the advice and information these college programs and personnel offer. We can also appreciate the beautiful campus gardens; both the Arboretum at UCSC and the Botanic Garden at the Horticultural Center at Cabrillo College provide a visual display that satisfies the senses and inspires us to greater efforts in our own gardens. We can also be grateful for and support the Life Lab and other garden programs provided in many of our local schools. Both our children and our schools benefit, as do our communities.

My list wouldn't be complete without mentioning the critters that live in and around our gardens. Birds, butterflies, insects, salamanders, even our native banana slugs, add their own beauty and movement to enrich our gardens. Watching the American Goldfinches flitting from seed head to seed head in the autumn garden, hearing their musical calls to each other as they glean, fills me with thanks that such beauty comes to my garden. May you, too, find this kind of contentment and satisfaction as you ponder the gardening joys of this Thanksgiving season.

-Sharon Hull