Verdant View - November 2025

Handmade

I recently realized that my Mexican driver´s license had expired. Luckily Chapala now has a driver’s license office near Cristiania Park, so I was processed at that facility. Once your paperwork is done and your photo taken you are asked to wait outside in an adjacent patio for your license. The adjacent patio has a view of the backside of the park, underneath a beautiful, large Ficus tree. Under the tree was a young man, cautiously and carefully raking up the huge tree´s leaves. His method was exact, his focus undeterred and his manner happy. I started to think of all the things and actions that are handmade in Mexico. My father Javier always said, ¨You can fix or find anything in Mexico.¨ I’ve found this to be mostly true: my clay cookware, my handwoven and embroidered clothes, my handwoven shopping bags, my handmade huaraches, my beautifully crafted equipales all speak to this point. Services are not machine driven but come from a physical and personal place. The art that adorns my home was made by my friends by hand and my custom garden designs are created for each client and installed by my crew using our hands.

My mother taught me that, like her garden, we all have a beginning and an end. Every year we watched it bloom to glory in the spring and wither quietly in the winter. And then it would miraculously be lush, bright and full of color around Easter, just in time for our annual Easter egg hunts.

I am grateful every day for these and so many more valuable day-to-day works that bless my life. In gratitude, thank you Mom for these and so many more gifts.

What to plant in November

During the fall season, cool weather allows crops to hold longer in the garden once mature. Crops like broccoli, cabbage, and kale can live for months in the garden after they reach maturity.

Fall crops do much better when started from transplants than from seed, and transplants should always be used for tomatoes and peppers. Buy the largest transplants available. Or you can start your own plants earlier in the season and transplant them. Plant shade tolerant crops between taller veggies like tomatoes.

Create a display of fall colors with cool-season plants. Some examples include pansy, viola, snapdragon, Dianthus and Alyssum. Continue planting herbs from seeds or plants. A wide variety of herbs prefer cool, dry weather, including cilantro, parsley, sage, and thyme. Continue planting cool-season crops, such as beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, kale and lettuce. Divide and replant overgrown perennials and bulbs now so that they establish before the cold weather arrives. Take advantage of lower temperatures to apply horticultural oil sprays to control scale insects.

Fall can still bring some hot, dry days that can be hard on plants if you haven’t had enough rain. If you’ve purchased fall flowers for pots, keep in mind that container plants dry out much faster than those in the ground.

The weather can be cool in the daytime and sometimes cold at night. At the viveros look for snapdragons, stocks, Fuchsias, poinsettias (Nochebuenas), pansies, Petunias and Phlox. Sweet peas may begin blooming.

You can still plant lettuce, peas, kohl rabi, spinach and Swiss chard , beets, carrots, garlic, lettuce, mustard, onion, parsley, radish, spinach, turnips, herbs, lettuce, broccoli, and kale.

Many plants are going into their dormancy period, and fall is a good time to prune. Winter is a good time to prune large trees, shrubs and small trees. Deciduous foliage is absent and helps make pruning more visible and reduces clean up material. Plant colorful ornamental cabbage and kale for vibrantly rich reds, blues, and purples to accentuate other garden colors all winter long.