Whether you’re looking to tour historic landmarks, learn some gardening skills or explore the local flora and fauna, you’ll find plenty of opportunities on the Peninsula. Check out our October home & garden events calendar.
Roaming slugs glow on the hillside at Filoli during its second annual Nightfall. Photo by Linda Taaffe.
‘Nightfall’ at Filoli
Daily, now- Nov. 10 | Filoli, 86 Cañada Road, Woodside | $45-$49 adult, $35-$39 children | Tickets and information.
Explore Filoli after dark during its annual “Nightfall,” when the 16-acre estate and mansion are transformed into a haunting wonderland. Guests can tour the home, which is decked out in eerie decor, or wander the woods behind the house where dozens of scarecrows, trolls, roaming slugs, glowing mushrooms and other surprises await.
Santa Clara County Parks’ annual Fall Festival will feature agricultural workshops, a plant sale, a pumpkin patch and more. Embarcadero Media file photo.
Fall Festival
9 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Oct. 11 | 5283 Snell Ave., Martial Cottle Park, San Jose | Free | Information
Learn about fall gardening, sharpen your tools, swap seeds and get expert advice at the annual Fall Festival, which features local arts, crafts, kids activities, agricultural workshops, historical autos, antique farm equipment, live music, food trucks, exhibitors, entertainment, a pumpkin patch and more. The regional event, hosted by Santa Clara County Parks, also includes a plant sale with vegetable, native and ornamental seedlings, along with garlic, shallots, succulents and herbs.
St. Thomas Aquinas Church is among the highlights on the Homer Avenue history walk. Photo courtesy Kevin Legnon.
Palo Alto history walks
Palo Alto Stanford Heritage is leading free guided walking tours that highlight historic neighborhoods, homes and public buildings in Palo Alto on Saturdays and Sundays throughout October. Each tour highlights a different area of the city. Tours start at 10 a.m. and generally last about 90 minutes.
Homer Avenue
Sunday, Oct. 12,
Join guide Laura Roberts for a walk along Homer Avenue. The historic corridor contains a treasure trove of historically significant buildings from early Palo Alto, including the 1916 Woman’s Club of Palo Alto; old laundries, charming Victorian cottages and the century-old St. Thomas Aquinas Church that appeared in the cult classic film “Harold and Maude.”
Meet at the Woman’s Club of Palo Alto, 475 Homer Ave. (corner of Homer and Cowper).
Boyce Ashby Addition Tour
Saturday, Oct. 18
Explore some of Palo Alto’s most elaborate 19th-century houses developed outside the former city limits of the 1890s with guide Susan Borton. Among the tour highlights is the impressive 1896 Queen Anne Herzinger House on Forest Avenue, now under major restoration.
Meet at 1001 Forest Ave.
Professorville Tour
Sunday, Oct. 19
Palo Alto’s Professorville neighborhood is noted for its many homes built by Stanford University professors that stretch back more than 130 years to the founding of Stanford University. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this beautiful and iconic tree-shaded neighborhood was the first historical district in Palo Alto. Anne Gregor and Kristine Zavoli will lead you through the area.
Meet at 1005 Bryant St. (corner of Bryant and Addison).
Upper College Terrace
Saturday, Oct. 25
Whether it’s Victorians, early Craftsman, English cottages, Spanish Colonial Revival bungalows, a log cabin or ornate Queen Annes, few Palo Alto neighborhoods can boast such a mix of eclectic architectural styles spanning more than 100 years. Developed at the same time as Stanford University and originally mapped as “Palo Alto,” the terrace portion of this area is mostly in the upper half of the tract, bordering the campus to the west. Susan Borton will be your guide.
Meet at 2275 Amherst St.
Greenmeadow Tour
Sunday, Oct. 26
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its pristine midcentury modern-era Eichlers, this unique neighborhood community provides a good look at the suburban utopia developer Joseph Eichler envisioned in 1954.
Meet at 4010 Nelson Drive. Simon Pennington will be your guide.
Worms wiggle in a handful of vermicompost, a type of compost made with paper, food scraps and worms. Photo courtesy Getty Images.
Composting with worms
6:30-7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 14 | Mountain View Public Library, 585 Franklin St., Mountain View | Free | Information
Are you eager to compost but have no space and fear the smells? Consider vermicompost made with only paper, food scraps and worms. Vermicompost takes less space, has little odor, is better for plants and costs almost nothing to make. It can even be done inside the house. Discover the how’s and why’s of vermicomposting during this one-hour, hands-on workshop.
See evidence of the effects of earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault Trail at Los Trancos Preserve. Embarcadero Media file photo by Veronica Weber.
‘Fall Along the Fault’ hike
10:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 15 | Los Trancos Preserve, Palo Alto | Free | Information
Join docent naturalists Mary Brunkhorst, Kate Bauer and Nick Yatsko for this moderately paced 4-mile hike beneath the forest canopies of the Franciscan and Lost Creek trails. You’ll experience the open spaces of the Page Mill Trail and see evidence of the effects of earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault Trail. Bring a snack.
Meet at Los Trancos Parking Area on Page Mill Road (across from Monte Bello Preserve), 7 miles west of I-280 or 1.5 miles east of Skyline Boulevard.
Sarah Winchester transformed her 161-acre San Jose estate into a successful working farm. Photo courtesy Getty Images.
Sarah Winchester, ‘the orchardist’
5:30-7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 15 | Los Altos History Museum, 51 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos |$15 | More information | The program is now sold out. To be added to a waiting list, email hello@losaltoshistory.org.
Author and historian Robin Chapman will explore some of the myths and mysteries of Sarah Winchester’s career as an orchardist during this 90-minute presentation.
Winchester, the namesake of the iconic South Bay landmark the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose who also owned property in Los Altos and along the Peninsula, was also an agricultural entrepreneur. She transformed her 161-acre San Jose estate into a successful working farm, growing apricots, fruits and nuts to supplement her income, according to Chapman.
“Sarah was very wise in her use of the land as an investment, and a wise steward of the Winchester fortune,” Chapman said. “The original property had about 40 acres, and she acquired more and more over the years. What she did with that land is the story I will tell.”
In her talk, Chapman will reveal how Sarah Winchester’s investments helped shape a valley known for orchards and agriculture — the birthplace of brands such as Del Monte and Sunsweet.
A journalist, historian, and Los Altos native, Robin Chapman earned her Master’s in Journalism from UCLA and worked in broadcast news at KRON-TV and ABC-7 in Washington, D.C. She is the author of a California history trilogy— “California Apricots: the Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley,” “Historic Bay Area Visionaries” and “The Valley of Heart’s Delight: True Tales from Around the Bay.”
The talk is part of the exhibition “Building El Sueño: Isabel Merriman, Sarah Winchester, and the California Dream,” which is on view at the museum through Nov. 30. losaltoshistory.org/exhibit/elsueno/.
Learn what edible plants to add to your garden this fall. Photo courtesy Getty Images.
Edible gardening for Fall
10-11:30 a.m., Oct.18 | Gamble Garden, 1431 Waverley St., Palo Alto | $40 (nonmembers) | Registration required
Join Gamble Garden’s horticultural staff to learn everything you need to know about how to create an aesthetically pleasing and productive edible garden.The class will explore a wide variety of common, and not so common, edible plants that are well-suited to our climate. Learn how to apply traditional design principles to your vegetable garden, as well as how to intermingle edible plants into an existing landscape. This is the final class in Gamble’s edible garden series and will focus on edible plants for fall.
This interactive, garden-based class is suitable for everyone from novices to advanced gardeners.
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