Updated 2008.06.19
We practice sustainable gardening. We don't call it organic gardening - radiation and chemicals are the garden's friends. If you don't agree with that, go read a science book.
Kitchen waste gets worked into the soil. Weeds are pulled by hand. It's a heck of a lot easier to work this than our last garden (which was also our first. Altho it was our first and last, we now have this one. Go figure.). This yard is all sand, quite clean. Our last was solid clay brick, baked by the Sacramento Valley sun. Puttering around in the garden there meant swinging a pick for two hours to break up an area one by two meters, then working compost or vermiculite into it. This current crop of sand is nutrient poor, but easily worked. Much better for our old backs.
Like our last one, as we prepare an area we plant it. As the plants die, we replace them until the area is filled with organisms that survive our care, at which point visitors accuse us of having green thumbs. Nope; we just keep burying the bodies, and call it composting.
I don't know why it is so relaxing to simply walk through or stand in the garden, but it is.
Fall 2008 Photos:
The Beauty Berry has metallic purple berries, but they are difficult to see. I'll have to learn how to do closeups with Lynn's camera.
The first five feet of the path behind the birch - near the end of the cobblestone path. I just planted an elderberry (sambucus nigra 'Black Lace') which I will train as a small tree. Should have the feel of a Japanese maple, but without the windburn. Two views:
The cobblsetone path is looking a little empty, but still peacefull. Maybe I'll get a garden bench anyway. I could combine the two bonsai shelves into one and make room for it here.
I made my first trellis - treated wood, and altho the bottom of the stakes are buried in the dirt, they are attached to the rafters by metal construction joint doohickeys, leaving a gap of several inches from wood to house wood. We should be safe from termites. I planted a porcelain vine, which I saw at the nursery down the road. I was really impressed by the berries. After I got home I found out it was an invasive pest. Oops! Why the Sam Hill do nurseries sell invasive species? Why are they allowed to? Well the map only shows this to be a problem on the east coast, so maybe they're OK around here.
I realized I was going to be dragging my hose all over the front garden, so I needed something to help guide it along the path. I bought a big fiberglass pot, looks very much like terra cotta, and planted rosemary and basil in it. It's heavy and smooth, and should have no trouble from the hose. And now one square meter o fmy garden looks Mediterranean.
I will eventually replace all of the green plague in the front with garden. Here is the first front section, covered with grass clippings as mulch. By leveling off the ground (our yard slopes down to the street) and building a small wall, I can add much in the way of soil amendments.
All cleaned up. Ready to complete the cobblestone path, as soon as the local hardware stores restock them. I need one more small tree for near the fence, or perhaps some large bush (taller than it is wide) or a small, narrow conifer.
The deciduous trees are dropping their leaves, but the alyssum is perfuming the air and adding a large block of purple to the east side of the house.
All cleaned up and dug under, waiting for spring planting. we'll see if I get tomato and bean frames ready this winter. Maybe I'll just punch the bag and play computer games until April.
Here's the new front section after exiting the front door and looking left:
