Monday, May 9, 2011

Kicking It Up a Notch in the Garden

The landscaping is really taking shape.  Here you can see the patio and the new stepping stone path and many of the new plants in and ready to go in.  I hate to say it, but I think we've been in some sort of construction on the garden on and off for about a year!  Okay, fine, 12 years.  If you would have asked me back then, I would have never guessed we would have ended up here.  Each little phase was more than I had hoped, and we've had easily 5 phases.  That said, I've been really happy with the results of each, so I guess I can use that overused phrase, it's all good.

The nectarine finally grew some leaves, and just budded here.  Do you think I'll get any fruit the first year?!?  We'll see.

Anyways, we've been very busy in the garden.  What's to come:
Moving roses, what not to do (and we did it anyway).
Clearing the weeds in the lower terrace
Nursery plants in
Drip and spray irrigation
Stepping stone path
Veggies in
Herbs
Lighting
steps
retaining walls
plans and matrix
Identify this caterpillar on my new Fuji apple tree.
Identify this moss on my concrete block retaining wall.
Summer squash in my new lowest terrace.

Ellie guarding the hot peppers
This is the first tier of veggies.  Ellie is now in the 'landscape' area.  I lost some square footage to landscaping, but gained a bunch in the lowest tier, where all the trees are.  Shown in the foreground are hot peppers, medium hot cherries.  Further back, top are radishes, coming in fast.  To the left of them are rocket salad.  Further back and taller are basil bushes.  I planted one of those guys from Whole Foods.  Trader Joe's sells them too.  They went sort of pale in the planting process.  Not sure how to avoid that.  Behind them, you can't see the strawberries.  In the foreground, you may be able to see a couple strawberries too.  On the lower tier, you can see some tomato cages.

Kirsty Ellie Moira Fig Peach
This is looking the other way on the lowest terrace.  For reference, the wood retaining wall to the right is 3 feet tall in the corner where the girls are.  You can see the slope of the hill beyond my garden.  It's about 12 feet wide at the end, and about 60 feet across the back, and about 5 feet wide at the narrow end. 
This is looking South.  You can almost see all 7 fruit trees lined up on the left.

6 comments:

  1. holy catfish! can't wait to see it!

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  2. Muy fantastico! It looks beautiful even before planting.

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  3. Sarah, I can't wait to show you! It's so exciting! I think I've only got half what I want to plant in so far. We planted dahlias today. A bunch of them. Rigo got most of the irrigation in.

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  4. Jennie,
    Thanks! I concur. All the plants on the patio are now planted. I had them move the Jacaranda tree about 4 feet left as well. Tomorrow we should have the sprinklers on auto. Another big step!

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  5. that is freakin awesome. we'll be in CA at the very end of June & will have to check it out.

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  6. Jimmy! Thank you! It's a blast. I'm hoping to have a bunch more going on by then too. Come on over!

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