Here's an image of our back yard ... We are in the red circle. This image must be from a long time ago, because that big conifer to the left of my yard was killed by bark beetles, slowly lost all it's needles and was removed a few months ago. You can see the hugely tall palm trees in the back yard. They tower over our 3 story building.
Pretty cool that you look right in your own house.. (scary too, I guess)
Anyhoo, you can see how our yard is open and joins with our neighbors yard. I really like it. And to be surrounded by buildings, it get freakin' amazing amount of sun, and it protected from wind.
Here's my little corner that my landlord allows me to tinker in. I'll admit that it's been neglected for the last year, since I started taking the class on Saturday. I just don't have any time.
I like flowers. I buy plants on sale, nothing expensive, because I know as soon as I move, he will tear it all out and put in his non-flowering green Fatsias, Flaxes and Bamboos.
Here's what is blooming today:
I pulled all the Dietes from this area and it was nice and bare, so I decided to do an experiment and build a trellis, stick my Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot canes in the ground, rig up some vineyard-style drip and see what happens!
Here we have some little lepidopterae of some sort making little homes for it's pupae selves on the Budelia. It's a rangy out-of-control type plant, and apparently butterfly larvae like to eat it as much as the adults like the flowers. But I like the plant for all those reasons!
Here's the Chinese Mustard Greens. Yummy! I bought these this weekend. I have some from seedlings but these will be tasty soon, and the little one's can be harvested later.
This is the beginning of my wine barrel garden. I got a lot of ideas from the book McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers.
I can't wait to have a little eatery right outside the door, then when I move, I just take a hand truck and wheel it away to my next home! And as you can see, the bonsai palm is not dead yet. LOL
Seedlings
So there you are.... the beginning of this years growing season. Exciting eh? ;)
3 comments:
The garden blogger bloom day is actually Carol's idea at May Dreams. And if you want to join the herd, it's the 15th of every month.
http://www.maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/
I'm fascinated by the idea of a bonsai palm. I thought you had to limit your bonsai plants to those which tolerate extensive pruning. But I know very little about bonsai. And nearly nothing about palms.
That Chinese mustard looks like something I got in a mixed greens six-pack at Flowercraft last winter. And it was very sour. I tried it in a salad, and I was, like, "Bummer--my garden grows sour lettuce." Interesting...
So you took Pam's vegetable classes last year? Were they good? I'm taking summer vegetables starting next month. I hope it's good. I hate giving up my Saturday mornings.
Google Earth works better in your neighborhood than in mine. It's not very good at all in mine.
Hi Chuck,
thanks for the link. I had no idea!
The mustard is better cooked, I think. Cooking breaks down the bitter components. You'll learn that in Pam's class. The on I took of hers was the summer gardening class. It's not that bad because it's only half a day for 6 weeks. I learned a lot, she' so knowlegeable about growing veggies in this particular area, which, as we all know, is a bit particular as far as veggies go. So I think you will like it. Plus you get to take home some harvest every Saturday.
As far as the bonsai palm goes, it was just a whim. I couldn't find anything about bonsai-ing palms in any book, but I did find someone over the internet who had done some and he said they do well. I'm surprised there not much interest in them, but pehaps because you can't train a palm, nor prune it into amazing ahapes. You just get one shape with palms, so perhaps that makes them uninteresting to real bonsai afficionados.,
IE the pink flowering bush you are pictured in between the geranium and the rock rose:
I live on the Central Coast and we were hit with one of the longest freezes in 20 years. We had 11 days of freezing weather. I lost all my 'pink flowering bushes'. They were all over 8 years in age and quite large and beautiful. I'm so glad that your plants made it.
I am waiting another month to make an assessment on what is going to pull through and what isn't. Wish me luck and lots of sunshine from Mother Nature.
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