So I thought I would share a few pictures of my little garden spaces. Remember, it's all a work in progress. I am still trying to figure out where the best places are for things. I am still letting some areas grow on their own to see what happens.
I will start with the tomatoes. Here is a section along the south side of the house. It is a long narrow strip with abundant growth. When we first moved here, last October, this area was full of cherry tomatoes still producing. I figured it stood to reason that this was a good place for tomatoes so I got eight different varieties, just to see who would do what and how well.
I bought two plants from a local wal-marty type store (Bi-mart - employee owned) and they were already a good size. The other six I got at a crappy little farmer's market and they were tiny--no more than 4 inches tall. There were a couple of frosts the first two weeks after I planted them, and I thought I was going to lose them. No big deal, because it's all just an experiment to see what would grow, right? Well, those little buggers hung on and they are huge with tons of flowers and ready to go to town. You might be able to see in this picture some volunteer tomato plants from last year. Those are also abundant. I am going to transplant a few to various parts of the yard just to see how they do. So this brings us to the next couple of pictures. Along with the volunteer tomatoes there were a couple of volunteer squash of some kind --we had a couple of watermelons in the compost and are wondering if that is what they are. Look it up? Yes, I suppose we could do that, but why? This is so much more fun.
This first picture is of a small area that I am slowly working on. It has potential, but our dog, Bear, uses this area a lot to bark at the dog across the fences and so there is a lot of pacing going on here. What you see is one corner of my studio on the left. The wood there in the foreground is the bench on the deck. The garden is pathetic looking, but I am going for a dry creek bed look with the rocks, with a minimum of plants bordering it to begin with. The squash plant thing is the shriveled up sad looking thing. But believe me, it has new growth on it and parts that look as though they might actually flower.
This next photo is of a space I have worked hard on. The grass used to go all the way back to that little brick path. I had the birdbath there but wasn't happy with it standing in a sea of grass, so I had these river pebbles and decided to use those, but then I realized I needed to get rid of some more of the grass. Well, it grew and grew and will probably grow some more over the years. I really like it. It opened the space up back there. The two plants on the right are the volunteer squashes.
And yes, the grass is turning brown. There is no rain here so most everything is turning brown except for the trees. It is interesting. Just a few weeks ago, we had to mow the lawn twice a week, now, I haven't touched it for over a week, if not two. I believe this is the natural way of things around here as I have watered the lawn a couple of times with no change, so I am saving water, and only taking care of the veggies and flowers.
So here is another shot of the garden on the south side of the house. Most of what you see there are herbs. Sage, Rosemary, Oregano, and mint. The left hand side has squash--eggplant, yellow, and zucchini. The rock path there is obviously not finished. Although, maybe I could be making a statement on how I feel about people visiting my garden... ???
And the last picture is of our lettuce, parsley and cilantro, right outside our kitchen door. It's a nice little bunch and has fed us a number of times already. I can't believe how all this shit grows. It really has amazed me how fast and luscious everything has grown.

I have to say, I have been diligent and worked hard. Making all these new little spots remind me of working with (for) those of you who know who you are and it always makes me happy knowing that you are out there too.
I miss back east a lot (you know something funny, people who have never been east of the Rockies call the east 'back east'. Isn't that weird?) sometimes. It's a different world here and I hated moving again.
But it is also a beautiful place with so many areas/regions to explore, so I will have years and years of 'blogging', or 'online journaling' as I prefer to call it, to do before I run out of things to share with you.

Sorry if anyone out there was bored with my garden segment, it won't happen often, but get used to it anyway. And please remember to click on the photos so you can get a better look at all that I haven't weeded.

love to all and all to love