have a beautiful garden

Outside the back door there are peas a-sprouting! They’re about 10 inches high now, and beginning to twirl around their supports. I’m a few days away from being able to harvest enough mesclun lettuce for a petite salad or so.

Still waiting…..for heirloom tomato, pole bean and charentais melon seedlings to sprout.

In the front garden, the grape popsicle-coloured tulips are blooming and it looks like the pom-pom juniper made it through the excruciating Canadian winter. Today, before the excruciating Victoria Day weekend begins its downpour, I will underplant with wee purple annuals and hang up charming Arts & Crafts inspired hanging baskets. All are welcome to stop by and say hello and offer counter suggestions!

I spend too much time volunteering in a community garden that I don’t spend enough in my own…sort of the story about the carpenter needing to do some repair work at his own house

Today the big topiary juniper arrived home. Tomorrow, it gets planted in the front yard where the impatiens now grow. It has lovely big pompoms! It looks like an eccentric green sculpture!

I suppose the word “beautiful” is subjective. I’m not talking about a beautiful flower garden, but in my case, it was my vegetable garden. There are so many reasons to do it! Not only do you have to fresh veges in the in the fall to use in the kitchen, but the act of watching your veges grow is just fun! And it’s particularly fun to share it with it with children. It turned me into one again.

For 7 years I have owned 12 + acres in the foothills of Northern California. There is one fenced pasture, but the garden plots are not fenced. The reason: my ex-wife wanted something in particular, but what it was she didn’t know. So not much got done or when we did get a garden in it was for the deer and voles. Unfortunately, I had to move down to the city for 2 years and the land was ignored. But now I am back, solo, and the farm & garden dream is alive.
I have very little money now, so instead of running down the hill and buying bags of soil stuff and plastic pots and trays of plants, I am both stuck and struck with the basics. Imagine 150 years ago carving out a house and farm out of raw land. Most of it: simply hard work. Salvaging the existing fencing, irrigation, and tools will be necessary. But I am both excited and grateful for my second chance.

I resolve to not let my plants die!

It hardly seems like spring :(

Spring is taking a short break!

another day makes :(

We had to have a tree removed and those tree cutters stepped on my crocuses!

When we first moved into our house, 9 years ago, we had 4 mature trees in the backyard. Three have died :(