A Tour, Part I: behind the fence

Since I'm back at it, dear reader, how 'bout a little tour?

We begin our tour in the back yard, around our patio. These are three pomegranate plants I started from suckers last year. Eventually I will choose just one to keep. I hope to have it in a huge beautiful pot on the patio one day. (You can see a bit of the grape trellis on the right side of the photo.)

The grape vines I planted last year are leafing out and growing nicely. Time to do some work training them on the trellis.

Here is the fig tree that was new last year, and the blueberry bushes, newly planted in pots last year. All coming along nicely. (This is the East wall of our house.)

And the blueberries are covered with fruit!

Next, we move to the side yard. I planted potatoes in two of my side beds. I have to admit I'm not very optimistic about them (it's the first time I've cut potatoes rather than planting them whole, and they looked so shriveled!). We'll see.

It's hard to see with the shadows, but this is my asparagus bed. I planted 6 crowns last year - 5 sprouted. Of those, 3 returned this year. I don't get to pick any to eat until next year. I'll have to wait until next year now, to replace the crowns that did not come up this year.

I read somewhere a suggestion to plant strawberries with asparagus, since both are perennials. So, I put in two plants this year.

back at it

I guess it's been a busy year. At least, that's the only explanation I have come up with for why my yard and garden are so neglected. But it's lovely out, and I have some extra free time, so I am back at it. Can you tell what I did today? If you guessed "weeding," you win. I also did this:

Now what the heck do I do about that??

I don't yet have a plan in place for this year's garden, which makes me feel like I am behind schedule. Time to pull out old garden plans, look at what seeds I've got laying around, and check the "what to plant when" calendars for the Sacramento area.

It's awfully warm out. Maybe I'll start by catching up on my garden blog reading...

GBBD, July 2010

This is the first year for my artichokes. So, now that we're done eating them, I've been pretty excited to see them come into bloom.

Rain Barrel

Or, as I usually call it - "my kick-ass rain barrel." That's 275 gallons, baby. Someone pointed out that I should have a picture of someone standing by it, for scale, but I still don't have such a picture. It's about 4' tall.

The water comes in from the downspout off the roof gutters (duh).

It overflows through these holes onto the "lawn" if it gets too full.

And I can attach a regular garden hose to its faucet.


I know - it's ugly.

So we planted a passiflora vine to cover it, and because of my obession with growing things I can eat, we searched out a passiflora that is supposed to produce good fruit.

It's filling in nicely, and has begun to bloom.

Harvest (so far)

Here is some of what I have harvested so far in 2010:

If you know boysenberries, then you know some of these are not ripe (and yes, those ones were tart!).

This was my first attempt at growing potatoes, so I was happiest of all about these - all 6 1/2 pounds of them. The harvest was made all the more fun because it happened while my sister and her family were visiting, so my 6 year old niece took the role of spotting the potatoes and reaching in to grab them as I turned the soil with my garden fork.

I forgot that I wanted to take a picture until we had washed the amount we were using for dinner one night. Thus the odd presentation.

The harvest was also made all the more fun because my sweetie had just started complaining about the dying potato plants, and why should we keep spending money on plants if I'm not going to take care of them? Which triggered something in my brain: "hm...didn't I read somewhere that the vines start to die off when the potatoes are ready to harvest?" I was vindicated.

Blogging

I was ridiculously excited this morning to (belatedly) discover that three people I don't personally know actually read my blog. I know they did, because they left comments.

Now I've figured out how to have Blogger let me know by email when someone comments on my blog, so that next time my discovery won't be so belated. Thank you, Stacy, Lee, and Jeannie!!!

Introduction

Okay, let me back up just a bit to set the stage. Let me introduce you to my garden.

I live in midtown Sacramento, in a 1928 bungalow which I happen to love. Our lot is small - .07 acres, I believe. Part of that is taken up by house, part by garage, and part by brick patio. This doesn't leave a huge space for gardening. Most of the yard is pretty shady. So I am trying to cram as many varied and interesting plants into this small space as I possibly can. I focus on the small sunny patches for planting edibles, and get as creative as I can with the shady spaces. Most of my vegetables are between the sidewalk and the street. I'm always looking for more good ideas of what to plant in the shade.

A moment of confession: I'm married. Therefore, the yard is, strictly speaking, "our" yard; the garden "our" garden. But I can't seem to think and usually can't help talking out loud about them as "my" yard and "my" garden. And I don't think that attitude helps any in improving my partner's somewhat lukewarm feelings about gardening. So it's a vicious cycle. Katie doesn't love to garden. I think I am the boss of the yard & garden. This further dampens Katie's interest in the garden. I note her disinterest, which only increases my sense that the yard & garden are "mine." That's my explanation for all the first-person singular pronouns you will see in a blog about a garden that belongs to a plural pair of people.

I have a couple of interests & biases that largely drive my gardening endeavors.
1. I want to grow as many edible things as I possibly can.
2. I want my yard to be a healthy ecosystem - from the soil on up.

I expect that the above two factors will come up over and over in this blog.