Let's Eat!

I've been growing food for years, and I will for the rest of my life. There's nothing better than a fresh tomato sandwich, or those first spring peas steamed just right. And zucchini bread is a summer staple for my boys.
I was lucky when we moved into this rental house to have a garden all ready to be tilled, and a neighbor to till it. I was unlucky, however, to not have experience with deer and so many rabbits. Nearly everyday I found another plant eaten to the ground by whomever... almost no peppers last year, and only a few pole beans. So this year we've fences it in. I know thgis won't keep really hungry deer out, and a bunny get easily get under that fence, but it deters them. So far, it really works! We've had quite a few peppers already harvested, and many more about to be. And beans are already set, too. Peas, lettuce, all untouched. Yay, fence.
See?

I think food growing can be so beautiful, too. Here's lettuce, lolla rossa:

Peas, a number of varieties:

The owner has raspberries planted, and we very much enjoy them!

Pepper, Alma Paprika:

Green Peppers:

'Contender' Beans:

 My husband, who is in th Army comes home today, and I've saved the first cherry tomatoes for him to eat fresh off the vine this evening. There's also a delicious anaheim pepper to include in dinner. What are you growing?

Making it my own.

Moving to our new home last year meant transitioning my garden on a truckload level. It also meant meeting the challenge of rehabbing a garden  that had been sorely neglected for nearly a decade. Meshing the old with the new, salvaging, dividing, and pulling thousands of weeds... like 40 trash bags full and counting... but slowly but surely this place is starting to feel like it is my own. I still have to put in LONG hours. I am still pulling out invasive plants that seem to own the earth in some spots, but I'm finally ready to share a few pictures. We are still in the beginning of the season, and very few things have started blooming- we're mostly still greening up and growing. It feels wonderful!
Here the walkway to my side door, the door we use most often. I have 5 clematis on the arbor, and it is framed by two roses, a john davis pink and ramblin red. Some asters, huechera, daylilies, penstemon, and hardy geranium will be blooming here soon. I am painting the screen door blue soon.

There are 6 clematis here on these old trellises. I hope they cover them soon, as they did at my old house.

Around the corner I have an old ladder with hardy succulents. I have sweet peas about to climb the ladder as well. I put my herb garden right here, because that places it close to the kitchen, and accessible. Perennial herbs in the ground, annuals in the large pot, and spearmint in its own pot because of its invasive nature.  

The side of the garage is filled with ditch lilies, and a few invasives I'm steadily working to pull out. I added a ninbark for some color constrast and interest. It is underplanted with lily of the valley, and lupine. The square here has a hardy pale pink shrub rose and lupine.  

Once you go through the arbors by the side door you find yourself in the backyard. To your left I have this white metal arched arbor planted with honeysuckle, 3 clematis, and framed with two ramblin red roses, and a gertrude jekyl climbing rose as well. The bed this arbor leads into has a large section of ditch lilies, but also a dozen perennials I planted or salvaged, and reseeding annuals like cosmos, brazilian vervain, and alyssum. Last year, the whole whole bed was lilies, quack grass and creeping charlie. The toughest spot to clear for sure. I first tried round up, but when all was said and done, digging out and replacing the soil was the answer.

This is the back of the garage and other side of the bed this arbor leads to. You can see our back deck, which is framed by reblooming dwarf lilac shrubs.

Decision and Blooms

Been up at night wrecking my brain with garden ideas for the rental house. I have a journal I keep in my bed (my husband is already living in Minnesota, so the journal lives in his spot with a stack of magazines and books), and as I'm falling asleep I sketch ideas. One key decision keeps me from finalizing a design for my new garden beds: plant in waves of color or contrast?

The roses are the main component in color choice- and I work from there. Eiether I plant all my similra hued roses in cluster creating the effect of drifts of color through the garden, or plant them all close to complementary colors creating a chaotic effect of masses of color from a distance.

Every night the differen ideas win, and every morning I change my mind.

This morning I'm focused on the drifts of color idea. I see 3-4 purplish roses from a distance (including Heirloom, Purple Passion), next to 3-4 yellows (including Golden Celebration, Carefree Sunshine), next to 3-4 reds (including Proud Land, Scarlet Knight, Europeana...) and so on. With one big mass of all the sunset-hued roses I have (including Dream Come True, Playboy, Disneyland, Chicago Peace, Christopher Marlowe, Morden Fireglow, and more... ). Wow, I have a lot of sunset-hued roses. Haha!

Part of the fun of gardening is playing with these ideas, and I feel lucky to get to pick every thing up and move it around in a whole new position... in a whole new yard.

Meanwhile, my Clivia is blooming. This is from my grandmother's garden in southern California, and spends winters in it's big blue pot in my basement under the shoplights. When the blooms come (March/April) it moves upstairs and lives in my dining room window.

Happy Gardening!