Time for Reflection

A look back at once was:

Then (January 09)

And now...

Herbs and lettuces went in this weekend.

The roots end up drying nicely and making rustic posts to hold the twine.

With the house, we inherited a pergola:

We painted it brown

Our plan now is to extend the pergola out over the sidewalk about 4 ft or so, so we can plant the vines in the ground and have them grow up the posts.

And have the gutter go over our new pergola extension.

So far, we've bought the wood,

tied it to a truck (you can rent trucks at Home Depot!),


and took it home.

I planted cement piers to hold up the new posts.

Stay tuned...

Roots Suck

One thing they don't tell you in the beginners gardening book--roots totally suck. While preparing the beds for planting, we've come across some nasty ones.

This one required the axe...

Of course the axe came in handy for other roots as well....

This is the frigging root of this lame topiary-ish shrub we inherited in the backyard. It really needed to go. So I reached for...the axe.

That's right.

This part of the garden will feature a Japanese maple with blueberry bushes around it, with some columbine interspersed. We'll see how that works out. We're thinking a tile walkway between the produce-garden and the aesthetic garden, probably with a rosemary hedge on one side and a lavender hedge on the other.

Here's the pile of sod and other yard waste accumulated so far.

Greg planting onions.

Last bit, planting the persimmon tree. It may seem insignificant. But Greg and I have been fantasizing about having a persimmon tree for years.


Today was the day it finally went into the ground!

Lawn Dig

March 7-8. Lawn Dig. We'd been pretty sure the lawn had to go. Greg pushed for a sod cutter, and we drove out to the Home Depot in Burbank to rent one. It weighed about 500 lbs, and there was no way it was going in the back of my Subaru. So I dug up the above with a shovel.



Local doves dropped by the next morning to inspect and laud my toil.



Greg planting tomatoes. On the left is our Arabian Jasmine vine. It hasn't been happy East-facing where it was supposed to grow over a pergola. We're now hoping it will be happier on a South-facing wall.

Left: Greg behind our new Fuyu persimmon tree. Below, strawberries in barrel we got from Home Depot.




The state of the garden as of 3/08/09: