"There is no 'End' to be written, neither can you, like an architect, engrave in stone the day the garden was finished. A painter can frame his picture, a composer can notate his coda, but a garden is always on the move."
— Mirabel Osler
3/31/16:
One of the gardening goals I expressed in an earlier post was to have at least four plants in bloom at every point of the year, which is possible in this mild climate. January and February were a bit sparse, but now there's so much color around the yard that I feel fine about cutting some flowers off the plants for bouquets.
It's also feasible to grow a variety of edible green things in my outdoor garden during all seasons. While it was too late to get a good start on cool season crops such as lettuces and kale (still at microgreen size even though some seeds were planted two months ago), I kept a few herbs going this past winter: oregano, sage, a bit of cilantro and thyme. I'd like to eventually have lots of "useful" plants around in cold months.
Planting season is now in full swing. I'm happy that I managed to sow tomato and pepper seeds in early March instead of May this time. I'm also trying parsnips, which I've never grown before, and radishes. Back when I lived in the Nevada desert as a kid, radishes were one of the crops we grew in poor soil with little effort, so these seem like a good bet.
Clicking on the small images below will bring up a larger version.
Rosebuds and calla lily.
Cats enjoying the yard.
Organizing space for the vegetable patch.
I spent the last two weekends mostly at our house, and stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday because I had the flu. While it was frustrating not to feel well enough to do anything as active as weeding or shifting pots about, it was pleasantly restful to sit in the sun out on the lawn with the cats. I did make a discovery: an area of the yard I'd thought of as "full sun", my vegetable patch planter space, does not actually get more than 6 hours of direct sunlight at this time of year. This could explain the slow growth of my lettuces! I also found out that while I'd thought of partial-sun and partial-shade as interchangeable terms, this is not quite the case. What Do They Mean by Full Sun, Partial Sun & Partial Shade?
Having this blog as a record of gardening efforts is great in many ways, but it's kinda painful to look at pictures from the previous summer and think, "I'd forgotten I'd tried to have zinnias and pansies! Those poor plants were so cute in the beginning." However, I am heartened to read older posts and realize how quickly the peppers grew once it started getting nice and sunny, and to note how the container garden is less messy these days. At times I'd have to untangle my flowers and herbs from a jungle of ivy, bamboo and wild bulb leaves just to see what was going on. But now I'm getting organized and on the way to having an increasingly useful and attractive outdoor space.
