Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Story is in the Soil

It's the first day of May, and it sure feels like it.  The weather in Victoria hasn't been wonderful this spring, but this weekend has been fabulous.  Birds are singing, the sun is shining and there is a gentle breeze.  Today is perfect for gardening.

Looking at my backyard, you can tell that the elderly lady who owned the property before us took good care of it when she was still able to.  There is a terraced rock garden filled with overgrown rosemary, various ground cover plants, a few bright red and yellow flowers, some rhubarb that just wont quit and more weeds than I care to count.  There is also a garden plot that the previous tenants in my suite put in.  When I moved in, it was still in pretty decent shape and even had a few carrots left in it.  But after two years of (my) neglect, it was filled with grass, dandelions and stray flowers.

Today, I brought the garden plot back to it's former glory.  I thought about doing the same for the rock garden, but it's full of big black spiders that scare the bjezus out of me.  I'll save it for another day.

Here's what the garden plot looked like to start with.  Sort of, at least.  I didn't think to take a picture until after I removed a bunch of flowers and dandelions.


Yikes.  I spent about five hours in the garden, and with a little help and advice from my dad, I turned it into this.


There are two rows of snap peas in the very back.  From left to right, the front is hot peppers, super sweet cherry tomatoes, Cherokee purple tomatoes and black krim tomatoes.  In the very front, I planted red, gold and candy cane beets.  They should germinate in a few days.  I also planted some kale in a tiny corner of the rock garden, which isn't pictured.  There's still an eggplant sitting on my windowsill waiting until June to go outside, too.

It was a lot of work, but I'm really happy with the results.  I'm really looking forward to tending to it every day.  And in a couple of months, I'll have some really great, really fresh organic veggies!

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Huge difference! It's barely out of winter up here, but in a few more weeks it'll be prime time for cultivating the back yard.

    Then again, it'll also be prime time for cultivating a newborn, so I guess we'll have to prioritize!

    Quite the green thumb you've got there.

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  2. How beautiful! Oh, I can't wait to start mine, I hope it looks have as good as yours does! Well done!

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