JUST YOUR (not) TYPICAL URBAN GARDEN
In my head I live in a quaint cottage. I have some chickens clucking, goats munching on hay, a cat lazing about in the sun, and a dog following me around as I meander through tree dappled trails lined with flowers that will make their way into a vase on a table in my kitchen. My garden is a permaculture dream. Apple trees protect elderberry bushes that in turn protect red currant and black currant bushes. A veggie garden is full of nutritious food that will provide lunch, dinner, and eventually go into a freezer or canning for meals in the winter.
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| OH LOOK MY DREAM COME TRUE (mostly) |
Sadly, I'd have to live in a freaking Norman Rockwell painting. Or like, England. Or New England.
Instead I live in Southern California in a suburb with four raised beds on concrete and a multitude of edible plants in pots because I rent. You never know when you might have to pack up and leave. And wherever I go, my garden (or most of it) goes too! Because I'm loyal like that.
Our seasons consist of:
Spring: Hot and fire season
Summer: Please kill me it's hot and humid (thanks global warming) and also fire season
Fall: Slightly less hot and fire season
Winter: IS THAT RAIN!? Oh no, it's the neighbors sprinkler. And fire season.
Basically something in California is always on fire now.
On the plus side, we do get year round gardening of MOST plants.
Now, so far you've heard about my dream garden. BUT WHY I DON'T I INTRODUCE YOU TO MY ACTUAL GARDEN FAMILY!?
I mean, you may as well, because in the coming months you're going to see them a lot and watch me murder--I mean cook--a lot of them too! You'll only be meeting the one in pots right now, because the crops in my raised bed constantly rotate.
Currently in my raised beds there are:
Sugar Pumpkins
Corn
Beans
A quickly dying herb bed
A struggling tomato bed
Ozark Red Peppers
*the struggling beds will soon be put out of their misery, I promise
Below are my raised 4x4 beds before anything was in them and AFTER! I built a 4th raised bed recently, and the corn is MASSIVE you guys! If you can believe it, it's even taller now than what you see!
I should probably tell you now: I have a fatal flaw (I know you're super shocked right?). I really don't like it when some one tells me I can't grow something here. Like...a lot. SO FAR I've prove people wrong with a variety of plants they said could never grow well here. So jokes on them!
SAMDAL ELDERBERRY (left) & EUROPEAN ELDERBERRY (aka Sambuscus Nigra)
RHUBARB (Victoria)
Basically something in California is always on fire now.
On the plus side, we do get year round gardening of MOST plants.
Now, so far you've heard about my dream garden. BUT WHY I DON'T I INTRODUCE YOU TO MY ACTUAL GARDEN FAMILY!?
I mean, you may as well, because in the coming months you're going to see them a lot and watch me murder--I mean cook--a lot of them too! You'll only be meeting the one in pots right now, because the crops in my raised bed constantly rotate.
Currently in my raised beds there are:
Sugar Pumpkins
Corn
Beans
A quickly dying herb bed
A struggling tomato bed
Ozark Red Peppers
*the struggling beds will soon be put out of their misery, I promise
Below are my raised 4x4 beds before anything was in them and AFTER! I built a 4th raised bed recently, and the corn is MASSIVE you guys! If you can believe it, it's even taller now than what you see!
OH.
I should probably tell you now: I have a fatal flaw (I know you're super shocked right?). I really don't like it when some one tells me I can't grow something here. Like...a lot. SO FAR I've prove people wrong with a variety of plants they said could never grow well here. So jokes on them!
SAMDAL ELDERBERRY (left) & EUROPEAN ELDERBERRY (aka Sambuscus Nigra)
Meet my elderberry plants! I was told that Elderberry couldn't grow here. Yeah. We all know how I feel about that. my English Elderberry plant was doing great earlier this summer, then an insane heat wave killed it and LITERALLY FRIED THE LEAVES BONE DRY. 3 days later, when I was sure it was dead it bounded back, it's actually now double the size you see here! The other Elderberry plant didn't have the same issues. They're currently trying to make flowers right now (WHY? IT'S PRACTICALLY OCTOBER, PLANTS!)
RHUBARB (Victoria)
Yet another plant I was told couldn't A) grow well in California and B) Couldn't grow in a pot. THOSE PEOPLE WERE WRONG. (beside it, in the left corner, is one of my 2 gooseberry bushes, the Houghton variety. Another plant I was told couldn't grow here. HA. HA. HAAAA.)
This raspberry plant came from the same supplier that I got my gooseberry from. This cutting is from her grandmother's garden, where the raspberries have been growing for 50 years! SO IT'S AN HEIRLOOM! I only got berries once. It's not the plant's fault, the summer sun this year REALLY did a number on it, poor thing! Otherwise it would've started putting out flowers. It's already growing again, so I may get a fall crop. Who know!
GOOSEBERRY
This gooseberry plant I got from a cutting from a supplier on etsy. It didn't grow for a FULL YEAR. I looked at it and said "guess I'll pull it out and plant something else." The next day--no joke--It was budding out and then vigorously started growing. So I guess the moral of this story is THREATEN YOUR PLANTS??
RASPBERRY EVER BEARING
This raspberry plant came from the same supplier that I got my gooseberry from. This cutting is from her grandmother's garden, where the raspberries have been growing for 50 years! SO IT'S AN HEIRLOOM! I only got berries once. It's not the plant's fault, the summer sun this year REALLY did a number on it, poor thing! Otherwise it would've started putting out flowers. It's already growing again, so I may get a fall crop. Who know!
HYBRID APPLE TREE
This is an apple tree I saved from a Lowe's bargain bin. It's a hybrid of Fuji, granny smith, Jonagold, and braeburn. YOU GUYS. This tree is the MOST confused tree in the word. It was making apples in the winter. It lost it leaves in January. Then bloomed out again in March. It's October and my Fuji apple branch just made more flowers. I don't know why. It's a very confused tree. Sadly, due to heat damage and some sort of virus the braeburn tree branch died (My favorite apple!), part of the granny smith branch, and 3/4th's of a Jonagold branch (there are 2). I'm sad about my braeburn and I'm hoping to get a tree entirely consisting of a braeburn (not a hybrid).
SANTA ROSA PLUM (heirloom variety)
SANTA ROSA PLUM (heirloom variety)
Here's some fun history about this plum tree! This plum was cultivated to survive in California weather. Not only that, it consistently won prizes year after year as the best tasting plum in the country! Sadly, because it bruised easier (because it was so juicy) in transport, it was replaced with the plums you get in stores now.
An elderly woman I spoke to at seed expo said she remembered eating these plums as a girl and said she'd never tasted a plum that tasted as good as it. This plum tree WOULD have produced plums (It had started to) but again, due to that insane dangerous heat wave, it stressed it too much and it dropped it's plums. The leaves all stayed though! If that isn't a testament to it's ability to survive I don't know what is!
A couple plants not shown: 2 varieties of grapes (Thompson seedless and a white grape left to me by a friend of mine when she moved to Oregon). Both plants were doing good until the heatwave. They recovered, but they're stressed. I'm hoping the winter is good to them and they finally get fruit next year! a couple pots of strawberries! I wish I could have a strawberry patch but sadly I rent, so that's not gonna happen.
SO THERE YOU GO. There's my garden!
Next post I'll be showing you my plans (and seeds!) for my fall garden!
What's growing in your garden? Do you successfully grow anything that people said you couldn't? What's your favorite food to grow? Got any tips for growing said food!? How did your garden survive the summer!?
An elderly woman I spoke to at seed expo said she remembered eating these plums as a girl and said she'd never tasted a plum that tasted as good as it. This plum tree WOULD have produced plums (It had started to) but again, due to that insane dangerous heat wave, it stressed it too much and it dropped it's plums. The leaves all stayed though! If that isn't a testament to it's ability to survive I don't know what is!
A couple plants not shown: 2 varieties of grapes (Thompson seedless and a white grape left to me by a friend of mine when she moved to Oregon). Both plants were doing good until the heatwave. They recovered, but they're stressed. I'm hoping the winter is good to them and they finally get fruit next year! a couple pots of strawberries! I wish I could have a strawberry patch but sadly I rent, so that's not gonna happen.
SO THERE YOU GO. There's my garden!
Next post I'll be showing you my plans (and seeds!) for my fall garden!
What's growing in your garden? Do you successfully grow anything that people said you couldn't? What's your favorite food to grow? Got any tips for growing said food!? How did your garden survive the summer!?
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