The Story of My Garden - So Far

In the beginning, Dr. Happy was a happy batchelor and, although GREEN is his favorite color, he was seldom so interested in keeping it green that the backyard was watered. Mainly 'cause he was working all the time and entertaining me, no small feat, of course. So, by default, his second favorite color became BROWN. Here is a little sample of what was here before me and my trusty Garden Claw (tm) moved in and got started. (Note the grapefruit tree in the right-hand corner. It will appear later in the story.)


As you can see, visually appealing in a rustic, eh, Mountain Man-kinda way. Unfortunately, not so tasty or appealing to MOI.


I have used probably 20 bags of amending soil to get the dirt back up to my exacting green thumb standards for my Precious Plants. My darling Dr. Happy still has not bought stock in Home Depot (HD). Their measley 3-4% dividend is not so exciting to him, I guess...


Although I started some of my plants in little peat starters, the tomatoes and strawberries were from the Local Nursery. Unfortunately, for Dr. Happy, they are not a publicly traded company. They do, however, give some nice discounts - sometimes. (Like this weekend is 20% off on everything! Woo-hoo!) Pictured above are the boysenberry and honeydew plants.


The beginning of all good gardens starts with a compost bin. Here is the obligatory, but not cooperating compost pile. It is just sitting there like a bump on a log.





On to the exciting part of the show: De Plants, De Plants!


This is a View of the Vegetable Garden from the Backyard looking towards the fence leading to the front yard.


Here is a pic of the garden starting in the right hand corner - the Strawberry Bed. I planted 18 plants and we've already had a batch this year. They were yummy!


The Strawberry Plants up close...


Here's some of the 14 tomato plants - again on the right hand side of the garden.


We are probably about 2 weeks away from enjoying the mixed salad greens from "The Lettuce Bed".


The Spinach and Green Onions are just starting to peek out at the sun...


There was a very nice Rose Bush under the Kitchen Window that smells so wonderful, I just let it stay there near the Spinach Bed.

Moving to the Other Side of the Gray Bricks (there is no "side-that-starts-with-L Side" in MY Victory Garden), there is a long patch of Dirt (starting at the gate and moving toward the backyard) where the cukes, cantaloupe, zuchini and scallopped squashes, watermelons and one honeydew melon plant will all live in harmony...hopefully. They will meet up with...



The Brussel Sprout plants against the fence, with four rows of Bok Choy plants between them and the bricks. Moving further into the backyard...


My salute to Iowa: "Looks Like Corn" against the fence. Hopefully, it will "taste" like corn in August.
Can't really tell, but there are short rows of beets and carrots between the corn and bricks.


And at the front of the Other Side are the Pea Plants. Between the Corn and Peas, there are green bean plants. I expect to plant the green peppers, chili peppers and something else (probably more green onions) between the bricks and peas/beans.


Moving around the yard away from the Veggies, toward the back fence, here are the Blueberry Bushes. (Yeah, I voted for Bush. Like that is such ancient history. Get over it already.) Our next door neighbor, Lou (who is older than Methuselah and even Harry F.) told me that nobody in the area has had much success growing blueberries. (They like acidic soil with a pH of around 4.5. I figure my ascebic wit should be enough to get them to produce fruit.)


Here is the Wild Rose Bush going, counter-clock-wise (screw that Right and L**t Crap!) from the Compose Heap. It will be getting a seriously needed trim next week.


Next up, is the Bird of Paradise, also in need of some pruning. Again, not so tasty, but nice to look at in the winter.


Here's the new Valencia Orange Tree. This is it's first year in our backyard. We'll see if I can manage to help it survive.


Next, there is a patch of calendula and I CANNOT get rid of them!!!), then the Ruby Red Grapefruit Tree, in honor of my mother, Ruby...Yeah, the pic is side-ways and I am not editing it just for you.

The corner is wild grass, dandelions and weeds (review the pic at the top of the post.). Continuing counter-clockwise...

...is where the boysenberries will live. They are less fussy about soil, so we should have some in the autumn.


In the center of the yard is The Fig Tree that I gave Dr. Happy for The-Goyesha-Holiday-Where-You-Give-Tokens-Of-Affection-and-if-you-are-smart-chocolate. Dr. Happy planted it. He likes it there. He is hoping it will grow large enough that he will have a shady place to sit on the grass when he gets old and retires. Yeah, like he is going to retire. Or sit. *Pfffftttt.*
*snort*


Finally, we come to the Herb Bed. So far, I have planted Lavender, Lemon Balm, Basil, Rosemany, Oregano and, ummm, something else. I'm going to plant some cilantro and something-entirely-different-from-something-else. I'm sure it will taste good when I cook with it.


Here is a closeup of the Lavender and Lemon Balm.


Last, here my Frog Friend that I just picked up today. I like him in the Herb Bed for now, but He may be moved to someplace else. Dunno where, but we'll see. He seems happy here for now.

I bought the materials to put in the Drip Irrigation system today in honor of our Israeli siblings who have to do that. (BUY HD STOCK, Dr. Happy!) Plus, The Governator is messin' with the water supply. So we need to conserve water because it will soon be getting even MORE expensive and scarce.

Soon, very soon, My Pretties, Very Soon...

Unless, the Gorebots are right (which they are not) and the oceans will be rising rapidly in the very near future. In which case, we will all be swimming to Texas or Colorado or Kansas. (Yeah, good luck with that one!)


Hope you enjoyed the Virtual Garden Tour. Next, month - I eat stuff and tell you how good it was....ROFLMTO!

Those people that lean politically to the Other Side of Right may want to STOP reading here. You are warned.

:-)