You might think that because I am a grower by profession, my personal edible garden would be something straight out of Sunset Magazine or Better Homes and Gardens. Well, not quite.
Like most of us, setting aside the time to get into the garden can be a little challenging. Take last weekend for example. With my husband on board, we set out to plant our early Spring veggie garden. But instead, we found ourselves pulling weeds from other areas, transplanting plants that had been dwarfed by others, pruning, irrigating - all as we were trying to make our way to the garden patch to plant the "friends" we had personally grown and tended for months now!
As many of you know, we have a very large corner lot full of grass. When we moved in almost two years ago, we made the conscious decision to start eliminating lawn in favor of native and drought tolerant plants as well as plants that produce food. Hey, if you are going to pay for the water used to irrigate, you might as well get something tasty and be doing something good for the environment.
Immediately, we began our edible garden - in the front yard! [The back is for nursery growing]. We planted the orange, lemon, cherry, apple and two peach trees that we had containerized. We replaced lawn and ornamental with a mixed border of greens, herbs, edible annuals and perennials.
Connecting the edible side of our yard and the ornamental has been a process. We decided to utilize the sloped area that connects the two with a replica of a dry riverbed using a combination of lavender [which is edible and low water, once established] and native manzanita [which is great for slope stabilization]
Last fall, needing to get the manzanita and lavenders in this ground, we planted on this connecting slope while the grass was still in place. Although this is really not the best way to plant, I kind of like it. It allows something new go begin while the familiar stays in place - easing my eyes and our neighbors to what can quite often be a change that alters the landscape so severely, but in a good way!
Just last month, with the help of our friend Jorge, the grass surrounding our new plantings was finally removed. As I was trying to make my way past this area, on my way to plant our little gem lettuce, purple cauliflower, Calabrese broccoli and the first of our heirloom tomato plants, my husband got a little held up on the corner. I looked behind me and there he was laying down cardboard where the grass had been and covering it with fill dirt- a technique called lasagna layering - which I highly recommend for removing portions of lawn to create new beds. In short, the cardboard suffocates the grass, decomposes which encourages worm activity galore and you can have an instant new garden space in just a few hours!
We did make it to planting our garden that afternoon. We took out the beautiful mesclun, muzina and kale which we allowed to go to seed. We applied some of compost and pelleted chicken manure to the bed, digging it in about 2 inches. We added a few more lavender plants to the dry creek bed area, sweet lavender which looks like the English variety we all love but which actually does a bit better in our climate. We even added a gooseberry plant, tucked up near the top of the slope and then watered for a good long time using the "old fashioned" sprinkler we moved around several times.
I love to water this way, especially at the end of a good day in the garden. So, last weekend, I sat on the corner, under the giant sycamore on the portion of the lawn that is remaining and took in the view, my neighborhood and the garden itself.
Is our garden any closer to being one straight out of a magazine? I don't know, but it sure is working for us . The bonus, our neighbors don't seem to mind the missing grass and front yard full of vegetables.
This is good.
Enjoy the day!
Carrie-Anne
www.Rollinghillsherbs.com
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