The garden: Evolution of a backyard

[knary]

blip-ity-do-ba-bing-bong.......what the hell is that thing??? i'm not a fan of your west coast bugs. i had to deal with 7" millepedes on my friend's glass doors in monterey. put a penny or a thimble or something next to that guy. i don't want you faking me out with camel spider depth of field trickery. i need to know exactly what i'm dealing with should i end up on the left coast any time soon

A little searching has revealed that it's the icky Dysdera crocota, the Woodlouse spider aka Sow Bug Killer. They all over the place here and very mean looking, but harmless - unlike the black widows that we do see on occasion (though usually on the other side of the mountains), or the hard to distinguish brown recluse or the dreaded hobo spider or...

 

[tessler]

Bricks and Stones

Scott, amazing what you guys did in that back yard of yours. Bravo. Now that my property in the Catskills is free of the blanket of snow that covered it from Feb to April, I'm going to take your inspiration and advice and start to work on some mountain landscaping. The little tree looks just fine in the middle of the new bed

 

[tmoyer]

I look at those pctures and see hours and hours of hard labor well spent!

As one who continues to put work into her garden and home, I can appreciate all that you've done. It looks beautiful!

 

[tessler]

In the Catskills there are trees in your bed ?

Oddly enough Stat I am starting to feel a little like Rip Vince Winkel.

But serious hat's off to Knary for some spectacular horticulture.

 

[carter]

Scott... thanks for taking the time to post the progress, and beautiful evolution of your back yard. I live in a different part of the country, but watching it take shape, with the colors and texture developing is fun and motivating.. My back yard is a blank slate, ready for somebody to take some action... too much thinking about it so far, and not enough action. Action does involve WORK..maybe I better think a little more...

BTW the stone looks great...natural.

 

[knary]

Scott... thanks for taking the time to post the progress, and beautiful evolution of your back yard. I live in a different part of the country, but watching it take shape, with the colors and texture developing is fun and motivating.. My back yard is a blank slate, ready for somebody to take some action... too much thinking about it so far, and not enough action. Action does involve WORK..maybe I better think a little more...

BTW the stone looks great...natural.

But it's fun work with few possible negative outcomes.

Those photos are a few weeks old. I've got some more to post soon. The big news of the week was the old garage slab getting torn up yesterday. With a little luck, the main structure of the studio will be built within the month.

 

[12BSWAYED]

Your back yard really does look great! I'm glad you posted more pictures...gives me ideas for a space of mine

 

[BobbieZ]

Wow. Is this a great country or what?

 

[ian408]

Dude! The yard's lookin' great!.

 

[knary]

Thanks folks.

more photos soon enough

 

[knary]

maybe not real soon, but someday.

How's your garden?

 

[darcym]

My garden is also a constant work in progress. This March I actually broke down and hired some laborers to help finish a long overdue project. In the back yard the dogs have the run of it, but they destroy anything resembling a lawn. So the plan was dig it up, fill it in with pavers. Plus the laborers dug a french drain to get rid of the rare water that used to pool there. But I still wanted plants, so I added a raised bed that you see here on the left. The hillside faces south so it gets lots of San Diego sun.

Free compost from the dump helped to fill it. I planted three types of dwarf citrus, three tomatoes on the sunny west end, strawberries, one grape, one raspberry, marigolds and pansies for color.

On the first level up the avocado tree is doing great, and my first bunch of bananas is hanging out over the lawn. A lemon tree produced a bounty this year too, many of which I gave to my laborers with thanks.

I have one more planting bed to put up on that level, then someday more terraces up on the hill. I have a big yard, but it's all upward. A level spot feels like a breeze. Plus, it's cool to grow stuff you can eat.

 

[kbasa]

Milo's enjoying the yard, now that it's been in a year.

 

[kbasa]

 

[burnszilla]

do those chairs have drainage holes?

 

[kbasa]

do those chairs have drainage holes?

I have to go out once in a while and poke them with a stick to clear them. The loquat drops all kinds of debris on them.

 

[bob_m]

Plant collector

The Fawn lily is the yellow one. This is an Oregon native of remarkable grace. The chocolate trillium is a subtle beauty of garden origin.

 

[bob_m]

Trillium

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