lettuce and herbs....

This basil was from the farmers market- we transplanted it. Although it looks nice here, we ended up pulling it out because Meg tried to cook with it and it was disgusting.

little herb patch- thyme, cilantro, sage, parsley & dill.

Here's the plants I bought at ACE before they went in the ground.

that's some good dirt.

lettuce patch. From the back: Romaine, butter lettuce, arugula, spinach in the front row (not pictured.)

planted herbs and poppies in the cinder blocks.

lavender by the door.

Peas...

borrowed a staple gun from Gino to put up the trellis netting for the peas to climb.

Strawberries!

This is the garden gate. I finished putting the mulch up to the door, but had ran out when I took this photo.

Planted six strawberry plants in these cinder blocks- they're pictured above as you enter the gate. Apparently strawberries like to grow in pots.

Put a pot under the table...

put a strawberry in it. Strawberries grow year round here.

Tips for growing strawberries...

• Bees carry more pollen to strawberry blossoms than the wind- so try to attract bees to your garden. more pollen= bigger berries.
• Strawberries should not be planted where tomatoes, eggplant raspberries or potatoes have grown since these plants can harbor verticillium- a bad disease for strawberries.
• They need good drainage, sun and prefer sandy, nutrient rich soil
• All varieties of strawberries have the same care/planting procedure but vary in sweetness and harvest time. A few of the best-tasting, disease-resistant June bearers are "earligrow," "tristar," and "jewel."
• If you're planting them as perennials pinch off all the flowers and runners the first year- this will ensure your berries develop a good root system.

Lanterns.

The garden lantern idea is from Apartment Therapy (http://www.apartmentherapy.com/) a great blog about home design. Meg found these mason jars at the Junk Store in Carp.

Loop the wire around the top and make a hook.

Fill partway with sand and drop a tea light inside. This sand is kind of special because it's from Hammonds, my favorite place to be in Santa Barbara.

This is a lame picture because they look much better when its dark, they're lit and you're actually there. We had a big garden feast- we lit all the lanterns, roasted a chicken, pulled out all the tables and improvised seating we could find. There was plenty of friends and even more food and the whole affair wouldn't have been nearly as magical or possible without the lanterns.

Garden Improvements

still a mess- green boards for raised beds. moved the stone path. installing bender board....

i love mulch- it's instant gratification.

mulching the dust bowl.

got a spiffy hose hanger

Meg and Justin whacking away at the bender boards.

Garbage bags for under the mulch to keep the weeds down. Thank goodness we did that because after the big rains the backyard looked like a lawn- it was so green and weedy. However, where we laid down the garbage bags there was only the occasional weed that managed to sprout up through one of the drainage holes we poked.

SURF rack.

materials... getting started.

taping off stripes... which wasn't as clean and effective as I had imagined.

paint job.

installation. Gino- our landlord put the silver piece in for extra support.

the blue rack will sit below this one... I'm going to wait and install it when I get my new board.

we have more bikes than surfboards.

I've been wanting to make a surf rack for awhile now. Even though my board is old and crappy- I still love it and want to take care of it. I'm getting a new board soon- so the second blue rack will go underneath this one. I spent a lot of time painting the wooden sticks- and figured it was a waste of time, but they're actually pretty noticeable. Very happy my board now has a home and doesn't have to take up our much needed ground space.

ROSE...

this is Rose- the garden queen.

after meeting with Rose and compiling ideas between the three of us- I drew a sketch to visualize what we talked about.

Tips from Rose...

I met Rose through my friend Lannie. Her name suits her very well- she is lovely and a true garden encyclopedia!  She came by to assist in some of the preliminary planning and also answer a bunch of our questions....

Here's some tips she gave as well as what's going down in the ground.

• Beans are a natural nitrogen fixer for the soil- they grow well on tomato cages
• Garlic and onions are good things to have in your garden- their smell keeps bad bugs and grubs away
• You might as well buy cocoa mulch- it smells like chocolate
• You can use newspaper as mulch
• Raccoons hate having their feet tangled. Since we have coons we're going to put trellis netting on the top of our fence to keep them out. They will make a mess of your garden in search of grubs in the soil not veggies to eat.
• Plant an already sprouting tomato plant very deep into the soil- sink at least 1/4 down.
• Summer plants don't like getting their leaves wet, water at the base (a watering mat from weedfreegarden.com is probably the most water conservative, efficient and easy way.) Winter plants don't mind so much, they're use to getting rained on from above.
• Don't plant everything all at once- plant in succession so you neither feast nor famine. 
• Fish fertilizer, compost and iron and zinc supplements will get your soil rich and ready

August is a harvest month so we will use the time to get our soil ready, put up our trellis netting, and construct our raised bed. We'll start planting in September. Since we're entering cool season (September to May) here's our list of things that prefer that time of the year.

• beets, lettuces, chard (easy to plant by seed,) peas, broccoli, asian greens, spinach, cilantrol, brussel sprouts, onions
  

garden spasm...

Our first Sunday of clearing the lot, I asked our landlord Gino for a pick axe. He unveiled this tool heaven thats available for all the cottages in Casalino Court- it runs on the honor system. I ran back to Brittany and Meg to tell them about the gold mine I"d just discovered- we all trotted back over and spent some time admiring and handling all the cool tools.

this is an avocado picker for the monster of an avocado tree nearby. 

Meg and I cut down the lettuce and are planning to rip it all out- it's too hot right now. Lettuce likes less sun.

already growing tomato plants and cages- that have been over-watered by us.

Here's a bunch of seeds leftover from Jake and James (former tenants.) It's too bad we left them in the sun because now they're useless- they should be stored in ziplocs in the freezer.

This is our front yard- we'll get to it eventually. You'd think you work front to back, but in this case we're going back to front. We both hate that purple bucket.

We're thinking of planting herbs in these cinder blocks. When summer comes again possibly some peppers, strawberries and tomatoes as well since they like to be drained.

garden feet...

I didn't think I would start blogging again until I either went on another long trip or had a family of my own. However; recently I started missing blogging and decided that even if I'm not traveling I'm encountering interesting things, places and ideas. I find myself often whining how I never have enough time to craft or create these days and then recently I came to the realization that even though I don't have tv, I do spend an adequate amount of time "dinkin" around on the internet. It may seem ironic- since blogging involves being online, but my hope is that blogging again will motivate me to make space for creativity. 

When my roomate Meaghan and I recently based most of our decision to move a block up the street due to the allure of our very own backyard, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get going on projects again and track the evolution of our very own garden. Growing up my mom always reminded me that gardening is often romanticized and really more about the back breaking, sun-blistering labor called "weeding." I have a vivid summer memory of helping her fulfill her weekly weeding duties at the local COOP- one of the best alternatives to reaping the benefits of a plentiful garden with minimal work. I was assigned to picking the potato bugs off endless rows of plants under the humid, unforgiving Connecticut sun and anxiously tapping the side of the bucket so the little devils wouldn't escape.  Then and there I realized what my mom was talking about and for a long time I just decided the truth of the matter was that although gardening sounded good in my head, it really wasn't all that pleasant in reality. Since then I grew up and moved to Santa Barbara- the growing season is endless, I have a small, manageable and sunny backyard, I like cooking and am an avid environmentalist. I think learning to grow your own food is important, economical and pretty hip. Thanks to my mom I'm mentally prepared that a lot of work is involved- so here's our first attempt.