My Garden, Two Thousand Fifteen

I have waited SOOOOOO long for this day but I don't think I realized just how much I would love having a yard and garden. I get lost out there. Truly. I go outside "just to get something" and don't come in for an hour or two because my radishes need attention or my lemon tree looks thirsty or there are strawberries to pick. Many call yard work a chore (and eventually I might get there), but right now I find so much joy watching something I do with my very own hands turn into something that is beautiful and that gives back. It's almost instantly gratifying because the fruit of my labor appears so quickly. I can't help but liken to to parenting except with gardening, it all happens in fast forward. I know that in both cases, more time and care invested equals better results. Because the visible "results" my parenting is still decades away, having a garden helps fulfill my longing for results, to see some progress. Sometimes I just need a little encouragement that what I doing really is doing something.

As you can see from the pictures above, my garden went CRAZY. I don't think the internet knows of the saga of how these raised beds came to be. Who knew having a garden would be SUCH AN ORDEAL!? Nothing says "Welcome to the Neighborhood" like a whole slew of neighbors whispering behind your back and polling each other about whether they think your beds are ugly or not instead of talking to you directly. Sigh. There was a lot of drama and a few tears and one very devastated Wanna-Be-Gardener but I pulled on my big girl panties, abided by the HOA's crazy requests and tried to be the "bigger" person and wrote the HOA board a kind letter, introducing them to our family (since I hadn't yet met any of them and I already seemed to be the enemy!) In the letter, I shared a bit of our story and journey to finally be in our long-dreamed-of home. I told them of my hopes and dreams for our yard and for our kids. 

Meanwhile, I rallied a crew of supportive neighbors and LOTS of photos of beautiful raised beds and went to our HOA meeting prepared to state my case: I am a mom and registered dietitian and it is of utmost importance that my kids know that food does not just come from the grocery store. Raised beds can be beautiful and I assured them that mine would be so. I told them that our backyard does not get year round sun and therefore the best plot for little garden was where lawn to the right of our driveway currently stood. I could go on but in the interest of brevity, you probably don't want to get me started....

I'll suffice it to say that I think they barked up the wrong tree. I may have appeared passive and easily-intimidated standing on my driveway when we first moved in, but they unleashed the mama bear in me. Having a garden was something I would not compromise. It was one of my top three priorities in home ownership and we'd carefully reviewed all the HOA bylaws in our neighborhood prior to moving in to ensure there wouldn't be any problems with doing so. (Gently and professionally of course!) I made it clear that the HOA that I do indeed have two legs to stand on and I knew it was not within their right to keep me from having a garden. I put my plans on hold and waited for nearly 2 months for them to do their HOA board thing and give me the official "ok" which was more of a Why-Don't-You-See-If-You-Can-Darken-The-Wood sort of thing than an true go ahead. I took it as good enough and by the end of the week, we'd dug out the grass, rerouted the sprinklers, installed the beds and brought in four pick up trucks full of dirt and compost.

Here is a picture of the grassy area before we install the beds. The lovely plastic black pots on the left served as my temporarily "garden" until they go me the "go ahead." You'll notice there is an existing bed (on the far right of the picture) with shrubs and a tree that help hide my beds from the road. 

The kids helped me with our "potted garden" which served multiple purposes - it allowed me a place to start some plants while also doubling as an eyesore I hoped would help win over the neighbors to just let me put the darn wood beds in.

This little mermaid also happens to be a watering goddess.

I am a rule follower of all rule followers and so if I am asked to "try and make the beds darker" I will most definitely "try and make the beds darker." I didn't want to paint or stain the wood as toxins could then leech into the soil so we tried a bunch of crazy aging tricks including mixtures of vinegar and steel wool, wine, coffee and soy sauce. In the end, the beds darkened a shade or so but I mostly only did it so that we could say we "tried." 

I had SO much fun mapping out the contents of my beds. I worked really hard to design something that would produce edibles but also look pretty to appease the neighbors. I grew a bit obsessive over it because they said at our HOA meeting that we would be granted a year-to-year "right" to continue having raised beds out front. If they look good one year, we can have another go the next year. If we let them go to pot, then we may lose our privilege. They also set a whole bunch of guidelines like no corn or sunflowers, no plants are to exceed 2 feet in height (ha!), no fencing or netting, no colored tomato cages, no more than 10% of your plant-able areas can be raised beds. The whole thing is a load of crap if you ask me but I'm just trying to lie low for a season now that I managed to ruffle so many feathers in such a short time. I will say that my tomatoes are about FOUR feet tall and I am slowing raising the height of my trellis for my pole beans and so far no one has shot me. 

I opted to do mostly starts this year since we weren't permitted to complete the project until the end of May. I went a bit nuts and we are enjoying so many fruits, vegetables and flowers. This year's plantings are as follows: 3 tomato plants, fennel, dill, tons of basil, 2 types of sage, 2 types of oregano 2 varieties of thyme, rosemary, lavender, Padron peppers, sweet gypsy peppers, some sort of spicy pepper that I can't recall offhand, pole beans, bush beans, swiss chard, butter lettuce, red leaf lettuce, golden beets, purple and nappa carrots, radishes, rhubarb, nasturiums, allisum, violas, calendula, zucchini, butternut squash, 2 varieties of cucumber, eggplant, dahlias, a meyer lemon tree, 5 blueberry bushes, 2 types of raspberries, a dwarf honeycrisp apple tree, a columnar apple tree, 2 types of kale, baby romaine, marigolds, red cabbage, strawberries, purple broccoli, crocosmia, a fig tree, lupine, black-eyed susans and TONS of other flowers.

With the exception of the fruit trees/bushes, most everything on that list fit in my four (4' x 7') raised beds. I have also take out my fair share of ornamental bushes (usually under the cover of night so I don't get in "trouble" by the HOA cops) and plugged the other stuff in around the yard. I told you I went a little crazy. You can see in the picture below what the beds looked light immediately after I planted. They have absolutely exploded since. :)

The final touch we added that was not pictured above were the pea gravel paths complete with stepping stones between the beds which allow just enough space for weeding and harvesting. I have promised the neighborhood that my beds will supply year-round beauty so the fall and winter will prove interested as I try my hand at some cooler season crops. Anyone with expertise in this area is welcome to comment! :)