Spring is Bursting Out All Over

Well the warm weather sure has the plants confused. My apple trees started to bud 10 days after they were planted! The plants are starting to flower and growing like weeds - well, the weeds are growing, too.

This yard and the garden have only been in place a few months yet they are really beginning to take shape. The foot paths are in and covered with wood chips as mulch, the fruit trees seem happy and the rain water harvesting pieces are almost done.

I recently installed a new brick patio to help with the water harvesting into my rain garden and future home for my velvet mesquite tree. Now when I sit on the patio, I will actually be part of the gradens VS. sitting on the porch looking at the gardens.

The work is not completely done, yet I can see the end of the major components and then it will be time to plant a new garden and start all over again!

Look back to my earlier posts and you can see the journey and how much has been done - It hasn't been easy - but it sure is worth it!

Happy Digging, Doreen

AKA the Garden Goddess

www.down2earthgardens.com

Dreaming of Apple and Peach Pies!

I am so excited – in about three years I will be making apple and peach pies from the fruit off my new urban orchard! I can hardly wait!

That’s right – I planted the apple and peach trees in my front yard yesterday. I now am the proud momma of 2 Anna and 1 Dorset Golden apple and 2 Mid-Pride and 1 Florida Prince peach trees.

I planted them in two mini orchards with the apples in one large hole and the peaches in another. Thank goodness I had the help of a neighbor to dig the holes. I spent almost an hour on one hole before he showed up – and I wasn’t even done. And my soil was fairly moist and easy to dig! The apples are in the top right of the photo - they look like sticks! I also planted Iris bulbs under the apple trees to start my apple guild.

Here’s a photo of the peach trees all snug in their holes. They are just in front of the trellis with the Lady Banks Rose. The stepping stones lead up to them between the new vegetable bed and the desert tree mulch pit.

As we were planting them, I caught myself calling them my "babies" and "he" or "she" – I am pretty sure Art thought I was losing it from too much sun!

I pruned them myself after they were in the ground. I made sure the grafting node faced northeast (protects it from too much sun) and carefully cut off the broken branches and any that would eventually be in the path or which pointed in the wrong direction. (If a branch either points straight out or down, it will probably break under the weight of fruit).

I was hesitant to prune too much so I chose a light pruning. I will keep the trees height at about 8 feet so I can harvest them easily. There will be more opportunities to prune over the next few years.

My front yard is finally beginning to look like an edible yard. I am having gutters installed in about a week. One section will channel the water from the roof into the lowered garden bed where the apple trees live, providing them with rain water, which will supplement (and sometimes replace) the municipal water needed.

So I do feel like it is coming together, yet I still have several things to do before it gets too hot – plant a desert tree in the mulch pit, upgrade the irrigation system, build a shade structure for the first few summers and lay the bricks for the patio. Whew – sure feels like a lot – but I know it will all be worth it when it is done.

How’s your garden project coming?

Happy Digging, Doreen

For more gardening tips and resources visit www.down2earthgardens.com

Done Digging for Now!

Look - the garden beds are in! We did the final 5 hours of moving soil around – taking some out of the yard entirely (about 8 wheel barrows worth) and getting the beds shaped. This pic shows both planting areas – well there are really four planting areas.

At the top of the photo at the edge near the neighbors yard is a sunken bed the will help manage the water that runs off the north east corner of my roof. That water will help deep water the female Mulberry Tree (gives me berries in the spring) as well as the future mini apple orchard.

The bed below it is for the edible garden. I transplanted the salvia from the pots on the porch to create a perspective so my neighbors could see these are gardens, not mud pits!
I threw a mix of about 10 different kinds of flower and veggie seeds into the dirt which I had amended with really great organic mulch (from Ken Singh). Then I covered the seeds with more mulch and watered everything down really well with compost tea. The seeds have started to sprout (after about a week). I am really excited for them to turn into a riot of plants, all growing and blooming at different times.

Then this sunken ‘pit’ is to manage the water that runs off the porch roof (could be up to 200 gallons in a one inch rain!) and where I will plant a desert tree for shade for the house and the garden.



Now, I get to just sit back and water the beds and watch them for the next 30 days or so. Well, not really sit too much. I still have the brick edging to install and a brick patio, but I feel like the push is done to get the seeds into the ground so they could germinate.

I got it all done just 2 days before the Thanksgiving rain of ’08. It was great to see Mother Nature provide the water and then the sun.

This is not the end of my journey, just the beginning of new front yard adventures. I am already planning what to plant next spring!

Happy Digging,

Doreen Pollack
www.down2earthgardens.com

Earthworks in Progress

Two weeks ago, Ryan, Eika and I began to lay out the earthworks that will become the area where the rain water settles after it runs off the roof. These lower garden beds or sometimes called mulch pits are where I will plant the trees and the edible garden. When it rains the water will be channeled into these low spots and soak into my yard, watering the plants and staying in my lot instead of running into the street and the gutter.

We borrowed a roto tiller to loosen up the soil so we could dig it and move it around. The mulberry tree roots were close to the surface (they were getting water from the former lawn) and made tilling a challenge. The tiller jumped around a lot and had to be controlled. However, it really made digging much easier!

I wanted to be sure that I was creating the earthworks in the right size and location, so I had Ryan bring his Bunyip level, which is a tool made from clear hose used to measure the level of a piece of land over a distance.

Here’s a picture of Ryan and Erika using it to measure how much I needed to raise the soil level at the porch (where the soil had been eroded from rain runoff from the roof). I get about 200 gallons of water off the porch roof in a one-inch rain. I will use that water for the native shade tree I am planting to shade the front of the house from the morning sun. I am installing a brick patio at the base of the porch to help the water travel out to the tree and keep the soil in place.

Look at the great keyhole garden we created. See the path around it? The key hole design will allow me to reach into the garden to tend and harvest plants from all sides. Just above it in the photo where the hose is beginning to fill it with water, is another lowered bed for the future fruit trees. I will also plant some edibles around there as well. For now the mulberry tree will shade the new trees (to be planted in January) for at least the first year or so. Then I will trim back a large limb to bring in more sun and make room for the canopy of the fruit trees.

For now it is back to the sketch pad for me on what to do between the new brick patio and the side walk. The inspiration just hasn’t hit me yet – but I know it will. Plus I have lots of people to ask for their input.

Your feedback and ideas are always welcome. And if you ever want to come help me dig and design so you can learn how it’s done, just let me know!

Happy Digging,

Doreen
Garden Goddess
Down 2 Earth Gardens.com