Heirloom Plants
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Valentine’s in the Garden
A rainbow chard and parsley bouquet for Valentine’s Day Another gorgeous day in the garden today. I gave a chard bouquet to my friend Lara who has been so kind as to teach me piano over the last two months (I’ve progressed from the ‘clink clink’ stage to the two-handed ‘clink-clink-CLINK’ stage. Lara deserves chard!). My best Valentine’s was receiving my box of organic seeds from Botanical Interests. Yep, ordered too many again. At least it won’t make me fat.
Great seeds! Can’t wait to plant! It was warm enough for shorts, and since my neighbors can’t see me, I indulged for awhile.
Shorts on Valentine’s Day! (No I’m not THAT short, and go figure what my hand is doing to my hat!) At the end of December I had planted two flats of seeds and stuck them in the greenhouse; one had winter veggies and the other native plants.
Bladderpod and leeks. A couple of weeks ago I was telling my daughter in college that only one of each had come up so far. She pointed out that the two were curiously linked: bladderpod and leeks! It seems even my garden is a comedian. Today I transplanted the bladderpod into larger containers.
Transplanted bladderpods. Bladderpod (Isomeris arborea) is a true California native living at home in the desert or at the coast and usually in the worst soils. It flowers most of the year even in drought conditions, providing nectar for pollinators and hummingbirds. The plant doesn’t smell so great, but it has wonderful balloon-like pods that rattle when dry. It is a fantastic addition to gardens.
In planting seeds in flats it always looks as if roots are shallow until you take the plant up and find a healthy and sometimes long root system. Don’t let the top growth make you think that the roots aren’t developed.
The root ball of this little bladderpod seedling is healthy and full. No more natives are showing their faces in the flat yet, but they have their own schedule and I’ll continue to watch the flat for signs. Just as animals (including humans) respond to circadian rhythms with the 24/hour sleep/wake cycle, plant growth is cued in not only by warmth, but by length of daylight hours. For plants it is called photoperiodicity. You can casually throw that into a conversation over the dinner table tonight and see if anyone notices. A plant’s response to daylight length is called photoperiodic. There is much more to this, and you can read up on it here. So to make a short story longer, I don’t manipulate the light in the greenhouse so I wait longer time than recommended for seeds to sprout just in case they really don’t want to get out of bed yet. I can empathize.
Little celery and parsnip sprouts and leggy leeks that need transplanting, In the veggie flat celery and parsnips have decided to sprout so I’ll transplant them out in a week or two.
Elsewhere in the garden the nitrogen-fixers are working away.
Pea ready to grab onto a bamboo support pole. Fava beans have sprouted from leftover seed from last year and they are already in bloom.
Bees love the blooming favas. The weather is so beautiful that I want to plant the summer veggies… I’m yearning for tomatoes! I will be good and wait a few more weeks until all chance of frost is gone (hopefully the weather won’t be too crazy and frost in March!). Then, look out! Seeds everywhere! And yes, by popular demand I will write about trashcan potatoes.
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Southern California Permaculture Convergence! Be there!
Southern California Permaculture Convergence If you are interested in any aspect of permaculture, such as organic gardening, herbs, planting native plants, aquaponics, natural ponds, beekeeping, keeping chickens, and so much more, then you must come to the Southern California Permaculture Convergence. It happens on March 9th and 10th at the Sky Mountain Institute in Escondido. The keynote speaker will be Paul Wheaton, lecturer and permaculturalist extraordinaire of www.permies.com fame. Oh, and I’ll be one of the many speakers as well (cough cough). The Early Bird special of only $50 for both days ends at the end of January, and then the price will rise, so buy your tickets now!
Also, for a full-on demonstration of taking bare land and creating a permaculture garden, there will be a three-day intensive class taught by Paul Wheaton on site the three days prior to the Convergence.
You can read about the convergence here at the official website, which will give you the link perm.eventbrite.com where you may purchase tickets. Also visit the SD Permaculture Meetup page to see all the free workshops that happen monthly all over San Diego.
This convergence is such a deal, you really shouldn’t miss it! And such a bargain, too. One of the best things I find that come out of these convergences is the exchange of ideas and networking among the attendees, and all the practical information you can take home and use right away. One of the largest parts of permaculture is building community, which means sharing with and assisting others.
Really. Don’t miss this! Tell your friends!
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Fun Vegetables
A small green zebra, not quite ripe In a past post I related how my mother had witnessed a woman staring hands-on-hips at the produce selection in a grocery store and exclaiming, “I wish they’d come up with some new vegetables!” How true is that? How many ways can you cook the limited offerings in your average supermarket produce section without going out of your mind? That’s where a trip to an ethnic grocery store can be a life-saver. Or, plant some fun new varieties in your garden.
Thanks to Baker Creek Heirloom (Organic) Seeds and their fantastic catalog, I was spoiled for choice. I also buy a lot from Botanical Interests , an organic seed company which has packets for sale in stores such as my neighborhood Joe’s Hardware. Their wildflower seed mixtures are highlights of my garden and attract birds, butterflies and other insects. Here are some newbies I tried this year, and the keepers:
Zucchino Rampicante : an heirloom zucchini that grows on a vine. This squash grows curled or straight on long vines that need support. The fresh squash can be used like zucchini, but are firmer and have a mild butternut flavor that goes well with everything. I am completely in love with the taste of these.
Some zucchinos are straight, some follow their own tune PLUS: if you leave the squash on the vine, it grows huge and unlike those monsterous zucchini clubs that are practically inedible and unwanted, zucchino then hardens and you can store it and use it as a winter squash! How marvelous and unwasteful is that! Zucchini without the pressure. No more alienating your neighbors and friends with excess squash.
Zucchino shapes are marvelous Green Zebra Tomato :a large, lime-green striped tomato that develops a slight yellowish tinge between the stripes when ripe. These gorgeous tomatoes are rich and slightly tart, but without heavy acid. Marvelous on a open-faced sandwich or in a caprese salad to show off the color inside.
Green Zebra: beautiful inside Thai #2 Red Seeded Long Bean: The seeds were given to me by the woman who introduced me to Baker Creek Seeds, and who built my chicken and quail coops. I planted the seeds by stakes that turned out to be too short for the vines.
Long beans growing very long. However, these beautiful flowers eventually came, followed by spectacularly long thin green beans two feet long! One bean per person! (Just about, anyway). They are good stir-fried. I haven’t tried to tempura one yet, but its tempting.
Six long beans slice up to a serving for two! Mortgage Lifter Tomato : Now THESE are the ultimate sandwich tomato. These heavy pink-red fruits have mostly meaty insides and have an incredible savory flavor. I have found my favorite red tomato. Beefstake has nothing on this baby. It also has a cool name.
Mortgage Lifter is very meaty and savory 
Rice Blue Bonnet: the jury is still out on this one. This is a dry-land rice. I didn’t thin it when I should have, so it is growing in clumps and hasn’t progressed beyond the thin leaves. My fault. It is growing and would probably be successful if I handle it right.
Basil Custom Blend HEIRLOOM Seeds : I planted a row and have regular and purple basil, lime basil, and cinnamon basil (one of my favorite scents). Today I used the regular and purple chopped over an open-faced tomato sandwich, and my daughter added leaves from the other two to a fruit salad.
Sesame, Light Seeded : Beautifully flowered plants with seed pods full of sesame seeds! How great is that?
Sesame pods. Broad Windsor Fava Bean : I planted a lot of legumes to help build the soil (they set nitrogen), and tried fava beans this year. They grow like crazy, take a lot of neglect, and produce a fantastic protein source in the form of a tasty bean. They are a little trouble to shell, but well worth it. I wrote about favas here.
Blue Potatoes: These I started several years ago from an organic blue potato I bought at a grocery store. Since there are usually some small tubers left in the soil, I have volunteers sprouting every year. These blue potatoes – whatever their true variety is – are a lovely purplish blue outside, with a lovely purple center as well. They aren’t starchy, but are best used like red potatoes. Very fun.
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What’s Happening in the July Garden
A banana squash stealthily growing huge 
An apricot tree with fava beans, squash, herbs, artichokes, and tomatoes 
The withy hide growing beautifully 
Kabocha and delicata squash on the ground, zucchino rampicante on the trellis, Christmas beans, favas, Swiss chard and medicinal plants around a small avocado tree 
Favas: great for the soil, great for the dinnerplate 
Heirloom tomatoes. Why do they all come ripe at the same time? 
Sugar pumpkins are ripe already in the Mediterranean guild. Also figs, paste tomato, dill, fennel, thyme, pickling cucumbers and artichoke. 
Plant guilds of squash, beans, flowers, etc. are flourishing. 
Heirloom green melons hiding from the hot sun. 
By now the wild buckwheat has dried up, which starves the bees. But not here. 
Matilija and Flanders poppies over banana squash 
Monarchs are so plentiful this year that we have to take pains to avoid them. 
Wildflowers host an incredible diversity of insects 
Dill flowers looking like a spectacular firework 
In a balanced wildlife habitat, bunnys do little harm 
All five girls waiting for treats in the Fowl Fortress 
Pumpkins, bananas, bamboo and much more by fescue paths. 
Fresh grape leaves, dill and garlic from the garden for the pickles 
Hot weather? Must be canning season! Pickled cucumbers, zucchino and onions, and peach pit and peel jelly. 
Very large yellow waterlilies 
Native salt heliotrope by the big pond. 
Volunteer tomato in the shade of the Nest, by palm tree bench. 
Wisteria, grapes and zerpheranthum lilies around the Nest 
Blooming banana 
Quail eggs! 
Double heirloom hollyhock 
Egyptian lilies 
Fourth of July rose celebrating the holiday You May Also Like
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Integrated Gardening
Wildflowers, tasty borage, milkweed for the Monarch butterflies, and herbs. There are still those who prefer to have all their plants separate, each plant type confined to its own space. Vegetables should definitely not be allowed in the flower garden; herbs may be there only if more ornamental than useful, but don’t ever mix desert, country cottage or rose gardens together. That style of design is a matter of preference, and many gardens following those rules are very beautiful. They are usually also high maintenance, heavily fertilized, watered and sprayed, with poison set out for rodents.
A breadseed poppy is emerging in the sage. The blending of useful and ornamental plants is certainly not a new idea, and yet it isn’t often done. When it is, gardeners should find that the loss rate of plants to pests is quite low, and the yield of the vegetables is high.
Onions, native mallow, tarragon and sweet potatoes under a white fringe tree. Why is this? For one thing, planting mixed seeds which include ornamentals, herbs and vegetables masks the scent of the most yummy plants from its preditors. There aren’t rows of the same type of plant for the insects to find. Since different plants take up different nutrients from the soil, the soil isn’t depleted of one particular nutrient, so mixed plantings usually make for healthier and tastier plants.
My first tomatoes of the season, off of a volunteer along the pathway. Oh so yum! Wildflowers with cilantro, dill and basil not only are more successful and appealing to look at, but if let go to flower are excellent pollen sources for bees.
Young parsley, California poppy, cilantro and dill by rain lilies. Allowing desirable plants to reseed not only saves you money, but makes the new plant hardy and adapted for your particular garden.
Volunteers are welcome, such as this squash. Of course mixing plants is what an edible forest garden is all about, although the mixing isn’t random. Each plant serves a purpose. I use fava beans as a great edible nitrogen-fixer, along with other beans, peas, sweet peas, lupine, and nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs. Artichokes grow quite large, and their leaves when cut and left on the ground make superb compost, as do the leaves of comfrey. Artichoke leaves keep growing back, and the plant will produce many very yummy artichokes. (Artichoke hint: wipe Vaseline around the stem below the bud to keep ants and earwigs from finding their way between the leaves.)
Artichoke and fava beans beneath an apricot tree. Melons and squash make an incredible ground cover during the hottest months. Their large leaves shade the soil surface and block evaporation. Remember that raccoons aren’t supposed to like going through squash vines, so plant them around your corn.
Green melon and corn by a variegated lemon (Sophie the dog by the car). Integrating your plants, especially when following the edible food forest guidelines, helps increase soil fertility (different plants remove different things from the soil). Mostly this is done by keeping the soil a more moist and inviting habitat for soil microbes and worms, but also by dropping their leaves which become mulch.
A guild: kabocha squash, heirloom squash and gourd (on wire) with onions interplanted to keep seedlings safe, along with something else that I don't remember planting, wildflowers, artichoke (under the milk carton for bunny protection), scented geraniums, lavender, borage, orgeano, sweet potatoes (not up yet), cowpeas, fava beans and Swiss chard by a small avocado tree. You May Also Like
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Kohlrabi: A New (Old) Vegetable
Cute hot air balloon veggie Once, my mother came home from the grocery store and was laughing about a woman who stood hands on hips in front of the produce section and announced, “I wish they’d come up with a new vegetable!”
I entirely sympathize.
The whole plant is edible! This year I planted a vegetable that I hadn’t grown, and perhaps had never eaten before. Kohlrabi. It certainly isn’t new; its been mentioned since Roman times and used on many continents. But it was new to me. The name is German, and it can be found in (East) Indian, Italian, French as well as Asian cuisine. It is very low in calories, yet very high in fiber, potassium and other vitamins and minerals.
It also is very cool looking. You can either imagine an alien, or a hot air balloon. The entire plant is edible, and can be eaten raw.
Peel the outer layer of older bulbs. When young, the leaves, stems and bulbous base can just be munched on, chopped up in salads, grated for slaw, used like jicama for dips, stir-fried, and even barbecued. When older the leafy parts should be separated from the tougher stems, like older chard leaves. The base should then be peeled before use.
The flavor is very mild, and is kind of turnip-radish-broccoli tasting. There are two types, a purple and a light green. I grew the light green, but have read that the purple variety is sweeter. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but I may try that next year.
I braised and steamed the leaves, ate some of the bulb raw and stir-fried the rest. It was tasty. It was cute. It was fun to say. It was NEW.
Stir-fried kohlrabi with sesame oil and seeds, served with brown rice noodles and fresh orange. And, if you want to send a grocery store checker into confusion and hold up the line, buy some kohlrabi. They’ll have no idea.
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Earth Day at Finch Frolic
Snowy egret hunting. "Get the bullfrogs!" In celebration of Earth Day, I worked in the garden. You can stop laughing now. Yes, I know that I work in the garden nearly every day, and then spend time not volunteering or exercising, recovering from working in the garden. It was an overcast day, which beach-bound teenagers probably cursed, but I found perfect for working outside.
Roses in bloom everywhere. I had a visitor wishing me a Happy Earth Day.
Do you notice anything about this wreath? This is an alligator lizard.
"Hello!" Hopefully he enjoyed the ride as I opened and closed the door several times to photograph him.
Alligator lizard from inside. Among other things today, I sifted compost. I had moved my compost bin, and this good compost was still on the ground from where it had been.
Sifting compost through a screen. I put it into a new raised (and wire-lined) bed.
Adding sifted compost to the bed, which has been dusted with organic non-animal based fertilizer. Then I planted two rows of rice in it. Yes, rice. It is an heirloom variety from Baker Creek Organic Heirloom Seeds (http://rareseeds.com/rice-blue-bonnet.html), and it doesn’t need to stand in water to grow. Just something new and fun to try out.
The rubber snake guards a freshly planted bed of rice. I’m also growing red seeded asparagus beans, the seeds of which were given to me by the woman who made the quail house. She also introduced me to Baker Creek, and for that I’m sincerely indebted. (http://rareseeds.com/red-seeded-asparagus-bean.html .)
Spinach, carrots, edamame, sesame, Kentucky pole beans, endive and tomatoes are finally coming up. The other veggie beds are finally sprouting, now that the evenings have warmed up.
Collards and carrots, transplanted from another bed and doing well. 
An incredible parsley setting seed, peas, parsnips, spinach, rhubarb, carrots and beans. 
Castor bean seeds were in the mushroom compost, and I'm pulling them quickly. Here are a few views from other areas of the garden. Three weeds until the AAUW Garden Tour. Yikes!
General Mischief waiting near the quail house for dinner. The hose connects to the 700 gallons of cootie water (compost tea) and is irrigating native plants. 
A happy harvest. Strawberries and eggs. I'm freezing the berries for later to make jam. 
Lamb's Ear, whitebud, passionfruit and Bermuda grass 
Stunning blue iris in the pond. 
Fringe tree in bloom. 
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Finishing Flagstone
The task this morning: move and place flagstone and dirt. Today I finished cleaning up the disaster that I made when I dug out my upper pond (see Reponding). There have been piles of dirt, stacks of flagstones and rocks, and mess everywhere for two months too many. The reponding project is still not a complete success as the decomposed granite mixed with clay soil allows seepage in the pond. I have to keep filling it up, but at least it is with well water, and eventually I believe it will seal.
My faithful hound growing bored waiting for me past the heirloom daffodils. I didn’t want or need the same flagstone surround that I previously had holding down and covering the pond liner. I wanted a more natural look, but yet I had all this flagstone! So I completed the walkway around the pond, adding some overhanging flagstone under which the Pacific Chorus frogs may hide. One jumped out indignantly when I moved a rock. I did a little planting, and Jacob began to plant aquatic plants now that the season is beginning and transplants are possible. I found that the pond was full of mosquito larvae, and much to my surprise and joy, tadpoles! More mosquito fish were added. They are now lolling around groaning and holding their fishy stomachs with all the larvae they have (and still have to) eat.
Moist soil and a tangle of flowers and weeds... magical. I made flagstone stairs through the overgrown embankment, for access to the bird feeders. The grass, borage, daffodils, weeds and wildflowers are so dense in there that as I was kneeling in the moist dark soil I felt as if I were in a Beatrix Potter book, or some other English garden story. It was magical and redolent of springtime.
A pathway up through an English children's story. When I finally placed or stored all the flagstone, I had great piles of dirt to contend with. Some I carried in buckets over to the side yard where I’d placed some flagstones. That got old pretty fast. I only carried them full twice, then only filled them 3/4 full for the rest of the trips. My arms are a little longer now. I really didn’t want to haul wagonfulls of dirt down to the lower property again, so I stood and thought about what I could do. Then I spotted leftover scalloped edging bricks and decided to use them and the soil to make another garden bed. Why not? I can always take it out. It sure beat hauling all that dirt out of there this afternoon!
Have extra dirt and edgers? Make a new bed! Finally I was able to plant some herbs and flowers I’d purchased for this area. Violas and violets, two of my favorites! I’ll plant seeds another day. I’m hoping all this newly moved dirt won’t wash into the pond when we have our predicted heavy rain this weekend. Maybe I’ll cover the new beds, just in case.
Violets and violas... big favs. I watered everything in, which caused mud to scum up the newly swept flagstones (grrr!), filled the bird feeders (it is Project Feederwatch count days Thurs. and Fri.), and closed the gate on this project (for now!). Once again, I shall have no trouble getting to sleep, but probably some trouble getting up in the morning!
A touch of flagstone and rock; plants will fill in. 
Finished! -
Valentine Flowers
Freesia, one of my favorite flower scents. Although I don’t really like Valentine’s Day, I do like the fact that spring starts here in San Diego County in February. So to celebrate the day and the season, I thought I’d post photos of some new blooms that I took after our brief… and all too rare… rainstorm today.
Cyclamen and freesia. This cyclamen had been a gift from my good friend Eileen several years ago, and every year it never fails to glow.
Strawflowers. These bright gold beauties are left overs from seed mixtures I planted at the end of last summer. Borage is the big-leafed plant behind, also in bloom.
Queen Anne's Double Jonquil bud (heirloom). Over my thirteen years at this house I’ve collected heirloom bulbs and heirloom roses, even during the years when I really couldn’t afford to spend twenty dollars on something frivolous. Heirloom plants make me happy, and make me feel as if I’m contributing to the conservation of forgotten plants.
Ice Follies heirloom daffodil I buy all my heirloom bulbs from Old House Gardens (www.oldhousegardens.com). Visit them online, order a print catalog and indulge in the humor, the history and the sheer beauty of what this small company offers.
Saint Keverne heirloom daffodil. I have, as you might have guessed, a great fondness for daffodils. That includes jonquils and narcissus, of course. They are such happy, homely flowers; beautiful in their unusual form, and such a bright harbinger of spring! I’ve planted cheaper, non-heirloom daffs all around trees throughout my gardens and along my driveway. The heirloom ones I have separated in my front yard.
Louise de Coligny heirloom daffodil. We don’t have many native bulbs in Southern California. That is logical, since we don’t have severe winters and plants never had to store their resources underground, protected from snow and ice. Many of our flower seeds, such as those of California poppies, need light to germinate and are best sown right on the ground. So bulbs such as my lovely daffodils don’t quite fit into a native garden, but instead remind me of colder climates. Also, gophers won’t eat the poisonous daffodil bulbs!
California redbud tree Several trees are breaking out in bloom; the crabapples around the pond, several apple trees, a plum, and this California redbud. I’m not thrilled about redbuds, but they do offer spring flower color, nice summer foliage, and fall color. What I like best about them is that they are nitrogen fixers, and improve the soil all around their roots.
Calla lily Far too early for Easter, this Calla Lily appeared this week and made me remember my mother, who always bought them for spring. Mom’s favorite color was white, and although not her favorite flower (which was the orchid), the Calla lily seems the most like her: clean lines, unique shape and the glowing whiteness of sophistication.
Single heirloom freesia. Freesia is one of my favorite flower scents. It is fresh and not cloying or heavy. My other very favorite scents are yellow primrose (only the yellow ones have a fragrance!) and sweet violets (my favorite flower). And, of course, roses. The form that the freesia flower stalk takes, almost serpentile, adds so much to a garden’s shape. I like the yellow freesia the best, and they are also the most fragrant.
Ivy Geranium Growing up, I used to hate geraniums. Martha Washington and ivy geraniums covered the embankment of the backyard of the tract house we lived in in Carlsbad, CA. Every time a ball was lost in it, or one of our Shelties ran through them, the obnoxious smell of the geranium leaves was overwhelming to me. As I matured, however, I found out what a reliable friend geraniums can be. They take so much abuse and yet bloom all year ’round. The bright and dark reds are stunning and add just the right touch to other color combinations. I still prefer the less smelly vining ivy geraniums over the big-leaved Martha Washington varieties, and I let them clamber over my chain link fence, turning an eyesore into a trellis for beauty.
I hope my bouquet of flowers makes you happy. Happy Valentine’s Day!
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Garden’s One Year Anniversary
Happy Anniversary! One year ago on Feb. 1, 2011, I signed a contract with landscape architect Roger Boddaert (760-728-4297) to create a permaculture garden. For twelve years I’ve had this sloping property that was covered in weeds and worthless Washingtonia palms. Not only do these 2 acres slope down to a barranca, but it was filled in due to catching all the rainwater that runs from the street and properties above. I have to give credit to friend Gary B., who brought up the subject of permaculture in a conversation the year before. I’d heard the term and thought I knew what it was about, but months later when I was researching what to do with my property I remembered him mentioning it, and looked it up. I found what I was looking for. I’ve been an organic gardener for many years, have owned chickens for their eggs, have refused to till the soil so as not to kill microbes, have worked naturally with animals and plants, have created habitat, composted, recycled, collected rainwater… and all of that was permaculture. And so much more. How can one not be attracted to the term Food Forest? Certainly not a foodie and gardener like myself.
What happened on the property starting the week of Feb. 1 for the next six months altered the land so that it is truly two acres of habitat. It is useful, it is natural, and it is beautiful. Roger’s team led by Juan built beautiful walls of urbanite, planted and hauled, worked in scorching sun and frosty mornings and made what was dreamed into reality. An integral part of the garden has been diverting the water from erosion points and into rain catchment basins and natural ponds, and that is where Aart DeVos and Jacob Hatch of Aquascape (760-917-7457) came in. They also installed the irrigation. Dan Barnes did the rough and the precise tractor work (760-731-0985) and I can’t recommend his experience and skill enough. Fain Drilling dug the well (760-522-7419) and the wonderful sheds were built by Quality Sheds of Menifee (http://www.socalsheds.com) .
Along with some volunteer help from Jacob, I am the sole caretaker of the property. I am planning the plant guilds, weeding, improving soil, moving problem plants and trees and, did I mention, weed? Oh yes, then there is weeding. On Saturday May 12th, the garden will be on the Garden Tour of the Association of University Women of Fallbrook, and hopefully many people will be inspired to go organic, to create habitat, conserve water and grow extra food for the Fallbrook Food Pantry. We’ve come a long way, baby!
The following photos are comparisons between the precise location last year at this time, and today.
The property last February. 
The property today. 
Sophie and General loved all the excitement. 
They love the new gardens and pond even more. 
My veggie beds with the old sheds behind. 
My veggie beds with the new sheds and greenhouse behind. 
Where the big sheds were: everything usable was reused. 
New sheds that aren’t a safety hazard, and the greenhouse. 
The lower area with shed debris (lots of mowing area!). 
Hey, there are ponds there now! 
Not much for the neighbors to look at. 
Quite a lot for the neighbors to look at! 
Access to the old oak was hazardous. 
Palm stairs lead past the oak to a birding area. 
Stonefruit were old when I moved in. 
New stonefruit adorn what is now the Bee Garden. 
An erosion area sloping down to the barranca. 
Water won’t flow through here anymore. 
Lots of mowing and palm frond removal. 
Not so anymore. 
Horrible looking debris failed to hold back the embankment. 
Palms were used to stabilize the new paths and camoflage the supports. 
Old unstable stairs led to washout areas. 
New railings, stairs and urbanite retaining walls lead to another viewing area. 
The view from my balcony. Part of the old shed remains. 
Hey, there’s a pond there! You May Also Like
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