Useful Border

It is looking a little overgrown in this pre-pruned, winter photo (taken Feb. 14), but this border along the driveway used to be plain lawn two years ago (the large shrubs in the background are very old buxus and camelia plants).
Now the area serves a variety of purposes with lavender (2 different types), leeks, rosemary, strawberries, korean mint agastache rugosa (good for tea and bees love the flowers), hollyhocks (good for petal tea).
No mowing required and most of the plants are drought tolerant.

Swale Progress

This photo was taken in mid-February. Fava Beans & daikon have a good start and leaves are building up. The plant in the foreground is a Pineapple Guava, Feijoa sellowiana. It is an evergreen plant with glossy green leaves that are muted green on the undersides. The plant grows about 15 feet and makes edible fruits. I planted five in this area. The planting of mixed evergreen and deciduous (2 ginkgo trees) will offer some privacy from the street (lots of dog walkers & joggers go past) and it eventually act as a windbreak. Across the street is an empty field and an orchard, so we get lots of dust when they mow the field and orchard alleys.
Our entire lawn will eventually be replaced with more useful plants.
See earlier posts swale progress and planning a swale for comparison.

Update: April 1, 2009 photo of swale:
Blooming Daikon!

Backyard in Late March

Chicken house (in progress) in the far corner, new supports for a hops tunnel over by the ladder.
The yellow flowers are calendula (foreground) and collards blooming (background).
Over to the left, white flowers are daikon radishes that were planted in the fall. Bare paths need mulch, I'm working on it. That brown stick in front of the collards on the left (look for a white plastic plant tag at its base) is a saijo persimmon tree I planted bareroot. It started leafing out about a week after this photo was taken. In fact, everyday the leaf cover noticeably increases.

Budding Grapes

The grapes are starting to push out leaves.