Feijoa in bloom - Edible flowers

Feijoa sellowiana in bloom. This is the first feijoa I planted in the front yard. Four other followed with the expansion of the swale system. This plant only had two blossoms last year. Now it is covered in blossoms and flower buds. The outer petals of the flowers are sweet and slightly fleshy. I wonder if any fruit will form.

Ginkgo - update

The ginkgo tree has fully leafed out and is sending up lovely new growth. The leaves toward the top of the tree are very large and split rather deeply.

Useful Border - update

Our first 100+ degree Fahrenheit day of the year was today. The useful border I wrote about a back in March is now looking a little fuller. The leeks have sent up their flower heads, one of them taller than I (170 cm) and will start blooming soon. The hollyhocks have just started to bloom, attracting carpenter bees, among other pollinators. The English lavender is looking perfect, while the french lavender appears a little unruly.

The Importance of Observation

It is important to have a nice shady spot from which to observe the garden progress, or lack thereof.
The hammock (an essential tool for Permaculture) is sited under a canopy of American persimmon (the multi-stemmed tree in the photo), almond, and oak trees. A very old grapevine climbs these trees and makes a lovely, cool, and shaded habitat for various animals in the garden.
Birds eat many of the small, dark grapes in the late summer, and there are plenty left for putting up as grape juice.

A guild of sorts

This selection of plants happened to come together in a rather unplanned way. Leeks, chard, borage, fig, parsley, clover, and alpine strawberries. I also grew daikon and fava beans as cover crops. I feel like something is missing from this guild, but I am not sure what it is. This area is located near the oaks and the plants benefit from the oak leaves. I usually don't dig the leeks when I harvest them, rather I cut the below the soil line and they do grow back from the roots. Borage is a mineral accumulator and bees love the blossoms, which are edible, as are the leaves. I think maybe it needs nasturtium or perhaps a melon for the summer. Something to cover the ground after the daikon, fava, and borage are cut. I don't want too much clover since it is known to attract gophers (they also love fig roots and alium roots too).
I loved looking at this planting progress through the fall and winter
Here is a photo of the same spot in November 2008. Note the droopy chard plant, fungi, very small borage plants, lots of blossoms on the alpine strawberries.

Garden in April

This is a photo of the SE section of the back yard.
Fig tree at far left, mature peach tree further back, cherry tree is at the right.

Warm April Day Pictures

A few 80+ degree days have finally arrived and the garden is starting to explode in growth and flowers. The bees are still loving all the borage and now they have the neighbor's mature orange tree to visit (the smell is magical) along with salvia officinalis, lots of daikon is still blooming, lots of calendula too. I've harvested some artichokes and fennel bulbs that I steamed and ate and shared with friends. Some of the leeks are starting to form flower heads, the arugula barely had a chance before it bolted, but I managed to have a few salads with it before they bloomed. Some of the red chard is starting to push up flower stalks. Apricots are filling out and I've been thinning the tiny peach fruits on the white peach tree. Strawberries are just starting to ripen, and I have been forced to share most of them with pill bugs and slugs so far. Melon seeds are germinating in the ground and in pots, as are winter pie pumpkins. Here are some photos of various things from today, which is called Earth Day. Why have a special day? Everyday should be Earth Day.

Fennel blossom (yellow) and borage (blue)

Carrot Blossom


California Poppies


Artichoke - ready to pick

Bees & Butterflies with Alliums

Ishikura scallions blooming. The scallions overwintered and grew thick, similar to leeks, but the green portion of the plant has a good onion flavor.
Bees and butterflies are always visiting these flowers.
I'll save the seed heads and disperse them with the autumn rains.
These seeds came from Turtle Tree Biodynamic seeds. They are a non-profit seed company based in NY.

Compare and contrast

Last week I posted a photo of the backyard at the end of March 2009.
I recently found this image of the backyard from late February 2007 – before we started any work on the place.
You can make out the leafless oak trees in the right side of the frame, and of course the evergreen tree in the center.
The sea of green is English Ivy covering the ground and fence.

Ginkgo Tree leafing out

The Ginkgo Tree is one I grew from a seed a few years ago. I planted it in the ground two years ago and it has grown about 12" each of those two years. Eventually it will offer shade and leaf litter for the planting underneath it. The leaves can also be used medicinally I've read. Blooming Daikon in the background.

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.

February Blossoms

Fava Bean

Daikon Radish

Calendula

Borage

Alpine Strawberry

Almond blossoms

Anticipating Spring

We're bracing for a winter storm of high winds and up to 4 inches of rain. On this cold windy day I photographed the garden. It is looking rather rag-tag in general, but bright spots are out there too.

Blueberry flower buds

Helleborus

Rosemary

Summer bounty through the winter

Hibiscus sabdariffa

I spent time harvesting Hibiscus sabdariffa calyx in the autumn. The calyx is the outer whorl of the flower. It swells around the seed pod after the blooms fall off. I harvested them and separated the seed pods from the calyx. I dried the calyx pieces, then stored them in a glass jar. After a while I was making some tea and opened up the jar of calyx pieces. They smell so fruity and sweet and they add a lovely flavor to herbal tea.

Spinning Cotton

Spinning the cotton on the drop spindle is giving me lumpy yarn. I've just started (last night), so I suspect my technique will become refined with practice. The yarn is strong though, and soft. I like the variation in color and shade that I see within the twist.

Cotton Roving

This is green cotton lint that I've cleaned of seeds and other unwanted plant debris, and then gently formed into roving - or long skinny sections ready to spin. I did not card this cotton, but that can be done, I simply worked the lint into the roving. I'm going to spin the cotton with a drop spindle. I think this will not make very much cotton yarn, but I will plant more seeds next year and so on until I have enough cotton yarn with which to make something useful.

I've been practicing knitting (with purchased wool) and crocheting (with purchased cotton yarn). I made a scarf out of blue wool, and a dish cloth out of ecru cotton. I'm working on a larger piece with ecru & cream-colored cotton, that is supposed to be a wrap or something.

Frost & Green Tomatoes

The tomato plants finally wilted in the cold weather. I picked most of the tomatoes green and brought them inside. I've been advised to put them into a bag with a banana to get them to ripen. They've been slowly ripening on their own, a few at a time. I think they look beautiful in the shiny green state.