I love Autumn... but I'm not a big fan of the fall

I love Autumn... but I'm not a big fan of "the fall"... "the fall" of the leaves, that is.

The leaves look so beautiful as they change colors while on the tree--nature dressed in the same colors I love to wear myself.

As brilliant as the inside of a tropical fruit, the orange-yellow leaves of the pomegranate is a delight to behold... until those leaves start loosening their grip and descending to the ground and pond below.

Every day or so I sit on my "tranquility bench" with pool net in hand sweeping leaves off in gentle strokes being careful not to scoop up little mosquito fish in the process. It's slow, methodical and eventually very rhythmic.

As I sit on the bench, I look above me at all the leaves still hanging on.

I know I will be scooping those out in the days to come.

There's no easier way to do this delicate work.

I am the steward of a backyard wildlife habitat, and I must be gentle in my stewardship opting for slow and methodical sweeps of the net over get-it-done-quickly techniques that would most likely involve noisy leaf blowers or nets over the pond that would prevent animals from getting the water they need while our region still waits for the replenishing autumn and winter rains to fill up seasonal ponds again.

The "tranquility bench" takes on a slightly different purpose this time of year, yet I still find tranquility there.

So... Japanese water iris aren't really water plants

In my last post, I shared the beautiful purple Japanese water iris that is blooming in the garden right now.  But the deep purple variety isn't the only one I have. I thought the others should get their time in the spotlight too. And also I wanted to share a bit about what I've discovered about Japanese water iris since I planted my first one (the deep purple) years ago without any idea what I was doing.

Years ago, I found my first Japanese water iris rhizome (it looks like a gnarled potato) in a package hanging on a display at WalMart along with other water plants like water lilies. I'd just finished digging and lining our pond and thought, "Cool! I've never heard of these but I love iris and they say 'water' on the label. Must be a good pond plant." 

Fortunately, I didn't have the space for the iris in the pond, so I planted it in a large pot without a drainage hole that I situated next to the pond. I installed a dripper connecting it to the drip-mist system that waters the rest of the garden and left it alone. It rewarded me immediately with beautiful foliage (that I would later discover is prized in Japanese ikebana floral arranging) as well as the deep purple blooms that I've come to treasure each year.

Years later when I found out about the benefits of having the green spearlike foliage in floral arrangements, I decided to expand and find more varieties of Japanese water iris. This time I went online and ordered from reputable growers.

I got them home and planted them in large pots generally in the same area as the first and installed drippers in each one.

Then I waited....

... and waited.

Hmmm... something wasn't right. They put out foliage but not much, and they didn't bloom.

I did some online research and found out that the Japanese water iris would be much happier in smaller pots. The fact that the first one did so well in the large pot must have been beginner's luck.

I also found out that Japanese water iris don't like to grow in the water like other water plants. Soggy feet make them unhappy. The fact that the first one did so well in the pot without a drainage hole must also have been beginner 's luck.

At the end of last summer, I transplanted the struggling new varieties into 10-inch terra cotta pots. I positioned one pot far away from the pond's edge next to where a couple of pots of sun-loving lavender. I positioned couple others closer to the pond amidst the wide swath of river rocks around the pond, but not close enough to benefit from any water.

I ran small watering lines to each pot to connect them to the drip-mist watering system with one dripper per pot. They would be watered on a timer along with the rest of the garden for 15 minutes each morning. That isn't a lot of water but enough to keep things flourishing during the dry months half the year.

The existing foliage withered and browned after the transplant, but I didn't give up hope. I figured it was to be expected, and they'd need the winter to get used to their new homes.

Then I waited...

... and waited.

Finally, my waiting was rewarded last week when I discovered the first blooms on the transplants! They are happy and thriving in the small pots, even in the locations farther from the pond (see the variegated one above).

I learned that Japanese water iris don't need a pond to thrive and grow. They don't even need a big garden--just a 10-inch pot, full sun and a regular drip of water will do. Such beautiful blooms and a non-demanding plant are a perfect pairing for this gardener.

Watching goldfish play on an August afternoon

Today I stood at the pond's edge
Under the shade of the lemon tree
Watching orange fish dart in the water
From the shade of one lily pad to the next.

As the waterfall burbled
The fish at play kept me transfixed.
Standing still
The hot August day didn't feel quite so hot.

A sleepy garden kitty spotted me,
Left her shady slumber spot
Traversing each patch of shade between her and me
To greet me and welcome me to her world for today.

I lost track of time.
I don't know how long I watched the fish
From my shady vantage point.
But as I left it to walk back to the house
I could smell the heat of summer
Radiating from my skin and clothes.

Our small pond makes for sweet strawberries

There are certain nooks in my garden where strawberries grow very well. All those nooks are located very close to the pond so it must have something to do with the environmental influence of the water. I've tried to grow the strawberries only 20 feet away with horrible results. But when I've transplanted the plants that are struggling to a place by the pond, they flourish. It's amazing how much the proximity to the water affects them.

The interesting thing is our pond isn't large. It's not very deep either--less than 3 feet in the deepest spots. Our petite lot is only 50 feet wide so nothing can really be that large. The pond maybe holds 1200 gallons but I think that's a generous estimate.

It is fascinating to me that something so relatively diminutive like our pond has such a profound influence on the growth of something else like the strawberry plants and their fruit.

I think people are like our pond. In the overall view of the world and universe, each person is so small. But I've seen someone that is relatively diminutive have a profound effect on those within their sphere of influence. And then those that have benefitted from that seemingly small influence go on to produce families, homes, creations and spheres of influence that are sweet and wonderful fruits, just like my strawberries.

And like the pond, those influential individuals do what they do usually without any knowledge of the sweetness they brought into being. They just live their lives, sharing their essence. How fortunate we are to have them in our lives.

Our backyard wildlife habitat: The dragonflies of summer

One of my favorite things about summer is the arrival of the dragonflies. They grace us with their presence until early autumn and then we don't get to see them again until the following summer.

Helpful and hospitable guests, dragonflies eat mosquitoes and gnats on the wing. On warm summer evenings right before sunset, if I look up I can see them zipping back and forth over the garden forming a canopy of sorts. Like our own tiny fleet of jet-fighters, they are waging and winning a war against the bugs we don't want and I rarely get bit by mosquitoes when the dragonflies are on patrol.

Dragonflies and damselflies (a smaller cousin) like water sources, so they love our pond. They also like to have foliage that hangs over the water's edge. The large lily pads in our pond serve as landing pads for females to lay their eggs by hanging their tails over the edge of the pads into the pond water.



Because our pond is kept chemical-free, dragonfly and damselfly eggs that get laid in the water eventually hatch into nymphs that burrow in the silt and sediment at the bottom of the pond to grow until they're big enough to go through metamorphosis and get their wings. Then they join their cousins that come from other nearby water sources to fly above our pond during the warm summer days and evenings.

This is one of those seasonal cycles of life that I only discovered since building our garden so it was wildlife-friendly. And the dragonflies of summer are something I have grown to love and cherish. I can't imagine summer without them now.

Click here to find out more about how you can garden for wildlife

New pollinators visited the garden and heralded the official arrival of Summer

I was standing outside in the late evening the day before the official arrival of Summer, and I noticed some activity on a lone volunteer garlic bloom growing at the edge of the pond. I quickly got my camera, installed my new zoom lens and made my way back out to garden to try and take some shots.

The garlic bloom was covered in little golden specks of pollen. Some honeybees were gathering sweetness from the tiny flowers while other honeybees were gathering water a few feet away on the rock of the pond waterfall.

I focused my attention on the garlic blossom again. Then I saw her!

I had never seen this garden visitor before. I didn't know what she was (or that she was a SHE) until I took my shots back in to the computer and did some quick internet hunting.

She is a female Valley Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa varipuncta)!

The honeybees moved aside and continued gathering while their much larger cousin did her share of gathering. I noticed she had a sister that was buzzing around the other flowers in the vicinity. When the first female I saw would buzz away to check out the other flowers, the honeybees would go back to gathering from the spots they had vacated while she was there.

Ms. Valley Carpenter Bee came back around and seemed to be particularly smitten with the nearby Japanese Water Iris. I didn't think the iris were a favorite of pollinators but I was wrong.

Ms. Valley Carpenter Bee loved the welcoming throats of the iris bloom because she could fit her whole round fat body inside without much effort.

I was also surprised to discover later that the Valley Carpenter Bee is usually in Southern California and in the Central Valley of California (the large flat topography running vertically through the center of our state). I don't know why these two girls are so far from "home" close to the waters of the San Francisco Bay, but I'm happy they came for a visit so I could see them for the first time.

And, ironically, this week just happens to be National Pollinator Week. Maybe the girls were doing a special publicity tour?

Swimming in a sea of lilacs

Many years ago I had a horrible virus that settled into my lungs and ended up as a case of "walking pneumonia". Little did I know at the time that the virus also settled into one of the discs between two vertebrae in my back, causing degeneration in that disc. When my doc discovered it over a decade later, he was puzzled. The disc that showed degeneration on the x-ray is one that rarely experiences degeneration because it's the transitional disc from the lower to upper vertebrae and doesn't usually get injured. After some detective work, it was determined that the bad respiratory infection almost 15 years prior was the culprit.

Over time, the disc has caused me issues, causing the pain to get progressively worse. By the fall and winter of 2008-2009, I was having to cut back my gardening activities significantly and was desperate for relief. When Hubby received a small-ish annual bonus from his employer last spring, he was generous enough to use it to purchase a hot tub for me so I could find some relief. Thanks to hydrotherapy in the hot tub, my pain has decreased so significantly I am able to work in the garden again this year and once again do the things I love to do. Even though I promised to do the water condition maintenance in the hot tub, Hubby has also sweetly done that for me too. And when I need some hydrotherapy he gallantly removes the cover for me so I don't strain my back. I know it probably sounds like I'm gushing, but my husband really is an amazingly giving man (who is probably blushing right now).

Fortuitously, the largest of my warmer climate lilac bushes has grown into a wonderful tall screen between the deck and the neighbor's yard right where the hot tub is located. When I sit out in the hot tub, this is the view I see right now (see below)...



When I sit in the hot tub, I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of lilacs and can't get enough of their wonderful heady fragrance or the gorgeous sight of their amethyst blossoms. Can you tell lilacs are my favorite flower?

Hubby and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this past Saturday. When he asked me what I wanted to do for our anniversary and wondered if I wanted to take a little overnight getaway somewhere, I seriously considered it. Then I said that I'd rather spend the money on something for the garden that would be permanent (my motto is, "Don't give me diamonds... give me garden tools"). Of course I already had something in mind. I've been wanting to build a raised pond basin in a spot that has drainage issues anyway. I usually reuse materials from around the garden, but this time I didn't have enough and needed to splurge on retaining wall blocks.

We went to Lowe's on Friday evening and got all the blocks we needed (72 to be exact). I had planned to unload all the blocks from the back of the truck on Saturday and do the wall-building myself while Hubby did whatever he wanted during the day. But again, my chivalrous husband insisted that he would do the off-loading out of the truck so I could focus on building the basin. By late Saturday afternoon, it looked like this (see below)...



I definitely couldn't have tackled this job without the blessing of the hot tub or the tremendous help of my sweet husband who was willing to spend our anniversary doing this (which I know he really didn't want to do but did anyway).

Lest you think I'm completely unromantic... after getting ourselves cleaned up, we went out to dinner for a "proper" anniversary celebration. Hauling rocks, building a pond, and then eating a nice dinner... that's my kind of anniversary.

Can frogs read eviction notices?

A little over a month ago, the familiar nightly chorus of breeding Pacific tree frogs started up again as it always does. Over the years, the "singing" has gotten so loud it borders on deafening. This year it started up with a few then grew, but suddenly the nightly sounds of "romance" stopped. I thought it was very odd and figured maybe our heavy rainfall had sent the little frogs back in their hidey-holes until a later date.

About the same time I stopped hearing the tree frogs, I realized that every time I approached one side of the pond I would see a quick movement and hear a splash as something jumped from under the pond-side plants into the water. For weeks, I only caught little glimpses. I've had a pond-swimming mouse that regularly swam across the pond to get from one side to the other years ago, so I couldn't be sure what it really was... until two days ago. I was finally able to sneak up on the critter and get close enough to see that it was an amphibian larger than the tree frogs. But I still couldn't tell if it was a toad or a frog and definitely couldn't identify the species.

Today, I ventured out and found TWO frogs sitting around basking in the spring sun. I got my camera and snapped some shots so I could compare them with online photos to get a positive I.D.

Unfortunately, my worst fears were realized... they are bullfrogs. Bullfrogs eat other frogs so that would explain the absence of the nightly chorus. Bullfrogs also eat fish, birds, reptiles, invertebrates, mammals... basically anything that will fit in its mouth (including other bullfrogs). They're lazy hunters that sit and wait for their prey to come near them, then lunge after the prey. And according to one source bullfrogs are unpalatable to many predators. Great.

So the first thing I did was search the internet to get some idea of what I could humanely do to give these two an eviction notice before all my fish, lizards and everything else in my backyard wildlife habitat goes missing as the tree frogs have.

I googled "what eats bullfrogs". The following answers made me hopeful:

• Birds: herons, egrets, kingfishers, ducks
• Mammals: Racoons, opossums, bobcats, coyotes
• Reptiles: garter snakes

We've got herons... we've got egrets... we've got raccoons... we've got opossums... and we've probably got a snake somewhere around the garden because I've seen one of those before.

Another internet source says that bullfrogs "like warm, quiet areas with dense plants". Okay.

So guess what I did for the entire day... I removed all the weeds from around the pond and made lots of noise while doing it!

Unfortunately, although the frogs seemed startled by my presence at first, they chilled out after a while. One let me go so far as push on its rump with the pond net for about 10 seconds as I said, "Go away. You aren't welcome here." It finally got tired of me bumping its rump and jumped back into the pond. Sigh.

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to put all my faith in the egrets, raccoons or opossums. And I'm hoping my naturalized pond goldfish love frog eggs.

Sunday Evening Discovery in the Garden

The new deck across the back of Rosehaven Cottage
(construction clean-up is set to happen this week)

With the major construction on the deck completed, I spent Saturday hooking up and updating the disconnected drip mist irrigation system for the back garden. And I set the timer to go off at 7 pm every evening and water for 15 minutes. Because the entire system is made up of mostly single drippers and a few small misting heads, it is extremely water-efficient if I set it to water for a short period everyday. On Sunday evening, I ventured out into the garden a little before seven o'clock so I could check and make sure the timer was set correctly. Because the temps hit 101F (38C) on Sunday, it was the first time that I'd gone out into the garden all day.

My view from the chaise lounge--my "sunning chair"

I have chairs strategically placed in different spots around the garden. Excepting the chaise lounge that is my "sunning chair" for getting my sun (even during the winter months), most of the chairs are in the shade of one of the garden's trees. All chairs allow me to watch the wildlife and/or the fish in the pond. On Sunday evening, because I was wearing one of my subdued Hawaiian print muʻumuʻu's I was well "camouflaged", and the birds were venturing quite close as they came in for drinks and baths in the waterfalls or the pond.

As I often do, I changed chairs a couple of times while I watched the water system come on. There is something extremely soothing and peaceful about watching the mist come from the sprayers and land on the surrounding plant leaves and on the pond's surface. From the chair under the plum tree I was watching the fish in the pond pop to the surface for their evening meal. The mist from the sprayers was carried lightly on the hot evening air and cooled me.

I turned to my right to look at what might be sprouting in one of the raised planter beds when I noticed something on one of the stems of a volunteer native that I let grow on the banks of the pond (aka a "weed").


I didn't have my camera with me, so I hustled inside to get it. I came back out and photographed my discovery (above). It was covered with little water drops from the mist system. I gently shook the branch to help it dry off. It moved a bit to get a better grip but held on tight. I shot numerous photographs and then meandered around the garden photographing other things in the light of an almost-summer evening.

When I came inside, I immediately went to the internet to find out what my discovery really was. It had a horn on its backside. From my limited experience with horned caterpillars I thought it might be a tomato hornworm. But when I saw the photos on the internet at various sites, they didn't look the same. I only had to hunt a little further to find a correct identification. My new discovery is a white-lined sphinx hummingbird moth caterpillar! I am thrilled! I have never seen a hummingbird moth in person... EVER! And to have a caterpillar in my garden means that I just may see one yet! And since it's living far away from any vegetables or ornamentals that I care about, I'm happy to let it munch away on the pondside plants until its ready to pupate and change into a moth.

Balance Starts With "Bee"

This morning, I was out under the plum tree enjoying the pond (as I often do daily). With camera in hand, I was paying more attention to the buzz of life around me on a summer day than I was on shooting photos. I did photograph the plethora of lily pads that the water lily has produced, floating on the pond's surface. Then I noticed that one of the honeybees was buzzing around a lily pad looking for a landing spot to get a drink, and it reminded me of another reason I'm glad I have this pond.

Many of you may not know that Rosehaven Cottage's gardens are certified as an "NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat" with the National Wildlife Federation. It's really a relatively easy process to become certified once you've changed your gardening focus over to the 5 essentials required for certification:

• Food Sources. For example: native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar
• Water Sources. For example: birdbath, pond, water garden, stream
• Place for Cover. For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse
• Places to Raise Young. For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond
• Sustainable Gardening. For example: Mulch, compost, rain garde, chemical-free fertilizer
  

Because the elements can be both big and small, even a balcony or patio garden can become certified.

I dug our pond in such a way so that it would have a gentle river rock beach on one side for critters to come down and get a drink. There are lots of rock protrusions for birds and creatures to get a footing and splash in the recirculating water that runs over the rocks adjacent to the pond's "beach".

The slope is boggy and in full sun so I have canna lilies, potted Japanese water lilies, and lemon balm growing along the "beach" that provide cover for the critters.

The unplanned bonus of this design has been the honeybees! Every day, particularly in the warmer months, honeybees come from wherever their hives are and drink from the water on the "beach" side of the pond. The area is literally buzzing with activity everyday while the sun is shining.

I've had a number of visitors to the garden look in horror at the "beach" with all the bees and paper wasps buzzing about and say, "Oh my! You've got a yellow-jacket problem!"

Then I kindly explain the difference between paper wasps and yellow-jackets--how the paper wasps are so non-aggressive that they won't even sting me if I knock down one of their paper-like honeycomb nests.

I also explain (and often demonstrate) that I can walk right out on the rocks through the buzzing activity and step into the pond to perform maintenance. I'm usually met with looks of astonishment.

How come I don't get stung repeatedly?

Well, when bees are focused on drinking water that's what they're focused on... water. They are visitors on turf that isn't their hive, and they know it. If I came to their hive and started jostling them about, then it would be a different story. Even though there are a large number of bees on the water's edge, they aren't swarming (a behavior associated with hive defense and colony relocation). They aren't agitated, and as long as I don't step on one or have one fly down my shirt and get scared (that's only happened once), they leave me alone as if they were a bunch of butterflies.

I've been highly fortunate to have these wonderful pollinators in my garden year after year. They have blessed us with wonderful produce: tomatoes, beans, mandarins, strawberries, pomegranates, lemons, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, and plums. And I always plant some flowers just for the bees and the butterflies as a repayment for their services.

Yes, balance definitely starts with "bee".

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You know you've been working hard when...

You know you've been working hard when the head of your sledgehammer flies off the handle. The term "flying off the handle" has a literal meaning for me now (hee hee). I was swinging away at the "acres" of concrete slab I have to remove, and voile! The head flew right off. But never fear. After a quick trip to the hardware store just around the corner, I had a bright and shiny new hickory handle to put the sledgehammer head on. It's so nice swinging that new handle now. The other one was pretty warped (I don't know if you can see it in the photo at right).

You also know you've been working hard when the muscles in your thumbs ache. Who knew I had muscles there?!?! And just to set the record straight... just because I'm able to swing a sledgehammer at concrete like an insane woman doesn't mean I'm in great physical shape. I'm a short chubby woman with lots of determination and stamina who gets a twisted sense of satisfaction from hard manual labor. So if I can tackle this ridiculous task with all my physical issues, anyone can. You just have to be a little crazy (okay... maybe a lot crazy).

Speaking of crazy... you know you've been working too hard when filling up the two-wheeled wheelbarrow with the "smaller" chunks of concrete seems like a good idea. Trust me... it isn't. I had to empty the wheelbarrow by hand, flinging the chunks into an empty flower bed, before I could move the thing. I must have been delirious with endorphines from swinging the hammer too much when I thought up that bright idea.

You also know you've been working hard when suddenly you realize that a whole week has gone by since you last posted to your blog! Oops! How did I lose track of a whole week so easily? Does that happen to anyone else once they get working in the garden? I certainly hope I'm not the only one.

Anyway... without further adieu, here's what's blooming and growing in the Rosehaven Cottage gardens right now. Enjoy!

You can view any of the images larger by clicking on them.

Above left: The first bloom on the Our Lady of Guadalupe rose that went in this year.

Above right: The blooms of the Cherry Parfait are more spectacular that I could have imagined last year when I put it in.

Above: The Golden Showers climbing rose is the perfect backdrop for the pond waterfall and birdbath in the back garden.

I can see this gorgeous rosebush from my studio window.

Above: The Japanese water iris, New Zealand flax, and aloe look great against the backdrop of the Golden Showers rosebush too.


Above: My favorite gazanias ever are all in bloom under the Princess Di Bower Vine on the front pergola. Isn't the color beautiful?!?!

Before and After: The Drainage Project

I have mentioned many times before that our home sits at the low point of our street with everyone's water from both directions heading toward us in a big rainstorm.

A few summers back my brother came between semesters at his university and, with pickaxe in hand, dug a massive trench in the hardened clay soil. He lined the deep trench with river rocks and dubbed it "Trenchy" (said with a heavy French accent... emphasis on the "ee"... just because my brother said it that way).

"Trenchy" became the main dry river bed (or "arroyo") that led all other drainage efforts to the back corner of the property where a large county storm drain sits just on the other side of our property line. Each successive drainage project was heavily dependent on "Trenchy". One hidden drain system next to the house was even dubbed "Trenchy Junior".

As I've gone out during winter storms and observed the flow of rainwater since "Trenchy" was dug, I knew that there would be further adjustments over time once I figured out what we were doing with everything else back there. Last summer, I got into "Trenchy" and removed all the river rocks that had lined its banks. Most of the rocks were buried in layers of silt and their beauty was wasted with them buried like that. Since I was demolishing a large concrete slab adjacent to "Trenchy" it made more sense to remove all the river rock and replace them with large chunks of recycled concrete. Then the lovely river rocks could be used decoratively elsewhere around the garden, including filling the head of "Trenchy" with a bed of river rocks that supports the new flagstone sitting area that I put in next to the pond just last fall. The river rocks are great for draining the water out of the hidden "aquifer" that is under the flagstones built with crushed concrete, pea gravel, and sand. You can see the river rocks against the flagstones in the photo at right.


Once all the river rocks had been removed, I lined "Trenchy" with the concrete blocks at the same time as I demolished the concrete slab. I'd sledgehammer out chunks of concrete and then fling them into "Trenchy", going back later to more carefully arrange them.

Once "Trenchy" was lined completely, I installed large diameter french drains (those cylindrical white things in the photo at left) with branches going up mini trenches to take the floodwater away from the areas around the pond when it floods in heavy rain and quickly divert it down "Trenchy". The drains sit at a slight incline to shed the water toward the storm drain and they sit at the lowest point down the center of the trenches. I then took more chunks of recycled concrete and fill in up the sides of the french drains.

When that was done, it was time to hide everything under a thick layer of pea gravel and make "Trenchy" into "Super Secret Trenchy". We had 3 cubic yards of pea gravel delivered to our driveway from the local landscaping outfit, and I hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of gravel to the back to fill the foundation of a new garden shed as well as "Trenchy". The few wheelbarrows' full, my back was gone so Hubby kindly came out and finished up the pile for me.

With the pea gravel in place, the trench and french drains are now completely hidden. All you can see are pretty gravel paths that meander toward the back of the garden past raised planters made from recycled concrete where the dogwood (far right in the photo) and the olive (left foreground in the photo) have found their permanent homes.

Rainwater will now drain through the gravel into the french drains and be diverted to the county storm drain so we have less flooding under our house after heavy rainfall (hopefully I will be able to alleviate that all together with a few more minor tweaks farther up toward the house).

And the big bonuse is that I'll be able to walk around in the back garden without any difficulty even though it may be pouring rain. Before, it was like crossing multiple fjords back there. Now I won't even have to think twice!

The view from the back of the garden looking up toward the pond and house is now one of my favorites. The shadows lacing the path are being cast by the huge white oleander and the cherry and apricot tree conglomeration that I call "The Thicket" because the birds love to hang out in there where they feel safe. You can see the newly planted olive tree on the left in the raised planter with narcissus coming up around the base.

At the right is a 150 gallon horse trough that I used to house the goldfish for a while during renovations to the pond a couple of years ago. The horse trough will eventually become a part-sun water garden with a small recirculating waterfall in it. I'm really excited about that because up until now the only water plants I've been able to have in the pond are full-sun water plants. It will also serve as a nice little oasis to just sit and relax in the shade when the summer temperatures are scorching hot and soaring over 100° F (38°C).

But for now, I have more concrete to demolish, more planters to build, more paths to install, as well as a shed to assemble (well, Hubby is going to handle that part).

It's Not Done, but I Have to Share!

We bought Rosehaven Cottage a little over 7 years ago and it was in a state of neglect, needing lots of love and attention (that's why we could afford it in the Bay Area housing market). Never afraid of a challenge and with my mother's mantra "How hard could it be?" repeating in our minds, we dove into the project of a lifetime. The house and the gardens had good "bones"--firm foundation in the house; great soil and a white picket fence in the garden. We literally pushed up our sleeves the day after closing escrow, and they've not come back down very often over the past 7+ years.

All photos above are what the gardens looked like the day we closed escrow.

Hence, today's post on my latest garden project. [I say "my" because the garden is MY domain. As well as having bad garden allergies, Hubby is a phenomenal chef so we compromised and made the kitchen "HIS" and the gardens "HERS". It works.]

Let me give you all some context...

Our home and garden reside at the low point on the street with every other house in either direction being on higher ground. Fortunately, the county put in storm drains decades ago to handle the water runoff both at the front, middle and back of the property line we share with our neighbor. Typically, we don't get rain during the summer. Our heavy rains come in the winter. Around here rain can come in deluges that can wreak havoc on the garden if the water doesn't have some directional help (which is why I found old 3 foot high brick walls completely buried in soil throughout the back garden when I first started digging years ago). The good news is that we get lots of "free" top soil from neighbors. The bad news is that unless we handle the water properly is collects in our crawl space under the house and pools in low points throughout the garden. So our priority in our garden has been to provide hidden channels for the water to go from the high side of the back garden diagonally across the entire property back to the farthest low back corner where a storm drain awaits to carry the excess water away.

Easier said than done when you want to have a functioning year-round produce garden.

So I've employed various features and techniques over the past 7+ years to accomplish this:

1. If you can't fight it, work with it. I put in a pond where the water seemed to collect anyway. I went out in the height of the January rains and started digging with a shovel. I moved the clay soil around as well as the muddy water that was collecting there until it "looked" right.



2. I used large rocks that I found all over the garden from the former owner (who had to be a rock collector because they are not indigenous rocks) to create borders around the pond and the gardening beds in the front garden.



3. We took out all the concrete paths that were in the back garden and have reused the blocks of recycled concrete to build raised planter beds that I plant in produce and flowers according to the Square Foot Gardening Method and basic companion planting techniques (which means now pesticides!).
   



4. I put in pea gravel paths between produce and flower beds. The pea gravel paths hide a water diversion system for high run-off. Every winter, I go out during the peak of rainstorms and push the gravel around with a shovel to divert water and make it flow where I want it, make mental notes, and then when the rainy season is over I drop trenches in those areas that were problems the previous year and hide them with the well-draining pea gravel.
   
5. My brother dug a major trench for me that is the beginning of the main trench system that is currently in the process of being installed by little ole' me. I will drop french drains in them and then mask the french drains with pea gravel and river rocks.

So that brings me to what what I've been doing the past couple of weeks. I've been installing a flagstone patio that actually masks a large subterranean drainage system which diverts water down the major trench.

I love rocks, I love dirt, and I love being in the garden, so this project has been so much fun! I let inspiration guide me each step of the way. Although the overall project is still far from being done, I wanted to share photos of my progress.

Above: The new flagstone patio that masks a subterranean drainage area that flows to the river rocks you can see in the center of the photo.

Click on any of the small photos above to see larger images.

Above left: View of the new flagstone patio area looking down the trench that is now filled in with river rock to handle water when it rains. I have built what we call here in No. California an "arroyo".

Above center: View from the back looking up the river rock trench toward new flagstone patio area. I've handled changes in elevation by building steps with recycled concrete blocks.

Above right: View of my chair under the plum tree where I feed the fish in the pond. Now my chair sits level on a lovely flagstone terrace next to a planter made of recycled concrete blocks with a birdbath in it.

Now its time to go play in the garden again and throw some more rocks around!