A little over a year later...

Our garden projects have taken on a life of their own. J is a member of the California rare fruit growers and has planted many edible fruits, tubers, vines and veggies in our back yard. I stopped counting trees at 24. Our yard is not that big mind you, these are all dwarf trees planted closely together, or they are trees that do well in pots. We are always trying new fruits and hunting for cool things at markets. This year we may try to do some more grafting. Last year's grafts onto the peach tree didn't take. When you graft onto an existing tree, you can have multiple kinds of fruit on it. So we could have a few different types of lemons on one tree - variety in a small space! :)

I grew WAY too many tomatoes this year, and I wish I had made sauces with them sooner. Next year we will do more heirloom varieties.

The bee garden took off. We had a lot of native flowers come in as well as kinds that the bees just love. We grew some Cinderella pumpkins, and Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes) which took over. We have guavas, a new lime tree, blackberries and raspberries out there now too. This coming growing season I plan to extend the bee friendliness to the back yard. Bees are attracted to pollinator plants, so I am thinking some things like borgia where the flowers are edible but the bees love them.

I am also planning a dinosaur garden for our daughter (with "ancient" plants), and we are working on a temporary greenhouse for the winter. This year has gone by SO fast!






The bee garden before it took off.


The finished back patio with various fruit plants/trees.