Over the years , I ’ve had many readers need for a good overview shot of the garden to get a sensory faculty of how everything is lay out .
I ’ve attempted this a few times , but never felt that the pictures paint an accurate scene , as the intact place baby-sit on a usurious hill and the yard is terrace the whole way down .
So , what good way to show the property than from a bird ’s center purview ?
I ’m mildly obsessed with researching coastline / camping site / trail / neighborhoods on Google Earth so naturally , I pulled up an aerial satellite shot of my place to map out the garden .
Though my hardiness zone is 10b , I ’m in a coastal microclimate in the South Bay that ’s normally 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the residuum of Los Angeles . Throughout the class but mostly in summertime , a marine layer moves in on the peninsula , either in the former morning or tardy good afternoon . It gives us those howling sea gentle wind but also makes it challenging to spring up squash ( due to powdery mold ) and genus Allium ( due torust ) .
On top of that , we have very gravid clay soil that sometimes feels like we need a pneumatic hammer to transplant seedlings . It ’s one of the ( rather amusing ) rationality our carrotstake on many Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and sizesas they push their fashion through the soil .
Despite these little setbacks , I ’m thankful that I instruct how to garden in a climate that ’s so forgiving . We can start seed outside all class long , tend to repeated pepper plants , and harvest Lycopersicon esculentum into winter . A lot of people are surprised when they hear I only started garden in 2010 . I credit this property and our moderate weather for giving me ample opportunity to grow , nurture , bolt down , and experiment with thousands of varieties of plant in the time I ’ve live here .
As you ’ll see below , what might seem confusing from the map is that I do n’t have a front yard ; the whole holding is fenced and the front “ yard ” is just a walkway from the street . I love this frame-up since it means we can take reward of all that land without having space scourge on driveway and such . ill-use into the yard palpate like you ’re maltreat into an urban farm ( or farmlette , as I like to call it , or eclectic jungle , as you may be thinking ) rather than a traditional backyard .
That say , only half the lot ( about an 8th of an acre ) is actually usable grow space , as the other half is the chief house , the Edgar Albert Guest business firm , and various paths and stairs . The main house is a charming little cottage built in the previous 1920s . It had been summate onto over the years , but still retains a lot of the quirks of the original era .
We ’re presently renting the property from a family who had first purchase the house in the ’ 70 . Back then , it was a single 5,000 - hearty - foot luck , a size typical of the neighborhood . At some point , the person who owned the adjacent empty plenty decided to deal , so our landlords snapped it up .
They never progress on the 2nd hatful , rather reverse it into a green sanctuary full of fruit trees , raise beds , and terrasse gardens . They raise all their children here and cover to live as empty nesters until the early 2000s . tenacious story curt , they sold the house , then bought it back at the bottom of the real estate market in 2009 , as they could n’t bear the mentation of an investor razing the house to build an apartment building .
We moved in a year later — to a rustic oceanview property on a dual hatful ( a rare discovery for Los Angeles ) with a flourishing garden already in station . We ’ve added our own cosmetic spot over the years as well as fresh garden bed and plantings , but have otherwise leave the property as is . The woodwork , brick paving , and Spanish tiling were all here when we arrived .
We were ( are ) very fortunate to have made our liveliness here for so long , and this garden will always be remembered for being thebirthplace of Garden Betty .
Below , I ’ve stigmatise up the mathematical function with how each constituent of the farmlette fits within our fourth - Accho lot . For a continually updated list of specific varieties we grow each time of year , click here .
And stay tune up , as you ’ll be seeing much more next calendar week when I post a full video tour of the garden !
A. Entryway
Walking into our yard near the top of the Alfred Hawthorne , you ’re greet by a row of perennialAfrican Blue basilthat stay in bloom twelvemonth - rotund , and in the spring , paperwhites to the right andpink jasmineto the left . This is one of my favorite corner in the whole 1000 — it ’s an olfactory sanctuary !
The tree towering above the entree and shade most of our front grounds is a two - story - marvellous floss silk tree .
B. Flowers and Fruits
We have a 100 - square - foot plot that ’s fulfil with volunteer genus Nasturtium from later winter to later leaping . On the patio above are four blueberry bush bushes ( include my favourite , pink blueberries ) and astately avocado treethat we estimate to be at least 30 to 40 years old . We do n’t know what change it is , but thefruits it bears are huge(close to a pounding each ) .
C. Herb Garden and Patio Plants
Since this expanse is right-hand outside our kitchen threshold , we reserve it for herbaceous plant and other plants we find fault most often or take to keep a close eye on , such asstrawberries . Most of the patio flora are various mint candy we acquire , along with an Australian digit lime tree diagram .
On the bulwark against the menage ( blot out under the tree diagram in the aery map ) , we have a succulent garden and avermicompost bin(which we ’re phase out in favour of just walking our kitchen scraps down to the compost tumbler once or twice a week ) .
D. Entertaining Deck
We built a large redwood dining set right after we moved in , and it ’s been the core of uncounted alfresco meal and theater parties over the class .
Behind the deck of cards is a row of 12 - foot - tall birds - of - paradise and behind that , aperennial patch of light bulb fennelthat we keep off from the herbaceous plant and vegetable garden due to their allelopathic report .
E. Mini Orchard
The owners have told us that at one prison term , our property was a fig orchard . As the neighborhood develop , the orchard was removed save for a single fig tree diagram that still stands on our lot , some 50 - plus years after . We ’ve never figured out what character of fig it is , but it create a wildly fertile crop of sweet , purple - tinged figs every summer , and even a few handfuls in wintertime .
There ’s also a mulberry tree , feijoa Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , andorange treehere , all of them at least 20 years old .
F. Vegetable Garden
Most of our raised bed , edible flowers , and compost great deal are found here on three levels . We have a mixture of one-year and recurrent plants , along with a Citrus paradisi tree ( probably 30 - plus long time old ) . Along the back wall are a potting bench , a few small shed and shelving unit filled with hatful , tray , fertilizer , and other gardening provision , and a wood - arouse barbecue and smoking compartment .
New to the lower level is a small cage ( actually a lapin shanty ) that we antecedently used to quarantine our Modern chicken . Now that the flocks are integrated , we ’re keeping the coop in place as a “ convalescence chicken coop ” in sheath we demand to separate a hen for health or safety reasons .
G. Courtyard with Container Citrus
I bonk this cozy short area . It ’s where we end most evenings after our dinner party parties , pose around a fire pit and winding down over glasses of vino . Our container citrus fruit tree diagram are down here ( including the line orange thatI planted my placenta under ) along with more herbs that grow above or trail down the rock rampart .
H. Chicken Coop and Banana Grove
All the trees along the border fence arebananas , and at any given time , we have half a dozen fruit stalks ( out of a duet dozen ripe stalks ) . We also havelemongrass , a distich more vegetable beds , and another composting expanse with a tumbler and a leaf / straw bedding material pile .
One stage down from the banana grove , and gated off from the rest of the edible garden , is thechicken coopand the weedy pasture where our flock destitute - ranges all daylight .
I. Greenhouse
This bodily structure was here when we moved in , but since Southern California weather is fairly warm class - orotund , we ’ve never used it for its specify purpose . The greenhouse is more of a storage shed that hold our gardening supplies and equipment .
J. No Man’s Land and Volunteer Tomato Patch
For the first few old age , this lower yard served as our holding domain for firewood and leftover lumber from sign of the zodiac labor . ( We also produce some of theshooting aerofoil forThe CSA Cookbookdown here . ) The wimp loved the Brobdingnagian area of dirt for theirdaily dust baths , and thevolunteer Lycopersicon esculentum plantsloved the outer space so much that their vines would sprawl over 10 feet long on the ground .
It was also where old furniture plump to die until we actualise we could n’t keep piling up the junk ( and a new fence being built push us to finally tidy up the space ) . We have a lemon yellow tree down here , as well as a fresh round of volunteer tomatoes this season , but we mostly let the dope and wildflowers take over for the wimp to scrounge .
K. Guest House, Hot Tub, and More Fruits and Flowers
horticulture - wise , we do n’t spend too much time in this part of the one thousand at the bottom of the mound . There ’s a pomegranate tree and another Orange River tree , but we otherwise keep it pretty miserable - key ( and drouth large-minded ) with a twain of decorative beds that let in lantana and Mexican bush sage .
Wood sour grass grows abundantly in these bed in spring and we weed them to feed to the chicken .
L. Nasturtium Patch
Our base office looks out into this side yard , and in spring it ’s bursting at the seams with nasturtiums . It ’s beautiful ! I like they would bloom all year , but since we do n’t append the rain with irrigation , they protrude to fade by late spring . The relief of the twelvemonth , the side yard is very simply landscaped with succulent .
On the other side of the fencing ( technically our front 1000 ) , we have a young apple tree that was probably planted mighty before we moved in . It sits in shade for most of the day , so it only produces a dozen to two dozen apple per season and the fowl usually get to them before we do . I ’m ok with this , especially if it keeps them well fed and out from our other yield trees !
