Garden Journal

Returned from Africa (to the US) at the end of April, spent a couple of days with the kids in GA and on to SD to stay with mom and Hunter. Hunter has Alzheimer’s and has his good days, but overall, he is not doing well. Sometimes, the lapses are noticeable daily, which is very sad to watch. This is a sweet, kind, lovable man who would not hurt a fly, and who has worked hard all his life, raised a family and brought joy to whomever he has met. I met him 7 years ago, and I don’t have one negative thing to say about him, even before he became ill. 

The house is in a deep canyon that used to be a riverbed.  There wasn’t much room behind the pool but we made space by using cement (pony) walls that had been built to keep rains from flooding the back patio, where there used to be a building. It was a guest/game/office/party room until the psycho-lady next door called the authorities who told mother that the building had to be moved 3 yards to the west, (which was impossible to do) so the entire building had to be destroyed. ANYWAY, in SD’s version of winter the rains would come down the canyon and flood the building. Hence, the pony walls were created. They worked too, but now there is not building to protect.  I used the V-shaped areas resulting from the walls meeting the canyon, plus the only flat area of the (back) back yard to make a veggie garden of sorts. Ever since I discovered gardening, when I lived in RV, planting and growing things have been very important to me, part of my spirituality, actually. It was impossible to do in Miami and very difficult in GA, but I actually had a loft-porch, vertical garden in B’ham that turned out pretty cool.

Already being summer when I started, I wasn’t really expecting too much – didn’t want to get my hopes up – but SD is so cool (for summer) the road to veggie-ville has been pretty fruitful (haha) and amazing.  I started on June 12 with the following: corn,

3 kinds of squash, cantaloupe, and pumpkins in the ground, from scratch;

okra, radishes, scallions and chives, in containers, from scratch;

3 different types of bell peppers and 2 eggplants, from plants, in the ground;

plus zucchini, from small plants, in the ground;

and crookneck squash and cucumbers, from plants, in containers.

I bought 2 avocado trees for mother, because she had always wanted to try growing them. We had a professional come and remove an ugly tree that blocked the sun from some of the garden and had served no other purpose. He planted the avocado trees while he was at it.

 I also bought a couple of pretty flowers while I was at it.

The next week, I realized that I had forgotten to plant some fresh spinach which I like with my salads, so I bought some of that and some assorted greens too. I put them in 2 pots each. (started on June 26)

They went crazy! But, since I don’t want to give it all away in one entry, you’ll have to check back in a day or two to see. Hint: the corn is already whispering to me like in the movie, but since (as most of you know) I’m half deaf, I haven’t yet deciphered the message…

PS: you can see that the corn took off immediately in the last photo. Even Chipper, Hunter's son who is a landscaper, was impressed!