Garden Installation Phase 2

We have slowly been working on our yard and garden space over the past 6-1/2 years (wow, can you believe that we have been here nearly 7 years?).  We took some time to figure out what we wanted and researched how to implement our ideas.  Last year 10 fruit trees were planted (phase 1); 9 in the back, 1 in the front.  This is in addition to the 5 we already have.  (I think I am addicted to fruit trees; I want more--can you ever have enough?)

Every year we have expanded our garden space.  We have been gardening on a slope, above.  It is a bit tricky to walk, not inviting and I find myself avoiding the garden.  Thankfully, Carl has been a great gardener :)  Above is what we had as of last year.

 Upon much discussion, we decided to terrace the slope, well sort of like building raised beds into the slope.  We'll have 2 tiers each 16 feet long and 3-4 feet wide.  The discussion wasn't whether we would terrace the slope but rather what material would be used.  In the end we decided to use untreated redwood instead of cement retaining wall blocks.

 Some "in progress" shots.  Above we have dug out the bottom area.

 Due to gophers, we have learned to place 3/4" hard wire cloth down.  This has been effective in the past but is very labor intensive.  The metal comes in rolls, so we have to roll them out, flatten and cut to fit. 

 First row of the bed is in.  With wood scraps, we snapped together the square raised bed for strawberries and in front of the strawberry box, is our newly planted avocado tree.  The nursery said transplanting avocado trees can be tricky but I'm hoping in a few years we will be picking avocados from our own yard.

 Elena loved playing in the dirt pile.

 She was so sad when we put the soil behind the retaining board.

 Charlie sat in the shade playing and supervising.

 And viola!

 From the side, not quite done but good enough to get seeds planted.  I planted watermelon, muskmelon (aka cantaloupe), snap peas, tomatoes, eggplant, butternut squash, green beans, lettuce, spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and for fun some corn :)  Oh, and some flowers: nasturtiums, sunflowers and marigolds.

 From the raised beds, looking back at the yard.  There are now 10 trees along the fence line still giving plenty of room for the swing set, play structure and phase 3: chickens!  We moved the compost bins to the back corner.  And side note, the tall building behind our neighbor's house is the middle school Elena will attend.  The elementary school is just to the left of the middle school.  She is so excited to walk to Kindergarten in August. (And how did she grow up so quickly?)

 The necta-plum tree in the front yard is in bloom.

 Cicadas found the plum tree.  3 of them...look at the size of this one.

 Plum in bloom.

 Pluot in bloom

 Red Baron peach in bloom.  Love the hot pink!

Our citrus trees are in bloom.  They smell heavenly.  Wish I had Willy Wonka's Smell-O-Vision to share this smell with you.  It is sort of like sweet lilacs but better.

 When I ordered seeds for the garden, I added a few other things--strawberry plants, blueberry bushes and a kiwi.  This is how the plants arrived a couple weeks ago.  There are 6 blueberry bushes on the left and 100 strawberry starts in the front bag--I'm splitting them with my neighbor.  We pooled together to save in shipping.  So this is what I started with.  Hard to believe there are 6 blueberry plants and 100 strawberry plants there, isn't it?

 About a week after receiving the strawberry starts, here is my strawberry bed with 30 plants.  I have 20 others elsewhere.

Here is the kiwi vine.  It has been on the patio for about 2 weeks and it is growing like a weed.  Evidently it doesn't mind where it is.  I read the vines are aggressive but I wasn't expecting this.  We are going to plant this over where the gopher took out the red rose bush.  Hope to get to this soon but we'll need to build a structure to support the vines.  This is a hardy kiwi and is asexual so we only need one vine.  The fruit are smaller and are not fuzzy, some refer to it as a kiwi berry.  You eat them right off the vine like grapes.  I'm interested in seeing what we get.  I warned earlier that I may have an addiction....just might but I kinda like it :)