A Garden is My Happy Place

Recently, my husband and I visited the Getty Villa in Malibu. It's a copy of a Roman villa, and it's filled with beautiful Etruscan, Greek, and Roman art. The villa also has four separate gardens. Since gardens are my happy place, I want to share these photos with you. The gardens were immaculate as if weeds had been refused entrance to the villa. Speaking of an entrance, the Getty Villa is free! The only cost is parking, which is $20. (I will post photos of the incredible art another day.) Enjoy the gardens today.

          

I wanted to take my shoes off and run through the water. 

But I behaved myself.

Our ideal dates are museum visits.

Yes, my eyes are closed, but the pond was too pretty to skip.

 

Spring Showing Her Face

 My husband is recovering from covid. Today was his first day out of quarantine, so we no longer have to isolate ourselves from each other. And giving him a good morning kiss and holding his hand again--what a joy!

It reminded me winter will end soon, even though it’s in the 20s outside. So I went outside to our garden to see if spring is showing her face yet. She is!   

A crocus trying to bloom.

A hellebore soon to bloom.

A camellia hiding beneath the bush.

A tulip pushing through the soil.
 (The tent of sticks protect it from the deer.)

News!

 It’s been a while since I’ve updated. Instead of trying to share everything at once, I’ll share what’s been going on in different posts. Here's one of the big changes--my husband and I moved to North Carolina. We found a lovely house with beautiful gardens and a lake in our back yard.

Here are some photos:

My parents came to visit, and I took my dad kayaking on the lake.

An ocean of hellebores.

A view of the lake from the side of the house.

Same view, different flowers.

Our lanai.

My Own Postage Stamp Garden

I decided to take the things that I learned from The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden and begin my own postage stamp garden. (Click here to read my review of this fascinating book.)

I don’t have the space for a 5 x 5 garden or even a 4 x 4 garden, but I applied the principles to my south-facing flowerbed. Also, I didn’t make a raised bed. Hopefully, in the autumn my husband and I can do that. But we just didn’t have time this year. Our youngest son is having a cardio-thoracic reconstruction in early May, and it was all we could do just to prepare the flowerbeds for planting and get the seedlings in place.

My space measures 2.5’ x 44’. (It seems like a huge space. But since much of it is unusable because it abuts the side of the house of driveway, it’s still a small space.) In this space, my husband and I planted:

12 white corn plants

6 jalapenos (Yes, I realize how many peppers that will give me. My guys live on peppers.)

1 habanero (Scoville rating: 250,000)

1 ghost pepper (Scoville rating: 1,001, 304. Matthew is giddy about this.)

4 red bell peppers

4 yellow bell peppers

4 beefsteak tomatoes

1 purple cherry tomato

2 cucumbers

Mint (Properly contained in a fabric-lined pot, set into the ground)

Chocolate mint (Same as above)

Chives

Sage

Oregano

Thyme

Tarragon

Basil

Strawberries (I originally had six plants. Now I have more than I can count.)

Here are some photos of the beds. I'll post more later in the summer as the plants mature.

Most of what you see here are the strawberries and herbs
I've been growing for several years. 

Some of the pepper plants are behind me.
Corn plants are beyond that.

 Habanero (foreground) and ghost pepper.
Black tubing is drip irrigation.

N.B. My blogging, which has gotten sporadic, will probably be even more sporadic over the summer since my son's surgery has a 12 week recovery. 

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden, Book Review

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden 

by Karen Newcomb

N.B. I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

From the moment I saw this book, I knew I had to have it. I love vegetable gardens, and I only have a very tiny space, a flowerbed actually. While this book doesn’t specifically address flowerbed vegetable gardens, everything in it applies to what I’m doing and shows me how to have a more productive garden.

The book begins with a wonderful historical overview of postage stamp gardening before getting down to the nitty-gritty of the process. Perhaps some gardeners aren’t as interested in the history of gardening, but I love knowing that these techniques have proved tried and true since the 1890s.

After introducing small space gardening, the author lays out raised bed options and vegetable arrangements for everything from 4’ x 4’ bed to a 8’ x 10’ bed (promising a minimum of 200 lbs. of fresh vegies and herbs from a 5’ x 5’ bed.) The layouts are not only well thought-out but also aesthetically appealing. 

Having discussed the physical arrangements of the garden, the book details soil amendments, watering, disease/pest control*, and how you can possibly grow vining vegetables (even melons) in such a small space. Finally, the author explains which plants are best planted next to each other in order to encourage healthy growth and productivity.

I’m very excited about this book! It has shown me how to alter my gardening techniques to radically increase the amount of food I can raise in an extremely limited area.

As for buying the book, don’t think twice. Buy it! You’ll be glad you did.

*The methods in this book are organic. Even if you don’t do organic gardening, this is still a great book that will cut down on the use of fertilizers and pesticides using simple techniques.

Eden to Amazon

For as long as I can remember, I’ve made up stories. I’d sit in an airport and make up stories about the people that walked by. As I drove past houses, particularly interesting ones, I’d make up stories about the people who live inside. The most poignant stories were always about the people with neglected gardens.

As I’d drive or walk by a house with a neglected garden, I looked to see whether the bones of an excellent garden where underneath the weeds. I’d look for specimen plants—exotic creatures that take special nurture. I’d spy out meandering foot paths or artfully planted foundation plants. And, of course, if I spied out the bones beneath the neglect, the story I told myself would become tragic. Often, it would run like this. A dear woman (all woman who garden are wise, aesthetic souls) planted and cared for a lovely garden. One day, disease or death struck. And now her husband can’t bear to be out weeding and mulching because it reminds him of her. And now the garden lies in disarray—a physical reminder of love lost. (Yes, my younger daydreams were melodramatic.)

Now that I am older and wiser, I know the truth because my garden has gone from Edenic to Amazonian. (Okay, it was never Edenic, but this is my blog post so I’m allowed a little creative license.) And the cause of the neglect isn’t debilitating disease or death or even a bad case of the flu…it’s writing deadlines. When you’re looking for passive voice, mixed metaphors, etc., there isn’t time to trim the roses or weed the Bermuda. (I tried Roundup, but it must’ve rained before the poison dried. Grumble, grumble.)

In any case, Screwing Up Alexandria is now pubbed, and I’m out in the garden with shears and shovels (yes, some of the weeds are that big). And soon I’ll banish the Amazonian takeover. But, I am a little wistful because I’m wondering how many other writers who drive by my house are going to have their tragic stories ruined. Sorry.

(Okay, so please tell me that I’m not the only one who makes up stories about gardens.)

Yeah, okay, so this isn't my garden. It's one of the gardens at Versailles.
But a girl can dream, right?