My little garden in the early morning light. Not too bad for the middle of May, huh?
One of the cherry tomatoes is over 3 feet high and the other is close behind, the large type tomato plants are around 2 feet, those low lying plants in the raised bed are cucumber, yellow squash and several scallop squash varieties I’m trying out for best flavor, along with some scattered lettuce plants, cilantro and a few radish varieties. In the far background in large growing pots are zucchini, which is already getting huge, and some perennials, horseradish, comfrey and peppermint.
The big green thing in the background, just right of center, on the ancient fence is a Thompson Seedless grape plant that’s been producing well. Also doing well are two fig trees, and the little apricot tree I planted up on the hill in back has a nice first crop on it. Had to cover it in netting to keep the damned birds off it. I mean, if they would leave something in exchange, some old diamond rings or other trinkets they might have lying around their nests, I wouldn’t mind so much.
Soil amendments matter. That black soil has no relationship to the nearly worthless rocky clay dirt of the desert up here, it’s years in the making as I’ve added more compost and steer and chicken manures each spring along with blood and bone meal, wood ashes and Osmocote, which is a pelletized mix of lots of trace minerals. I do this every spring to replace what I’ve taken out in food.
The desert dirt at the bottom of this was tilled up to a depth of about 8 inches and a few hundred pounds of rocks, large and small, removed and several cubic yards of nursery potting soil and fertilizer were tilled into it along with a couple pounds of store-bought live worms. If I remember right, that was 12 years ago. Once you have a good garden going, it’s a gift that keeps on giving only as long as you keep giving back to it.