Spring Garden

Each spring since we've lived here, with varying successes, we've planted a vegetable garden. The first year, when the back yard was mostly rocks and junipers, the garden effort happened in pots; after we got the yard cleared out it's looked more traditional. One problem has been the lousy soil on our hillside lot. We've added our own compost and some better soil, but the improvement has been slow. Well, this year we added really good planting soil... sort of a organically rich sandy loamy stuff... if that makes sense. We got more than we needed, but that means our whole garden area is covered with several inches of the good stuff.

Sooo... last weekend we set out some plants and planted a few seeds. Here's how it looks at this point.

This portion is the volunteer wild flower section, next to the apple tree and the ice plant creeping down from the hill.

Tomatoes in the foreground, some bean plants in cages and three kinds of squash past them.

A little better look at the beans and squash. We planted a row of bush bean seeds as well, hoping they would begin to yield about the time these plants begin to wane.

A close-up of one of the tomato plants. We planted 3 kinds: Arkansas Travelers, Champions, and Celebrities. We'll see which does best... and hope that we have some volunteer cherry tomatoes again this year as well.