Anyone who gardens knows that the reason we dig, water, feed, weed, water, weed, water, feed, weed, water and care for those plants, IS FOR THE HARVEST!!!!



This is what makes all that labor worth it! I love to go out to the garden and bring the harvest right to the table.  Below you'll see a couple of photos of the soil we've claimed in our yard(s) for our garden(s).  We actually live on a one way street with 6 total homes/duplexes. We occupy 2 of the duplexes (one is our home the other Damon's business). Across the street from us are two homes with a place to park in between. We claimed the ground beside and behind the parking spaces for our garden several years ago. My neighbors have been wonderful about my passion for gardening, so, I do share .


This is one of the raised beds beside the "parking" access that is across the street. It's hard to tell in full harvest what's in there, but, It's approx 6' x 18', and this bed hosts: sweet corn, heirloom tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, egg plant, cherry tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, a mixture of lettuce and a dwarf kale. There is a strawberry bed to the upper right, that cannot be seen in this photo. There is also a giant sunflower that stands 14' tall that came up as a volunteer from last years bed. It is at the head of this plot.




This is about 2/3rds of the Dinosaur Blue Kale, in a separate raised bed behind the parking spaces.



We even have plants on the roof that needed more sun! The peppers are doing fantastic! In the front are Egyptian Walking Onions I found at the farmers market. I'll make a small bed down below for those (plus lots of garlic) before fall.



Still in between the neighbors, this has a giant pumpkin (it will be our jack o' lantern on Oct 31st), 3 types of squash, and a volunteer tomato. The spread is about 6' x 20'.



This bed is again between the neighbors, gets little sun, It hosts, collard greens, Japanese greens, beets, basil, catnip (which needs to be covered with a wire basket while it's young to keep the cats out) several lettuce varieties, and some flowers. It's about 4' x 10'. Yes, there are young kids near by, which explains the ball and several toys in the yard . The 3 year old neighbor girl loves to watch and "help" in the garden.



This corner is in the front yard of Damon's office, it gets great sun, so we planted more peppers and they are doing wonderful. Also a Prickly Pear cactus and an oak tree that Ali planted last year. Behind and to the right are planters with Tulsi Basil (for seed next year) and two Tamarind starts.



This is only 1/3 of the back yard at Damon's office. The sun was not right to get the rest of it, this garden is approx 4' x 30' total. It will soon be greens for the winter. Right now it hosts: Cherry tomatoes, radishes, egg plants, lettuce, cilantro, Italian parsley and peas on the fence.We are also attempting from seed some Jicama on the other end of this bed, where there is lots of sun.

Those photos constitute most of our yard(s). I haven't even gotten to show you the front yards (and the back of our house that is flowers because of the lack of sun). The Asian pear in the front yard, the fountain and the multitude of plants outside and inside!!!!! I think we like to grow stuff.

Note in the photo above: The paper backing was because we were trying keep the poison oak from the neighbors yard coming through....unfortunately the watering and wind ripped it. It did keep the poison oak at bay so this year we don't have many vines poking out. We were about to go buy plastic and ended up with paper thinking it would be better for the environment. Anybody else have any better ideas for keeping poison oak out without using chemicals? I would love some suggestions!