The Experiments of an Urban Garden Oasis |
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It began with our first 4 x 4 garden box. We moved into our house in Pasadena in November 2012 and in January scheduled an appointment with Master Gardener, Geri Miller, of Home Grown Edible Landscapes, to teach us about organic gardening practices. (http://www.groedibles.com/). We first met Geri at her class on making holiday cocktails from the herbs and fruit from a home's garden - that's so my kind of class! We decided to update the backyard by removing broken concrete slabs and horrible grass. Pasadena has a program that gives homeowners $1 for every square foot of turf removed, in order to encourage less water usage. (http://cityofpasadena.net/waterandpower/turfremoval/). The funny caveat was that the grass had to be alive at the time of the inspection. So, I had to waste water by watering the grass to keep it alive long enough to be paid for killing it. We ended up getting $830 from the City so it was absolutely worth it! Anyway, here are some before pics of the yard. After the turf and concrete were removed, weed cloth and mulch were added. A decomposed granite patio area was also installed along with a 5'x10' ground box - as if we didn't already have enough to do in the garden!
9 Comments
Mindy
4/29/2014 06:51:49 am
Launch is successful! Love that apron too ...xoxo, m
Paula
4/29/2014 07:43:37 am
<3
Deralyn
4/29/2014 08:05:00 am
I love it. Everything look so fresh and clean. Can't hardly wait to see it. Sit around your pool in my maxi, straw hat and my shades, sipping something strong from your herbs. You look real cool sitting there in front of one of your herb gardens.
Melissa Day
4/29/2014 09:27:38 am
The landscape and construction work were done by our neighbor, Ed Wallerstein.
ashley
4/29/2014 12:54:35 pm
This is so perfect! We can't wait to get to the pool party/Co - op veggie party :)
Melissa Day
4/29/2014 02:03:08 pm
Thanks, Ash!
Liz
4/30/2014 09:55:39 pm
Awesome!!! The yard is beautiful, and I'm so impressed you're learning to grow nature-y things. Now...are there pictures of these supposed cocktails? Do tell!
Maureen
5/4/2014 12:30:23 am
Very impressive! A backyard oasis of your very own. I can't wait to see this year's bounty.
Kristen
5/5/2014 01:48:39 pm
I love hearing your voice coming through these blog posts. Beautiful garden and can't wait to hear more about it. :) Leave a Reply. |