Our Garden's Transformation: Part 1

One of our main reasons for moving to Oakland was to have some outdoor space. In the city, I'd always tried to grow some shade loving plants that might be able to survive the city's lack of sun and constant cool temperatures--all I ever ended up with was bit size kale and chard leaves that I would use to supplement some kale/chard dish and say "Some of this we grew!" all the while knowing that was only 5% true by volume of leaves.

Now that we're a year into our Oakland house, having outdoor space--I almost want to call it "land!"--warm temperatures, and mostly sunny days, I can actually saw we grow MOST of our food and almost all cut flowers in our house are from our garden! 

As a reminder, this is what we started with out front:

Those are weeds--not grass. And a very sad rose bush on the right!

And out back:

Looking towards our neighbors house.

Looking towards our house.

By the time we would move in all that grass was also taken over by the most dreaded weed ever: Oxalis.

And now for where we are now! Out front:

Full view of front. 

The three things I'm most proud of are the slate tile boarder ($60 for all the materials and it looks great!), the now very healthy rose bush on the right (the tree on the left still needs a little TLC--damn powdery mildew), and the landscaping with all water wise plants. 

Close up of the right side

Happy rose buds!

Pink sticky monkey flower (hybrid)

Echinacea--sadly, I think this plant is infected with a virus causing the petals to be this slightly odd--although pleasing!--shape. Might have to remove this plant from the garden next year. 

Left close up. 

Bonus front porch view--fire wood for winter and motel rocker for warm mornings. 

And here is a preview of our backyard now--there's been so much transformation it deserves its own post! Check back tomorrow...

Part of our veggie garden.