Wide Shots - April 2014

When I went into the garden yesterday morning to take pictures for this post, the air was fresh and cool, the birds were singing and flitting about, and everywhere I looked flowers were blooming.  Frankly, I felt as though I was in the middle of a Disney movie.  I even had hummingbirds whizzing about my head at one point.  (I happened to be standing in front of "their" feeder and I think they took umbrage.)

My garden has changed a lot since we moved here in December 2010.  The greatest changes have taken place in the past year, beginning with the removal of the 60+ foot tall Eucalyptus tree on the south side of the house, the creation of a new pathway and beds on the south side, and, more recently, the removal of a large section of lawn in the backyard.  Work in the dry garden on the north side of the house and the slope at the back of the property occurs in bits and pieces.  The wide shots I take in connection with the meme hosted by Heather at Xericstyle have helped me keep a record of the changes since last September.

As usual, I'll start with the backyard, where instead of a single bed bordering a wide expanse of lawn, I now have 2 long beds surrounding a wide grass pathway.

View from back door looking out toward the harbor with its usual morning haze

View from the left side of the backyard

View from the right side of the backyard, which shows the progress I've made in filling the new border

A longer view, photographed from the dirt pathway that begins in the side yard and runs all the way behind the back border

The side yard is filling out well given that most of the plants have been in place for less than 6 months.

View of the side yard taken from the front lawn

View from the grass pathway in the backyard looking back toward the arbor

There's still not much color in the front yard borders.  The shrub roses only have a few blooms so far.

View of the front of the house at mid-day

The vegetable garden still lacks much in the way of vegetables, although there is an artichoke in a tub just out of camera's sight in the photo below.  I've given over one of my three raised beds to sweet peas and snapdragons.  The sweet peas just produced their first blooms.

The circular rings in the 1st 2 raised beds were the metal bands that held our old snorkel spa together - my husband got tired of having them take up floor space in "his" garage

The dry garden has been very, very dry since we've had little rain and I've cut my use of the irrigation system in response to the governor's call for a 20% voluntary reduction in water usage.  We got some drizzle last night and we're supposed to get a little more over the next 2 days, which I hope will give the plants a boost.  I haven't lost anything yet but I don't imagine the grape vine or the fruit trees will fare well as the temperatures climb.

The gravel pathway here runs from the north side patio to the cement stairs leading down the slope

View of the dry garden from the right side

The slope has received no supplemental water since the 2 rainstorms we had in February.  My husband and I began work at the bottom of the slope last weekend, trimming back the very large Yucca elephantipes and foliage plants marking the border between our property and that of the neighbor below us.  Even though I selected plants for the area based on their drought tolerance, I was surprised and pleased to see that the area is in relatively good shape (so far) despite the severe water restrictions.

View from near the top of the stairway - the area to the left of the hedge belongs to one neighbor and the area beyond the Yucca in the distance belongs to another one

View from the bottom of the slope looking back upward toward our neighbor's house - with the exception of the fig tree, I put in all the plants between the stairway (constructed by my husband) and the hedge since we moved in

That's it for this month's wide shots from my garden.  Please visit Heather at Xericstyle to see her view this month and to connect to other participating gardeners' views.