...will now be "The Orchard"
We cleaned out the old garden area...this is where we have had the garden for several years, but periodically wild pigs would find it and turn it into their private buffet.
We got very discouraged but would come back time after time and clean and replant...
I've mentioned in several posts how we moved the garden to the area in front of our cottage and are mixing edibles with ornamentals...it seems to be working quite well and I'm very excited.
Behind the vincas there is a large stick oregano bush and to the left you can see a coupld of papaya trees planted just a few months ago and are now about 3 feet tall.
The young man that helps us with the yard was here today to mow. He usually helps us with other little projects and some not so little. When he first started helping us he could not tell an herb from a weed...he has come a long ways since those early days!
After he finished mowing today he helped us clear out the 'old garden' area and removed the metal framed tables we were using as raised beds
Compare the area now as of today!
You can't see them too well, but there is one Malabar chestnut, one calamondin, one orange tree and a tiny little lemon tree planted here - you can also see (top right) part of the foliage of one of our two Surinam cherries in this area. You can also see a very tall Cuban red banana (top left) - not discernible is a Pigeon Pea and 2 more banana plants.
In the center where the metal frames were previously we spread out some ground cover black cloth, which we anchored with bamboo pegs and are beginning to line with rocks around the perimeter. In it we're planting pineapples. We have room for at least 2 dozen or more pineapples to be planted.
Between this end of the pineapple planting, we have room to place some sort of trellis to plant our thornless blackberry vine.
There is a small stick oregano barely seen just this side of the right corner of the pineapple bed. It survived the pigs and I didn't want to move it.
I would like to plant 2 more fruit trees running parallel to the left side of the pineapple bed, not sure wyat yet, but possible one will be a Rangpur lime, if I can find one.
Looking at the pineapple bed from the opposite side of the yard, you can now see the two round planters made from trellises that friends made and gave me for my birthday. I will be planting purple sweet potatoes in one and multicolored regular potatoes in the other. The trellis with the thornless blackberry vines will be closer to the pineapple bed so as to leave a walking space between the potato plantings, the pineapples and fruit trees. The yard slopes downwards to the left and there are rock steps (by the brown pole on left) going to the lower area where there is another house and carport.
This fig is several years old and had been planted in the ground in the old garden area. It never did anything there so we dug it up and planted it in one of the largest pots we had. Since then it has really taken a life of its own...and...
....we have figs!!! I started out by pinching them off when it first started putting out little figs, since I felt I wanted to give it a good 'grounding' before it gave us fruit...but the little tree was determined to give us figs, so I left them alone and now look!
Lemon balm in foreground, a glimpse of the curry plant and our dwarf sunflowers are really loving this spot...if you look carefully you can spot some tomato, eggplant and sweet basil foliage and even a piece of a banana leaf on the left.
The garden is changing daily and I love it!
You can see the evolution of our garden from the beginning to now by clicking on the links...they are in order from earliest to latest - where there are major gaps is where we lost battles with nature and or pigs and had just about given up before we rallied...one more time!
Garden Journal - Intro - September 6 , 2006
Garden Journal - The First Week - September 11, 2006
Garden Journal - The First Month - October 9, 2006
A walk through the yard.... - May 5, 2007
The taming of our garden... - May 23, 2007
Garden Journal - Summer Update - June 13, 2007
The Edible Garden - August 18, 2007
Bananarama... - November 14, 2009
Is it a yellow orange or a Meyer Lemon? - January 30, 2010
Garden bounty.....Growing edibles - April 1, 2010
Notes from the Herbal Garden - April 12, 2010
How Does My Garden Grow...? update - June 15, 2010
Yes, we have no bananas......! - July 24, 2011
Our newest edible garden project - March 28, 2013
Our newest edible garden project - May 15, 2013
We have tomatoes! - June 16, 2013
A July garden update (or how we're mixing edibles with ornamentals...) - July 9, 2013
