planting

I just got through planting 9 new plants in our front yard. This has been an on-going process. About a year ago J. and I decided to 1) get rid of our grass, 2) make our front yard drought-tolerant and 3) make our front yard edible (or atleast non-toxic). It has absolutely been a work in progress! We found out that it costs a heck of a lot of money to plant 50 new plants all at once, so we've been slowly piddling our way through it. Today I planted some lower growing herbs that are perennial and seem to do well with no water. Into the ground went three different marjorams, two different types of thyme, two society garlics (a white and a purple), a lemon verbena and an artichoke. Most people are unaware that society garlic is actually a relative of a true garlic AND that the flowers and foliage are totally edible with a garlicky flavor. A great addition to salads!

These plants add to the two grape vines, pomegranate, pineapple guava, strawberry guava, arbutus, blueberries (in wine barrels - these aren't drought tolerant), holiday avocado, rosemary and two golden currant (ribes), and a whole slew of different types of sages (salvias) that we've gotten into the ground over the past few months. This year won't give us much of a harvest, but hopefully sometime in the next couple of years we will be making some arbutus jam to go along with our blueberry scones and fresh pomegranate juice!

One of our sages in bloom

While it's been a lot of work, I am hopeful and really exited about our drought-tolerant, beautifully landscaped front yard that also *happens* to have plants that will contribute to our dinner table.

Here's the pergola we build over the summer - it is now surrounded by lemonade berry to the left, ribes (currants) in the front and grapes that we hope will climb well and prosper over the next few years