For many years now we have worked toward having whimsical Permaculture backyard as well as a extension in our front yard. Our goal is to be beneficial to us as well as for the wildlife that visits our small place on this earth.
We started with a typical city front and back yard with green grass and a few trees. We decided that it was time to have a more sustainable and natural yard. We realized that it is important and we had to do a lot of work to achieve this goal.
Our yard grows, peaches, pears, plums, figs, blueberries, pecans, grapes, raspberries, herbs and vegetables.
We are learning things each year and one is iron is better than wood since wood rots quickly. So little by little as we can afford we are changing to iron.
We recently found a piece of iron to put on the top of this iron arbor. We know eventually we will have to replace the wooden arbors so we will keep our eyes out for some more iron pieces. We are encouraging our lemon trees to grow across this arbor.
This is one of the three wooden arbors and not sure how to change this to something that will not rot so for now we will leave it as it is.
I enjoy this arbor because there is something magical about walking under a arbor topped with a living plant. We recently added a non vintage item to the inside of the arbor which is hanging solar lights. They have different soft colors and gives it an enchanting effect at night as we walk the paths.
Part of the corn we are growing is tasseling. When we first planted our corn we had a very heavy rainfall and it flooded our corn patch. So we tilled another area that was less likely to flood and transplanted the corn that survived. Then we planted more corn so part of it is ahead of the other. The transplanted corn is the one that is tasseling now.
Our corn is non gmo self pollinating corn so we are very excited about growing this corn.
Last week I decided to take advantage of our the iron fence in the front to plant more beans. I have never grown anything here so we cut a trough, added some garden soil, some organic food and tossed it around and planted the beans.
We try to keep our front yard somewhat "normal" as some may think but it is difficult for me to not take advantage of any space that could grow food. We also have to consider an area for our dogs to run and play so we keep this part for them.
Another look at where the new beans will hopefully grow.
Our blueberries are turning, the birds are helping themselves to many of them and I don't want to prevent them from getting their share because they are feeding babies.
There are still more to ripen. The coneflowers have really made the blueberries pretty this year as they have grown up through the bushes.
This is the area where the remaining beans that did not wash away are growing. Some of the leaves have a rusty look now, not sure what to do about that. The last of the collards are standing that we feed to our bunny sugar. I know I have said that several times but the plants keep putting out new leaves.
This small patch hold quite a mixture of herbs, vegetables and fruits. We have cilantro, parsley, coneflowers, collards, beans, carrots, basil, raspberries, onions, peppers, cucumbers, 2 zucchini squash and an olive tree :)
Looking from our back porch, there are not many places where there is not something living. Among all these plants are little critters, birds, a misplaced Chipmunk, squirrels, skinks, geckos and frogs.
We think the chipmunk must have hitched a ride several years ago from a visit to my husbands mothers house. She has chipmunks where she lives but we have never seen a chipmunk here at our house. A few days after we returned from a trip to her house this chipmunk appears in our backyard. Most days we would find the chipmunk scurrying around our backyard and this went on for a couple of years. Then last year we never saw the chipmunk again until two weeks ago.
There it was, my husband comes running in the house all excited, he said "It's back"! The chipmunk is back! He had searched often for that little chipmunk after it went missing and he was very happy to see it again. I do not know if he would have survived here in our area if we did not have food for him to eat.
I feel we are making a difference in our eco system and have noticed a increase in many varieties of birds. We do not put out any bird seed so the birds are coming here strictly due to the environment. We do have a single humming bird feeder.
Our yard used to be nothing more than dirt, grass and a few trees. Now it is more Permaculture with a whimsical touch. We have become part of nature, a more natural environment and everywhere we look something that is growing is eatable for us or for creatures that come to our small plot.
Inside our home is more vintage now and that too makes us happy.
Grandma Donna
