Backyard update...

What my garden looks like as of this post.

A lot has changed in the backyard from it's mostly dirt and ligustrum status to the idea of a garden of low maintenance natives to raised beds to now.

First year in the house, figuring out the best paths in the backyard.

Fall 2009 was a great time in my garden. Spring while I was very pregnant everything went to flower and I had some really pretty crimson clover. Some native plants didn't make it through the summer, others flourished, and some I finally figured out were actually short-lived perennials. A lot managed to live through 2011 and I moved the raised beds a couple of times. Quite a few things died since I had a baby whose care took most of my time. I killed the roses that were passed on to me and then one I bought. I also killed the blackberries plants I tried to plant as well as the Fig tree. I also changed a lot that year or maybe just rediscovered myself.

Late Fall 2012, not much is growing  because I didn't water enough. My kid is building her own mini-garden

 My daughter is now almost a preschooler. Spring 2013 has been really successful in my garden. I'm trying to grow stuff that I had failed at up to now. I was inspired because I had volunteer spaghetti and butternut squash summer 2012. We really enjoyed the 6 small small spaghetti squash and the one butternut squash we ate before the squash vine borers destroyed the plants. My little one loved the winter squash. The only other crop that did well was the okra. The fall there was no rain and I just couldn't manage to water though I planted a lot. Not much of it came up. In the early spring, I planted a fig tree, a pineapple guava, a white turks cap bush and a fuyu persimmon. Two of which were gifts. Having these fruit trees and bushes has inspired me to water on a regular basis and we have gotten more rain this spring.

Late Winter/Early Spring 2013

Late Winter/Early Spring 2013

Salad Greens and Chiogga Beets from my Garden

A typical weekly bowl of Braising Greens.

 This is the best year yet for my backyard and garden and quite a few of the seeds I planted in the fall just waited 'till spring. I have managed to have two dishes of greens and one large salad every week which included beets for several weeks now and there is more to come from the garden. This year I got brave and am trying tomatillos, tomatoes, green peppers, basil, and cucumbers. Only the cucumbers are not doing well, so far though we did get to eat one pickling cucumber which was super tasty.  I have many random plants because my kid has to have seeds and plants anytime she goes to the plant nursery with me and as long as it is under a certain amount I can't resist buying them for her with the hopes she will be interested in the garden as well. We have volunteer summer squash, a zucchini type. I don't know how we ended up with it, but already have eaten more zucchini from it than all the years I've tried planting summer squash and I am seeing several small fruits that will mature in the next few weeks.  I also have two other volunteer melons or squash. No clue which since they are not fruiting yet. I am seeing a greater variety of insects, birds, and today a mouse. Mostly we have squirrels, including one living in our sycamore tree in the front yard which is going to eventually require us to cut it down. I suspect it is not only the squirrels digging in my garden, but mice. I know a lot of these new animals and bugs are due to the pecan crop we got in the fall which we harvested the majority of in October and some more in November and a few in December.  We still have some pecans that I am making pesto with this weekend. We also gave away several bags. Not sure I will be doing that this fall if we get another crop because I have this crazy idea that I want to be able to someday produce 75 to 80% of our food. I've read it is possible though not sure in Austin, Texas if it is...

I rechecked the same gardening books I liked from previous years and some new ones. Each time I learn something completely new like certain squash and melons can cross pollinate so watch were you plant them and if you want pure varieties only plant one variety each year.

I have finally apparently eradicated the poison oak because the bindweed, peppervine, carolina snailseed, hackberry and hedge parsley have completely taken over it's spot. Where the ligustrum used to be along the fence and then there was just emptiness has been taken over by volunteer pomegranate including a white/pale yellow variety. Looking forward to seeing if any of them are fruiting pomegranate or they are just ornamental. I suspect the pale yellow is an ornamental.

I have some new volunteer ornamental flowering plants (I think some people consider them weeds) and some of the wildflowers that I have planted for 4 yrs straight are finally coming up. Of course at this point I only know what a few of them are like the spiderwort, the standing cypress, and the wild chives. But that is one of the things I love about gardening is researching my garden mysteries. I just figured out that the plant that came up with the volunteer sunflowers last summer is amaranth and it is edible. I found one growing today and figured it out.

I'm keeping it this year because I think I may add in backyard chickens or rabbits and it will be a good source of grain one day. I also planted a good eating variety of amaranth though I have no clue since though I have had amaranth flour, I've never eaten amaranth leaves which are suppose to be like spinach. Well, I did taste a raw one today and it just tasted vaguely green grassy rather than like spinach. Next challenge is to cook some amaranth greens. I will be starting with the wild ones.

I love growing food. There is just something magical about it and it is tastier for many reason. I am really excited about growing varieties not found at stores because they don't keep well fresh. When I first started this adventure I stuck to things I knew I liked to eat and as time goes on I'm learning to like new things that I thought I didn't like beets because chiogga beets are not only pretty in my salads but so much tastier than the store variety.

I read about Ring Gardens in Dryland gardening and had to try it.

I can't resist  trying experimenting with new garden methods, in the beginning I thought I thought I would only be doing raised beds, but this year I've started an in ground bed, my own version of a hugulkultur bed, a tomato ring, and I trenched our compost in a style of double dug intensive bed and planted stuff over it. I'm also going to try to make a bean pole tent for my kid to play in. You can see the frame of it made out of bamboo stakes sourced from down the street.

In the last year, I've dismantled a lot of my old experiments which were not successful. The new ones are much more successful already. I'm also more accepting that I just like to experiment and even though I read a lot regarding certain garden theories just like in my cooking, art, and sewing I have a hard time following directions I just need to follow my bliss which will hopefully lead to lots of food to eat one day, regardless I will be happy digging in my garden.