Bear with me... I lost all the pics I had of this place, the first garden I ever created. It was in the tiny beach town south of San Diego, CA. known as "IB", "Imperial Beach"
We were a mere 3 blocks from the beach. Being "The Most Southwesterly
City In The Continental US", the climate is subtropical, and there was only one or two times, in the span of the 10 or so years we were there, that we saw frost on the lawns. You could grow ALL KINDS of stuff there, what I tried to do from 1990 to '95.
I did not know anything about
permaculture, but I read and read and read about everything I could get my hands on, about plants and
gardening. I began collecting a library in this time.
For a couple semesters at the nearby community college, I took some plant ID courses, those exotics in the nursery trade. I had access to the botanical/demonstration garden there, and it's where I got the floss silk tree seeds. It was about 8 feet tall when I left IB in '96
The sycamore was also grown from seed, but it did not take. It think because it did not get
enough water. Deep SoCal there is VERY dry. Those
trees normally grow in riparian areas. I had planted that one, because there was another, a giant one, a few blocks north and east. So I figured it would do fine.
On the east side of the shed, I installed a shelf on the dividing
fence, and started a bunch of annual ornamentals (coleus, impatiens, a moonflower vine, etc.) IN the shed I also started plants (it had a translucent fiberglass roof, so it was the perfect light to start seeds. I spent A LOT of time in that shed. And in the backyard.)
In the beds I grew a variety of veggies and herbs, never really producing much. Except for the spinach that reseeded itself all over the place that one year LOL
I don't remember where I got the fill for the back
berm, but I had to take the west
fence down in order to get my little pickup in there. A friend of my mother's came over as I was unloading, and drank some beer, while he just watched me struggle. I asked if he wanted to help. "Nope. Just gonna sit here and watch". Cracked me up.
I planted iceplant (the pretty, dainty kind) and fescue grass on the front berm, before there was a sidewalk and ramp there. I let the fescue flower. I looked nice.
We had the washer and
dryer right by the back-door of the garage, and the washer drain was clogged, so that grey water
lawn sprang to life one summer. Who knew there was all that bermuda grass in there?! The front lawn really only looked nice in the winter, when it rained.
I found the broken sidewalk chunks for the back-door entry, the bricks for the walkway, the boards and studs for the tiny deck, the rock bench and "frame", and all the borders for the big bed, in various places around the
local area, either from the beach job I had, or from my trips into the river valley there, or into the hills along the border. Lots of impromptu dumps all over the valley and along the border.
One side of the big bed was made of a creosote log, obviously an old utility pole, which I THINK came with the house. Not 100% on that.
We had 2 dogs, both being, well, dogs, so they did what dogs do. I had to close them off. I composted their
poop.
We had a cat, and she killed the catnip I planted one year, by rolling all over it, in a stupor, one night.
All the existing landscape shrubs and trees were fairly overgrown, so we had a sense of privacy in the back, and on the covered front porch.
Now there's just a kiddy pool in the back, a wall on the west side (yuck) no trees, and the big bed and walkway look like they've been removed. Such a waste.
I held on to all the seeds I collected back then, all the way up to 2 or 3 years ago. 25 years! Pretty sure most of them were not viable, but god damn it, I was still going to try!
5
