Well, we finally got around to planting our garden for the year. Thank goodness we have a long growing season in California, or my plants would never get to produce! In addition to the two raised garden beds we have at the side of our house, this year we have added a large raised bed along the back of the garage. This raised bed is small part of our yard remodel project. We are working to re-do the front, back, and side yards. We have a bit of yard on all sides of the house, and it all was/is a mess! The side yard seemed like the easiest to tackle first.
As you can see above, our side yard is fairly large. We’ve added a nice dog run for Hailey (the black fencing) which also allows her access to the garage. After digging down the center area and using it as fill for the garden beds, we added pea gravel to create a nice (easy to maintain) path. Hailey likes to watch from her dog run when we go out to water the plants.
Ok, back to the actual garden. We decided this year is the year of the pepper! We planted:
- Petite bell peppers
- Red bell
- Yellow bell
- Habanero
- Serrano
- Poblano
I’m most excited about the petite bells and habanero!
In addition to the big mess of peppers, we also planted:
- Celebrity tomato
- Early girl tomato
- Super sweet 100 cherry tomato
- Strawberries
- Japanese cucumber
- Hybrid cucumber
- Flat Parsley
- Mint
- Rosemary
- Oregano
I’m really excited about the new garden location, and since its not so tucked away it’s already getting more attention. Plus, it’s a bit taller, which our backs are happy for! As for the two previous beds along the side of the garage, we’ve decided to use one for herbs, and the other for cucumbers. The chicken wire is to keep our cat out, the little devil thinks it’s her litter box! We’re in the process of killing weeds around our old beds with cardboard, which is why it looks like a garbage dump.
The new raised bed goes all the way to the side fence, to the shed. The old beds are on the right side of the shed, just to give you some perspective on how our yard is laid out.
You can see below that we have only about two-thirds of the raised bed planted. One half of the bed will be garden, and the rest will be low water-use plants continuing to the back yard fence. The pea gravel will continue all the way to the back fence as well. The back yard is the next project to tackle!
So, now for the second half of the post title…
The Boyfriend decided to ask me for a promotion, and of course I said yes! We got engaged while on a much-anticipated vacation, which made it just that much more wonderful (both the engagement & the vacation!). We both couldn’t be happier and are already enjoying planning a fun, crafty wedding. And now, my project partner will be referred to as The Fiancé!
