That's awesome! What do you have in your orchard? I lived as a child in the country so we would share with neighbors what fruit trees we had till landowners knocked them down - unfortunately to plant more crops. Good luck with everything! D
I must agree that Vesparados' back yard looks great! Mine's not that far along...I've got to finish trimming a few trees, pulling up weeds and pressure washing the fence. But...they'll always be projects or we'd get terribly bored. Everyone be careful out there. John
The warm season starts early in the Bay Area, so my tomatoes have been out for weeks and the largest is already flowering. I struggled with the gourds, but looks like I'm finally getting good germination. My two eggplant from last year were overwintered indoors, and though the spider mites plagued them, they came through okay and are now back outdoors again.
I am trying something new this year: growing my own spices. I mail ordered a cardamom plant, and now the turmeric root from the supermarket has also sprouted. We will see how it goes -- those will stay in pots because I don't think they are winter hardy here.
We have had a drainage problem ever since we moved here and we'd joke about having "waterfront property" whenever it rained really hard here in south Louisiana (which is usually about every afternoon about this time). We had a truckload of dirt brought in back in February and I seeded it (with clothes on, unfortunately!). We also bought a truckload of Camellias, Hollies, a Redbud tree, an Autumn Flame Maple, etc. from a local business that was (pardon the pun) going "tits up" in the spring. I planted most of it, but still have a few Camellias to plant. We're also putting in a Japanese garden since I've been enamored with Japanese culture and Japanese gardens ever since I was a kid, so the Golden Goddess clumping bamboo and the Nandinas are in, but I still have to dig out the 6' x 5' area for the pond and the waterfall in front of it. We bought the rolls of reed/bamboo from Home Depot, so after the conduit for the lighting and the pond power are installed on the privacy fence, that will cover it all up.
I can't find my more recent photos, so these will have to do for now. (The dirt guy was supposed to also bring a guy to dig out the pond area for us, but when he arrived with the dirt he claimed that the helper "bailed on me" and it didn't get done.)