Just a few random photos of the garden…

My veggie patch. Various salad greens in the near foreground, beans to the right of them. Another smaller patch of greens to the right of that, and a very small patch of onions at the far right side of the photo.

Further back, close to the fence, surrounded by 2x4s (to keep the snails out) is a small strawberry patch. (I ate the first one yesterday. It was wonderful.) To the right of that is a small patch of spinach and broccoli. The spinach is doing well and is thriving despite being heavily picked. The broccoli is not doing at all well– it’s growing leaves very nicely, but no florets are forming.

Against the fence is a patch of California poppies, with various herbs to their right. The speed composter is visible at the very left edge of the photo.

One of my sunflowers. This is the first crop, being grown to attract birds and beneficial insects. The main garden has a patch of cultivated Paul Bunyan hybrids which I’m growing for the edible seeds.

There’s also a small patch of experimental sunflower cutting mix growing at the other end of the garden. Burpee sent it to me as a freebie along with the rest of my order.

Apropos of nothing… some orange blossoms. They make the backyard smell great. The smell brings back one of earliest memories of California… when I was very young, maybe eight or nine, my family came out from our home in New Jersey to visit Disneyland. It was the middle of winter, and winter is a cold, dreadful time in NJ.

As we flew drove south on the 5 freeway, I remember smelling the most wonderful smell. It was decades later that I realized it was orange blossoms.

When I first moved to California (1982) you could smell the orange blossoms as you drove along the 5 through Orange County. Alas, they’re gone now. But my memories come to life again every time I walk through my backyard.