Holtwood House // Edibles Garden Progress

So many times I wait to share a project around the house because it's not quite yet finished. But there is often an exciting moment to be shared at each project milestone. We recently finished building the foundation for our edibles garden and even in its half-done state, it gives me a little thrill each evening when I round the corner to see what we've accomplished.

We have our share of nightly crawlers - raccoons, possums and skunks among them. To keep our future bounty from being picked over each night, we built a screening system for the redwood raised beds we built last year, that would allow us to batten down the hatches so to speak at the end of the day and preserve the day's growth. Each side screen can be lifted and propped up with a 2x4 during the day by the pretty brass handles my husband installed. An eye hook secures them to the bed once reclined again each night.  The beds themselves also got a bit of a reboot. I sanded and then weatherproofed them with a soy-based sealer to help keep the wood from drying out under the hot California sun this summer.

Our herb table serves as a backdrop to the rest of the garden.  Before planting, I painted various pots - some new and some old - black for a uniform palette. I love how the deep hue of the pots brings out the colors in the foliage. A wall fountain once handed down to us many years ago got a fresh coat of paint and new motor and now presides happily over our flock of herbs and cacti sitting on the table below. I'll be sure to get a few more shots of the table itself at some point, built from a pile of old cinderblock and spare lumber we had stacked up out back. The cinderblocks were painted black as well and blend discreetly into the adjacent fence line.

The view of the garden on approach gets me every time. You can glimpse a peek through the lemon tree from our pool. We had that in mind when we hung the string lighting along the fence. The Mister wanted a bocce court. I wanted vegetables. In the end, we came together and made this little piece of heaven for ourselves. Even though the beds still lay bare, it's become one of our favorite little corners in our yard. 

***Here's where we started and finished back in 2012

photos by holtwood hipster

Planted, Rediscovered + Built

We haven't had much of a winter to say the least here in Southern California. Honestly, temperatures have been so mild that it has even been a little shocking for us.  But it is because of this, that we were able to get an early start on our garden re-boot this year. We've spent the past few weekends planting and building out some more structure - including some new screens for the raised beds, a work table and even a bench. 

While it's far from finished, today I thought I'd give you a sneak peek into how things are shaping up out there. While we are still prepping the raised beds, we did get a few things planted over the weekend - including some herbs, peppers and tomatoes. There was a big tomato event at one of our local specialty nurseries and we picked up some San Marzano and Sungold plants, among four other heirloom varieties. Can't wait for summer salads! We're also planning lots of salsa making with a full fledged pepper garden this year. 

I was digging around for some supplies in the garden shed and came upon a brand new box of copper garden markers that I can't wait to use once we have everything laid out. The bench and table both came together rather nicely. I'll be sure to show you both projects just as soon as we complete the layout and get all of our spring plantings in the ground.