Befores and Afters
May 19, 2025
These befores are going to be embarrassing.
Let’s just say it’s been a messy spring (as Springs usually are around here, if I’m being honest) and the yard got away from me. I really didn’t think it had gotten as bad as it had.. and then I walked around the backyard a few days ago. Early spring had been a total delight with lots of bulbs and so many colorful blooms. And then, seemingly overnight, WHAM… an aggressive, unauthorized explosion of weeds and overgrowth. Mary’s been MIA more than her usual, we had lots of spring rain and more warm days than I think we usually get this early in the year. The result: well…. the befores I’m about to post.
After completing my loop around the backyard, a mix of hangdog and appalled, I called Ruben in desperation. He came over that afternoon. (Seriously, what a guy.) He seemed genuinely sad for our yard, a yard he planted from scratch just 4 years ago! Literally bare ground front and back. In 2021 he laid paths, created lovely rock accents, built a cool raised platform around Peter’s sycamore, formed boulder walls, built raised gardening beds, and planted hundreds (at least dozens) of trees, shrubs, and flowers (per our landscape designer’s expensive plans). He laid the whole irrigation system, built two fences (and to those added grid accents for climbing roses), stained the entire universe of wood structures on our property), and tons of other things I’m not listing here. In short: he created a masterpiece that we were really pleased with and proud of. Mary’s been maintaining it ever since — and I really respect and appreciate her hard work and skills — but she’s a hard one to schedule (something she disclosed at the outset) and things can get away from her. As I said, when Ruben looked at it, he was really bummed.
He’d brought with him Omar, one of his best laborers. He said that he’d be willing to give up Omar for a day (Ruben’s super busy) to work in our yard. He said Omar could whip our yard into shape, given one long day (and $300). He said, “Omar will be here on Monday morning at 6:00. Please have cash.”
Today was the day. Omar showed up at the promised 6am and got to work. He left — absolutely beat — at 6pm. It’s astonishing how much one person can get done in 12 hours! I love Omar.
So, here we go:
Front yard walkway:
Front yard boulder wall and terrace:
Back yard citrus orchard (I call it). A Meyer lemon and a tangerine.
Back most path, behind the play structure (now garden shed and observation tower and to the left and not visible in this pic). Hammock’s ready to be uncovered and set up for the summer, now that the rains are over.
Rounding the corner and heading back to the deck…
Taken from deck looking north.. the old bridge, herb garden, mound to the left and patio in this shot.
Omar filled the compost bin and then filled 6 large canvas tarps. He may have hauled off in his car others that I didn’t tally… maybe these are just the ones he didn’t have room for.. not sure. But this is a good day’s work!
I just can’t tell you how de-stressing it is to see the weeds gone and the yard’s features visible again (which they WERE just a month or two ago!!)
Ripe and Ready?
May 16, 2025
Adventures in onions. Yanked these out of the ground.. but were they ready to be picked? Are they even scallions, or would they have become something else if left in the ground longer? Their stalks were like drumsticks, but they softened up after a bit of sauteing (imagine an accent mark over the e). I am lost when it comes to knowing when to pick anything that grows underground (onions of all stripes, garlic, carrots).
On the other hand, strawberries are easy: pick before the squirrels eat them.
And those flowers! Also from the garden, picked by Jim for Mother’s Day last week.
April 1st Garden
April 1, 2025
This is where the garden is, as of April 1:
The redbud’s in full bloom, and a bunch of bulbs have come up (not the first, but a good batch)…
The chard’s going gangbusters…
With more on this side, plus some dill, parsley, chives and onions…
And we’ve moved strawberries over here, making it a dedicated strawberry box with borders, to keep the berries from infiltrating everything else… (that’s mint in the planter to the right)…
Here Come the Daffs
March 17, 2025
I’ve been in the cold, cold midwest, for nine days, and tomorrow I head to warm Southern California. And in the meantime, Spring done sprung in Davis. We planted probably about 50 new bulbs last fall, so the mound should be sporting a lot of color this season. Here’s the start:
I’ll keep y’all posted as other stuff comes in.
Bulbs are Bulbing
February 24, 2025
A few days ago, I noticed a speck of purply blue on the mound.. and sure enough, the first bulbs are coming out (not counting the narcissus that started blooming before Christmas). Mary planted dozens, and maybe dozens more, in the fall.. excited to see how many come up. We have a regular crop that’s been regularly blooming for a few years now. If the plan holds, we’ll have a riot of continuous color for the next couple of months.
Wrong Color!
February 9, 2025
This is Mary. She’s been our gardener for the last three years or so (and I hope for years and years to come). She’s great.
She had just cut down [most of] our Chinese pistache, planted about 5 years ago, because DANG if it wasn’t the wrong color! Its leaves turn a nice yellow in the fall, which is fine.. but our sycamore also turns yellow and the idea was to have a pistache that had bright red leaves in the fall to offer a contrasting color in our front yard. Leaf color can apparently vary from pistache to pistache and you don’t know necessarily what you’re going to get unless you purchase your tree in the fall and see its leaves.
I’ve been wanting to replace this tree for a few years now.. and we finally got that ball rolling. We’re going to abandon the pistache variety altogether and go with a maple (I forget the exact type), which WILL have very bright red leaves. It also won’t be as large, so won’t crowd the still very much growing sycamore.
The stump was bigger than expected, so Mary’s coming back later with additional tools. We should be planting the tree (and another crepe myrtle on the north side of the driveway) in the next few weeks.
Garden Happy
June 18, 2024
I know.. we’re approaching late June.. a bit late to be planting our summer garden. Note to self: do NOT let this happen again next year.
But, sigh, it happened this year, due to the usual an unfortunate series of unfortunate events in the life of our gardener Mary. Really, really like Mary and I will continue to accommodate the craziness that is her life and just get better at workarounds. Like, next year, Jim and I will plant our own garden. I mean, how hard can it be? We were silly not to just do it this year, but, well.. we just didn’t.
But hey, enough about that. Today we (well, Mary… thanks, Mary!), planted tomatoes, basil, eggplant, zucchini and chard. Really, the only things we care about. We’ve had countless other veggies over the years, but don’t eat anything but the above. So that’s what we’re going to plant from now on. We also have strawberries and some chives.. both of which are fine, too. Don’t judge us.
Some pics:
A little sparse, but it’s coming along. Some are seeds (since all the starts are gone for the year).
But hey… look at these plums!
(Now, THAT’S a LOT of plums!)
Our fig crop looks very wimpy this year, our nectarines all seemed to get eaten by the squirrels, and our lemons and mandarines have YET to produce. But will ya look at those plums!
And also, check out this amazing succulent. Its blooms are otherworldly and are coming up for the first time (like, this week!).
Interesting, huh?
And for the record: the yards (front and back) are .. complicated. There is just a lot going on in both. The back, especially is fairly large and is full from end to end, corner to corner. It’s a lot to keep up with. And right now?, it’s starting to look great again! There’s enough right now to keep Mary busy for 3 hours a week and she’s got a handle on it all and I’m hopeful that after three years, we’re settling into a good, sustainable rhythm.
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In other news: attended the trial setting conference today with Maria.. held in Dept 14 on the 5th floor of the Yolo County Courthouse, Judge McAdam presiding (as he has from the beginning). Trial date: April 28, 2025. Once we got over the shock of that, I think we both came to realize it’s a reasonable date under the circumstances and will give all parties sufficient time to mount their cases. Justice moves slowly.
Unfortunately for me, I’ll miss the first week, at least, as I’ll be wildly celebrating Peter’s PhD defense and graduation in Ann Arbor! More on all that in due time.
Life of Wry 