Garden 2013: Day 1

Garden 2013: Day 1

I finally started cleaning up the garden yesterday.   Little late this year, but it’s been raining constantly.  I never cease to be amazed at the amount of weedage that grows in a couple weeks of warmish weather.  According to the neighborhood gardeners, my sunny plot isn’t the only one that’s especially verdant this year: the weeds are prolific everywhere.  Perhaps its because we live in Verduno. Ha! (Verde = “green” in Italian)

Below are the before and after pictures of my work thus far. The first couple days of cleanup are always overwhelming. More than “gardening” it feels like (barely checked) annihilation or extreme refuse removal.

Towards the end of my two hour pulling spree I usually start to get a little creeped out by all the spiders and bugs whose homes I’ve just destroyed. It wasn’t just by chance that I was attacked by an army of angry red ants who seemed to be looking for a new home inside my glove after I accidentally threw theirs into the compost pile. Payback baby.

On a positive note, I have six small fig trees that are about three years old and are full of fruit! These trees spontaneously sprouted from a beautiful old tree that my neighbor cut down about 4 years ago. In other news, my scraggly little rosemary plant has tripled in size and turned into a rather large rosemary hedge! The spring onions are taking over everywhere. If anyone needs some, PLEASE stop by and I’ll give you and your cousins and your Uncle Frank as many as you want.

Here are some pictures…though it doesn’t look like much at this point:

7 Comments

  1. Carolyn · May 6, 2013

    Whoa Shiraz! Very impressive progress. We too have had tons of rain this year and way behind in the yard work. Looks like you are well on your way to an amazing garden!! miss youxxoo

  2. Carrie · May 6, 2013

    It looks like the bugs find your garden very romantic!! 🙂 Jealous of your fig tree… ours just get eaten by deer!

  3. Shira · May 6, 2013

    @Carolyn – thanks! Let’s hope all this rain means we’ll have extra beautiful and fruitful plants this year!

  4. Shira · May 6, 2013

    @Carrie – yes, VERY romantic. And very procreative too – last year I had a major infestation in the wild fennel. It was rather disturbing.

  5. Carolyn · May 7, 2013

    We have a ton of rain here too and cool for this time of year…up NY way..is warmer than here right now…how rude!! hehe

  6. Matt Y. Stephens · August 2, 2013

    You just cannot hand-pick them when they number in the thousands. They ate my marigolds two years in a row – and it was most certainly the “roly polies,” not slugs nor any other bug, because I observed them at the main stem of the plant this year and watched carefully. They certainly love moist, dark places and decaying plant matter, but they will eat green, living plants.

  7. Shira · November 5, 2013

    And THIS is the extent of the garden this year! hahaha. I never actually got around to planting anything…doh.

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