Sage Gardens

I posted a small photo tour of the gardens here at the homestead several years ago. It’s been one of the more popular pages for people interested in how we grow the herbs and botanticals for our homestead soaps, bath oils and teas. On a recent review, however, I realized that those photos were getting rather dated, and that some fresher pictures might be in order. It’s kind of fun to look at the changes between 2001 (when the original garden tour was posted) and 2005.

The Upper Garden

The biggest change between the 2001 photo and this one is the absence of the big gray wormwood that you can see in the upper left background of the old photo. After heavy rain in 2002 it got some sort of root rot and keeled over dead. (It was too big for the area anyway. )

I replaced it with a variety of sages and lavenders and a lemon verbena. I also built a small pond (not shown) and lined the walk with gravel to keep down the mud and weeds.

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Lower Garden South

After several years the oregano in the old photo ended up pretty much taking over everything. I like Oregano, but not that much. Plus, this garden borders the road that greets our visitors and I didn’t really want them greeted by a giant green mound that might eat their car at any moment.

I ended up digging out the oregano and replacing it with several flowering herbs - santolina, cleveland sage, french and spanish lavenders, and even a chocolate mint scented geranium. It’s a much nicer combination of plants that’s well-suited for our dry climate and offers a showy display of flowers in the spring and plenty of herbs to harvest for soaps and bath teas in the summer and fall.

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Lower Garden North

A couple of years ago I removed 5 older navel orange trees and expanded the lower garden to include a combination of vegetables and herbs. The honey rose sage is now at the south end of the garden near that big spiky, blue agave you see in the background. The Spanish lavender has since died out (not to worry - there’s plenty more in the lavender beds). In this photo you’re looking at the path down the center of the garden. That’s culinary sage (saliva officianalis) edging the path on the right, and a very happy mound of chocolate-scented geranium on the left. Beyond this, from left to right you’ll see corn, squash and tomatoes growing in the sun.

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Duck Patrol Pest Control

Yup, we’ve still got ducks. It’s the best way I’ve found to keep smails, slugs, and other bugs in check (and unlike chickens, ducks won’t eat your plants. Stomp on them with the big duck feet, yes; eat them, no.) All of these in the pic are descendants of the ducks in the older photo. In fact, the two ducks on the left and the white one on the right are the duckings of the big black one in the middle (who we have named “black duck”). This photo was taken in September of `05. Here they are 3 months ago.

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Lavender Garden

The lavender garden has changed a bit. Back in the old photo spanish and french lavender grew together, but it was mostly french lavender that you saw blooming. As time has gone on, however, the spanish lavender has taken over - probably because it likes the dry, hot location better than the french does. The spanish lavender is every bit as fragrant as the french, but you’ll notice that the blossom is considerably more blue.

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Chickens

We still keep a rather colorful flock of hens running around the lower orchards and the goat pen. They’re great for keeping bugs and rodents in check, plus they provide fresh egss daily. These ladies are looking at me to see if I have any food. Sorry girls. It’s just a camera.

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Fruit Smoothies

This section is unchanged. Still have citrus (tangerines on the left, grapefruit on the right, and mandarine oranges behind it) and bananas growing. The fence around the bananas came down last year and the chickens like to get in there and eat the new banana shoots, so there’s not as many as in the past, but they’re still going strong. Looking at this photo I can see that I need to trim the tangerine back too. By the time all that fruit is ripe in the winter tha limb will be hanging in the path.

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A New Deck

As the business expanded I was forced to replace the mint garden with a new storage building for the dried herbs and soap-making equipment. (The mint moved down to the expanded lower garden) After I built it I decided that I didn’t like the view from the north gate down to a big storage building. So I re-built the back deck to include a seating area with a barbeque and bar. Now that the plants have grown in, it’s such a nice place to sit and entertain that you hardly notice the storage building.

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The North Gate

The North Gate is unchanged. Kiwis still grow over the top, framing a view of the Hydrangia at the end of the path. To the left you’ll see the the Rose Gate (which now leads to the storage building). You can also see the new deck peeking out on the upper left. Looking at this photo (taken September 9th of 2005), it’s pretty obvious that everything needs a good trim. As soon as the leaves fall from the kiwi, they’ll get it.

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Through the North Gate

From the other side of the North Gate you can now see how big the kiwi is. You’ll also notice that the deck has replaced the mint and geranium beds that used to be there. Before I rebuilt the deck it used to have a cover attached to the house. It was nothing but a problem (rain runoff, termites, etc.), so I tore it off and left it open. Now there’s a big leafy cherimoya (upper right) and a market umbrella to provide shade. Better yet, this deck is west facing, so in the winter, when the cherimoya has lost its leaves, we get a lot more sun and warmth back there.

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Main Patio

Rounding the corner from the North Gate you enter the main patio area just beyond the upper garden. In the front you see my delightfully over-sized (cook enought to feed 10 people) char-griller barbeque (wood and charcoal only - no gas for me!). Off to the left you can see one of the chairs at the patio dining area poking into the picture. Beyond directly in the middle is the pond I mentioned with the first photo. To the right of that is the path in the first photo leading you through the upper garden to the steps to the lower garden.

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An that’s about it for the updated garden tour. Hope you enjoyed it!