Kitchen garden

From blossom to fruit�in this case, vegetable. This is my cucumber vine. I love growing fresh veggies in my kitchen garden.

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.
~ Alfred Austin

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Sometimes it's good to be tolerant

I have seen more and more drought-tolerant yards popping up all over Downey. While the City of Downey encourages replacing your lawn with drought-tolerant options, the city's codes still require the front and street side yards to be landscaped with a living plant material.

While I like the idea of low maintenance and reduced cost, I have a bit of a hard time with the thought of giving up my grass. It's the perfect place to sit in the shade on a hot day.

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The secret of the cosmos

Here's another example of drought-tolerant landscaping. This one, with all its wildflowers, is more to my personal taste�and made me a bit jealous. No matter how hard I try, I've never been able to successfully grow cosmos (those purple and white flowers along the back). Maybe I've been overwatering them all this time?

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Desert days

Just next door to yesterday's "mountain retreat" is landscaping designed to remind us of the desert that we actually live in. This drought-tolerant landscaping has its own beauty, but mentally cooling one off on a warm afternoon is not one of its benefits.

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Elaine's garden revisited

About three years ago, I wrote about this garden, created by Dave Lopez in memory of his wife Elaine. In those three years, the roses have flourished, to the point that the abundance of white made me stop this week for a closer look.

It has grown into a beautiful and peaceful place.

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