For my Mom, and all mothers in my family.

The irises bloomed doubles and there's one going to bloom soon!

I know it's cold up there and I wish I could send you the weather here.  I hope these pictures are bright enough to brighten your day still.

Revival of Life

The story of this garden began over two years ago... when the yard was a waste land of abandoned projects and scrap materials. One day we- my roommate and I- gathered our enthusiasm and wanted to start our own garden. We wanted herbs and flowers and food, but despite our yard's square footage, there really wasn't a good place to start tilling a garden. Until we discovered in the back corner, three concrete steps leading us down to a cracked and crumbling Koi pond. We felt like anthropologists discovering the luxurious layout of some ancient culture's backyard, even if it was only abandoned ten or so years ago. As we shifted leaves and weeds we found raised garden beds held up by rock walls, but unfortunately they were buried beneath about thirty or more 12 foot long pieces of white plastic '2x4' decking. We rallied my boyfriend into helping us move the heaping pile of plastic to the other back corner of the yard... and when we picked up the first board we discovered the ants. Yes, the plastic decking was making a five foot tall, twelve foot long ant colony.

Well, we didn't want to give up on the idea of having a garden and decided we could deal with ants crawling up our arms to get it. We moved as fast as we could, having two people carry white planks around a Koi pond and through brush and bamboo, achieving a dirty sweaty creepy-crawly feeling. Once we moved the bottom pieces, we uncovered something so strange, none of us had seen the likes of it before. Beneath this decking, with almost zero sunlight, were white-yellow, waxy, sweaty, limp, dying piles of leaves. We weren't even sure if they were alive at first. Then when we touched them, it was obvious they were alive--but barely. We wanted to revive them and give them the best chance possible but we feared the sun at this point might bake their tender leaves and we didn't expect much to happen with them.

They actually perked up and seemed like good greenery to keep in the garden as perennials. We worked the garden for a year (my boyfriend and I) growing tomatoes and peppers and some other things, but we noticed there isn't enough sun to grow food since the trees fill in mid-spring, partially shading the whole garden. Fall and winter passed and when spring sprang and back again, strong as ever, came the green leaves.

Though what happened next was totally unexpected by all, it was indeed very welcomed. It turns out the plants we were reviving are now flowering. I'm so proud of our raised garden bed I decided to show you some of this year's progress. I don't feel I need to label all the pictures, they speak for themselves and their message has grown alone with their vegetation. They are screaming "we're alive", and "thank you".

Our garden this spring before weeding. and after...

Springing and Weeding

This cat has been hanging around our yard. She's a sweetie, and though I don't want to keep her, I don't mind her stayin in the yard. We'll make sure she doesn't starve but that's it. She is free to roam the yard and get chipmunks and mice.

This prickly little guy has been clinging to life in our yard for some time, though his origins are a mystery to us.

Outside kitty likes having company. She is perched on the rock wall of our garden bed.  I don't know what the flowers are yet I didn't plant them I just revived them but someone said they looked like iris'. I am anxiously awaiting their bloom!

A Large Clover!

This bamboo and this vine are like soul mates.

There is no separating them!

Just a cute carpenter bee!

Here you see our spinach babies.

Soon to be in my belly!

Only one of these in the whole yard. We didn't plant it, just popped up.

Our entire yard is covered in this plant. I don't know what it is, everyone is guessing morning glory but I remain skeptical of the invasive thing. I think it to be an impostor.

Just weeds, beautiful weeds.

More beautiful weeds.

Beautiful cat nap. In what used to be a koi  pond.

A Yardfull of Bamboo

This is a young bamboo plant. Maybe two years, probably younger. As you can see the plant is Christmas-tree shaped until it is much taller. The abundant growth towards the bottom is actually new stalks rising from the web of roots that shoot out from the center tree. Yes, this is in the middle of my backyard. Bamboo is very invasive. We had a small forest of bamboo in the yard and my roommate chopped a good chunk of it down and let it dry. I then went and picked through a heap of sticks to find suitable sized bamboo to begin working with. I figure, it's free materials, with tons of prospective uses, so I can't pass it up.

All I have to do is take pictures along the way so you can come with on my crazy journey, and if you like it, it was worth it.

I'm glad it's spring and warm out! I'm so tired of cold I'm willing to break out a summery sweat in the yard!

This is in the back corner of our yard. Note the leaf pile which is probably mostly compost beneath. The bamboo nicely guards the sight of an ugly fence or a compost heap but it so easily travels across your yard. All it has to do is take root.  Then it's a world of a challenge to get the entire plant out of the ground. If you just chop the stalks down many more will grow from the trunk/root that is still grounded. But if you don't mind putting in back-bending labor for only weeks of cleared space, go ahead and machete the crop out of it! At least you can use the stuff!

This is the segment of fence between our neighbors' driveway and the back of our yard which we tried to garden in. You can see why it makes a beautiful privacy fence but also a shady, crowded garden.

Here you can see the fence in the area where she cleared the bamboo. I wish she would have left some to hide the fence. Though it looks small, this is the corner of our yard we attempted to garden. Bamboo and a year later, I'm growing a container garden and harvesting bamboo. Hah!

This is what the stalks look like if you take a machete to a bamboo forest. They are hollow and yet still very sharp and strong, so don't trip or step on them! Note how the top left shoot has begun re-growing.
 

These long pieces were the biggest ones from the clearing, stalks taller than me!! Saved by my roommate, I think she wanted to make a fence... But they're too thick for my uses so I let them be.

This is what I call hand-pruned sticks. I gathered them from a huge pile of what looks like garden trash and pulled with my hands, to get the twigs off. It is so strong, you need scissors or garden clippers and sandpaper to make the sticks perfectly smooth. I prefer using short sticks, easier to handle. Also the thickness is important to the use. If you want to carve utensils out of bamboo you need thicker stalks. I want to make these into toggle buttons or wind chimes. 

These sticks are close enough to finished I placed them in the sun to make sure they're dry and that there's no bugs hanging about. Then it takes creativity, elbow grease and a secret concoction of tools to make the usable bamboo rods into something beautiful and durable. (Obviously the one needs to sit out longer and dry more since it is still green.)

And then there's this lazy mutt.
Yeah, she put in a hard day of work laying in the sun and yawning between cat nip and cat naps.

In March, with Mom

I know all of my posts thus far have had cool pictures. This one doesn't but that's because I'm not at home with my camera and laptop. I've been visiting my mom, and helping her out as much as I can. She's not doing chemo this week, but she will next week. I'm happy that all the 'prototype' hats I made for her fit well and now I know I have the green light on making hats! She shaved her head...And she looks awesome! We went out and bought make-up, and earings, and an awesome hat and scarf combo to accentuate her smiling face, and beautiful blue eyes. I picked out blue eyeliner and wow do they pop!  I'm very proud of her, I know it's hard to shave your head when you don't want to but have to. She was already my mother, my friend, a sister (in the sisterhood of love) and now she's a true life heroine! It's hard not to look up to someone who shows so much strength, resiliance and courage. My time up here feels like its flying by, and it's halfway over already! I do wish to be back home with my man and my cat though. When I do get home, I will soon be posting pics of even more hats and things I'm makin!

Don't forget to scroll down and check out my etsy shop!