and a solace to the soul.
"The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never
dies." _Gertrude Jekyll
Let's pretend... Once upon a time, on a sunny summers day, you found yourself strolling along our lane. You come upon a little old cottage, the color of rain, set deep inan enchanted garden, all wrapped with a blue a picket fence. You pause to peer deeply into the shaded areas behind the vegetable beds nearest the fence. Nana and Papa working or resting there. You're greeted with smiles and the offer to, "Come on in, and tour the garden". So... if you have a few moments now, and you're interested in seeing where we spend many a happy hour...
"Here are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches... here is my
heart..." 
Verlaine
Come
on in - Tour Our Garden!
Oh,
and by the way, if you should happen upon the little Photo Tag
hanging near one of our photos, give it a click. It just might take
you to something you'd like to transplant to your cyber garden space.
Try it now... but click right back.
A step inside the Garden Gate brings you to our version of a four-square herb garden. Closely planted with culinary herbs and interspersed with seasonal vegetables. It's small. Each bed is only about eight square feet; but it yields enough tomatoes, peppers and eggplant to freeze sauces and share the abundance with neighbors.
The beds are filled to the depth of a two-by-six and centered on a brick-paved patio. Our collection of succulents thrive in the magnified heat of this tiny desert space, blooming profusely in the bright sunlight. This collection of terra-cotta pots, sets the tone for the theme of container gardening found throughout our tiny garden. Specimen plants in well worn terra-cotta pots are placed at intervals throughout with traditional plantings around every corner.
Moving into the shade of the heavily laden grapefruit tree, and looking back into the sunshine beyond the fence, tomatoes and marigolds suspended in bamboo teepees bridge the path between the four-square beds and another raised rectangle, this time filled with roses, bordering the lawn. In this small garden, space is maximized by using every trick of doubling and layering we can think of.
Fruit
and berries are mixed into the garden both as container plantings and ground
cover. A tasty freestone peach resides in a half whiskey barrel, underpinned
with strawberries and flanked with a second tomato/marigold teepee bridging
the path.
While it may sound tedious to the non-gardening folks who visit us, we have
learned to love the exceptional richness of texture and pattern achieved
by our layers of green. Light and shadow, sunshine and shade, work together
to bring the illusion of space to what might otherwise be considered a tiny
garden plot.
Thanks
to our Zone 9 climate we are able to grow both traditional garden varieties
and semitropical plants with equal success. The cottage is flanked on
the south with a guava and a pomegranate; on the east with two huge pots
- one contains a Meyer lemon the other a navel orange.
Each tree offers seasonal treasures not only for feasting but also to
delight the senses and fuel the imagination.
As an example, shell-like petals of the guava blossoms surrounding a fringe
of gold tipped crimson, beg to be photographed, drawn and painted again
and again. 
The
artist must work quickly, however... before local mocking birds move in
to gorge themselves on the sweet delicacy. When we first observed
the mockers warring with scrub jays over the petals we could not imagine
what all the fuss was about. So we tasted the flowers! Now we know. Each
fleshy petal is the flavor of ripe fruit and honey. I suppose it's fair
to say the guava is allowed space in our garden purely for it's entertainment
value.
The lemon, orange and grapefruit provide amazing perfume in March
and luscious fruit until June thus paying for their space. The pomegranate
flowers brilliant orange, offers a bounty in late August for making our
favorite jelly, then turns an amazing gold in autumn to set off the bronze
mums at its feet.
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