Major garden expansion

I've been busy in the garden during this past week. A second metal x-pen arrived in the mail, enabling me to expand my dog- and cat-proof garden. On the same day, I went to East Bay Nursery and couldn't resist bringing home one of the dwarf fruit trees. I admire the abundance of food a tree can produce, and I realized that putting a dwarf variety in a half-wine barrel was feasible for my small garden. I chose a clementine mandarin tree, which will grow to only ~6 feet tall in this barrel. Should I move to a new home, I can simply transport it with me! (Click on any picture to see a larger version.)

It's in the sunniest spot in the back yard, and I moved the compost/worm bin over to join it.

I know it's a viable tree because there's a wee mandarin growing already!

So after deciding to get this tree, I splurged and bought many more fruit and vegetable plants.

These are four raspberry plants -- the bins are a bit small for them, but I think they'll be happy enough. I'm going to put rows of string between the posts on either side, for the raspberries to climb on. The pale green board is a homemade dog agility teeter, which is no longer needed for Chimera's foundation training. It keeps the dogs from standing on the deck (level with the tops of the bins) and peeing onto the plants.

This is the other half of the deck, where I will put more pea plants (I love fresh peas!) and two cucumbers, when starts are available again. The blue plastic around the posts keeps the cats from climbing up. On the second level you can see a white mass -- that's my succulent garden, covered up from the cold.

Taking a few more steps to the right, it's the newly expanded pen!

From the other side. The two large tubs in front will be used for growing potatoes.

While I was buying bins at Urban Ore, I came across these lovely blue tiles and put them at the entrance to the penned garden.

Immediately on your left: six strawberry plants! Yum!

The pea plants are being directed along the side of the pen as planned. These plants will stay here until they're spent. I'll be seeding new plants to grow by the deck. (Told you I love fresh peas!)

There are three pretty white flowers on one of the plants. The day after I took this picture, I looked underneath this flower and found a teeny tiny seed pod growing!

The dill (in front) and parsley (back) plants are still going strong. These were the first seeds I planted and watched growing in my garden last fall. Sometimes it's hard for me to resist eating an entire plant at once. Perhaps I will have to devote one of my extra bins to more dill and parsley...

Next to them is the spinach bin, then some empty ones which will be planted with scallions (lots and lots of scallions!), carrots, and radishes.

Turn your head and you'll see six lettuce starts. They weren't too happy about being transported from the nursery, but I'm hoping they'll bounce back.

What's this? Non-edible flowers! Foxglove in the back, columbine in the middle, and dwarf lupine in the front. They're a bit scrunched in there. I had six starts of each, so there's a second bin planted in the same way to the right of the raspberry plants.

And finally, another non-edible: a tiny Norfolk Island Pine from the bonsai area.

I am so thankful for the warm climate which allows gardening to continue year-round. Here's hoping 2014 will bring an abundance of fresh food and flowers!