BEFORE:

Institutional plantings of agapanthus, spider condos (aka mock orange?), and some wan heather (or whatever those wan plants are that you can’t see in this picture).

AFTER:

Matching tiered raised beds on either side of the front walkway with an Elephant Heart plum in the center on one side and a Frost peach in the center on the other side.

First we had to strip out the agapanthus – a job that will never be completely done because this plant was designed by the devil – and then we removed the creeping amorphous shrubs that all the neighborhood spiders were using as their hatchery.

Then we got one of the neighbors to come dig up the beautiful weeping cherry that produces no cherries.  This was a sacrifice on my mom’s part.  I swear I didn’t force her to agree to let me put a fruiting tree in its place.

Then I began measuring and cutting the lumber for the beds.  Remember that I already designed the beds this winter?

I built the beds.  It took me about a week to build all the beds.  Philip leveled them in the ground and filled them with soil.

If you want to meet your neighbors in Santa Rosa all you have to do is work on a garden project all week.  Absolutely everyone will introduce themselves to you.  I love it!  You could work on a garden project for a year in McMinnville and no one will EVER talk to you or introduce themselves.  Ask me how I know.

Everyone in the neighborhood (so far) LOVES the raised bed design!  (They’ve all told me so and have been commenting on the progress excitedly for two weeks now).

I wanted the beds to be matching on either side of the path to give the walkway a sense of symmetry and formality.

This week I will be planting the beds out with most of the herbs they’ll have in them for this year.  The vegetables will go in next week.  Next year I will add more medicinal herbs to the beds as we’ll be building vegetable beds at the end of the driveway.

I’d be out there planting right now but I woke up too late and it’s already HOT out and I wouldn’t be able to water anything I planted without giving them major sunburn.  Next week I should have more to show you in these beds.