Winter Garden Plan (Fall 2016, Spring 2017)

Thinking about the benefits of renting, I always ask myself, "why would I want a bigger yard when there's so much work to do in even a small yard?"  We currently have 1/16th of an acre. Definitely not enough for subsistence farming.  I used a website to map out our current garden layout. (http://www.smallblueprinter.com/garden/planner.html)

Front                                                                       Rear

This year, around my birthday, I built an arbor in the backyard out of some scrap wood and a 4' x 8' reed fence.  I've been moving stuff around back there all year.  I thought it would be a good spot to grow some special plants.  A friend gave me some heirloom seeds and I tried growing them in the backyard because sometimes people steal my plants from the front yard. Due to the drought, it wasn't practical to water them as much as they would have needed, even though I did install a mister system along the arbor.  Maybe I'll use it next year.

To determine what would grow the best (and where in the yard to put it), I took a series of photographs each hour.  This was in response to the new arbor and also to the City of Glendale who came by and chopped down so many branches of the Magnolia tree out in front of our house.  I had lots more veggies out there that didn't survive without Momma Magnolia's dense shade.

Another great thing that happened this year is that I started composting again.  One of my neighbor's plants started spreading a powdery mildew that attacked my garden.  I treated the leaves with dormant oil and baking soda (via spray bottle) then started composting near the original host plant.  It seems like it's coming back healthier than before.  I hope she flowers this spring.

Front Yard Only

I'm not so sure the computer-generated garden plan is more appealing than the hand drawn plan. What do you think?