Today’s post is a virtual tour of my backyard, with the focus on the edible plants. Last fall we found some earth boxes for sale at the local home improvement store. Since I had just learned about the benefits of growing boxes like these, we bought all six they had. I tried growing some cool weather crops in a few boxes during our winter season with more or less success. The herbs box did really well, and the lettuce produced a lot too. But my backyard gets very little sunlight in the winter, so it took months for the tomatoes to ripen. I learned my lesson, and I know not to plant those for the wintertime. Peas, spinach, and lettuce will be good choices for that time.

As soon as spring came, I visited my favorite local nursery in Santa Ana and picked up some herbs and veggies to plant. It was at this nursery that I learned about a better kind of soil, which I have been mixing myself. After using this mix for over a half a year both for veggie boxes and flowering plants I can say, that the soil has been very successful.

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We haven’t had rain for a while, and the beautiful wildflowers have started fading away. I met with someone today for a photography lesson by a wildflower field near our house, and took a few quick phone photos of them before they completely go away. It was a great blooming season for us in Southern California. Pretty soon these green and yellow hills will turn brown for the rest of the year.

I found these images in a folder from the end of last year. I took a walk in a nearby park with my Lensbaby Burnside 35 and on the way back with the Velvet 56. The first image above was taken with the Velvet, the other two with the Burnside. I used Topaz Impression to create the painterly effect.

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