In the Garden / New Spaces

As I mentioned before, Elsie and I moved last fall out of our house and into an apartment which also meant leaving behind our vegetable garden. Our new patio stayed in the shade all winter long and my failed attempts at getting our name on a community garden wait list had me hanging up my gardening gloves (at least for this season anyway).

6 weeks ago (I know that only because I documented the discovery on Instagram), I discovered that by late afternoon, a sliver of my patio actually started to see sunlight. It was all the hope I needed, I set to work scrubbing the patio on hands and knees and carefully rearanging the few planters I'd brought with me from the old house so that they could bask in the sun.

As the weeks passed the corner of sunlight grew little by little and I've been able to squeeze a few more plants in. I've also been enjoying the outdoor space as best I can. Once resigned to a heap of our outdoor clutter like my rusting bicycle and our dirty patio set, it's now tidy and livable and I spend every minute I can sitting in my corner of sunlight.

I know that this mini garden tour won't compare to my tours of the past but in the name of tradition, let me introduce you to some of the things that are growing in my new space.

. . .

When we moved I didn't bring any of the house plants because I knew that our new place would not provide enough light for them to be happy. The only outdoor plants I brought were my succulent planters because they are sentimental (one of which is nearly 10 years old and was salvaged from my Granny's garden after she passed away). I've also collected a few special cuttings that live among the old growth...

The white rosettes are stonecrop I nabbed on a hike up Mount Finlayson with my sister B years and years ago. The sedum were taken from our old garden on Fern Street.

This little guy and the one below are both pinched from planters that my Mom had on her patio up Island. I wish I knew their variety, they're so lovely.

This is a new addition to the patio, a birthday gift from my mom. It's Echeveria derenbergii.

Besides the succulents, I brought our hanging basket of strawberries and this cutting I took from one of the fig trees. It was actually a sucker that was growing below the soil line of one of the trees and therefor had developed it's own root system. I left the shoot long and gangly over the winter and cut it right back this spring. The inside was green with life and the pot showed signs of live roots beneath the soil so even though this doesn't look like much I'm not giving up hope just yet.

When my friend Amy heard the news that a glimmer of hope had crept onto my patio she gave me her last Sweetie tomato start (this was last years tomato winner!). I am so excited to give this guy a home.

And to top it all off we've been enjoying the most beautiful sunsets from our patio.

It was pretty emotional for Elsie and I, saying goodbye to our garden, and the space we have doesn't really compare to the one we left behind but we're maximizing our growing space and making the best of what we've got.