My Little Oasis

So, I'm not sure any of you remember what my back yard looked like when we bought your new trailer.  If not, here is a reminder.  Yeah, the whole thing was just black plastic.  The chair and patio in the bottom picture belong to my neighbor.

 

Well, slowly but surely I have been working on it. First I added roses.  Everyone around here has amazing roses so I thought I would give it a try.  So far a couple are doing ok but I'm not too sure about the other two. The previous owner also left me a lot of pink cement borders so I used those to enclose the roses.

 

 

Then if you remember, my friend Linda, sent me a little solar fountain in a red bucket.  I had already decided that I wanted to have a birdbath so I combined the two.  (As you can see, my neighbor's nice pretty little patio has become kind of a junky catch all.)

I then decided that I would just take the solar pump and put it in the bird bath rather than putting it in the bucket and then putting the bucket in the birdbath.  I also added a bird feeder and a Hummingbird feeder.  And I brought 3 Dalias around back.  I had bought them for the front of the house but the sun was just too hot for them out there.  They are doing much better out back. Dalias aren't really local so take a lot of care.

The other day we were at Armstrong Nursery and I found a couple of Gardenias.  I LOVE Gardenias.  Always have--always will.  And apparently these do well in "coastal valleys" which I guess El Cajon is. We shall see.

So, today I decided to go to Home Depot and buy a couple of pots for my Gardenias.  But of course, I got sidetracked and discovered that they have a section of plants which are just for this area--drought tolerant etc.  And of course, I had to buy one--or two or three or four. And then I had to buy pots for them too.  Oh and potting soil.

 

Then the decision was where to put them all. Of course I had to move the fountain and Hummer feeder. And then I added a few of the cement borders. Oh and the previous owner was also a rockhound and left a bunch of big rocks laying around so I incorporated them and some of my Sanibel shells--and the red bucket which had once been my fountain. And a lawn chair which the previous owners had left. And a plaque which I had brought with me from Sanibel.  And here you have what it looks like today.  Not that it will stay this way!!  I have to go get some more potting soil and I'm sure I will probably find a couple of plants just screaming "Take me, take me". 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it.  There is still a lot to do but for now, at least it isn't black plastic anymore. Oh and in case you wondered about the tomato plants.  They are now HUGE and producing tomatoes.  And yes, my neighbor does drop 3 or 4 off on my porch every few days.  And she doesn't always get all of the ripe ones so guess what--I pick them! 

 

And my Tangelo tree has had it's trials.  I've had to spray it several times to get rid of aphids, spider mites, etc etc etc.  But they are growing.  Can't wait until I can just go out and have fresh orange juice every morning. 

 

Stay tuned.  Now I have to attack the front of the house.  5 little pots of red geraniums just isn't doing it!