Here's my winter planter with more height and new compost added, all gussied up and ready for some serious planting.

We also had stairs added leading up to the second tier. We are in the process of picking out slate which we will use to "face" the steps and lower cinder block retaining wall with.

Now the real fun begins!!!

Mission accomplished!

The backyard is done and we are so, so stoked. As soon as the crew finished cleaning, the kids ran out and began enjoying it. Unfortunately I have no pictures to post tonight but I'll try and get some taken and posted tomorrow morning.

I am extremely stoked about my new and improved planter. It gained over 18", is double dug, fully composted and out of the late afternoon shade caused by some errant tree limbs which have been pruned. It will now get a solid 8 hours of sun or more.

I've started drawing up plans for what to plant where. There will be Spanish lavender and creeping thyme as a border on the edge of the top tier. Pomegranate bushes and rosemary will create a border at the edge of the second. I'll train jasmine and at least four types of grapes vines on to the fence of the bordering the dog run. Alpine strawberries, various flowers and herbs will go in to the brick planter near the gate. A few dwarf fruit trees will go nicely in a sunny portion of the bottom tier and lots of shade loving plants such as hostas and ferns in the shady, covered area under the patio.

We're off to San Francisco...

to eat luxuriously at an olive oil customer of mine, Bistro Aix and to catch the Giant's Game afterwards. It's a bit chilly for the outing but it will be awesome fun. I'm really looking forward to seeing Johnathan who is the owner of Bistro Aix. He's a great guy who's really passionate about what he does.

We were thinking about going to Laiola, which is also a customer but the wait, even with reservations can be horrendous. Ya see, Laiola is the new and happening spot to nosh in the Marina District and everybody and their mother has been trying to get in there - especially since they received three stars from Michael Bauer at the Chronicle.

We also thought about going to O'Reilley's Holy Grail but that's a rollicking Irish party spot and we aren't looking to take it to the limit this evening. I will say this, if you are ever in the mood to party Irish style and get your corned beef and cabbage on, O'Reilley's is absolutely the place to do that. I also highly recommend their Hunter's Pie made with Guiness and vennison ~ heavenly! Great bartender and very cute Irish staff.

So far so good...

The doggies have been in their new run for three days now and they seem to be totally happy and have not figured out a way to escape. This is very good news. They get supervised romping in the rest of the yard every day and a nice hour long walk each evening in addition to lots of inside hanging-out-with-family-time every night. This is turning out to be a win-win situation which is really hard to achieve where dogs, kids and landscaping are concerned. Mauricio has found it incredibly easy to clean the run and it has some nice bonus amenities such as shade, ample drainage, compliments of a perforated drain pipe which we had installed out of site and then covered with a decent layer of drainage gravel. This means that Mauricio can hose off the entire run without creating a mud pit when the need arises.

Speaking of doggies, we're taking our massive lug of a beast Leo to get fixed in a couple of weeks. He's done most of his growing. He weighs in at 114 pounds and is just three months shy of his second birthday. The huevos aren't doing him any good anyhow, especially now that Luna's fixed.

The next phase...

Here's my Winter Garden bed before having another 24" inches of depth added to it making it 30" deep, 10' wide and 18' long. Once that's complete it will be double dug and filled with a premium organic compost mix and then augmented with the "holy trinity" of animal crap being bat, worm and steer. The dog run is obviously adjacent but that's fine because I will be creating a small path with stepping stones in between which will run the length of the box in order to save the actual planting area from compaction. We will attempt to grow grape vines along the deer fence that makes up the run - we'll see how that goes.

The next picture down is of the run itself down to the red fence at the bottom which is now opened up to add another area which is hidden from sight but runs the entire length of our house.

Another shot of the enclosure at the top of the run which surrounds and is shaded by the mulberry tree.

The next picture is taken standing at the top tier looking down on to the second and patio. Although it is not shown in the picture, I am standing under the massive plum tree at the top right corner of our property.

Lastly, a picture taken standing at the bottom, on the patio looking up to the second tier. The crew is really making great progress so hopefully this project will wrap up by next weekend and I can start the fun of planting and filling in with other landscape components.

Here are some before pictures of the back yard...

Notice the mini-bobcat in the upper left corner... yes,this is a large project. It will probably span the next few weeks. I'll keep y'all posted on the progress.

As part of this project,we are having two good sized retaining walls built which will span the width of the back yard. The space itself is about 3,000 sq. ft. in total. including the patio. Our back yard and property in general is much bigger than the backyard and lot at our last house by about 1,000 sq. ft. but we've found less of it to be usable because of the slope, albeit gentle.

We are basically creating three distinct levels one being the patio and the other two being tiers above. The dog run (off to the left out of the picture) will keep the dogs out of the majority of the yard. They will still have the entire length of our property being over 100 ft. and a large fenced area under the shade of the Mulberry tree in the above right corner. My large, raised Winter garden bed is getting a foot of depth added to it which will make it easier for me to access and better for the plants that will go in there. The upper tier will contain tan bark and a large play structure with an enclosed fort, slide, monkey bars and swings. The structure will be placed under the shade of the massive plum tree which shades the left half of that tier. The middle tier will have a sitting area under another impressive shade tree which is also on the left side of the yard. We will put some nice landscaping around the sitting area and make it semi-private and difficult to see from the lower patio area. There will be some furniture in this area such as benches and a small bistro table and chairs. Needless to say it will take me some time to fill up these tiers with plants and objects d' art but it will be a fun to create the space from scratch and we'll finally have a totally usable, kid friendly and dog proofed space.

Happy First Day of Spring!!!

Happy happy, joy joy! Many blessings upon your garden. May your zucchini grow GINORMOUS, may your tomato plants bend with fruit, may your eggplant be sweet and your peppers spicy.

Here: Maia, you can read about the lass that makes it all happen - "Fauna" or "Maia" the goddess of Spring.

Humble Beginnings...

Here's a "Candy Stripe" tulip about to make it's grand entrance in to Spring. I've dozens more beginning to poke their heads up or unfurl their elegant petals. My tomato plants have been in the ground for a couple of weeks now. They've more than doubled in size since I planted them and are thriving nicely in the worm, steer and bat poo-poo mixture that I amend my soil with. This is a "carmello" heirloom tomato that I grew from seeds given to me by the "Tomato Man", Gary Ibsen of Carmel Tomato Festival.

I love this variety! They have amazing flavor, and yield abundant
crops of fist sized, peach, rose and yellow striped tomatoes.