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Howdy, fellow gardeners! I have a tiny yard, with limited sun, a short walk from the beach in San Diego. The garden has been in progress since August 2001. I hope to make this minuscule urban patch as fruitful and fragrant as possible! The dominant elements of the garden are a vegetable patch about 6 X 18 feet, a multi-grafted citrus currently about 5 feet tall, about 24 feet of border a foot and a half wide that is filling up with herbs, a shade-loving tropical corner, "staghorn alley" (the space between the house and the garage), and various tropical fruits, some established plants and in the ground, some which are still seeds wrapped in wet paper towels. I look forward to learning about fruits, vegetables, and herbs from my fellow gardeners on this web. Thanks! JAM

Fellow Gardeners,

The paragraph above is 2 years old, and it's time for an update. My little yard is maturing! Allow me to take you on a brief tour:

I have a shady corner in the front with several varieties of ferns that are doing well, including an australian tree fern, and a very robust Polypodium aureum. Front of the house also has a banana that's progressing nicely, rosemary, mint, a trio of Geranium madierense, and other odds and ends. Trying to grow an Artabotrys hexapetalus in the front yard, next to the wall that gets the morning sun. It's not thriving, but it's not dead. The picket fence is covered with blue morning glories. There's a hibiscus, that has fantastically showy yellow, orange, and pink flowers in season, in a pot on the porch. A robust black-eyed Susan climbs the corner of the house.

The side yard (the bulk of the yard space) is dominated by a nice yard tree: Tecoma stans. I don't know why I don't see more of these in southern California gardens. It blooms profusely, with big clumps of trumpet-shaped yellow flowers, from about March-August. Hummingbirds love it. I don't give it any special care, just water that it gets incidentally as I water other plants. Nice tree!

The multi-grafted citrus that I mentioned earlier has grown nicely, and had a hefty crop of limes and lemons this year. A few oranges, most of which were eaten by the homeless people in the neighborhood who hop the fence at night to forage. I'd like to add a blood orange branch this spring.

Other plants in this small side yard include more mint, angelica, elephant ear, jasmine, bouganvillea, Stephanotos, a large passion fruit that climbs the garage and sprawls across the roof, another medium-sized banana, a big bunch of lemon grass, several pots of reed-stemmed Epidendrums that are still blooming in mid-winter, an ylang-ylang about 4 feet tall in a pot, and several pots of various orchids. A very happy Hoya carnosa hangs in a basket in the Tecoma. I also have several small fruit trees (mexican lime, tamarind, cherimoya) that I have started from seed, in pots. Staghorns and orchids hang on the garage wall, mounted on boards.

The northern portion of the side yard (about twice the size of a queen-sized mattress) is devoted to vegetables, and most of them do pretty well. Currently, it harbors lettuce, mizuna, bok choy, cilantro, chard, snow peas, some sorry-looking spinach, and edamame getting a good start. These will give way to warm-weather vegetables in about May.

I have expanded my domain into the front parking strip! My advice: don't put any plant you care deeply about within the reach of the general public. I've had many problems with careless breakage, stomping, litter, dog feces, and vandalism among the plants I've planted out there. I have a strip of native southern California shrubs, some of which have survived being stepped on repeatedly, and are becoming established, albeit with a squatty, bent-over appearance. I have a Michelia champaca that's about 8 feet tall, that has bloomed profusely, to the delight of anyone who inhales within about 20 feet of it. It's currently taking a break for the winter. A Brugmansia about 4 feet tall is on the other corner of the parking strip, with some odds and ends under it.

That covers most of it, but if I listed every plant this narrative would be excessively long. There are other odds and ends of plants all over the place. It's a busy little yard (1/20 of an acre, counting the house and garage), with a kind of subtropical Beatrix Potter look to it. But the soil is a fine sandy loam of excellent consistency, and I've been building it with our home-grown compost for 2 years now. I like it!