Regrettably, this isn't a post on my own back slope, which following the hard hit it took in early July when our temperature reached 110F, is looking uglier than ever. I took the following photos in my former neighborhood, on a street I pass through each week when I meet friends for lunch. The retaining walls went in a year or more ago but the area wasn't planted up until this year. I'd been meaning to stop and snap photos for some time but finally took 15 minutes to do that earlier this week.
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| This is on a relatively busy residential street, one of main corridors for traffic passing through this neighborhood |
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| The terraced wall has 3 levels, backed by a tall fence behind what I assume is the owner's backyard |
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| I was initially confused as to why the builder omitted grout between the bricks at the base of each tier of the retaining wall before realizing that's probably a strategy to facilitate drainage |
I couldn't get close-ups of the trees and plants on the upper tiers of the terraced wall and I was unable to identify most of them, although I believe all are fruit trees. The 3 trees with wood frames each had wire supports behind them, presumably to espalier the branches as they grow.
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| I'm assuming this is a fig tree and I'm guessing the other 2 framed trees are also figs of some kind. The trunks of all 3 were painted white to prevent the cracking and splitting that can allow insects and disease to infect fruit trees. |
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| In addition to this tomato plant, the second tier appeared to have peach and/or apricot trees, as well as another tree I couldn't even make a guess at identifying |
The only area I could examine closely was the lowest one. It featured a wide variety of citrus trees, all neatly labeled. Herbs, including thyme, rosemary and lavender, were planted between the trees. A discrete drip system was in place too.
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Top row: Meyer and Eureka lemons and a Bearrs lime
Middle row: Key, Finger and Kaffir limes
Bottom row: Cara Cara orange and Yuzu, a hybrid Japanese citrus tree
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It's my dream to have something like this in place on my back slope but, as access to that area is very limited, I can't imagine being able to bring in the equipment or materials necessary to create a wall like this, at least one that I could afford. Still, it's nice to dream!
In other news, rain has returned to Southern California. It came down in buckets for awhile this morning. I can only hope that the burn areas received gentler treatment.
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| I filled these plastic buckets using what poured down the rain chain in about 30 minutes, after first dumping the contents of 2 of them on the plants under the roof's overhang. I'm planning to move the contents of these to my 265-gallon tank, which is slower to fill than my other 2 tanks, both of which are already full. |
More rain is expected this afternoon and, according to one forecast, still more is possible next week. I'd be ecstatic except that I can't help worrying about how this will affect the burn areas. Slow and gentle rain is what we need.
All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
