Last November I posted photos of steeply terraced slope I used to pass weekly. It's on a busy street in the neighborhood I lived in for 20 years, where homes, mostly condos and townhomes, are packed into small lots and garden space is scarce. When I lived in the area, this particular slope wasn't terraced and, like many of those nearby, it was covered in weeds. But in 2018, the owner built a 3-tiered retaining wall system and filled the area with fruit trees. Admittedly, it looked rather stark when I first photographed it.
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| Here is what in looked like in November 2018, photographed from across the street. The top tier was planted with fig trees, backed by decorative square frames. The second tier contained a couple of what I guessed were peach or apricot trees and one humongous tomato plant. The bottom tier was filled with citrus trees of different kinds and some low-growing herbs. |
This week, almost 9 months to the day, I passed through the area again after a long absence and I noticed how different the the terraced slope looked after one year of good rain. Fire department vehicles passing through forced me to pull over so I decided it was a good opportunity to take more photos.
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| This is what it looked like on Monday. All the trees have filled out. The figs on the top tier have a new espalier support structure. There are now more fruit trees on the second tier. all of which are espaliered. The citrus trees on the bottom tier all looked healthy and the rosemary and lavender planted between them is slowly filling in, although it has yet to spill over and soften those walls. The structure on the upper right has also been spruced up with the addition of wood shingles and a spire topped with a weather vane. |
Here's a side-by-side comparison from different angles.
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| I didn't manage to capture exactly the same angle but both these shots show the structure photographed from the north end looking south. The 2018 photo is on the left and the 2019 photo is on the right. |
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| These photos (2018 on the left and 2019 on the right) were take from the south side looking north. The grassy weeds you can see in the distance in the right-hand photo gives you an idea of what this hillside looked like before the area was terraced. That's the next door neighbor's weedy slope. |
I didn't have time to take a lot of close-ups of individual plants but before and after shots of the finger lime tree (
Citrus australasica) provide evidence of significant growth over a relatively short period.
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| 2018 photo on the left and 2019 photo of the same plant on the right |
Those cement block walls are still austere but, if this growth rate continues, I think the area should be quite attractive in a few years. It's unlikely we'll get rain on par with last year's in the coming rain year (calculated from October 1st through September 30th) but we can hope and, in any case, this particular fruit tree garden has a drip irrigation system.
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visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.
All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
