Growing up both of our families had gardens. My husband grew up in a farming family. At 85 his dad is still farming. My parents had a big vegetable garden when we lived in Huntington Beach. Now retired, my dad still has vegetables in planters and containers in the backyard at their townhome. My husband and I started a garden in the backyard of our Castaic home about 10 years ago.
What started as a vegetable garden on one-quarter of our lawn has now become the entire area. Every year we wanted to plant more things so we would take out a little bit more of the grass. Last year we finally decided to take out all of the grass and plant the entire area with vegetables.
My husband built the archway entrance to our garden, which is styled after one we saw at a restaurant in Cambria. We also found the “Welcome to My Garden” sign at an art store in Cambria. The wrought iron entrance gate we found at an antique store in Cayucos. The archway is grown over with two bower vines, one on each side. We chose those because they stay green year round and attract hummingbirds and bees.
This year we have 11 different variety tomato plants, tomatillo, four kinds of bell peppers, onions, carrots, beets, lettuce, cucumbers, 10 different varieties of chilies and various herbs. Each year we want to plant more and more. I even have one huge pumpkin in the midst of it all. This year we also added a dwarf lemon, lime and orange tree, which we have in containers. The lemon and lime trees both have fruit; the orange tree is growing back after being chewed up by one of our daughter’s puppy.
It is such a good feeling to come home from work and start dinner at night and go out into the garden and pick everything I need to make a fresh garden salad. I pick onions and squash to compliment whatever main dish we are having. My husband makes fresh pico de gallo salsa and almost all of the ingredients come from our garden.
Working out in the garden is therapy for both of us after a long day at work. It is relaxing and rewarding to see what you have grown. We love going to Home Depot. We probably spend more money there than at the mall. I even joined the on line Home Depot Garden club. My kids love to make fun of me. Whenever my plants look bad I e-mail the garden club for advice. My dad even calls me to ask me to e-mail them questions he has about his garden. After providing the neighbors with vegetables the past few summers, this year my husband helped two of our neighbors started gardens of their own. We all enjoy talking about what we are growing and how good they are all doing. I started pumpkins for the three boys next door. So far we only have one that is doing well. They may have to share it for Halloween.
Do you have a garden story you want to share with The Magazine of Santa Clarita? Send us your garden stories with photos and look for them in the next issue of The Magazine. Email us at editorial@santaclaritamagazine.com .