Now that the turkey is gone (and apparently she is loving her new 15 acre home and is even laying eggs for her new keepers), all my plants can start growing again. Luckily we have a long growing season here in Zone 9b in the Northern California interior, and we'll have plenty of time for catch up.

So as I show you these pictures of the garden, keep that in mind - we have turkey damage we're overcoming, especially when it comes to winter squash, cucumbers, and peppers. Also the pollinator gardens are in a bit of a lull since I cleared out the spring flower debris and we're now waiting on summer flowers to grow up and bloom (things like cosmos, zinnias, tithonia, coreopsis). But I thought you'd like to have a more vegetable-heavy post, as I've been so in love with flowers lately and only seem to take pictures of those.

Anyway, here's the North Garden. North Garden is full hot sun all day until dinnertime - and here we have our peach, apple, fig, quince, cherry, plum, and new orange tree, as well as alpine strawberries as a ground cover, tomatoes, peppers, corn, winter squash, sweet potatoes, newly planted basil, cilantro, pumpkins, gourds, potatoes, and hops. Also some containers of basil, lettuces, and cucumbers. Oh, and one huckleberry bush. Plus a plethora of flowers, a chicken coop, and two compost piles.

My friend and coworker gave me a gift certificate on my last day of work, and with that I bought a Robertson Naval Orange. We'll see how it fares. I had to clear out a volunteer flowering pomegranate and severely cut back a flowering currant to make it happen here. Gosh, the orange flowers smell unbelievable.

Here's the South Garden. This side gets early morning sun till midday, then sun again in the late afternoon/early evening. There is an exception and that's the back area where we get full sun, and there we have the strawberry pallet wall, plus watermelons and cantaloupe. In the other raised beds we have succession plantings of romaine, collards, cucumbers (both slicing and pickling), and pole beans. Here is also our new herb Understory Garden, with an Asian Pear in the middle, and every kind of herb you could want, as well as rhubarb, lemon verbena, and fennel. Artichokes (still very small) are in each small triangle bed and they are surrounded by basil and cilantro seedlings. We have blueberry bushes next to a warm wall, and lots of both annual and perennial flowers here.

I didn't take any pictures of the Fountain Garden, but that's where we keep our asparagus bed, a strawberry bed, two more blueberry bushes, and several native flowering bushes, as well as the top bar bee hive (which by the way has been extremely busy), and our bubbling fountain.

I also didn't take any pictures of the Woodland Garden, since that's mainly native flowers this is not a flower post!

Then there's the Parking Strip Garden, which has an herb mound (slowly being taken over by mint), lots of salvias and lavenders, our raspberry canes (which aren't doing so well) and our thornless blackberry vines, plus a smaller worm/compost bin. The best part of this garden is our new addition - the Little Free Library! It's finally registered, and shortly will be on the world map.

Next to our neighbor's grape vines and lemon tree, and the herb mound I need to do something about

Yesterday I spent several hours touring several Berkeley Urban Farms, which was organized by the Institute of Urban Homesteading. It was enlightening, as always, and I came away with several new ideas.

Serious rainwater collection. We need these.

an ingenious way of protecting a raised strawberry bed from critters

and nearly every garden I toured had these - tree collards - a perennial green. I think I must try them.

Fun to see so many people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, income levels, enjoying beautiful and fruitful urban gardens. Inspiring!