Secret Garden Wall Extension

It's been many months since I've photographed the wall running along the driveway and the Secret Garden. As I acquired suitable rocks, I kept building the wall, often as a team with David, my farm handyman. We actually got the wall completed, but........... But? Yes, we reached our goal.

(Above....the first section of the wall, on the right. It gently curves along the driveway, up to where the driveway splits in two.) 

(Above....pictured from the split, looking up to where it ends. Hard to see, but the wall runs along the right hand side all the way up to the clump of trees.) 

Got the wall built right up to where the Secret Garden ended and the driveway made a 90° turn toward the house. The end is at the double tree trunks. The crooked tree limb laying on the ground in front of the wall will be used for the next road signpost. This spot just begs for some yard art! 

Here's a better photo showing the 90° turn. With a bunch of suitable rocks on hand, it almost seemed a shame not to continue the wall. We've been at this task for months, so it seemed natural to continue. 

So we ran a stringline, dumped a pile of rocks, and began our way toward the house. There's no hurry to finish the wall. We'll just keep adding rocks as I gather them. When either of us has a few minutes between other jobs, we'll just go puzzle in a few more rocks. 

Adding to the Secret Garden

The secret garden area will ultimately be a beautified pasture, and I see no reason why not to make it pretty. It was a poor pasture before I started.....just ferns and molasses grass. Now it's a variety of livestock edibles (okinawan spinach, sweet potato, ti, banana, sugar cane, pipinola, pumpkin, and soon to be added : grains) plus non-edibles mixed in. 

Orchids, why not? 

Caladiums, sure. 

Coleus, nice color. But will the sheep eat them too? I don't know yet. 

Colorful flowers. Perhaps edible. But for now they add color. 

An interesting fern. To date the animals have ignored all ferns. 

Crotons are so colorful. 

This bromeliad surprised me with a brilliant flower. 

To help define paths to walk on, I laid down some christmasberry wood chips. Within six months they will disappear but for now they help me envision where to plant things. 

I keep adding patches of both edible and ornamental plants. But I keep it in the back of my mind that this area will be used for pasturing purposes in addition to being pleasant to look at. Funny thing though, even though it doesn't look like a traditional pasture, it will be providing tons more feed for the sheep than it did back in the ferns & grass days. 

Rock Wall Update - Secret Garden

I'm pleased to announce that I've finally completed one long stretch of the rock wall along the driveway and secret garden. Boy, that was a lot of rocks! When I started I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I'm pleased with how it looks. 

I've moved most of my orchids to the top of the rock wall. This way, when they bloom, I get to see them more often. I'm up and down the driveway several times during each day. 

Today I noticed that a couple orchids are blooming. How really neat! I have no idea how to encourage them to bloom, so they're doing it all on their own. 

But I'm not done building rock walls along the driveway. I'm only half done on the section that runs past the secret garden. So I'm bringing my excess rock up for the next section. About 15' of wall has been built on the next section so far. David surprised me and stacked the big rocks for me in this new section, and I filled in the center of the wall with small rocks. Hey, great teamwork!!!

Secret Garden Edibles

"K" recently read about my secret garden project and decried the waste of time and effort on something that was not producing food. He felt that this project had no place in a working homestead farm. Not actually criticizing your opinion "K", but that's not my point of view on this garden project.

Ok, I'll explain. While I can see the sense in focusing upon food and livelihood, especially in the beginning of creating a homestead and especially if food is critical, there came a time for me that I was ready to tend to my mental health too. And this project does that. While I can grow food in this garden, I can also grow flowers, dream of and create whimsical garden art, make meandering walking paths and serene sitting spots, make small fish ponds. I can have fun....plain, simple fun. It's food production alright...food for the soul. 

"K", it may make you feel better to know that I have indeed incorporated food plants into the Secret Garden:

Above- Mexican oregano. It grows best in full to semi-shade, perfect for this garden. 

Above- freshly planted Okinawan spinach cuttings. I planted them in a semi-shaded area. I'm not sure how they will do, but we shall see. 

Above: sweet potatoes in with ornamentals. The blue tub is a half barrel that is being made into a micro fishpond. It's not finished yet. In the background you can see part of the secret garden where I have cleared out the ferns, made some rock enclosures for gardens, and spread forest litter between the trees. Eventually all that bare area will be growing plants, mostly edible ones for the livestock. 

Above, more sweet potato cuttings that I'm planting today inside a semi circle of rocks. As the various little gardens expand in size, those rocks can be moved out further or even completely removed, opening more space for plants. 

There are already bananas, pineapples, sugar cane, numerous patches of sweet potatoes, pumpkin vines, turmeric, and taro. As I open up and create more beds, I plan on some colorful veggies like Swiss chard, beets, lettuces. And some more contrasting textures, like gingers, millet, wheat, cardoon, green onions, kales. The sunny areas are limited, so there won't be lots sun crops. There will be far more semi shade tolerant things growing. 

It's always a joy for me to spend an hour in the secret garden. It's my personal playground where I can dream and create without having to be serious. 

While I haven't done it yet, I plan to add food trees to this area. Yes, there are bananas already. But I was thinking along the lines of citrus, mulberry, and mamaki since they are semi shade tolerant. And of course, there is always the option of coffee, a good for even full shade. 

My aim is to have 90% of the plants be some sort of edible. As I've mentioned, they will be mostly for feeding the livestock. This area previously was covered in ferns and offered zero in the way of livestock food. Thus making it into a garden actually increases the food inventory on my farm. 

Secret Garden Rock Wall Update

Back last June I started working on what I called my secret garden. Around it on two sides I had made a fence out of tree poles. Then I began bringing excess rocks to create a low rock wall within the pole fence. 

Over the months I've gradually moved rocks that I "harvested" from other projects....community garden, digging holes in the orchard for more trees, opening up new spots for gardens. 

So here's an update on the progress. As of June 2015 I had about 10' completed on the rock wall and another 20' partially done.

Now I'm up to a bit over 100' either completed are almost completed. There is still quite a bit to go. My goal is not to make a rockwall, but to have a pretty to look at rock storage area. As a plus it defines the perimeter for the secret garden. So there's really no hurry to finish this wall. But it's a great place to store my extra rocks! 

Why do I like to think of this as rock storage, rather than a rock wall? That way if I really need rocks in a hurry for some project, I won't feel guilty stealing them from this wall. Just a mind game, but it will keep me happy if I end up stealing rocks from it now and again. 

By the way, the wall currently us being made about 18" thick at the base, 12" at the top. Once the length of the wall is completed, I could simply add rocks to the back wall, making the wall thicker. A way to use those excess rocks I accumulate. 

This photos, above and below, are quite shady and difficult to make out, but you should be able to see that the wall is over 100' long as of today. 

Secret Garden Update

Just a bit of an update for those inquiring minds who keep asking me how the project is coming along. First, please understand that this will be a slow, longterm project. It's something that I plan to only work in a few days a week, a little at a time. I'm seeing it as one of my fun creations. So I don't expect to be finished for a long time. So don't hold your breathe anticipating the end product. 

To help control my own over eagerness, I'm limiting myself to planting only one tiny spot 5 days a week. I know myself.....I could easily lose myself in this project and end up devoting an entire day to designing the footpaths, flower beds, and outdoor art. Gee, I'd get nothing else done. So like the sugar junkie that I am, I have to limit myself to one cookie a week, one dessert, one sweet drink.......and one small secret garden task for each of the weekdays. No more. 

Early on I planted some baby banana trees along one perimeter side. They all survived except one. Not bad. I also planted sweet potatoes as a ground cover there, a couple of cactus cuttings a got from a friend, a few pineapple tops, some ice plant cuttings, some wondering Jew, and cuttings of a bushy flowering plant that I don't know the name of. Everything but the one banana has made it. Then I started limiting how much time I would allow myself to work on this project. Since then I've put in a few shade loving bromeliads.....

They have been doing very well and have spread out some since planting. 

I took some cuttings from a coleus and stuck them into the ground, kept them watered daily, and now they've rooted. So far so good. 

Next in line was some Mexican oregano cuttings. These root extremely easily too. Just put them into the ground, keep moist, and they root in a couple of days. This plant grows well in shade. I planted them next to a cut off tree stump, so they will eventually grow up the stump and hide it.

Another shade lover is polka dot plant. I ripped a few up from another garden and transplanted them into the secret garden. They transplant quite readily. They can be invasive, so I have to ruthlessly rip out excess plants at least once a year to control them. No problem.......compost fodder.  :)

Hawaiian ti is another plant that tolerates shade. I took a number of cuttings from my mother's plants, removed all the leaves, and simply stuck them into the ground. Kept moist, they root fairly quickly. These rooted and have started pushing new leaves. 

This is another ti variety, leaves removed, it's difficult to see. But it's a dark purplish one. I just planted it so it isn't pushing leaves yet. I also put some sweet potato cuttings in for a ground cover. 

Sansevieria , aka mother-in-laws tongue. Another shade lover. Easy to transplant. 

A scented geranium called citronella. Also called the mosquito plant. Personally I haven't found it to be effective in repelling mosquitos but the foliage is interesting in itself. Mine will grow ok in semi shade, so I picked a spot that gets a bit of sun. It grows well from tip cuttings. 

This one I know as chicken gizzard plant. I put fresh cuttings right into the ground be watered them once a day. It didn't take long for them to root. 

Upcoming will be variegated pineapple, more coleus, bird nest fern, variegated ivy (one has to aggressively control this otherwise it invades everywhere), impatiens, and more types of bromeliads. On the perimeters that get more sun, I have waiting in the wings spider lily, aloe, green agave, variegated agave, blue agave, hibiscus, sweet potatoes as ground cover, pineapples, and plenty more bananas. Who knows what else I'll add. 

Secret Garden

As if I don't have enough projects that I'm working on.........but heck, life is short. I want to do the things I want to do! So here's what is developing---

With all the rain we've been having, everything is in a runaway growth spurt, including the guava saplings, ferns, vines, and grasses. They are creating quite a formidable tangle that not even the horse can bust through. This tangle is invading my pastures, killing the grass. Thus armed with weedwacker and machete, I decided to rid the farm of the worse of the tangle. In the process I opened up a pretty area that wasn't part of a pasture that would be ideal for making a secret garden. Gee, wouldn't it be neat to have my own special garden hideaway? Sure! 

This is what I started with..........

And this is what it looks like minus the tangle.........

A chainsaw quickly eliminated the saplings, crowded young growth, deformed and diseased trees.......

I ended up with multiple piles of small trees that I delimbed. Lots of poles...........

I decided to use those bigger poles to make a fence. Nothing fancy or complicated. The fence will outline the perimeter of the secret garden. Sure, it's not all so secret yet, but give it time. 

But the fence looked too "incomplete" to me. So I decided to add rocks. I've got plenty of rock around here that needs to be stored for some possible future use. I thought I could use it for the fence and thus store it at the same time. So the fence is ending up looking like this......

The rock part can be as thick or thin as I have rocks for storing. This is what I've done so far......

The rocks are piled about 18 inches thick. Yes, that's a lot of rocks. Most are small though. I'm putting the biggest ones as the face with the little ones behind. 

I've started planting some of my excess plant starts -- pineapples, ti, succulents, and whatever else. I'm also starting to plant bananas, which will form part of the visual screen around the area .......ah-ha! Yes, to make the garden hidden from outsiders. 

This is a project that will come along slowly because it doesn't have high priority. But I'm looking forward to making it a peaceful hideaway. Perhaps a nice place for a gazebo?