Doors and Paths

Our aim from the very start is to work with nature and not against it. Following with that principle, we are planning to use as much natural material as possible.We are also pragmatic and not beyond using high tech material if it suits the situation. 

We purchased a couple crates of slates which we are going to use for stepping stone.It works with gravel service road that leads to walled courtyard garden.The door of the courtyard garden is made of fiber glass to better withstand the intense heat of summer and the cold of winter.It is wood grained so it looks like wood but does not splinter and does not need the maintenance of regular painting.We choses some decorative square wrought iron decoration which we learn is called clavos.Who knew that those decorative thingii had a name!! Another thing learnt!

I LOVE WINDOWS AND DOORS! During my travels, I am always on the lookout for vistas of windows and doors. They are fascinating to me. They are portals to the what is hidden. So very often they have lead me to beautiful garden, heartwarming scenes of children playing, craftsmen making beautiful handicrafts or just pure beautiful views. I love opening the doors to my gardens, no less this one in Temecula. This day the door open to beautiful sky above and beyond the garden.

Long live the ancient fruit - Pomegranate

Before everyone think that all  I am is a "murderer", my mother's favorite name for me after I failed to grant clemency to the roses, I do not kill everything on the land. Just outside the walls of the courtyard garden is proof - a large Pomegranate Tree, punica grantum. It is believed that the pomegranate was the forbidden fruit that Eve ate in the garden of Eden and not the "apple."Native to modern day Iran, it spread to Asia, the Mediterranean and Europe. Today, it is touted as a great source of antioxidants. 

Pomegranates are fruits that I want to love more..... In fact, I love drinking pomegranate juice, pomegranate seeds in salads, pomegranate syrup in Fesenjen; a delicious Persian pomegranate and walnut chicken stew, pomegranate piled high in a fruit bowl.....But, there is only so much pomegranate one can eat. I need to find more recipes for them. Apart from the huge tree in Temecula, I have 3 other pomegranate trees in my current house - 2 regular red pomegranate and 1 white pomegranate. I must have given away more than 150 fruits in December alone!!

9/5/11 The fruits are starting to turn red in color.

"Look how many fruits there" are says the woman who calls me "Murderer."

Rose of Sharon

I almost forgot that there was another casualty of the the Courtyard project - the Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus L. It belongs to the Malvaceae family. The bush was along the wall that backs the kitchen - between the two windows. It was a tall deciduous shrub between 10 to 12 feet high. As you can see from the picture below untrimmed, it was wild mess of a bush!

The bush was a favorite of the birds, particularly the hummingbirds. Look carefully at the picture below, and you will see a hummingbird resting in the cool shade of the plant.

When the petals fall off, a seed pod forms. It opens up to look like a miniature version of the flower- a five "petals" brown flower.

Currently, the plan is to use the space occupied by the Rose of Sharon for tropical plants which benefits form the warmth and protection of the wall. Maybe the curry leaf plant, some serai, kunyit and mint. The cement will prevent the mint form spreading to areas it is not wanted. The Rose of Sharon  will not have died in vain.

See-Thru patio cover

The house came with a wooden patio roofed with redwood lattice panels. It provided dappeled shade but it did not provide protection when it rained. We love the rustic wooden beams so we wanted to keep it. The sky over Temecula is so Big - anyone living in the west knows what I mean by Big. Beautiful blue skys, gorgeous clouds formations and breathtaking star lit nights, especially in the country when artifical lights is limited.

Dappled shade of the redwood lattice patio roof

Existing redwood panels are removed. The beams and support were given a new coat of paint.

The polycarbonate roofing panels before being cut to length of the patio beams

We installed solar panels to take advantage of the sunny skies over Temecula, to heat the pool water. The panels were installed on the roof of the house.

View from below - the protection film still needed to be removed.

The house is significantly cooler with the polycarbonate cover installed while remaining bright but without the glare.

Walled Courtyard Garden

Temperatures in Temecula is extremely hot in summer and can get pretty cold in the winter. Frost damage to tender plants are a definite. Hot, I think will not be a problem as it will allow me to grow the tropical and sub-tropical plants I love and hankering to plant. Cold is another matter. My dream of course is to have a glass greenhouse that any self respecting gardener dreams of. Alas, it cost way,way,way too much. We priced both fabricated and build from scratch greenhouse of the size we wanted. We needed to spend at least $200,000!!! Not happening.

We compromised and decided to build a walled courtyard garden on one side of the house. It was the side of the house where we removed the roses bushes. It would provide protection from the  strong winds particularly in winter, that exaggerate the cold factor. We are going to see what we can grow under this condition before building a greenhouse. We increase the height of the garden wall from 6 ft to 8 ft for additional protection.

Roses to Go

The house came with rose bushes around one side of the house. They were flowering despite neglect. I have never been one for rose bushes because of the thorns and also the chemicals needed to keep them at their best. Even so, I admit to being sad that I had to remove them. Remember, our moto is if you cannot eat it you cannot grow it. Granted you can eat organic rose petals......

Lap Pool

The decision to have a house in Temecula did not sit well with the younger members of the family especially my teenage son. I do not blame him as it is far from his friends. It must be unsettling for him to imagine that when he goes away to college he would come "home" to a new location. My daughter feels it too but because she has been at college the past almost 3 years, the impact is "less." Her friends being older can and do come out to her. I am hoping that now that my son is driving, he will be less upset about it.

We looked at the big picture and decided we would put in a pool to entice our almost adult children to come visit us when they have left home. It would be a place for their friends to hang out as well. Building the pool was the first landscape project we did as it involved huge machinery, lots of digging, moving of earth, laying of pipes and electrical. We did not want any planting to be damaged in the construction that invariably happens.