Garden Dreaming

Spring has arrived! As soon as the sun comes out and the earth begins to warm, I can't help but begin dreaming about gardens.

I've always loved gardening. I'm sure the influence of all my early caretakers, my grandma and my dad in particular, had a large part in this. I remember being 3 or 4, picking pears in grandma's backyard and popping the snapdragons in my own. And then there's the infamous carrot story...my dad offered to pay me a cent per baby carrot I scrubbed. Two buckets full later, this no longer seemed like a fun project and I never let him forget it.

Now that I live where the sun shines nearly every day, I can't stop dreaming about harvesting my own vegetables. I love our wide backyard lawn, though it leaves only the border around the edges available. This lonely, sunny plot has been begging for attention.


I once saw a pyramid type small-space garden in a parking lot at the co-op grocery in San Francisco. It's no longer there, but I'm hoping to replicate it from memory.


Something like this but much more natural looking. I think two or three tiers are plenty. I might use bricks if I can find some cheaply somewhere. Stones would be nice, too.











Kind of like this, but smaller stones and a larger space.



I think there might have been a bean teepee on top of it all, too. Which brings me to the difficult question. What to plant?

Herbs, carrots, zucchini...would the tomato plants do better to end up around the outside of the pyramid? Will I use containers to augment the crop load and design aesthetic?


And can I grow a row of sunflowers along this fence?

What would you do if this were your yard?