My wife and I have spent the past twenty-seven years, off and on, developing our yard into an urban landscape.

It is finally coming together.

We own a little over a third of an acre that we are developing into an urban wildlife habitat.

About twenty years ago we planted a grove of Douglas firs that have finally grown into a small forest, which you can see below.   The benches are made from old fence boards and posts I recycled when I replaced the fens.

The rest of the back yard is made up of a split basalt terrace, raised beds for growing vegetables, and an expanse of lawn that is surrounded by shrubs and flowers.

Our gardening philosophy is more along the lines landscaping a vista, as opposed to collecting plants.

Our yard is broken into "rooms" that are each a separate environment.    The goal is to have an interesting view from whatever angle you view the yard.

Not many people follow this philosophy, partly because they are working with very small spaces.    With a yard as big as ours we have the luxury of designing landscapes.

We also grow vegetables in our raised beds, which you can see to the left.

We grow tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, boysenberry's, lettuce, peas, asparagus, green onions, and cucumbers.

We generally grow about fourteen to sixteen tomato plants.    We cook most of them up as spaghetti sauce, which we freeze.

It lasts us the entire winter.

Most of the rest of the garden goes to summer salads and meals fresh from the garden.

It is a satisfying and nutritious hobby