Ashtanga Gardening

I felt so awesome from yoga last week that I did it again today! What is it they say, three weeks to make it a habit? We'll see...I'll be like this in no time, for sure.

I'm gonna stick that in my head and think of it next time I'm tempted to stop for chinese fast food after yoga.

A few days ago, some awesome doula friends and I got together at Olympic Spa to soak and enjoy each others' company for a while. I was trying to explain to my friend that though I love my martial arts and have no plans to give them up, I have to be careful what I'm doing with my body in the long term too. Old style martial arts are about warriors fighting for their survival in the short term, not about being in good shape in your old age, because you probably weren't going to live that long anyway. I think the yoga is going to help a lot with balancing that out. The pinched feeling in my sacrum is going away already, and that's worth a lot.

All right, enough ninja yoga talk. Gardening!

The front of the house used to look like this:

Though the poinsettias were pretty in December, it was a nasty snarl of things with thorns, things that dripped awful sticky sap when you tried to prune them, aggressive vines, and more things with thorns. Plus, we wanted to stucco the cinderblock wall and repair some damage to the house.

Plants removed. That's my Ford Explorer, for scale.

Our space, cleared. The husband hadn't realized that those trees were on our property, or that we had a gate there...that's how bad the bramble was.

And finally, some cute new plants to fill in the space. My focus is on mediterranean plants, herbs, edibles, low maintenence, and low water use. All of this centers around a bareroot pomegranate that looks like a bundle of sticks right now, but someday will bring us glorious fruit. Someday...