1. I was born 1 hour before the 4th of July 1976 making me almost an exact anniversary of a bicentennial baby.
2. Freedom and independence inspires me
3. I was born in Montclair, CA
4. I’m the middle child of 8
5. My Enneagram Personality is 7
6. My Meyers Briggs is a ENFP-T
7. If you’re into horoscopes, my sign is Cancer
8. My Chinese horoscope is a Fire Dragon
9. As a child, I loved to climb up the olive tree in my backyard to be alone, read, and journal
10. I’ve journaled since I was 7 and still do. I lost all my childhood journals and started my first blog as an online journal that couldn’t be lost
11. I love treehouses and would love to stay in them all over the world
12. I was a gymnast as a child and as an adult I enjoy aerial dance such as pole, lyra, and hammock
13. My first experience with yoga was at 15 and I fell in love. I still practice and teach to this day
14. My parents and grandparents had gardens growing up and I dream of having an edible landscape full of unique produce
15. I’ve loved cooking since I was 7 and made a goal to make every recipe in my mom’s cookbook
16. I love health and wellness thanks to my parents influence and stack of Prevention magazines I read as a child
17. I toured CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and considered attending but I didn’t see a connection to health with the food
18. I went vegan in 2007 and love making recipes that are oil free, gluten free, refined sugar free and vegan.
19. I went to summer school as a kid just for the fun of it. I still love learning and consider it a joy of life and a habit
20. As a pre-teen I became a popular babysitter, when the kids fell asleep I would deep clean and organize their homes for fun
21. Since I was a teen I loved revamping old furniture to look new again. I love a good makeover
22. I absolutely drool over neatly organized cabinets and drawers
23. I love interior design. Many times I have given room makeovers as gifts
24. I am currently redecorating my old home with the vision of creating a home wellness sanctuary
25. I love and have been snowboarding since I was 18
26. I was 20 the first time I flew on an airplane and had no idea what turbulence was and was scared we were going to crash
27. I became a mom at 20, my son Alex is now 24
28. Shortly after, I moved to Hawaii
29. 2 years later, I gave birth to Meg who was born 6 weeks early. She turns 22 next week
30. I learned to surf while living in Hawaii. I was surfing 2-3 times a week but haven’t been over the past year and I miss it
31. My earliest story of dancing was from my mom who told me when I was about 2 I went missing when we were leaving a grocery store. She saw a circle of people with a boombox. When she went to ask if they had seen me, she found me dancing in the center of the group while everyone was cheering me on.
32. I was raised Mormon, but no longer active since 17, but still am living a spiritually led life.
33. I love catching the sunrise and sunsets and see them as symbols like baptism (forgiveness) and blessings (gratitude)
34. When I was 24 and my grandfather was passing I begged him to prove his spirit lived on and 2 years later he honored his promise and came though.
35. Since then, on rare occasions I have received messages from those who have crossed over to their loved ones.
36. My first massage inspired me to go to school to become a Holistic Health Practitioner and get as many free massages as possible
37. I love warm weather and am thankful I’ve lived in Southern California, Hawaii, and Cabo
38. I love nature and National Parks. My favorite so far are Yosemite and Zion. Yellowstone is also incredible.
39. I didn’t travel much while raising my little ones, but since they have grown I’ve traveled to Vancouver, Montreal, India, Bahamas, Guatemala, Mexico: Cabo and Playa Del Carmen, Bali, Lombok, Gili Air. I hope it’s just the beginning.
40. I dream about living in a new place for 4-6 months at a time to absorb the culture and lifestyle. Places I want to visit are Fiji, Bora Bora, New Zealand, Tulum, Sayulita, Tel Aviv, Portugal, and Greece
41. Over the years I have become a low key minimalist and love it.
42. In Cabo I lived off 2 suitcases and discovered it was more than I needed. In Bali I lived off 1 backpack and one carryon and that was still more than enough.
43. I am amazed with my courage, resilience, and versatility. I am so thankful to have lived this long, to be healthy, and feel good.
44. Cheers to warm sand, cenotes, sun, fun, food, good moods, life and love
I have a long way to go before I have a fully running edible landscape. However, I am thankful for what I have so far. I am not an expert at gardening, but I am learning as I go. A great book that is helping me is called Desert Gardening since I live off the coast and closer towards Palm Springs. It seems that July & August just scorches my entire garden and Jan gets frost. So, it seems in Southern California I have a few short seasons to work with although I can grow year round. I have so much to learn.
I need to be diligent with watering since missing one day can wipe out all my hard work (which has happened a few times). I did get straw to mulch and that seems to be helping. However, it blows all over the place (as seen in the video). I still have more beds to mulch now that the plants are larger.
Here is a list of what I have so far:
Trees fig (Black Mission), plum (Santa Rosa)
Bushes 2 blueberry varieties (O’neil & Misty)
Vine grape (red flame) and kiwi (about dead by the sun)
Berries blackberry, raspberry, boysenberry, strawberries (again near scorched)
Herbs oregano, basil, chamomile, aloe
All raised beds have wire to keep underground gophers from getting into the goods. My dog, Hailee has been keeping all the birds from landing and mice, possums and gophers from having a party in my yard. The compost seems to draw in the critters. Which is why it is in a trash can with holes so I can put potting soil over the clippings and put a lid on it.
Annuals corn- sweet, white, & bi color Anaheimchili’s tomato (a few varieties) watermelon cantaloupe pumpkin spaghetti squash zucchini patty pan cucumber- 2 varieties tomatillo
To do finish nylon netting for vertical growing front yard flowerbed along the wall needs to be re planted (most everything there is a volunteer and I didn’t have the heart to rip them out.) install an irrigation system finish the side area of the front yard next to the small raised beds. BTW, I double dug under all those and amended soil about 1 foot down. I don’t have wire to block gophers though. I hope it isn’t a problem in the future, but from what everyone tells me it will be an issue.
After it cools a bit I hope to plant trees in September like citrus and stone fruit. As well as putting all the plants that are still on pots in the ground. I need to be careful since the soil I have is clay and very tough to work with. I know it will be a while before I have awesome soil.
I have so many ideas and visions of things I’d like to make happen. One of the things that helps me tremendously is having a role model to follow as a guide to get me started.
One of my goals is to create an edible landscape. I want to grow foods that can’t be found in the mainstream markets. I want to grow gourmet foods that are fresh picked and organic. Not only is the food highly nutritious and beaming with enzymes, but it’s pretty fun to watch your little “babies” grow.
I always knew I wanted to grow a few fruit trees and have a little veggie garden, but in 2007 I decided I wanted to grow an edible landscape. I was turned on to two people who have given me lots of inspiration.
The first is the Dervae Family who are here in So Cal. I have actually had the pleasure of seeing their home, meeting them and learning from them. Their home is similar to mine. I have a small lot that I am working with so I find them a great role model for me to use as a source of inspiration in creating my edible landscape. They have a great website called “Path to Freedom” with daily journal entries of life in their world. I love it! I also love their social networking site of Freedom Gardeners!
Check out this quick clip on what they have going on!
Another huge source of inspiration was the book Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy. She took the basic landscaping tools and created homes that had just as much beauty in the design, but with edibles. The book is pretty old, but she is actually coming out with a newer version in Spring of 2010! I can’t wait to check it out. I am a sucker for books! Here is her latest project:
This is a typical So Cal home that shows me how I can get high density fruit trees planted in my small yard! I have no experience in espaliering, but it looks pretty simple.
So, I have been weeding, composting, building raised beds, vertical frames, digging up part of my front yard and mulching seedlings. Trust me, you don’t want to see my manicure or my farmers tan! I realize it is a lot of work and it takes lots of time. Soil is the biggie and I have bulldozed clay soil. It’s like concrete. I am working with raised beds until I can improve the soil. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and like it’s going to take a lifetime to get things into place, but I keep hearing that song in my head…you know….. this one…”inch by inch, row by row….” Bring on The Muppet Days! 🙂
Ok, it’s kinda cheesy, but I swear, that song sticks in my head when I am overwhelmed and I know…little by little…I’ll get there! 😉 Soon I’ll be posting photos and videos of what I have been working on. 🙂
If you have a garden I wanna know about it. Post your links below or in the comments!
If you are running through life feeling overwhelmed and not really making the impact you know you want, or wishing you felt alive and filled with passion then you are going to LOVE me!
