There are about 12 bags of compost in this vegetable garden, plus a little bit of organic fertilizer. My neighbor helped me put in these vegetables yesterday. For this winter garden, I've got broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, red and yellow onion, swiss chard, kale, snow pea, romain lettuce, salad greens? and a few herbs like cilantro and basil. Not mentioning the seedlings I sow myself like beets and radish.

I'm so excited about my vegetable garden, can't wait to try these when they are big enough!

My miniature gardens are always a work in progress... I've had this one for quite some time now, today I added more isotoma and a little chair.  For most of them I've got down to a point where I only need to replace the ground cover every once in a while. Struggling to find good sunlight is always a problem for me!

One of my neighbor heard that I make fairy gardens for hobby, so he gave me several wine boxes, I've been able to make a couple more fairy gardens out of these boxes using trees that were stashed away for a while. The first tree from the left is a cork elm. The nursery owner told me that the trunk will crack as it ages, and while it seemed to be going that direction, I almost killed it once and all the leaves fell off at the wrong time.  I almost threw it away but decided to keep it for a while, the dry branches sprout out tiny new leaves after a while, and now it's thriving again. It's one of the happy ending trees that I have. The little tree in the middle is a hokkaido elm tree, I still have the big one here, it's loosing leaves right about now. This type of elm tree have the smallest leaves ever, I think they are just incredibly funny! The plant on the right corner with pink leaves is a dwarf bougainvillea. It has such a wonderful unusual light pink color! I'm hoping this one will grow into a handsome little tree! 

I've got more pictures of fairy gardens to come, but first, here's a little tip,

A little secret I use to keep fairy garden pots in place, glue nails to the bottom and stick them into soil!

I have been working very hard to revitalize my fairy gardens lately. They have grown in number by so much that, after giving away several of them, my backyard is still filled with them. 

I spent most part of my Sunday doing yard work. We pay $30 a week for a gardener to come in, but still rake all the dead leaves and do all the trimming ourselves. One day of yard work and two trash can filled with leaves and branches later, my garden is looking somewhat refreshed.  I dug out all the leaves hidden in every corner and under every bush, pulled out spent plants, trimmed off some overgrown bushes, cut off suckers from trees, and spread several bags of compost over cleaned up areas. Gardening really isn't difficult, it just takes some patience. I have to say, I do enjoy doing the work by myself. It's very satisfying being in the outdoors and working with plants.

Just a few pictures of my fairy gardens in daylight:)

I had my gardener planted my Camellia Japonica in the front yard. When our walnut tree fell down a little over a year ago, it knocked down several small bushy trees. I had this bald spot that exposed the neighbor's driveway for a while, but I think now the Camellia tree will fill in the space nicely!

Last year around January I planted these small bushes in the corner of my front yard along with two pink carnations. 

Look how much the bushes have grown only after a year! The french lavender bush smells so good and it constantly has bees swarming around it. 

 

Prunus Glandulosa 'Rosea Plena'
Also called 'flowering almond'

I'm waiting to prune it after the flowers finish blooming and then transfer it to a prettier pot!