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Life in Solera April 2023

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| LIFE IN SOLERA | APRIL 2023 | 25 By Richard Crowe Years from now my children and grandchildren will remember me for my enthusiasm for gardening. The following quotes help express my passion. "When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden." ~ Minnie Aumonier "Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized." ~ Allan Armitage "I like gardening. It's a place where I find myself when I need to lose myself." ~ Alice Sebold "The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others, is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives." ~ Gertrude Jekyll With this bi-monthly column, I hope to inspire and help Solera residents who might be willing and able to create or expand on gardening as a hobby. I understand gardening is not for everybody, but I believe that as we go kicking and screaming into old age a hobby of any kind is critical to living, living longer, and living joyously. One person's hobby is another person's work, so gardening for me has never been "work." I am not totally sure of the source of my passion. I grew up in a small San Joaquin Valley farm town and in college took biology, crops, and horticulture courses. Forty years ago I joined the Riverside Rose Society and 30 years ago became a Master Gardener via U.C. Riverside. For the last 20 years in Solera I have brought my life's learning and passion to my garden, constantly adjusting for seasons and soil. Oh, my mother loved to garden, too. When we moved to Solera, Beverly agreed to the design and scope of our garden: 27 fruit trees, 50 roses, 400 square feet of vegetables and berries, and about 40 day lilies and iris. Two factors help to fit all this into the yard: a pie-shaped street bend lot and espalier- hedge training all the fruit trees, i.e., shaping to 3 feet deep, 10 to 20 feet wide, and 8 feet tall. This shaping also keeps me off a ladder! I learned, and adjusted, from guidelines in the pictured book and include some photos of what I mean. In June I will discuss "Getting Started." For information, call me at (951) 769-1580. Why Grow a Garden? Three rows in area 15' x 60' Left row: 18 roses. Middle row: 6 apples, 2 pears, 2 cherries, 1 nectarine. Right (block wall) row: tangerine, lemon, grapefruit, lime, & pumelo Espaliered fig tree Espaliered nectarine tree Hedged navel orange trees

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