Carole's garden

Carole's Gardening Adventure:  A large country garden with a whimsical blend of plants including an Asian section, a secret cottage garden, approximately 300 roses of all types, a pond with waterfalls, many native plants, and a fruit orchard.  This garden is located in West Redding near Old Shasta and depicts what can be done with rocky soil, terrain, and a lot of love of gardening.

SLIDE SHOW WITH GENERAL PHOTOS OF THE GARDEN AND SPECIAL SLIDE SHOW WITH ONLY ROSES

Background story

When my husband and I moved to Redding in 1997, I said I wanted a place where I could garden as much as I’d always wanted to -- but never had time.  Although I was raised in Minnesota (where they have real soil!), I’d lived in the Bay Area, Utah, and New Jersey, so I thought I’d dealt with most soils and weather conditions.  BUT I hadn’t met conditions like West Redding!  We moved into our house in June of 1998 and I couldn’t even penetrate the soil!  I was devastated – so my husband and I started clearing manzanita & knob cone pine trees and did that for almost three years.  My first garden is what I now call my “secret garden” and I brought in 24 yards of topsoil for a running start at a garden.  I quickly decided I couldn’t afford to do that again, so we became “hunters & gatherers” of horse manure and oak leaves to make compost.  Thankfully we made friends that had both of those and we started huge compost piles.  My husband hauled in the material and turned it with his tractor.  I then spread it further and further each year until we got to the point where I could start to turn the soil.  That compost went into everything – vegetable gardens, flower beds, everything!  In the process I joined the Shasta Rose Society and became addicted to roses (along with every other plant) and started to spread out.

My favorite story is when I asked my husband to drill holes for fruit trees in what is now our “compost” area – and when he started the auger, the tractor lifted off the ground.  The whole area is hard pan! 

I now have about 300 roses, which I love and keep adding to, a substantial fruit orchard, two vegetable gardens, and many other miscellaneous gardens.  Of course, the bad news is the deer, bear, ground squirrels, voles and every other critter known to man has found me!  So I have to be vigilant.  We use a lot of “deer fencing”, an electric fence for the bear, and traps and cats to try to control the others. 

I was an organic gardener way back in the 1960’s and my gardens here are about 95% organic. I believe that healthy plants/trees can fend off most insects (not critters!).  I also hate to weed, so I put down heavy mulches in the form of compost every year to keep the weeds down.  I couldn’t do all of this without my husband’s help, but I have tried to keep the upkeep to a minimum.  I hope you enjoy our gardens as much as we do!

Carole.