Artists Jo and Leah used their creativity and vision to create an urban oasis in their West Oakland home. When I showed them their home four years ago they saw past the cigarette stained walls and 70's wood paneling and put an offer in. The first thing they did was refinished the hardwood floors, re-plastered the walls and installed a working bathroom. Later they created an edible garden in the backyard complete with raised garden beds, tomatoes, corn, strawberries, an apple tree grafted with four varieties of apples and peas. When a friend was about to rid their garden of a pluot tree, they rescued the tree and reap the benefits with annual bowls of sweet fruit. In between the fruits, vegetables and herbs are poppies and other flowers. In Jo's spare time you will see him re-seeding poppies and nurturing his plants.
Pluots a few weeks away from being ripe.