Photos by Joseph A. Garcia / Star staff Don Schafer says it took about a year to complete the garden and that he and his 91-year-old mother, Zella Bullock, studied up to do much of the work themselves.

Joseph A. Garcia / Star staff Former farm boy Don Schafer has placed statuary and other items reminiscent of both his Idaho roots and his European wanderings in the transformed yard of the Simi Valley home he and mother Zella Bullock share.

You can take the boy off the farm, but

In this case, the "boy" is Simi Valley semiretired businessman Don Schafer, 62, who was raised on a farm in Idaho. When he and his 91-year-old mother, Zella Bullock, purchased their 4,000-square-foot Simi Valley home in 2002, the country boy decided to create his own private Idaho by turning his backyard into a cross between the farm country he grew up in and the gardens of Europe he had visited as an adult.

"I took my first trip (to Europe) in 1987 and it just grabbed me," Schafer said. Since then, Schafer has spent his vacations visiting more than 20 European countries.

Turning the backyard into a mixture of Versailles and Boise wouldn't be easy, but Schafer was eager to tackle the project, in part because he wanted to do something for his mother. "This is the best thing I've ever built for my mom," Schafer said.

Bullock is a widow. Schafer has two brothers — one older and one younger — but is unmarried and has no kids, so it made sense for him to move in with his mom to keep her company.

"He's been so good to me," Bullock said.

Schafer wanted to plant fruit trees and till a vegetable garden so his mom could grow fresh produce and create all the goodies he remembered as a child.

"I like to cook and bake," she said.

Schafer had his work cut out for him. The half-acre lot was a dirt canvas yawning before him.

"It was wasted space," Schafer said. "I can't stand to see wasted space. It's the farmer in me."

He knew nothing about landscaping, but he was determined to complete the work on his own.

Then came a year of trial and error. Schafer and Bullock had experience with planting and harvesting, but were pouring cement and designing gazebos, patios and fountains for the first time. They tried to teach themselves by reading magazines and watching TV.

"We watch HGTV all the time," Schafer said.

Gradually, Schafer's vision came together. He terraced the lawn into two levels, planting a profusion of roses on the first level, and three types of grapes on the second. Bullock then began putting her farm-grown skills to work.

"She made Concord jam and grape juice," Schafer said.

Schafer then created a vegetable garden on the side of the house where Bullock grows beans, tomatoes, chard and beets, to name a few plants.

The yard is on a timed drip system, and a gardener comes in once a week for 30 minutes of maintenance, but Bullock and Schafer do the lion's share of tending their "farm."

Nestled in the roses is a shed designed to look like a miniature barn, complete with a loaf-sized hay bale suspended over the barn doors. Schafer also has placed antique farm equipment throughout the garden, such as a grinding wheel like the one his mother once used for sharpening knives. He designed the fountains based on ones he saw in Europe.

Bullock loves to spend days sitting with her son in a shaded patio overlooking the garden. She often naps in the afternoons on a bench swing suspended under the gazebo.

Bullock and Schafer have begun naming hummingbirds, such as the pugnacious fellow they call "Baby." The tiny bird likes to chase the bigger birds away to get to the hummingbird feeder.

Now and then, they get a visit from bigger creatures.

"One morning I heard something splashing" in the fountain, Schafer said. "It was a big raccoon taking a bath."

Later, Schafer caught the raccoon shaking an apricot tree, trying to get a snack.

Building his farm in the city was a big job, but Schafer is glad he did it.

"I think people really miss something" by hiring someone else to do the work, "instead of getting the satisfaction of doing it themselves," Schafer said.