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| back yard |
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| succulents in an old grill |
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| black-eyed susans, or some sort of rudbeckia |
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| cone flowers/echinacea |
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| some sort of tropical bulb (bromeliad family, I think) I have to pull it out and over-winter it every year. |
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| cleome |
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| back yard |
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| gourd harvest |
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| variegated rudebeckia |
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| front yard |
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| neighborhood/guerrilla garden |
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| cosmos |
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| cosmos and margiold |
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| this guy's about 10/12 inches long |
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| our lawn crew know to mow around the garden! =) |
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| hidden treasure! |
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| marigolds = edible! |
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| cosmos |
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| blue cornflower |
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| more cosmos and lil' bee |
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| black pearl hot peppers |
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| seed harvest (what, you think these gardens plant themselves?!) |
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| wild mustard seeds (considered a weed. need to find out if they're invasive or aggressive) |
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| seed harvest helper |
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| icing my bee sting with a couple of frozen bananas! |
If you're curious about noxious, invasive plants in Maryland check out this guide: http://mda.maryland.gov/plants-pests/Documents/weedbrochure.pdf
Here's a nutshell version story of my gardens: We got our house about 7 years ago. It had a postage-stamp-sized front yard, and a slightly larger back yard, with lawns. We had a vintage push mower for the grass, which got tiresome real quick, plus it was tearing up the roots of our weeping cherry tree out front. Josh lamented this chore, so one day I said, "Let's just mulch it." And we did. We mulched over all of it, front and back. This was after I killed the grass by smothering it with some old carpet, and then newspaper (after some annoying letters from our HOA, 'What are you doing with that pink carpet in your yard??!'). Finally, after the winter snow melted from our pink carpet, we paid 10 dollars at the county yard waste facility for a truck full of mulch and did the deed.
We got some plants from the local farmers' market and some end-of-season ones from the Home Depot and our gardens were on their way! A few years later I worked at a local garden where careful editing was par for the course, which meant free plants to good homes! My home gardens got filled up quickly and now they are at maintenance-level, no longer planting-level. That makes life pretty sweet.
Buuttt, I love it; I can't get enough. I love gardening and I love being busy in the dirt. So last year I took it upon myself to ready a patch across the street (in the 'common area' of my townhouse community) for yet another garden. I hand-tilled a whole swath that you can even see on google maps:
I was soon expecting letters from my gd HOA again asking what I was up to. I was ready to retort that I was merely removing the noxious Japanese Knotweed and replacing it with wildflowers to create a garden for pollinators and local birds and wildlife, but the need never arose. No one asked me about my shenanigans via letter, but I have met more of my neighbors than I've ever spoken to in the past 5 or so years. They walk by with their dogs, they wave when they drive by, their kids spy on me from their windows, and sometimes they walk up and chat. Sometimes they check out the garden on their own, which I love. I've been thanked by many of my neighbors, which I greatly appreciate since they don't have to say anything at all. Last year one woman told me she was away for a while taking care of her dying mother and when she got back she was happy to see the flowers still in bloom as the summer was turning into fall. She appreciated the flowers - just that they were there and they appeared out of nothing, nowhere. I can take no credit, really, for the natural beauty of what a flower is. But I love it; I really do. I love gardening and sometimes feel I take their beauty for granted. I was reading about a photo project this artist did after interviewing prisoners, asking them what view they miss or wish they could see. Their answers were interesting and heartbreaking. I get to look at my gardens everyday. I'm sure in my own way I take them for granted.
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Pro Tip: many dollar stores put out their seeds and garden supplies in early spring, restocking until they run out. Seed packets are often 4/dollar.
Here are pics from last year's gardens:
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| July 2013 back yard |
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| July 2013 front yard |
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| July 2013, the first guerilla garden. The sunflowers were great! 2014 did not fare well for them; they were all eaten by deer early on. =( |
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| sunflowers, wildflowers, marigolds |
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Deer like: sunflowers, zinnias, and hostas very, very much.
Deer are awful.
If you surprise a bee, it will sting you.
Gourds are super easy to grow and will take over your garden. The stalks are super prickly and itchy and I personally get an allergic reaction with too much contact.
Seed saving is totally worth it. Things that took well this year were: cosmos (pink and orange), gourds, tomatoes, marigolds, cleome, coneflower, rudbeckia
The trick is to keep your compost pile really, really moist. Otherwise it's a dry pile of old plant material and not compost.
Happy gardening!
All of your gardens look amazing!
ReplyDeleteI love the variegated rudbeckia.
Our compost is just two piles of dry old plant material.