Garden Profile

(left: photo taken July 2005) (right: photo taken July 2008)

There's a 2008 tour of my garden here.

• Zone 5a, Ontario Canada
• small, suburban lot: previously farmland (no trees)
• garden started around 1996: very slowly, lots of crazy mistakes, started to figure out what might work in 2002
  
• initial obstacle: extreme bog conditions in backyard, eventually resolved by forming low moats around high garden beds. Hallelujah.
• also sections of gravel, extreme clay, and no-dig areas (due to underground pipes and wires)
  
• learned the hard way: if a plant grows really fast and strong, it doesn't actually mean you're a good gardener. In truth, it means that plant is going to be a big. invasive. problem
• interest added to the young garden by hauling in about two thousand unwanted rocks from nearby construction sites. Also, lots of homemade trellises. Best trick: mount them about a half foot out from the fence--allows more growing space for vines and looks great.
  
• strictly organic: no herbacides, pesticides, commercial fertilizers or poisons of any kind
• minimal lawn mowing; gradually removing all lawn, replacing it with mulch and bigger beds
  
• no lawn watering (I'd gladly have no lawn at all if I could)
• minimal garden bed watering (new plants only); three rain barrels.
• compost courtesy of our kitchen waste and guinea pigs
  
• predominantly pererennial plants (zone 5 hardy) with exception of a few annuals (pansies) for the window boxes.
• soil: ridiculously heavy clay, amended occasionally with whatever compost I can produce from kitchen scraps, but mostly left as is.
• plants: mostly flowering perennials
• perennial food plants: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
• summer veggie garden (tomatoes, kale, broccoli, lettuce, chives, peppers, basil).
• fruit trees: apple and pear (newly planted 2008), and peach (2009)
  
• annoying critters: rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, and one (!) many squirrels
• welcome critters: birds, butterflies and friends
• full sun in front beds where underground conduits forbid much digging i.e. minimal planting allowed
• half sun in side and back gardens
  
• quirky personal preference: no yellow flowers Update: the more I tried to avoid yellow, the more it showed up, so now I have surrendered and actually like it in the mix.
  
• garden art/junk: made with found objects
  
• Budget: $100 per year
• New in 2009: raised beds in front yard for veggies and small pond
  

my garden (summer 2006)

The Fun Never Ends:
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There's a 2008 tour of my garden here.

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I keep track of garden weirdness here.

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Free home & garden project instructions.

See my garden art/junk.