Tour My Garden (2006) - Part One

My garden has changed considerably since I originally posted the virtual tour back in 2003. I initially posted it because I was hoping to see tours of other similar gardens (average, low-budget, do-what-you-can-when-you-have-time, suburban gardens), but could find very few online so I hoped to contribute to the start of a craze.

Today there are lots of garden blogs and lots of wonderful characters who enjoy indulging in both the gardening itself and reporting on it. And, like many, I share my garden not because I think it's particularly spectacular or revolutionary, but simply because it's something I really love.

My small lot has three main gardening areas: the front perennial and veggie gardens (which I had never really done anything with until this year), the mostly-shady, long and narrow side garden, and the small back garden which was transformed with the addition of a little pond and larger perennial beds this year.

You can click on any photo for a larger view:

The Front Garden


The lion fountain is a new addition by the front door. I'm intending to hide the blue water tub but I haven't found the right disguise yet.

I used to have a larger stone waterfall but some sort of animal was apparently coming each night to take long drinks and kept upsetting the pump. It was a lot of work to continually remove all the rocks to set things right again so I decided to try a simpler whiskey barrel setup this year. So far they mysterious furry night visitor has not dropped by (or left droppings to indicate he dropped by).


The front garden was just planted this year. The size of the front beds is limited by a maze of underground cables and conduits which forbid digging, but I've got beds in the small areas where I can have them.

My intention for this area is simply to have one wild mass of every-changing colour. So far, so good.

Here's another view from when I first planted it.

Prior to this I had a small bed with some spring bulbs (which had pretty much lived out their best days) and donkey tails around the infamous, dreaded umbrella tree [see the spring bulbs here, and the umbrella tree here]. I'm normally a treehugger, but some trees are just not worthy--especially the one I had since it turned out to be completely rotted inside!

This sour grapes bearded tongue is one of my current favourites, along with how all the sages look together.

The Front Veggie Garden

The veggie garden was just added this year on the other side of the front yard and that little area managed to provide more tomatoes than I could use. It's in the front yard since that's the only spot that gets full sun (and who the hell came up with the idea that it's wrong to have a veggie garden in the front yard anyways?). Since taking this photo, I've now expanded the garden by about 25' and hope to grow enough veggies to donate regularly to the food bank next summer.

I grew the tomatoes vertically and used six foot lengths of copper pipe to form overhead supports. I hung twine from the supports and pulled the plants up that way. I picked off the suckers and the plants produced an incredible volume of tomatoes. I'll add a photo when I find it....

By the end of the summer, the plants were so huge, I couldn't really fit in the veg garden and had to just reach over the rabbit fence to pick things.

Also, amazing but true: I managed to get through the whole season without any rabbits digging into the veg garden. This, ladies and gentlemen, is no small miracle.

The Side Garden

The side garden is very long and narrow. I'm not allowed to dig where you see grass but everywhere else is fair game.
The tipsy pots and watering can at the entry to the side garden add some welcome whimsy. I've banned myself from growing annuals since I loathe watering them, so these pots have the ever-forgiving chicks and hens in them for now.

I wrote up instructions for making tipsy pots here.

As you'll notice, I'm crazy for daisies. I love them next to the blue delphiniums.

The blanket flowers (orange and red) in the foreground were from a seed kit from Monet's Garden in Giverny, France. They are the only surviving plants from the kit (they said they'd be hardy in zone 5 but everything else was not) and stay in bloom all summer long.

The green arch in the distance is the grape vine which has suddenly become really vigorous. I've had to hold several executive meetings to figure out which was to send the new growth.

You can see how much the garden has filled in since this photo was taken in 2003.
I built the fence on the left from discarded cedar hedge trunks. I like anything that distracts from the long brick wall.

I'm semi-regretting adding periwinkle below the cedar fence. Next year that might be upgraded to full regret. It takes a lot of time to yank it back from taking over the rest of the garden.

This is how it looks at the entry to the side garden. It's quite shady most of the day but the sun loving perennials simply lean out a bit to catch the morning sun.
When the daisies and delphs are done, the daylilies, lilies, coneflowers and monkshood take over.


This cedar and copper grape vine arbour are a work in progress. I simply add on as the vine grows.


I don't have any trees and the garden is always calling out for vertical interest, so I have a lot of vines all around the perimeter of the yard as well as various garden art/junk items hanging on the fence.

You can see some of my garden art/junk here:
page one
page two
page three

The garden tour continues here >>>

Related Entries: The 2006 Blooming Cycle - my attempt to record blooming times. Build a pond and biofilter for $112. There's a complete listing of my virtual garden tours here I keep track of garden weirdness here See my garden art/junk and page two is here. Do you have a picture to add to the Garden Shed Hall of Fame? Mirrors in the garden? Don't they break?