Upon request, I thought I'd show you lovelies around my garden. As my second full summer in our dear house gets underway, I must say that I'm very happy with the progress that I've made in this space. The rest of my flower beds and plantings are in the various stages of landscaping a new house, but I feel that I have a pretty good handle on this one. I was able to get everything planted before we went out of town for the weekend, and I'm so glad that I did! The weather over the weekend was perfect for seed germination! All of the seeds that I planted are now poking their heads out of the ground and reaching for sun. I'm so pleased!
Please, let me show you around.
You can enter my garden through the front gate under our wedding arbor that my dad made for us. Soon there will be flowering hanging baskets gracing its sides.
Once you enter the garden, there is a path made from slices of an elm tree that we took down where this front fence now stands. I do love our wooden stepping path!
On the north side of the garden, my sunniest spot on the property, is home to a few of my favorite flowering perennials. First we have the peonies. There are five different varieties including a light pink, dark pink, red, white, and one more that I don't remember...
Behind three of the peonies you will find my new trellis, also made by my dad, and a new Josephine clematis that will grow up it! I'm very excited to get the trellis properly fixed to the ground and get that lady climbing!
Between the peonies and under the dining room windows, I've saved a bit of room for annuals and other random additions. This year, I put in a few moss roses, which I'm enjoying (and the chickens find to be delicious...ahem!). I also planted shallots next to the house and am excited to see how they do! Supposedly, once you start growing shallots, you'll never need to buy them again! Sounds fantastic to me! I'm also planning to fill this space out a bit with some flowers for cutting, such as dahlias or zinnias. This space is also home to my gigantic allium! I planted it in the fall and am excitedly anticipating it's big bloom!
After the other peonies, you will find my herb garden. It currently includes chives, sage, spearmint, oregano, thyme, lavender, bay, and lemon balm. It is also home to my new rhubarb plants given to me from my aunt. This rhubarb has traveled around Minnesota and first started with her grandma! It's taking a little bit to settle into its new home, but it seems to be slowly coming around.
On the south side of garden, you will find my veggies. Most of my seeds were planted on this end of the garden. Near the fence, I have beets, then broccoli, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, zucchini, and summer squash. The spinach and mustard greens are planted around the zucchini and summer squash and will probably finish up before the squash spreads and takes over the space. The lettuce is planted around the broccoli and the broccoli will shade the lettuce as it grows and help to keep it from bolting in the hot mid-summer weather. I've never grown beets before, so I'm curious to see how they do!
Next we have the pole beans, bush beans, carrots, and radishes. The pole beans are closest to the fence and will soon have a trellis of some sort to climb up. The carrots and radishes are planted in alternating rows. The radishes will mature first and will be pulled to make room for the carrots. I think carrots are one of the most fun things to grow! Each one is a surprise when you pull it out of the ground! I love it!
Then we have the tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, basil, and cucumbers! As I mentioned in a previous post, I have 12 tomato plants this year, each a different heirloom variety! I have a mixture of large tomatoes, cluster tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes. I'm so excited to keep track of their production and flavor and watch how they grow this summer! Last year my tomatoes didn't do very well, so I'm hoping for a much better result this year. I also have 8 pepper plants, including large green bells, small yellow, orange, and red baby bells, and jalapeños. The potatoes are planted near the fence in a rather shady spot. Since it's not a great spot for other things, I decided to try potatoes there, just to see what they'd do. If it works, hurray! We'll have lots of potatoes! If not, then I'm out about $1...so, it's a cheap experiment! The cucumbers and basil are near the yard side of the garden and both will likely fill out and take over that side, which I'm more than fine with! I planted a compact pickling variety of cucumbers this year and so far I am pleased with their quick germination (last year most of my seeds drowned in our June rains).
Lastly, I decided to plant wooly thyme between my stepping path to slowly create a carpet-like ground cover. Last year I had a problem with my soil washing away down that path, so I'm hoping that the ground cover will eventually keep things in their place and will make the garden even more alive and full.
I hope you've enjoyed this little garden tour! I'm in the process of finishing a new flower bed as well and hope to have pictures to share of that soon!
What about you? How are your gardens coming together this year? If you have a links to pictures, feel free to share them below! It's so fun to see how things growing!