I’ve been seeing all these garden posts around blogland the past couple of weeks so I thought I’d throw ours into the mix as well. We may have bitten off a little more than we can chew with this fairly large vegetable garden we dug up last Fall, but it should at least be an interesting learning experience.
While we’re at it, let’s look at some other areas around the property as well, shall we?
This is how the front of our house is looking right now. Oh man, do I ever need to tackle those weeds in the path there. But realistically, I complain about the landscaping around our house way too much. It’s pretty well done and was probably really expensive, even if there aren’t enough blooming plants yet for my taste.
And the side of the house. Same weeds, same pain-in-my-butt landscaping rocks and weed-preventing fabric that doesn’t really work that now I need to rip out so I can actually plant what I want to in there. OK, I’m complaining again. It’s really not that bad.
This is another little free-standing garden near the driveway. It used to have all that rock and fabric too, but I conquered it! And now I can plant anything I want in there! Anything!!
Like some lilies to start with.
We’re experiencing a serious lack of flowering plants around here, especially because our giant lilac just didn’t bloom at all this year. I was so looking forward to that.
Luckily, this pretty new friend of mine decided to make an early appearance.
One day it looked like this.
And the next day…
Kapow! What is this? A tree peony? I don’t even know. Lucky for me the normal (herbaceous?) peonies are about to go too, so I should have plenty of flowers for a few weeks at least.
Here’s our big new garden before the weekend.
And after! OK, it’s not that dramatic, but there are plants in there. You’ll have to trust me on this.
We planted pretty much everything we could get our hands on and we still have more room!
See? That’s a plant.
There’s another plant!
This is a picture of a plant that we hope might actually grow.
Chris built this little retaining wall in one area where we had to dig down to keep it all level. I kind of like it!
So that’s what we’ve got so far. Hopefully within a few weeks things will fill in a little more and I’ll be able to show you something that looks more like a thriving vegetable garden and less like a big brown rectangle.
Hope you liked the little tour anyway!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.