Barb's Garden

It has only just begun. It evolves in bits and pieces as I have time away from my bookselling and the other chores around home that demand time. It currently has five sections.

The first, which is a fenced area to keep the deer out, is where I try to grow most of the vegetables. It is now down for the winter, though I'm hoping a lone lettuce which is just starting to bloom, will reseed and give me seedlings for spring.

The second area is by the pumphouse wall. It is the first place I attempted to grow flowers and the amayllis bulbs were actually planted by a previous neighbor who shared them with me. Since then I've added herbs, annuals, and the gazanias, and just recently I planted some irises and a sword fern.

(Note, here is the way this garden looks this week as I revise this on 4/14/07. The fern died. The gazanias, which are outside this picture, almost died in the freeze, but they are reviving. And now the first iris in this bed is starting to bloom. you can see the amayllis has died back. The Dusty Miller plants have grown and are about to bloom. The parsley, (flat-leaf) is about to go to seed. )

The third area I started was a bare slope with rocky soil and nothing but weeds -- mostly thorns and mustard -- growing. I planted some sage and lavender a couple of years ago, and they have gotten big enough to divide. A few poppies have managed to grow and reseed, and occasionally some lupine have grown. For two years I've had to neglect this slope, but this year I planted some irises, rosemary, gazanias, oregano, coreopsis, a dusty miller, and some wildflower seeds. I thought they had not sprouted except for the poppies, but in the spring I did get a couple of blue flax, which I've let reseed, and a four o'clock, which I've let reseed. I also added a golden sage, and recently planted some daffodils to bring more color come spring. I also had some dill, which I planted a while back reseed, so I had some dill behind the sage. It will be interesting to see what will come to life on the slope next spring. 

(Here is how the slope looks now in April, 2007, as I revise this. This is just the west half of the slope. The east side is below. Above, at the top, next to the poppies, is my sage, which has grown a lot in three years. To the left of the sage, you can barely see the blue flowers on the flax. Blow the poppies at the slop's bottom are the gazanias, which are coming back from the freeze. The Dusty Miller  on th eleft edge really marks the middle of the slope garden at this point. Below, you see it again, in the middle, with the lavender to its left. )

The fourth area is a small strip of land between a shed and the driveway, bordered by the kitchen wall. Half of it, closest to the wall, is still weeds. There just wasn't time to do everything last spring. The largest part of it is occupied by a huge chard plant which is going on for it's second year now. It's main stem is larger than the trunks of some of our newer fruit trees, and its spread is about four feet. I also have a couple of artichokes and a couple of borage plants in that space, and one lemon balm. I hope to make this more productive and attractive next spring.

Edited, April, 2007. See the picture of this area now to the left. On the left,  just creeping onto the driveway, is a lemon balm. Themother artichoke is in the red pot. To its right is one of its babies, the biggest now. In the front right corner is part of the giant red chard, which now has two babies under the large artichoke. That green border behid the red pot are the rest of the weeds I need to pull, and the pots behind it still need to be filled and planted with something.

The fifth and last area was started anew this year. It is in the area I see from my kitchen window. Eveything planted previously was smothered in weeds or eaten by gophers while I was helping to care for Mom during her last months and then trying to settle her estate and catch up with business matters. This past spring (2006) I started over, pulling out the forest of weeds and planting a few herbs and flowers. It has now become quite colorful, and I hope by next spring I will see the results of planting the daffodil bulbs and irises among the various herbs that have survived the voracious gophers. They devoured the yarrow and sorrel, but I still have the marjoram, hyssop, borage, camomile, and catmint. I planted sunflowers late and they were just raising their heads to the sun and looking strong and bright at the back of the bed when we got an early frost, so now they look wilted, and I'm wondering if the seeds will still mature or whether all is lost. The calendula have grown the best and filled the bed with color, but the deer love the blossoms, so I've had to use Invisible Fence, which smells awful, if I want to be able to look at them from the kitchen window. This fall I added some lantana and mums, and I'm hoping they will make the garden less dependent on annuals. I'm trusting that whatever annuals I have will reseed, and I still hope to bring in some gazanias, which spread so quickly, by dividing what I have. The major goal of this garden is to cover it with something lovely to look at that will keep the weeds from taking over again.

Edit, April, 2007. Here is what this garden has become in the last 11 months. There is still plenty to do. I need to finish putting bark on the cardboard and newspapers that are there to block weeds around the edges. I need to clear the ground behind me to the right of rocks and amend the soil. I'm going to attempt to grow tall edible sunflowers and cucumbers and squashes there when it's warm enough. In the pot on the front left are lambs ears. The cat mint is behind it to the right, with the calendulas on either side of the pot of carnations. The sage at the right was divided from the sage on the hill, above, a few pictures up, and it's just about to bloom. I have some borage, dill, hyssop, cosmos, parsley, marjoram, oregano, lemon thyme, mint, and angelica which aren't very visible in this picture. And poppies and baby calendulas are poppying up all over. As you can see, the first of my irises is blooming. Between me and the poppies, slightly behind, are what I hope turn out to be small, colorful sunflowers.  Just behind me is the orchard, and in the background to the right, which is actually across the highway, is my neighbor's vineyard. Eveyone in the neighborhood but us has a vineyard.

It is now December, 2006, and about all I do is water. I'm cleaning up the remains of last year's crops in the fenced areas, and I still have a few more daffodil bulbs to plant before the end of the month. For more pictures and my daily meditations on gardening, see

my blog, Garden Thoughts

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