Garden love

One of the things I love most about our new backyard is the pink flowering dogwood tree, which has finished with its flower for the summer (this photo from three weeks ago) – but is now covered in glorious thick leaves which I can only imagine will create a lovely patch of shade in a few years when the tree has grown up a little more. A simple, healthy tree it is – I am charmed by it almost daily. But in general I’m finding myself entranced by our new little backyard – moreso than I have with past gardens. Although I’ve loved all the gardens I have grown and tended, I have to say I’ve never experienced the feeling of permanence I have right now – which I suspect has me a lot more invested in the process of rooting (pun intended). I find myself planning for asparagus, something that takes three years to get a crop from (and then gives for twenty more years), thinking about what type of climbers I would like to plant over the shed (once we’ve redone the roof on it next year), and plotting a long-term project in the front that will involve a pond and woodland plants.

It’s all very exciting, and assisted by the fact I haven’t had to travel at all lately, which has brought me back into the type of home life I enjoy and have missed for the past couple of years. My domestic side and all, something I’ve never been ashamed of even in my days of anarchy (which involved lots of large gardens, open-door potlucks, and home-brewed wine…. all things I want back in my life).

So I’ve got a crazy mix of stuff in the ground at the moment, some of it just seeded, some from starts – a mix of flowers and vegetables with a few perennials dotted about (most of which preceded us and I’ve decided to keep). Tomatos, eggplants, and peppers are something I’ve gone into this year – hoping that the warm weather will hold and I’ll actually get fruits without any greenhousing (my tomatos are already starting to fruit). My lettuces and radishes are ready to eat (planted the first weekend we lived in the house), I’ve got kale and cabbage growing strong and healthy, peas which I’m trying to train up the string trellis, bok choi, summer squash, cucumber, celery, spaghetti squash, and even some corn which I just put in this week (I figure there might not be enough for proper pollination but at the very least it’s an attractive plant for the side of the shed). Basil of course, oregano, dill, sage, thyme, lavender, a rosemary bush transplanted from the front, chives and parsely. And that’s not to mention the random cut-flower blends I’ve seeded in little patches all over the place, including sweet peas, cosmos and blackeyed susans. A little bit of everything tucked all over, I can hardly wait until the intensive weeding period is over and the stuff is established enough to really take over.

It’s a funny thing in a garden, how it seems to take so long to establish, and then overnight it’s almost overcrowded with growth. (I have a terrible problem with spacing, my gardens always look a little overstuffed). I figure I should actually document this garden, at least a few photos per week – so that I can remember next year when I double the amount of bed space with a querr little (patchy) yard I started out with.

I do find myself a lot more attentive to this garden than any before it though, watering twice a day in this heat, weeding every time I bend down to look at something, actually working on soil improvement (feeding all the plants eggshells when I have them), and hoping that my garden will love me back in return. It feels good to have this connection with home again, it’s been far too long since I’ve had one.