Liberating More Lawn
“But each spring…a gardening instinct, sure as the sap rising in the trees, stirs within us. We look about and decide to tame another little bit of ground.” — Lewis Gantt
With the coming of spring I’m planning out my gardens and inevitably I don’t have space to grow everything I want to grow. So I keep eying different areas of my yard wondering what I could convert to growing space. I’m considering bringing the lawn in from the edges of the property in the front yard by 4-5 feet on each side, that would give me a good 500-600 sq ft of growing area on one side and 200-300 on the other. One side is bordered by an empty wooded lot, so I wouldn’t have to worry about neighbors, but the tree roots pose a bit of a problem.
The other side is behind a fence, I cleared the area of saplings last summer but never planted anything there. I’m thinking both of these spot are prime for tomatoes and other full-sun vegetables. I could also expand our front flowerbed in from the road some more and that would also add a few hundred square feet of growing space. In one of these areas I’d like to grow a lot of flowers like zinnias, cleome and globe amaranth for the bees and other beneficial insects. I also would like to put a 1-2 foot wide flowerbed by the rock wall that flanks our driveway, that would be lovely with a big row of lavender.
Whatever I decide it’s going to be a lot of back building work digging it all up (you remember our rocky soil), but it will be worth it in the end.
Are you thinking of liberating any of your lawn to expand your veggie beds this year?
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What’s Happening in the Garden?
Yesterday was a beautiful day here in NE Ohio. It was sunny and in the 50’s; just the kind of weather I have been longing for. Naturally we spent the afternoon working the gardens getting ready for spring.
So what garden chores did we do yesterday afternoon? Here are the tools we used.
The supplies we used to complete our chores, all measured and ready to go.
The supplies after we had been working for a while. Can you guess what’s going on here at Chiot’s Run?
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Plants for Thought
I’ve never been a lover of coniferous plants. There are a few I like, but I think I have seen far too many blue spruce and other evergreens thrown in front of new homes with a little mulch around their feet and been called “landscaping”. I only have 2 coniferous plants in my gardens, they were planted by the original owners of the home (I had 2 more but they were oddly placed and they were cut down during the first summer we lived here). I have never had much of a desire to add conifers to my garden, I always felt like they would be out of place and boring (since they are around every new house you see). I’m a big of a cottage gardens, large, boisterous and messy and I always felt like the orderliness of evergreens would seem out of place here are Chiot’s Run.
While reading through, A Year at North Hill: Four Seasons in a Vermont Garden
These (conifers) are all known in the nursery trade as “bread and butter” plants, for they may be rowed out as cuttings and grown to a salable size quickly and without much trouble, thereby supplying nurserymen with reliable income. They are the darlings of developments contractors also, for they are relatively cheap, easy to come by, and they may be plunked down against the foundations of a raw new house to give it what they call a “finished” look, though of course it rarely is. The ubiquity of these conifers in new housing developments and in front of filling stations causes many sensitive gardeners to shun them; but the very qualities that make them so treasured there also recommend them strongly to the gardener for they are easy and quick to grow, are often amenable to shaping, and are relatively disease-free.
I’m hoping to add a few conifers to my gardens this summer. I already have a small Frasier fir from the farmer’s market to plant this spring and I’m sure I’ll be buying a few more. They will definitely help add winter interest to the gardens and they’re beneficial for birds (which we also like around here).
Do you have a kind of plant that you dislike? why?
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You Know You’re a Gardener
You know you’re a gardener when the perfect evening at home consists of hours planning our your garden beds to make the most use of them for the short season. I guess I could be a bit of a geek too since I do it all on my computer (including a harvest total spreadsheet complete with graphs).
I had my list of things I want to order there by my side so I didn’t forget anything. I even had extra space so I added a few things to my seed list; how exciting.
A few new things I’ll be trying this year: chicory, birdhouse gourds, radicchio, rhubarb, peas, brussels sprouts and perhaps a few more herbs. I know I’m pretty late at getting my planning done, it seems like everyone else already has this finished. But last night was the first block of time I’ve had in a while. So I enjoyed a cup of tea, a few seeds websites & catalogs and my garden planning came together. I can’t wait for the weather to clear so I can actually get started!
How are you garden plans coming along? Are you trying anything new this year?
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Freedom Seeds for Free
I’m a member of a community called Freedom Gardeners. It is just one of the services provided by the Dervaes family. This is their mission: Path to Freedom strives to inspire individuals to “think globally, act locally” by motivating them to live a simpler and more fulfilling life on the path to eco-stewardship.
Along those lines of helping others learn to live more sustainably, they have started selling Freedom Seeds.
These seeds are carefully chosen open-pollinated varieties and are non-hybrid, non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), non-Monsanto (yeah). You can be certain when you purchase these seeds you are not supporting big agri-business and you’re supporting a family that’s doing their part to help us be more involved in our food.
In order the show my support, I’m ordering some Freedom Seeds and I’m going to be giving away Freedom Seeds to one of my lucky readers. All you have to do is comment on this post, tell me what you would like to grow (if you want, download the seed list and tell me the 3 kinds of seeds you would like). At the end of this week I’ll pick a winner and I’ll order your 3 seed choices with my order.
You can also download the Freedom Seed List and if you mention my blog you’ll receive 5% off your seed order. If you’ve never grown any of your own food before try starting with some lettuce, it’s a quick and easy veggie to grow. I’ll caution you though, you may find yourself hooked and start growing more and more of your own food (which is a great thing!).
What would you like to grow this summer? Do you start your own seeds? (take the poll)
