The garden is off to a slow start this year. Lots of cool weather & wild shifts. I’ve compared this years growth with photos of the same dates in 2021 (when I last gardened this space) & things are just a bit behind. I expect a big growth spurt soon with the weather warming.

I’m notorious for planting into pretty scrappy beds & this year was no different. I’m still cooking certain soil sections & withholding planting in those spots. Today I’ll gently mix ground eggshells, a bit of coffee grounds & worm castings into the soil to add vital nutrients I think the soil & plant roots might be craving.

I’m enjoying my garden in it’s transitional scruffy state and going a bit slower with things. It will get there. It’s growing. Perfection is never the goal.

If you’ve followed my gardening adventures for a while, you’ll know that in my own home garden, where I have the free reign and time, I create almost exclusively from found resources. Most everything you see will be from something I scrapped together. It’s how I like it! I think I’ve always been inclined towards re-use. When I look back to younger years, I think of a kid obsessed with condors, vultures and hyenas…all scavengers!

I love the feeling of making beauty and life from the detritus. And I love the feeling of spaces that are made that way. Extra alive! Interesting and full of discovery.

Scruffy garden! Same wire I put up back in 2021, you definitely need bunny proofing here. 2 ft high will do it. I continue to add sticks to the wire fencing when I find good ones. Eventually it will all be woven together. Trellises are made from sticks I found in the woods. Screens are temporarily stuck in a spot where I need to replace the fencing ;)

What have I got growing in here so far? Kale, lettuces, spinach, chard, snap peas, lemon cucumber, parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme, dill, tarragon, basil, lemon balm, oregano, cilantro, lemon grass, chamomile, heirloom tomatoes, peppers, tomatillo, onions, chives, lots of flowers. Raspberries and butternut squash are growing in different peripheries. There’s room to pack in more and I will be adding in some starts over the coming days.
In the far back, alley facing bed (not pictured), I’m growing a straight-up pumpkin patch. I’m doing this patch in honor of Frank’s Corner, the pumpkin patch of my childhood, a place I remember so fondly. I’m growing the really big, ridiculous pumpkins!! All surrounded by lots of flowers that are coming up from seed now.
One of the fun things about gardening is that you get to do stuff like this. Cultivate feelings of places you’ve lived before…mixing the influences of your life into a place. An immersive, on-going art project that happens to support lots and lots of life outside of yourself.

On the other side of the culinary garden the land gently slopes out toward the alley.
I made this little stone bridge over the creek bed (rain garden) that I’m installing back here to work with the slope. I’ll have swamp milkweeds, fox sedges, ferns and blazing stars growing in and around the creek. I’m hoping it will invite the amphibians to set up shop. Homes for everyone in this garden!
The creek will run under the back fence into the alley facing bed where it will provide deep water for the pocket forest, flower beds and pumpkin patch back there. I’ll show you that another time!

I think it’s good to show the process pictures. The bones beneath it all. The scruffy stages that lead to all the beauty.

Lest we forget, this is where it all started. Not a plant or tree in site. There are butterflies, bees and birds now, dragonflies and frogs..So much life where it wasn’t before.

Happy summer and happy gardening friends!

Garden talk

Gardening bits & bobs