a tour of my backyard

because Chris asked for it!

Well, my backyard is pretty big compared to everywhere else I've lived before. Most of it is lawn, with a strip at the back where nothing much grows except weeds because of tree shade, and a row of hyacinths and other random stuff up against the fence. I want to plant some small shrubs and something like ferns back there, someday. That part's not pretty but I'll show you the rest! All around the edges of my lawn are borders of planting areas.

On one side there's a raised bed walled in with concrete, that was already here when I moved in. It extends off my main patio. The soil's not very good on this side, still kind of heavy clay but I turn compost into it every year and hope that improves it. Here's two views of that. The closer end of it has strawberries planted in it; the further end the remains of my basil and tomato plants this year. In the middle is where I took out the sick zucchinis. Oh, and you can just see my open coldframe in that first picture.

On the opposite side there's a long bed that at first was just shaped by a boundary of wood (something like old railroad ties). I made these little paths in it with brick edging and gravel, so that I can reach each part of the garden without stepping on the soil. It also divides everything up nicely so I can keep track of what's planted where each season. Here's two shots of that side, one looking right over the compost bin. It's mostly empty now, although I've started carrots and beets in two of the plots for fall. At the far end you can barely see my row of swiss chard, behind some more the remaining basil plants (I put tomatoes on each side of the garden to keep cherry and big ones separate in case I wanted to save seed, and they were both accompanied by basil).

Against the house is a narrow bed edged with round stones (with celery, peppers and baby beets in in now, from left to right), and behind the small patio on the right is another large square space (with just broccoli in the middle now that I've pulled all the green beans out). When we got the house, this square spot was full of broken concrete, I think it used to be part of that small patio. I've dug most of the concrete out, but there are still some pieces under there so sometimes the plants can't get their roots in deep and tend to fall over :(

In the back I've started to convert part of the ugly grass/weed area into growing spots, too. Here off the end of the raised bed I made a new patch this year. I killed the grass by piling up trash bags of leaves for a few weeks (not pretty) and then put down some boards for a temporary edge. This is where my pumpkins and sunflowers have been growing! Kind of looks messy now because the pumpkins are dying. Behind them is another spot boarded by big flat stones turned up on end (that was already built when I moved in, too). It's where my rhubarb lives.

And the middle of it all is just plain old grass. Not very exciting, but lots of space for the kid to run around.

Here's looking again at the raised bed on one side:

and the divided bed on the other:

That edge of rocks in the foreground is eventually where I want my lawn to end, once I figure out what to plant in the back under the trees. I just don't like mowing so much!