Even though our garden is primarily ornamental, it just wouldn't be complete without a vegetable garden. So we have a rectangular strip in the back yard, about 32 by 10 ft, that's dedicated to growing edibles. To keep the bunnies out, we have surrounded it with a low fence made from 2 ft white vinyl lattice, with some taller fencing along the back to support peas. Planting areas are defined by rows of patio pavers, and we try to rotate our crops through the different areas year by year. We have a number of old favorites that we grow every year (perennial vegetables?) - Early Girl tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini, leeks, purple runner beans, snow peas, Pinetree lettuce mix, and Bright Lights chard. And we usually try a few new things. The only truly perennial vegetables we keep are asparagus (far back left corner in the picture - it grows to a total jungle by late summer) and rhubarb. As I'm typing this, I'm enjoying strawberry rhubarb crisp - yum! The beans get home-made teepees made from tree branch prunings, the tomatoes sit in flimsy cages. Watering is done mostly by two soaker hoses that get laid out after most of the planting is done in late spring. One section of the vegetable garden is reserved as a nursery area for young woody plants, to protect them from rabbit browsing in winter. This small area (perhaps 6 by 4 ft) is home to quite a variety of youngsters, from deciduous tree saplings to slow-growing conifers to shrubs that will outgrow their space by the end of the season.
In late fall, when most vegetables had given up for the season, I finally got around to a major revamp of the front fencing: in an attempt to combat the tall grass and weeds growing up into the lattice fence and the metal wire backing it, I underlaid the fence with patio pavers. A list of some things we grow in our vegetable gardenI don't bother to put up plant portraits for most of the veggies we grow in the garden, but some of them are interesting or colorful enough to warrant their own page. Those are listed below, along with some of the woodies in our nursery area.
Last modified:
May 29, 2006 |
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