The Garden Grows

Like so many this past long weekend, db and I spent some time in the garden. I think we are still struggling with how to manage this space. It's unconventional in shape and light from what we are use to so we've had to re-think what the best options are in order to include some of our favorite veggies such as tomatoes. db did his research and we picked up heirloom tomatoes that are eastern European in origin. We're hoping that we'll have success with tomatoes that should do fine in a cooler, damper climate. I know the summer can get quite hot here, but we still have a lot of shade on the property and needed to take that into account.

One solution I've been reading about is container gardening. We bought a self-watering container from L.V. so we could find the sunniest spot for some tomatoes and we've continued with the container theme, placing them around our place wherever we find the sun tends to rest for a few hours in the day. Another technique we are trying are the topsy-turvy planters.
db and I had to laugh once we put the planters up because they do look so silly. Nice photo isn't it with the compost bin there? I'm hoping to put another hydrangea to the right of the bin. We put a couple of tomato plants in the planters. The planters were given to me from someone at work so I thought we should give them a try. I've heard good success stories with regards to these planters so why not? The idea is that you reduce any pests that might be after your tomatoes in the ground and by watering through the top, you avoid watering the leaves that don't really like to be moist (and we really need to watch that here). The planters are also on a swivel so the planters turn in the wind, ideally getting sun on all sides. The result will hopefully look like this:


I planted this container full of herbs (sage, marjoram, cuban oregano, mint, thyme, chives and taragon) just before we lost the light of the day. I put a few rocks collected from my east coast travels to fill in the gaps until the herbs get a little larger. I do plan to move the sage to the retaining wall once it's in, but that job hasn't been finished yet. On the right is blood-veined sorrel that I put in a pot because it was the end of the day and I was out of ideas and energy to work on a new area for the herbs.

While db. planted tomatoes, I added more perennials to the garden. This gives you a better idea of how it will continue down the slope on the left side. I added some woolly thyme, a forest fern and another type of fern that is lighter in colour with leaves that are quite feathery (I can't recall the name so you'll just have to imagine with my description). The cedar barrel in the foreground looks huge here, but it's not that big. We're going to put some lettuces in there and set up our furniture on the left.

This final photo gives you an idea of what I'm working with in the rest of the garden. The owners think that the solution to everything is to lay down landscape fabric and then cover it with 3 inches of cedar mulch. I tried to encourage them to leave the space as mulch free as possible, but he rented a truck, took a shovel and loaded up on mulch at the landscape center.


So I'm hoping to fill in those mulched areas with some colour and greenery. I found this beautiful black-leaved Ligularia and had to get it. It is stunning (even db who doesn't really pay too much attention to the perennial planting, said "wow, that looks amazing."). I also planted some wild ginger in this space, toad lilies and a painted fern. Fingers crossed that they will all be happy and thrive here.
These plants are located as you go up the path so it's something nicer to look at as opposed to mulch.

I still feel like there's so much to do. We have a whole area to plant in once the retaining wall is finished. I just hope I can get there before the second batch of mulch arrives.