Wednesday, June 08, 2011

The Garden by the Back Fence

Two years ago we rebuilt the fence in the backyard, and I dug out a garden along side the back part of it between my yard and the neighbor next door. You can read about that sage here. Last year I decided to move my herb garden back there. The herb garden used to be in the front of the house, but over the past 10 years, the black walnut tree has grown much bigger and it's a lost shadier there than when I first planted it. I dug up my chives, and oregano, and then started over from scratch with new sage and thyme and some annual herbs. The plants loved being by the fence, as it gets a ton of sun for most of the day.

The first thing I planted this year, was more herbs in the garden. I added a new kind of sage, a few more varieties of thyme, and some more annual herbs. I noticed that the pineapple mint I planted last summer is thriving, which is OK, because it's a nice ground cover, and it's pretty. One of the things I wanted to do back in this garden, was to grow some type of vine-ing plants up the old playhouse. I planted some perennial sweet peas last year, and put in a morning glory this year. My plan is to get some lattice for around the bottom, and let it just go to town.

I was out mowing the yard this past weekend, and my eyes fell on the old wheel barrow. We had to get a new one this year, and boy am I ever glad. We inherited the old one with our house, and it weighs about 75 pounds and was heavy and awkward to push. The one one is lightweight and rolls like a dream. Anyhow, I was eyeballing the old one, and thinking of how we needed to haul it to the dump, when I remembered a flower display I have seen in another town near the HS. The town's garden group parked an overturned wheel barrow in a triangle traffic plot (you know those things that keep you from driving where they don't want you to go that have grass in them) and grew flowers out of it, like the whole thing had tipped over carrying flowers and they just grew there.

When I was done mowing, I asked The Boy™ if he could take the wheel, and the bottom metal piece off the thing, and after a lot of tugging and some WD40, those rusty bolts came off, and we moved it over to where I thought I wanted it. I quickly realized I had a better spot, and we moved it again. Right now it just has some old, dried out dirt I found in the barn in it, but it adds a lot of character to a garden I'm just starting this year on the other side of the playhouse. It's just a little spot between the playhouse and the fence, to add some color and fun to the other side of the Tower of Doom.

No comments: