This is the conclusion of the tour, the back yard. If you think I've been verbose so far, you haven't seen anything yet. These photos are the most vague of the collection at times and sometimes you may just have to take my word for it when I tell you a plant is there.
This started as a vegetable garden. It's still good for a few edibles, but seems to have evolved mostly into a butterfly and hummingbird garden. When I first moved in, this is where I focused my efforts. When I got the place, I inquired after garden space, and was told that was a possibility. A previous tenant had a garden back here in summers past. It wasn't very visible when I began my efforts, but I detected it occasionally when I ran into portions of the soil which didn't have so many rocks. Over the years, mostly in the first few, I have accumulated quite a pile of rocks in the back and toward this end there seemed to be no soil to speak of once I took out the rocks so I ended up adding some topsoil.
As years have gone on, the emphasis has gone from annual vegetable crops to perennial ones although I manage to get in some tomatoes every year. Originally, there weren't a lot of non-edible plants. There were a few marigolds here and there to control nematodes and wormwood to discourage animal incursions and I think a few plants to attract beneficial insects. I started out trying to grow everything from seeds purchased from Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. I did pretty well, but the limited southern exposure of my apartment made it difficult to start things like tomatoes and peppers that required a good head start, so I gradually started buying nursery starts for those. In contrast, this year I mostly transplanted stuff and didn't plant any seeds at all.
I think I also brought in a few plants from a plot I had over in Westford as well. At that point, Massachusetts Electric had a community garden program for its customers and allowed me some garden space. That space had been fallow for a year when I lived in Sharon, but I started working it again when I moved to Shirley. That lasted a couple years until Massachusetts Electric ended its program.
I like the idea of combining a vegetable and ornamental garden. I think the flowers may attract beneficial insects which help control the pests on the vegetables. And actually, a lot of vegetables have some pretty decent looking flowers. I think I'd eventually like to move this plot back more toward annual crops and raise more crops from seed.
The layout of the garden, where I refer to the side closest to the street as the front, is a large center section with two side strips and a back strip. The center section is fenced with chicken wire to prevent incursions from wild and domestic animals. From this point of view, it is bordered on the left by the neighbor's fence. Here, we are looking at the center section with an emphasis on the portion beside the neighbor's fence.
My garden's fence was originally aimed at keeping out woodchucks which were holed up in the basement of my place and also over in the neighbor's place. I started out using bird netting for the fence. I liked the bird netting because it was so light weight and cheap. I had gotten some for the Westford garden to use as a trellis for peas and such, and it worked pretty well in that capacity.
As a fence though, while it seemed to have some effectiveness, the bird netting didn't work that well. The woodchucks seemed to chew through it pretty readily. I tried doubling and tripling its thickness and threading in wormwood boughs periodically. While they seemed to avoid the wormwood, ultimately it and the extra layers didn't stop them. Also, a couple birds got tangled up in the netting and died, so after a couple of years I went over completely to chicken wire. I put the stuff the woodchucks liked in the fenced area and put stuff they didn't seem to like outside though as years went on their appetites seemed to expand. Eventually my landlord evicted our family of woodchucks and I guess the neighbor did the same because I never see them any more. Too bad. They were kind of cute.
The numerous flowers you see are purple cone flowers which have a large presence. In front of them is a fair-sized patch of bee balm which has red flowers which have mostly gone by at this point. It is wonderful stuff just for its fragrance and hummingbirds like it. In addition to this patch, there is another patch toward the back of the garden. When I first planted the bee balm, my neighbor said she noticed hummingbirds cruising in a lot. I actually am not that familiar with the wildlife back there since I'm mostly back there to work on the garden and that scares a lot of the visitors away although occasionally I'll see some interesting things. Both the bee balm and the coneflowers are supposed to be good for attracting butterflies, and I have seen butterflies going after the coneflowers, and every once in a while I see a hummingbird.
One of the interesting things about returning to the garden in the spring is what fragrances first hit your nose. I remember one early year, it was the scent of thyme which took me by surprise. Back then I had some big thriving thyme plants. Now I can't get the thyme through the winters, but I haven't given up. The bee balm always makes an early appearance and can be a dominating fragrance early on. This summer the surprise was the mint which had worked its way underfoot on one of my paths.
Except for the tensegrity bean teepee, most of the wooden stakes you see in the foreground are part of the fence. I didn't plant any beans this year, so the bean teepee is just sitting over an astilbe without much function except decoration. In the very back, you can see some further tangles of garden stakes which are the remains of some tensegrity experiments.
At the far left (not very distinct, sorry) is the upper portion of the elecampane plant which has amazingly-huge basal leaves. It is pretty tall, and has yellow flowers. At this point it is sort of a substitute for the sunflowers which I have planted here in years past. It would be nice to get in a few sunflowers once more, and some zinnias as well which I always used to manage to plant some seeds for.
Directly to the right of the elecampane, and closer to us, is the top part of a stinging nettle. I should take it out as it always gets me when I go down the path which separates this main portion from the strip I have next to the neighbor's fence. In the center, you can see my new sprinkler sending up a spray of water, and at the right, the asparagus's nebulous form is visible.
Frankly, I think this main section is badly designed. I'd rather it were divided into two long strips like the side strips. These strips are much easier to work in. I have some big rocks in one part of this main section to keep me from trampling the soil too much, and in other places I have paths of compacted soil where I think rocks or a long plank would be a better idea.
Here's a view of the morning glories on the neighbor's fence. After some initial encouragement, they have become self sustaining and climb a fence like this pretty readily. In the early years, they had trouble because the woodchucks liked to eat them. They are still kind of sparse I think because they have a hard time getting started due to shading from the mint plants, raspberries et al. in the left strip. Moisture is also important for them.
I think they made a nice addition here. Originally there was a strip of poke weed along the fence. It was so well established I asked the guy who used to garden next door whether it was one of their plantings, or if someone over on my side of the fence had planted it. It wasn't of course. I was amazed at the size of the tap roots when I took it out. I think this must have been a section of the previous tenant's garden and the poke weed took over when he stopped using the area.
I didn't get much of a picture of the left strip, so this is about all you'll see of it. Along with the raspberries and a couple of varieties of mint there is some rue which I heard was a good companion for raspberries. There were a couple of butterfly weeds here as well, but they may not have made it through the winter this year. And there is a foxglove and another plant I got this year from the Gardener's Exchange. There is also a forsythia which was established before I got there.
The first mint I planted there was just what Johnny's put in their beginner's herb collection which they would sell as a lot. It really isn't good for much and is gradually getting crowded out by another variety which I got at a plant sale somewhere maybe over in Harvard. The newer variety is better tasting and smelling in tea and tabouli which is where I tend to use it. I think it's a spearmint of some kind.
I used to grow catnip over here, mostly in hopes the cats would go after the woodchucks, but I guess once they were high on the nip they couldn't go after much of anything. A dog probably would have been more effective.
This newer mint puts out flowers in its arm pits rather than its head like the other mints. In this it is like catnip. I've heard catnip is a very good insect repellent, so I may bring it back. One must always put together some sort of arrangement to prevent the cats from destroying the plant in their ecstacies.
Here is a picture of the front portion of the right strip. In back of it, you can see the main section of the garden which we have just looked at and a portion of a shed in the neighbor's yard. We are viewing it from the side toward the front.
At the left is the remains of a sort of protective buffer. I recently thinned it pretty vigorously to make room for a recent gift of plants which you will soon see. It was mainly populated with wormwood and tansy. I put the tansy here because I had read it was invasive. It is invasive and is much easier to control here. It's nice to keep around for its interesting flowers and its supposed to attract beneficial insects. More recently I added some stinging nettle which is also pretty invasive. I try to keep it toward the margins of the garden. And then there is a bug-eaten evening primrose which manages to come back every year, I think via seeds. It is a volunteer. Usually I have a volunteer mullein plant volunteer somewhere as well, but not this year. There was one, but it was growing in an awkward spot and I yanked it. I probably would have done better to transplant it somewhere more auspicious. It is biennial and has really nice leaves and an interesting flower spike.
To the front and a little right of center is a patch of deer tongue grass which is a volunteer. Further to the right is a southernwood plant which I put in last summer and is doing well. Behind is some horehound. This plant seems to spread pretty well on its own. I find it pretty congenial so I let it for the most part, though I find myself pulling it out every once in awhile. I made some tea out of the leaves many years ago. It was pretty strong and very medicinal tasting.
The purple flowers to the far right are part of a butterfly bush which John Rounds gave me. I have a better picture of it later. But first a more detailed view of the southernwood.
Over to the right is a lavender plant. They have a great fragrance. I originally grew them from seeds and have transplanted them here and there. I think I've lost a few through lack of care. Like the thyme, I've found I can't take it too much for granted.
Here is an aerial view of the front part of the strip where I cleared out some of the wormwood to make room for a recent gift of plants Susan's mother gave me in response to a feverfew plant I gave her. It is an interesting collection. The prime member is an Indian-blanket flower, the yellow-orangy chrysanthemum-like flower toward the upper left of the photo. It is a favorite of Susan, but I had no idea which one it was until I consulted with the Gardener's Exchange, and even then, the name blanket flower, as Susan called it, left me wondering for awhile until I did further research and found out its full name.
Here's a more detailed view of the butterfly bush. John gave me a volunteer from his garden. Like the coneflowers and gloriosa daisies, it tends to flop over on things. I've also never seen a butterfly visit it, but they probably show up when I'm not there. It's an interesting looking plant, lucky for it given the way it's starting to dominate the surroundings.
Here's a picture of the back half of the strip. This is where the asparagus resides. I put it in when I first arrived and re-planted it once to get it a little deeper in the ground. I always seem to miss a lot of the sprouts in the spring so it's denser than it would be otherwise. I think it creates a nice environment.
I had an interesting experience with the asparagus. It used to have problems with asparagus beetle larvae. I began crushing them with my fingers. Some wasps (European paper wasps I think) in the neighborhood took an interest and started carrying them off as well. In years after that, the wasps seemed to carry off most of the larvae and I didn't have to crush very many. Just recently (Fall, 2002) a nearby decrepit shed which sheltered a wasp nest was dismantled. Hopefully they've found shelter elsewhere and will still continue their work.
In front of the asparagus is a tomato. The tomato I plant here always seems to do the best of any. I put in some stakes at the ends to help support it.
Originally a lot of this strip and some of the back strip was devoted to strawberries. Some of them are still around, but don't have much of a yield. I put in some new ones, but they have to negotiate with a lot of companions they didn't have to tolerate in the old days.
Toward the right and front is a lemon verbena I put in this summer. I planted one last summer, but it didn't make it through the winter. I'm hoping I'll do better with this one. The orange flower is a marigold. It seems to be a lot less bug-eaten than the bi-color variety which I also planted back here.
Well, I'm out of breath. There's a back strip with some chives and garlic chives. I put them back there because they're too invasive. There's also a lovage plant toward the back of the main section and some sage which I'm going to lose if I don't keep it from being crowded out by the invading raspberry.
Susan, this was all your fault! I had a good time anyway.