A Garden?

We've been in this house for 4 years now.  It takes me a while to get a feel for a house and it's land before I can get started on gardens, or other projects for that matter.

In the first year I cleared out a wall of invasive hedges at the back of the house and put in an herb garden.  That didn't work so well.  So sometime this spring I will be digging all the weeds back out and replanting herbs.  Lessons learned and all of that.

In the second year, I cleared one small area in between the garden shed and the play house.  That area became the home to two raspberries and a few asparagus.  Only one asparagus is surviving.  I'm going to have to review the decision for that area because it gets a lot more shade than I realized.  In another spot I planted three Mars grapes with strawberries underneath.  As long as I get bird netting over them this year I should get a really good harvest.  I also planted two cherry trees, one bing and one tartartian.  The birds and I will be fighting over those as well.

In the third year I pulled the invasive hedges most of the way down one side of the house.  I then replanted with Golden Eumonyus most of the way.  And climbing roses were planted in front of the bathroom window.  All of these plantings were done far enough away from the house that they can grow in fully and not crowd against the house.  As of this spring those plants are doing wonderfully.  And I tried a vegetable garden bed along that side of the house.  That failed - fantastically so!  Oh, and I added two pear trees.

So here we are in spring, at the end of year 4, and I've been busy.  The climbing roses now have a trellis.  And those roses have gotten pretty big.  They are beautiful.  And at the base of the climbing roses is one carpet rose.  I'm hoping to take cuttings and make matching plants this year.  The entire area in front of, or near, the bathroom window will be a blanket of vicious thorny plants that look beautiful and screen the view of that window.  (The window is IN the shower!) 

Right now the strawberry runners are all being moved back into the strawberry bed.  When the bed is so full that no more are reasonable I will start moving the runners so that the berries can grow wild around the yard.  That way the animals can have a share when they can't get to mine.  I'll also pot them up so that I can sell them at the farmer's market next year.

I have 5 varieties of mint growing in planters right now.  And spearmint that went wild.  I'm going to nurture them all.  Again so that I can split and pot them for sale at the farmer's market next year.

Since vegetable plants don't seem to do well directly in the ground, I have already built 4 raised beds.  And the tire potato tire has started.  Beans, lettuce, greens, onions, garlic, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are already in the beds.  Hopefully, later this week I will get another raised bed completed.  That bed will get this year's tomatoes.  And then two more full sized beds are planned.  Along with three half sized bed.  That should provide us with enough crops for both fresh eating and canning.  In addition I'm trying for two peach trees, two plum trees, two beds of muscadine grapes, a bed of blackberries, and multiple blueberry bushes.

Oh, and by the way, all of this on just under 1/3 acre with 5 large water maples and one super size tulip poplar.  It gets interesting when I figure out where things can go.  Wish me luck!