I have some pretty big ambitions for our 2012 garden and have a feeling it all will not get put into use. Nonetheless, I have a goal and hope to obtain it. I would really like to have a sustainable garden and believe that the backyard will have to go through some major redoing.
Until then, I believe the area where the gardening has been commencing the last three years will be the norm again this year; right out the back door off the south side of the patio.
Last year, I fixed the path after it had gotten so overgrown with grass and weeds from the first creation of the butterfly path in '09. This was taken in May '11. In the butterfly garden, the plantings consist of Day Lilies, Lamb's Ear, Mums, Cone Flowers, and Russian Sage.
I will continue with these plants, but believe the heat wave of the summer killed off the Lamb's Ear. If they do not come back I may get a new plant to restart the furry little plant, since it is a nice addition to the garden. As usual, I will split the Lilies and hope to get more production out of them. In the fall, I planted some seed heads of some wild Black Eye Susan flowers that sprung up on the other side of our north fence into the back row of the garden to see if they will sprout in the spring.
Here is the main focus were I want to create a real herbal garden. Right now the perennials in this small garden are Spearmint, Lemon Balm, Garlic Chives, Oregano, and Jerusalem Artichoke.
The Jerusalem Artichoke is cool to watch it grow and makes a really nice privacy fence. They grow as tall as 9 feet tall and have really nice sunflowers at the top of the plant.
However, after a severe summer storm comes through, it knocks them over and it crushes me to see them bent over and broken. Last year was the third year we had these things growing. The first year, they were small due to the deer pretty much eating them up and we didn't get any flowers. The second and third years the straight line winds got to them and several of our walnut tree's big limbs. Evan and I end up tying them up and it looks ghetto and we barely get any flowers on top. I often think of what the neighbor's maybe thinking of why we are growing such a gigantic weed for. The flowers do not emerge until late September. So from late April, to mid September, we have these crazy tall green stalks growing. Instead of an actual sunflower, they are what is called a sun-choke. The plant grows off of a root similar to a potato that people harvest. Supposedly, they are supposed to taste like water chestnuts, but make you fart a lot. I mainly wanted them for the privacy and sunflower factor. Our backyard has no privacy to our neighbors. We can pretty much see straight into our back neighbor's back door and such. Unfortunately, this natural fence will not work this year.
To obtain this herbal garden, I am going to have to up root ALL the Jerusalem Artichoke roots. Otherwise, they will take over the new garden. Trust me. I started to reduce the amount of sun-chokes last spring and boy-o-boy did they multiply from the year before. I can only imagine how much they multiplied this year. I really do not want to deal with them again this year. Last year as I was cleaning up the spring garden, I moved some from the herb garden to the fence on the north sided of the yard to give them some room to grow there. The deer seem to like to munch on them and will help keep them at a minimum there.
Here's why: We have moles and rabbits. I hate the destruction they do to my garden.
I found this raised bed at Lowe's. I'm super excited about it. I have had my eye on it since last year. Money has been a common factor in my venture of making my dream garden be semi-non existent and hope this will be the year to get it put in. It is roughly four foot by four foot. I will line the bottom of the bed with chicken wire or similar to keep the pesky moles out of my precious garden. One thing I have not decided is which way I will have the trellis turned to have something crawling up the backside. I want to have beans and okra, which will work nicely on this trellis. I will divide the area inside to house, Dill, Basil, Spearmint, Lemon Balm, Oregano, Thyme, Cilantro, and Parsley. On the outside, I will plan on having Chives and Lettuce. Of course, this may change as I see that the idea is not likely to work as it is laid out on computer screen. Merely a rough draft of my vision.
Time will tell.
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