Don't You Wish You Were My Neighbor? Garden Report 2018

Welcome to winter! Do you miss things being green? Hopefully dreaming of my summer will help scratch that itch.

I'm not sure what the science behind this thought is, but I'm pretty sure every human enjoys seeing Before and After images. Good things you're a human (unless you're actually a robot) because here comes a whole bunch with limited commentary. Give your brain a rest and let your eye feast!

We shall begin with my inmost circle of influence of my own garden starting with my new veggie garden.

We had been talking about about some raised beds for me, but hadn't decided on a location. Once we figured out that there was a good spot along the fence, I just started digging! Maybe we'll add some brickwork and more dirt in the future, but I was happy to have my "bit of earth". And I must say it really is very nice dirt once you dig all the weeds out. My planting scheme was loosely based on "square-foot gardening". I had raspberry starts which gave me a couple of berries this year, and then I planted peppers, onions, leeks, radishes, tomatoes, and basil. The basil was on accident; I meant to plant spinach instead but must've grabbed the wrong seed packet. I forgot to take any pics when it was in full production mode, but it looks quite lovely after the fall clean-up where I moved the berry bushes from the one end to along the back edge. I'm hoping the leeks and onions to over-winter ok.

Now for the front beds.

It's fun planning somewhat symmetrical plantings for the sides of my front steps. The goal is to take out more of the irises (let me know if you want some next fall), but this year I was happy to rearrange my other perennials. I forgot to take a true Before pic before the pre-digging pruning session. The geraniums were trying to eat everything. That is why they are in time-out in the big pots now. I'm happy my roses survived another year and I was able to split the mini rose along the left side. I was also excited to receive my first peonies from a family friend. I look forward to splitting those in the future to spread them around in place of the irises. Those irises have been very happy. I inherited them with the house when they were in one huge clump that had clearly never been split up after its initial planting. My have they grown since I spread them out three years ago-ish.

The boys sure enjoyed the part of this process when they had free reign over one side after I had harvested my "walking onions" (not pictured). (I need to improve on the timing of my Before shots.)

Step with me to the other side of the fence, for this year I gained my own Secret Garden.

I never met my neighbor, but he has abandoned his house and the yard that he obviously had no care for. It had been hard watching become more and more overgrown, but with the hedge along the fence growing through to our side, we decided enough was enough. Charles had a friend come with a chainsaw to cut it all down. Then it was my job to chop it into manageable bits to cart away to the dump. We worked together to load the other miscellaneous trash, like the tire and garbage cans that you can see in the pictures above.

I also tamed their front beds, gifting some of my geraniums and irises to create a planting. The pavers are actually metal plates of some sort that I found back by the shed. The mulch came from the rotted bits of the wood that was found within the hedge and the wood pile in the back.

Stacking all of that wood was another job of mine.

I'm so glad Charles bought me a wheelbarrow before I did this part of the project. A full cord of wood and a bunch of free mulch for my payment.

I did not take my own After pictures of the Secret Garden because Charles made a video to brag about his amazing wife's gardening prowess. Highlights are that we moved almost 2 tons of refuse in the course of the summer.

Bonus round: I was invited to help another neighbor with their front beds.

This was extra gratifying because it was a service I had offered to them before during a previous summer. I wanted to liberate their peonies from under the tree on the left side as well as some light pruning. It took any extra year of letting the grass grow on the wrong side of the border for them to invite me to step in, which I happily did. 

This is one way I help create a more beautiful world: one garden at a time. I'm happy to employ my landscaping skills in behalf of those who either don't think they need it or don't have the skills/time themselves to make it happen.

Here's my After-After photos to help us segue back to snow....For Now We Wait For Spring.