Gardening stuff

This is not a page of expert advice.  These are strictly observations of mine over the seasons.  You have been warned!

I planted my very first personal garden this year, 2012, with a LOT of help from my husband.  He did the ground breaking and bed edging, I did the planning and planting.  Between us we've made a really lovely garden.  It is on the south side of the house, between our wall and the neighbor's white privacy fence.  It is 13 feet wide and about 60 feet long.  This picture is from sometime in the middle of May when the second flower bed was going in.

This area of the house was just lawn when we started.  It wasn't put to any use except to walk into the back yard now and then.  There are windows that open onto the living room.  That's what started this whole garden thing!  I wanted something that was pretty and smelled good outside the living room windows.  We now have two flower beds, one vegetable and herb bed, and one rose and pepper bed.  We also added a dwarf cherry tree.  Such trees are self-pollinated, so there is no need to have more than one. 

This is a North Star Dwarf Cherry tree.  It can withstand the Minnesota winters at temps to -40 degrees, was bred by the University of Minnesota to be hardy, reaches heights of about 10-12 feet, and has a VERY sour cherry that is good for pies or wines.  Two things to be aware of, you need to put a net over the tree in the spring to keep the birds from the fruit, and Japanese beetles love the leaves.  This year the tree is young, and the birds striped the fruit in a day.  The beetles did a lot of damage before I found a soap spray that worked well.  I have high hopes for next year though!  The tree still has a lot of growing to do, so this year it was spiked with fruit tree spikes (these go in the ground!).  It's in a good, protected place and should eventually shade the kitchen window in the summer time.


Mulch . . . is good!  It cuts way down on weeding and looks neat and tidy.  I've used red bark and it's been a great success.  My husband learned to shudder when I said, 'Honey, I need another bag of mulch . . .'  which usually meant, 'and several more plants for the garden!'