Where Once Was Grass….Garden 2012

May 30th, 2012

The tetherball may be the centerpiece, but someday Simon will tire of it. Two years ago this was a grass backyard. I mulched for a year or two, then added the path last summer, and some perennials last fall. This spring I added planters and annuals.

(oh yeah, I planted blueberries last spring, too)

This bed was also originally grass, but I started working on it a few years earlier. My herb garden, it has fennel, wild lupines, thyme, oregano, catmint, a planter with some annuals, roses, and some hidden sage, basil and rosemary.

This little patch to the side of the back door changes every year. Last year it was zinnias; this year some planters and delphinium. (Delphinia?)

Starting to get the picture?

What’s that? You want a closer look at the newer backyard beds?

Now let’s prevend we’re walking into the backyard. Close your eyes, then look right

and left

Okay, now let’s walk up front. My oldest beds flank the front door, but they’re best in spring and mid-summer; pretty boring right now, so we’re skipping those and walking to the sidewalk.

let’s see, we’ve got some geraniums–exported from my old house in Oberlin–some blue star creeper, stone crop and the stalks of geraniums coming up. Also some dirt, which if you squint will show tiny wild lupines coming up. The rocks are also from Oberlin (why I hauled those things in the trunk of my car, trip after trip, I’m not sure). I’ve slowly been expanding this bed, killing the wretched grass, one newspaper-covered-with-mulch season at a time.

…as you can see here, with some petunias adding early color to a mid-summer/fall bed of daisies, coreopsis, rudbekia, echanasia, and a few stray lilies.

There’s more–sweet woodruff, creeping speedwell and ajuga around the tree, but I think that might just be too much for you all to take in (plus loading images is booooring).

Happy end of May, o’ garden of mine