Before And After | Bespoke

~July of 2011, when we first came to see the property.~

This is where I’ve spent so much of the last several months. I think it may be the dearest spot on earth. In the summer time the hummingbirds are often about, sometimes 3 or more at a time. They call to each other from different parts of the garden. Have you ever heard a hummingbird before? They make the most adorable little squeak! The hummingbirds are long gone now. Only the hardiest of my greens are still going strong through regular frosts. I’m looking back now over a season of growth and dreaming of next year.

~July 2012~

So much has changed here. And it is still very much a work in progress. What started out as a completely overgrown 19 x 22 plot is now a 22 x 50 space, all freshly fenced in. Planting this year was far from methodical. Basically whatever was ready to be planted went into whatever space I had managed to clear. We were still building new beds well into autumn.

Outside the garden, off to the side there is actually a beautiful stone wall. It had become so overgrown that you couldn’t see it at all. When you live in the woods you have to decide where the cultivated land stops and the wilderness starts, otherwise you end up with tree branches knocking into your windows. That wall is our line on this side. The day after these photos were taken we started clearing it out.

All kinds of gardening methods are represented here. There are some container plants; some planted in pots others in objects found around the yard. There are traditional beds. There are raised beds. There are spots were we experimented with lasagna gardening. There are beds quickly made out of old pallets, layered plantings, a bit of everything.

The three beds above (two of which were already in existence when we moved in, as seen above and one that we built), are outside of the main garden space, near to the house, next to the herb garden. Two of them were gardens to Iain and Elijah this year. We ate some of their turnips just this morning. It was an in between time when I took this photo, with many seedlings too small to be seen and a swath mature plants waiting to be harvested.

~Early Autumn 2012~

Each of the children had their own small plot to tend. Little Rosebud found a pack of 3 year old ‘Cinderella’ pumpkin seeds and insisted on planting them. The vines grew lush and full, but the chipmunks ate every pumpkin just as soon as it started to show.

Our “orchard” is an orchard no more. For various reasons we had to move everything and it’s all out back with the kitchen garden now. This idea caused a lot of internal turmoil for me at first, but really I think it’s for the best. I’m with the trees so much more now. It’s easier to water and keep an eye on it all. Gardening, simplified. It does, however, mean that we have to be much more creative with our use of space.

We now have what amounts to an Orchard Walk, along one side of the garden in the area near the wall that we cleared. All of the trees are here, under planted with some strawberries that I’m hoping won’t deplete their nutrients too much. Before and between the boxed in trees reside high bush blueberries and a lone rhubarb plant.