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June 2, 2008

Garden of the Day: Serenity Now in Cobble Hill

The garden contris keep trickling in...Our garden started out three years ago as an overgrown mess in the back half, and a broken-up concrete slab closer to the house. Had a small crew come in and haul away the concrete, then ordered up a bunch of gravel and bluestone, and got to work! (with the help of a few friends). Ran the wiring for 7 low wattage lights which work well, and ran speaker wire to the rear sitting area too, but never really saw the need for speakers as it turns out, choosing to mellow out instead. Took about three 3-day weekends and a few weeknights to finish, but many nights at the computer planning beforehand, and several trips to stone suppliers to select materials.

We've added quite a few bulbs over the last two years, some blueberry bushes, and seeded grass. I need to trim back the Japanese Maple every year to keep enough sun coming in for everything else! Made two 5'x7' areas for edible plantings - so far we've done well with basil, rosemary, chives, and strawberries in the herb garden, and tomatoes and purple potatoes in the vegetable area. Squirrels have stayed clear of the veggies so far, but they eat my darn tulips!

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What I would do for some strawberries. But I can't grow anything in my apt.

Your garden is delicous!!

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 11:42 AM

How do you prevent those pesky squirrles from eating your strawberries? We've given up!

Posted by: Brooklynnative at June 2, 2008 11:52 AM

Do you have problems with ants, especially carpenter ants, building nests under your paving blocks? Also, did you use a contractor to pave your area? It looks great.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 12:01 PM

Kudos to a great do-it yourself garden. Curious to know if you had to do any grading. We'd like to do our garden ourselves, but our garden is very uneven right now.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 12:03 PM

Your garden looks beautiful but "speakers on the outside"? That reminds me of the Sopranos episode where Tony hired two goons to park a boat outside a guy's house and play Sinatra as loud as they could. If I were your neighbor (and, actually, I am as I live in the same area), I'd be dying.

Posted by: Cobblekrill at June 2, 2008 12:05 PM

If you plant daffodils near your tulips, the squirrels stay away.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 12:06 PM

They said they don't play the music out there after all, 12:05.

What a sweet garden. I like the asymetrical layout and the sitting area placed all the way in the back like that, surrounded by green grass.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 12:11 PM

bird netting (the super thin black netting) over the strawberries seems to keep out the squirrels.

Not had carpenter ants, but smaller ones every once in a while - standard ant bait like combat seems to take care of it, though.

Did the bluestone over gravel ourselves, and did do a bit of grading, so it's a step up to the lawn, and another step up to the grill/chairs. Used 12" square tumbled bluestone vertically to keep the different height areas apart.

Chose to do the bluestone just sitting on gravel for leveling - no cement, except a bit under each of the two step-ups to keep things solidly in place.

Posted by: WeaselMaster at June 2, 2008 12:12 PM

Cute title to this entry: "Serenity Now".

You should do a tie-in with the non-profit known by that name.

Yes, some of us actually do pick up on things!

;-)

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 12:19 PM

Looks great!

Would love to hear more about the lights. What kind? What do you use them for? How bright at night? Have been trying to figure out how to tackle lighting for our own garden project -- want to put a wooden fence over chain-link mess, but then it'll be quite dark at night and fear the upstairs neighbors will get worried....

Posted by: BklynJace at June 2, 2008 12:21 PM

Where did you get the tumbled bluestone and how much did it cost, if you don't mind my asking? I want to make a path for our back garden.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 12:42 PM

Squirrels will eventually try at tasting any and everything...We have one that manages to harvest rose hips in the fall and is now eating rose buds. Hhh...I think it is because the pack/troup of squirrels in our block have a communal memory of the apricot tree that bit the dust a couple of seasons ago. It was THEIR tree, NOT ours! They used to harvest the nuts inside the immature fruit. Nothing worked to keep them off (bird netting, screaming, stick waving and coyote pee from ShakeAway...all a waste)...

The netting *should* work on a more manageable crop like strawberries since you can cover the whole area with the netting and prop it up on small sticks to keep it taut over the bed. But still...with squirrels, if there is a will, there's a way!

My two bits on plantings: try slipping some small leaves or stems from creeping sedum into the edges where the paving meets the edging blocks. Also, some creeping thyme or chamomile can be nice, also where some of the peripheral pavers' corners meet.

In the sunniest spot (where you have the tomatoes I would bet), if you can find a nice tasteful color (not a blended seed mix) of portulaca, sprinkle the seeds into the gap and see what comes up. All this can help soften and cutesify the garden.

Looks nice!
The GrammarLady

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 12:44 PM

The squirrels in my backyard chew right through that black netting. In fact, they've chewed through the gas pipe line in my backyard grill (and my neighbor's as wel) which means you need to get a new grill because they don't sell replacement gas lines. It's made of fairly thick rubber. They're unbelievable. Maybe your squirrels have a better food supply than mine. Nice garden though, very impressive that you did all that work yourselves.

Posted by: Brooklynnative at June 2, 2008 12:52 PM

Beautiful lay out - would you tell us the dimensions? I would love to try something along these lines because it makes the garden look so big, but maybe it IS much bigger than mine...

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 1:02 PM

I read that squirrels eat fruit and veggies when they're thirsty. You could try putting out a little shallow tray of water on the ground for squirrels and birds. We do that plus diversion feeding and lost only two tulips this Spring despite having lots of squirrels around. Now we'll see how we do keeping them away from tomatoes! To avoid mosquitos breeding in your water, dump, rinse and refill it frequently or get those floating things that kill mosquitos without harming other animals, and put it in the water.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 1:05 PM

Love your garden!!!

Posted by: gemini10 at June 2, 2008 1:14 PM

@12:42 - 12x12 Tumbled bluestone was $11 a piece if I remember. Some stone suppliers stock it, others have to order it from their suppliers which seem to be in Eastern PA. They're cool for the dividers 'cause they have a consistent 2" thickness, whereas the more affordable bluestone slabs for the horizontal parts were natural-split, so were varied in thickness, and even had variation on the 18"x18" measurements, so it was a bit of a puzzle getting them to sit snug, arranging a row of slightly wider ones, and then a row of slightly narrower ones. If money was no object, you can get consistent thickness and H/W, and even a nice flame treated finish.

@1:02 - yard is 25x40. 6' by chairs in back, about 12' Patio area close to house, and about 22' grass.

Posted by: WeaselMaster at June 2, 2008 1:29 PM

The surrounding walls of green/ivy are what, to me, make it feel so inviting and relaxing.
Beautiful space!

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 1:36 PM

Lovely--only thing I would've done differently is make the path curving, not rectilinear. Glad they decided not to use their speakers--gardens bring out the wisdom in people. Oh, I would add one other thing to make the space more serene--a shotgun for picking off the squirrels.

Posted by: Brenda from Flatbush at June 2, 2008 1:43 PM

@12:21 - can't remember the brand, but bought it all at Lowe's - I think each one is an 11watt halogen. So you run the single wire around underground, peeking up at each light location, and then the wire terminates at a little timer box with the power transformer where it plugs into any outlet. depending on how many lights you add, you get a larger or smaller transformer - I have 7 lights, so the 85watt transformer timer worked well... not so bright that any neighbors are being kept awake, and not so much wattage that I feel bad having the timer turn them on for 3-4 hours each evening. They have dozens of styles of the actual lights, so you can shine upwards, or just illuminate a tree, fence, path, or whatever.

Posted by: WeaselMaster at June 2, 2008 1:51 PM

12:19 - "Serenity Now" is a Seinfeld reference, likely better known than the the nonprofit.

There was an episode where Frank Costanza had a relaxation tape that instructed him to say "Serenity now" when he got anxious. Kramer adopted the same saying, but it didn't seem to work out for anyone, especially for George's childhood nemesis, Lloyd Braun who claimed that the phrase drove him to a nut house.

"Serenity now, insanity later..."

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 2:05 PM

Beautiful garden!

Posted by: Hal at June 2, 2008 2:11 PM

Malibu is probably the brand of lights - they are the biggest - but I will say that I have both the low voltage and the solar ones (both by Malibu) and I find the solar ones better (if you get sun) because you can move them so easily.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 2:26 PM

I also grow strawberries and blueberries in my garden - and frankly I dont have a problem with squirrels BUT whenever I have planted tulips - the squirrels generally dig-up and eat the bulbs within 1 or 2 nights - tulips is like crack to a squirrel.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 2:31 PM

nice - was also glad to hear you don't play music in the outside speakers - people who play music outside frequently (as opposed to the occasional party that all the neighbors in the surrounding homes usually learn to put up with) really are uncaring about their neighbors' peace and quiet.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 2:32 PM

Squirrles got my BBQ line and my garden hose this past winter but found a replacement through Weber.

It's hard to see because it's working so well in your case, but what's supporting all the vines? Fences? What type of plant?

Question for all you gardeners in BK. We want to block off the view from our neighbors property directly behind us. If we can legally build only a 5ft fence that sure doesn't give much privacy. We are thinking of creating a wall of a type of Bamboo that grows 30' tall and is evergreen in our climate. Any suggestions?

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 2:46 PM

2:46: Bamboo spreads like gangbusters and is hard to control. You will need to install a metal edging that goes fairly deep in the ground, around the edge of your yard and bed where you want the bamboo, so the bamboo does not invade your neighbor's yard and the rest of your yard.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 2:58 PM

Large Junipers work great as a 'fence' are evergreen and IMHO nicer than Bamboo.

BTW I dont think there is anything wrong with someone playing music (reasonably softly) in their own yard - on the other hand - anyone who buys wind chimes should be killed in a slow and painful manner.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 3:05 PM

3:05, I like that reference to wind chimes. I always said there was a special place in hell for 1. People who drive slow in the fast lane; 2. People who get to the head of the immigration desk without their papers in order; 3. People with wind chimes 4. Kretek cigarette smokers

Posted by: Bold type guest at June 2, 2008 3:35 PM

Squirrels go after tulip bulbs when their planted shallow. If you put them in at 7 to 8 inches you'll be better off...if not, put a sheet of chicken wire or hardware cloth down after you've planted the bulbs. Pull the mesh up either when the ground has frozen or in very early spring.

Anyway, they'll probably nip the buds off the tulips...hhh...

There are a number of clumping bamboos that do not spread. The running bamboos should can be kept in check with a sharp shovel but better to use that thick rubberized garden bed edging. If you shop for bamboo online, you'll come across the correct barrier material.

DO NOT use metal as someone suggested above.

WeaselMaster,
Think about spring and fall blooming clematis to interwine with the vines you have. Unlike the late spring/summer blooming hybrids, they don't need much pruning and can be left to do their thing. you can get some nice blooms spring and fall.

On a sunny wall, try the native passiflora--you'll get GREAT flowers and maybe some fruit (more decorative than anything...only have a hint of the passion fruit flavor that the tropical variety has).

Try some meadow rue in the beds for some airy height.

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 5:42 PM

We have two spectacular, mature (50'+) oak trees in front of our house. So, the squirrels don't eat my bulbs. In the spring they just dig them up, mistaking them for the acorns they buried last fall. Ah nature, just doing its thing. (ahrraughh.)

Posted by: guest at June 2, 2008 7:08 PM

oh, yeah, downstairs neighbor's wind chimes - they should be shot (the chimes, not the neighbor)...

Posted by: guest at June 3, 2008 11:13 AM

« 'Model Agreement' Will Keep Starrett Affordable for 20 Yrs Development Watch: Foundation Push at Avalon Myrtle »

June 2, 2008

Garden of the Day: Serenity Now in Cobble Hill

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