Garden of the Day: Serenity Now in Cobble Hill
[nggallery id=”21714″ template=galleryview] 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…
[nggallery id=”21714″ template=galleryview]
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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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…
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.
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
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.
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….
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!
😉
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.
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.
If you plant daffodils near your tulips, the squirrels stay away.