Welcome to my Gardening Page
No one in our family is a fanatic gardener, so our landscaping has become rather simple, except for our vegetable garden. Our decorative gardening is limited to several trees and a few bushes, and a couple of flower beds, plus 6 or 8 butterfly bushes. I can't say enough about those butterfly bushes. They are woody stemed monsters that we cut down to 18" every Spring and they still grow to 8 foot giants by August. And starting in early July through early September they produce many many clusters of small flowers (in white, blue or yellow) that DO attract butterflies.
My wife and I do spend some efforts on our vegetable garden. Tomatoes and peppers, string beans and onions are the staples, and every year we try several other veggetables. This year we plan to try leeks.
Last fall we moved to a new house. Well, new to us. We were able to buy a house on two acres, about 1/2 hour North of Baltimore. Our previous house was on a 1/4 acre lot in the city, and we had a detached garage in the back yard, with a driveway, parking pad, a 400 square foot garden, a 8' x 16' water garden with a 2' garden border, a 9' x 16' deck on the house, and a swing set. And seven of those butterfly bushes. We still had room to set up a tomahawk target and to throw a ball with the dogs!
We hope to start our new vegetable garden this spring, and begin to landscape our new front yard this year. I'm looking for an area to create a new, larger water garden.
Almost 1/2 of our new yard is wooded, and we hope to add more natural plantings in the future. I know I'm in favor of anything that will reduce the area to be mowed. In our city yard we had started to naturalize the back corner with plants that provide cover and food for wildlife. We are looking forward to doing the same thing in our new house.
Below is a picture of our new house.
