Garden Timeline 2009

2009

In 2009, the year after we bought the property, we were able to start planting some gardens, now that we were done with the big earth moving and garage construction projects of the previous year. And some areas were starting to look better after the disruption of 2008.



We made two long, narrow garden beds behind our house: one on the east side for vegetables, above, and one that can be seen in the back of this photo, in front of our north windbreak. That north bed was planted with more vegetables, as well as a few roses and other flowers from seed, but it was a disaster, completely taken over by grass and weeds.



A closeup of the north bed, taken over by crab grass. Uggh.


We also made a large vegetable bed for corn and squash at the edge of our 2-acre field, to the west of our large shed. This too was completely taken over by weeds and grass. Eventually I redesigned this into our Kitchen Garden, laid out in beds edged with wood, with mulched paths.


I 2009, I was able to plant a number of roses near our house. I had always wanted to grow roses, and now I was excited to order and plant some David Austin English roses, Griffith Buck hardy Iowa roses, and a number of other own-root roses, mostly from the Heirloom Roses company.

Most of the flowers in this border were ones planted by previous owners. They look beautiful in this photo, but the hollyhocks suffered from rust and were eaten by Japanese beetles, and some of the other flowers had issues too. I added perennials of my own choosing, but eventually this narrow strip wound up too overstuffed and I redid it in 2013.

Progress in the Herb Garden, with a healthy crop of basil and dill.


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