...let's rewind back to summer, about mid-August at the lake for a little tour of my newly planted (as of this July) veggie and berry plot -- are you ready?! This is hardly a very seasonal post (at least in the northern hemisphere!) but I did promise you a tour, so here it is...
If you've been following my blog over the last few years, you know how much I had been hankering for a garden of edibles at our lake property and that planting one involved one little hitch: local deer that love to graze on our property, snacking on everything they fancy. So, an unenclosed plot laden with vegetables, berries, and lots of yummy foliage would be a heavenly smorgasbord of goodies for these sweet creatures; in fact, I'm pretty sure the plot would actually never produce a single veggie or berry, as the deer would probably eat most of the young unprotected plants before even any fruiting started happening...
But to erect some kind of fencing or enclosure in the sunny spot I had planned for the garden was no simple feat because solid bedrock was just below the layer of soil I had laid there. My contractor-in-chief (or Steve, my husband dearest) has had a steady stream of house projects on the go in the last while and wasn't quite ready (or perhaps excited...) about this particular project until,...
... I like to think, our spring trip to Italy where we ate such wonderful food made with the freshest of simple natural ingredients, and where I might have said during one or two of these lovely meals how wonderful it would be to have such flavourful fresh ingredients at our fingertips growing at the lake...
So come May, we started on the project, and with the help of a few good friends over several weekends, the plot was all enclosed and ready to plant at the beginning of July. Now, as you can see, we went beyond simple fencing and built more of an "enclosure" in an attempt to make the enclosed space feel more like a "room". All along I had been thinking that I wanted something more substantial than a fence, more of an architectural feature with woodsy bulk and solidity which I think we did achieve by using beautiful cedar boards.
We thought that flimsy pliable meshing would not fit well with our solid cedar framework, so we opted for relatively rigid sheets of reinforcing steel meshing used in shotcrete work which I think was a good match; by next summer after all the rain we get throughout the next few months, the whole look will have softened with the cedar tending to grey and the meshing towards a rusty color, beautifully complementing all the lovely hues of the surrounding native rock.
When inside, I do think this structure of wood and mesh does give you a sense of being in a separate space or "room" which is quite remarkable given that you can see, hear, and smell everything that is right outside of it! So, let me try to give you a sense of this new outdoor room of ours by taking you right into it...
What I think of as the main entrance is the one closest to the house and the driveway and is in the south wall; the entire structure is almost 7 feet tall and, as you can see, the door (definitely more of a door than a gate!) is almost as high. The door needed bracing so my lovely father-in-law, who lives in Montreal and was visiting us in early July, suggested to put corner braces which I think was a real light bulb moment on his part: "function" through needed bracing resulted in "form" as the finished look, I think, evokes old wooden screen doors, don't you think? (The best thing is that I think he was pleased as punch with his input which was so fun to see!)
Before we actually step into the garden, I just wanted to draw your attention to my planting of lavender just outside of the enclosure along the entire southern wall, which I really grew to appreciate with every passing summer day; I do love lavender and I think this is the perfect spot for it as it very happily basks in full sun almost all day long, giving off such a lovely fragrance as you walk into the garden. The bees love it as well, which is a wonderful thing, as it draws these tireless pollinators into the garden throughout the whole day, and isn't an abundance of pollinators the most wonderful thing in a garden?! (Next year, I'm thinking that I will definitely try to squeeze some sunflowers into the garden itself to attract even more pollinators.) The lavender variety I planted, Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence', which is commonly used in lavender perfumes, soaps and sachets, is one I've planted elsewhere in my flower garden and has quickly become my absolute favourite lavender; it has a very graceful shape with its loose arrangement of tall stalks topped by large very aromatic flower spires, all emanating from a tight and tidy mound of lovely silver-green foliage. I especially love the colour of its flowers as it has pale lavender highlights which I prefer to more saturated and darker purple lavender flowers and, oh my, is it prolific with a blooming season that started from the time I planted the plants in early July to September (I'm not kidding!). While I watered my garden copiously during the hot summer days because it is in such a sunny spot, I avoided watering this lavender hedge too directly and frequently, and I think it was quite happy with this thrifty watering schedule -- low maintenance, which is hard not to love in a plant!
So, once through the main entrance, you find yourself on a path which leads to the north wall, or what I like to think of my "patchwork wall", as I've underplanted it with a mishmash of different shrubs and perennial vines, such as roses, clematis, honeysuckle, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, as well as annual fruiting climbers, such as beans, cucumbers, and melons. It is south-facing along the northern boundary of our property, so I'm envisioning a dense green wall made up of a patchwork of intertwined foliage, flowers, veggies and berries once it matures. However, I do think for this idea to succeed, I'll have to be more disciplined than I usually am as far as pruning and training go, but I'm definitely willing to try because the result might be very rewarding!
Looking to the left from the entrance path, past the staked tomatoes,...
...brussel sprout plants, kale, carrots, snap peas, and mixed greens, is the west side of the enclosure which also has a door; as it stands now, this doorway doesn't lead anywhere yet, but my plan is to build a few steps down from it which would bring you into the lower garden...
Once the main entrance door was set in place, Steven, a good friend of ours who was a great help in building the enclosure, suggested that the door would look great if we hung a stained glass window on it; I thought that that was such a great idea that I made a point of looking for such a window on my trips into the local town, and luckily soon found one such window in a lovely little home decor shop. I decided though not to hang it on the main door as he suggested, but instead on this west door because I thought sunlight filtering through the stained glass from the west would be pure magic...
... and I was not disappointed -- thank you Steven for your absolutely brilliant suggestion!...
The thought of adorning the enclosure with ornaments just like one would in a room in a house opens up so many fun possibilities in my mind; as you can see below, I decorated one of the cedar posts with a candle holder that used to hang in our city kitchen. Without a doubt, I will be doing more decorating of this kind next summer...
Now, let's continue our tour along the patchwork wall... As you can see, having a tall meshed framework along the perimeter of the garden is also very handy because you can attach twine to the meshing to make a tripod trellis for your snap peas,...
...as well as...
...a support for long bean vines which you can see in the the top of the photo below here,...
...and here...
Now, if you meandered through my garden last summer, you would have immediately spotted my 12 tomato plants taking center stage in all their ripening glory...
Given that we only finished the enclosure in early July, my tomato plants were planted a bit late, but we still had a taste of all the different varieties and a definite abundance of sweet cherry tomatoes; I can't wait for next year when I will be able to plant them a good month earlier!
Looking down at the ground, you would have spotted plant labels made from cedar leftover from the construction -- so important to keep the names of all those tomatoes straight!...
Of course the grande dame of my garden plot, my one artichoke plant, along with her underplanting of ladies-in-waiting, two rows of rainbow Swiss chard plants, were also hard to miss!...
Looking at the patchwork wall, you probably would have spotted petite 'Sugar Baby' melons which I have to say I will definitely be planting again next year; even though they also had a late start in my garden, I did sample a few and they were deliciously sweet!
And then there were the French green beans which grew steadily and very vigorously until October and,...
...oh my, they were exquisite to look at with their pretty flowers...
...and long strong vines...
...happily twisting themselves along the meshing...
...and jute twine support,...
...and so exquisite to eat, blanched or steamed with a touch of butter and sprinkling of salt and pepper -- pure perfection!
Walking along the patchwork wall, I think you would have wanted to get close up to one of these English roses because of their lovely fragrance...
I'm actually not quite sure of the names of some of them because I bought a bunch from the clearance section at one of our local nurseries where a good many of them had lost their name tags, hardly a deterrent from purchasing them as far as I'm concerned!
As long as she tends towards an old-fashioned shrubby look with lovely flowers and fragrance, any such rose, even nameless, will very easily steal my heart!...
While it may seem from these photos that only pastel-coloured roses where allowed into this plot, that's not quite true; I did plant a scarlet one, as well as a candy pink and a yellow one, which I guess I'll have to show you next year...
Now, what's with this cluster of black-eyed Susans?!...
Well, they were happily growing here before we built the enclosure and somehow managed to survive through all the construction work, so I thought they deserved to stay in their spot in the sun; plus, I just didn't have the heart to pull them out because I'm such a softie when it comes to pulling out plants!
More points in their favour is that they are honeybee favourites as well as "cottage favourites" perfectly suited for a kitchen garden or a potager, which is what I'm ultimately trying to create in my little enclosed plot...
My little garden tour is nearing its end, but before leaving, I thought I would try to give you a sense of the garden as it is towards the end of the day...
...when the sun is starting to set through the towering cedars and hemlocks which surround our property,...
...an absolutely magical moment which I'm so looking forward to savour again next summer...
I hope you've enjoyed wandering through my garden and I should be back very soon, this time, deep in fabric and yarn... Thanks so much for popping by!...
So beautiful! Quite the loveliest veg type enclosure I have seen
Posted by: mrs robinson | November 21, 2017 at 02:15 AM
What a beautiful garden *and* enclosure. It looks lovely and strong, to last many years. I love that you allowed the black-eyed susan's to stay. I think I'd have done the same thing.
:)
Posted by: kristianna | December 01, 2017 at 10:44 AM
It's a lovely garden, well done! I couldn't have pulled the black eyed susans either. We have a fenced garden as well, for many years but sadly the soil is heavy clay and we always had to plant later than we wished waiting for it to dry out. So this year we decided to give it a make over and do raised bed,(making those and bringing in tons of compost, who needs a gym membership?!) we've worked for a solid month on it and have finally just now gotten to the fun part, planting. I have mainly just veggies inside the fence and have flowers around the outside, with a heart shaped planter on the gate planted with a hardy rock moss that blooms a lovely sunny yellow flower in the spring. Loved your addition of the stained glass, I may have to pinch that idea for my small greenhouse. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Posted by: Angela-Southern USA | May 21, 2018 at 06:23 AM