The Townhouse Garden 2009 - Flower Power, Pictures From The Season

Every season, it's important to make time to take some pictures when things are at their best, you wait all year for this moment, it would be a shame to let it go by without that memory to look back on. Especially when the weathers the shits and you wonder why you live on the wet coast.

A little harvest of onions, carrots and beans.


Stargazer Lily's bought from http://www.botanus.com/

Dahlia's "Rip City", they put on a real show.

My window boxes overflowing with Geraniums and Marigolds I started from seed. No that's not a new kind of grey foliage plant, that's my Dahlia's under stress in late August with powdery mildew.

Sweet Pea's one of my favorite garden flowers.

Gay Feather

I inherited this Daffodil from this garden, it has the most wonderful scent.

Peek-a-boo

This Sunflower "Russian Giant" grew to about 14 feet, a real skyscraper!

The harvested seed heads, great to leave out for the birds to pick at.

20" across in size.

Rhododendron

Sometimes you have to have your camera out at just the right moment, this butterfly stayed just long enough to get this shot. I guess I've created a space for the birds, the bee's and butterflies! I don't use any chemicals or pesticides on my garden.

Rhododendron "Horizon Monarch" I love the blousey flower trusses, a real show stopper.

Azalea "Crimson Red", English Daisy's and Gold Basket Allysum, I love the honey scent of the blossoms.

Cherry Blossom Tree, Kwansan also one of my favorites, a late bloomer.

Forget-me-not, a volunteer that comes back year after year

I really love the look of the dark green leaves and bright orange flowers of this marigold. Especially against the granite rocks.

Marigold "Sparky Mix"I started these from seed and transplanted them close together and they grew into a lovely mat of flowers that didn't need a lot of care and put on an real show till frost.

The Townhouse Garden 2009 - Summers Bounty

Now that the new beds have been created and amended, I planted my seeds.

Along with some Dahlia's, and Sunflower Seeds

Tomato's I started from seed,"Bonny Best"

The Garden is it's full glory, there's some radishes, carrots, onions, marigolds, sweet peas, pole beens, corn, a few Dahlia's and some weeds thrown in for good measure.

Those sunflowers are sure getting really tall.

I wanted to create a garden with rooms.
This is one of them, with some onions drying on the table.
Doesn't that look cozy.

Another perspective.

I'm quite happy with the way the backyard makeover turned out, but with all gardens it's continues to evolve.

The Townhouse Garden 2009 - Grass Be Gone

With the fence project behind me, I am left with a muddy backyard as shown below.

Yuck! This was the state of the grass in late March.

As the spring progressed, other garden project took my time, but I can no longer ignore the state of the grass. I had always planned on removing it, as it's just not practical in this little backyard. The fence shades most of it for half of the year and if that doesn't kill it, then my small dog does a good job at it to, as seen by the brown patches. So with a lot of elbow grease and many trips to the dump, I removed all the grass, put 2 layers of landscape fabric down, and put down 3/4 inch crushed granite and some stepping stones.



What a difference it has made to the backyard. It really looks great against the nicely stained cedar fence and the granite boarder fits perfectly. No longer are you distracted from the garden with shabby looking grass.

The view from the other side of the yard.
Another total benefit to this new ground cover is that it still leaves room for the dog to do his business, and when he comes back inside his paws are no longer dirty although he does miss his grass, but hey, that's what walks are for. So the garden continues to grow, oh yes I will be dealing with the 2X4's they are the cross pieces for the arbour. A project for 2010.