The Townhouse Garden 2009 - Backyard Makeover

It's March 29, 2009, and the fence project is finally finished. It's the first weekend of nice weather and I'm now embarking on my next major garden project. I am going to totally renovate the back garden, nothing will stay the same. I have big plans, what's new.

Looking through the side gate, I can envision where my new arbours will be, along with the new veggie garden and rose bed.
In this view, I see I need to move the rhodo and reposition the rocks to create a smoother transition from one side of the yard to the next.

This is were the new arbour and veggie garden are going to be.

The new path from the patio to the gravel walkway will be straight ahead.

I like the natural element the granite rocks adds to the garden. I didn't want any hard edges, so the rocks have been re-worked with lots of graceful curves and positioned to flow from one rock to the next. It was not as easy as it may seem to match up the rocks, I sure got a workout that day.

Time to call out the troops and start on those 2 simple arbours. One will be bordering the veggie garden.

The other arbour will be framing the doorway.

In go the posts. When the fence was installed I observed how they set the post, they used a product called Stake-rite, a quick setting cement. They dug the wholes, positioned the post, poured in the dry Stake-rite cement, put the cross pieces in and then soaked around the base of the posts with water. No need to premix and pour, this worked great.

Ahh the sight of the new arbours are a beautiful thing.

I picked up a free load of composted horse manure which I'm going to incorporate into the soil by rototilling the garden. The soil that was under the grass was clay and quite compact and I couldn't have broken it up without some mechanical assistance.

Can't you just picture all the things that can grow in this new space!

The additional garden beds here will be planted with roses and other perennials.

The roses have been transplanted, the next project will be to plant up the garden and remove the rest of the grass, to be replaced with 3/4 inch crushed granite. In a perfect world I would kept the grass as it looks great against the granite rocks but the continued damage done by my dog is just to much for this little strip to handle.

The Townhouse Garden 2009 - The Fence Project

Well it's been a while since my last post, a year actually, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been a busy little bee in my garden. There has been some major changes to the backyard landscape, okay it was a total overhaul.

Here is where it all started

After a unusually cold and snowy winter, it was March, and the time had finally come to start the fence replacement project for the complex. Yeah, I have been waiting for that for 3 years.

Here is a refresher on how the Fence looked.

That ugly fence, with the gate that would always stick.

Another thing I really didn't like about the fence is that it went up 4 ft and the top 1 ft was a see through lattice portion. Living on a main street with people always walking by, I didn't like that anyone and their dog could see was I was doing in my backyard. Even though I knew that fence would be replaced, last season I put up plywood to cover the lattice portion and painted the whole fence on the inside of the backyard, only then was able to live with it for one more year.

Going.....

Going....

Gone, goodbye and good riddance, is all I can say!

Our new fence is being constructed by Premium Fence.

In go the new posts, our old fence zigzagged in and out and had brick pillars on the ends of each of the corners. One reason the fence was so ugly, is that overtime the brick pillars settled and pulled the fence along in either direction, it looked like it was falling over and was coming away in spots.

The new fence is going to be perfectly straight.

The now open division between mine and my Neighbours yard




It's going to be so nice with new fence, because the zigzags have now been eliminated, I will gain an extra 2 feet depth as you can kind of see by were the grass ends and the new posts are.

The fence boards ready to be installed.

My yard seems to go on for ever, if only that were the case.

Alekazam ,Tada, new fence

The bricks where the BBQ was, I had re-used them from the west side of the house.

All that extra space, 2feet, I think I will put the compost bin there, it's full shade, good spot for it.

I will have to move the Rhodo to fit the space properly.

The Granite rocks will have to be moved to accommodate the new gate, it was moved over slightly from its former position.

This area will be the new veggie garden, it gets full sun for most of the day. Before the fence was replace I had to move any plants and equipment that I wanted to keep away from the old fence, the yard is a mess, but things can finally find a home.

I have a lot of cleaning up to do, plants have been trampled and wood pieces and concrete are littered throughout the garden. I'll salvage what plants I can. As you can see above the herb garden doesn't look so happy.

Lots to clean up.

Another thing I am going to do is rip up all the grass and replace it with 3/4" crushed gravel. The grass is half dead and full of mud. It has never really grown very well, and having a medium sized dog doing damage to the grass doesn't help.

The Tyee Good to Grow: A Series Funded by Tyee Readers

Here is part one of a six part series title "Good To Grow: Raising Food in BC'S Cities" it's interesting check it out.

The Tyee — Good to Grow: A Series Funded by Tyee Readers

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Richmond's First Seedy Saturday at Terra Nova Rural Park

It was a crisp Saturday morning at the Terra Nova Rural Park. I was excited about attending Richmond's First Seedy Saturday. In years past I've been to the Vandusen event, but I was so pleased that we now have one of our own.

I had just been to the Terra Nova Barn last week when I attended the Backyard Chickens information session.

As I approached the familiar red barn, I found myself walking a little faster, wondering what kind of seed's I would find.

The barn was buzzing with activity already, it was 10:15 and things were just getting started.
There was so many things to see. The Richmond Garden Club http://www.richmondgardenclub.com/index.html had a table, they were selling seeds that they saved from the Paulik Gardens, and also some seeds that they had found in old mason jars, saved from the original property owner and caretaker.
There were mason bee houses for sale, honey, Heritage seeds from Harold Steves, as well as the Richmond Pesticide Awareness Coalition.

Then in the middle of the room there it was, the sharing table. This was for anyone who wishes to put down seeds that they had saved from their garden, or just extra seeds that they were willing to share. I placed my contribution on table and then jumped in to begin sorting through the seeds, seeing if there was anything that I could use for this years garden. I must have spent 20 minutes just going over everything. I pocketed a half dozen packets of seeds and then I proceeded outside.

There set up just outside the barn was Laurelle Oldford-Dawn from The Urban Fruitery selling a bunch of varieties of Blueberry bushes. I couldn't walk away without buying one, the variety I chose was Reki, a heavy producer of big blue berries, I can't wait.

Next I made my way over to get my pruners sharped by donation. After a few minutes they were good as new.

I finished off the morning with a walk through the community gardens. The fresh air, quite surroundings and sunshine made for a enjoyable walk.

The seeds I selected from the table, looking forward to growing and eating those.

Some of the other seeds I dug up from years past. I almost forgot I had them. Some seeds are anywhere from 2 to 6 years old. I hope that they will still grow, there is one way to tell.

To test seed germination, I sprayed down some paper towel strips, placed some seeds from each packet between the moist paper towels, my daughter helped me count out the big ones. I placed each strip in a small snack sized zipper bag and wrote the name and date on it.

I placed the bags next to a bright window, and waited to any signs of activity.

After a week, I checked the seeds and to my surprise, the majority of the seeds had germinated, the few that didn't might just need a little more time. My daughter was happy to see the little seed she had helped me with last week now looks so different. I'm sure she will have lots of fun with me in the Garden this year.

The Townhouse Garden 2008 - Flowers From The Garden

Over the season I like to take pictures of the plants when they are looking their best, having a digital camera really makes that job of capturing great shots easy. You can see right away if you've got the "Money Shot" and you can snap away to your hearts content and it doesn't cost you anything, but the beauty of the flowers will last forever.

Some Hydrangea's, the soil that they are planted in is new and on the alkaline side of things, it is slowly turn acidic now that it's had a few years of rain on it. It's neat to see the transition of the flowers from pink (alkaline) to blue (acidic).

I really like the structure of this variety of Hydrangea. The flowers are a little thicker that other Hydrangea's I have. That makes them a good cut flower.

The "Fred Boutin" Lavender is in full bloom. I love the extra long stems of this variety, they reach 2 feet long, an excellent cut flower.

Close up of "Fred Boutin" Lavender

The bees love the Lavender.

"Double Delight" Rose, I purchased this year from Southlands Nursery.

"Black Magic" a Jackson and Perkins Rose also purchase this year from Southlands Nursery. I was trying to go for an artistic shot. I love the dark red colour of this rose.

The flower off of "Klem's Hardy Gardenia" ordered through Southlands Nursery, I had heard that there was a hardy Zone 8 Gardenia out there that could be grown year round here. I purchased one for my mom for Mothers Day and one for my self. The smell is close to the more commonly know indoor double flowered Gardenia. It's a real treat to be sitting out on the patio and catch a wif of this beautiful flower.

A Clematis that was here when I moved in.

I like all the pretty purple stripping, name unknown.

"Jackmanii" Clematis, the dark purple flowers have an almost fuzzy appearance in the sun.

The purple flowers of the new Rhododendron "tree" planted this year.

Crocus's in the spring time.

Fall Aster, a gift from a neighbour. This needs to be staked or it will end up toppling over under the weight of all those blooms. An easy, reliable garden perennial.

One of my favorite Dahlia's "Rip City" it'll stop you in your path.

A bouquet of all my dark coloured Dahlia's

A bouquet of all my yellow and orange hued Dahlia's.