Renewed Garden - 2014

The last few years have seen us nearly abandon our gardening efforts, only to be renewed this past year with more zest and zeal. A new 14th century Edo period style fence was one of the factors that has renewed our interest in our gardens. Not only does the privacy provide a sense of closeness with nature, it also lends itself to some unique gardening styles not within the Japanese style of gardening. Over the very long winter we had, we became entrenched in watching a series made in the 80s, titled; "The Victorian Walled Garden." It was clear from the first episode that the Victorians were on to something very special when it came to their walled gardens, and the methods used to generate vast amounts of food, from very small spaces. The techniques, understanding, and care that went into producing award winning vegetable and fruits was astonishing. The creativity and innovation were mind-boggling. So... using the philosophy of the Victorian Walled Garden, as well as some more recent permaculture ideologies, we've begun the labor intensive process of turning our backyard into a fruit and vegetable producing landscape. 5 bare root fruit trees; Morello English Cherry, Dwarf Peach, and two Pear trees, have been planted and will be espaliered in the spring of next year. Two raised beds were built, one will house medicinal and culinary herbs, the other, tomatoes, lettuces, peppers, greens, and a couple of other veggies. The Greenhouse will bear the burden of producing cucamelons, parisian cucumbers, and persian cucumbers, and hybrid small melons this year. Along the side where the fruit trees were planted are; red currents, chinquapin tree, 10 blueberry bushes, horseradish, and three new elderberry trees. To add to that are; Minnesota State hybrid kiwi vine (male and female), and two honey berry bushes. All of this is an effort to becoming more self-sufficient in regards to fruit with some production of vegetables. The fruit of course, can all be canned into preserves of some sort, or dried for use later on. Several years ago, I said to Brian; "why on Earth are we wasting our time growing grass?" "It has no real purpose, does nothing, and takes up time and energy to maintain." So... we've nearly eliminated all the grass from our lawn, and replaced it with it with either ornamental plants, and in the case of part of the backyard, vegetable and fruit gardens. A beehive is in the plan for this summer, but we'll have to see about the reality of that. For now, that's all to report from the Glen.