Sunday, January 24, 2010

My New Back Garden

It's been so long since I posted here, I hope I remember how.

I really need to keep a record somewhere of all the changes that will be happening this month in my back garden, and this is a good spot to keep pictures and post my thoughts and recollections.

The week after Christmas Nigel and I started a sort of back and forth consultation with a landscape contractor from Gig Harbor, and between the three of us we came up with what I think is a great plan for the back garden. Here's the layout we came up with.

On the left will be a nice big water feature, a disappearing stream and waterfall, with a patio and path right nearby to give us a good view of the water.



I'm looking for someone -- a landscape designer who is familiar with PNW natives and with shrubs -- who can help me choose the plants to go in the beds. I want a nice mixed shrub hedge at the back, with some woodland plants among them. Not sure yet what will go in the planting pockets around the water feature.

On the right hand side will be two large raised beds for vegetables. I've ordered a bunch of veggie seeds to grow there, from Victory Seed Company.

Here's what I ordered:

Radish, White Icicle - 7 gm. Packet
Eggplant, Black Beauty - 0.25 gram
Lettuce, Kagraner Sommer - 4 gm. Packet
Lettuce, Lollo Rosso - 4 gm. Packet
Lettuce, Merveille de Quatre Saisons - 4 gm. Packet
Lettuce, Red Romaine - 4 gm. Packet
Fennel, Sweet Florence - 0.5 gm. Packet
Soybean, Black Jet - 1/2 oz. Sampler
Cucumber, Bush Crop - 1 gram Sampler
Spinach, Bloomsdale Longstanding - 4 gm. Sampler
Pepper, Purple Beauty - 0.25 gram
Tomato, Cherokee Purple
Tomato, Sausage
Squash, Cocozelle - 3 gm. Sampler
Squash, Early Prolific - 3 gm. Sampler
Pea, Oregon Sugar Pod - 1 oz. Sampler
Pea, Freezonian - 1 oz. Sampler 
Pea, Green Arrow - 1 oz. Sampler