My garden provides a bounty of fruit: raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, sweet and sour cherries, Asian pears, and figs. In addition, I grow vegetables and herbs, including the asparagus and saffron. I grow everything organically, although I do resort to a spot-type weed killer on occasion. The layout of my garden is loosely based on principles of Permaculture design, which I studied about 20 years ago, earning a Permaculture Design Certificate through a 3-week intensive course at the New Alchemy Institute.
My daughter, Cait, holds some of the blackberries we harvested this year.
These are some of the raspberries I harvested last year. I created the image by putting the lucious berries right on the scanner bed, then scanning.
The view from the cats' window. The lacy white tree is an Asian pear that bears reliably every year, with little need for care. You can see the sweet cherry behind it, just starting to blossom.
The Asian pear from the other side. Spring is my favorite season in the garden, because it is lush, vibrant, and full of promise.
Asian pears in the tree. I harvested almost 1 bushel this year. My family is rather tired of eating the pears, but fortunately, we know lots of people who enjoy eating them, and Caitlin experimented and found out that they are a fine addition to the spiced muffins she makes.
Cucumbers are one of the few hybrid seeds I buy. In order to stave off the inevetable legions of bugs that kill cukes, I grow the plants under floating row covers until they burst their way out from under. To save space, I train the plants up a trellis. Then I have about 6 weeks of heavy cucumber harvest before the pests reign and the cukes wane.
This gorgeous wisteria is an invasive alien! I can't bear to kill it, though. So, in order to keep it from invading, I hack it back several times a year, and compost the seed pods before the seeds can mature.
Have you ever seen a happier sunflower? This one sprouted near the front sidewalk, where it greeted everyone with cheer.
My yard is a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat, providing food, water, shelter and nesting places for wildlife. This 1/4 acre of suburbia sustains rabbits, box turtles, snakes, frogs, birds and small mammals. Currently, a little brown bat roosts between the house and the patio awning during the day.
Here are my kids, Laurel and Caitlin, inspecting a bluebird nest in the backyard--but pictures can be deceiving. Bluebirds have tried to nest here from time to time, but the local population of European house sparrows is overwhelming; those nasty invasive aliens have driven away or killed all the bluebirds that have tried to make my yard their home. The nest in this picture was never active in our yard. Rather, it is one cleaned out of a box on the bluebird trail we formerly monitored at Gunston Hall Plantation. The eggs are duds that never hatched, removed from nests on the trail. If you're interested in bluebirds, be sure to visit the Virginia Bluebird Society, where you'll find nest box plans, instructions for mounting and guarding, plus monitoring protocols and more. For 8 years, bluebird trail monitoring was a wonderful educational experinece for my family. We learned a lot about these endearing birds and other wildlife, the historic site where our trail is located, the minor breed livestock at the site, and more.
Providing water is an integral part of creating a backyard wildlife habitat. This little pond feature offers drinking water to birds and mammals, and houses 2 little green frogs. The hippo is a concrete casting of my first commissioned sculpture. I created the original in clay, which was used to make a flexible mold into which the cement is poured. Part of my payment included receiving three of the castings- one for each of two gardening friends, and one for myself.
My grandma's favorite flower was the iris, and so is mine. I love the scent, and its many colors. This is my iris bed in May 2005.
This iris is called "two-sided coin." It was a gift from my friend, Carolyn, a few years ago. She gave me two other iris plants, too. As far as gifts go, iris plants are the next best thing to Gearharts chocolates. Did I tell you I love Carolyn?
