I’m creating a garden on my Seattle city lot to honor some of the great gardeners of the last century.  This blog will document the design, plant choices and serve as a tribute to the amazing horticultural minds of the past as I study their books and ideas.

I’ve been living on this lot way too long (19 years) without doing what needs to be done.  My hope is that documenting the process will serve as creative motivation to get the work done and drive the process to design a wonderful little tribute garden that I can enjoy into retirement.

The lot here is just over 5800 square feet, but the house takes up a bunch of that and we already have a woodland/water garden built.  There really isn’t a backyard–just ten narrow feet between our house and the property line.  To utilize that challenging space, we’ve created a patio and utilize potted plants and vines.

Most of the work will need to be done in the front on either side of our driveway.  I started an orchard garden several years ago with some amazing dwarf fruit trees (apples, cherries), berries (blackberries, three colors or raspberries and others) and unusual fruits (aronia, goumi).  I plan to leave this as is, but to remove the depressing lawn in-between the plans and put in something more rewarding.

I’ll be doing all the work myself while working full time, so it will be a slow process–but isn’t gardening always a slow process?  And isn’t that wonderful, can’t-be-rushed delay where the best rewards live?

Gardening is endlessly fascinating and diverse. Those of us who are irretrievably committed are immensely lucky.  I am an enthusiast and I do believe that, numerous as the world’s band of gardeners is, there should be more of us.  Not just routine, but mad keen gardeners.  Many lack the opportunity but with others it’s only a matter of finding the right person to start them off; someone prepared to communicate and share.

—Christopher Lloyd, The Adventurous Gardener

 

Here’s to the mad keen gardeners…