The Way Back

Today we're continuing with the backyard topic. Our lot is long and narrow, with the house at the front, a looooong, skinny driveway and a two car garage at the very back of the lot. To the left of the garage is a skinny little garden bed, and a bunch of grass (my retractable clotheslines stretch over this area), and at the very back of the lot there is another skinny garden bed.



Those poles that my clotheslines hook up to (you can juust see them in this pic) mark the beginning of the skinny beds. I don't really have before pictures of this area, because it was just... yuck. Mostly ivy, Jumanji vines and overgrown maple saplings. Every year I make a little more progress on this area. In the very back are our blackberry beds,





and the neighbor's lilac tree hangs over the fence. Eventually I want this whole area filled with lush berry vines... it's coming along little by little. I think the soil needs some help back here. Here's the skinny bed on the left.



I think it was our first (or maybe second) summer here that we tried planting a vegetable garden back here. It did terrible. Again, the soil isn't terribly healthy, and it doesn't get full sun all day, so the veggie plants never grew much. We're going to try again next summer in one of the beds closer to the house and see if they do better.



Anyways, these beds are full of black eyed susan plants, which I love. My friend Melissa let me dig up as much of her plants as I wanted a few years ago, and this was the first summer that they've really been showstoppers. She also gave me this cool red flowering butterfly bush,



I want this bed to be very natural and "wildflower" looking, hence the black eyed susans. Oh! And there are tons of daffodils back here in the spring. I kind of think of this area as a easy, carefree cutting garden. I think this area needs some low, flowering plants in some bright colors and that's about it. No muss, no fuss, right?