Building a Garden

At our old house we had a small yard.  It was a blank canvas when we moved in, and we quickly able to fill it up with gardening beds, vegetable gardens, a little greenhouse space, and even a small native meadow area.  We gardened at that house for about three summers and had really run out of space for anything new.  Granted we had lots of small pockets that we could fill with “special treasures” we found in our travels, but the overall design had been decided, built, and filled in with plants.

The garden at our old home

 Our house here in Texas has a much bigger lot, and while it was technically a blank slate when we moved in, we have had to do a lot more clearing out and dealing with some very invasive plants.  I guess it was really a blank slate as a wild slate.  The previous owner was not a gardener.  He seems to have been a buy one of something and plant it wherever type of landscaper.  This created some interesting results, some wrong plant wrong place and some just plain wrong plant.  What he did have was a really awesome garden art collection.  A collection we secretly hopped would be left at the house when he moved out.  The only pieces he left were the large bell and a pinwheel/windmill sort of thing on out deck.  We think they’re great, but then, we enjoy have some art in the garden.

The garden art that the previous own left behind in our garden

All the clearing out invasive plants, and cutting down weedy trees takes time and energy, but mostly time.  This is our third summer in our house and we have created a few garden spaces, but we still have tons of work.  It is such a contrast as compared to our old garden.  All the space is great and we have so many more possibilities because of it, but I have to admit that sometimes I wish that everything was done and we were at the “finishing touches stage”.  We figure that in ten years (so seven years left) we should be at the point where we were when we left our old garden.  

A vine in the Solanum genus that is attractive, but horribly invasive in our garden

I’ve highlighted some of the garden spaces we have already created and mentioned others that we are planning, but I’m going to start a series of posts that really talk about our plans for the different areas of our garden.  I’m sure that some will change over time (ten year plan and everything), but it’s fun to share our vision for what will be down the road.