
Main Garden
The main garden was first created in 2000 right after we moved here. It was originally tilled and then double-dug in spots. It has doubled in size since.
It was a family vegetable garden for a few years. We needed to expand it so around 2003 we doubled the size of the garden and had the other side tilled.
One thing that I learned is that tilling is not the way to go. That was a lot of work and many weeds later we have developed our other gardens with a better method.
This garden is now primarily packed with perennial herbs and flowers.

Rose Gardens
The Rose gardens started because we needed a new place to plant some roses we purchased. They were not doing well in their former locations. So they got the sunniest spot in the yard.
Then the Rose of Sharon started sharing the garden.
We added in some bulbs, the Johnny jump-ups managed to move in, unbeknownst to us and then the Rugosa rose took over the end of the garden.
The rose gardens, yep the area has grown into multiple beds, now include blueberry, callicarpa, some heather, sedums and a dwarf Thuja or two.

Hillside Garden
This garden was new to us in 2019. We built this garden as a large addition to the yard garden.
Because the Rugosa was exploding in the rose garden, there is now a 30-40 ft row of rugosa roses backing up the hillside garden.
A small portion of the upper part of this garden as put into place when I brought home stinging nettles to transplant. Then we received a load of fresh manure – I mean fresh. It was dumped right next to our driveway, so we added on to the small nettles garden – about 5 times its size. Because the manure was so fresh, we couldn’t grown crops for harvest in it. I did start to transplant perennial crops into for future years. However, the gourds decided they wanted to grow in the garden. It was a great gourd harvest year in 2019.

Forest Gardens
This small collection of garden beds are built on very rich forest soil. A place where 80 foot white pines stood. Because of their height and proximity to our buildings, we had to have them harvested. It left us with beautiful rich soil to build these raised beds.

East Slope Gardens
These are mostly wild gardens consisting of Elderberry, blackberry, wild raspberries and daylilies. We are slowly cultivating this garden area to grow more of everything that loves growing there.

Mint garden
This is a two year dream of mine.
Mints are always in the demand and I have never been able to grow enough.
This area has mostly been a staging area for the other gardens.
I have put some thought into how to grow many different mints in this one area. It is my hope that this semi-potted garden will come together in the spring of 2020.

Veggie Garden
When growing so many edible flowers and herbs it doesn’t leave much room for beans and carrots. We have a recently cleared area that will be dedicated to establishing a vegetable growing area.
This is a multiple year process, as the logs are moved out, the garden will gain more room to grow veggies and allow us the space to grow enough produce to sell and put by for the family.
I hope to even have a cold frame tucked into the corner.