Yeah, so the good part is over. The side yard, where there are very few vegetables aside from a couple of potato plants and the massive rhubarb you can see in the foreground, is the most attractive part of the front yard this year.
See? I wasn't fibbing. Although I don't blame you one bit for assuming I was fibbing as I am a notorious fibber. To be honest fibber gives you the impression that they're tiny little fibs. I'm actually more of a big fat liar. Like that time I told my neighbour I had no idea how that garlic got planted in her yard. Or the time I told my cat nobody was laughing at her, even though clearly they were because I had put a baby bonnet that said "Let's Rock" on her.
Since I now have a 20' x 40' community garden plot, (Update, I now have this GLORIOUS 40' x 40' garden plot) I don't need to use my front yard for the sort of stuff that took up a lot of space like sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and 15 varieties of tomatoes. Getting rid of the squash alone freed up all kinds of space. I love being able to run out and grab food in the front yard so those are the sort of things I grew there this year. Green beans, herbs, celery, a few tomato plants ...
I thought getting rid of all the big stuff would make the garden look neater but all it's done is make it look anemic.
Luckily I have a plan, it was just too late to implement it this year when I came up with the idea.
My idea is to turn the front yard into more of an English Cottage garden. What I'd really love is a French potager garden (which is more formal) but an English Cottage garden suits the 1840's cottage I live in more.
An English cottage garden is basically a garden that mixes perennials and vegetables. Although it doesn't always. Sometimes it's just perennials. Things are grown close together so that when the vegetables come out of the garden, there's still a lot of garden left to look at. Heights are always varying and there's sort of a "just thrown together" look to it. Which is really hard to do without it looking like it's just thrown together.
Typically things are grown in clumps as well as opposed to lines. So I wouldn't be planting my green onions in a line like this.
A potager garden would also be wayyy easier to make look good. There's nothing harder than making something that's messy (an English garden in this case) look neat.
This corner of the front yard vegetable garden has a tiny bit of the feel of an English cottage garden. There are flowers, herbs and vegetables all growing together in separate clumps. The green beans growing across the porch works really well. Everything just needs to be bigger. Fuller. More demanding of your attention. Like Beyonce. I need to Beyoncify my garden.
Then there's the dreaded black kale. We've had more cabbage moths this year than I've ever seen and they almost completely ate my black (dinosaur) kale even though I was constantly monitoring it for cabbage worms. Finally, a few weeks ago, out of exasperation I moved my kale. I also moved a tomato plant, some flowers and a bunch of herbs. I just dug everything up with a huge amount of soil around the roots and put it where I wanted it. Nothing withered, nothing died. If you plan to do something like this try to do it either in the morning or evening when it isn't so sunny out. I didn't of course, but you should. Also get your hole dug before you dig up the plant so you just have to lift it with a shovel and place it in its new hole. This is also solid advice for burying a body that may have died of unnatural causes. Due to not emptying the dishwasher one too many times.
Once I moved the black kale, I put up some hoops and covered it with row cover. That way no cabbage moths can get to the kale plants to lay their stupid eggs on it, which hatch into their stupid caterpillars. I stripped all the leaves that had a lot of caterpillar damage and checked the plants very closely for any remaining eggs or caterpillars. Once I was satisfied they were clean I closed it all up and things have been great between me and my kale ever since.
Did you notice the black obelisk in the shot of the corner of the garden? It's covered with mouse melon.
I grew a bunch of zinnias from seed in the spring and never thought they'd amount to anything but as it turns out they've amounted to a lot.
Lucky Tiger tomatoes are a new artisan variety. They've a sort of grape tomato that taste better than any grape tomato you've ever had. Unless you've had a Lucky Tiger tomato.
The Zapotec tomato is pleated all around and looks really great when it's sliced.
The last of the first planting of radishes. I planted another batch in the shade a few weeks ago so they should be ready to pick in a month or so. Normally radishes are ready to pick after 20-30 days but since it's too hot for growing radishes I planted the in the shade to keep them cooler. It'll take longer for them to grow but my chances of actually getting radishes are better.
I use my picket fence for cucumbers.
Mixed in with the rainbow Swiss Chard are herbs like cilantro, parsley and low growing flowers like the red kalanchoe.
It's hard to see here but this is the Mascotte green bean I told you about earlier this year. I wanted to test it out to see whether it was worth growing for anyone who was short on space. So I threw one into my front had and planted 3 plants at my mother's house in a pot.
It's definitely worth it for anyone who can only grow their vegetables in pots or window boxes on an apartment balcony. These green bean plants are filthy with green beans. But you need to plant a lot of them. For a standard window box I'd try to get at least 8-10 plants in there.
Again, this corner of the garden has a bit of the English Cottage garden feel I want to try to perfect. Lavender is mixed in with oregano, salvia, geraniums and earlier this year that's where I had all my lettuces.
This is my favourite day lily and it's one of many perennials I'm going to split in the fall to help fill in the front section of the garden in front of the porch. I'll also split my phlox, delphiniums and foxglove to plant in the front. That should help beef things up and give the garden more of an "I've been here forever" look as opposed to the "I'm brand new" look it's sporting now.
The green beans growing across the porch will stay. It's wild enough to look English Cottage garden, without being so wild it looks Grey Gardens.
Ranunculus on its last legs.
Elephant garlic is not garlic. I didn't know that. Did you know that? I always thought elephant garlic was garlic because some idiot called it garlic. Plus there's that whole thing where it looks like garlic. But it's not garlic. It's from the onion family. And yet. It tastes like mild garlic.
Seriously, someone's screwing with us here.
The other major thing I'd have to do to make this an English Cottage Garden is to get rid of the straight lines. No straight lines allowed.
So the front would have to go from something like this ...
To something with a curved edge like this.
And through the magical magic of Photoshop and my magically sucky Photoshop skills ...
It's not a huge change but the curving, softer lines are the way it should be. If you go back up to the nice photo of my side yard at the top you'll notice part of the reason it's so nice is because it's a curved bed, not straight. If I wanted to do a sort of potager/cottage garden feel I could formalize the yard by edging the beds with tiny boxwoods. The only problem is that tiny boxwoods eventually become huge boxwoods.
So there you have it. An update on this year's Front Yard Vegetable(less) garden. To me it seems like so few vegetables when in reality, I mean let's face it there are a LOT in there.
In the front yard I have rhubarb, red peppers, green onions, radishes, lettuce, kale, garlic, elephant garlic, cucumbers, basil, oregano, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, simon, garfunkel, 6 tomato plants, a few potatoes, mouse melon, green beans, carrots and swiss chard. Plus I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff. I'm surprised I remembered garfunkel. Everyone forgets garfunkel.
If you happen to live in England or France and can direct me to a really great book on English Cottage gardens or French potagers feel free to let me know about it in the comments.
Actually, feel free to come and do my garden for me. I'll play some Beyonce for you while you're doing it.
Robert
Karen I have to ask because I was so excited when you firs posted what you were planting this year, WHERE IS YOUR SAFFRON? Necesito verlo!
Thank you.
Karen
Hi Robert! I wasn't able to buy any in the spring. It was all sold out. BOOOOO! So I've ordered 20 bulbs which will arrive in time for planting. If ANYONE wants to get saffron crocuses for their garden order it now, it always sells out. I got mine from Richters. ~ karen!
Robert
Such a shame you didn't get them this year, just for that I hope they'll look better on your next garden configuration
Sally A
I have a kalanchoe that I cannot get to bloom... what's your secret and does it come back every year or do you have to dig it up? Mine is in a pot.
Lindy
Karen, notes are posted on my website. I'm rushing as I am about to lose power here. But I hope you enjoy it. Best wishes Lindy. Ps that doesn't mean you aren't swinging my La France Profonde to pick up the book.
Sharijo
Thank you for sharing. This is what I have been looking for. We have planted our vegetables in our front garden for years because we are lazy bad gardeners who love fresh veggies. You have inspired me!
Mindy
Um, HELLO. I am the queen of cottage garden. I ignore my three kids for twelve hours a day so I can water and putter in my garden. I spend hours taking photos of perennials and writing posts about them, referring to them as he and she. I have open garden tours. I host garden blogger cocktail parties. Clearly you're hanging out with the wrong cool kids.
christina heggs
Karen your love for what you do is over whelming to me. I am new to your blog and am interested in what you have to say each and every time. I wish I had all that time an energy you devote to your blog. You have a lovely home and you show much effort in all that you do. I am glad to see someone that can do and appreciate all that life has to offer. Heres to you and keep up the good work.
A. Ladouceur
Hi Karen,
Odd timing. I subscribe to your blog, and I read this blog post with a book sitting in front of me on the coffee table that's titled "Le Jardin de saveurs : secrets des jardiniers", by Philippe Loison and Marianne Lavillonnière. The book isn't overly large (95pp), but in its entirety it is on the creation and maintenance of a potager, with some nice photography throughout.
The first half is dedicated to the creation of the potager ― layouts, different ways of creating raised beds, division of the beds into your planting "squares", maintenance, composting & mulching, thinning and ideal planting density, etc.
Then 30 pages are dedicated to the various vegetables, with descriptions of varieties, and notes on planting, care, harvesting, and so on.
The end of the book is a fairly detailed yearly calendar of what you should be doing during each period of the year, although this might vary based on your regional weather (the book's written under the assumption that one is gardening in France, although it's served me just fine here in southern BC).
Regards from the west coast,
Andrew
Jody
Well I don't disagree with you that the front garden looks anemic. Love the idea of an English cottage garden. Have you ever thought of bees? You could put a bee skeep in your garden.
Next year I may try the mouse melons. I'm growing loofah gourds but with not much success. The vines are vigorous but no flower in site. I'm also trying asparagus peas. They seemed like a weird unique seed from Wm Dam. Just starting to see square shaped pea pods now.
Looking forward to July 2016 and wht your garden looks like then.
Dana
I have loads of hollyhock seeds if you want me to send you some from here on the west coast. Pink and white. In this year's heat, they got to 7 feet tall!
Amie M
I want to Beyonceify my garden too!
I started the front as a layered Japanese garden when we moved in two years ago. Husband loves Japanese gardens from his year in Japan, and I wanted to get him involved in some of the gardening decisions. Well, now the bugger is liking the neighbourhood feel of English gardens in the front (very common in Guelph!).
The doofus doesn't realize that the stuff I already planted are all perennials and will take time to fill in. He's impatient and wants this lovely layered and lived in look right. now.
But in the back we have along the fence lined with raised vegetable boxes, adding more vegetable boxes along our new patio. We could move some of the Japanesey feel stuff from the front to the back to bring some order around the patio.
I am curious to see how you do your English garden. I too love the unkempt, but totally planned look.
nancee
ok, so you admitted you are a fibber...i'll admit i'm lazy and didn't read other comments.
hoe did you make the cover for the kale?
if you used PVC pipe, how did you get it to bend into shape without wanting to scream?
And what did you use for the cover? i suspect that 'row cover' is a word we Americans don't normally see. It looks like it's a cloth material.
thanks!
And you should be very proud of how your garden has grown!
nancee
yeah, i'm repying to my own comment...i found the garden cover...great find for me to use as cover for a small greenhouse! Fairly inexpensive too.
Still need to know how you got the PVC pipe to bend.
Ryn
I hope one day my front yard will look as nice as yours.
Connie
You may have remembered garfunkel, but you forgot simon! HA! I don't even know what garfunkel is; I'll be looking it up here in a minute. Also, I'm sure mouse melon is very tasty, but it has the word mouse in it so I would hesitate to try it. You would have to invent a delicious name for it, like my mother did when I wouldn't eat liver. "It's chocolate meat", she told me with a straight face and I'm sure frustrated tone. My trust in her was broken that day.
Your two kale plants looks like beautiful, strange birds ready to take flight. Thank you for sharing everything you know!
Deborah Kimbell
While I envy you your veggies and flowers, I am most insanely jealous of your weed-free garden. how do you do it? I am ready to dig up my flower gardens and cover them with black plastic in hopes that the quackgrass will finally depart the scene. But I know it never will... And now there is something called horsetail that is spreading everywhere. Arrgh. Happily, with the aid of acres of mulch hay, the weeds in the vegetable garden are at their most minimal. It's not beautiful, but anything is better than an August where the weeds outnumber the plants.
On another, completely separate note, what has happened to your shopping/stuff I love page? Have you stopped loving stuff? I have gotten many inspirations from you -- although I can't yet justify the Wagner spray painter, as much as I would love it. Maybe next year, when I paint the chicken coop and shed...
Kim
Loved your article today! I love the English Garden style and am hoping next year to rip up the awful bushes in front of my house and plant veggies and flowers. I have a little cape cod that I would like to look like a fairy tale house. My gardens along the drive already have that look and I want more! The only problem is the tree roots. The neighbor has some monster oaks and we have a maple on the tree belt that has invaded my little front yard. Can't dig anywhere in the front without hacking and chopping at them. Any suggestions on how to easily remove them? Some of the roots have grown right to the top of grass and have formed knots. Looks horrible.
Ev Wilcox
I don't think you could STAND for anyone doing your gardening for you! Your green thumb would be in spasms needing to be out in the thick of it! Your house, yard, chicken house, and community garden plot are all awesome. Really. Well done, as usual!
Kris
Your reference to Grey Gardens caught me off guard! Didn't think anyone else knew if it, I always refer to my house as that when things start to get out of control!! Can't wait yo watch the spoof!
Karen, there is a woman in Cambridge, you might know of her, who has a business called From The Potting Shed. She has her shop in an old farmhouse, and has focused this year on her French Potager Gardens. You can go to her property, she does classes on this style as well as other things. Not that you need a class!! You could just go check it out for inspiration. she may also have that book you're looking for, she does sell some books in her shop. Check it out, info@fromthepottingshed.com. Her name is Elaine, used to be called The Vintage Gardener.
Jen
If anyone can have an English garden that didn't look like a hot mess, it's you! Can't wait to see.
And what do you think of those Mouse Melons? The cute factor is high but the flavor, she is loooooow.
Karen
I actually like the flavour Jen. Like a cucumber but with some tartness. I put them in salads and I might try to ferment some this year with my dill pickles. Those'd be fun. ~ karen!
Lindy
Dear Karen, out of print and ridiculously expensive. I have two copies so I'll post you one. When you take on a farm and garden in France you tend to get offered rather predictable Christmas reading. I'd really prefer good thick socks. But in this case this spare copy will be going to a good cause. The Makeover Of Your Future Potager. Email me the best postal address and I will go over to the village post office next week and send it off. She only opens a few mornings a week. xx
Karen
Hi Lindy! Thank you so much. But that sounds like a lot of work for you. I'll just come and pick it up. ~ karen!
Lindy
Come at once! I have made notes. I can post them on a blog on my website (there are wonky drawings) and you can have a look and a ponder. I will make it suitably Edwardian such as 'General Notes On Designing A Three Foot Wide Vegetable Bed in the North Americas.'
Ann Brookens
I cracked up reading your list of garden plants. (I'm still giggling while I'm writing this!) I haven't run across mention of garfunkle for quite some time! Didn't notice any in your pictures, though.
Looking forward to seeing your cottage garden in the future; I love cottage gardens!