It's coming along

Roses, fennel, coral bells, iris (potato bed beyond)

The garden is beginning to chug along properly now. It's still behind, but catching up. Winter really was endless this year, wasn't it? And spring's not much to talk about, either.

 Our back yard isn't very large by suburban or country standards, but for the city, 20' x 20' is pretty big. Right now, in addition to the skeletal remains of my long-desired and ultimately boring rose garden, I have the following planted:

Fruit: 3 blueberry bushes, raspberries, red currants, strawberries (potted).

Veggies: tomatoes (6 at the moment, probably more coming up as volunteers from last summer), bell peppers, frying peppers, padron peppers (a whole bed from seed brought back from Barcelona), spinach, kale, carrots, cucumbers, string beans, lima beans, peas, potatoes (lots). Salad greens of random kinds, including red oakleaf, bibb, arugula, sorrel, deer tongue, mesclun mix (mostly in pots, with the exception of the starts I bought at the garden center).

Potatoes coming up!  Planted too close
together, but you deal with the space you have.

Herbs: basil, rosemary, fennel, sage, thyme, lavender.

Random plants/flowers still left: coral bells (lots – I love the colors of the leaves), 3 different varieties of iris, a potted clematis, a potted tree peony (trying to find it a new home) and a mammoth lilac. Mammoth, I tell you. Pre-prune, it’s at about 9 feet. When I planted it 14 years ago, the first summer I lived in the house, it was so tiny I dug the hole with a tablespoon because I didn't yet have a shovel.

Oh, and the chicken. With her coop, and its extension/run. Not as much space as she would like, but more than I'm really happy about surrendering to her. Good thing she gives me both fertilizer AND breakfast.

Blueberries, coop, water barrels beyond.

On the walkway between the yard and the house is the compost factory, which is made up of 4 square blue recycle tubs, in varying stages of decomposition. 

In the corner behind the compost area, two 50-gallon rain barrels, one hooked up to the house, and one for the 5 gallon buckets that catch the overflow from the gutters. (I haven't turned on my outside water in 4 summers; I love it).

This is where I spend my time when I'm not at the sewing machine (or unfortunately in an office at a computer). Because it's outside, and strenuous, I enjoy it even more than sewing.

My favorite iris - filched from a
neighbor's garden and since multiplied.
My great-grandmother had this one.