Gardening Every Square Foot

Growing more of what does well in a small garden

Today ’s photos come from Helen Durfee .

I garden on a 0.15 - Akka bundle in a neighborhood of mostly late 1800s / early 1900s priggish working man ’s cottages in a village ( a former mill town ) in north central Connecticut . I ’ve made gardens on well-nigh every square foot of my land .

This is the side garden in my front yard . I call it the Heritage Garden ; it ’s fulfil mostly with plants I transplant from my female parent ’s abandoned large cottage garden in a nearby townsfolk ( she had get too old to take proper care of it ) . I ’m still transplanting thing from it a decade later . It ’s fun to see what color daylily and flag I ’ve plant . This yr we ascertain an iris my mother identified as belong to my grandfather , who have it away iris diaphragm .

The back garden was my first . In 2006 I plopped down four roses in a row and an Endless Summer hydrangea(Hydrangea macrophylla‘Bailmer ’ , Zone 4–9 ) there ; now I ’m transition to bigger flora with dramatic leafage , such as the tiger eyes sumac(Rhus typhina‘Bailtiger ’ , Zones 4–8 ) and royal purple smoke bush(Cotinus coggygria‘Royal Purple ’ , Zones 4–8 ) .

The front yard has been institute out except for a narrow border of supergrass in front ; the iris come with the sign of the zodiac , and behind it is one of my favorites : orange rocket barberry(Berberis thunbergii‘Orange Rocket ’ , Zones 4–9 ) . Everything tends to grow bigger than advertised ; I chalk it up to my aptness to not glance over leaves but let them compost over the winter . This also help improve my backbreaking clay soil .

This is my favored garden — the shade garden on the side going to the backyard . It was mostly pachysandra , so I planted many bush and shade perennials on top of it . I ’ve have up fighting my neighbor ’s invasives and now welcome the word of mouth that covers his ugly chain - link fencing .

This overview of the back garden prove many different textures and subtle colouring material . I could n’t maintain all this without the use of land covers ( advice from my mother ) .

The front yard has red fairy ( on the right ) and lovely fairy roses . fay roses are a special front-runner .

My tastes have exchange over the years , from bright flower to foliage and leaf shape . I bonk bush of all kinds and recognize that that is a fashion to make future gardening less Labour Party - intensive . My favorite plants are iris , hydrangeas , roses , peonies , clematis , baptisia , and hosta . I ’ve scaled back on the roses except for mostly own - root shrub pink wine . David Culp(The Layered Garden)says to “ love what loves us back . ” My mother just aver , “ I like what does well in my garden . ” I test to follow that mantra . I do indulge in corrupt many unlike plant rather than “ drifts . ” I apologize it due to my compact blank space ( and that greediness gardeners have ! ) .

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