Wednesday, May 13, 2009

A fairy garden




That's what we are calling it anyway. I was thinking of a sunflower house for the kids. But those giant sunflowers don't bloom long. I thought I'd just carve a section out of this bed in front of the house but we ended up going with just about the whole thing. There is a separate row of pole limas on the left and a row of tomatoes and tomatillo on the right. But the rest of it will be a kind of hidden garden. Hopefully. 

We are growing morning glories, moonflower, cypress vine and hyacinth beans up the poles. The outside of the garden is planted in a variety of sunflowers, borage and four o'clocks plus hollyhocks that will hopefully bloom next year. With the poles or "gothic arches" as we are calling them covered in vining flowers and the sunflowers filling in around them it should be a wall of flowers to play inside of. And next year the hollyhocks will help fill in even more. Closer to the inside of the garden bed is a mix of: chamomile, nasturtiums, blacked eyes susans, multicolored carrots (why not?), two colors of larkspur, bells of Ireland, russel lupines and bachelor buttons. Isaac's really excited about the chamomile to make tea with. 

Fintan has worked hard to gather all those rocks on his own that he placed in the entryway. He seemed to think we needed them. He's spent a lot of time wandering the yard and woods looking for rocks. I was mostly planning to level out the center of the garden though and put straw on it. We can put some chairs in it too. 

The birds love it so far too. We've noticed that any time we stick something tall out in the middle of the yard they flock to it. We are thinking about putting several bird houses out there in the garden for them. 

So there's the new garden! I am so excited about it. I hope it grows well and is a fun magical place for the kids. I'd like to improve the entrance this fall and put a real arbor over it that we could plant a climbing rose to climb on and maybe have a little door in it. 

5 comments:

Camille said...

That is so cool. I wish we had enough land to do something like that. I have to say, though, at the moment it looks like you're setting up for some sort of wiccan ritual with the poles all in a circle. :) I'm sure it will be gorgeous in the end!

Blair said...

Wow, I'm impressed! How big is the garden and how tall are the poles?

Lorax said...

Wow! What a great idea! My kids will want to come visit to see that! (And of course to see you all too) :-)

Saponaria said...

Thanks all :) The two straight sides are about 15 ft and 18 ft. Then the 3rd side arches from either end. It's hard to say how long that is. The poles are about 7ft maybe? David used a stump to stand on to tie the tops together. He's almost 6 ft but needed something to make it easier.

Shoes said...

How's the fairy garden doing?