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The Last Garden in the Tour

September 3rd, 2014

A week and a half ago I visited the last garden in the tour series put on by my local garden club. I’ve been meaning to get to the photos from all the gardens I toured this summer (there were lots) but I just haven’t been able to find the time. With my upcoming trip, I’m trying to get ahead on a few posts, which is the perfect time to take you along on the garden tours I was lucky enough to enjoy this summer.
last garden in tour 1
This garden was tiny, probably not any larger than the average house, but that didn’t stop the gardener from filling it with all kinds of beauty. That didn’t stop her from having a seating area, and edible space, a small lawn, a swing set for the little ones and a nice composting area. There were terra-cotta pig heads on the shed, twinkle lights in the trees, bird baths, a raised rock bed, rock walkways and so many wonderful details.
last garden in tour 2
last garden in tour 3
last garden in tour 4
last garden in tour 5
last garden in tour 11
last garden in tour 6
last garden in tour 7
last garden in tour 8
last garden in tour 9
last garden in tour (1)
last garden in tour
There is something quite nice about small gardens, they are very cozy and intimate. Back in Ohio our garden was rather small (a quarter of an acre) and I liked the smallness in some aspects. Not having space to grow as many tomatoes as I wanted proved to be too much for me and we had to buy the lots on both sides and eventually upgraded to 153 acres. My main challenge now is how to make a very large garden seem intimate.

What size is your garden: small, medium, large? What do you find to be most difficult about the size of your space?

2 Comments to “The Last Garden in the Tour”
  1. Nebraska Dave on September 3, 2014 at 8:32 am

    Susy, I consider my garden large and most Urban dwellers would agree with that assessment. In the grand scheme of gardeners I suppose it would be on the low end of medium sized. It measures 60 X 60 feet. My neighbor has a spot that measures 30X30 for his potatoes so all together it would be 4500 square feet.

    The most difficult thing about the size of my garden is the grandiose ideas for development. Of course I just can’t have a straight forward traditional garden. I’ve acquired the knowledge over almost 50 years of homestead magazine and book reading that’s coming to reality now in retirement. Years of ideas and things that I want to try are trying come out all at the same time. My biggest challenge is to work on one thing to completion before starting another. I can imagine things in my mind that will take years to actually compete but want them done now. Gardening has been something that I’ve wanted to do all my life but up until about five years ago was squelched by family and career. Now those pent up desires just want to run wild. It’s difficult to keep them in some kind of control when formulating a design and plan. Ah, well, what’s gardener to do? Move forward with great haste and wild abandon. :-)

    Thanks for taking us along on your garden tours. I love those intimate small garden areas. Have a great trip with safe travels. Have a great day in the garden.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  2. Sara on September 3, 2014 at 10:00 am

    We have about a third of an acre–big for an urban lot, but small compared to a farm! I have slowly expanded to 2 vegetable gardens that are ~ 25X25 and 20 x 25, plus more edibles throughout the yard. I think for me a limited space is good, I already plant almost more than I can handle! Having space constraints forces me to plan carefully. I sometimes wish for unlimited space for growing things like potatoes or corn, but mostly I try to keep up with what I have :)

    I love seeing very compact gardens that do a lot like this one, it’s lovely.

    Reply to Sara's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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