Finally!

I was waiting for that crabapple to bloom to use in my new header. But guess what? It's not going to bloom this year. It's only done that one other year and I don't know why. Maybe because last year it produced a huge amount of apples. Oh well, I decided I'd better do this. I'm certainly not interested in winter anymore!

I thought I would start a tour of our gardens so everyone can get a feel for the layout. But a little background info: My husband bought our little bungalow in 1976 when he was 22, on the advise of his stepfather, who owned a realty company. The house was built in the 20's and was the original homestead for all the farm land that has since been sold off. (There was even an older home on this site; we can see the foundation in late summer.) Rick and I were married in 1981 and we have been gardening all this time. The gardens have changed a lot from when we started. We did much more vegetable gardening when the kids were young.  Now I'm more interested in herbs and perennials, but we will always grow our favorite veggies.

 The above photo was taken right off the deck toward the side yard.

 
The raised beds are for vegetables. Behind those are the strawberries, rhubarb, grapes, and raspberries. On the other side are blueberries and dwarf fruit trees. This whole area was once all vegetables.

This view is going toward the backyard. Those woods back there were once planted in sweet corn, then raspberries took over. We have let it go to trees, we like it as a background, and our compost piles are back there.

Here is what we call the south border. There are roses, lilies, coneflower, poppies, and phlox in here. I haven't gotten to edging the beds yet:)

The chickens used to be in the shed by the veggie garden and this shed was our son's blacksmith shed. But he has his own house now, so we moved the hens. The tool shed stays cleaner now!

Hope you liked the first installment of my garden tour. I will be back with some more soon.

 Happy gardening!