I much prefer this garden covered and growing various flowers and edible plants but the past several years the whole thing was being taken over by oxalis and other weeds. It was finally cleared out again in 2019 and then I could grow beans along with other plants.

Earlier versions of this garden are described in the red patch project and of course you can see some other views in other spots around the website, but since I have moved on from the largely monocrop red patch to making a more useful space it has become a lot more interesting to me. Over the years since it was the red patch it has been planted in strawberries, beans, garlic, onions, various ground covers, plenty of flowers and even tried to get some seedling tulips to grow (which have always been eaten by rabbits, deer, etc.).

Summer 2024

Thyme flowering with an interesting pattern showing because of the small terracing. A drone shot would have been great to see of this.

Thyme - Jun 05 2024 (4003K)

Such a bright show they put on - I’m very happy with how this is turning out.

Thyme - Jun 05 2024 (4649K)

Fall 2023

This taller growing thyme really filled in quickly in just a few seasons. Now I am tempted to trying it down lower along this same edge, but it sure will be a lot of work to shift everything over a few feet.

Other Thyme - Oct 4 2023 (4674K)

Summer and Spring 2023

Thyme flowering and looking much nicer after being cleaned up of all the daffodil debris.

Thyme - Jun 20 2023 (4221K)

The thyme continues to fill in and look nice even if it gets a bit overgrown by the daffodils. I still have to finish thinning them some more and cleaning up the leftovers after the daffodils die back.

Thyme - Jun 09 2023 (4319K)

I managed to get out and get some thinning done for daffodills that are always threatening to take over any place I put them.

Spring - Apr 15 2023 (4027K)

Summer and Spring 2022

After weeding (yes the deer ate most of the bean plants this season) and doing some work on the lower edge to add one more layer to the erosion control on the bottom left and a few more areas to the right and along the bottom right - you have to look closely because the thyme was transplanted and sort of buried and watered in well. It will look ok in a few weeks or until I can get back to it some more to fill in whatever was missed.

Summer - Aug 18 2022 (4756K)

Spring is coming along, still a ways to go before summer is here. The crocuses are mostly done. I like how the daffodils have filled in, but as usual I found out I have a lot more daffodils to move or give away from up top (not shown in the following picture).

This is looking through the patio door sideways to the N-NE. You normally can’t really see this garden much at all from the house unless you are laying on the futon/couch in the living room or standing there by the patio doorlooking out to see it.

Spring - Apr 26 2022 (3297K)

Closer up with more light.

Daffodils - Apr 29 2022 (3379K)

Mid-Summer to Fall 2021

This edge did fill in some from where I started yet the thyme still needed some filling in plus the daffodils were popping out of the ground and a lot of the dirt on the edge had migrated down into the low spot.

Mid August - Aug 16 2021 (4063K)

With the weather finally cooling off and plenty of rain it was time to get this filled in more with thyme transplants. I put more up on the top along the right side and then added more dirt and thyme to cover the daffodils that were halfway out of the ground. This should mostly be filled in by the end of next fall. It is also much easier to weed (in terms of total time spent) once it has the thyme covering not so many weeds will sprout in that in comparison to what happens here when the area is left bare.

More Thyme - Oct 13 2021 (4404K)

A different view showing the other thyme I transplanted to get the top of that left ridge going. I leveled this whole area and combined two terraces into one so I don’t have to have a second ridge through it any longer - by next spring I should be able to do the final leveling before planting.

Bottom Terraces - Oct 13 2021 (3900K)

For the top part of the garden I increased my water diversion ridges and transplanted or lifted the thyme which I hope will split the heavy water flows that come off the gravel above the garden. Three ridges should do it - I like backups in case of really heavy rains and I’ve had that top part get washed out so many times already. We’ll see how this goes.

Top Terraces - Oct 13 2021 (3962K)

You would think I’d be done with this garden except the far edge behind the comfrey still needs some weeding and some dirt moved back uphill, plus I do need to get a cover planting going over there. I do have yet more thyme that I can transplant but the rains are coming for a few days so I can’t get back to this until next week.

Spring 2021

All planted! Beans of course, garlic and some onions too, a few radishes, and perhaps a turnip. The thyme is really blooming nicely. I guess it doesn’t mind being a bit dry as this year we are way behind on rains and I’ve not watered that edge very often.

N Garden Planted - Jun 11 2021 (4483K)

One of the things I’m always trying is to see which plants will work in combinations with others compared to how they work in isolation. The sandwort (the white flowering plant) we first planted back in 2017 has survived but I don’t think it does all that great in isolation as it gets weeds underneath and around it which you have to keep after. I took these pictures before the plants were fully in bloom to show how the habit of the growth works within the thyme as it comes up through. I think it looks much nicer with the thyme acting as a cover for underneath and it is always good to have fewer weeds. The thyme has almost finally covered the whole area.

Sandwort - May 21 2021 (4117K)

Sandwort Thyme - May 21 2021 (4064K)

I do like how the creeping thyme has worked out.

River of Thyme - Jun 11 2021 (3850K)

River of Thyme - Jun 11 2021 (4046K)

Mid 2020

A picture of the beans struggling along in this heat and lack of rain - also being eaten by the various creatures.

North Garden Beans - Jul 8 2020 (2479K)

Midsummer 2020, the creeping thyme blooming, with the bunching onions behind it. The creeping thyme has finally filled in this edge.

Bloom Thyme - Jun 18 2020 (2571K)

2020

The spring of 2020 from a few angles. The first is from the top SW corner looking at how the creeping thyme is working out. I still have a ways to go to get it established along all the edges all the way down and across, but I think you can see how nicely it is going so far. I also like the color of the foliage in the spring.

Top SW Corner - Mar 15 2020 (3032K)

In the fall of 2019 I moved a ton of daffodils from inside the interior space that were getting in the way out towards some edges hoping to help discourage more of the herbivores from thinking this is such a tasty garden. I don’t think it is working (notice the deer tracks…)… In this picture you can see some of them starting to sprout and get ready to bloom for the spring.

Lower NE Corner - Mar 15 2020 (2791K)

After several months of neglect I finally got back to this garden to get it weeded and planted with beans. At last it is being put back into production after several years even if there is no fence around it I can usually get some beans to produce for me, the deer and other creatures may feed on them a bit, but usually they won’t eat everything - we’ll see how it goes…

Weeding and Planting - Jun 13 2020 (2650K)

I keep adding more creeping thyme along the edges to cover up the bare dirt and to get some green and flowers growing. This is the latest line to be moved from along the nursery where I grow it and then harvest strips or pieces as needed.

More Creeping Thyme - Nov 8 2020 (2894K)

The edge needed to have the black plastic edge put back down and I put it down deeper so that water could flow out of that garden instead of being held back. I also wanted to do something different so we used some extra bricks to see how that works out. The upper part I still need to finish up but it will be easier to take care of and I want to get some other thyme planted along there to help smother out weeds and compete with the grass. The comfrey looks really nice until the deer decide to chomp on it.

Edge - Nov 8 2020 (3187K)

This garden finally got cleaned up again the summer of 2019 (pulling an achilles tendon is not anything I recommend to anyone) including our all new Road To No Wear (all puns and misspellings intended).

North Garden - Nov 9 2019 (2253K)

Previous to 2019

I have done some changes to the projects that have North Garden content, mainly the Garden Tasks project now is thinned down a bit and a lot of that moved here. So if you think you’ve seen this text/pictures before elsewhere, well, you probably have. :) And yes, I do need to re-write and organize this better but that isn’t happening right away - garden season is starting up.

When I was working on the north garden diversion and water catch another reason I had to clean up that edge was because the horsetail was running under the black plastic barrier and then coming back out again. The distance in the last horsetail picture is about 7m wide by 2-3m tall. I actually like the plant, I just don’t want it in the gardens. The roots can run quite a ways without ever surfacing and it doesn’t take that much at all of a fragment to start another plant growing. At first I was trying to remove it carefully, but after a few years it had spread to cover almost half the garden and so I ended up digging it out by double digging the whole space. Still some remains here or there.

Diversion - Nov 20 2011 (1303K)

Horsetail Segments - Nov 20 2011 (1358K)

Horsetail - Aug 2 2010 (1388K)

Horsetail - Nov 20 2011 (1097K)

In the north garden one of my strawberry patches was being taken over by sow thistle. I don’t like to use weed killing sprays and I need the exercise so digging it all out one dirt clod and root at a time is how this job gets done. We joke that I am digging to China. All that green stuff is mostly weeds that I’m also removing and burying as I work my may from right to left (sow thistle is not buried because it comes back from very small root fragments those weeds and grass roots get put back on one of the weed piles where they are dried out in the sun). This garden is 2nd to the last in priority (because it is not fenced) but we’ve done a pretty good job in keeping the rest of the gardens up so I’ve finally been able to get to this project - it has been on my wish list for getting done for a few years now. I hope I can finish up getting the whole garden back in shape before the end of August and will of course do an after picture!

Digging to China - Jul 29 2017 (1488K)

I did finish up most of it by the end of August. Yes there is still plenty left to do in there but the worst of it is now done. With it taking so long already there are fresh weeds showing up in there, but so far none of them are the sow thistle - I’ll have to keep an eye on it to make sure any bits I missed don’t have a chance to recolonize the space. Of course, there are always wind-blown seeds and others left-over from before that I will have to make sure don’t get a chance. Some of the strawberries that I transplanted are alive and putting on some new leaves. I never planned on doing much work along the west edge and it still needs a little more to clean it up around the bird bath.

North Garden - Sep 1 2017 (1465K)

What a year 2017 was and this poor garden was sorely neglected, but I’ve finally gotten back to it. A work in progress…

North Garden - Jul 28 2017 (1749K)