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This page will follow the development of my sitting garden, a work-in-progress that I tend as a hobby, and as a form of relaxation. My hope is that the garden will grow and change with my life and with my moods, but still be a place others will feel comfortable visiting. Even if you can't visit in person - stop by here often to see my sitting garden as it grows! At the bottom of this page you'll find a place to email me. I'd love to receive comments, suggestions, feedback, and photos or plans of your own gardening efforts. Let me know if I can post your comments or pictures here, okay?

Getting Started

Carving Out Spaces

Making Changes

More Views

Updates & Finalization

By the Way...

Getting Started

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		I didn't get a "before" picture, but it was pretty much a piece of sloping lawn with tons of crabgrass and weeds. I planted a few of my hedges from the Epsom house in the Fall, after we moved in, but before the snow fell. I stored my stepping stones and potting plants under the deck until this Spring. In this photo, I have laid out some of the stepping stones and patio bricks, and the raised frame is in place, but not yet filled with garden soil, nor plants. The forsythia bushes began to bloom a week after I took this shot, and the lilacs are also now blooming. My intention is to have a quiet and pretty place to sit, to read or soak up the sun, to watch the birds and other little animals. The challenge is to carve out some level areas to place the chairs. It can't be seen in this photo, but the land slopes backward toward the fire ring that you see in the background. I also need to create some height, to make the garden look a little more "mature" and as if it has been here for years.

Carving Out Spaces

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		I had to decide where I would plant some herbs, where my chairs would be, and where to place some flower pots. I had also decided some time ago that I would set up -- in addition to some chairs -- a rustic bench or two, made of trees from the property. In these photos you can see where I have been digging and shaping to form a garden plot. I will be needing more paving bricks and stepping stones, and potting soil. I can't decide (yet) whether to use the black cedar mulch that I already have, or to use some sand throughout the garden, or both. I have been toying with the idea of setting up a small lounging pool at one edge of the garden. On some summer days, sitting in the sun can get too hot. I have an inflatable pool that is about 10 inches deep and is otherwise shaped like a lounge chair. Fill it with only about 3 inches of water, and I can lounge in the sun, read, catch some rays, and sip at some iced tea. What do you think? Back in Epsom, I used to have a tiny pond in the garden. I'd buried a large baking pan, filled it with water, and surrounded it with rocks and plantings. A resin footbridge spanned one end of it, giving the impression of a little river running out of the pond. Salamanders and frogs actually used that pond. Here, I am thinking I won't use an actual water pond. This could change in time, but for now I am thinking I will dig out a little trench as a river, and fill it with varying sizes of rocks. I may even paint the rocks, perhaps some of them blue, to give the garden some extra color and the impression of water.

Making Changes

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		I bought a few hanging plants and put them up in the garden, plus added some birdfeeders in the background. So far, I have seen a baby chipmunk climb the birdfeeder pole, and our hens are always jumping up to knock seed out onto the ground as a treat. I bought some sweet leaf, oregano, and mint, plus I still had some cuttings of lemon thyme that look as though they will rejuvenate. But I haven't planted these herbs yet. I will need to stop working outside on the garden for a couple of weeks, as the May blackflies have arrived with a vengeance. They only last for just under a month, but they are brutal while they are around! I am already covered with bites, which I try not to scratch, but I often pick at them in my sleep. So I generally spend May looking as if I have chicken pox, especially around my ankles, elbows, and hairline.

More Views

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		You can see the little footbridge in the photos, and some different views of the whole layout.

Updates & Finalization

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		I completely overhauled the layout in June, by using many of the paving bricks as borders around smaller plots and creating one small section of a paved "patio." I added my pool, which is really used as a lounge chair...but I fill it with about 2 inches of water so that I am kept cool while I am lounging in the hot sun! I also used colored play sand (tinted blue) as a decorative feature, to look like water. In these photos I haven't yet put in the plantings around the pool nor the other raised bed. I still have to finish putting in the pea pebbles on the path, and mulching the other areas. Behind the pool, there is a dug-in staircase leading to the table and umbrella, but I haven't yet finished putting in flowers, crushed stone, and mulch, to shape and highlight it a little more. Perhaps next week I'll have the final photos, with my vegetables growing in the raised beds, and some other features I'm planning. Who knows? By July, it could be completely different!

By the Way...

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		This isn't part of the sitting garden, but it is something I have been working on as well. The front of the house was very plain when we moved in -- mostly just a set of steps coming off the porch, and then just mud. I put in the flagstones we had brought from the Epsom house, and dug out a few garden plots surrounding it. I had taken our lilac bushes with us, and the largest lilac is now blooming. A few marigolds and potted plants here and there, and the front of the house is looking way nicer. We refer to the porch garden as the purple & yellow garden, whereas the backyard sitting garden is the red and orange garden. Even on the porch, I put in yellow and purple Adirondack chairs, and we have yellow and purple pansies and petunias hanging under the porch roof. All the flowers in the front bed are either yellow or purple. The picture of the orange Adirondack chairs is from the deck, overlooking the sitting garden. We have all been enjoying sitting in both places lately. The breeze is wonderful around here, and we aren't bothered by mosquitos or other bugs much.

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