Entrant:  WB

 

A combination of plants, earth, wood and stone create a garden for all seasons, attracting a wide variety of beneficial insects and offering food and nesting areas for birds.  Our entire family -- including pets -- appreciates a yard that is constantly changing, providing cool in the summer and a peaceful place to spend time out of doors.

 

How does it work?  Composting kitchen scraps and yard clippings is easy.  Insects that would devour the plants is more challenging.  Japanese beetles, for example, are easily disposed of by picking them off plants and dropping them into a container of soapy water, and then dumping them into the composts.  (When my kids were younger I gave them a bounty for every one they got.)  Aphids on the nasturtiums come off, leaf and all, and go into the trash -- they're soon discouraged.  An empty tuna fish can set into the ground and filled with beer makes an ideal slug trap, and the product can also be dumped into the compost, or even right back into the garden.  The list goes on, with the rule of [green] thumb being to find a way to discourage pests without poisons, and sometimes just learning to live with them.  After all, the birds will get many of them for lunch anyway.

 

If you have space for a compost pile rather than a bin, you'll find you get very interesting results.  In years past, we've had Indian corn, potatoes, and gourds whose vines trailed across the yard and climbed into the trees.  My grandfather, from whom I learned a great deal about gardening, swore that his best peach trees were the ones that sprang up in his compost pile.  The trick is just recognizing what you have and watching it grow.  If you're not sure what it is, let it grow anyway and you'll have a firsthand lesson in horticulture right in your own backyard.  (Even weeds can be pretty interesting.)

 

Gardening is faith and patience, imagination, and a commitment to giving back to the environment that sustains all of us, no matter where we live. And it doesn't have to be expensive.  At least half of the varieties of plants in my garden come from other gardeners looking for homes for too may volunteers.  I've passed on all sorts of plants and seeds to others as well, including fruit trees that sprouted in the compost for which I couldn't find a spot in my small city yard.

 

In the 19 years we've been on (identifier omitted) Street, I've seen the number of gardens in the neighborhood increase dramatically.  I hope others enjoy walking by my garden as much as I appreciate theirs -- starting a little at a time and growing year by year.