The beginning.

I have a "garden in progress". Aren't they all?

I live on the second floor of an old house. My business is on the main floor. When I moved in 12 years ago, it was the first time I had my own garden. A woman who worked in an office in the basement was an avid gardener, and together, we started creating some beds around the building. She brought in hostas and bleeding hearts from home, and we purchased random perennials and plunked them in. Some survived, most didn't, and the main bed at the front of the house quickly became overgrown with chrysanthemums, that never bloomed. We also had a purple sand cherry, a mock orange, a burning bush, and some kind of cedar, all badly overgrown, and a huge mulberry tree that dropped berries on the ground for at least 2 months of the year, overshadowed the entire side of the house, and encouraged birds to drop purple poop on our cars.

All that had changed. Three years ago, I had a friend do a proper garden plan for me. My plant list included 54 different plants! She promised that within 3 years the garden would be filled in, and look lovely. She was right.

Last summer, our new tenants, who are also avid gardeners, as well as young people with tons of energy, added two large raised beds at the back of the building, and I was able to add all of the the flowers that I learned about, grew to love, but were not included in the plan for the rest of the building.

And this year, my main garden obsession has become my rain barrel.

I had it installed (by said young avid gardening upstairs neighbours), and am now in the midst of planning and installing a drip irrigation system, purchased from Lee Valley. And I am very very close to buying a second rain barrel, as soon as I figure out where to put it.

The rain barrel is full. I installed a hose to direct overflow away from the building foundations. This morning I went out to check on it, and there was water dripping out of the hose. Success!

Next, I have to install the irrigation system tubing. Then wait for a warm dry spell, so the garden needs irrigation, then empty the rain barrel, then move it, build up the base platform with some paving stones, and wait for more rain.

I love my rain barrel. Can you tell?

Photos to follow.