Suburban Garden 2012 (Photo Tour)

In my ongoing quest for refuge from the New York City rat race, we launched our annual suburban garden at our home in Pelham.

Planting, daily watering, pruning, harvesting and constant dirt in my fingernails helps satisfy that longing for primitive simplicity.

It’s also a good project to bring the family together.

Here’s a tour of our Suburban Garden 2012 in late spring…

Flower Boxes On The Deck

Filling six cedar window boxes (originally from our old Brooklyn brownstone), we accented our backyard deck with a mix of red trailing verbena and orange calibrachoa (pictured above after planting). They’ll look nice once they fill in and wrap around the deck railing, where the boxes rest.

Herbs On The Deck

To ensure fresh herbs for cooking, we planted all the essentials in ceramic pots on the deck as well, just outside our kitchen door.

Garden Patch

A few feet from our deck, we planted a small garden patch. This year we’re growing different kinds of hot peppers, along with string beans, squash, eggplant and tomatoes. We have lots critters that love vegetables — chipmunks, crows, rabbits, raccoons and other stuff, I’m sure — so we installed a chicken-wire barricade.

Sunflowers

The kids planted some sunflower seeds on the side of the patch.

Blueberry Bushes

We planted some things around the yard, including a couple blueberry bushes.

Hydrangea

Next to our lemon balm plant, we planted a hydrangea plant.

Perennial Accents

Lastly, we started planting a variety of perennials on the side of our house, like these yellow yarrow plants. I expect to add more over time.

 

I’ll post updated pictures in late summer, once everything fills in.