Tiny Lot, Big Dreams

By Alexandra Dittrich

Jennifer does n’t let her small space limitation her from adding in plants she loves . The more the brisk !

" Where most people looked with warning signal at the tiny , uninteresting- 3000 sq . ft . back K of the dwelling house we had just purchased near Seattle WA , I saw exuberant foliage , serendipitous paths and garden rooms ! They just could n’t " see " it yet . I was n’t worried …

We go into our domicile in September , 11 class ago . As soon as the weather chill down , we covered every square inch of the locoweed strip with newspaper and composition board . I spent the wintertime with all my older Fine Gardening magazine open — stargaze and sketching . My husband , the garden workhorse but not the seer , stood by awaiting instruction at the first preindication of spring ( what a guy ) !

We get down creating the bones of the garden . Our budget was small , my dreams were expectant ! For the paths we fling on some flag but mostly we used the dull side of free recycled granite . We made a small circular terrace in one of the " garden elbow room . " We get a few cheap trellis and an arbor work bench and we found a battery-acid like fountain on clearance at the local Fred Meyer . We raise up some beds in various place along the garden paths . We had many yard of plushy garden grime and compost delivered and my ( then ) teen children hauled it begrudgingly from the front to the back for daylight !

Then the planting began ! First I planted the things I moved from our sometime base in gage . Next I began peruse Craigslist for innocent plant and shrubs . I get a fate of what has become the fundament of my garden this way . My favorite story is the destitute you - fag ancient Nipponese Maple we found on Craigslist — and labor we did , for hours ! Please know I do NOT urge this ! ! ! But we end up rip it out of the ground with our car and a tow rope . It should not have survived , but it did — and boom even so . It has become my delectation and the focal point of my shade garden !

If the truth be say I went hog - wild and planted WAY too many flora . The problem being , I ’ve rarely met a plant I did n’t like ! And of course I ’ve ply out of space , so now 40 passel are nestled among the jungle like leaf ! Even in Seattle , a girl must have tropicals that her husband has to help her hoist into the garage each evenfall . Plant lust is a real thing . My garden is lucullan and crazy , in the summer it smells of mints and phloxes . Hummingbirds , bee , and butterflies flit from flower to flower . The Italian plum Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is laden with yield . The fountain gurgles . Many of my darling trees have outgrow their space and my husband says we require to do some chop . Yippee , now I can plant something else ! I ’m not upset … My name is Jennifer MacDonald and my garden is in Bothell , a suburb of Seattle WA . I ’ve been told my garden zona is 7b . "

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