Getting to Know Our Farmhouse Gardens

When we first laid our eyes on the farmhouse back in March, I had these ideas of making big gardens, a vegetable patch and a few planters…and just filling the whole place with all the lofty garden dreams from my Pinterest boards.

Looking back, I’m sure it was just first homeowners excitement with a touch of naivety. The thought of having our own land, where I can get my hands dirty and make some things grow was just too much to rein back. The reality is that our property had been sorely neglected for a number of years, in part due to having tenants for so long. Much of our yard work has been cutting things back, pulling out invasive species and caring for what we want to keep.

At some point though, someone did live here who took a lot of time to care for the plants and work on the gardens. We’re seeing evidence of that every week when new blooms emerge. This week is was the big bush of daylilies blooming out front, which my great aunt says is a classic farmhouse flower.

These sunflower-like blooms emerged too. I love the red near the centre – it almost looks painted on with brush strokes.

Earlier in the spring we got to see the big dark pink peonies bloom along with a whole slew of purple irises. We’re working hard to keep those safe while we work on the porch restoration this weekend. We haven’t done much to this front garden, aside from pulling out all the big cedars and a bunch of weeds.

We have a big echinacea plant out front too and I can’t wait to see the purple blooms come out. Maybe I’ll even try to dry some for a homemade tea.

Our hostas are looking ready to bloom soon too.

Our Hydrangea plants are starting to grow and in amongst them was one lone Brown Eyed Susan.

Even in our ditch, we have an array of different wildflowers. I’m always afraid someone is going to cut the grass there and knock them all down, but thankfully they have been spared thus far. I’ve been clipping them for little bouquets inside (like this one).

Another ditch find is this patch of teasels.  They’re kind of like a scotch thistle, with long spikes.

I’ve been reading about different crafts you can do with them later in the fall, like little hedgehogs and reindeer.

There are very few plants that we’ve actually planted ourselves this year…and most of them are for around the chicken coop. My mom brought two big flats full of chicken friendly plants like nasturtium, bee balm, marigolds and petunias. We’re hoping that the vine plants will grow up along the wire and create a bit of shade for them on the hotter summer days.

My chives have survived another year (yay!) in the same planter from both apartments and now at our house. I planted some basil in there too, but some creature keeps rooting around in it and killing the shoots.

I was given some vegetable plants for my birthday and we’re looking forward to onions, lettuce and peppers later in the summer. We already are working on plans for a large vegetable plot next spring.

Another fun find when I was hacking away on the weeds, was this bramble of raspberry bushes. The red berries are starting to show and hopefully we’ll have some we can eat soon (unless the birds and chickens get to them first). Raspberries are my favourite, but Garrett is all about blackberries, so I bought a few canes of those to plant in hopes of berries next year. We also bought a blueberry bush too. Even if we don’t get to the berries before the animals do, I like the idea of having plants that produce food too.

Our bridal spiraea (another farmhouse classic) has finished flowering and is full of small red berries now. So pretty!

Yesterday we were given five young silver maple saplings, the same kind as the giant tree out front. Slowing we’re going to work towards replacing some of the invasive not-do-good plants with healthy indigenous plants. It’s a long term plan, but we’re not planning to move if we don’t have to. This little farmhouse and the land surrounding it has taken hold of our hearts and I don’t think we’ll be budging for awhile.