My Un-Shaker Garden, Part 1

When I first built and laid out my vegetable garden six-ish years ago, I based it on the Shaker style. (Hence, the name of this blog). I love the look of gardens I have seen in person at Shaker historic sites and in photographs. I love the order and practicality of them, but primarily, I love the aesthetic. It is very un-Shaker to create something for beauty’s sake, but since the vegetable garden is functional, it gets to slide. Flowers, however, are right out!

Just a rose by the window. Nothing to see here.

The Shakers eschewed planting flowerbeds if there was no reason to have them beyond enjoying something lovely to look at. There was a loophole, however, when it came to medicinal gardens. If flowers were helpful then it was okay for them to look nice, as long as you didn’t admire them too much for their beauty. I have to say that when I intentionally created my first flowerbed here, I did not care if the plants could do anything more than be pretty.

When we first moved here, we found some flowers pushing their way through the junk piled on the east side of the garage. There were peonies, daylilies, irises, and a rose bush. I wondered why the previous owner had planted these perennials on the back side of the garage, as it was, when you cannot see them from the house. It turns out, that the plants enjoyed the spot, so why not add to them?

The "before" view with old pool pieces and a plastic pond we dug up.

I started planning my new flowerbed in the winter of 2015-2016. I bought seeds to start orange milkweed, lavender, red chrysanthemums, and pink and white Echinacea. The autumn before that, my husband found wild purple bee balm seeds in a field while working and brought them home. I started them too. So, in May 2016, I cleared off the abandoned flowerbed, and dug out some extra room for the seedlings.

All cleaned up and ready for more plants.

My precious little seedlings ready for their new home.

Once in the ground, my little plants didn’t look like much, but a couple months later they had filled in nicely.

August 2016 - They're settling in well!

Then the deer found the garden. We have a decent population of suburban deer in our neighborhood, as can be seen in quite a few of my previous posts here. Well, I never did get to see the chrysanthemums bloom as the plants got devoured long before they could even think of sending up buds. The Echinacea was chomped right down to the ground too. The lavender did well, and the orange milkweed went gang-busters. I’ve got lovely patches of it all around the property now. The wild bee balm also did very well; almost too well. I have learned to treat it with little mercy so it doesn’t take over the entire bed.

2017 - How lush!

I have kept the flowerbed up, more or less, over the last few years. I added a couple more plants that grew from a mixed packet of seeds I planted in a second flowerbed (more about that bed in My Un-Shaker Garden, Part 2, coming soon). Each year, the flowerbed is different and lovely.

The flowerbed got a bit neglected in 2018, but it still looked nice!

 I didn’t really have a reason to plant the bed in the first place other than wanting some pretty flowers, but it has turned out to be a favorite spot for bees and butterflies. Its success in bringing in the pollinators inspired me to plant a second bed, right next to the vegetable garden. (Again, read all about it in Part 2.)

A bee in the bee balm. Makes sense.

I haven’t had a chance to get out and clean up the garage flowerbed yet this year. I was going to do it on a nice day about a week ago, but a dead tree is looming over it caught upon a mostly dead tree, and the windiness of the day made it feel unsafe to be there. I will get to it though, and maybe see what new flowers I would like to add this year.

Grandma always liked the orange milkweed, but it didn't grow that well on the mountain. I wish I could share it with her now.

Seedlings!

I just wanted to give a quick update on the progress of my seedlings. I planted Poblano pepper seeds on March 7. They were the only seeds we picked up before Covid-19 hit. When I got them, I figured I would just come back later to pick out the rest of the seeds. Alas, that has not and may not happen.

My lovely, strong Poblano seedlings

I started my tomato seeds on March 30. I had in mind what tomatoes I wanted to grow this year – Juliettes are a favorite of mine, and I was thinking of planting a Roma variety for sauces, and maybe a big beefsteak (even though I haven’t had that great luck with them in the past). Well, I had four variety of tomato seeds on hand from two years ago, so those are what got started – red cherry, black cherry, black vernissage, and pink brandywine. I grew them all last year rather unsuccessfully, but that was mostly due to my inattention and too much rain. They are good tomatoes, and I think it’s good that I’m giving them another chance. The seedlings are putting on their first sets of real leaves, and are looking well.

Assorted tomato seedlings

I also decided to start some sweet banana peppers as I had the seeds from last year. They came free with an order, and actually grew quite well. I started some basil as well. I wanted to start some parsley and other herbs, but I have no spare herb seeds from years past. I’ll just have to go without or see what I can find after stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Basil seedling – taken with the new macro lens on my phone

I don’t plan on starting any other seeds. I will be able to direct sow everything else. I am hesitant to make a full garden plan that uses just the seeds I have on hand because I hope to actually get some of the varieties I had originally wanted for this year’s garden. I generally don’t plant the bulk of the garden until the end of May, so there may still be time to buy some more seeds; if they aren’t all gone from the stores by them. Victory Gardens, or at least earnest attempts to start Victory Gardens, seem to be a thing this year.

I really do love this new lens!