Just a few blocks from Main Street is a little Eden. Mary Alice has compacted many thriving plants into her yard surrounding the house. As you walk down the sidewalk in early fall, the first temptation is a loaded apple tree. She graciously shares these with many people.
Her approach to gardening and life is environmental, evidenced in the front by the rain barrel and in back by a clothes line. She wanted an attractive rain barrel so chose this one for the front corner of her porch.
On one side of the house is the main gardening area. She takes advantage of every space, adding verticle pots full of vegetable and herb plants. These pictures show the ending bounty of a productive season.
A ready-to-pick red pepper plant neighbors a ripening tomato.
Mary Alice shared some of these Italian flat beans with me. After tasting their delicious flavor, I put them on my seed list for next year. They will be worth fighting the Mexican Bean Beetles that flock to my garden.
The ferny asparagus patch adds beauty as well as anticipation of dishes that include their spears. The mossy stone wall is just one of the many charming features of this garden. The asparagus is in an elderly neighbor’s yard on the other side of Mary Alice’s stone wall. The three neighbors whose yard she uses,
enjoy vegetables from a well-tended bed.
Looking back from the asparagus patch there are many more plants that come into view. The closest is a crimson clover ground cover, a cover crop to be dug into the soil six weeks before spring planting. It fixes nitrogen and makes a lovely winter carpet of green. The straw keeps the weeds down in the second crop plantings of broccoli raab.
While visiting this garden you may find Gnocchi lurking, waiting for a small rodent to show itself so he can give chase. At times he loves to roll in the catnip, grown for his benefit.
From the front porch the apple tree displays fruit ready to be picked and bitten.
I appreciate Mary Alice supplying the first apple tree photo, and the one of Gnocchi.