Momma’s Little Cottage Garden

Little pockets of color, fullness and joy

My mom has had a rough couple garden years.

Mom has grown flowers and vegetables her whole life. My grandfather had a big, beautiful vegetable garden and she learned a lot from him. Then she married into a farming family, worked the farmers market store and more lessons were learned.

Chives, mint, and fennel are tucked into raised borders

But a few years ago, “they” ( actually it was her partner idea and she was has never let poor Barry live that down-but I digress. ) added an amendment to her garden of a lot of peat moss dust. Like ALOT.

Carrots, garlic, potatoes, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, and lettuces are just some of the vegetables mom grows in her small cottage garden

Peat moss dust -and this is a cautionary tale with any amendment except compost- will alter the PH balance of your soil. Especially, if you don’t know what you are starting with, or where you are starting from. Soil samples are our friends.

Mom is using vertical space for her cucumbers.

It has been a long road to garden recovery. We added truckloads of compost and tilled and tilled. We planted a cover crop.

Her dogwood tree is just stunning

And finally, mom is noticing she has turned the garden corner. All her vegetables are growing well. Flowers are thriving . Herbs are producing longer. Her harvests are giving bigger yields. Potatoes still aren’t back fully but are a far cry from the scabby messes she hauled out the first year, after the peat moss dust addition.

Pockets of herbs like sage and tarragon border her sugar snap peas

Momma still has problems like all gardeners do. Deer, mice and potato bugs mostly. But a net keeps the deer out and she try’s to stay on top of the bugs by frequent watering and picking . But she is feeling much happier overall with the health of her garden, for the first time in a few years.

Grapevine covered steps from the lakefront up to the main house and the cottage garden.

I love momma’s little cottage garden. I think a little wrought iron bistro set would be perfect under the swallows house by the high bush blueberries, loaded with berries. A birthday gift perhaps ??

Her garden is perfect for tea with a friend, a stroll to pick produce and herbs for a summertime supper with friends and family.

Filling in gaps with filled terracotta planters, with beautiful patina.

Good garden DNA is a thing, and I’m glad I got it from both parents.

Mom expanded the garden this year by a few feet out with a rock border allowing for pockets of annuals like this pansy to be tucked in.

Love,

Jenn xx

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