The Kitchen Garden

August 31, 2009 · Filed under design, history · Tagged garden ornaments, house, kitchen garden, lime walk, path, raised beds

I thought that I should introduce you to some other parts of my garden.  My property is 210 feet x 150 feet.  The 210 runs along the street as does the side of the house.  Originally the houses front door which faces east,  had a large front lawn in front of it with a circular drive for carriages.  on the north side was a laneway, that led to the stables behind the house.  So we had the main part of the house, then a smaller section that contains the butlers pantry, then kitchen (now a mudroom), a back staircase and two small servants bedrooms on the second floor.

Over the years, like so many other houses, land has been severed off and sold.  Unfortunately, the land at the front door has been sold and now the front door faces my next door neighbours.  The laneway has become a street and the side of my house faces it.  Their is a garage to the west of the house and a drive, which means everyone goes to the back door, which is glass.  Not something you want when you are standing there in your knickers.  That is something that has to be addressed in the future, but for now, I remain dressed at all times.

The property line is approx 35 feet from the garage on the west, but there is a berm 10 feet east of the fence that redirects water runoff from the Niagara escarpment, away from our house.  This berm is actually on two sides, the west and the south.  We planted cedars(wild ones, dug up from my brothers farm) there, the first year we moved in to give us some privacy from the Deliverance house. (they are still tiny, next time, don’t be so cheap!)

To make a long story short (too late for that now), we started the garden in May 2007 in the south west corner of the property.  It is almost directly south of the garage (with another garden between it and the property line, but that is for another post).  I wanted a raised bed, “kitchen garden” or “potager”.  It would be a holding area for all the plants that I would be given (or would weaken and buy).  I planned on also using it for veg, herbs and some flowers for cutting.  It is a 30 foot square with a 5 foot path running north to south, and east to west in the middle of it.  The beds are 3 feet wide and have 2 foot paths between them. 

In the centre of the beds, I used to have a large glazed urn, it has been replaced by a piece of salvage.

You can see that there is 4 L shaped beds around the outside and 4 small square beds inside them.

From the centre, you look north to “Flora Glade”.

 

Then you look east towards the Lime Walk. (you can see where we painted the tower on the grass)

 To the south and the west is the berm with cedars planted on it. At the end of these paths, we have placed a cement bench.

Looking west, from the Lime Walk towards the Kitchen Garden.  I am thinking about an allee (perhaps kind of tunnel like here). 

The kitchen garden is almost finished, there is not much to do here.  I would like to lift the grass between the beds and replace it with pea gravel.  This way, I will be able to walk out at all times of the year without getting muddy.

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