Backyard photos - Jun 21, 2014

Evening photos with a mostly cloudy sky, so the light was poor.

Our little Toledo urban backyard. The soil part. Unfortunately, at least half of the back property consists of the concrete driveway, leading to the detached garage. I guess that was the building design for homes decades ago. From the street, the properties look nice because of the decently-sized front yards, and the garages cannot be seen, unless parallel with the driveway. But if our garage had been built in the front yard, then we would have a lot more space for additional flower beds and a bigger produce garden. And maybe a chicken pen :) I don't care about lawn grass.

Oak Openings native plants, mainly tall coreopsis and sawtooth sunflower with smooth blue aster, swamp milkweed, western sunflower, purple cone flower, bee balm, and Black-eyed Susan, scattered elsewhere around the backyard and the driveway concrete seams.

Black-eyed Susan, growing through the river rock that rests in the middle part of our back driveway. The flower contains a satisfied, lounging customer. Many flowers grow well in the river rock and through the concrete seams in the back driveway, including tall coreopsis, smooth blue aster, sawtooth sunflower, and the Susans. Their seeds scatter in the fall. Those are tough plants to grow in marginal conditions.

Some of our hostas. Nothing fancy, but we enjoy them.

Our raised-bed, square-foot garden. Three beds, each 9-feet by 4-feet.

Close up garden photos as of Sat eve, Jun 21, 2014.

"east bed" of the garden borders the main Oak Openings natives flower bed.

"middle bed"

"west bed"

Most of the tomato plants grow in the back part of the photos. And we have four tomato plants growing in containers, located on the driveway. 14 tomato plants in total.

Over the past week, we've harvested two or three types of lettuce greens, spinach, sorel, and a few radishes. Plenty of greens exist to eat yet.

I had to install the small fence to keep the small rabbit from devouring everything and to prevent the squirrels and chipmunks from chasing each other through the garden and breaking plants.

#home - #toledo - #flower - #nature - #garden - #blog_jr