A few Ideas for Small Vegetable & Herb Gardens

Private Garden, Toronto, ON

One thing you'll notice about both the gardens in my post today is the fact they are located right outside the back door. 

There is nothing more fresh than herbs and vegetables that are steps from the kitchen!

The use of stone pavers in this herb garden are not only decorative, they also provide an easy way to step in amongst the plants and harvest a few herbs.

Growing herbs in containers on your porch is another means to a convenient harvest. Pots are also a great way to control plants like mint and oregano that can be invasive.

Herbs like these garlic chives can add a nice ornamental touch to any garden. 

Easy to grow, the only challenge they present is remembering to deadhead the flowers before they self-seed a million baby chives.

Private garden, Dartmouth, N.S.

A small, hillside property did not deter these veggie gardeners. 

They terraced the slope and added a hedge along the front for privacy. An arbor makes a charming entrance to an to a small courtyard with raised vegetable and flower beds.

Keeping Nasturtiums well-watered helps make their peppery leaves and flowers less spicy.

Growing vegetables vertically is a great idea when you have only a small space to work with. It doesn't have to be fancy- these simple bamboo poles lashed together make a wonderful plant support.

This table and chairs is the perfect spot for a break from weeding and a morning coffee.

Keeping the garden colorful are an assortment of annuals and the nasturtiums you see in the foreground. In the background, there petunias and phlox in raised beds.

I was quite impressed by the variety of produce even this modest space could produce. There was everything from carrots to kale to grapes.

I hope this post has inspired your spring vegetable garden plans.

A Rose Covered Cottage, Waterdown Ontario

Known locally as the "Griffin Stone Cottage," this Regency styled stone cottage in Waterdown, Ontario was built sometime between 1840 and 1849. The property was originally owned by Ebenezer Griffin, often referred to as the "father" of the small town of Waterdown. Ebenezer and his brother Absalom established a small industrial empire along Grindstone Creek with the establishment of a flour mill, ashery, carding mill, sawmill, and general store.

If there was a recipe for a cottage garden, I think romantic flowers like roses, hollyhocks, delphinium and lavender would definitely be on the list of ingredients. Such a recipe would also call for a dash of colorful annuals to fill in window boxes and containers. Finally to add a bit of spice, a cottage garden recipe would suggest that you stir in of few whimsical touches such as a birdbath, a classical statue or a decorative stone bench.

In the town of Waterdown, Ontario, Sharon Roberts and her husband have mixed up a pretty courtyard garden at the front of their historic cottage. A wrought iron fence with posts toped with decorative acorns frames the small front yard beautifully. The courtyard is intersected with flagstone paths and filled with a combination of roses, annuals and perennials.

When we happened upon Griffin Cottage in late June, the climbing rose that covers the front of the small stone house was just finishing flowering. 

Tiny pink 'Fairy' roses were blooming all along the fence.

Delphinium 

Lavender was growing just inside the wrought iron gate.

A climbing hydrangea covers the side of the cottage on the left. The charming gate to the back garden can be seen in the photograph on the right.

Red begonias hang in baskets by the side door.

Nasturtiums

A small water feature hangs on the stone wall of the cottage near the back gate.

Pale yellow hollyhocks grace the side of the house.Today, I am going to link up to Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time. To see other great gardens please click the link.