Lina's Garden Journal

Category: Experience

  • Planting the Cottage Garden on a Hill

    Planting the Cottage Garden on a Hill

    As we all know, 2020 marked the beginning of tough times for humanity. Among the pandemic lockdowns, I like most, dove head first into new hobbies. I tried bread baking, painting and sewing. The one hobby that really stuck however, was my love for gardening.

    While the pandemic was ultimately first and foremost a plague on humanity, there was a tiny silver lining. It caused my family to retreat to our cabins, giving me the opportunity to slow down and pay attention to myself and nature.

    My first gardening goal was to transform our hill into a pollinator’s paradise. The area of the hill is about 1,900 meters squared. My partner mowed a path winding through the hill and I planted about five small garden beds along the path. My dream is to have a colourful cottage garden on the hill, buzzing with a variety of pollinators. It’ll take awhile, but every year I make some progress.

    Aerial view of the hill with a windy path
    1900m2 of blank canvas. A gardener’s paradise.

    The hill already contains native plants to our area, such as chokecherries and goldenrod. I incorporated other natives like purple coneflower, black eyed susans, bee balm, smooth rose bushes, yarrow and asters. However, in the early days I planted non-natives such as day lilies, irises, grapes and a clematis (the latter of which I fried).

    While most of these plants are still around, the native plants are thriving the best. One reason is because native plants don’t need as much water as their extensive root systems dig deep.

    Chokecherries are native to our area.
    The hill flourishes with native goldenrod in the late summer months.

    Here are select photos of my successes and failures on the cottage garden hill in 2020.

  • Motivation Monday

    Motivation Monday

    Every year I create a vision board. It includes photos of things I want to build or plants I want to grow in my garden.

    Last year I built two large teepees to grow sugar snap peas on. The design came from a photo I saw in the online gardening club I joined – Club Farmluxe. I built it by fastening fallen branches (collected throughout the property) with twine.

    I found that the peas climbed well because I surrounded the teepee with chicken wire. Else they would not have latched onto the structure.

    The year prior, I painted plant markers onto flat rocks and I still use them!

    This year I will create a directional post with signs to my garden beds, veggie patch and orchard. Here is my motivation pic from Pinterest.

  • Just Do It! And Keep at it.

    Just Do It! And Keep at it.

    You’ve started to catch the gardening itch, but what to do next. You’ve got a small space, like me, and you want to grow tomatoes. The only advice I have is…do it! Keep at it. Try and try again. The only thing I had going for me at the start is that I persevered. I tried it. And to be honest, my tomatoes didn’t taste as great as I thought they would. Back in 2018, I’m growing herbs, I’m growing tomatoes, and something is off. I learned that gardening is about finding your niche, knowing your hardiness zone (so you know what grows best in your area) and persevering. Some folks are fabulous at growing tomatoes, some folks are fabulous at growing zucchinis. I’m better at the latter. I don’t touch tomatoes these days, but one day I’ll try them again! Grow what you like, like what you grow!

    My dog chilling with my balcony plants circa 2018. Perhaps the tomatoes encountered blight which is why they didn’t taste that great. They are a finicky crop. The other plants thrived that year albeit!