FAMILY FARMING
This family-centric garden is designed for 4-season use.
When we moved to this house two years ago, the garden was nothing but heavily sprayed lawn with almost no life. It was a deadzone. When we created our vegetable beds, we had major pest problems as all the predator insects were wiped out.
Oh how quickly nature recovers when given the chance… Within two years, we planted close to 100 (mostly native) trees/bushes/vines, created pollinator gardens, beehives, raised beds, compost piles, a chicken coop, bat/frog/lizard/bird homes, a wildlife swimming pond. We are constantly getting rid of the lawn and converting it to flower/pollinator beds. Now we are sharing our garden with many birds, bees, butterflies, fish, frogs, chickens, lizards, hummingbirds, Dragonflies, fireflies, rabbits, opossums, raccoons and a garter snake. I have much less pest problems because slowly but surely, the garden is reaching an ecological balance with predator species. There is life pouring out at the seams. We see it, we hear it and we feel it. Makes our hearts happy. We also love it that our children are growing up in this small nature refuge that we created in the middle of ‘perfect’ sprayed lawns, witnessing the cycles of life and learning to share our space with other beings.
Homeowners: Gizem & Bryan Nance
Neighborhood: Neshoba North
Garden Age: 2 years
Plants:
- Trees: Black cherry, red maple, redbud, poplar tulip and 20 fruit trees (cherry, fig, plum, pawpaw, apple, pear, apricot, pomegranate, persimmon, crabapple), dogwood, buckeye, fringe, hawthorn, yaupon, weeping willow, serviceberry, false indigo, American smoke tree
- Shrubs: Buttonbush, witch hazel, arrowhead, beauty berry, sweet shrub, sweetspire, coralberry, ninebark
- Vines: Carolina jessamine, passionflower, bignonia, coral honeysuckle
- Perennials: Passionflower, hot lips salvia, spiderwort, rose, bee balm, Scarlet rose marrow, phlox, milkweed
- Other: vegetable and herb gardens in raised beds, pollinator gardens, two wildlife ponds, chickens, 4 honeybee colonies
Garden Philosophy: Live&Let Live. We are gardening to share the bounty and the beauty of Mother Earth with other species.
Please LIKE, SHARE and FOLLOW us on Social Media