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Notes From A Pacific Northwest Garden |
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A SMALL URBAN GARDEN
When we moved into our cottage in September of 1993, there was not much of a garden to speak off: a few scraggly rugosa roses, a handful of unkempt rhododendrons, and a dying cherry tree-- that was it. I promptly planted a dozen hybrid roses, most of which had died by the following summer.
Worst of all there were no animals, except for stray cats and dogs.
One neighbor laughed at me when I hung up bird feeders. With all those foot-lose cats about, she said, the birds didn't stand a chance.
This was the garden's nadir.
Starting slowly, with a few plants that took, and others that didn't but were replaced, it slowly grew into an urban jungle over the next dozen years.
House sparrows came first, followed by feral pigeons, starlings, chickadees and house finches.
By autumn migrant Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks arrived to cut down on the population of pigeons, sparrows, and starlings.
The first raccoons arrived five years later, making tentative forays before including the garden on their nightly circuits. They were followed by opossums, and skunks.
Over the last five years, the plants and animals of the garden have steadily increased. Raccoons now come during the day as well as at night. Some raccoon mamas even bring their young in brought daylight and let them romp while they sleep on the deck.
The raccoons and skunks are also keeping the slugs in check, thought the latter do at times dig holes in search of earthworms.
Except for occasional pruning and watering, the garden has become self-sustaining. In season, canes, shrubs, trees, and vines produce ample fruit for men and beasts: blackberries, blueberries, golden and red raspberries, grapes, hardy kiwi fruit, apples, figs, mulberries, pears, and plums.
Camellias and viburnums bloom in winter and spring, followed by daffodils, tulips, flowering cherries and plums, anemones, camas, primroses, carpenteria, oxeye daisies, fuchsias, honeysuckle and ceanothus. A windmill palm thrives in a secluded nook.
With flowers at seasons (with occasional interruptions during periods of heavy frost) and fruit ripening from June too autumn, the garden is a small paradise us and for our wild visitors.
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One of the raccoons who thinks she owns the garden.
[Click on photo to enlarge.]
(Continued on page 2.)
© 2009 by John Doerper.
[This web page is no longer live. To visit my live web page, go to
http://web.mac.com/jdoerper]
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