Ghetto Garden Fabulous

My New Fig among the Daffodils

My house is a tiny HUD row house I bought as a shell a decade ago. I have had to dedicate any money to serious repairs like installing a heating system and erecting a front door.

I love to garden. However, my garden gets the least investment in terms of capital available. Nevertheless, I have turned it from hard-packed clay with a scraggly lawn I had to mow to its present state.

I scavenged antique bricks from an old house, and we made a walk. Who wants a lawn to mow? Not me. I use fallen tree branches to make garden beds. I use chunks of cement. I scavenge fallen leaves that others bag up and throw away. I compost to make soil and keep weeds down. In that way, I have raised the level of my garden by 6 inches of fertile composted soil all over. Took some time.

I write a lot about garden design. Even so, I did not realize quite what I was doing until my daughter suggested that I get some nicer paving stones on a trip to the garden store. I recoiled. And I was not sure why. I mean, I just spent $50.00 on new fig trees.

And then the light dawned. I like the scavenging. It saves money, so I can indulge in fig trees. It is a challenge. I did not know it was a design theme. I scavenged every single one of those Iris, and in another few weeks, they will be glorious. I have the Herbs in and my Blueberries are doing fine.

My garden theme is Ghetto Fabulous. An example is the old ladder. It is a bean tower. I think it will be beautiful. We shall see. God bless my Daughter. Eventually, she will whip me into shape. One way or another. Kind of like my garden.