This is the final post of my farm garden tour. Today we'll wander about the side of the house, and to the vegetable garden out the back. Last post, we walked along the front of the house and turned left at the silver birches. If we take a right turn instead, across the stepping stones, we head down the eastern side of the house.

The stepping stones lead to a meandering lawn which swings in and out, corresponding to bedroom windows on this side of the house.

This is the view from the main bedroom window. I got a great deal on some standard Iceberg roses, so they dominate this part of the garden, planted on either side of the lawn. They are underplanted with catmint, irises and borders of a variegated geranium.

On my last post, Hanady (all the way from Egypt!) asked if I started with a design for the garden. We did sketch out a design for the front portion of the garden, but this side garden just evolved over time. I love this part of the garden - lots of curves, creating a sense of anticipation as you wonder what is around the next corner!

We spent a lot of time thinking about the garden from the inside of the house - thinking about what we wanted to see from each window. So each room of the house has its own little view, with 'appropriate' plantings. For example, the garden outside my son's room has lots of burgundy, orange & purple flowering plants, no pink!

Walking around the back of the house, you will see more meandering lawn, and my 'Burgundy Iceberg' hedge! There is a story here. I went off to a end-of-season rose sale a few years ago, promising my sweetness to purchase just two climbing roses that we needed. I returned with a car full of the white Iceberg standards I mentioned ($7.50 each, I couldn't leave them there!) and a bundle of Burgundy Icebergs tied up with string. I paid $20 for the bundle, and when I untied the string, discovered there were 42, I say 42, roses in the bundle! We had just finished the winter prune on the roses, not my Sweetness' favourite job. He threatened that the only way these 42 new roses were going to get pruned was with the chainsaw! So my Burgundy Iceberg hedge was born. It gets trimmed VERY roughly with the hedge trimmer and flourishes!

As much as my Sweetness might hate rose pruning, he LOVES to build stuff. I asked for a frame in the vegetable garden to grow my snow peas on. I got this!

The vegetable garden is at the back of the house, straight out from the kitchen window. This is what I see from the sink:

I wanted a vegetable garden that was 'pretty' and a nice place to be as well us functional, hence the 'Pierre de Ronsard' entrance! There is a small circular lawn with a fruiting crabapple in the centre. I have planted strawberries as a border around the lawn. We plant vegetables in straight lines radiating from the centre. It works really well.

Ferne asked about our paths. We have used decomposed granite for all our pathways. It is inexpensive, blends naturally with the garden, and drains quickly. We love it.

So that's about it. I could bore you silly for days with details, but I will spare you! I would much prefer to be taking you all on a 'real life' tour, but this virtual one is the second best thing.

So from my garden to yours, bloom and be happy!