My Version of an English Walled Garden on a Suburban Lot

The Garden 2021

The Garden 2013

When my daughters were girls we read Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Little Princess together. I was intrigued by the idea of a Victorian English walled garden, with its brick pathways and formal bed design. We never built the "wall" part of the walled garden but we laid the beds out in a formal design and paved the walkways with brickwork between the beds.

Having the vegetable garden a thing of beauty in itself was important for my gardening motivation. There are days when I really don't feel like weeding the beds or checking for slugs. But having something attractive to look at while I'm in the garden keeps me coming back outside, even in the rainy and dreary days of spring.

All of the coverings and contrived fences this year are less than attractive. Hopefully, the plants will grow quickly as the weather warms and won't need to be so heavily protected for all of summer.

I included a photo from this year as well a one from 8 years ago. In this time, we've replaced the gravel side walkways with brick and added a couple of flanking beds in the far section of the garden. We also added a bird bath at an intersection.

Every year, I get so excited over the prospect of harvesting a variety of vegetables. And every year there are disappointments. Here's what I've planted:

• lettuce
• spinach
• kale
• radishes
• Swiss chard
• Brussel sprouts
• corn
• potatoes
• garlic
• tomatoes
• summer squash and zucchini
• acorn squash
• pumpkin 
• cucumbers
• carrots
• bell peppers
• green beans
• turnips
• beets

In the disappointment category, so far:

• cool and wet weather pretty much killed off my basil seedlings. I've reseeded in two pots indoors and am hoping for something or anything. When the weather warms for the summer, I'll move the pots outside.
• rabbits ate part of my kale seedlings right down to the stems. I've covered the bare plants with translucent coverings made from milk jugs and am hoping to save some of them.
• the cold and wet weather may or may not do the corn in. I don't know if it will survive.
• slugs have eaten several tiny pumpkin seedlings. The cold weather is keeping the plants from growing.

The good, so far:

• planting salad greens in baskets and pots was a good move. Not a single rabbit or slug can reach them.
• the turnips are recovering from the bunny buffet, since covering the plants with bird netting.
• the green beans are under insect row covering and a plastic tunnel which is helping to keep them warmer and safe from rabbits. Last year we didn't get a single green bean. I'm hopeful we'll get some this year.
• Rabbits got to half of the carrots. With the other half, I transplanted some of the thinnings into the soil where the rabbits had their snack. The rain actually helped the thinnings survive transplanting. And the rabbits seem to have lost interest in the carrot seedlings now.
• all of the protection that we've now put around and over the vegetable garden beds seems to be working as a deterrent for the rabbits. The cute bunnies are staying cute on the lawn these days and leaving the garden alone. 
• the weather is forecasted to improve tremendously this next week. This may be just what my garden needs to turn around and start flourishing.