Garden Tours: kqcrna

 
When I was asked to do a garden tour my response was “Who, me? Who would want to see my yard?” Nonetheless, here’s my little piece of the world in a Cincinnati suburb.

I grew up in Pittsburgh in a home with a tiny little yard. My parents grew a few perennials, a few annuals, and a tomato plant or two each year. They weren’t really avid gardeners. I had no interest in gardening as a child.

When I grew up and finally finished my education at age 25, I moved to Cincinnati. Two years later I married my high school sweetheart. Our son was born a year later, and we bought our first home a few years after that, in 1983. It had no trees, no landscaping, and hardly any green. The few blades of grass here couldn’t be called a lawn.

We started with this:

Because we knew nothing about plants or gardening, we had some landscaping planted in the front of the yard by a landscaper. Notice the small front porch:

I began by sticking a few annuals between the shrubs, and decided flowers weren’t so hard to grow. I could do this after all!

My husband and our then 3 year old son planted our first tree, a maple, on our son’s third birthday. 
Our son is now in his thirties, and that tree has grown a little in 29 years!

We gradually added some flower beds in the back yard, and borders along all four sides of the house. We added some annuals, and some perennials, and grew a few tomato plants each year. We planted more trees in the yard, most of which we’ve lost to one thing or another over the years.

I had added over 40 rose bushes which proved too demanding for this young working Mom. They required heavy fertilizing and spraying with pesticides and fungicides to stay pretty in our hot, humid summers. They’re history now, gone, along with the fertilizers and chemicals. My yard has been mostly organic since that time, around 10 years ago.

My garden is a constant work in process, changing a little every year. The biggest garden epiphany for me was finding wintersowing after joining GardenWeb. I started wintersowing in 2006, and now most of the plants in my yard, by far, have been wintersown. I also start a few seeds inside under lights each year, and propagate coleus from cuttings. And of course I treat myself by buying a few special plants. Each year brings its own challenges. This year it was cool, cloudy weather and record high rainfall. Here are a few more recent photos.

We finally got that big front porch that we’d always wanted. Gardens evolved to surround it.

Sometimes people notice my hard work:

We also added a new deck to the back of the house; 
tomato plants can be seen in the back left:

I derive great satisfaction from growing beautiful flowers from a tiny seed. Eventually each completes its life cycle, or wears out its welcome in my yard, and ends up in the compost. Composting has been an important part of my gardening life for most of my years here. It’s the circle of life, from tiny seed to pretty plant and it then it returns to the earth.

Each year is a challenge, but, as gardeners, we are eternal optimists and always look forward to the best garden year ever - next year!

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What an enjoyable tour!  Your coleus color combinations are simply stunning. It's always inspiring to see where a garden was a few years ago and where it is now.  Your hard work shows in the beauty you've created, Karen. You deserve the honor of 'Yard of the Week'.  Congratulations.

Thank you for coming along on Karen's Garden Tour. Join us again soon when Trish and I take you for a tour in another ATP member's garden.