As landscapers, we are often asked about our own yard. At times, we must admit, it can be a bit neglected. Especially the yews that were planted years before we bought the house. No one loves trimming them, though they need it and are almost finished this year (much too late). We keep them around because we don’t particularly like to kill healthy plants and they are nice in the winter. We often discuss, however, the amount of space they take up and what food plants or natives we could put there instead.

Another plant that was here when we moved in was a crabapple tree. It was stunning, but ignorance caused its demise. The previous owners planted it and a maple in the front yards. As the trees grew, the maple tree shaded the crabapple. Even with pampering and removal of a few branches to allow more light, it was just too shady for the tree to survive. We finally had to admit it was dead and cut it down this month. The stump will soon support a solar bird bath and we will plant some native berries to provide the wildlife in our yard with replacement food.

Our yard is different, to say the least. We did away with all of the grass about 15 years ago. We have spring bulbs and various groundcovers in the front yard. Where the crabapple was will soon be a native shade cottage garden. The backyard is raised beds for vegetables (black walnut trees make that a must), fruit trees, herbs, native beds, a flower bed, berries, and a large fenced area for our ducks and chickens. We also have compost bins, our hives, rain barrels, a pool for the ducks (the ladies will be 11 in the spring and the pool is a must-have for them), an outside pen for Artemis the cat, and our fire pit.

Like many yards in Historic Irvington, ours is not large. We do everything we can to make our gardens sustainable and use the space to its best advantage. The birds, the firepit, and the cat pen have the shadiest spots. The vegetable beds are placed to maximize what little sun we have. Everything else is put where it will fit and volunteer native plants are allowed to grow wherever they appear.

We built the raised beds from paver bricks. They were free, except the time to load them and unload them. The bricks were made in Wabash, Indiana. The trellises are old cattle fence pieces and posts that were part of the sheep run on the farm. The fire pit was Grandpa Arbuckle’s sheep feeding bowl.  The fire pit chair bases were part of our sugar maple that fell in the winter storm of 2014 and the chairs were various free and thrifted pieces, many with broken legs. We like that our yard has some history in it and we like to work with what we have or what others discard.

One of the things we like the most is that it attracts all kinds of wildlife, even if it means we have to cover the beds with netting and lose a few veggies to the many visitors. We currently have a  groundhog aka the kale thief, several opossums, a raccoon, squirrels, chipmunks, loads of insects, and many kinds of birds that frequent the yard.

Our gardens are all organic and a lot of work sometimes, but with the greatest rewards. We feed ourselves, the many visitors, and our birds. We enjoy all of the life in the yard and will continue to add plants to feed us and the wildlife.