Peering over Fences

There are times where I wish Google Satellite was real time instead of one or two years out of date. Something is going on in the yard of a neighbour... not a next-door neighbour... but the next door neighbour of our northwest kitty-corner neighbour. I'm thinking they are building a garden but... it's hard to see. It wouldn't surprise me though. We've been hearing a lot of shovels kicking into soil and skilsaw blades digging into wood around the neighbourhood.

For ourselves, we are building three new beds along the south side of the house. It's quite a narrow strip but... the stucco on the house makes it a very warm little ecosystem. The three beds are destined to be the homes of squash and zucchini plants. We're hoping these warmth-loving plants will take off back there. And... we won't have to deal with their vines trailing all over the yard! Just have to figure out a way to be able to water them consistently...

Possible veggie garden plots

To the west, our behind-the-house neighbours have been busily building garden beds and their aquaponics greenhouse is up and running. There's quite a bit of gardening chit-chat flying across the fence. We even donated some strawberries, chives and parsley to their endeavours. Although, at the moment... we don't even have to chat over the fence since the fence has disappeared. It has been on the verge of falling down for several years but with some judicious propping up, we've managed to coax it along. This year though, we happily agreed to replace it and foot half the bill. At the moment, it is just new fence posts and cross-ties but it is coming along. We can't wait for it to be finished as a number of our long-term projects have been on hold until the fence got "done".

To the north, our new neighbours, who just moved into the house in October, are busily building raised beds. They are gardeners from way back, having brought with them a bewildering array of pots and planters with various forms of greenery - flowers and shrubs mostly. Their yard is essentially a blank canvass and, as we've chatted over the fence with them, we've learned that they have big plans for the backyard. It's exciting to be able to watch the progress taking place.

A blank canvas yard

As we walk around the neighbourhood on our twice daily exercise beat, we see other evidence of gardens being transformed. It seems that a lot of people have an abundance of extra time on their hands and things are happening!

Even tenants are getting in on the gardening aspect. We noticed a house down at the corner (with no fence to peer over) where the tenants have been busily digging garden beds. They actually chose a good house as the previous elderly owner had several fruit trees, raspberry canes, a compost bin, and several raised beds. Interestingly, the tenants have decided to try sunken beds. They excavated the ground down about a foot and then filled their excavation with good soil. Interesting idea... although they now have several piles of very rocky soil sitting around their yard. Will be interesting to see what they do with that. Next time I see them out there, I might just go and chat them up, from a distance, and see what their plans are...

And... down at the cul-de-sac, there is a well-established garden, complete with deer fencing and a little greenhouse. Down the dead-end road, there might even be chickens in a coop, as well as a ramshackle greenhouse... and a new deer fence going up. That same dead-end street has a backyard with some great raised beds, one of which is dedicated to various herbs.

And... I did just do a little virtual fly-over of our neighbourhood with Google Satellite and there are actually several other yards with raised beds in the backyards that look like potential veggie beds. I'm thinking there are way more veggie growers out there than I first imagined!


There's a part of me that is tempted to deliver a little note to all the gardener-occupied homes in our neighbourhood and suggest a little plant-and-swap. Something along the line of "we'll grow zucchini, why don't you grow squash... and then, later, we can trade". Or something along those lines... I haven't gotten that far yet... small steps...