Monday, August 6, 2012

My zone 5

After taking the intro to Permaculture Design in May, I decided I wanted to make room for a small zone 5 in our teeny tiny urban back yard. The great thing about creating a zone 5 is that you don't have to do anything. Just leave the space alone and let nature do her thing. After 5 months, I'm amazed at the variety of plants in this area. In addition to a few types of grasses, I have all sorts of plants (including two that I've never seen in my garden before). Here are the notable ones:

Sunberry (planted in the garden a few years ago. I don't like the taste of the berries so didn't plant again but it self seeds and it seems to attract the flea beetles so I'm happy it's stuck around):
A volunteer tomato (interestingly not a variety that I planted last year):
Some sort of buttercup? (it's flowers only open in the morning, I was a little late taking this pic):
Don't know what this is but it is lovely:

A young raspberry cane:

Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)

Not sure what this is next to the mullein. Seems to thrive in urban Ottawa, perhaps an invasive?:

5 comments:

Keenan said...

Nice!

Rachel said...

Hi Keenan! Thanks. :-) It's been really neat to see what has thrived in this area especially since we have had such a dry summer and I made a point of not watering (this area).

Anonymous said...

buttercup thing is evening primrose and the one under it looks like it might be vervain or perhaps loosestrife hard to say from photo

Anonymous said...

oh and the last one is ladies thumb

Rachel said...

Hey Mum/Dad (assuming you are anonymous!)

Thanks! Vervain and ladies thumb look right!

The one that might be an evening primrose looks very different than the evening primrose I have had in the garden before (is twice as tall and the leaves are different).

Next time you are over we'll have to look at them closely and properly identify them! :)