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?: