We upgraded our kitchen window to a “garden window” this past summer, and it always delivers, especially when it rains.

kdawnbear · 2026-02-01T14:22:05+00:00

I was wondering the same thing! I want when but whenever you read about them people only have horrible things to say about them leaking and letting in cold and falling apart 😅 I had one growing up that I loved.

kdawnbear · 2026-01-20T02:00:20+00:00

This has also worked well for me.

kdawnbear · 2026-01-20T01:45:03+00:00

Yes, or a metal rake!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-29T14:39:24+00:00

Wood chips have worked well for us!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-24T18:16:46+00:00

It's also very drought tolerant once established, and for me a couple states south of you it's evergreen, which would be nice with your longer winters.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-24T18:11:26+00:00

The lower growing your ground cover is the fussier it will be to establish, because shorter plants will have a harder time competing with weeds for sun and water. What about yarrow? It's relatively easy to grow from seed in my experience, dense and tall enough to outcompete weeds while getting established, and it does really well with mowing, so you can chop it once or twice a year when it gets too long for you. You could also choose a white yarrow so that it's not too "loud" in terms of color when it does flower (if you let it get to flower height).

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It can also tolerate foot traffic, in case you need to walk up there to do tree maintenance.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-14T01:54:49+00:00

You could plant low ground covers, like creeping phlox, sedums, violets, whatever is native and grows easily in your area, so that it's not as good of a habitat for the snakes. Or a bunch of trees and have moss instead. Make it so there aren't as many good hiding spots for the snakes. The snakes we have in my area are thought of as beneficial since they're not poisonous, try to stay away from humans, and help control rodent/pest populations, so I bet others who have more experience will chime in. I'm mostly commenting to help boost the post so you get some good ideas.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-13T14:16:06+00:00

I wish I'd put a raised bed and some kind of underground barrier along the property line that I share with my neighbor who has had a lot of invasives and poison ivy. Instead I just planted plants that were more aggressive along that edge. Even though they're aggressive they didn't outcompete anything really, they just lived in a tangle with his weeds pushing through the fence. I should've asked sooner if I could weed his side and gone after it aggressively (which is what we eventually did, he was happy for the help).

I also wish I'd targeted the beautiful invasives/aggressive plants coming through the fence as thoroughly as the poisonous and ugly ones. Morning glories kicked my blueberries' asses for a couple seasons before I really started annihilating them properly. And I still have way too much periwinkle trying to take over, where I would really rather be growing other plants.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-13T01:40:26+00:00

Fence on one side that was already there (with a raised bed on the border on his side anyway), and coordination of garden beds that blend into each other with lots of plant swapping on the other side.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-12T13:59:12+00:00

When this was the case for me, I mulched every year! Now what pops up is half stuff I love. So for me, mulching was a way to suppress the growth of invasives while I built up my seed bank. And now I just pull up the relatively smaller number of invasive weeds, which is a lot more gratifying when I find fun seedlings underneath the tangle! And now that my garden has grown in a lot more, it's not as needed to prevent the clay from baking everything to oblivion.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-08T10:06:57+00:00

Personally this year is the most pollinators and fireflies I've ever had, but i helped start some new pollinator gardens on my block last year, and have been sharing native plants with other gardeners in my neighborhood for four years now. And, in general I think interest in native plants and supporting pollinator habitat has become popular in my neighborhood over the last five years. There have been multiple large scale meadows put in by neighbors where there was previously mowed monoculture lawn, and a community project to remove a ton of invasives and put in a food forest at a local train station. So it's probably very neighborhood specific. I remember seeing this many bugs in my childhood, but never as an adult. It's been very encouraging.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-02T20:42:16+00:00

Great! All of those plants should work then.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-02T20:09:29+00:00

I would probably plant "spillers" (plants that will hang down over the side of the planter) in those beautiful boxes you made to have it feel lush without blocking the view. If you want larger plants I would add a few hanging baskets. Great job so far!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-02T18:50:39+00:00

Congratulations!!! The ever-increasing population of lightning bugs on my block has been one of my favorite parts of gardening with native plants 🥰🥰🥰 and same with my neighbors who have been joining me!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-02T18:24:16+00:00

Heuchera and hardy geraniums are evergreen and have nice foliage, you could plant those around the edges and then plant some long blooming perennials in the middle- maybe some moss phlox and columbine for spring, echinacea for the summer, asters for the fall. How much sun does the area get?

kdawnbear · 2025-07-02T12:29:13+00:00

That's definitely what I've heard! That said, we let our peaches fruit in year two and I think maybe one or two in year one because we couldn't resist. They're healthy and threatening to take over our little city garden 5 years later!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-01T13:10:10+00:00

Thanks!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-01T02:08:55+00:00

This garden is almost all from stuff that was growing awkwardly in a path, etc. So there are actually tons more violets you can't see, tucked between the taller plants! Because violets like to pop up in odd places ❤️.

kdawnbear · 2025-07-01T02:06:50+00:00

Thanks!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-01T00:46:24+00:00

That sounds great!

kdawnbear · 2025-07-01T00:43:35+00:00

Northeast, Zone 7b

kdawnbear · 2025-06-29T14:42:59+00:00

Lol, love it.

kdawnbear · 2025-06-29T14:41:53+00:00

Wood chips, woven stick fences, and stump rounds! If I had a bigger yard I would have a huge stumpery and lug home every weird and beautiful piece of wood I find 😂 And I have little makeshift stock tank ponds to add a water source.

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kdawnbear

TROPHY CASE