Our Bedroom Garden

Posted 5 August 2013

Clearly, the people who designed the 1959 house we bought last year did not share my priorities.

Not a single room in the house had a door to the back yard, and all the windows facing the yard were two-foot-high windows that started five feet above the floor.

The idea of a picture window was not lost on the architect, but these windows all face the street. I’d do just the opposite!

Having recently moved into town after 22 years on a 5-acre property, surrounded by gardens and forest, it was more than a little shocking to find myself on a minimally landscaped city lot, in a house entirely cut off from the back yard.

Here’s what the master bedroom looked like:

Upon moving in, I felt an overwhelming need to cut a hole in the wall. This sliding door completely transformed the feeling of the house for me:

Now that we could get to the yard, the next challenge was to create a beautiful view. I guess people grow accustomed to living without one, but for me, it seemed incomprehensible.

Here’s what I faced outside my new door:

One thing led to another, and a couple months after moving in, we built a rock wall, and I started planting.

Having no interest in a lawn, but also not wanting to plant a large area, I sowed wildflower seeds in the biggest area. They’ve done wonderfully! The biggest problem is that they are just too dense, and thinning them is tedious. (Next time I’ll sow them more thinly.)

The wildflowers have been going strong for several months now.

I’m delighted to see this beautiful squirrel enjoying my rock wall, and I’d love to think that it was my urban wildland meadow that attracted him. But it wasn’t — it was the birdseed that spilled from the feeder.