The Shelter Garden

[Catherine]

For a number of years now I have been working on a garden at the animal shelter. It hasn't been easy to start from dirt and establish a beautiful garden. Last year the shelter put in a retaining wall and the garden is doing so much better.

Here it is at the beginning of May before I did any planting.



Now hundreds of plants and many shrubs later:

Once it started growing there was no stopping it.



I have bee balm, cone flowers and yarrow in a clump.

I have a lot of beautiful perennials established and the shrubs are growing nicely.
The purple flowers are milkweed. So the bees and monarch butterflies are happy.

This is the view from the bridge. You can't see details, but I love seeing the whole garden at once.


Next time I will take pictures of the rooftop vegetable garden.  The smaller shelter animals have fresh veggies and the cats have fresh grown catnip. They love the catnip.

[Tobi]

What a transormation you made to that garden. It looks beautiful for anyone visiting the Shelter, and helps the bees and butterflies too. Well done!

I'm looking forward to pictures of the rooftop veg. garden.

[Catherine]

Next time I go I will remember to take pictures of the roof top veggie garden. It is amazing how many vegetables will grow in such a small space.

Having flowers out back really transforms everything. Behind the parking area are the shelter dog parks. All the dog walkers have to walk past the garden. I think seeing a garden in bloom makes everyone feel more cheerful.

[Catherine]

The shelter garden has been growing like crazy and now blooming like crazy.

I love the marigolds with the black eyed Susans

The rocks just appeared in a pile so I have been arranging them to look interesting

The purple pansies are still blooming from the spring

The tall bush is a rugosa rose. The plants to the right of it are milkweed. We are providing for a whole lot of monarch butterflies

It is a bit wild looking, but the birds like to hide in the shade so it works.

Cone flowers and bergamot for some different colour

The white flowers are yarrow.

There are little clumps  of flowers all over the garden. These are cone flowers and they will come back next year...I hope.





It has taken years to get things established, but now it is a real garden. I still need to add a few things and keep it weeded, but this year it really looks like a garden.