Tired Dad Dave and I stumbled upon the secret to growing a beautiful summer garden. It’s very low tech and may be obvious to some readers, but we are not blessed with green thumbs here at 2 Wired 2 Tired. After living in the house for 7 years we only just stumbled upon it last summer. And our garden this summer is truly gorgeous because of it.
Are you ready for me to let you in on the secret?
It’s a…..brick wall.
Yep, that’s it. I told you it was low tech and simple. We have a garden in our driveway that runs along our neighbor’s brick house.
This garden used to grow the most beautiful roses and tulips when we first moved in. We had one rose bush that would bloom into February, which here in Cleveland is unbelievable. We could never figure out why until we planted a few tomato plants there last year.
In a matter of a few short weeks we were overrun by tomatoes.
We were filling the above two bowls with tomatoes every other day! We love tomatoes, but it was out of control and by the time Fall rolled around I wanted nothing more to do with them.
Once the tomatoes did so well in the garden, we put two-and-two together and finally realized why the roses would bloom into the winter. The garden gets full sun and so does our neighbor’s brick wall. The bricks absorb the heat and acts like a greenhouse.
This year we took out our rose bushes (I know, I know) and planted cucumbers, zucchini, spinach, carrots, snap peas, eggplant, string beans, basil, & cilantro. We also have a few flowers scattered in for good measure. Everything is doing really well.
The “small” sunflowers from last year have returned as well and are trying to take over too. These sunflowers have grown from seeds I bought from Target’s dollar bin.
Last year’s sunflowers.
This year’s sunflowers!
We also have some large sunflowers that are just opening up now and are gorgeous.
I’m proud of our little garden. It’s so fun to step out the back door and grab some spinach, a cucumber, or a few basil leaves and have fresh ingredients for dinner. We made zucchini the other night just by slicing it and steaming it in the Ziploc steam bags. It was delicious and so easy. I also recently made cheesy spinach muffins which were amazing and I hope to share the recipe with you soon.
What about you? Do you have a garden this summer? How is it doing?
Our vegetable garden is doing unbelievably well this year too. Our tomato plants are well over 6ft tall, the cucumbers are climbing up a tomato cage and trying to take over. We’ve had plenty of squash already too as well as carrots and spinach. Very early for the Northeast, but it’s been so hot, so early this year. Love it!!
Ooo, cheesy zucchini muffins sound yummy. My friend gave me a zucchini that’s about 2 feet long – no joke! I got to figure out what to make with it!
Wow, that sounds and looks amazing! A brick wall, huh. Who’da thunk it??
Going to have to build a brick for my tomatoes because this year they are pathetic! What an interesting discovery.
I’m a little late to this post, but it’s so true about the brick wall! Our little 3×5 landing strip patch of veggies between the house (south side, brick halfway up) & sidewalk did amazing this year (think tomatoes as tall as the roof!) As an added bonus, the overhang of the roof has given them shelter from the early frosts, so we still have tomatoes (everybody else’s are long dead unless they covered them.)
The sunflowers look gorgeous….
Clever idea to put your garden next to a brick wall that maximizes sunlight…
I love tomatoes. If you ever have any extra, send them my way any time…
mtdoonmeister at gmail dot com