Cultivating a garden in your back alley space can be a fun way to expand your garden, but also create a beautiful space that both pollinators and neighbours can enjoy.
Over the last few years we have been slowly reclaiming our back alley and have learned a few things about gardening in dry, hard to maintain areas.
Here are some tips on creating a back alley garden:
Tame The Terrain:
Weeds and quack grass are abundant in back alleys, quickly taking over any available soil. To remove grass and weeds, simply mow or weed wack down, disposing of the weeds. Cover the area with cardboard or thick layers of newspaper to kill the weeds and start fresh.
Build Up The Soil:
Work on building up the soil using what you have available. We used a combination of compost, old, "used" potting soil and leaf mulch. The key is to add organic matter like compost or leaves to create more nutrients in the soil.
Protect From Weeds & Moisture Loss:
After creating the soil bed, water it well and then add a layer of wood mulch or straw to retain the moisture and act as a barrier to weeds.
Plant Your Seeds:
The best time to plant perennial and self seeding annual seeds is either in the late Fall or Winter (preferred) or early spring (as soon as soil can be worked). Generally these seeds need a cold period to break the seed dormancy, so these cooler should seasons are the time to plant the seeds.
When choosing seeds for the alley, take into consideration:
- Sun exposure
- Dryness of the area
- Likelihood that you will water the alley
In our case, we know that we will not water the alley often, so we wanted drought tolerant plants that did not need babysitting and ones that would self seed or return year after year.
We've had success with the following plants in our back alley garden:
- Borage
- Prairie Coneflower
- Yarrow
- Wallflowers
- Flax
- Native Grasses (i.e. Crested Wheat Grass)
THE BACK ALLEY BLEND
We've put together a bundle of seeds that work well for a back alley garden (or any dry sunny garden). The bundle includes Yarrow, Borage, Flax and Prairie Coneflower. You can save 15% off these seeds by purchasing them together. To get the bundle, simply click on any of the Back Alley Blend seeds and scroll to the bottom of the page to add the bundle.
