The Back Forty

We call it the back forty because it's a joke (it means the farm, the back 40 acres, where we come from) and because after 20 years now we have over forty different kinds of edible plants in a small city back yard.
Many fruits: three trees (pear, sour cherry and plum) bushes, canes and vines (gooseberries; red currants; blueberries; red, gold and black raspberries; green and concord grapes; native kiwi) and strawberries.
Perennial herbs (several mints; lovage; lavender; lemon balm; chives; oregano) daylilies and an asparagus patch.
Self-seeding edible plants and flowers that come back each year (borage, dill, mustard, nasturtiums, coriander, arroche).
We also grow annual vegetables and herbs: peas and lettuce in early spring, beans, different varieties of heritage tomatoes, pumpkins or zucchini, sunflowers, chard and kale, different basils, green and purple shiso, sage, verbena, rosemary, thyme etc.
We also have non-edible clematis, ferns, engelman vine, yarrow, geranium, trillium and some succulents and ground cover.
Because of all the plants we have beautiful and interesting insects (grapevine beetles, dog day cicadas, green agapostemon and five or six other species of bees, swallowtail butterflies because the caterpillars eat the dill) as well as annoying insects; we can't grow cucumbers any more because they all die.
We really love having our garden; it's like a secret special place. It also lets us share with strangers and friends because we need to give away the spreading plants each year (strawberries, borage lemon balm and raspberries especially) as well as the abundant produce at the end of the summer, and what we grow outside the back fence is available to the neighbours.