Patti Moreno’s Garden

Star of Farmer’s Almanac TV and her own website Garden Girl, Urban Sustainable Gardening, Patti Moreno shows us her 20 by 60-foot garden in Boston with its 15 raised beds. This Gen-X city girl makes it fun AND inspiring, with her encouraging tagline, “If I can do it, then you can too.”

Patti explains:

I started my prototype Urban Sustainable Living Garden here in 2003. The garden is designed with 3 things in mind:

Maximizing growing space
Making it inviting
Designing it to fit the urban landscape. The buildings you see here were put up as garages in the early 1917’s to house cars. That’s exactly what it was for around 70 years. By 2003 when we purchase the property, Luther had run the business since the 1960’s. So the recent renovation was the end of an era. The lengthy renovation of the center building now houses my multi media production company, FilmShack, Inc. and non profit, Tell Stories, Inc.

I thought this would be the perfect demonstration farm, as it is about the same size as the average “three decker’s” back yard at 20’x 50’. The garden has 12—4×8 raised beds and 3—4×4 raised beds. I’ve also included an arbor and seating are so that I can enjoy the garden with others. . I believe that all gardens need seating area’s designed into them, that way the garden truly becomes an inviting outdoor experience. The more time spent in the garden the better it is for you and the garden, you will find yourself spontaneously tending and nurturing it.

I added concrete pavers which add to the urban industrial look. They are functional and I am a big believer of trying to get construction materials that are as cost effective as possible. When you are undergoing any renovation project, there are always unexpected costs that are beyond your control. The material costs are however completely under control. Keeping that in mind you don’t want to necessarily use the cheapest materials i.e. having to use 3 or more coats of paint due to the poor quality of paint can cost you more in the end.

The garden thrives behind its Japanese, Rashoman inspired gates. In the winter the garden beds act as compost bins. I always think of Joni Mitchell’s song “Parking Lot” when I look at it now. To go from cars to offices, school and garden, that’s my humble bit of urban renewal. The garden takes its design inspiration from the medieval and the monastic gardens of Europe and North Africa, with some good old fashioned New England Cottage gardening thrown in for good measure.

The organic gardening system I use is a bio-intensive, permaculture stacking design. Every thing is built modularly, so the animal cages, trellises and hoop house all fit standard in each raised bed. Here I can grow tons of garden vegetables for my family and friends with plenty left over to sell to the neighbors. The shed I have in the back is a 10×12 shed from JamaicaCottages.com. Domenic the owner gave us a great deal on all the sheds on the property. He does such great work using good looking materials.