Philip and I are funny. At our last house- in northwest Tennessee- we had 2.7 acres. Despite several old growth trees and about a dozen other ones I planted, it still took about four hours to cut the grass each time we attempted it. When we moved to Pennsylvania and lived in an apartment “in town”, we really enjoyed the convenience and ease of walking to the library, the bank, downtown, the park, and even Philip’s work. So we bought a house literally a block and a half away from our apartment. Our house has virtually no yard and after all those hours of mowing our yard in Tennessee (and cringe-worthy trips to the gas station to fuel up the riding lawn mower), it was a relief not to have much yard to mow and look after. It helped that our town has a community garden and I signed up for a plot nearly as soon as I could.
I have had a love-hate relationship with our community garden ever since.
I have loved getting out in the early spring and feeling the warming sunlight and digging in the dirt.
I have hated having to drive down to the plot with my gardening tools and carrying them (sometimes in three or four trips) across the field to our plot.
I have loved seeing the first sprouts of vegetables I have planted from seed.
I have hated seeing these seedlings wilt or die because I was unable to get out and water everyday.
I have loved the very first harvests- the lettuces, the sugar snap peas.
I have hated the dew that settled over the field and how I’d have to trudge out in rain boots to save my feet from having wrinkled prune soles.
I have loved the crispness of yellow squash and zucchini, the abundance of Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck Squash, and trying new foods and varieties.
I have hated the flood that destroyed a near year’s worth of work in a matter of hours.
I have loved the birdsong that was always the music to my gardening.
I have hated the groundhogs who got under the fence and continued to persist despite filling in the holes with dirt and rocks.
I have loved the sense of accomplishment when I was able to pick paste tomatoes and make our Happy Accident Marinara Sauce.
I have hated how people, not just groundhogs, began to steal from the community garden plots.
So after the year in which the groundhogs (and people) decimated our harvest, we considered leaving. I was very conflicted, but it was after a hot/cold exchange (with a hefty dose of snark on his part) with one of the garden’s main people that we decided to leave the community garden and plant and grow vegetables in our tee-tiny little yard.
First we started on some raised bed boxes.
Then we had a couple three tons of dirt dumped in our driveway.
Then the kids and I worked to transfer the soil into the boxes. Many hands make light work.
We had enough soil to fill three 8 feet by 3 feet raised boxes, a 6 foot by 3 one, and a dozen containers. We are growing more now in our yard than we ever did at our community plot, though we have less space. This is mainly due to the ease of getting out and weeding. Whenever the dog needs to go out, I’ll go with him and spend a minute or two plucking out the goosefoot or maple saplings from the raised beds. Or I’ll go and sit on one of the stepping stones in the shade (for we have maple trees that shade our beds for some part of the day) and weed to my heart’s content without getting too hot or sunburnt or uncomfortable. It has been really great so far and it’s only June.
Here are some of the things we’re growing:
Radicchi
Tomatoes and Tomatillo
Fava Beans
Purple Potatoes
Ground Cherries
Red Orach interplanted with gladioli
In addition to these, we also have savoy cabbage, kale, yellow squash, zucchini, three types of winter squash- Blue Hubbard, Pike’s Peak, and Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck- cucumbers, turnips, lettuces, an herb garden, three kinds of beets- Detroit Dark Red, Golden, and Chioggia- Golden Amaranth, Painted Lady Runner beans, four kinds of carrots- Cosmic Purple, Atomic Red, Amarillo, and Nantes- Swiss Chard, Bok Choy, and a lime tree.
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