Background

I guess it would be a good idea to give some background information before diving right in to the whole gardening thing.

My wife and I moved into this house less than two years ago because we grew out of our small two bedroom apartment in Southwest Philadelphia when our second child was born. Although we are still renters, it was really nice to actually have a house with a yard after so many years of apartment living.

We live in a rowhouse. However, we are at the end of the row which gives us a front and side yard. The unique thing about this property is that it also has a large back yard that is separated from the house and side yard by an alley. The entire property is approximately a third of an acre. That is unheard of around here. Most of our neighbors have a 15'x15' front yard, and that's it.

Front gate

When we first moved in, September 2007, we didn't really do much with the yard. The existing landscaping was sporadic and poorly executed at best. There were flowers planted in the ground, but whoever did it didn't take the time to make flower beds. They just kinda dug holes in the ground. It was really sad. The back yard was neglected and full of weeds and junk trees. We have also come to find out that it was at one time used as a dump. Chunks of concrete, trash and broken glass were scattered everywhere. We even found a rusted frame from an old pullout couch buried under vines and weeds. We were so busy with school, work and raising two children, we didn't really care. 

The following spring we put in a little vegetable garden in the front yard and made some adjustments to the existing landscaping shown here:

This used to be an overgrown, obnoxious yew shrub. Erika and some friends from church pruned it with a chain saw.

This little pansy boarder was put in in place of one of those spots where someone had just dug some holes and plugged in the flowers. It's not there anymore because our sewer line had to be dug up, but we'll get to that later.

This was our experimental garden. From left to right we planted potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, green summer squash, leaf lettuce and mesclun mix, wax beans and more tomatoes. Also in this picture you can see a hydrangea and the corner of the flower bed we put in around the yew shrub.

The big lesson we learned with this garden is that veggies need space. Our peppers grew so high fighting for sunlight with each other that we had to stake them or they would fall over. Our tomatoes and zucchini got moldy and our potatoes grew into a flower bed nearby. We also learned the value of mulching. If you do nothing else for your garden, mulch it. You will save countless hours weeding, hoeing and watering, not to mention it helps the plants resist diseases.

We still consider ourselves in the experimental/beginner stage of our home garden careers, and probably will for at least several years to come. We are still keeping a small plot out front but have moved the large part of our garden out back. This year we are putting in sweet corn, wax beans, radishes, scallions, roma and cherry tomatoes, peas, yukon gold potatoes, red bliss potatoes, broccoli, strawberries, cucumbers, bell peppers, butter crunch lettuce heads, zucchini and some leaf lettuce for cutting. We also have cilantro, thyme, basil and oregano in our herb garden. Some blueberry starts were also planted this year, but we probably won't get anything out of them for several years.

The plan is to post at least once a week with pictures and an update on our garden's progress. Feel free to comment, ask questions or give advice. Thank you and God bless.

Butter crunch head in this season's front

garden