Radishes

So our first big harvest was our radishes. We are probably going to give away more than we eat because I'm the only one in the family that eats them. That's okay. 

The radishes that have a purplish color to them look funny, but are actually good to eat. The skins on them are a little woody, so I'll probably peel them before I eat them, but otherwise, they're just fine. I find it funny that there is such a variance in size, shape and color. I wonder what the variables are that can produce such different looking vegetables from plants that grew from the same seed.

We grew some collard greens by accident. Home Depot must have gotten the tags switched. What we thought were broccoli starts, ended up being collard greens. The two plants look very similar when they're that small. So what's a white boy like me, who's never eaten collard greens in his life, going to do with five plants worth of collard greens? I gave a bunch to our next door neighbor. She cooked them with pork and gave us a dish of it. It was very delicious. I'll be sending some more her way.

Everything else is going very well. I'll get some pictures up soon of the overall garden progress. I got some seed potatoes from David and Sandy this past Tuesday. Unfortunately it rained the rest of  the week and I didn't get a chance to put them in yet. That has to get done tomorrow after work if the weather permits.

Our strawberries are getting eaten by something. I am very tempted to sit out in the garden one night with a flashlight and my .22 and blast whatever it is that keeps on pawing around down there. 

The Secret Garden... well, kinda

Time to move to the back yard which holds the main vegetable garden. I call it the secret garden because it's in the lower part of the back yard which makes it invisible from the alley.

View from top part of back yard

Another view facing east

...and another view facing west

Erika just put down a pretty good layer of straw, so every thing looks pretty tidy right now. I personally think she went a little overboard, but it looks great, so I can't really complain. 

The corn seed I put in last week is already sprouting. It looks like just about all of them germinated, so we should have two relatively straight rows of corn. I read somewhere that you should do corn in a 4x4's at the very least, but that was after I already put in the beans and radishes, so there wasn't any room left. I think we'll be okay. Speaking of radishes...

Growing radishes has been super easy so far. All I've done is water them and keep the weeds at bay... they've done the rest.

I set the stakes up around the tomato row. When the tomato vines get big enough, I'll weave garden twine between them to make a net of sorts for support. A side note, I made these stakes out of scrape wood from a construction site I used to work at. I salvage anything I can if I think I'll be able to use it.

This post was going to be longer, but I just accidentally erased all the pictures on my camera, so I'll have to cut it short. Overall, the garden is doing very well. Everything is thriving. I still need to get potato seed in the ground. Hopefully I'll be able to pick some up at an Agway when I'm in Harrisburg next week. Oddly enough, no one around here sells seed potatoes. It's surprising that growing potatoes is not more popular. It's very easy and they usually produce very well. Potatoes also keep for a long time if stored properly. Oh well, you'll all be sorry when the nukes drop, and I'm the only one with potatoes!

This year's front yard

The front yard has been evolving since we moved in. This year's changes were influenced by some sewer pipe work we had done. We lost two junk trees (yea!) and a forsythia bush (booo!). We also had the misfortune of loosing all the topsoil on the west side of the yard. All that was left was thick, orange colored clay... every gardener's nightmare. Here is what we put in...

I figured it would just be a waste trying to amend the soil, so I replaced it. I scooped out rows of crappy clay soil and replaced it with a mix of top soil and mushroom soil that I purchased from Hillside (our local nursery). 

We have buttercrunch heads, leaf lettuce, muslin, broccoli, peas, tomatoes, cilantro and two blueberry starts.

Close up of the peas. I hope we got

them in soon enough this year so they

won't die before it gets too hot.

This is the east side of the yard. The left bed used to be our vegetable garden. There are still some veggies in there, but we are trying to transition it totally over to a flower bed. Still in there are two peppers (one banana and one jalepeno), herbs, rhubarb and some potato plants that came up on their own.

All the grass you see in this picture did not exist this winter. It was just a big dirt hole. Erika decided to make this her pet project. Determined to make grass grow in our compacted, clay soil, she read many books and on-line articles on the art of grass growing. I helped out with the design, but she worked the magic that made grass grow. The one big weapon she had was the straw mats that you can purchase at just about any place that sells lawn care products. They were a little pricey, but worth it in the end. They kept the seed moist and protected from birds. It's still a little patchy in spots, but in a couple of years I think we are going to have a sweet, lush, walk around in your bare feet and love it kind of lawn.

Here are some pictures of some of our favorite plants...

Phlox hoodii, common names: carpet phlox or creeping phlox.

We put in about three of these in the terraced bed. They'll fill in and look really good in a few years.

I love hostas. My favorite is the type shown here, with a medium green foliage with lime green edges. There is something about the delicate, elegant aesthetic they give to a landscape.

Hydrangea macrophylla normalis, common name is lacecap hydrangea. We inherited this beautiful specimen from our landlord. The flower it produces is more subtle and graceful than the typical mop-head hydrangeas that are more popular.

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

May 3rd, 2009

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the progress of our garden this year.