I’ve always wanted to be good at gardening. I’ve never really had a green thumb. At our old house we had a HUGE yard and it was perfect for growing vegetables. And they did really well there. We always had a ton of tomatoes, zucchini and jalapenos. I used to do kale and the aphids took over. But I’ve never been good at growing anything else.
When we moved into our current house, the yard was very small. It had a small garden bed that had some herbs in it and that was it. Michael built me a big raised bed. When covid hit I needed a hobby to keep me sane! I started collecting house plants and through trial and error, learned a lot! I also started doing some outside gardening. I built a shade garden in the front yard in a dead space where grass wouldn’t grow. It’s small. Here is a picture of the shade garden then and now:
Anyways, nothing grew very well in our backyard. Summer after summer, I kept trying and it was so disappointing! Tomatoes didn’t even do well!! What the hell.
Well this spring I was determined. Part of the problem was our neighbor has a Black Walnut tree, which is terrible for the dirt. Also, the dirt in general is not great in our yard. So I bought a TON of soil (in retrospect I should have had it delivered in bulk to save money and time) and built garden beds.
And stuff grew!!
It’s been a learning process and not everything survived, but a lot of stuff thrived. I have mostly perennials but I did plant a few annuals. I have a lot of succulents, too. Herbs seem to do well. I have rosemary, thyme and oregano. For whatever reason my mint kept dying, which is crazy because it’s like a weed.
The biggest part of the project has been converting one part of the yard from a dead space to usable space. It’s a narrow area between the fence and deck and it’s uneven with holes in the ground. It was hard to walk on and I’d twist my ankle. Grass wouldn’t grow there very well and it would turn to mud in the winter. So I ripped up the grass and weeds and covered it with bark from a neighbor that cut down their tree.
It was A LOT of manual labor!! But kind of fun and I am super proud of the work I did. I built some more raised beds. I bought a small raised bed that I just planted lettuce in. I also planted a vine maple tree to eventually give us some shade. The backyard is full sun at all times in the summer.
I am also looking into getting my yard certified!! I don’t know if this is something you can do everywhere, but in the PNW you can. Basically, you plant native plants to encourage local wildlife to thrive.
“We’ve teamed up to create a unique program that supports urban gardeners in their efforts to create natural backyard habitats. It’s through our collective efforts to transform urban landscapes that positive change is made. Together we make our cities a healthier place, for ourselves and for wildlife. Our community of Backyard Habitats is over 9,000 strong, and growing every day.”
So that is what I’ve been doing this year!
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