A Little History

As I said before:

Last year was the first year that the man and I had a yard to do with as we pleased.  We had attempted apartment growing but it was an abysmal failure.  We moved in at the beginning of June which meant that we were already behind.

So we were beyond excited to finally have some space with sunlight, soil, and the potential to be a beautiful garden.  It was lucky that we had that enthusiasm because after years of neglect, our little piece of land was an overgrown mess.  We hadn’t even started unpacking yet when we got to work on the front garden.  The houses on our street had some lovely landscaping going on, and our house stood out in a bad way.  There were beds but they lacked actual flowers; though they did have plenty of milkweed.  So as a way to say hello to our new neighbourhood, we cleared the weeds and planted some white petunias, hostas, and lilies.  That act alone brought the neighbours out in full force!  The only tools we had at our disposal were a trowel, transplanter, hand rake, and an electric lawn mower left behind by the previous residents.  So we had people coming by bringing us tools that we needed before we even knew we needed them.  It became evident that they were just as excited about our gardening as we were!  

The Front Yard After Some Effort

Not only did they come with tools, but they came with stories about our house’s previous residents.  Originally a horticulturalist had lived in the house; one neighbour even brought pictures of what our back yard had looked like ages before.  So I had an idea of what kind of perennials could still be in the back yard.  They then filled us in on the years of neglect the yard had suffered through.  We knew we had our work cut out for us.

-----------------------------------------------------

With the front garden settled, we turned our attention to the backyard.  There were three beds, one running along the fence on one side, a corner bed in the back, and a small one beside the patio.  We could tell that there were some nice (and probably expensive) perennials that had survived over the years, but it was hard to see them and assess how many with all the weeds in the way.  So we got to work.

Side Bed After A Little Weeding

Corner Bed Before Weeding

We cleared out roughly seven brown bags of weeds and unfortunately some perennials along with them.  The worst part of this process was the insects.  As you can see above, the borders were lined with anchor border stone which had enough space in between to become a MASSIVE nest for every ant on the planet.  Which of course brought out the spiders; the garden was infested with them.  It was terrible.  Luckily, the house came stocked with supplies – apparently someone had had some plans along the way that were never executed.  We cleared away each stone, hosed off the ants, and stacked it neatly in a corner – replacing it with flagstone we found on the property.  To try and counteract the acidity caused by the weed population, we mixed urea and top soil in for good measure.  Our beds were now prepped.

-----------------------------------------------------

Our adventure in the garden center was far more enjoyable.  The husband and I spent ages going through our options, trying to figure out if we even had enough space for everything we wanted.  In the end we walked away with raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, green beans, sweet peas, cucumbers, squash, celery, boston lettuce, arugula, endive, and some other mixed greens.  We also picked up lavender, basil, rosemary, parsley, dill, chives, and celeriac.  As we walked out with our bounty an elderly woman told us we had bit off more than we could chew for first time gardeners.  

Side Bed: Raspberries, Strawberries, Sweet Peas, Green Beans, Celery, Salad Greens, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, & Squash

The Same Bed After Some Time w/ Support for the Peas & Beans

Not everything we planted survived the summer, and we had to first get rid of the squash and then the cucumbers because of an unstoppable powdery mildew that ultimately threatened the tomatoes, but in the end it was an excellent first summer in the garden.  I’m now hoping it wasn’t just beginner’s luck and that we can enjoy similar success this summer.