Tuesday 10 September 2013

Our Garden

 This last spring we decided that our front yard, which gets the most light, should be turned into a vegetable garden. Although this may seem like a strange idea, in our neighbourhood it seems to be getting more and more common. I think it speaks to the economic times we find ourselves in these days. We all want good organic food that isn't covered in DDT or who knows what else, and most importantly we want it cheap. There's nothing cheaper than finding wood on the side of the road building raised beds and planting seeds (also cheap) to grow food.

We generally use our back yard for entertaining and having a place for the kiddies and our dog to run around; however our front yard was merely for looking at. I only used it when I needed to mow the lawn. There is still a bit of lawn and flower garden left but that will be further diminished this fall when we build some more raised beds with the salvaged wood we keep coming across (usually on date nights,,,what could be more romantic than garbage picking?? I have no idea).

Not all of our plants this year were a success. Lettuce was pretty bitter, the oregano never took off, our cucumbers had beautiful flowers that never really turned into anything and I really overestimated the amount of parsley our family could eat (or that 3 families could eat). Some things that did go well were our raspberries, swiss chard and our tomatoes. We have not had to buy tomatoes all summer and I will soon be missing these summer days when I have to start buying them in the store like all the other suckers.

The garden has given the girls a wonderful view of how food is grown and harvested. Miriam loved picking tomatoes with me even though she doesn't understand why she is not allowed to pick the green ones (a source of great frustration for her). Evie's favourite thing to do was look for grasshoppers that like to eat the swiss chard. She carefully transported them to Mommies flower garden, to eat the hydrangeas instead. Noli was happy with every part of gardening this year, and has also been a big help in pulling up a few tiny carrots (I can't figure out why there so small,,
more space maybe?).

Hopefully we will get to enjoy our veggie patch a bit longer before fall. We are already making plans for next year about what and where we will put things. Hopefully we can find room for one more apple tree.
















2 comments:

  1. I love the picture of the bean plant with the gas station behind it - it is perfect urban farming imagery!!

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