It is finally Spring in the 'Burgh and could not be more beautiful! We have been totally inspired to start our urbansuburban vegetable and herb garden and have been nurturing seedlings in peat pots for about 2 weeks now. The sun this weekend inspired us to get outdoors and get to work on our garden.
When we moved in, the previous owners had planted a few unexciting flowers (marigolds, daisies, etc) and a few shrubs along the back fence. We put in a raised garden bed last summer and successfully harvested basil, cilantro, mint, oregano, and cucumbers.
A few photos of the backyard as we found it last summer:
This year we are expanding our crops to include the same plus peppers, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, sugar snap peas, strawberries, jalapenos, rosemary, squash and spinach. We decided to get rid of the flowers (except some edible nasturtium we are starting from seed) and have a totally organic edible garden. We are keeping the flowers along the fence border with our neighbors to the left as there is really very little earth there to plant much else. We hope to plant some vines along the fence with our neighbor to the right, as well as some sunflowers which are happily seeding (courtesy of Grow Pittsburgh- www.growpittsburgh.org). We would also like to paint the entire rusting silver chain-link fence which currently I think says more- "dog fights happen here" than "happy urbansuburban couple live here."
So we spent basically every waking moment outdoors this weekend. We transplanted flowers, cut the grass, ripped up the yard to make our meandering garden, and pulled up the hodge-podge of brick and cement that was laid as a poor excuse for a patio by previous owners which we hope to replace with something a bit nicer, as well as expand the patio space by about 10 square feet (hopefully all next weekend).
A few shots of Reg, taken by me from our bedroom window, starting to get the land along the back fence ready:
note the gross silver fence. Don't worry- no daffodils were harmed, they are happily in the front yard now.
Here is how the garden by the back fence looks now (I painted it black today):
Tomorrow we will plant the spinach and peas, since they can survive the still cool nighttime temps. It's so nice to just have it DONE so its ready for the rest of the "crops" come mid-May when it's warm enough to move everything outside. I love how the bright sunshine hits the backyard and back porch in the morning. It's so wonderful to sit out there with a cup of coffee and enjoy. Now, we can enjoy watching our plants grow. Once the lower patio is complete, we have some great reclining zero-gravity chairs, and may get a little city fire pit to put down there. With the grill, we are totally ready for some summer entertaining, even if it's just the 2 of us!
As a kid, I HATED yard-work, but when it's our own yard, we have such a great sense of accomplishment. Meanwhile our shoulders and hands are burning from all the gardening- strange that it is such an exhausting event. We wrapped up early this afternoon to spend Easter dinner at my mom's house with the usual group of strays, which this year included Leah & Rabih. It was such a beautiful Spring day I don't want to admit that it's back to school tomorrow.
Will keep you posted on the progress of the plants!
More on CR soon, promise.
Happy Easter!
A&R
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