The Family *roll

When we first moved in, one of my priorities was to fix up the front garden, which, at the time, was best described as a thistle patch. I took a great deal of care choosing a handful of perennials and grasses and grandly told people “I’m planting a garden”. Torontonians and Chicagoans would murmur approvingly but Minnesotans would ask “flower or vegetable?”. I felt, somehow, that “flower” was the wrong answer.

This year, we’re doing it right. Dan and I built a 4×5 raised bed vegetable garden and planted arugula, kohlrabi, eggplants, zucchini, bell and hot peppers and cucumber. Then I decided it would be neat to have pumpkins for Eleanor at Halloween so I made a little brick annex to plant a pumpkin and buttercup squash vine. Then we decided we needed a rhubarb patch. Then our first rhubarb patch site became too shady (despite clear warnings on the rhubarb seed package advising us to be mindful of not planting in an area where tree branches will obscure the sun as the summer progresses). So we then relocated the rhubarb to the side of the house. And then a neighbor gave us three tomato plants which we planted next to the house.

So in some ways we’re not really doing it right at all: we have too many plants and we aren’t completely certain of their watering, fertilizing, sun or space needs. I checked out a book from the library but it completely overwhelmed Dan and I by page 5 so we’re being guided by (baseless but firm) instincts, slapdash Google searches (“why do zucchinis die?”, “how do eggplants grow?”) and the patient tutelage of Dan and Bonnie. I won’t bore you with a full crop report but I am happy to report we’ve eaten *roll-grown kohlrabi, arugula and cucumbers. And our cucumber harvest is such that we’re going to try to make pickles. Pickles!

Here is a brief photo tour of the vegetable with thrilling before-and-after shots of the front garden:

The flower box before & after: The first shot is from the day we first saw the house (the box collapsed by the time we moved in) and the second shot is after Dan and Ryan cleared the thistles.I planted all the flowers from seed except for the purple amaranthus. I had no idea they would get so big. Clearly no idea at all.

Before:

After:

The side garden before and after. Note the removal of 2 satellite dishes, one fence and stump. Note also removal of giant baby belly.

Before:

After: