New House, New Garden

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I decided to start this kitchen blog because I moved to a new house in October 2019, which means I have a whole new garden to build and develop! Our new yard is much smaller than our old one, but with good planning and efficient use of the large patio area I should have plenty of room to grow quite a lot of vegetables and flowers.

The Challenges

This new house is less than five years old, which means the soil in the yard is pretty poor, with quite a bit of construction debris in the mix. Luckily, raised beds and containers are my preference, and the flowers I'll be planting directly into the ground aren't fussy. The small backyard has uneven ground and a long dogleg section, and other areas for planting are partial to full shade. I'll be learning a lot about shade loving plants this year!

The blank canvas in September 2019.

The Benefits

At our old house, we spent a lot of time on grounds maintenance in the very large, woody backyard that we could have spent growing flowers and vegetables. Our new yard has just enough space to grow things I want to have without the intense upkeep of a big yard with lots of trees and lawn. I like to think of it as more British allotment size than American yard size! The new backyard is also a blank canvas that I can plan and develop from scratch. We'll be working to make the established beds with the builder's usual suspects (dogwood, azalea, generic shrubs, liriope) more interesting, too, but there's also plenty of opportunity to develop those because we don't have a lot of old growth to clear first. I have a large patio area at the new house that I can fill with annuals and container gardens, and I have a lovely back porch where I can sit and enjoy the view during the warmer months.

Getting Started

The beginning of a garden in November 2019.

Our first job after moving was to transplant our beloved Oakes daylilies to the new yard and move some of the nicest of the garden boxes for the future raised beds. I brought over the big pot of mint and some rosemary plants grown from cuttings of my old rosemary, but the previous owner already planted rosemary in the front beds, so I'll have to think about the herb garden priorities come spring. We also bought about 100 daffodil and tulip bulbs and planted those in both the beds and the most sloped part of the backyard. We interplanted daffodils and tulips with early, mid, and late spring blooming seasons with the equally varied daylilies, which should mean that we have a colorful show for people and pollinators from early spring all the way to fall.

Garden boxes in January 2020 - late afternoon.

We also transplanted a beautiful Lady Banks rose from the old house, and so far it's doing well. Ideally it will grow over the naked fence and spread - we put up wiring to support it as it does. Our weird winter weather might wreck some of my plans; we've had cold and then spring like warmth and now a very cold snap again, just as all the plants had decided it really was spring.

We found a collection of leftover fence posts tucked behind the carport and upcycled them into raised beds along the back section of the yard. That area gets good sun but has buried cables under it, so we don't want to dig or plant anything with deep roots there. Those beds will be for the pollinator patch and other sturdy plants that don't need a lot of watering but do want more sun.

Current Progress Report - January 2020

It's now mid January of 2020, so much of the work is on hold until March, but I've got 4 raised garden boxes for vegetables, 3 long beds for pollinator flowers and various herbs, and two areas in the backyard devoted to daylilies and daffodils. As we wait for spring I'll be collecting containers for my patio garden, ordering seeds and bulbs, and drawing up plans. In my next post I'll talk about the vegetables and flowers I most want to grow in the new garden!