My family home sits on a double sized lot, which gives it a rather large yard. That’s wonderful for filling it with plants and trees and It’s always been full of all sorts of plants. Flowering plants, fruit bushes, fruit trees, perennials, annuals, vegetables, rhubarb. An unwieldy antique rose bush.
Growing up I remember we had a blueberry bush in the middle of the back yard. It was kind of an entrance to the back back yard. My mom had variations of big vegetable gardens over the years. There were “native” raspberry and blackberry bushes along the property lines acting as clear boundaries. And grapes, too. They never really were tamed and they’re no longer there, alas.
Living in the same house for decades allows for a certain kind of evolution of a yard and its gardens. Some years it was produce-heavy, others it was aesthetics-heavy.
These last few years, unfortunately, it’s been largely neglected. Parents enter the years where they’re unable to care and maintain like they once did. Adult children have their own homes to steward. Strong and willing grandsons move away to pursue their own interests and paths. Thus is the wheel of life.
But now that I’m back and have taken on the mantle as caretaker of the family home, I am the willing and able party to write new chapters for the yard.
The first chapter is maintenance. I’m achieving this by taming and pruning back invasive plants we do not want to take over. Mowing the lawn has become an unspoken and self-inflicted competition with the neighbors. It doesn’t help that many of them have landscapers come in.
I’m also carefully observing what we already have and am creating a digital gardening journal to help me learn each plant.
The second chapter will be restoring this abandoned, enclosed vegetable garden.
I’ve already started by accomplishing some pretty major weeding. I’m really not sure how far I’ll get this year. I had some lofty goals of completely turning it around to a producing little backyard homestead vegetable garden this year. Sometimes my eyes and my imagination are bigger than my energy levels!
I hope you’ll enjoy following along on this journey with me! I’m new to the whole “gardening” thing. I knew I’d be interested in it one day, and well, I’m happy that day is here!
Until next time, I’ll be pulling weeds and snipping overgrown branches!
Happy gardening, friends!
