Mark & Beth's Homegrown Adventure

I follow a lot of gardeners on Instagram, and sometimes it’s hard not to feel a little self conscious about my garden when I see theirs. I mean, I’m trying to grow vegetables in my front yard, have a hodgepodge of mismatched containers and beds, and am even going to be planting a few things straight into the ground in my backyard. It all feels a little… janky… compared to the perfectly matched and symmetrical raised beds, rows of crops, and clean lines.

But as soon as I get over my moment of weakness, I’m proud of the hard work Mark and I have put in to scrape together a garden that is uniquely ours. And before things start growing, I’ve taken some “before” pictures to share with you all, to show you how we’re working with the limited space we have on a small lot in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.

I’ve posted a picture of these beds above before, when they didn’t have anything in them. Now granted, they’re still waiting for their primary crops, tomatoes and peppers. We’re holding off a little longer, until the lows are consistently in the 50’s at night (tomorrow it’s going down to about 44). But we do have some companion plants in now! Hard to tell, but there are some onions in the corners, and marigolds dispersed throughout (bugs don’t like the smell). There are a few snapdragons as well, to encourage pollinators. But those are mostly needed for the cucurbits.

Speaking of cucurbits, (which is the gourd family, usually referring to ones that are cucumber-shaped) we’re going to be trying to grow them in two separate spaces (see picture above this and the one below it). There’s this annoying patch of soil to the left of my driveway that I’ve never known what to do with. Now, it’s a vegetable garden, with pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, and yellow squash seedlings, along with more snapdragons and marigolds. The top hillside in the front yard has had a similar problem. It’s a bit too steep for mulch, or to grow grass and have to mow it. Well, now it’s a vegetable garden with more pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchinis, and yellow squashes (we’ll be able to compare and see which site produces better), as well as a couple berry bushes and some more flowers. Oh, and we sowed TONS of flower seeds higher up the hill, which should hopefully liven things up next spring.

Mark spent hours and so many calories tearing up the ground in an unused corner of the backyard, so that we can put in a bed back there as well. This bed (picture below) also has 3 berry bushes, (again, we’ll be able to compare how the different sites produce) and will have some sunflowers in it pretty soon. We’re interested to see how the pollinators like these, and if we can produce enough seeds to make a dent in our birdseed budget (don’t ask me what my birdseed budget is).

There’s one more raised bed which has potato cuttings in it, and some spinach seedlings in the back section. There are 3 hanging planters with lettuce, 1 hanging planter with rosemary, 1 hanging planter with oregano, 3 stacking planters with more spinach, 1 with basil, and 1 with kale. There’s another planter with more spinach (we’re growing it in 3 different spots, some transplanted and some direct sown), 1 with dill, 1 with sage, and 1 with parsley. And as a fun little side project, I’m growing some carnations to see what happens. Oh, and 2 more planters with mixtures of lettuces and kale, and 2 mini-raised beds with carrots. Phew.

I hope that soon, some of these empty beds will be bursting with life that will lead to a nice harvest. But whatever happens with all of them, we’ll be learning what to do and not to do for next year. In the meantime, we’re just making the most of the space and materials that we have!