We tend to three hilly acres on the edge of a moraine in otherwise-flat northeastern Indiana. Our gardening projects are mostly inventive, eco-minded, budget-friendly, and yummy.
We are in Climate Zone 5 with a last frost date of May 25th, have clay loam soils, and 35 inches of annual precipitation.
We purchased our property in June of 2007 as a young, energetic, unwed couple. Underneath the sea of farm junk, the 60 year-old farm property was a blank slate – no gardens, no landscaping, not even a shade tree. We are slowly sculpting our nondescript house and landscape into a homey hobby farm.
Our accomplishments thus far (in addition to getting married!) include:
- Created a 2800 sf enclosed vegetable garden area, with two raised beds, a garden shed, and 1200 sf of in-ground growing for vegetables, herbs and cut flowers. We have an additional 1500 sf of unfenced, in-ground growing for corn, sunflowers, and melons.
- Landscaped backyard with cottagey perennial gardens, coniferous shrubs & ornamental trees, and a flagstone walkway.
- Created a large butterfly garden with 100% local-genotype native plants.
- Patiently converting a quarter-acre of lawn to native prairie.
- Planted a small orchard of fruit trees twigs (apple, cherry, peach, pear). Impatiently wishing we’d planted actual trees.
- Successfully growing strawberries. Quasi successfully growing raspberries and grapes. Successfully killing blueberries.
Stay tuned for our 2009 project wish-list!
Annie, this is wonderful and fully entertaining… especially to the married crowd, who know the truth of your words about marriage and working styles! Beautiful photos too!
Carol Ann, as I’m sure you know, living and loving a like-minded creature can be so wonderful… and challenging. Finding (and now sharing) the humor in our challenging episodes keeps us smiling. I bet you have a few Andy stories :)
Annie!
This is such an amazing website! It’s so amazing what you’ve done to your gardens! Incredible…love the pictures and the story telling :)
Dear Annie,
It’s been a while since your last post, and I was just in here checking the site when I re-read your reply about `challenging episodes’ and `Andy stories’. I like the idea that we marry like-minded individuals, but recognize that there is an ocean between our methods.
Immediately what came to mind was an episode before Andy and I were married and I was living in Portland, Maine. I had a tiny (emphasis on tiny) bedroom in my apartment, but it faced the saltwater bay and mudflats and therefore was a desirable room- good for sleeping, dreaming, and ocean breezes. Andy was taking time off and spending it with me in Portland. I had so little space in the room that we decided to retrofit a homemade loft bed for under-storage. Our like-mindedness made it seem like a great idea. I left for work one morning and Andy went to work on the bed.
By the time I got home there was a giant four foot tall double bed that encompassed almost the entire room, with the strength to hold four small elephants. In addition, there was a foot-long hole in the passenger side of my car. It was remarkably shaped like a saw blade.
Turns out he had expertly shoved the plywood sheets in the car which had a beveled opening. They wouldn’t come out the way they went in, as was also the case with the bed upon moving. He took the circular saw into the car and proceeded to cut the wood out of the car, embedding it in my passenger seat along the way.
If you want another good laugh, ask me about his attempt at an apple pie during the same time period. I can relate to the anxious experience you had leaving Doug at home during summer vacation to exercise his creative muscles…