I tend to three hilly acres on the edge of a moraine in otherwise-flat northeastern Indiana. My gardening projects are mostly inventive, eco-minded, budget-friendly, and yummy.
I am in Climate Zone 5 with a last frost date of May 25th, have clay loam soils, and 35 inches of annual precipitation.
The mister and I 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 include:
- Created a 2800 sf enclosed vegetable garden area, with three 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.
- Built a small coldframe and later, a small greenhouse to boost our seed-starting capabilities.
- 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). They all died.
- Re-planted a small orchard of fruit trees and re-committed to keeping them green.
- Successfully growing strawberries and raspberries. Quasi successfully growing grapes. Successfully killing blueberries and gooseberries.
- Hand-built a large natural-stone patio and landscaped its surroundings with cool-colored shrubs, perennials and the shade of a Dogwood Tree.
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…
And here I’m feeling overwhelmed by a mere 6 acres! Though in our situation, much of the space is covered in a brambly thicket gone CRAZY!
I’m sorry to hear the fruit trees died. And the blueberries. Any idea what went wrong? We spent all of yesterday digging out 16 holes for blueberries (which we’re still waiting on, ordered from Millers) and I really hope they make it!
I hope everyone has read Annie’s article in the May, 2011 issue of Indiana Gardener on “Gardening by the Glass.” She’ll have another in the June issue, which will be out around May 27. Check it out. This is a free to pick up gardening magazine for Northeastern Indiana.
Annie,
I LOVE the way you did all your raised beds, they’re so beautiful! Could you assist me in providing instructions for how you built and rough measurements? I’m working on some now (well, the husband is) and I keep explaining yours to him, and apparently he needs more than just my explanation :)
Thank you so much! Lovely blog!
-Ashley from Texas