This last year of gardening was a bust. I was finishing graduate school just when I should have been getting my plants in. I was all set to go, but then my husband got a job offer through his company that required a transfer and... five months later, here we are in Colorado!
We actually arrived in July, but were in corporate housing for several months. It's ironic that when I staged the house in California for sale, I potted a bunch of herbs as entryway decor and they bloomed gorgeously. Ironic, of course, because I'm the plant killer and anything I plant with the true intention of helping blossom usually falters, withers and chokes off. Things I neglect tend to be bountiful.
In order to cut down on shipment / moving costs, I gave away our smaller square foot garden beds that my husband built a few years ago and gave our excellent soil from the deeper garden boxes I bought on Craig's List to a neighbor. The saddest part of our move, for me, was saying goodbye to our amazing lemon tree and giving away the house plants I'd picked up a few years ago at a yard sale. Fortunately, they went to a great home - again our neighbor with the green thumb who got our good dirt. I really struggled with the decision to give those plants away. I'd hoped they would survive our trip out here to Denver, but my gardening friend believed they wouldn't and thought it unfair to stress them further.
So, now we are here, just south of Denver in a home on a 12,000 square foot lot. I'm really excited to get gardening ASAP and am planning out our harvest for next year. I'm especially excited that the land is essentially a blank slate - it has a gorgeous lawn, but has been largely unlandscaped as the previous property owner loathed gardening or tending to the land. I don't have to worry about messing things up! I can just get started and see what happens!
The back yard is totally secure from deer and coyotes with over 6 foot wood fencing. The lawn is bordered by a wide swath of rocks that had been laid in for week control and xeriscaping over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the rocks have shifted and thinned over the years, so they no longer serve their purpose of weed control. The positive side of this is that I have no sense of guilt at the propet of dragging them all out and redistributing them as I want. It also means that there is a perfect border space set around the yard so set in all sorts of plants. One side of the house sits on a slight hill and I'm eager to get pumpkins in there next year. I grew up working on a pumpkin farm every fall for many years and I love the idea of getting my children to grow and sell some sugar pumpkins for a small profit to put into their college funds.
My husband has expressed an interest in getting a greenhouse (this is Denver, after all and it would be GREAT to grow year round!), and I like the idea of chickens... or at least fresh eggs. All that is super down the road, but it's lovely to be in a spot where there's enough land to really think about different projects!
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