As it is, we don’t have complete fencing around our backyard so our dogs go out one at a time on a long line attached to our porch. They can run into the closest corner of my garden by just a few paws so instead of making their line shorter, I found a small rectangle peice of chicken wire. I bent it in the middle, dug a trench in that corner of my garden and set it in – now the dogs have a barrier against that first corner.
People are also continuing to use our backyard as a cut through from the alley to the street. When the house was vacant, it was like the super highway for people to use as a shortcut. Despite my plants being in the backyard, some of the kids toys and sometimes even our van, people still continue to cut through! One guy walked 3/4 of the way through – with my children in the backyard and I was digging up my garden, and asked “is someone living here now? I usually use this as a cut through” and continued to walk through my yard. Was my children and I NOT enough to notice someone was there? Do people really think its ok to cut through a backyard when the family is out there, that they don’t know? That was it. My husband and I had previously untangled some wire fencing that had vines growing through it by the back entrance where we usually park our van and we stretched the fencing out but it fell short about two feet of meeting the other metal pole on the other side. We were going to pick up a roll of 25 ft. of this stuff to get fencing up (eventually we’ll have a privacy fence but right now we need a quick fix). Because of the move, finances are really tight right now so I just got some rope and zig-zagged the rope between the wire fencing and the fence pole and created a barrier. It won’t keep our dogs in our yard (eventually we’ll be able to let them run in the yard without a leash, once it’s secure), and if someone was evil enough they could just cut the rope down and walk through but at least this way it’s obvious that yes, someone lives here now and no, it’s not ok to use our yard as a short cut. My husband also has some wood that he’ll be cutting in half and screwing up between our house and the entrance there, as a temporary fix because we will need an opening gate for the lawnmower.
Living in this part of Toledo has me worried that someone may ruin my garden. We don’t live in a good part of town, and the kids around here have no respect for others’ property or belongings. My plan is to grow a bunch of watermelon and pumpkins – something we won’t eat a lot of – and just give them away to our neighborhood kids. My sister in law commented that they may smash them before they’re ripe. I hope not. My garden is in my backyard, so it’s not too easily reached unless someone trespasses.
I’d love to also give our garden excess to our neighborhood if there is much left after freezing and canning – my husband found out we live in the highest poverty area of our county! After hearing that I thought it might be awesome to start some Titus 2 and self sufficiency/homesteading meetings from my home, along with the free breastfeeding and cloth diapering classes I am already going to offer. It looks like this area could use something like that, so long as the people actually want to learn about it. Perhaps this is the most highest poverty area because people are making the choice to live that way. We certainly don’t have a high income – my husband is on disability and we are on a fixed income which is much less than what he was making when he was working. but we get by, with 3 kids, soon to be 4, by being frugal and making the decision to do whatever we can on our own, and doing without what we don’t really need. I completely understand that for some living in poverty is sometimes not by choice, and we’ve only been here since the beginning of May so i don’t really know anyone, nor the reasons that this is such a high-poverty area. Maybe there isn’t one. What I can say is that I am aware that people make some pretty silly decisions with money (which we’re guilty of also!) but then continue to make silly choices, don’t make changes, don’t put high priority expenses in the right order, and then don’t want to do more things on their own to save money. Take gardening for example – you could very realistically grow every vegetable you’ll buy this summer and fall and quite possibly fruit also depending upon what you regularly eat. While gardening does take time, the bulk of the time is in putting the garden in. There are things that can be done to reduce time spent on weeding and watering, leaving you with a garden that requires very little time to keep up with. If you grow enough, you can preserve food by drying, canning or freezing to get you through the winter. This year I had a realistic goal – to grow enough vegetables that I won’t need to buy anything from the store all winter and spring. If we wanted some FRESH vegetables, we would need to buy some from the store because you can’t really preserve that ‘fresh’ quality to vegetables. But in terms of cooking with and using vegetables in meals – anything frozen or canned or dried would be suitable all year through. I am also keeping a garden year-round indoors now – so that means most of the vegetables we eat a lot of fresh (peas, beans, tomatoes to name a few) would be grown indoors so we WOULD have fresh vegetables in the off season.
Anyway, i killed most of my plants this year by over-fertilizing in their containers and had to start all over, then we moved and in the process of moving I forgot to water and lost more plants… Finally, what survived is in the ground and I’m just thankful I had the time and resources to get a garden in as it is (my days are so busy now with unpacking, moving things around, chasing after kids, etc, etc!)
So what is in the ground now?
Main plot: tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peas, green beans, parsley, garlic, celery, leeks, carrots.
Second Plot: watermelon, pumpkin, cucumber, a couple beets
Next plot plans: My husband has some work to do removing some overgrown bushes near the area I am going to be planting my corn, so I am starting my corn in a big container right now until he’s done so he doesn’t trample them in the process of clearing out those bushes. But I will have a plot of corn.
A fourth plot may even be created, or my main plot expanded (more likely), to include more tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, spinach, lettuce, and I may possibly have an herb garden but right now they’re all growing in pots. I have a bunch more seeds, many more vegetables that i’m forgetting I’m sure.
Everything was delivered the next evening. The day after that my husband got everything hooked up and running, so I am happily doing laundry this evening.