Hello from Long Island, NY

[Poppy]

Hi. I am from the east end of Long Island. When we moved here and bought our first home, 11 years ago, I started converting the front lawn to garden beds and growing vegetables. The neighbors just looked on suspiciously but by the third year folks were stopping by to say how great the garden looked. Shortly after that we started raising chickens.

Three years ago we moved one town over into a 70 year old house on a town lot (~1/4 acre). The perrenial gardens were well established and the previous owner had done an amazing job having garden interest from February (well, at least interesting to me when the bulbs start to push up some green) through November when the Japanese Maple turns a brilliant burgundy. So out of respect for the work that had gone into creating the garden I tried to plant vegetables in and around.

Well, I am over that now. :) I was completely inspired by your website and videos, Patti, so I am doing a pretty big overhaul of the garden. We are expanding the backyard veggie garden and converting much of the side garden to fruit and vegetables. I am going to espalier cherry trees. I am going to do some planting around the border of the front yard (I can't take too much there because my son and his friends like to wrestle or play ball on the front lawn). Oh, and my "girls" are getting a chicken tractor to fit in the raised beds.

So, thanks for having me and providing this forum. I have enjoyed reading many of your ideas.

[Sinfonian]

Welcome! I love to see folks growing their garden areas and that are into other sustainable elements. Well done!

[MoniDew]

Welcome! Patti certainly is inspirational! Glad to have you here!

[MamaGigi]

Hi there! As a newbie to this thread, I am looking forward to seeing how your projects progress. I'm going to keep my open lawn for playing (we have an old fashioned push mower so this should prove interesting. How much of your yard are you planning on redoing? The whole thing?

[gardengirl72]

I love Long Island, it was a fantasy of mine as a little girl to have a little place on the island. But, Boston has me now. Thanks joining and sharing!

[Poppy]

Thank you, everyone, for the nice welcome!


Hi there! As a newbie to this thread, I am looking forward to seeing how your projects progress. I'm going to keep my open lawn for playing (we have an old fashioned push mower so this should prove interesting. How much of your yard are you planning on redoing? The whole thing?


MamaGigi - Thanks for asking. So far I am taking over half of the back yard (which really is only about 5 4X8 beds in order to stay out of tree shade). In my side garden I am putting a few raised beds and some more fruit trees/bushes. I already have two dwarf apples on that side. When we bought the house it had been neglected a little bit - the folks had been very elderly - so much of the landscape was overgrown. I tried to save some of it but a lot can come out with no harm done.

The front yard, I hope to replace some old shrubs with productive ones and I hope to plant some along the street. I think that is a project for next year though.

You know, our house is on a town lot so it's probably only 60 feet wide and 190 long. But a driveway runs up one whole side of the property. Sigh! Such garden potential if only I had a jackhammer :D

Although I am a notorious plant mover I think it's important to have a vision of where you want things to go but ultimately I know it will get done in babysteps. That way it doesn't feel so overwhelming.

I look forward to hearing about your progress.

Warmly,
Poppy

[Poppy]

I love Long Island, it was a fantasy of mine as a little girl to have a little place on the island. But, Boston has me now. Thanks joining and sharing!

Hi, Patti.

Thanks for the welcome. We love LI but because my husband and I went to some variety of college, grad school or post doc in Boston (and environs) we are quite partial to Boston and New England. We would have been happy to establish ourselves there but the work is here and we are happy where we are planted :) We get to Boston for conferences as often as we can get away with!

Thanks again for sharing and for this fantastic forum. I look forward to learning a lot in this community.

Kind regards,
Poppy

[plantoneonme]

Glad you could join us. I sort of in the same situation as you. We live in our previous home for 22 years until Sept of 08. I did not have a vegetable garden as I started with a few perennials which of course grew larger. I split them and the garden grew larger....well over the years the gardens grew huge! At one time the beds ran down the 200' sidewalk, across the back 100' down the 200' side, around the house, garage, every tree, in pots and everything else you can imagine. When we purchased this house the only thing in the yard was a hydrangea that had been repeatedly mowed over. I am in the process of starting over and put in a large shade bed in front of the house and started some raised bed gardens. I will be expanding this year and hope to do as I did in the other house...the only thing holding me back is a bad shoulder and money but slowly the gardens will grow. Kim