Space for veggies?? - January 24th, 2007 at 06:55 PM
I'm brand new to the board and brand new to gardening, so I hope I don't frustrate anyone with questions that might seem a tad ignorant at first. I promise I do have a little common sense about other things! LOL
Okay, here is my question. I just moved into a house in IL last year (from NC) and I want to have a small veggie garden- a few tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce if I can, and maybe some green beans. However, the problem is that I get FULL scorching sun in my front yard and just some late sun (think 2-3pm and later) in the back.
I live in the suburbs of Chicago and I'm sure the neighbors would not take kindly to me digging up the front yard or cluttering it with totes or big containers either.
Soooo... I either need a pretty way to present the veggies (I don't have a fence or anything to hide them behind either...) OR a way to make it work using the back yard OR just my basement (I have a grow light that hubby bought me for my b-day that I have yet to set up.)
Another big prob is animals- we live by a lake and have ALL kinds of critters. It's not unusual for us to see a yard full of bunnies in the summer, as well as squirrels, chipmunks, muskrats, beavers, ducks, geese, other birds, etc. I even saw a deer dart across the yard last April, though I don't know where in the world he might have been heading!!
On the plus side, I do have some compost started from last summer, though I really didn't do much other than layer dirt from the yard with our fruit and veggie table scraps, so I will be continuing to work on this too!
Any links, advice, info and plain ole well wishes are welcome.
-- 'Manda
Okay, here is my question. I just moved into a house in IL last year (from NC) and I want to have a small veggie garden- a few tomatoes, green peppers, lettuce if I can, and maybe some green beans. However, the problem is that I get FULL scorching sun in my front yard and just some late sun (think 2-3pm and later) in the back.
I live in the suburbs of Chicago and I'm sure the neighbors would not take kindly to me digging up the front yard or cluttering it with totes or big containers either.
Soooo... I either need a pretty way to present the veggies (I don't have a fence or anything to hide them behind either...) OR a way to make it work using the back yard OR just my basement (I have a grow light that hubby bought me for my b-day that I have yet to set up.)
Another big prob is animals- we live by a lake and have ALL kinds of critters. It's not unusual for us to see a yard full of bunnies in the summer, as well as squirrels, chipmunks, muskrats, beavers, ducks, geese, other birds, etc. I even saw a deer dart across the yard last April, though I don't know where in the world he might have been heading!!
On the plus side, I do have some compost started from last summer, though I really didn't do much other than layer dirt from the yard with our fruit and veggie table scraps, so I will be continuing to work on this too!
Any links, advice, info and plain ole well wishes are welcome.
-- 'Manda