Somerville: Raquel's Little City Garden

Hi, y'all. Raquel here. I live in Somerville, MA, in a rowhouse in Inman Square with my husband, Justin. When we moved in, almost three years ago, there was already a lovely vegetable garden going in the little backyard -- the previous occupants had built a raised bed alongside what is sometimes our patio and other times our driveway. It's not large, so for the past three years I've struggled with what to plant and how to manage the limited space.

That first year I had more time to stay on top of the garden, but failed at a few of my vegetable choices -- anyone who's seen lettuce allowed to grow past it's harvest date knows it gets pretty much prehistoric looking. And inedible.

Last summer I planted again, but between final planning for our July wedding and our honeymoon in Spain, I lost control: the weeds pretty much took over, vegetables weren't picked at the right moment, and we didn't really get much of a harvest. It's sort of unsettling what happens to cucumbers that grow past their prime and I can tell you, you definitely don't want to eat them.

So here we are. I've got a free, open summer ahead of me, having decided to take the summer off from my graphic design program at MassArt, and it's time to try and get this right. I never expect everything to go perfectly. I see gardening as a lifelong learning experience, so I don't really expect to be good until I'm 45 or so, which really helps with forgiving myself for any gardening failures. It works for me.

Here is my garden in early May:

This was after I lost two red cabbage plants, on either side of that little guy that's left. I'm pretty sure it was the (disgusting) japanese beetle grubs I kept finding when I was first planting my seedlings. Incidentally, I'm not growing from seed this year, though I'll be giving it another go next year. My past attempts at growing from seed ended up in containers on the deck of an old apartment in Cambridge. I never got much yield and my plants were rangy and weak, so I decided to backtrack and get better at keeping purchased seedlings healthy and happy, at least for now.

So far this year I'm growing heirloom tomatoes (black cherry, white beauty, and celebrity, I think), Italian and Thai basil, red cabbage, cucumbers, and jalapeno, sweet red, and carnival bell peppers.

Here are some shots of the garden as it looks now, as well as some other parts of the yard -- I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Red cabbage and cucumbers.

Baby Black Cherry heirlooms.

Lilies lining the raised vegetable bed.

Honestly, not 100% sure what this.

Might be the clematis, might be something else. Time will tell.

More lilies, and our classy outdoor dartboard.

Bougainvillea. Check out that crazy fence.

This is where my enormous jade plant summers.

If it were a person, it'd be old enough to drink in a bar.