Greetings!

I have always wanted a garden filled with fruits and veggies, but for
the last 16 years, ever since I left my parent's home, I've been living
in apartments and was unable to grow anything, as I didn't have room or
land (not even a balcony!).

Thankfully, my situation has changed radically and now myself and my
fiance are buying our first home. Right now, there is nothing in the
(very sunny) yard but some scrub bushes in one corner. Between the chain
link fence to the rear of the property and the alley there is a
rectangular plot of land about 4'x10' which I was hoping to use for
zuchinni, peppers (bell and jalepeno), the tomato plant (since there's
only two of us we figure one plant will be plenty --same for the zukes)
and the watermelon. My fiance wants to try watermelon! The yard itself
is slightly sloped and faces north/south. Virtually all of it is sunny
all the time, except for the front of the house which is in shade due to
the house itself. The front yard is mostly sunny except where it butts
up against the house, which is constantly shady.

We want to plant shade loving flowers up against the front of the house,
and sun loving flowers (including some lilacs against the chain link
fence on the one side, and roses on the other side, just to provide a
bit of privacy) in the back. We're going to plant two raspberry plants
on the fence on the other side of the rectangular plot, and plant the
strawberries in the corner.

Our region is 4a. Will we still be able to plant if we don't move into
our home until mid-June? That's the big question I have right now. I've
never been in charge of my own garden and I don't know how late you can
put plants in the ground.

There are already some chives growing along the path to our detached
garage, I was considering planting some more herbs along the path, but I
don't know which ones will thrive in full sun.

We also have a dog, a standard Poodle, and whatever we plant will need
to be dog friendly (and able to deal with being stepped on, that's why
the veggies are outside the fence, by the alley!). She has been known to
eat socks, underwear and Kleenex and I don't doubt that she'll try to
nibble on stuff outside!

I would be very grateful if I could get answers to these questions.
Research online seems to say how to grow, but not when to plant, or
what's dog safe.


The Camp Cook
www.clanntartan.org