My name is Andrew. I am a steelworker who was born and raised
in the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, PA. I am also a graduate of the
University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts in Information Science with a
minor in Computer Science. Growing up, I always seemed to find myself digging
about, cutting grass, helping build things outside, and performing other
outdoor tasks as a home chore or neighborhood odd job. But the arrival of my
mid 20's has seen me find my true passion of gardening! The funny part is I
never thought I'd get so into it as a recreational activity, but I believe
gardening has therapeutic quality about it that I can't get from anything else.
In 2008, my wife and I were fortunate to move into a 35-year-old
2-mile-long col de sac of homes in good upkeep, but most importantly one with
many proud DIY gardeners and landscapers. Coming from such a background, I
found myself fitting right in!
My home, a standard size split-entry, is situated on a decently sized
parcel with about 8000 sq. feet of land. There is about 35 feet from the front
of the house to the street, 15 and 25 feet between neighbors' houses
(respectively), and 80 feet from the rear of the house to the rear property
boundary, which is about 12 ft over a steep
hill that descends into a wooded valley. Virtually none of my property
is flat - it gently descends from street level (front door is at street level)
back to where the steeper hill begins.
Even though my home was in decent shape, the property needed some TLC to
say the least. The original garden beds extended out 3-5' from the foundation
walls on all sides, and were overrun by a combination of solid green + fire
& ice hostas, weeds, snow on the mountain, and mint (not to mention ANT
HILLS). Of course all you avid gardeners know that all of these spread and are
very persistent! Most borders were "edged" by 3x5" landscaping
timbers, some of which were rotted by sow bugs. Parts of the lawn were either
bare, weed-infested, or mossy . Edges of lawns and beds were not curved or
tidy. The rear boundary of the back yard met the hillside with no clear edge,
running straight into brush, weeds, poison ivy, tree limbs, grapevines and
"sticker" bushes. Slowly over time, however, I have worked to tame most of these issues. When
complete, I will have well-suited, filled gardens around 100% of the home and
property edges
Some landscaping perks that came with the home were things such as a 40 ft
tall maple tree directly in the center of the front yard, a 4x4x12 ft yew hedge
in front of the front basement window, a 10 ft arborvitae on the southwest
corner, 2 small yews on the west side of the front porch, and two 8-ft lilac
bushes on the west foundation wall.
General Timeline:
2008: we closed on the property in September, and most of the fall meant
light remodeling around the home's interior. So nothing much got done outside.
In fact, none of our outdoor tools had yet been purchased - so my parents did
the cutbacks during Sept-Oct.
2009: Well, this was the most displeasing part. Featured things like
removal of unwanted vegetation, temporary transplantation and division of
hostas, lawn quality enhancement and edging, large scale weeding, and bed
cutting.
2010: Let the aesthetics begin! This year saw the first round of annual and
perennial shrub/tree/flower/bush purchases, and continued improvement of the
landscape. I also began to drive around and "pirate" such things as
wild rose of sharon and daylilies, and received some generous donations from my
parents to incorporate into some of the bare areas I cleared in 2009.
2011: I'll consider this the first year of "tasteful refinement"
of the landscape. This includes some important things like: more careful plant
selection, carving out new beds and mixing soil with sand and peat moss,
manipulation of fences, grades, sun and shade for various types of sub-gardens,
water drainage and irrigation, wall building, edging with decorative and/or
building materials.
