We own .4 acres here in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. The front yard is the largest area by far and our large 2-story house faces south. We have no land at all on the east side and the house blocks the west side from the sun except for a few hours of the day. The back edge of the back yard is well covered by trees so not all of the back yard can grow food. We also have Anna's Rainbow System to contend with.
Permanent crops
Rhubard - grows in a couple of places but mostly in a fairly sunny area behind the garage and a cement patio
Red Raspberries - June bearing, growing in the northwest corner of the back yard
Last year's negatives
We tried a 13 x 42 or so garden in the Northwest corner of the property. Shade impacted a large portion of this garden, preventing the squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and melons from doing well. All our tomato plants (14) were effectively wiped out by blight and produced very little. Lettuce bolted too early, spinach was weak, and bugs ate the leaves off the brussel sprouts.
Last year's positives
The sugar snap peas, english peas (Pea Green Arrow), yellow beans, and green beans were fantastic. I had built trellisses using wooden posts and strings for the peas but the weight of the enormous vines collapsed them. Before collapsing the vines were well over 4 ft high and producing a lot of peas. I used ladder trellises like those below tied together with string for the green pole beans and the crop was outstanding. You can buy these trellises from Territorial Seed.
Carrots were still stunted from the soil being too compact but they were longer than any other years. Strawberries were still young and didn't produce any fruit but the vines spread quite a bit. The herbs did WONDERFUL! We used my daughter's old sandbox (4 x 4) and we planted cilantro, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, and sweet basil. The dirt in the sandbox was 50% black soil and 50% compost.
What we'll do different this year
We intend to build cinder block gardens in the front yard. The idea is to take 300 or so cinder blocks (the kind that have 2 holes in them) and make raised garden beds with them. You fill the holes with dirt and that's what you plant in. If arranged in square shapes you can also fill the interior with dirt. Blocks stacked 2-high will be ideal for carrots as the soil won't get compacted. You can either use 1/4 inch thick newspapers or black cloth under the whole thing to prevent weeds from coming up from the ground. 1/2 of the holes will be for flowers, the other half for either herbs or vegetables.
We have a cement patio in the back yard that is largely unused and I intend to keep the tomatoes there in pots. This should minimize the likelihood of blight hitting the tomatoes again.
The existing garden will be shrunk 33% to just encompass the sunniest areas. Peas and beans will dominate this area. I'm planning on building new trellises for the peas using bamboo throughout. If I lash the bamboo rods tightly enough, they should be able to hold the weight of the peas. I also plan to order more of the ladder trellises. I'll try them for cucumbers, summer squash, and the pole variety yellow beans (last year's yellows were bush variety).
In the northeast side of the back yard I intend to plant broccoli and cauliflower in a small hay bale garden, similar to a cement block garden. The idea is to lay newspaper or black cloth to retard growth, place hay bales around the border and loose hay in the middle up to the height of the border. You then open small areas where you place your root balls (plants need to be started indoors for this). I could use this for the tomatoes too.
