Wecome to the North Jersey Gardening Journal

This discusion is to document my attempts at taming a front lawn and garden and also to solicit visitors for advice. I am not an expert or a landscaper, just a homeowner that wants a presentable lawn and garden. I have a degree in natural Sciences, so I will be trying to use some of that knowledge in this endeavor. I inherited a large garden that was unkept for a few years, so I need first to catalog plantings and clean weeds, vines etc. My front garden faces east and is shaded after  three pm.  I live on an otherwise wooded lot so I get some  ”creep” from the forest plus shade from the forest.  The rear garden is mostly grass and vegetable garden with the most space taken up by an in-ground pool.  In the rear planting areas i have few hours of direct sunlight.  I don’t like to use pesticides or fertilizers.  I use lime in the spring with a garden spreader to adjust the pH. The soil in New Jersey can be expected to be acidic, so the decision to use lime is easy because you can assume that your soil is acidic, its just a question of how much lime to add. Also, if I find poison ivy, i wiil use herbicide to get rid of it  But otherwise I try to have an organic garden without pesticides or fertilizers. This journal will document lawn maintenance, flower and vegetable gardening, flowering perenials such as azaelea, dogwood and lilacs in North Jersey.
I will try to write about my experience with animals and birds and keeping other garden pests at bay. Common visitors in my garden are deer, groundhogs, woodchucks, mice, voles, crows and an occasional black bear. Domestic animals can be a problem also, such as cats and dogs. Rabbits are in a category by themselves in my yard, I believe that there are two separate rabbit warrens in my yard, one burrow in the front lawn and another in the backyard. Sometimes there are two or three rabbits on my front lawn, but they seem to enjoy eating dandelions so I don’t bother with them much. In any case I guess that there are many ways of encouraging pests to stay out of a garden.