View Full Version : 'grow food, not lawns'
I came across this today and thought those of you active on this forum would appreciate it....
Sadly I have yet to come across my inner gardener, I am struggling to keep a plant alive that I was given for Mother's Day!
(click on the photo to enlarge)
800
I love it!
I've seen small front yards in Germany that were devoted to mixed vegetable patches, or single food crops such as potatoes or strawberries.
Many food-producing plants can be used as landscape plants - for instance, asparagus, which develops tall ferny foliage after the cutting season; dwarf, semi-dwarf, or full-sized fruit trees, which have lovely flowers and then colorful fruit; strawberries, which are a really hardy groundcover; carrots, which also have pretty foliage, not as tall as the asparagus...
Food Not Lawns is a pretty good book about that very topic - http://www.foodnotlawns.com/about-us.html I enjoy doing some of the things she recommends in it.
awakenedsoul
6-27-12, 1:25pm
I love it! My front garden is a potager garden. It's got lots of old fashioned flowers: zinnias, hollyhocks, larkspur, sunflowers, irises, bougainvilla, roses, geraniums, allysum, and four o'clocks. I've also got some herbs tucked in between them: lemon balm, lavender, rosemary, and horehound. I grow lettuce, onions, garlic, and pumpkins in front, as well. Have got black raspberries climbing the fence! I love the look of it. I have a fruitless mulberry and poplar tree at one side. (for shade.) I have a couple of conifers that I light up and Christmas and a locust tree that the birds planted. I just aded a border of huge pinecones. It's a really nice look. The energy you feel when you walk by is amazing! The birds have feeders and a stone birdbath, too. I used to HATE mowing the lawn. (It was just a hump of Bermuda when I bought the cottage.) This suits me much better, and all I have to do is water and fertilize. There are very few weeds, because the flowers reseed.
Part of my front yard has my veggie beds, a little tiny pond surrounded by flowers. I gave the backyard to the chicken. I'd turn the whole front yard edible and replace the tall juniper trees with fruit trees. But I'm half inclined to turn it into a rock and catcus garden because of the heat.
I really don't understand why more people don't have gardens, or fill up their lawns with bushes and flowers.
Before DH and I moved out to the country about 30 years ago, we lived in a condo for a year. I put up a bean teepee, planted tomatoes and grew cucs up a trellis. I kept it looking really nice. The Homeowners association didn't like it at all.
Go figure.
It would be really great if everyone realized what they could grow in the yards, beside grass.
Thanks for the post and that great photo, mtnlaurel. It gives me more motivation to carry on, replacing all this silly, useless grass with something that not only doesn't need mowing, it can be eaten!
awakenedsoul
6-27-12, 11:41pm
I really don't understand why more people don't have gardens, or fill up their lawns with bushes and flowers.
Before DH and I moved out to the country about 30 years ago, we lived in a condo for a year. I put up a bean teepee, planted tomatoes and grew cucs up a trellis. I kept it looking really nice. The Homeowners association didn't like it at all.
Go figure.
It would be really great if everyone realized what they could grow in the yards, beside grass.
I'm sure the homeowners Association didn't like it...way too creative! They hate stuff like that. It gets people thinking, though. I have an orchard and vegetable gardens in my backyard. People always slow down when they drive by and gaze at the pomegranete and pineapple guava tree. Everyone really responds to beautry and nature. I love love love my fruit trees. It's such a relief having all that home grown food in this economy. It keeps the yard cooler, too.
Gardens are actually much easier than many houseplants, mtnlaurel!
Some of my lilacs and other bushes right in front of the porch on either side of the front steps died or look really scraggly. I was just thinking the other day that I should replace those with blueberries and raspberries.
My front lawn is a bit useless for gardening:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kTGLx3JqsCc/TAhKBSq7KRI/AAAAAAAAA2M/ybhmqard66E/s576/img_0119.jpg
So I use my Mom's back yard:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fLyfFanOOpk/TBRaMtL3ptI/AAAAAAAAA_M/qYAl6ODjc6w/s576/img_0220.jpg
Tussiemussies
6-28-12, 3:06am
Recently saw in one state, I believe it was Oaklahoma (sp?) that it is against the law imone particular city.
A woman who had turned her front lawn into a garden and had medicinal plants she grew because she couldn't afford the prescriptions -- well the police came in and desicrated the entire garden. So many from around the country are outraged by this.
Tussiemussies
6-28-12, 3:07am
Really nice job Bae...
Now that's the kind of yard to have, Bae!
awakenedsoul
6-28-12, 4:26pm
Recently saw in one state, I believe it was Oaklahoma (sp?) that it is against the law imone particular city.
A woman who had turned her front lawn into a garden and had medicinal plants she grew because she couldn't afford the prescriptions -- well the police came in and desicrated the entire garden. So many from around the country are outraged by this.
What a shame. That's why I live in a neighborhood outside the city limits that doesn't have a Homeowner's Association. I hope she finds a solution. Maybe someone will let her use their land.
I would recommend blueberries- they are beautiful all year round, easy care and if you don't want to eat the blueberries you don't need to net them....birds will get rid of any and all as soon as they are ripe. The netting isn't very obtrusive if you want to eat the berries.
Beautiful garden, bae.
This was the case, in a place where I once lived as a youngster, that was so weird:
http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/oakland_county/oak-park-battles-city-over-vegetable-garden-in-their-front-yard/
I think the charges were eventually dropped, but then they started going after her for nickle-and-dime things like dog licenses, etc. (similar to the negative attention given Novella Carpenter in Oakland) I didn't follow it past that. But seriously, unless I've consciously moved into a pristine HOA who prides itself on its acres of perfect thirsty bluegrass, can't they leave us alone?
Tussiemussies, I think it's this you're talking about: http://www.newson6.com/story/18802728/woman-sues-city-of-tulsa-for-cutting-down-her-edible-garden
Kills me.
awakened: I'd love to see some pics! I'm taking an Intro class to a Permaculture workshop in a couple of weeks, and in preparation I'm reading Gaia's Garden. I'm getting GREAT ideas for my own backyard, and now that my DH is 58 and is starting to complain about the mowing the lawn, it might be an opportune time to get something else growing back there!
Tussiemussies
6-29-12, 1:04am
I'm sure the homeowners Association didn't like it...way too creative! They hate stuff like that. It gets people thinking, though. I have an orchard and vegetable gardens in my backyard. People always slow down when they drive by and gaze at the pomegranete and pineapple guava tree. Everyone really responds to beautry and nature. I love love love my fruit trees. It's such a relief having all that home grown food in this economy. It keeps the yard cooler, too.
Neat awakened soul that you can grow all those fruit trees...I dream of having the chance to do that one day! Do you have any pictures you could share?
Your garden sounds so wonderful would love to see pictures of that too!
Tussiemussies
6-29-12, 1:12am
Beautiful garden, bae.
This was the case, in a place where I once lived as a youngster, that was so weird:
http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/oakland_county/oak-park-battles-city-over-vegetable-garden-in-their-front-yard/
I think the charges were eventually dropped, but then they started going after her for nickle-and-dime things like dog licenses, etc. (similar to the negative attention given Novella Carpenter in Oakland) I didn't follow it past that. But seriously, unless I've consciously moved into a pristine HOA who prides itself on its acres of perfect thirsty bluegrass, can't they leave us alone?
Tussiemussies, I think it's this you're talking about: http://www.newson6.com/story/18802728/woman-sues-city-of-tulsa-for-cutting-down-her-edible-garden
Kills me.
Hi Puglogic, yes this is the story I was referring to. Thanks for posting it. It's really sad when you can only have grass on your front lawn because of the law...I feel very sorry for this woman who also probably lost a lot of money that she paid for at least some of those plants, unless it was all given to her...
:(
Tussiemussies
6-29-12, 2:52am
Food Not Lawns is a pretty good book about that very topic - http://www.foodnotlawns.com/about-us.html I enjoy doing some of the things she recommends in it.
Took a look at this and really liked what I saw. Thanks for posting.
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