urban and suburban vegetable farming
2008-07-24 02:58:47.72303+00 by
Dan Lyke
6 comments
While we're on the agricultural bent, CJ passed along this SFGate article about a company that does vegetable gardens, including upkeep and harvesting, in your yard. Charlene has finally conceded that if we can make it look nice she'd be okay with edibles instead of lawn in the front. We're willing to do our own planting and upkeep, but someone who can take my side reassure her that it'll actually look decent while being productive would be worth paying for.
Heck, I might not even resent the hours and hours spent cutting in the trenches for the lawn irrigation system then...
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2008-07-24 12:47:51.152916+00 by:
m
I strongly support lawn reduction programs. Replacement with just about anything, including the native flora (weeds) is better than the short green stuff. I get a constantly rotating display of wild flowers in my uncultivated sections.
I got about a quarter million hits on 'front yard vegetable garden' at Google. At least on the first page there were discussions of how to make such a project look good. One that looked promising was "Garden Porn:Is that a pistil in your calyx or are you just happy to see me?" at http://deviantdeziner.blogspot...nt-yard-vegetable-gardening.html.
I enjoy growing some of my own food. With many vegetables, the quality of home grown is just tremendously different. Especially tomatoes, eggplant and any fruit. Freshly picked eggplant is actually sweet rather than bitter. And of course you can grow varieties that you would never find in a store.
There are also a lot of fruiting shrubs which are beautiful in and of themselves.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-07-24 13:11:36.14486+00 by:
JT
We have used many different types of methods to get rid of everything into our yard to make it appear to be a barren wasteland due to defensible space (barring a few fruit trees and a mesquite tree I refuse to cut down due to barbecue purposes), but we've taken an old flower bed on the front of our house and made quite a nice little garden with it.
We don't just grow vegetables though, we have our squash, peppers, tomatoes, and some decorative eatables like nasturshums as well as some morning glories growing up a trellis behind it all to give a flower garden look to parts of it. The neighbor across the street has a sort of extended arbor across his garden where he grows sweet peas, climbing nasturshums, and a few other vines that conceal his veggie garden where you can't see it from the street, but instead of hiding it, we decided to make the garden part of the display.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-07-27 11:41:55.585317+00 by:
meuon
"defensible space" - sounds like a clear view killing field with .50 cal belt feeds facing them.
Nancy and I just got back from a week on Ocean Isle Beach, and one of the first things she did is eat some small tomatoes off the plants growing in big pots on the deck. Fresh fruits and veggies, picked when actually ripe, are solar powered candy factories.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-07-28 13:20:04.672838+00 by:
JT
Defensible Space, or at least the short story of it, is to keep the area around your home clear so it's easier for firefighters to protect your property if there's a fire in your area. This fire was within about 5 miles of my house at one point, and one last year was less than two miles, so we're pretty religious about defensible space.
#Comment Re: We have a thread about farming your yard on myspace made: 2008-07-28 20:56:12.34059+00 by:
Lanaland
at http://groups.myspace.com/masterkudzugardeners. I like the curb appealed garden yards, but trying to simulate an ornamental garden with your veggies/herbs/fruiting plants takes an extreme amount of time away from the process of gardening plants that are not ornamental. I have a video depicting our garden in my yard. The corn and squash row down the meadow was partially responsible for my getting dragged into city court for the third time for natural gardening in the burbs. Gardens are more beautiful in their green and nutritive usefulness, than their sparse relativity to ornamentals. Lana Sutton of the Master Kudzu Gardeners
#Comment Re: made: 2008-07-29 17:53:25.03068+00 by:
Larry Burton
Lana I really want to hear your story about mixing it up with the lawn inspector. I didn't even know Chattanooga had one