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Incredible Edible Left Bank - O La La

May 7th, 2012 at 10:32 pm

The conversion is complete! We have a small lot (0.22 ac or something) and the front yard is nothing more than a couple strips of green split by a big wide concrete postcard driveway. Our first year we put in a row of dwarf orange trees at the left property line and a few rose bushes next to them. Fast forward 15 years, and it was time to re-evaluate...

Grass lawns are low on the eco scale, wasteful of water, shed chemical fertilizers, and you've heard the song and dance (if not read

Text is this and Link is http://ag.udel.edu/udbg/sl/vegetation/Turf_Grass_Madness.pdf
this typical article).

Local produce is high on the desirable scale, clean of pesticide, no transport and fuel consumed, not to mention fresh.

My husband is a naturalist (and the Tool Man) so he couldn't see why the front yard should be any different than the backyard. I made only one stipulation: allow for cutting flowers (such as keeping the rose bushes we already had).

His first priority was to increase drainage down the front to the street so he took out the grass and built a winding rock swale. He left the orange trees at the left property boundary but moved the roses up to the front near the sidewalk.

Then had his fun with tomatoes, eggplant, lettuce, peppers and whatever else will follow.

Here's how it looks-



The slim trunk of a tree stands in the middle (put in by the original builder). It's a not very big tree, but we left it.

I'm sure after a few seasonal rotations he'll plant some more perennial species, maybe blueberries? strawberries? herbs? it's ok, I'll probably be out there weeding no matter what.

Hope the passers by don't help themselves!

2 Responses to “Incredible Edible Left Bank - O La La”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    1336429303

    Looks great!

    "Hope the passers by don't help themselves!"

    Reminds me, my MIL had a zuchinni plant thief(?) for a short while. I think it was zucchini - they kept stealing entire plants! {Like zucchini is such a commodity?} But, anyway, she has always had a front yard garden and except for that one recent incident, don't think anyone has obviously helped themselves.

  2. Momma23 Says:
    1336570091

    Love the pictures. Thanks for sharing.

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