Hoes Replacing Lawn Mowers as Favorite Tools for Front Yard

Maybe it's the water restrictions. Maybe it's the shaky economy. Dotted through our neighborhood are houses where lawns have been replaced by vegetable gardens.

According to Time magazine, the trend was sowed in the summer of 2005 by Los Angeles architect Fritz Haeg. He saw the manicured front lawn as an American icon that cut across politics, social classes and economics. But he also saw it as out of date.

Vegetable gardening is certainly not new. The Victory Gardens of World War II were encouraged to relieve pressure on scarce food resources. In 1943, about a year after the campaign began, Americans had planted 20.5 million Victory Gardens, which produced a third of all the vegetables eaten in America that year.

What's different about the food gardens I've been seeing lately is:

They are planted in the front yard rather than being hidden in the back yard.
They often replace the traditional lawn.
The layout of these gardens is often more ornamental than farm like. The plants become objects d'art or sculpture.

There are many blogs or books such as Nan Chase's Eat Your Yard: Edible Trees, Shrubs, Vines, Herbs and Flowers for Your Landscape, that explain how to make the transition. It's really not that complex.

I once tried to make a map of the areas where I walk my dog noting which had fruit trees or herb bushes for urban foraging. It was a good reminder to watch for the changing seasons and the places where fruit was going to waste because no one was harvesting it.

Perhaps my next challenge should be the edible balcony garden.

Comments

Know Your Soil For Best Garden Results

I've always taken soil for granted. It was there. You put seeds into it. You put water on it. Plants grow and produce flowers, fruit or vegetables. Gayle Weinstein, author of Xeriscape Handbook; A How-To Guide to Natural, Resource-Wise Gardening , takes a different view: “Soil . . . acts as a highway between life and death, land and atmosphere, plants and animals.” It stores water, air and nutrients and makes it possible for an exchange of elements and chemical reactions to occur, she adds. She describes soil as being animal, vegetable and mineral combined. Here are six tests Gayle recommends for getting to know your soil. Grab a shovel and a quart jar. Dig up two cups of dry soil two-to-six inches deep from the areas you want to test. Gather a glass of water, dish washing detergent and paper towels. A soil pH kit, a meter or litmus paper will be needed for the final test.

Away With Holey Leaves: Offing the Pests

I can't stand the tell-tale signs of garden pests: the leaves with holes, the failure to thrive. I believe in early assault with organic deterrents. Kate has great faith in plants' commitment to survive. She considers holes in leaves to be a mere cosmetic blemish. Like politics and religion, getting rid of pests in a garden is sure to cause a community donnybrook (or at least rapid words over ice water in the lounge chairs). To do organic warfare against pests means using one or more of these tools:

Herbal challenges

The thought of an orderly, scented kitchen garden like I've seen at The Huntington Gardens or in books is so appealing. Ranks of herbs -- thyme, oregano, basil and parsley -- lining neat pathways in easy reach for cutting. A garden right outside the kitchen when you need a pinch of marjoram for a sauce . . . At Fink Farms, it never works out like that. Unruly bunches of herbs grow into each other, or bolt or shrivel in the sun without water. When we first started the farm, we were growing herbs in the main garden with the tomatoes, and beans and lettuce greens. I decided to set up a separate herb area along the cinder block wall, first because of squabbles about what should go where between the then-three partners and, secondly, because I'd read that herbs like adverse conditions. Since we were composting up the main garden, I thought perhaps the herbs would do better in less rich ground. There were problems with that thinking: There probably isn't enoug...

The Fink Farm Dirt

Search This Blog