All this gardening is really about losing the lawn. We simply both hate to mow. It’s loud, it’s stinky, and it’s thankless in wet Syracuse because, like dishes and dust, it just keeps coming back. On top of that, it’s not ecologically sound. Here’s what I found at this cool site, City Dirt:
“If you choose to plant and maintain turf grass, you are essentially eliminating diversity in your home garden. Phosphate based fertilizers, garden pesticides and herbicides have been showing up increasingly in our streams and bays, carried there by over watering and storm run off.”
We’ve been slowly removing turf and putting in vegetable beds and fruit zones instead. It’s a messy process, and while it fascinates some of the neighbors who walk by, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few are a bit peeved, especially at the way our front yard breaks up the long stretch of neatly mowed and chemicalized little front lawns.
Frankly, our yard is a bit of a shambles right now. We decided not to do vegetables in the front yard after a one-year experiment. The big old trees just offer too much shade. Besides, we just don’t need that much space to grow all the food we need.
We removed the boxes but left the dirt. Spinach that overwintered has grown to an enormous height, weeds have overtaken the dirt under the roses, and we haven’t learned how to plant the right things in there yet. I’m starting to get some ideas from the City Dirt site, and have discovered that putting vegetables in the front yard was something akin to the creation of an “edible estate.” City Dirt introduces us to the concept:
“Edible Estates is a practical food producing initiative, a place-responsive landscape design proposal, a scientific horticultural experiment, a conceptual land-art project, a defiant political statement, a community out-reach program and an act of radical gardening.”
“An act of radical gardening”…Don’t know about you, but a phrase like that kind of makes me weak in knees.
Me, too. Who else in Syracuse committing acts of radical gardening?
My neighbors, several doors down the block, eliminated the front lawn as soon as they bought the house a few years ago. They’ve created a habitat for birds, small animals etc., and have mix of perennials, shrubs, mulch and other natural artifacts. I think it could look a bit more aesthetically pleasing but it’s not bad. There’s a landscape architect in my neighborhood who is thinking of launching a “DIY landscaping non-grass planting” design service. For about $200 he’ll come up with a design drawing and materials list for your front yard. You buy and install it all yourself but he knows what items fit well, grow properly in given light, soil etc. I think there’s a market for this service.