Anybody part of the Food, Not Lawns thing?

[jen74145]

Just wondering; I'm feverishly sketching out plans for the coming spring which include turning my front yard into (hopefully) a veritable wonderland of heirloom veggies and fruits. Some we will eat or preserve, and some will go to the neighbors.
Anybody else find manicured, fertilized front lawns a bit silly?

[patnewmex]

Always have and always will. When we lived in Mpls, we walked a lot. I walked past this home on a tiny corner lot. Every bit of "lawn" area was planted with some gorgeous plant, either perennial or annual. All luscious and wonderful. I never want a lawn! So much work and so outdated and expensive to keep up not to mention how much time it sucks away from you.

pat

[bgraham]

I love having a big yard for the kids to play in. It certainly wouldn't be considered "manicured", but it's big and green. We are not fanatics about it...just mow and trim.

I also have a large garden....I want both.

Beth

[belladulcinea]

I would plant my whole yard with veggies and stuff.

[Burbsteader]

I definitely think the 'perfect lawn' is a joke. It is a lot of work and usually a lot of chemicals. The ridiculous part is how so much time is spent caring for something that gets used so little!

When the kids were little and we moved into this house, a lot of the yard was kept for lawn. Even then we did not use much yard and very rarely used the front yard. DH was in full blown 'perfect yard syndrome' at that time too.
Whenever we had a bare spot in the yard I kept secretly sowing clover!

Slowly, little by little each year my lawn is being transformed into fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, herbs and veggie gardens. DH has slowly come around and is now active in planning and planting and the 'perfect lawn' is becoming a thing of the past.

One of my inspriations is the Path to Freedom site.
http://www.pathtofreedom.com

[Ravenlost]

We have the perfect lawn...at least two acres of manicured weeds! We mow around patches of wild flowers so I guess we have flower beds too.

This summer my mom started her garden right next to her house (she has 56 acres, but had knee surgery last January and wanted her garden closer to the house). She asked me if it was to close to the house and I told her ABSOLUTELY NOT! It's her yard, her garden, her home. If she wants to plant her beans, etc. next to the house then she should do so.

When I was in college I had a ground floor apartment. We were allowed to plant what we wanted in the flower beds in front of our apartment. Mine was full of tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, etc. No one ever complained, but they did steal a tomato from time to time!

[bgraham]

burbsteader, I love the Path To Freedom site. I think it is absolutely amazing what they have been able to do on such a small area. Inspiring! It is my goal to be able to grow the majority of our fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, we are able to do that and still have a large yard for the kids to play in.

We have the perfect lawn...at least two acres of manicured weeds!

Ravenlost, when I say I have a big yard...this is what I mean! lol.


My kids play outside ALOT. We are not in a nice subdivision with bike paths...they ride in the yard. They play ball. They play with the dog. They run and have races. They play hide and seek and chase each other around the house. They climb trees. They have outgrown the little swings we had for them so we plan to build them a big swingset in the spring. We love our yard.

[SquashNut]

Our lawn is about 100 square foot, the garden is the rest of our place, except the work shed, with canning kitchen, green house and our house. the front flower beds grow veggies, then we put a long bed next to the house. It is fenced to keep dogs out. the back lawn is 2 veggie gardens with a grass path down the middle.
It took 2 years of slowly tilling a little bit at a time to get the garden the way it is. Now some times it is a bit over welming. But it sure does fill up the canning jars.

[cc-rider]

I'm still working on it (just started converting my homestead from a piece of cornfield chopped out of the middle of a field).

I have 3-1/2 acres and will have small "bits" of yard around the house and buildings and down the driveway. The front "yard" is about 1-1/2 acres and is planted to wildflowers (whew! That seed costs more than grass seed!!!!! $100 to plant the wildflowers and that was buying it in 5# bags bulk!)

The back "yard" is planted to clover for the chickens. The orchards and berry plots are planted to clover, also, so I don't have to mow around the trees/bushes. I have the few small spots of manicured lawn around the buildings, because it looks pretty, but not much!

Chris

[hisenthlay]

I replaced about half of my lawn with food last spring. It was a little scary to dig up all that nice sod and leave big dirt holes where it used to be, but when the food grew in, it sure was tasty, and I got sooo many compliments on my yard from neighbors and passers by.

Here are a couple pics of our transformation from lawn to food.

We dug up the lawn to put in those raised beds.

a few months later

a month later

And this is our patio garden--we built the wood containers.

different view of patio

[cindyc]

hisenthlay, now THAT's cool!

Cindyc.

BTW, I like path to freedom, too.

[hillsidedigger]

I am 3 years into converting the entire yard into gardens. Its a big yard(close to 2 acres with 8 more acres that could be partly cleared and some adjoining land that could be possibly purchased), much of it previously kept mowed with a bush-hog.

I have neighbors who spread tons of fertilizer and lime and burn hundreds of gallons of fuel per year just to grow grass just to have to mow it. The same people plow their garden areas maybe 6 times a year, very wasteful.

They like technology and their toys (tractors).

[Cyngbaeld]

I MUST have a lawn! LOL It is mowed constantly by chickens, turkeys, geese, guineas and ducks. I only used a mower once this year for about two acres. So we turn the grass into food by running it thru the birds.

[hisenthlay]

Originally Posted by cindyc

hisenthlay, now THAT's cool!

Cindyc.

BTW, I like path to freedom, too.

THANKS!! It's my project. This spring I'm going to colonize the garage roof with planters--for greens, bush beans, peppers, etc. On the left side of the walk (opposite the raised beds) I already put in a hazlenut sapling and some blueberry bushes, and some big black currant bushes up close to the house. More herbs will be going in there, too, along with some bulbs and perennials. On the side of the house you can't see, we also have blackberry and raspberry bushes. I think we have the most biologically diverse 1/8 of an acre anywhere in the city (except maybe the botanical garden--they probably have us beat)!

pathtofreedom.com was really inspiring to me, too. Of course, they have more land than I do AND they're in CA, but I try! If we end up staying in our house for another couple years, I'm going to try to put in a chicken coop like theirs, built into the side of our garage--for a few laying hens. Only down side to that is it would mean digging up the asparagus bed!

[Burbsteader]

Very nice Hisenthlay!
A lot of people underestimate just how much food can be grown in a small area.

On the path to freedom site I loved the pictures of the goats. I want to take goats for a walk too.
Just thinking about seeing the reaction of other people on the trail makes me smile. Their reaction would be priceless.

[mayfair]

I love your gardens, hisenthlay! It is amazing what you can do in a small space.

We have a front yard veggie garden, too and some berries.

[littlebitfarm]

Small fenced grass yard for the dogs to run about. Every week or so, open the gate and let the horses and sheep in to graze. Long driveway has a gate near the end so I can turn the horses and sheep out to graze a couple evenings a week. Used less than 10 gallons of gas mowing last summer and that includes the neighbor's yard!

Kathie

[omnicat]

The first place I had when I had a garden had a front yard that was about 6' x 8'. The backyard was only slightly larger. We had tomatos in the back, herbs, and a potato box. We dug up the entire front "lawn" and planted eggplant & brussels sprouts. The "yard was about 2 feet about the sidewalk, and would make for real easy pickin's by passers-by. We figured those choices would be less tempting. (and we were right!)

This spring I'm going to colonize the garage roof with planters-

We also did that at the same place - not even our garage - but the guy who rented it (next door neighbor) didn't mind if we climbed on top. Patio tomatos went in there.

Now I've got ample space (at least for a while). I take out more grass every year (been there not quite two years). I figure until mowing takes me less than 10 minutes, I've still got WAY too much. (And right now it takes 50 min with the riding mower - which hasn't worked all this year - so I've been using a walk-behind, and it takes for EVER comparatively)

If I have fowl, I'd prolly keep more grass for them. (But I don't, so I'm not)

[HilltopDaisy]

Originally Posted by littlebitfarm

Small fenced grass yard for the dogs to run about. Every week or so, open the gate and let the horses and sheep in to graze. Long driveway has a gate near the end so I can turn the horses and sheep out to graze a couple evenings a week. Used less than 10 gallons of gas mowing last summer and that includes the neighbor's yard!

Kathie

This sounds just like me! My yard might be 75' x 75', and it's fenced for the dogs. I think I mowed it twice last summer because the sheep and turkeys do such a good job. I had an area out front that I kept mowed the first year I was here, and then I decided it would be much better as a cornfield!

[northstarpermie]

Started two years ago converting my yard into a garden. It's in a shady spot so I plant cool crops there, I had radishes all year this year. I had a mixture of flowers & herbs in there as well. What was there before was a combination of plantain, chickweed, dandelions, ferns, etc. This next year I'm putting a fence around it. Our free ranging livestock & the woodland creatures really liked the new garden as well. The other patch of lawn is in the front. The chickens and ducks to a good job on that so we don't have to mow at all.