Anybody part of the Food, Not Lawns thing?

My yard is fenced off from the road and there is also a chainline fence around trailer. About twice a month during the growing season I let the cattle herd in to graze. I tell people it isn't so much their grazing in my yard and I'm living in their pasture. Neighbors say, "Ken's cutting grass again".

We have lawn around the house, grass, clover, and various "weeds". Thanks to portable electric fencing, it is routinely used as pasture. I don't own a lawnmower, but we do have a scythe which we use from time to time.

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Yes indeed. Even sillier are people who have McMansions and MOW FIVE ACRES without a garden in sight. It makes me shake my head.

My front "lawn" will measure approximately 14X20 (surrounded by edible landscaping, of course), with a garden plot approximately 5 times that size.

Yum!

donsgal

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You know they have a whole new word for what's being discussed here. They call it "permaculture". It's just that they have incorporated the whole "zen" thing. To me it's just using your land the way you want to. They are people that will now come to place and design the whole thing. They just mix edibles, with flowers, with places to sit and with fountains. So here's a new income opportunity. Google it and see what you find.
Gary

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That's part of why we moved rural - we lived in a suburb and my lawn kept getting smaller each year between the flowers and veggies - i know the neighbors kept wondering "how much more grass" i was going to dig up.

We were also the only ones in the neighborhood who didn't put chemicals on our lawn.

You see all these weekend warriors out there mowing, watering, fertilizing, with such vigor, I think the human psyche has a deep seeded (no pun intended) need to grow things, these folks have just been led astray by marketing. Think about how much money the companies make off of seed and fertilizer...

I just mow mine about 4" with the mulcher, and it stays greener than anyone elses, even during the droughts, and I don't water or fertilize! Every body around here likes to scalp their yards at 2" and plant fescue, which can't hold up to our summers without tons of water.

I have to plow snow off my front yard to keep my drive open. Plowing has scraped most of the topsoil off. My front yard barely grows weeds. I like the idea of usinf yard for gardening, but Im not able to do that while I plow every winter.

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I'm also starting to put in more beds. I have the greenest yard on the street and it's all "natural", Weeds, clover, grassess, never planted any "lawn". I hardly ever need to water, and I never fertilize. If I don't mow about once every 4 days ther's a couple thousand white clover flowers but the honey bees like it. The yard's about 1.5 acres, .25 acres of gardens and 3.25 acres of woods and underbrush.

Edible lanscaping is a passion of mine. I get such a thrill passing a yard & finding food growing! LOL Its just wonderful!

The first yard i started doing this with was a rental that already had a few citrus trees. I added pear trees, lavender,lettuce & strawberries among other things. it was gorgeous & I got so many compliments.

Our home before ths we had raised beds in our front yard too! LOL

This current home is the first we have owned. We have a huge hill up front. We had it terraced & planted citrus. Street level we put in pears & artichokes. Other parts of the yard have apples, strawberries, roses, lavender & such. I also add in things like foxgloves which though not edible I cannot resist! LOL
Right now we have over 20 fruit trees in the front yard & plan to add more, much more!

this summer I was pregnant & miserable so we didn't get much of a garden in. I resorted to planting tomatoes, pumpkins,etc in between the trees. We are now known as the people with the pumpkins in their front yard! LOL

I love it! I also am inspired by pathtofreedom.com - I dont live all that far from them, I really need to go check them out IRL!

(oh - I do have a grass area though - itty bitty - my kids requested it )

All the neighborhood kids love out yard, too!