snowy

A number of homes around town have veggie gardens in the front, not just in the back. Two doors down from where I used to nanny there is a house with prolific raised beds in front and a veritable orchard of fruit trees besides. They get so many cherries from their trees that the whole block gets at least a pound or two every summer because the people who own the trees can't eat them all. I think more people need to start growing their own produce, and given the economic climate, I think they will; it doesn't necessarily need to be in a front lawn area, but if that's where it fits, that's where it works.

Our new place has a nice yard with a lawn in back but it's rather overgrown in some spots with shrubbery. I'm going to cut that back and put in raised beds for vegetables and a cold frame for growing lettuces even during the winter months. The front yard is just rocks and various creeping plants for cover--no lawn. Our goal is to keep it organic and keep the watering to a minimum to conserve resources; eventually we want to install a water catchment system to use rainwater to water everything.

And for all of you who said you wouldn't share--just so you know, most gardens produce more than you yourself can eat. My SO's family's garden, which is not overly large, produces enough that everyone in his 20+ person extended family can have their pick of produce--at no charge. And don't you think that if someone is helping themselves to your garden, that maybe they're possibly doing so because they need to?

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau