OK, I've decided to "plow up" the last of the grass in my backyard

[HamdenRice]

That's not saying much because I'm in Queens, New York City, so my yard is quite small. I was gardening about 1/3. But the last few years, I've been amazed at both how much stuff I've grown and the quality compared to what's in the supermarket.

Also, I was asking myself all last summer, why is my biggest "crop" grass? Grass that I have to fertilize, mow, and then throw in the compost pile? Does that make any f*@&ing sense at all?

I've decided to get a small fruit tree for the very center of the yard, but I haven't decided what kind. I'm going to move my raspberries so that they are more compact (they were taking over the entire yard), and maybe grow the tomatoes in a different spot for the sake of rotation.

The kid is grown, and he's not going to be playing in the grass, so why am I growing grass instead of arugala?

[Kolesar]

1. Catalogs have trees with four varieties of apples on them and "columnar" apple trees

Imagine an apple tree that does not branch out. You could grow enough apples that you would have plenty throughout the off season.

[HamdenRice]

2. Funny you should mention it. I'm fascinated by espalier (sp?) fruit trees

We have some here at the Brooklyn and Bronx Botanical Gardens and at the Cloisters (a medieval monastary serving as a museum that was brought over from Europe).

Espalier drastically limits, prunes and trains a fruit tree on wooden stakes and metal wires, and works well in limited space such as I have.

It sounds like the variety you are talking about is tailor made for this, although espalier technique uses trees that branch, but prunes them.

[Kolesar]

4. There is an espalier tree as an exhibit in front of the Holden Arboretum

My favorite hike & ski place. There is a placard explaining that the technique was used to make privacy screens between lots going back to classical times. This espalier is by the wall of the building. I'll email you a digital pic if I remember to shoot it.

I think that fruit tree breeders found a (recessive?) gene to make "non-branching" apple trees. They should not be hard to find.

Imagine moving a monastary. My Holden pass gives me discounts to other botanical gardens. I would like to see the gardens. 500 miles...Hmmm.

[wildeyed]

3. You could espalier the fruit tree against a fence as well.

Might make a pretty back drop to the veggie garden. Definitely rotate your tomatoes if you grow heirloom. It will protect them for all sorts of nasty soil-borne diseases.

I want to plow up the front yard of my suburban house and grow fruit and veg, but I think the neighbors would have an aneurism. We have no covenant, so if I decide to, I guess they will have to live with it. As an alternative, I may go with low-maintenance native trees and ground cover. The grass maintenance time and expense is killing me!

on edit: That is hilarious that we were all thinking the same thing at the same time re: espalier.

[HamdenRice]

5. I remember reading a gardening book about grass as a crop

and the writer was saying, without identifying it, how much we spend on seed, fertilizer, watering, and then finally harvesting -- and that we then throw the harvest in the trash. Then he said something like -- it's grass.

It's insane!

At least I have been composting the grass, and to be fair, it is a very useful compost accelerant. But still, I can't justify the time and expense of following this quaint, pointless tradition, which originated because the new English suburbanites of the late 19th and early 20th centuries wanted to emulate English estates where sheep grazed on vast lawns!

There is an elderly lady in my neighborhood who has turned her entire front lawn into a flower garden, which is actually more traditionally American, going back to the early 1900s. There are also immigrants who plant vegetables and even corn in some Queens neighborhoods a little more distant from me.

I'll make a long term plan for the front, but my days of cutting the grass in the back are over -- especially since I've been complaining about not having enough flower and veggie space for several years now.

[wildeyed]

6. My sis has an elderly Italian neighbor who comes over the fence to grow veggies in her yard.

He babies the herbs and veggies, but studiously ignores the ornamentals. He never takes any of the food either. For him, growing food crop on available land seems to be a moral imperative. I am so jealous. What I wouldn't give for a neighbor like that.

[LiberalEsto]

7. Try interplanting veggies with flowers

I first saw this done at Kew Gardens outside London some years ago. You can tuck beets and red lettuce between your annuals for background color, for example.

A few years ago I grew a Brandywine tomato next to a big rose bush and they both did very well. Roses and tomatoes help each other grow.