Perfect answer to oversized suburban lots and the food crisis!

[wildeyed]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120882472974233235.html?mod=residential_real_estate

Green Acres II: When Neighbors Become Farmers

BOULDER, Colo. -- When suburbanites look out their front doors, a lot of them want to see a lush green lawn. Kipp Nash wants to see vegetables, and not all of his neighbors are thrilled.

"I'd rather see green grass" than brown dirt patches, says 82-year-old Florence Tatum, who lives in Mr. Nash's Boulder neighborhood, across the street from a house with a freshly dug manure patch out front. "But those days are slipping away."

Since 2006, Mr. Nash, 31, has uprooted his backyard and the front or back yards of eight of his Boulder neighbors, turning them into minifarms growing tomatoes, bok choy, garlic and beets. Between May and September, he gives weekly bagfuls of fresh-picked vegetables and herbs to people here who have bought "shares" of his farming operation. Neighbors who lend their yards to the effort are paid in free produce and yard work.

This model would work in my 1960's traditional neighborhood. We all have these ridiculous oversized front yard, many in full sun. So hard to maintain and they produce nothing. At least my kids and dogs play in the backyard, but the front is purely for show.

I think many of the neighbors would object to this type of project, but if the food crisis continues to deepen, they might be converted to a new way of looking at the space.

Also, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x144338

[sazemisery]

1. Not to mention the cost of keeping the grass green by watering

A lot of water wasted on a lawn.

[Blue Gardener]

2. We can't grow veggies in the front yard

Some communites, including mine, don't allow it. I have pots of tomatoes on my porch and sometimes put pepper plants in the flower bed. The back yard is too shady for a veggie garden. Maybe it's time to petition the city council for a change. If food prices continue to skyrocket more people may become agreeable to the idea.

[wildeyed]

4. Some people have had similar problems with their clothes lines.

To save energy, they put a clothes line in the yard and then the homeowners association makes them take it down. Some areas now have laws protecting the lowly clothesline from rapacious HOAs.

My neighborhood is older, no HOA. But If I did a traditional veggie garden like the ones in the article, I think I would get plenty of blowback from my neighbors.

I do think that an edible landscape could be done on a smaller scale that would also be quite attractive. Blueberries bushes are pretty, as are many herbs and greens. Recently I see rainbow chard all the time in commercial cool weather ornamental plantings.

[noamnety]

5. I would recommend petitioning the city.

And in the meantime, lots of edibles can be disguised into a regular flower bed, with the right landscaping. Jerusalem artichokes = sunflowers. Green beans could probably be interwoven with morning glories and nobody would be the wiser. Lots of leafy greens can be attractive shorter border plants. If you aren't growing in traditional "rows" I think you can push the boundaries a lot more. And if someone complains, then it's time to discuss whether hostas (whose young shoots are eaten in some countries), daylilies (edibles), etc all need to be banned, and what exactly their criteria is.

[Blue Gardener]

6. That's my plan

If I keep expanding the flower garden and hiding a few veggies in there I don't think anyone will be the wiser. It's not like I have room for a big watermelon patch or pumpkin patch anyway.

[Shallah Kali]

8. A 10 yr old girl petitioned her city council to keep hens in the city & won in ME!

http://www.sailzora.com/SoPoChickens.htm

I hope you achieve victory as well whether politically or by Terrorist Plots ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-trueman/a-terroirist-plot-on-amer_b_98172.html )

[Blue Gardener]

3. We can't grow veggies in the front yard

Some communites, including mine, don't allow it. I have pots of tomatoes on my porch and sometimes put pepper plants in the flower bed. The back yard is too shady for a veggie garden. Maybe it's time to petition the city council for a change. If food prices continue to skyrocket more people may become agreeable to the idea.

[Mist]

7. This is something I'm very interested in. I bought small house recently

with a lot of yard. I totally suck at gardening, but would like to make part of my yard available to gardeners. How, and in what place, would I advertise for prospective gardeners? I was thinking Craig's List, as I've had fast response time posting stuff for sale there.

[wildeyed]

12. Or maybe a community garden group?

Some communities sponsor a garden on public land for people who want to garden but don't have space. Maybe they could put you in contact with someone who would farm your plot for you.

[ThomWV]

9. When we lived in Miami we grew pole beans on our fence.

I asked the neighbors if they cared, they didn't, so my cousin (roommate) and I planted pole beans along the fenceline of our rented house. We ate and so did they, everyone was happy. Every place we rented when we were young ended up with a tomato ring, when we lived in the Grove it was a regular stop for all of the neighbors and the trashmen too. There was plenty for all. Even when it was as little a thing as cherry tomatoes in a pot on the porch we've always had some sort of garden growning. Can't be without one.

[Gold Metal Flake]

10. What is a tomato ring?

My garden is modest this year, just to try it out. I do want to go larger next year and add beans and peas and other things.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

11. THE JAPANESE TOMATO RING

The “Japanese” Tomato Ring has a long and interesting story. It was first created by a Charleston, SC postman about 40 years ago. It seems a Miami newspaper reporter, Eddie Jones, interviewed Mr. Callahan (the postman) about the Tomato. As Mr. Callahan and Mr. Jones inspected the tomato ring, they talked about tomatoes and Mr. Callahan’s tours in North Africa, Europe and Japan when he was in the Air Force. Somehow or another, Mr. Jones got his facts confused and ended up thinking that the idea for the tomato ring originated in Japan, when in fact, Mr. Callahan just started implementing the idea on his farm in South Carolina.

(Just as an aside, it was Mr. Jones who coined the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” for the area where ships and planes sometimes spookily disappeared east of Florida.)

The story about the Japanese Tomato Ring ran year after year in the Miami Herald, and was picked up by other newspapers across the country. It came to Louisville, when Mr. and Mrs. Bob Rogers were traveling south for a vacation, saw the story in a Macon, Georgia newspaper, brought it home and tried out the idea. Mr. Rogers was so impressed with the tomato production using this method that he called Fred Wiche to do a story about it.

When I first started this job, I had a bunch of requests for “Fred’s Japanese Tomato Ring”, but I didn’t have Fred’s files with the instructions. Then finally, one day, just in passing, Paul Rogers---the 84WHAS Sportscaster Extraordinaire---told me that it was his dad who gave Fred the instructions. Small world isn’t it? Here’s how it goes:

You’ll need about 80 quarts of good topsoil. Mr. Rogers buys two bags of topsoil for each ring. If you have an excess of good garden soil, use that; it will take about two wheelbarrows full.


http://jpdurbin.net/recipes/japanese_tomato_ring.htm

[Gold Metal Flake]

14. Weird. Thanks!

[hippywife]

13. I have a friend

who lives in an older neighborhood in the city and she took out her whole backyard and a lot of the front, too, and planted an organic vegetable garden. It's really amazing.