Leave a comment

6 Comments

  1. I put a veggie garden in my front lawn for three reasons:

    1. My dogs dig up everything I plant in the backyard.
    2. I think lawns are evil and should be illegal in a state that suffers from drought as much as Georgia does, and
    3. In protest of all of the gardeners nationwide who have been harassed, threatened, fined, and even arrested by local governments for having the unmitigated gall to have a garden.

    Firing the kids that used to charge me twice what they should have for mowing my lawn was a nice bonus.

  2. I replaced my back lawn with Dymondia and Prostate Myoporum both of which look amazing and are very water thrifty.

  3. A border consisting of one native channel island plant, butterfly weed (got a BUNCH of monarch caterpillars this year), some super bee friendly plants (african blue basil), some succulents, alstromeria, gaura, and a non-productive pomegranate :/. The border is to discourage dogs since they’re kind of taller growing.. the rest of the ‘lawn’ was replaced with raised planting beds. I’m trying to see if I can grow a goji berry hedge on the west border.. these grow really well in L.A.

  4. I’ve been growing clover instead of grass here in the bay area (just south of SF). Usually clover needs lots of water, but I’ve found some varieties are very sturdy in our heat. Territorial Seed company has a good selection of cover crops, including beautiful scarlet clover for the winter and Palestinian clover for the summer. It doesn’t look as even as grass, and starts looking a bit straggly in the high summer, but it sure brings lots of bees. And I can use it as greens for my neighbor’s guinea pigs and for my hens. I like the nitrogen-fixing qualities too. My two kiddos trample the heck out of it and it grows back pretty well; definitely not as sturdy as grass, but just as much fun to roll around in.

  5. I haven’t taken up the entire front lawn, but I have planted several fruit trees, built a raised blueberry bed, and a larger raised bed for annual vegetables. Meanwhile, I overseeded the grass with clover, and have been experimenting with “tractoring” rabbits – kind of like a chicken tractor, but with wire below as well to prevent digging out. I’m hoping to breed selectively for good growth on pasturing, instead of exclusively pelleted feed. But the vegetables, blueberries, asparagus, apples, peaches, and elderberries are pretty nice, too.

  6. Out front I removed grass and green blobs for three raised beds, three large blueberry bushed, two small asparagus plots, way too much mint, and other assorted herbs. I’m working on putting more flowers to keep the neighbors happy. Last summer we had nine foot sun-chokes and a tomato jungle. Yes, the city did give us a nasty gram.

Comments are closed.