Archive for the ‘Elevated garden beds’ Category
Comment on Save Paul James, Gardening by the Yard Cancelled, HGTV == Bad by LINDA DICANIO
April 1st, 2009 
I’m angry.
Scripps Networks, owners of HGTV, are canning Gardening by the Yard and other gardening shows.
I want to swear and curse them out, I consider myself sailor quality in those activities, but this is a family blog so I’ll leave it to your imagination.
HGTV has forgotten the second letter in their name. As chronicled here they’ve been dropping gardening content for years, and little of what they do have is more like, as the link above says, using plants as design elements rather than things to cultivate.
Now they’re cancelling the one, one, educational gardening (as opposed to landscape design show) they have left. As you can read here they say.
They said gardening doesn’t sell and only old people garden. Well, we may be a seasoned, thrifty bunch, but gardening is still the #1 hobby in America.
This is a lie. Young people are in to gardening at unprecedented levels nowadays because young people are into being green and gardening, especially things like growing your own food, is green. There are 25 year old homesteaders out there trying to grow all their own food, this is not an activity for just old people. And with the economic crisis this has only increased. If anything HGTV should have made this move 4 years ago when people where all just interested in flipping houses rather than working the land, but to do it now when the pendulum is swinging the other way is ridiculous.
I am only 28 years old, I’ve been gardening all my life and I garden with a passion. Even for the few years when I lived in an apartment I had a patio garden (from the ground our patio looked like a jungle). I am smart, successful, young, technologically hip, and a big time gardener, and I’m not alone. So to say Paul James doesn’t appeal to young people is ridiculous. My youngest brother likes him too, he is only 20 and has been watching Paul James since he was probably 12.
I’ve learned so much from Paul. I would probably have not gotten more interested in dwarf conifers had it not been for him. I wouldn’t know what the heck a blue atlas cedar was had I not seen that beautiful specimen in his yard so many times. Paul taught me all about soil and especially about compost, I probably saw my first compost tumbler on his show. I’ve learned about vegetables from him, I’ve learned about trees. I’ve learned how to put in a rock wall, and how to build a fountain. And the only times I got close to bored was when Paul wasn’t on the screen.
Paul James is the Alton Brown of HGTV (or is Alton the Paul James of Food Network?). He is both entertaining and educational, a mix that is hard to find. He is the ultimate TV gardening personality (note to Paul though, this did not translate to your cooking show.). To say young people are not going to be interested in him as opposed to interested in a show where someone with a $30,000 a year income buys a $800,000 house? Or someone puts in a million dollar yard we can certainly all relate too? Please.
Is PBS going to be the only channel with gardening content? And what then, what do we have? Victory Garden which is slow and meandering and not nearly as entertaining (and invariably just about gardening on the coasts or at professional public gardens), or Smart Gardening which is so much filler content to fill 30 minutes? (“Today’s Smart Gardening Tips, exactly the same as last weeks: Choose the Best Plants, Water Well, and Have Fun!”)
If Paul James is cancelled he should get a show on Discovery Green. That channel is a little pretentious at times, and sometimes a little out of the mainstream, but I find myself watching it more and more. I think Paul would be a good fit there.
Either that, or, fulfill my dream of Paul, Alton Brown, and Les Stroud (Discovery’s Survivorman) going off on adventures together trying to live off wild foragables. That would be an awesome show.
There is a protest being organized to help save the show, don’t think it can’t work. Fans of CBS’ “Jericho” sent tons of nuts to CBS’ offices and managed to save that show for another season. Scrubs was cancelled by NBC, and picked up by ABC, same thing happened with Buffy. It can happen, show your support. The protest campaign is here.
Oh, date aside, this is no joke.
Oh, and if anyone from HGTV reads this. Paul James is the youngest person you have on your network. Age is not appearance of grey hair, age is a state of mind. And tell me, who acts more like a kid than him?
Comment on Save Paul James, Gardening by the Yard Cancelled, HGTV == Bad by Rosemary
April 1st, 2009 
I’m angry.
Scripps Networks, owners of HGTV, are canning Gardening by the Yard and other gardening shows.
I want to swear and curse them out, I consider myself sailor quality in those activities, but this is a family blog so I’ll leave it to your imagination.
HGTV has forgotten the second letter in their name. As chronicled here they’ve been dropping gardening content for years, and little of what they do have is more like, as the link above says, using plants as design elements rather than things to cultivate.
Now they’re cancelling the one, one, educational gardening (as opposed to landscape design show) they have left. As you can read here they say.
They said gardening doesn’t sell and only old people garden. Well, we may be a seasoned, thrifty bunch, but gardening is still the #1 hobby in America.
This is a lie. Young people are in to gardening at unprecedented levels nowadays because young people are into being green and gardening, especially things like growing your own food, is green. There are 25 year old homesteaders out there trying to grow all their own food, this is not an activity for just old people. And with the economic crisis this has only increased. If anything HGTV should have made this move 4 years ago when people where all just interested in flipping houses rather than working the land, but to do it now when the pendulum is swinging the other way is ridiculous.
I am only 28 years old, I’ve been gardening all my life and I garden with a passion. Even for the few years when I lived in an apartment I had a patio garden (from the ground our patio looked like a jungle). I am smart, successful, young, technologically hip, and a big time gardener, and I’m not alone. So to say Paul James doesn’t appeal to young people is ridiculous. My youngest brother likes him too, he is only 20 and has been watching Paul James since he was probably 12.
I’ve learned so much from Paul. I would probably have not gotten more interested in dwarf conifers had it not been for him. I wouldn’t know what the heck a blue atlas cedar was had I not seen that beautiful specimen in his yard so many times. Paul taught me all about soil and especially about compost, I probably saw my first compost tumbler on his show. I’ve learned about vegetables from him, I’ve learned about trees. I’ve learned how to put in a rock wall, and how to build a fountain. And the only times I got close to bored was when Paul wasn’t on the screen.
Paul James is the Alton Brown of HGTV (or is Alton the Paul James of Food Network?). He is both entertaining and educational, a mix that is hard to find. He is the ultimate TV gardening personality (note to Paul though, this did not translate to your cooking show.). To say young people are not going to be interested in him as opposed to interested in a show where someone with a $30,000 a year income buys a $800,000 house? Or someone puts in a million dollar yard we can certainly all relate too? Please.
Is PBS going to be the only channel with gardening content? And what then, what do we have? Victory Garden which is slow and meandering and not nearly as entertaining (and invariably just about gardening on the coasts or at professional public gardens), or Smart Gardening which is so much filler content to fill 30 minutes? (“Today’s Smart Gardening Tips, exactly the same as last weeks: Choose the Best Plants, Water Well, and Have Fun!”)
If Paul James is cancelled he should get a show on Discovery Green. That channel is a little pretentious at times, and sometimes a little out of the mainstream, but I find myself watching it more and more. I think Paul would be a good fit there.
Either that, or, fulfill my dream of Paul, Alton Brown, and Les Stroud (Discovery’s Survivorman) going off on adventures together trying to live off wild foragables. That would be an awesome show.
There is a protest being organized to help save the show, don’t think it can’t work. Fans of CBS’ “Jericho” sent tons of nuts to CBS’ offices and managed to save that show for another season. Scrubs was cancelled by NBC, and picked up by ABC, same thing happened with Buffy. It can happen, show your support. The protest campaign is here.
Oh, date aside, this is no joke.
Oh, and if anyone from HGTV reads this. Paul James is the youngest person you have on your network. Age is not appearance of grey hair, age is a state of mind. And tell me, who acts more like a kid than him?
Comment on Trees as Time Capsule by Charles M
October 16th, 2010
I romanticize about gardening and landscaping sometimes, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I often fantasize about what impact I can leave on this world, what I can build that will exist after I am gone.
Trees live for hundreds or thousands of years, and since they reseed, your actions in planting a tree, even if the tree doesn’t live that long, can affect the environment for, well, forever so long as man doesn’t get in the way.
There is a small public wetlands/park area by my house, it is public land and is completely enclosed on all sides by development. It is probably about 1 square mile and is trisected by walking paths. I’ve planted wild flowers back there before, and I know other locals have too, even a few trees. Some guy has put up bird houses. The people who live by it tend to take care of it.
It is the perfect place for bald cypresses, none of which grow near it, and which are beautiful trees that get quite large, and can live a long time. I know they can live in this climate, there is one in town someone has in their yard that is probably approaching 70 feet. I bought some seeds on eBay that I will start them into the Spring after I have given them the necessary cold treatment. Then, one they’re growing, next summer or fall, I will transplant them back into that area and pray the couple deer don’t eat them.
I won’t live in this area forever, I’ll probably move in 5 years, so I won’t get to enjoy the trees once they grow (if they grow) but someone will, and the animals will. In a hundred years, I will be gone, but those trees could still be there, and people may wonder how bald cypresses ended up growing there East Lansing Michigan. Well world, it was me, I did it.
My parents live a few hours north of me in a rural area and live more or less in the middle of the woods. There are a lot of deer, a lot of deer, rabbits, turkeys, opossums, raccoons, all the woodland animals. But not a lot of squirrels. There are also no oak trees in their forest. I have no idea why, but there isn’t. They have a lot of birch, of poplar, of hemlock, fir, and spruce, but no oaks. Meanwhile, down here in the suburbs where oaks have been prolifically planted, we have squirrels all over the place. I have always thought it was odd that more squirrels should live in the suburbs (where they get routinely flattened) than in the forest.
So I collected a bunch of acorns and sent them up for my brother who still lives at home to plant. Trees grown from seed always grow faster, especially initially, than those grafted. Additionally, with oaks, when grown from an acorn they have a better chance of growing a good taproot, thus being stronger and harder to uproot. To plant them you just pretend you’re a squirrel and dig down 2 or 3 inches and drop them in like you’re hoarding for winter (the same deal with walnut or pecan). Not all will grow, but some will, and if they mature they will be the first oaks in the forest, perhaps eventually spreading and colonizing more areas. The trees will provide habitat, and the acorns food for many forest animals. The squirrel population will explode.
It will be many years before that happens, the house may still be in my family, though, and even if it isn’t, the oaks will be providing wildlife habitat, I will have changed the local ecosystem like Johnny Appleseed, the effects of which could be felt for hundreds or thousands of years.
I’m sure there are some people who think “interfering” in nature is wrong, but I’m not one of them, if I want to plant a tree I’ll do it, it isn’t as if I’m planting something invasive. They may not naturally grow in the area, but they wouldn’t be wholly out of place. It is one way I can change the future, and I think that is pretty cool.
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Comment on Trees as Time Capsule by Chris Karl
October 16th, 2010
I romanticize about gardening and landscaping sometimes, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I often fantasize about what impact I can leave on this world, what I can build that will exist after I am gone.
Trees live for hundreds or thousands of years, and since they reseed, your actions in planting a tree, even if the tree doesn’t live that long, can affect the environment for, well, forever so long as man doesn’t get in the way.
There is a small public wetlands/park area by my house, it is public land and is completely enclosed on all sides by development. It is probably about 1 square mile and is trisected by walking paths. I’ve planted wild flowers back there before, and I know other locals have too, even a few trees. Some guy has put up bird houses. The people who live by it tend to take care of it.
It is the perfect place for bald cypresses, none of which grow near it, and which are beautiful trees that get quite large, and can live a long time. I know they can live in this climate, there is one in town someone has in their yard that is probably approaching 70 feet. I bought some seeds on eBay that I will start them into the Spring after I have given them the necessary cold treatment. Then, one they’re growing, next summer or fall, I will transplant them back into that area and pray the couple deer don’t eat them.
I won’t live in this area forever, I’ll probably move in 5 years, so I won’t get to enjoy the trees once they grow (if they grow) but someone will, and the animals will. In a hundred years, I will be gone, but those trees could still be there, and people may wonder how bald cypresses ended up growing there East Lansing Michigan. Well world, it was me, I did it.
My parents live a few hours north of me in a rural area and live more or less in the middle of the woods. There are a lot of deer, a lot of deer, rabbits, turkeys, opossums, raccoons, all the woodland animals. But not a lot of squirrels. There are also no oak trees in their forest. I have no idea why, but there isn’t. They have a lot of birch, of poplar, of hemlock, fir, and spruce, but no oaks. Meanwhile, down here in the suburbs where oaks have been prolifically planted, we have squirrels all over the place. I have always thought it was odd that more squirrels should live in the suburbs (where they get routinely flattened) than in the forest.
So I collected a bunch of acorns and sent them up for my brother who still lives at home to plant. Trees grown from seed always grow faster, especially initially, than those grafted. Additionally, with oaks, when grown from an acorn they have a better chance of growing a good taproot, thus being stronger and harder to uproot. To plant them you just pretend you’re a squirrel and dig down 2 or 3 inches and drop them in like you’re hoarding for winter (the same deal with walnut or pecan). Not all will grow, but some will, and if they mature they will be the first oaks in the forest, perhaps eventually spreading and colonizing more areas. The trees will provide habitat, and the acorns food for many forest animals. The squirrel population will explode.
It will be many years before that happens, the house may still be in my family, though, and even if it isn’t, the oaks will be providing wildlife habitat, I will have changed the local ecosystem like Johnny Appleseed, the effects of which could be felt for hundreds or thousands of years.
I’m sure there are some people who think “interfering” in nature is wrong, but I’m not one of them, if I want to plant a tree I’ll do it, it isn’t as if I’m planting something invasive. They may not naturally grow in the area, but they wouldn’t be wholly out of place. It is one way I can change the future, and I think that is pretty cool.
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Comment on Pictures of My Front Yard by Diane Mumm
May 28th, 2009
My front yard is looking really good this year, and I thought I would share a picture. Here it is circa May 23rd 2009.
Click the picture to see it bigger. The two smaller beds are brand new, I’ve got two dwarf apples and a paw paw tree planted in them, as well as some vegetables. In the big circle center bed I’ve got a tanyosho pine surrounded by alliums for the time being. Later I will plant squash there, as the squirrels instructed me last year apparently it is a good place for squash.
I’ve got a red maple in the small circle coming up out of a bed of frothing yellow lysimachia ground cover. Then within the bigger bed itself I’ve got an upright blue juniper, some red barberries, a black lace elderberry, lilies, daylilies, yucca, and in bloom all over you see carpet phlox.
Way up by the road you can see the pre-bloom ditchlilies I used to fill the space between the sidewalk and the road.
Next year or this fall, whenever I can afford it, I hope to put in a stone patio between the two larger beds in that S-shaped strip of grass. Something informal with a low groundcover going through the cracks.
Comment on Trees as Time Capsule by Chris Karl
October 16th, 2010
I romanticize about gardening and landscaping sometimes, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I often fantasize about what impact I can leave on this world, what I can build that will exist after I am gone.
Trees live for hundreds or thousands of years, and since they reseed, your actions in planting a tree, even if the tree doesn’t live that long, can affect the environment for, well, forever so long as man doesn’t get in the way.
There is a small public wetlands/park area by my house, it is public land and is completely enclosed on all sides by development. It is probably about 1 square mile and is trisected by walking paths. I’ve planted wild flowers back there before, and I know other locals have too, even a few trees. Some guy has put up bird houses. The people who live by it tend to take care of it.
It is the perfect place for bald cypresses, none of which grow near it, and which are beautiful trees that get quite large, and can live a long time. I know they can live in this climate, there is one in town someone has in their yard that is probably approaching 70 feet. I bought some seeds on eBay that I will start them into the Spring after I have given them the necessary cold treatment. Then, one they’re growing, next summer or fall, I will transplant them back into that area and pray the couple deer don’t eat them.
I won’t live in this area forever, I’ll probably move in 5 years, so I won’t get to enjoy the trees once they grow (if they grow) but someone will, and the animals will. In a hundred years, I will be gone, but those trees could still be there, and people may wonder how bald cypresses ended up growing there East Lansing Michigan. Well world, it was me, I did it.
My parents live a few hours north of me in a rural area and live more or less in the middle of the woods. There are a lot of deer, a lot of deer, rabbits, turkeys, opossums, raccoons, all the woodland animals. But not a lot of squirrels. There are also no oak trees in their forest. I have no idea why, but there isn’t. They have a lot of birch, of poplar, of hemlock, fir, and spruce, but no oaks. Meanwhile, down here in the suburbs where oaks have been prolifically planted, we have squirrels all over the place. I have always thought it was odd that more squirrels should live in the suburbs (where they get routinely flattened) than in the forest.
So I collected a bunch of acorns and sent them up for my brother who still lives at home to plant. Trees grown from seed always grow faster, especially initially, than those grafted. Additionally, with oaks, when grown from an acorn they have a better chance of growing a good taproot, thus being stronger and harder to uproot. To plant them you just pretend you’re a squirrel and dig down 2 or 3 inches and drop them in like you’re hoarding for winter (the same deal with walnut or pecan). Not all will grow, but some will, and if they mature they will be the first oaks in the forest, perhaps eventually spreading and colonizing more areas. The trees will provide habitat, and the acorns food for many forest animals. The squirrel population will explode.
It will be many years before that happens, the house may still be in my family, though, and even if it isn’t, the oaks will be providing wildlife habitat, I will have changed the local ecosystem like Johnny Appleseed, the effects of which could be felt for hundreds or thousands of years.
I’m sure there are some people who think “interfering” in nature is wrong, but I’m not one of them, if I want to plant a tree I’ll do it, it isn’t as if I’m planting something invasive. They may not naturally grow in the area, but they wouldn’t be wholly out of place. It is one way I can change the future, and I think that is pretty cool.
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Comment on Using Pressure Treated Lumber in Raised Garden Beds by mel
April 12th, 2009
Short Answer: Yes, it is safe. Long Answer: Read On…
I am a man of science. I don’t believe in anecdotes, and having an analytical mind and having been exposed to rigorous scientific study in college when I was a research assistant in a lab, as well as of course the academic work in college, I’ve always looked at things scientifically, and today I’m going to look at pressure treated lumber.
Many people and sites and magazines will say you shouldn’t use pressure treated lumber, it is bad and will leach dangerous chemicals like arsenic into the soil and it’ll get in your plants and give you cancer.
Okay, there are a lot of assumptions there, and assumptions are bad.
I’m sure we all know the story of fish and mercury right? Mercury gets in the water and the fish drink the water, and since mercury and other heavy metals do not get metabolized, they can permanently build up in fish flesh (this is like lead poisoning in humans). Then predatory fish eat the little fish and they get even more mercury build up. Then humans eat the predatory fish and we get mercury poisoning.
So why can’t the same thing work with plants and treated lumber? Well you have to assume the lumber leaches dangerous quantities of dangerous compounds into the soil, then you have to assume that the leaching travels adequate distance in the soil, then you have to assume that the plant roots take up the compounds and do not metabolize them (remember, plants metabolize many dangerous compounds, house plants clean our homes of dangerous carcinogens) into some other compound. Then you have to assume that the compound is stored in the part of the plant that we eat and at dangerous levels.
There are a lot of assumptions, and just one break in the chain breaks the risk.
CCA lumber contains chromium, copper, and arsenic. Chromium isn’t that toxic and only if we inhale it. Copper isn’t toxic to mammals, and in fact it is used in some skin creams and whatnot. Arsenic is the bad one, a known carcinogen, something to be avoided. Did you know the Romans used to use it as makeup? But people didn’t live long back then anyways.
The truth is arsenic is everywhere, it naturally occurs in soil and water and we eat small amounts of it everyday. The type in CCA wood (inorganic arsenic) is more toxic than the natural types, but just for reference, it is already in the food you grow.
According to this article, which is an excellent source. Studies have been done showing most leaching only occurs during the first rainy season, and that it doesn’t leach more than a few inches from the wood. Then, most plants do not take it up from the soil, the ones that do in only small amounts, and the arsenic is stored in the parts we do not eat. For instance carrots grown in a control bed had 0.05 parts per million arsenic, those in a bed with CCA lumber had 0.11 parts per million, a doubling, but still a very small amount, and carrots were one of the worst (root vegetables in general were the worst since that is where the plants store arsenic).
So, is CCA lumber safe? Well, you can leave it out for one year letting the initial leaching get over. Then you can build your beds and line it with plastic sheeting or roofing fabric or some other membrane to stop leaching, and you can not plant root vegetables in it or near the sides of it where the leaching take place.
All told, by looking at the science, I do not think anyone needs to worry about growing vegetables in CCA lumber beds. Sure, you could use cedar, and pay 8x the price (if you can even find cedar in a 2×10 or 2×12 which is my preferred size), but CCA would be fine.
Should you go out and buy CCA pressure treated lumber to build your raised beds? Well no, you can’t. You see, despite the tiny safety risk, CCA pressure treated lumber was banned for consumer use by the EPA in 2003. Any pressure treated lumber manufactured for consumer use after that date has no arsenic in it. The ban all told was a better safe than sorry issue grown out of kids touching/playing on/eating off of/ CCA playground equipment, not garden contamination, but nevertheless, for the last 5 years pressure treated lumber has not contained arsenic.
So, for those worrying about it, don’t. Save yourself a few hundred dollars and get pressure treated lumber for your raised bed or other garden projects. It is cheaper than cedar, and worry free. Even if it still contained arsenic it’d be pretty safe, but it doesn’t even have that small risk anymore.
Comment on Using Pressure Treated Lumber in Raised Garden Beds by mel
April 12th, 2009
Short Answer: Yes, it is safe. Long Answer: Read On…
I am a man of science. I don’t believe in anecdotes, and having an analytical mind and having been exposed to rigorous scientific study in college when I was a research assistant in a lab, as well as of course the academic work in college, I’ve always looked at things scientifically, and today I’m going to look at pressure treated lumber.
Many people and sites and magazines will say you shouldn’t use pressure treated lumber, it is bad and will leach dangerous chemicals like arsenic into the soil and it’ll get in your plants and give you cancer.
Okay, there are a lot of assumptions there, and assumptions are bad.
I’m sure we all know the story of fish and mercury right? Mercury gets in the water and the fish drink the water, and since mercury and other heavy metals do not get metabolized, they can permanently build up in fish flesh (this is like lead poisoning in humans). Then predatory fish eat the little fish and they get even more mercury build up. Then humans eat the predatory fish and we get mercury poisoning.
So why can’t the same thing work with plants and treated lumber? Well you have to assume the lumber leaches dangerous quantities of dangerous compounds into the soil, then you have to assume that the leaching travels adequate distance in the soil, then you have to assume that the plant roots take up the compounds and do not metabolize them (remember, plants metabolize many dangerous compounds, house plants clean our homes of dangerous carcinogens) into some other compound. Then you have to assume that the compound is stored in the part of the plant that we eat and at dangerous levels.
There are a lot of assumptions, and just one break in the chain breaks the risk.
CCA lumber contains chromium, copper, and arsenic. Chromium isn’t that toxic and only if we inhale it. Copper isn’t toxic to mammals, and in fact it is used in some skin creams and whatnot. Arsenic is the bad one, a known carcinogen, something to be avoided. Did you know the Romans used to use it as makeup? But people didn’t live long back then anyways.
The truth is arsenic is everywhere, it naturally occurs in soil and water and we eat small amounts of it everyday. The type in CCA wood (inorganic arsenic) is more toxic than the natural types, but just for reference, it is already in the food you grow.
According to this article, which is an excellent source. Studies have been done showing most leaching only occurs during the first rainy season, and that it doesn’t leach more than a few inches from the wood. Then, most plants do not take it up from the soil, the ones that do in only small amounts, and the arsenic is stored in the parts we do not eat. For instance carrots grown in a control bed had 0.05 parts per million arsenic, those in a bed with CCA lumber had 0.11 parts per million, a doubling, but still a very small amount, and carrots were one of the worst (root vegetables in general were the worst since that is where the plants store arsenic).
So, is CCA lumber safe? Well, you can leave it out for one year letting the initial leaching get over. Then you can build your beds and line it with plastic sheeting or roofing fabric or some other membrane to stop leaching, and you can not plant root vegetables in it or near the sides of it where the leaching take place.
All told, by looking at the science, I do not think anyone needs to worry about growing vegetables in CCA lumber beds. Sure, you could use cedar, and pay 8x the price (if you can even find cedar in a 2×10 or 2×12 which is my preferred size), but CCA would be fine.
Should you go out and buy CCA pressure treated lumber to build your raised beds? Well no, you can’t. You see, despite the tiny safety risk, CCA pressure treated lumber was banned for consumer use by the EPA in 2003. Any pressure treated lumber manufactured for consumer use after that date has no arsenic in it. The ban all told was a better safe than sorry issue grown out of kids touching/playing on/eating off of/ CCA playground equipment, not garden contamination, but nevertheless, for the last 5 years pressure treated lumber has not contained arsenic.
So, for those worrying about it, don’t. Save yourself a few hundred dollars and get pressure treated lumber for your raised bed or other garden projects. It is cheaper than cedar, and worry free. Even if it still contained arsenic it’d be pretty safe, but it doesn’t even have that small risk anymore.
Comment on Front Yard Farming by Scott Weber
September 3rd, 2010
I’ve seen articles recently about global food shortages and feeding our populations and whatnot, bunch of scare tactics mostly, but when you sit down and think about it, there is a lot of land that could be used to grow food, but isn’t.
Highway medians, roadsides, parks, but mostly, front yards.
Some backwards and oppressive cities have ordinances requiring you to have x percentage of front yard as perfectly green lawn, and if you try to put in garden beds, xeriscaping, or just don’t remember to water, they fine you.
Garden beds require less fertilizer, less water, and less labor than lawn, and can make you money when used right. Sure, kids can’t play in gardens like they can on lawns, but unless you live on a very low traffic street, you want them playing in the back yard anyways. On my street, which is 4 lanes, I put in a new super secure gate as soon as my son learned to walk just to make sure he can never go into the front yard.
So, assuming you don’t live in a third reich city and can plant your front yard as you wish, why not get rid of the grass and put in planter beds? On a side note, I think it is funny the same sort of people who put in the stupid lawn ordinances are the types who act like chicken littles about food shortages.
My front yard is full of planting beds and I add a new one or two every year (it is almost an addiction for me).
I grow a mix of ornamentals and edibles in my front yard, I’m too much of a landscape artist to fully commit to just utilitarian gardening like I showed in this blog post on growing your own food. Plus, I want to sell this house one day (probably in about 5 years) so I have to be cognizant of resale value.
Right now, in addition to the sweet potatoes, apple trees, pawpaw tree, and herbs I am growing in my front yard, I’ve got a ginormous 15′x15′ mound of butternut squash. My wife calls it “The Blob” and we always see people walking by scoping it out. A few years ago squirrels told me where to plant my squash and so I did so this year. Butternut squash are versatile in the kitchen, and fairly easy to grow. A little supplemental watering if there is a drought, and that is it. They can be affected by powdering mildew, so a fungicide can be helpful, but they are one of few squash varieties resistant to squash vine borer.
I’m letting the blob grow all it wants, I’ll just mow around it (not that I’ve had to mow, we’ve had a drought lately, hence the wilty leaves). I’ll probably get 60 pounds of squash off of these plants, all for the price of a pack of seeds. It might not be the most attractive thing in the world, but a squash vine is not a permanent landscape feature, it can be removed at any time. So to grow it or another vine (such as watermellon) in your front yard all you need is a small planting hole/mound (with improved soil please), and then let it spill over onto the grass, and mow around it. Unlike a crop like say corn, you don’t have to commit a large portion of your yard to permanent garden if you don’t want to. You could also grow pumpkins this way as a project for the kids.
For most squash you don’t even need to start them until June (or even later if you have a longer growing season than we do in Michigan), and they take a little while to get going, so it isn’t as if it’ll cover your yard for the entire summer either.
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Comment on Lunaria Annua ‘Money Plant’ by Administrator
August 4th, 2008
I got this plant courtesy of my grandfather, it is one of his favorites and always grew at his house in a large mass planting.
This is one interesting plant with many phases for you to enjoy.
It is a biennial, which means it lives for two years and then dies. The first year it grows around 6 inches or so high, it takes the snow without losing it’s green, and then the second year it rapidly shoots up to spring to as high as 3 or 4 feet high and has bright purple flowers. It flowers in early Spring when there is not very much else of height flowering like it does, more or less between tulips and irises. It then slowly forms seed pods which then flake away revealing shiny silver disks, which give it it’s many names.
My grandfather called them “silver dollars” the more common names though seem to be “Money Plant” or “Honesty.” Apparently the plant can make you money as well. My grandfather always insisted that you could take the dried stalks with the shiny seed pod remnants and sell them to florists for big bucks. I don’t know about that, I’ve never tried it, but I do like this plant.
It reseeds very very well, you can literally just toss the seeds on the soil and they’ll grow. I cut down mature plants and just shake the seeds off and where they land they will germinate, but it isn’t really invasive, if it sprouts somewhere you do not want it to it is very easy to control.
Since it is a biennial I recommend planting your seeds one year, holding some back, and sowing those the next, so you get staggered plantings so that eventually you’ll have some plants blooming every year.
I’ve grown this plant in both full sun and part shade, even full shade, it doesn’t seem to care. I have noticed where it has grown in less than idea conditions (a seed germinates somewhere I didn’t mean for it to, but I let it grow anyways) it doesn’t grow as high or get as many blossoms, so it seems to really react well to good fertile soil, but that is about it.
I want to make an offer to blog readers, my seed pods are mostly ready about now, so if anyone mails me a self-addressed stamped envelope I will mail you back free seeds so you can get your own started. This offer is only good until the end of August though, and if like 100 people send me letters I may run out, but I’ll do my best to send everyone free seeds.
You can send your envelopes to
1836 N Harrison Rd
East Lansing, MI 48823
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