Front-yard gardening

Did anyone else catch Susan Mulvihill’s article today on several Spokanites who have replaced their front lawns with vegetable gardens? Give it a read when you have a couple of minutes.

Our main veggie garden is a 25-foot by 25-foot patch in our backyard, but we expanded to the front yard this year, too. And so far, our front yard is even more bountiful than the back. I just shot the photo above this afternoon. Please excuse the weeds. We’ve been gone for a couple of weeks and have some catching up to do. Oh, and yes, there’s an overcrowding issue. I’m still learning.

As you can see, we still have some grass. But maybe by next year, it’ll be gone.

I especially enjoyed this point made by Lisa Coleman in Susan’s article:

She says she would definitely recommend creating a front-yard vegetable garden to others.

“Our garden has helped us meet our neighbors and make friends. We plan to expand our front porch so neighbors can visit,” she says.

“To be able to go outside and pick your food is great. The cost was minimal because we grew nearly everything from seed. It has served our purpose of building community.”

My husband and I also are making plans to expand our front porch, and I’d like to build a lemonade stand-like structure so our daughters can “sell” the veggies they grow to neighbors (for a very reasonable price, I assure you).

Is anyone else making changes to their front yards, either to make better use of the land or to be more inviting to neighbors? I’d love to hear your story.

P.S. One of the sources in the article recommends the book “Food Not Lawns” by Heather C. Flores.