Local Man's Front-Yard Veggie Garden Spurs Bylaw Change

[chromedome]

I read about this last week, when they were still threatening to make him take it out. Presumably support from all of the neighbours except "that one person" (there's always one, right?) turned the tide.

 

https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/moncton-man-s-urban-garden-inspires-others-to-follow-suit-1.5011633

[heidih]

This has been common for years. The idiot is usually one understimulated pesky neighbor. I knew a guy who did his front in native grasses. BUT he was a lauded expert and cowered the authorities into a corner.  I had a neighbor who had her compost pile in the driveway. Pumpkins and enormous sunflowers in her front yard. When my cardoons bloomed she collected seed and said she was going to scatter thistle seed on her walks. That might have been a bit much but the plants are beautiful. In our on and off drought it has become quite acceptable.  Lawns no longer equal standard or lovely. 

[weinoo]

for years, nay decades, I have been bitching about (to no one who cares) front lawns. All lawns do is waste water and in a lot of cases, fertilizer.

Imagine how much healthier we'd be if everyone grew vegetables instead of turf.

[heidih]

Well drought gives ya a wake up call. We let all our lawns go. Just have gardeners weed wack  after rain (weeds).  Our lawn areas are not visible from the street. Don't let us start on Roundup settlement etc.  - I could go on forever

Edited July 8, 2020 by heidih (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

27 minutes ago, weinoo said:

for years, nay decades, I have been bitching about (to no one who cares) front lawns. All lawns do is waste water and in a lot of cases, fertilizer.

Imagine how much healthier we'd be if everyone grew vegetables instead of turf.

Lawns should be illegal in California.   We don't have the water to support them.

We have a horse watering trough in our front entrance where we grow herbs.    Looked kind of funny at first but I think it's just fine!   

[heidih]

19 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Lawns should be illegal in California.   We don't have the water to support them.

We have a horse watering trough in our front entrance where we grow herbs.    Looked kind of funny at first but I think it's just fine!   

 

 

Agree on lawns. I think your trough makes a lovely artistic statement especially with herbs peeking over top. Is it galvanjzed so it will mellow with age? My best basil ever was in the front yard. It would get HUGE. People knocked on the door asking if they could get a bit.  My half Viet god daughter would stick her nose in it and take bunches home (though it was Italian strain)

[chromedome]

When my grandmother was alive but battling dementia, my parents lived with her and provided in-home care for many years. A neighbour once asked my dad how he kept the lawn so green ("I never see you working on it...").

 

Dad: I use all low-maintenance native plants, so it doesn't really take much work.

Neighbour: That's really smart! (leaves)

Me: ...

 

...

 

So that's how you tell a neighbour "I've let it run to weeds," without making them upset?

Dad: Pretty much, yup.

[TicTac]

I have long held this belief.

 

I am slowly converting my front 'lawn' into a veggie garden.  Lawns are horrible for the environment.  The emissions created by lawnmowers and negative impacts of fertilizers, pesticides and other similar chemicals is astounding.

 

So much so that my wife and I have a running joke of the number of times my neighbour (obsessive about his lawn) will cut his lawn vs how often I will cut mine (for context, I have cut it twice so far this entire year vs. the 10-15 times he has, his!).

 

 

[weinoo]

You're on the right track.

 

In California, of course, a whole different story with drought. I remember my environmental geology teacher at SJSU bringing us to his house, where he not only had passive solar installed decades ago, but his front yard was basically stones and pebbles.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

You don't want me to start my rant on leaf-blowers.   One neighbor has a weekly gardener crew that spends a full 2 hours mowing (several small lawn patches),  trimming hedges and BLOWING CONSTANTLY.    I feel for the poor guy both listening to that roar at close range AND breathing the exhaust.   WRONG!

[kayb]

3 hours ago, heidih said:

This has been common for years. The idiot is usually one understimulated pesky neighbor. I knew a guy who did his front in native grasses. BUT he was a lauded expert and cowered the authorities into a corner.  I had a neighbor who had her compost pile in the driveway. Pumpkins and enormous sunflowers in her front yard. When my cardoons bloomed she collected seed and said she was going to scatter thistle seed on her walks. That might have been a bit much but the plants are beautiful. In our on and off drought it has become quite acceptable.  Lawns no longer equal standard or lovely. 

 

Agreed. I have better space for a garden in my front yard than in the back, where the shade trees are massive. But we have a huge lot (almost an acre). I do NOT water the lawn, nor do I spray it. The guy comes and cuts it once a week. I'm contemplating at least planting some fruit trees in the front yard.

 

1 hour ago, TicTac said:

I have long held this belief.

 

I am slowly converting my front 'lawn' into a veggie garden.  Lawns are horrible for the environment.  The emissions created by lawnmowers and negative impacts of fertilizers, pesticides and other similar chemicals is astounding.

 

So much so that my wife and I have a running joke of the number of times my neighbour (obsessive about his lawn) will cut his lawn vs how often I will cut mine (for context, I have cut it twice so far this entire year vs. the 10-15 times he has, his!).

 

 

 

I do love my back  yard -- it's great for the grandkids, and I'm probably going to put in an above-ground pool next summer.  I'm also adding at least two more raised beds, and planting blueberry and blackberry bushes along the fence where there's good sun. But it's decidedly more yard than I need.

[heidih]

Some cities ban blowers. My guys use them because property extensive but they blow into plant areas so "mulch" material. I see them doing into street at places. Really? Just gonna blow back. My allergies = not happy.  Bart an author here is the guy I mentioned earlier  http://www.cachumapress.com/catalog/california-lawn.html

[JoNorvelleWalker]

The Economist this week has an article on American vegetable gardening:

 

"From a selfish perspective, this hot quarrelsome month has brought two great joys to your columnist.  It gave him his first opportunity to take part in American democracy, in the form of a local election for which his foreign citizenship was no bar."

 

...

 

"To a European transplant, the notion of vegetable gardening having any kind of partisan hue is nuts.  Yet Lexington's experience suggests that such politicking will not stop its resurgence.  He expanded his vegetable plot -- to the sunny front of his house -- not because of the pandemic but after he finally mustered the courage to risk his neighbor's wrath.  Far from objecting, however, several have constructed raised beds of their own.  One neighbor, a distinguished law professor, even followed your columnist into the local dumpsters in search of the necessary planks."