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XP: Vegetables in front of the house?
Anyone have a vegetable bed in the front of the house? I replanted our front flower beds today (they were a wreck, pulled everything out) with shrubs and a square foot garden. The plan is, assuming the vegetables will grow there, to put a grid flat on the ground and to plant monkey grass or another similar plant around the garden itself to sort of hide it from the street.
Right now I have a grid made of strings that was easy to put up and will be easy to take down. I didn't want to spend time building and painting a grid if I'm going to end up hating the project in the end.
I'm planning to stick to fairly compact plants like cabbage and strawberries, and will keep something colorful planted in the front row. Right now I have ornamental peppers and marigolds in the front with vegetables in the back and shrubs behind that.
You mostly see what's colorful from the street b/c we're so far back, but I'm still trying to keep it tidy and appropriate for a front yard. One of our old neighbors had a vegetable garden on the side of their house and it looked terrible (might have been a maintenance issue but I wouldn't have described my old garden as landscape worthy either).
I'd like to grow some vegetables in the front, but don't want it to look like a mismanaged mess of wild plants. Has anyone done something similar to this? If so, do you mind sharing pictures?
I've picked up a few books on edible landscaping, but so far haven't found exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks
Re: XP: Vegetables in front of the house?
Our front yard is pretty big, and I've thrown in basil and broccoli with no issues. I don't see why you'd need to hide them, but if they make you feel better, go for it.
The grid idea sounds great from an organizational perspective.
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We're in a townhome that we rent. The "yard" is a patch of grass that's maybe 8 feet by 4 feet, and I'm not sure if it's ours to use.
So, I currently have a nice container garden growing out front. Nobody has minded it, and several people have commented on how fabulous my tomatoes look. There are other people in our subdivision that also have container gardens out front, and the HOA hasn't mentioned anything about people having them.
I certainly don't mind gardens out front if they're well cared for, and it sounds like you've got a nice plan in place to keep your veggie garden looking nice. I do like the idea of having something ornamental surrounding your garden so that it will always look nice from the street, even if you slack a bit in your gardening duties.
We don't get enough sun in the back yard so next year the vegetable garden is going to go in the front yard. I am planning a row of rugosa roses along the sidewalk to keep people from getting to the next row of raspberries/blackberries. The rest of the garden will be mixed ornamental and edible and I don't think it will have a traditional vegetable garden look.
I think it depends on what you plant and how well kept and tidy it looks.
For example, my old neighbors planted corn along our fenceline in the front yard. Very tacky IMHO. (Althought there were other issues with them.)
Similarly, my own tomatoes in the ground are a hot mess and I would not want them readily visible in front. My ones in containers are less crazy and I would be comfortable with them in front though.
My backyard is pretty shady, besides being the dogs' turf, so I garden in the front yard. I don't get the need to hide it. Why is useless, labor and resource intensive grass considered pretty, but not beautiful food plants?
I only have a small planting zone right now but ultimately my goal is to replace my entire lawn with low maintenance perrenials (lavendars and snapdragons are my faves right now) and edibles. I have 11 HUGE tomato plants, a purple artichoke (will be huge someday!), 6 basil, 2 lemon basil, garlic chives, 6 green beans, lettuce, parsley (both kinds), cilantro.. I think that's it for this year, but I plan to keep expanding it.
My neighbors all have plain lawns, but I have seen many gorgeous landscapes with edibles worked in. We should use our land much more wisely than planting lame grass!