Sunday, March 13, 2011

Starting the front lawn conversion.

To brace my neighbor about my intentions, I've dropped subtle hints such as:
"Yeah I'm going to remove my whole lawn and get rid of this grass."


I've said it since I've moved in, and a few times last summer.
So after two years of much contemplation, sketching, and seed catalog fapping, I used today's good weather as an excuse to mark up the front lawn. Armed with twigs, and some generously donated kite string from a neighbor down the block, I proceeded to mark the front yard.

In the midst of my marking, my neighbor comes out the front door and asks:
"May I ask what you think you're doing?"

Well... Wow.. how to answer a venomous poison filled question such as that?
"I'm trying to mark up the lawn, so I know the exact parts to remove."

Neighbor: "Well, will you be replanting it with Grass??" This is probably the second hint that she does not approve.

me: "Well, it will be replanted with veggies, fruits, edible flowers, some shrubs...I'm trying to do some edible landscaping"

At this point, I am surprised that she abruptly turns around and goes into her house. I feel just as angry as her, but I answered everything very calmly and informatively. Oddly enough after she went in her house, I felt bad and thought to myself maybe I shouldn't be ripping up my front lawn. But that was only a fleeting one second, because when it comes down to it. This is my lawn!!!!!!!!!!
We (our family) loves our neighbors. We shovel snows, and give flowers and extra veggies. I don't have any animosity against her, but she definitely loves her lawn.

I kept on outlining the front yard, and then I used the edger to go and mark the outlines into the ground. A very productive day to say the least. I'll wait until the ground is thoroughly defrosted to finish it up.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Final Design and Implementation



After two years and countless revisions, I think we're finally ready to break ground.
I found a way to marry the two designs from a few days ago. It's a combination of:
"The Ultimate Garden Designer" by Tim Newbury
"Gaia's Garden - a home scale guide to permaculture" by Toby Hemenway
and my local friend Shawna Coronado's design. I'm glad she's a local gardener that I can bounce ideas off of... :)
Each ray of the sun will remain grass for the first year, but the in between will be filled with new soil and vegetables. The border will be lavenders and edible flowers... and Blueberry Bushes (that are only 8" tall right now, but I'm allotting each of them a 3' circumference).

So today I'm going to start with stakes and strings... and informing my labor team that we're starting soon.