KVs lot makeover

What I am starting with is a small not quite 1/10 of an acre lot in the city.  The lot faces north and a main street runs in front of it.   I have attached 4 photos showing about what the front yard looks like now.  They are at least a couple of years old so the pine in the northwest side is bigger and so are the cottonwoods on the east side. The brown area behind the house is the dogs run, the green section beside it is my small garden area.  The front yard is what I will be working on the most since it is pure lawn right now.  However there will be some changes in the garden area.

This is in Wyoming at about 6,000 feet altitude.  We have strong winds, cold winters, and cool nights even in summer.  The area is described as being semi arid so one thing I need to watch is how much water the plants in my finial plan will need.  Our soil is neutral to alkaline so acid loving plants like blueberries don't do well here.  


Plans for 20221: Take down the pine and the cottonwoods.  Move the flower bed from the west side to the east side of the sidewalk and add a cattle panel trellis.   I ordered a shorter clumping Jerusalem Artichoke to try this year.  I will put them in a larger grow bag where the cottonwoods were.  I will use the trellis to try growing a clumping bushier groundnuts and see how they do in our climate.   That trellis will also have some runner beans on one end as "pretty flowers" but with edible pods if I pick them young.  I also have some dahlia tubers coming for the flower bed.  Dahlias need to be lifted every year here and stored until spring but I hope to be able to increase the number of tubers and maybe try one or two this fall.  The backyard garden is being rearranged and a new asparagus bed is being put in this spring.  Those plants are already ordered but we need to dig the bed yet.   I hope is to find a Chinese/Mormon apricot seedling to plant on the west side of my front yard as an anchor for a future lower growing fruit forest.

Small steps forward for the garden and other growing areas.

Earlier in the year I watched this video


I decided to use some of  last "stimulus check" to get a tumbling composter and give it a try as I don't have a space to make a proper pile.  I got a big single bin tumbler to use for it and was thrilled  to discover it fit nicely into a formally unusable corner.  I can foresee my new tumbler getting lots of use ESPECIALLY since DH has decided the little compost bin I got for the counter is just what he wanted...  of course the fact it is a single bin tumbler is a bit of a problem if I want to be able to keep dumping the household compost bin into it WHILE making the compost shown in the video.  Guess I need to find a place room for a pile in the garden...  or get a second tumbler and put it outside the garden proper but next to the garden fence.  That would actually be a very nice solution, I will have to think on that.

The garden proper is undergoing some changes also as I make room for the asparagus bed and decide where the new hanging strawberry planter will go on the privacy fence.

Big step forward today as a local company came by and took down my two cottonwoods.  The leaning tree that was growing over the house was indeed dying.  I got a round off the top of the stump that clearly shows a good sized dead area.   We kept 3 logs from the base of the tree for DH to play with and I got a couple of smaller logs I can put mushrooms on.   Now I need to settle on a bush/small tree for that opening. One side of these bushes is my yard but the other side is an alley used by many people in our area.  That alley is giving me pause.  The line of bushes gives visual separation from the alley PLUS they stop a lot of the dust and small stones being kicked up by cars using the alley.  

Compare my photo earlier of the east/alley side of our front yard WOW I didn't realize what a difference removing those trees would make...

Dorothy,
Taking down those trees will likely make the front garden more sunny (hotter and drier) as well.  Pity they didn't shred the tree branches for you....instant mulch!
Have you drawn up a plan for the garden?  Look at sunshine, wind, paths, things like visuals from the front and noise from the traffic.  It can be great fun to cut out to scale bushes and trees that you want to plant, other features such as barbecues, and play jigsaws.
I must admit I don't do this, I just plant organically as I go section by section, but in a smaller space it may be more worthwhile and save you some mistakes.  Start small, but have an overall plan.

Lots of no goes this year.  DH ended up needing back surgery which set almost everything behind.  And we had some very big failures in my attempts to add other edibles to the landscape.

I got the Cottonwoods removed but not the Pine sigh.  It is a nice tree but in the totally wrong spot for it.

Sunchokes and Groundnuts were huge fails.  I am not sure if the squirrels got the sunchokes or what happened but I never say anything above ground in there area.  The groundnuts sprouted developed a small vine and died...  they did best AFTER my runner beans made a shaded area for them so I am going to assume that they needed more shade then I provided in that location.  I did find two small groundnuts in the dirt maybe next year I will find a shadier spot for them to try...

Apricot  was a fail as I lost my seedling so will have to start over with it BUT my husbands potted blueberry is thriving.  Next year it will need fresh acid soil to keep it happy but as my husbands favorite berry I am willing to baby it for him.   The Dahlias are here to stay.  My cheap on sale Walmart tubers grew into a lovely small single yellow flowered plants but sadly my big beautiful white pom pom lost the race with winter.  I still have healthy tubers to carry over and next year they will get put in earlier as the bed is already prepared for them.  

Potatoes on the other hand were a surprise.  While most of my potatoes were small (the ground is much harder then we realized) we have been eating on them for over a month. AND I learned alot about what they like so I am looking forward to bigger harvests in the future.  And we realized that they really are decorative enough to raise in our front yard as a fleeting but beautiful display of large paper thin pale lavender flowers.  Not at all the size or color I was expecting. They made a wonderful display with my dark daylily.  

The runner beans were planted very late but made a beautiful flower display, I snacked on a few immature pods and have a few drying with seeds for use next year.  I will plant these again but do it earlier and put up a better trellis so those flowers are easier to see and for the bugs to reach and pollinate.  

We did get a strawberry  bed started and it will be interesting to see how it they develop.  

Plans for next year are still being worked on but I really want to get a nice start on a food forest in yard.   I have joined a few native plant groups and will be working on developing one based on a mixture of natives and non natives.  

This year felt like one step forward and 3 steps back but it is a start and we learned a lot so I need to remain positive.

Thanks for the update Dorothy, it sounds like you`ve had your share of challenges this year. I hope your other half`s back is better.
If you`re interested in potato flowers (they are lovely!) check out the cultivariable site. They have a vast range of poatoes including ones grown form true seed (TPS) rather than tubers.
source

Bill may be able to advise on best varieties for your climate and best for flowers

Nancy Reading wrote:
If you`re interested in potato flowers (they are lovely!) check out the cultivariable site. They have a vast range of poatoes including ones grown form true seed (TPS) rather than tubers.
source

Bill may be able to advise on best varieties for your climate and best for flowers

Thank you for that tip.  I had not thought to check the site this fall.  Grin Cultivariable is the reason I bought my dahlia tubers for the yard.  I found White Aster tubers on Etsy and wow is that a hardy big plant. Sadly they are the ones that lost the race against "first winter" But I did get some nice healthy tubers to store for next year.   I did just order some dahlia seeds from him and preorder a few tubers of plants I want to try.  I foresee another interesting spring and summer in 2022...

Just made a tiny step towards adding more food to my lot.  After a lot of research I ordered some seeds for a cultivar/selection of Amelanchier alnifolia called Smokey. The species are native to my area so can handle the climate, the cold, sun, and of course our never ending wind. If all goes well these will be giving us fruit in a few years and in the meantime will be a good replacement for those Spirea bushes that are dying now that the cottonwoods are no longer protecting them...

For this year I have 4 grow bags of potatoes in that area. My row of grow bags in the middle of the yard has increased to include 15 grow bags with tomatoes, 3 with onions, and two shallow grow bags with kale and other greens in them plus one has Apple cucumber seeds planted in it.  None have come up yet but..   I also have a rosemary, and two blueberry bushes in large pots. OH and my horseradish
On the west side we are waiting on winter squash to sprout and ramble along that part of the yard. I may not get ripe squash to store but will get some mass to compost.
Our back garden has been reorganized so I could include a cattle panel arch and I have increased the size of two of my boxes.  Pathways are narrower but still useable.  That garden has greens, beans both dry and snap, summer squash, cucumbers and of course more tomatoes and potatoes.

Finally we have our arch over the garden entry and all boxes in place to plant.  Yes it is late but we are hoping for some crops. Of course my shelf tomatoes have been out almost a month and are starting to bloom, as are a few of our potatoes.

Unplanned changes for the front yard this year.  New puppies have rendered my garden fence useless and rather then repair/replace the fence so I can use my beds in the back with their improved soil my husband decided I needed to move the garden to the front yard and bought a number of the metal beds...  
The new dogs a pair of Teddy Roosevelt Terriers
Teddy Roosevelt Terriers by spindledreams, on Flickr

The new front yard.  Maybe not as Permie as some would like but ... At least they allowed me to use all my branches and logs for the bottom half to 2/3 with about 6 inches of dirt over it all.  When I ran out of branches we got a load of free wood chips to fill up the rest of the boxes.  Sigh not at all what I wanted but it actually has given me more garden space then I had in the back.
new beds  7-16-2023 7-10-20 PM by spindledreams, on Flickr

I will still try to get in some native plants along one side of the yard but it will be a smaller area then I had originally planned.  That will make me look more closely at what I plant and what benefits it will have to the local bugs and birds.

It is still very early in the gardening season here so you can imagine my pleasure when I spotted 3 plants up from the  Catawissa walking onion topsets I was gifted this past fall.  This is one of three places I planted them so there is now hope that some more will pop in in those beds.  And now I need to check the beds that I put garlic bulbils into at the same time...

We managed to get over to the city compost facility and have the back of the truck filled with compost to work into the garden in the back yard this weekend IF the weather lets us.  They are calling for snow showers and/or "breezy" weather that translates to only 10 to 15 mph steady but some gusts could be as high as 30 mph...    I still need the topsoil/compost blend the city sales but they were out and can't make more until the winds let up...  So I will be calling daily to see if they have managed to make some (the high winds affect their ability to use their machines to make the blend).   That is what will go in the lovely metal beds so we can use all of them this year.

My apple trees for the back yard will be shipped sometimes in the next 7 days so we need to get their space ready for them.   And also a place for the serviceberry bush that will be in the box with them.  

Seed potatoes are set out to chit, potato seeds are sprouting, and I will be starting to harden off my seedlings which include tomatoes, peppers (both sweet and hot) brussels sprouts, marigolds, rosemary, and a single baby rhubarb plant from the one seed I found :).

More changes and it seems like we are moving away from many permaculture ideas as we work out what will work best for us with our age and health restrictions.   Since I started this thread we have added metal raised beds to the front yard, bought 4 Greenstalk vertical planters and made a small 15 by 15 ft fenced area for our baby trees.  

Sadly only one of our 3 trees made it though the spring and summer and I am now waiting to see if that one survived the winter.  I know if it survives I will need at least one more apple tree to plant near it but I will wait until I know if I need only 1 tree or if I need to get two new trees.  Our little service berry bush spent the spring and summer in a very large pot so again we are waiting to see how it does this spring.  

We started with one Greenstalk after a friend raved about how hers was working,  that one become 4 by the end of summer.   They have allowed me to garden and keep growing food even with the back, knee, and shoulder issues we are experiencing. Once the lower tier is planted with taller plants there is much less bending to harvest.  My shorter lettuce can go in the upper tiers and it is at the prefect height to pick.  Even my tiers of Bush beans had them within easy reach.   Loved it.  Looking forward to using them again this year.

In front I still have the metal raised beds to design and plant but for now my thoughts are:
30 inch tall blue 3  by  6 oblong will have trailing flowering plants and some hanging basket cherry tomatoes, with some Kale and other greens.
5 ft square by the drive will get tomatoes and bush beans this year.  I am hoping to get a nice harvest of both snap beans and tomatoes to put up
3 by 6 rectangle by alley will also get tomatoes.  The 3 ft circular bed there will get flowers
That leaves me with 3 more 3 by 6 oblongs that are  about 18 inches tall.  Two are set so I can make an arch between them so I can plant climbing things like pole beans, peas, and cucumbers on it and that still leaves me room for plants on the opposite side of the beds.
That third one has had tomatoes in it for two years so it needs something different this year.

I have 3 beds/blocks of corn that I want to plant but I am not sure where those will go as I like to do a 4ft square for corn....
The tree yard will get my winter squash as that will give it a lot of room to sprawl without being in the way.  That is also were my 4 Greenstalks will go on their 2 by 2 ft platforms.  I have one set up on each side of the gate and will set the other two up along the west side towards the garage.

More changes in how I am setting up our garden.  
We will have 5 Greenstalks in the tree area, yep I bought a new one as we are going to fill the bottom of each one with potatoes, Kennebec for our main potato and Magic Molly and AmaRosa for fun fingerlings.   The top half of each stack will have herbs, beans, peas. strawberries, and various types of greens and lettuce.

We lost at least 2 of the 3 trees we planted last year so  I took advantage of the Starks Pi weekend deal on shipping and ordered two new trees.  A Snow Sweet that can pollinate the Williams Pride which I am hoping survived the winter and a Starkrimson Red Delicious which can pollinate the Snow Sweet but not the Williams Pride.  Hopefully all 3 trees will do well this year.      

More potatoes in the front yard along with basil, chives, and marigolds in the big square bed.  

Tomatoes, squash, beans, lettuce greens in the other beds.  

Still need to figure out where the corn is going to go...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

HUGE changes will be happening to my lot this summer.  If you look at my first post you can see the massive blue spruce behind my house.  That tree was actually in my behind me neighbor's back yard.   A few years back one of our storms damaged a large branch causing it to hang down and slowly die.  Sadly the whole tree seem to be affected with some illness and it has spent the last couple of years slowly getting browner and browner.  This spring there was no denying that it had finished dying over the winter.  Yesterday the neighbor had pros come in and remove the tree as it was a danger to a number of structures both on and off their lot not to mention people and animals.  

We moved into this house in 1992 and ever since it has been a part of our life.  It is almost like we were transported to a new location... our sight line in the back yard has changed, there will be no huge tree providing shade that moves across my yard as the sun moves.  I know it will be hotter and now I will need to learn new shade patterns and probably rearrange my growing areas next year.