I am working on my own (first time) edible front
yard garden - pursing a
permaculture approach.
One concern that is in the back of my mind is - will it be beautiful and thought provoking in a front yard setting.
As many
city dwellers probably face - I share the challenge of limited sunlight in my Seattle Lot. My front yard is about 65' by 65' which includes a
concrete driveway.
I see urban
permaculture as an opportunity to stack as many functions into as SMALL a space as possible - dense, and well-planned are the name of the game.
My plan includes:
1) 3' tall
berm on the road side of the property which will be planted to multi-variety fruit
trees (cherry,
apple, pear, plum, mulberry) and understory shrubs. This
should block noise and views, at least in the winter... Some of this is fill dirt from the foundation and some is hugelculture with
wood stumps from a landscaping company and stolen-from-neighbors brown bags of leaves and evergreen boughs.
View from on top of the roadside berm:
Future raspberry, etc. bed covered with leaves:
Here's the log-foundation of the
Hugel end of the bed (south side).
2) The road-side of the berm will feature a "community herb garden" - I will plant my
perennial herbs here and label each one as well as putting a "help yourself" sign of some kind.
3) I also want to have an "honesty stand" of some kind near the driveway - I like the idea of selling or giving away excess produce and plant starts and also collecting neighborhood greenwaste and perhaps even dog
poop for some sort of worm bin or soldier fly composting operation, to feed the ...
4)
Chickens - I will have a front yard coop, utilizing chicken tunnels through the perimeter of the property and the shady 6-foot side yard on the north side of my house where we will work on "compost feed" to get the
chickens fed without grain as much as possible (probably using scraps from grocery stores, restaurants, etc. (I may even chicken-tunnel the chooks to the honesty stand in front where they can "meet the people" as
permaculture ambassadors...
5) On the top floor of the
chicken run will be a trio of
rabbits for additional meat production. I have to figure out how to feed these guys (from the garden/forage, etc if possible) without killing them. It sounds like many breeds of rabbits get very sick if in contact with the soil.
6) Near the driveway we will probably have an herb spiral that is accessible from the pavement (for ease of harvesting in wet weather)
7) The interior of the sun-trap in the yard will have some annual vegetables and herbs as well as raspberries (!!!)
I'm trying to decide where to locate the 2 beehives I'm allowed on my property. I've heard a place in full sun is ideal, so they will probably be in the front yard or sunny/south side yard.
I"m building one Warre and one Top Bar out of left over 2x4's.
9) Along the north property line I will have an espalier
fence with 18 varieties of apples which I grafted 2 years ago at a fruit tree fair. Should screen out the neighbors and still allow them some light.
10) on the South side of the property we have a shade-making
fence, but in high summer, the plants should still get
enough light here to maintain my 5-foot wide drive-way bordering fruiting hedge featuring asian pears, blueberries,
honey berries, aronia, a linden tree (for perma-greens), tree collards, currants, gooseberries, and an evergreen huckleberry.
11) We need to leave a road-way easement through the partial shade backyard. I'm planning to have this area be sort of a wild-flower/meadow/groundcover planting of some kind. I have to figure out what will be low-growing and shade tolerant, and driveable once every few years. It's on a steep slope and visible (primary view, 10 feet away) from my living room window so hopefully will look nice....
This is the view out my window. We own to the cedar trees to the EAST and the cars have to come down from the right (South) and go between the cedars and the neighbor's shed.
12) I'm covering the whole property with woodchips, on which I hope to grow edible
mushrooms (winecaps). I have also been innoculating mushroom logs (taking longer than i thought to drill and pound in dowels and wax over (the worst, as I don't have outdoor fire, and my wax cools too fast... I'm also innoculating all my bare
root plants with a mycrorhyzal dip before planting.
My mushroom "helper" ... ahh kids...
13) I decided to take the place that was the "sunny patio" on the landscape plan, and plant it with annuals, so I'm figuring we'll use our big driveway/courtyard as a picnic area, or go down to my parents property (adjacent) and use their patio.
14) I want to dig a small pond/puddle 2-3 feet wide, but haven't figured out a good/natural way to line this yet... maybe a garbage can lid, or a small plastic liner, but would prefer something more natural.
15) For
water drainage, all our downspouts are feeding into buried pipes around the perimeter of the property and leading/dumping in a "dispersion trench" which is basically a 30' long rock-filled hole at the bottom of the property. From there, the water is picked up in a downhill "cistern" which is a vertical concrete tank that ground water seeps into. it was full of water all last summer, even with my dad siphoning it out (he doesn't like the puddle that forms on his lawn on the other side. So, for the cost of electricity I can pump this anywhere up onto my property, and hopefully it will be someone "cleaned" after seeping through the ground from the dispersion trench to the cistern.
16) I am also trying to do on-contour raised beds with the idea that the pathways in between will act as swales to slow the water.
I'm going to be documenting this fun at my website.
http://naturalhealthforlife.com/
I would welcome any thoughts on what to add (more functions) or how to implement.
Current considerations/questions are:
1) What design for the chicken coop. I am currently looking at The Garden Coop. I also love this idea:
https://lemoncraft.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/chicken-tractor/ I want something cute because the chickens will be close to the neighbors...
close quarters in the city...
This is my front yard from the driveway, looking over to the neighbors' porch. I am planning to put the chicken coop along the side of the garage (right) in this picture, near where the gas meter is. I REALLY hope a well-tended deep litter coop don't stink!
2) How to cage and feed rabbits. I would love to do something more natural than stacked cages and pellets for the rabbits, but this seems to be a dicey issue. I am also looking at guinea pigs and quail for meet in the garage or dirt floor basement.
3) How to make it look "attractive" and not "weedy" with the whole chop-and-drop and things going to seed, etc. Having gardens that look to "wild" and "foresty" seems to be a big objection/concern for those first getting into
gardening the
permaculture way. I am planning to use a lot of awesome coneflowers and daisys for awesome summer color - Love Them!
4) How to grade the 150' x 5' downhill sloping bed that is adjacent to my driveway. I anticipate a fair amount of water coming down this narrow pathway, and I dont want to have a big erosion problem here. I'm trying to decide if I should make a million terraces or do some kind of serpentine ditch/river bed, french drain underneath... struggling here...
Here's the steep end of the fence that we have to terrace or something...
And here we are looking up the fence toward the driveway and road. (Opposite direction)
5) How to build a little
pond...
Any other feedback would be great!
How do your neighbors like your edible front yard?
Emily