Front Yard Lawn to Food - Planning your front yard edible landscape

[Andreas748]

what's cheaper.....buying vegetables form the super market or growing your own...after the cost of seeds, supplies, fertilizer, wood for raised beds, etc?...

[growingyourgreens]

Please see

watch?v=rxLV3vM-t_w

where I address this question.

[giddymoon]

I am really curious to what your water bill is every month.

[redhulublue]

I live in Michigan. Is something like you have possible in Michigan? It looks like the walls of your beds might be made from something other than cedar fence post. Was the fence post you bought all 4x4 and is that the same for the walls?

Your videos are awesome. How did you get into gardening? Did you go to college and major in horticulture or similar?

[growingyourgreens]

Yes, you can grow food in michigan. The walls of the beds are cedar fence boards.1x3' the 4x4's are redwood. I have other videos showing the exact construction and how to build them.

[ShaunnaIsHere]

What are you growing the row that has the squared off partitions with what looks like chicken wire on the partition walls? What was the advantage of this for you?

[growingyourgreens]

They are used as a trellis. I grow things vertically up them. I have grown cucumbers, peas. I could grow other vining/climbers such as beans.

[AngelikavonDeutschla]

Sorry to mention this. But I would hesitate to build my raised garden beds infront of my house. Since it is close to the busy roads where cars are going by. I do not like emission on my food. My garden bed is behind the house.

[keilana6]

You're lucky you don't live in a neighborhood where all yards are required to look the same.

[Dontlol2]

This garden is so in your face, it is awesome

[mikeb449]

I love this crazy, white tomato cages. Where did you get those?

[growingyourgreens]

They look "white" in the videos. They are galvanized steel. They are welded-wire fence from lowes or home depot. just make them into small tubes.

[boxa888]

to bad your neighboors dont do this! i would if i lived there, team up haha, ur land looks like a utopia if that makes any sense! the only thing that gets me, is if the people around you dont have there own food supply during a collapse, they will immediatly come to you, that shit always bothers me. like the twilight zone "the shelter",the greatest proof of basic human animals, when one man in the entire neighboorhood prepares for the future! great work! its incredible, i hope others do this too

[sadia102]

Absolutely wonderful.

[tylertyler82]

what an epic front yard, very smart and i bet you save hundreds of dollars a month!

[TheTruthoverlies]

man if everyone wasn't such a sheep the neighborhoods would look great. If everyone did this there would be lower disease rates, healthier people, and a community culture. The corporations and Monsanto based farms have destroyed the soil and thus made the store bought produce nutrient deficient.

KUDOS.

[vokterhund]

I'm here in China Grove Texas home of the Doobie Bro's I want to get something like this going and make it a popular sight, do you have any info to help me get started as to what and how you planted and built this awesome farm.

[Whatevera369]

random bystanders walks by......."oh those are nice and ripe" *swipe*, thats the problem with the front yard T-T

[therealtabby]

The spring things....what are those? And what is their purpose??

[SuperScreamingEagle]

oh, I just now realized this is on your roof! great, great idea. I should do that too.

[wackyrice1]

just curious, but what are you going to do when you have to move something BIG into your house??

[nonlethalbychoice]

Great Job!!

[organotill]

I love your garden. It's beautiful but if everyone used cedar or redwood there would be no forests left. We must find ways to raise beds without wood that rots.

[growingyourgreens]

Agreed. I choose to use Cedar and Redwood for the cost/performance. I encourage alternative materials as well, depending on eachs persons resources available, some are: wood, concrete, bricks, concrete board, plastic lumber, rip-rap (concrete chunks), logs, rocks. So many things you can use for a raised bed, or just have mounds of dirt.

[SuperScreamingEagle]

@organotill yes, recycling materials is the best idea. alot of fallen wood is laying around though.

[TnWormsCastings]

do you neighbors like it?

[growingyourgreens]

I think some of them like it. I have had no major objections. That was a design criteria, to make it look "pleasant".

[harrisonfivehere]

WOW! Very Nice!

[crewlla]

do you have your back yard turned in to a garden too?

[growingyourgreens]

Yes, I am growing in the backyward. Not as efficiently as the frony yard yet..

[amandabalanda]

bad ass!!

[sauceykat]

Just wondering if your neighbours have ever complained, especially in the beginning? I know in my area, we have stupid severe restrictions (although they're no longer really being enforced it seems) but people used to narc on us for every little thing when we first moved here.

[growingyourgreens]

Not one complaint here.. Be sure to check with your CC&Rs or homeowners association before starting a project like this.

[kokonutbaby1]

Does your wife and child (how old?) eat only raw food also or just you? So nobody in your home has need for a cooking stove? lol...Im just amazed how people can do without cooking anything..I like both raw and cooked food. Anyway u all grow a great front yard food forest..wish u were my neighbor Id let u use the whole five acres if I could eat off it, lol.

[scalothis]

Inspiring  stuff. Looking to plan my own now!

[KrissAnn333]

Dude....you ROCK!!! Any problems with deed restrictions? God Bless America!!!

[growingyourgreens]

no problems at this home with CC&R or deed restrictions. but check with yours before you do anything like I did!

[Michael7477]

Hi John 5 stars for your great video.

I hope you don't mind a few questions:

1) exactly how big is your property and how much of that is taken up by the house & drive?

2) how much of your non-meat requirements does this garden provide for how many persons?

3) how much time do you spend maintaining your garden (after setup)?

4) should one use treated or untreated wood for the planter boxes?

5) do you recycle/compost everything you don't eat?

thanks for uploading - very inspiring.

[rawfoods]

1) 7900 square feet (approx). House takes up about 2000 square feet.

2) 60% of food requirement met for 3 people (could feed more, I have excess) (I do not eat any meat or animal products)- need to plant more fruit trees to get closer to 100%. They are growing :)

3) I would estimate if you put in 5-10 hours a week, that would cover it.

4) untreated wood. Cedar or Redwood are best from my research.

5) Yes, I do compost and recycle

[pdsavage]

Do you harvest your rain water?

[growingyourgreens]

not yet. I have the barrels and that will be coming soon :)

[Sirmau]

Where abouts in the US this food garden?

[growingyourgreens]

Northern California

[Sirmau]

Northern Canada is impossible to grow during winter...

After 45 years I'm comtempleting to move back into my home land (Portugal).

I'll probably mis Canada and USA but gota take a dif tour and see what gives.

[rawfoods]

Northern California - Sonoma County

[aimtan]

Looks great. Thanks for braving your roof to give us a good view of your garden.

Do your neighbors think you're the crazy guy with a garden in the front yard? LOL

[growingyourgreens]

Some of them think Im a bit "different". although I have met more of my neighbors due to my garden than the prior 10 years!

[PhotoNika]

your growing neighbors!

You have done a simply fantastic amazing and inspiring job and I am so glad you do it in your FRONT yard, its a teaching tool for everyone.

I stopped the video to comment so am not sure if you address this later but I had a question. What fertility inputs are you using? I dont know how draconian it is where you live but you might want to add some chickens in the backyard (sell the eggs to neighbors? Your raw foodist right? neighbors will love you even more)

[growingyourgreens]

I have been adding compost and some composted manure and organic fertilizers. Chickens are illegal in my city.. Im still investigating this possibility.

[PhotoNika]

@growingyourgreens I wish you luck with the chickens. Since we have chickens, we eat their eggs. All our kitchen waste goes straight to the chickens who thrive on it. They immediately turn that nutrition around to eggs. If you do not eat eggs then your relationship with chickens may not be quite as rewarding. Something to think about.

[ObiRawKenobi]

looks awesome, man.