Food Not Lawn

When we bought this house we went from a tiny brick ranch with an acre and a half of lawn, to a large bungalow and .3 acre of lawn. I love my house but my heart has yearned for years for five to ten acres somewhere, so that I could grow our food. I've been learning a lot about contentment and for the first time in about 7 years I can honestly say, I am content and it is well with my soul. 

My biggest step in that journey was deciding I would just be faithful in this little bit of earth that I have. I got very interested in the notion that you can grow a lot in a small area and that I could do this instead of mow grass. 

A few years ago we lost several big trees in a bad storm so that really opened up our yard to more sunlight. I went with the maxim, if you're eating the leaves or stems it can be partly shady, fruit or roots grow in full sun.

This is the front yard. It is a mass of acorn and butternut squash, watermelon, cucumber, cantaloupe, tomato, cayenne and bell peppers, pepperancini and cabbage. It's also full of sunflowers and black eyed Susan's as well as lemon balm and peppermint that is plainly Out. Of. Control.  I have an herb bed somewhere on there as well. 

So in this garden I would say the most successful crops have been the cukes, tomatoes, peppers and acorn squash. We've been mulching with old straw but we didn't keep on top of this area so now we have to really search weeds for squash :/. I have a gallon jar in the fridge and we just drop cukes into brine and eat pickles every day. 

So the side yard became the new big garden this year. It has a row each of: kale, cabbage,  sweet onions, red onions, Swiss chard, broccoli, Italian beans, green beans, zucchini, red okra and green okra. The 4 raised beds have asparagus, carrots, lettuce, peas and now cantaloupe. The flower garden along the fence has, basil, cilantro, blueberries, raspberries, parsley, sage, dill and a fig tree. The cilantro and dill have died along with my second attempt at rhubarb. 

I've had a terrible time with worms on the cabbage, broccoli, beans and zuchini. I'm not doing broccoli again. I've just served broccoli with unknowing worms too many times. My family won't eat broccoli now!

The onions were a great success! This is the first year I've grown them and we harvested a huge basket full. The okra is really starting to produce and we ate our first cabbage. 

I've really been amazed at how much food this small yard has given us!