Forums » Liberate Your Yard

• Leanne

  
   

  July 1, 2010 11:24:12 AM PDT

  So, after seeing the size of the DerVaes's lot in their latest interview in Feelin' Feminine, I got to thinking: our yard is not much smaller than theirs, but most of the space is in the front yard. Here's our place:
  
  
  
  You can see that I'm slowing converting the mailbox bed to strawberries. (Pretty in Red and Seascape strawberries, and silver thyme -- I gotta get some drip line out to those runners). I like our general landscape concept -- it's mostly low-water usage, which is great for for where we live, but it's not edible aside from the berries and herbs, and there's no way we need that much lavender. (:
  
  I'd like to put in some more edibles, and preferably a couple bitty fruit trees if I can manage it. (The fern pine is not going anywhere -- it is our Happy Tree and we love it.) Thing is, I'm just sort of failing at edible landscape design here. Can anyone offer any ideas for how to make this both pretty and tasty?
  
  This is the east side of our house, so it gets lots of morning sun, but not as much afternoon sun, especially in the winter. That dry streambed is made out of rocks we pulled out of our ground. Our soil *is* diggable, but it's very good exercise to do so. (;
  
  The hedge you see near the garage wraps around the side of the house, so I could put a climbing vine or three there. I'd been toying with the idea of raspberries, but wasn't sure if they'd get enough light (that part is semi-shady, especially during winter), and wasn't sure how they'd look in the wintertime. Though I hear that California raspberries fruit all year, so looks should be less of a problem, I think.
  
  I'm also looking at adding some native plants. Most of what I have is drought-tolerant, but not native, which isn't very wildlife-friendly.
  
  Anyone got any ideas for ways to improve and add edibles and/or natives, that'll still look pretty?
  
• shawn

  

  • 4 posts
   

  July 1, 2010 4:23:55 PM PDT

  Oooooo you have a "rock" yard. They keep "sprouting" new rocks every year no matter how much you remove. The good side is you may have good drainage. check by digging a small hole and fill it with water. If the water seeps in few hours or less, you'll be good to go with citrus trees. SD is pretty big. where abouts?
  
  I know Vista, Fallbrook, Rainbow, Bonsall, Oceanside, Encinitas, Leucadia, Carlsbad area...
  
  I would not recommend Avocado trees. They are really tempermental. Meyer, Lisbon, lemons are great.
  So are Bears lime, Navel and Washington navel do just fine. Get a semi dwarf and you can turn them into a pretty hedge. or nicely trimmed tree in the front yard for a center piece. You can also do it with several trees together...
  
  Thought of mixing flowers along with edible veggies and flowers? Dwarf Cannas are quite lovely and flower year round almost. Salmon speckled, bright yellow, bright red cannas are very pretty. They love the SD coastal weather. Only downside is that they do need water. Stay with tropical plant.
  
  Another plant that does very well is kiwi fruit. Don't unless you want sap everywhere. Also its an ugly vine if you ask me.
  
  We mix standard veggie plants zukes, cucumber, melons, lettuce amongst the flowers. So people just don't thing of it as veggie garden. It's pretty with flowers :)
  
  And again if your soil is sandy, melons will do very well as it is a desert plant. They need sandy soil.
  
  You can still plant seedlings: tomato, zukes ... There is enough time to get a crop in before November.
• GreenGrammie

  
   

  July 1, 2010 6:07:37 PM PDT

  East side of house is great! Lots of plants prefer morning sun. Drought tollerant hummmmm. Pomegranates are both drought tollerant and beautiful--beautiful orange flowers and beautiful red fruit and very healthy!!! I have one that the birds planted on the north side of my house-- never would have thought it would work there where nothing else would grow in rocky dry soil. Got a huge grocerybag full of Pomegranates last October--amazing. Pinapple Guava grows there too (Blooms are beautiful) and ripens at about the same time-- I made Pomegranate-Guava Jam--Yum! I live in San Jose, CA. -- Have fun, you have a great start....
  
  I'm growing Golden Alpine Strawberries in my front yard, but they do take more water. You could mix them in with the regular red ones. The flavor is something special!! Thyme is not too thirsty and there are lots of varieties. I'm using Wooly Thyme for a low groundcover and Lemon Thyme for a taller small plant. San Diego is so close to the ocean that Scarlet Runner Beans might work for you. They are beautiful with the red flowers and when the weather is not too hot they set green beans in abundance which you can let dry at the end of the season for dried beans. The unusual thing about runner beans is that they are perenial and will come up again in the Spring from the same roots. I'm growing them over the path to my front door on an arch. They need water, but they are well worth it. Try them with Oillas if you are majorly concerned about water.
• Leanne

  
   

  July 2, 2010 5:25:22 AM PDT

  Hi shawn and GreenGrammie -- thank you for the tips!
  
  We are living in Mira Mesa, land of adobe clay soil and a million rocks. (: I found some terracotta clay as well when I was digging holes for my backyard 4-in-1 stonefruit trees.
  
  I actually like the clay well enough because at least it holds the water once you get it properly wet. It just takes time for it to get wet to begin with, and you can't over-wet it when it's been dry, or the water just runs off. I've been trying to work in compost a bit to help loosen the soil, but it can be pretty difficult.
  
  On the bright side, our drainage is actually not too bad -- many of my neighbors have citrus trees, pineapple guava, and loquats, and one of my friends also has a pomegranate. I'm certain I could put in some citrus and it'd be happy, but I'm not quite sure where it would look good. Hmm.
  
  I should also note that I'm kind of cautious about trees because the previous owner had two 30-year-old carrotwoods in the backyard that were never properly watered, so they had surface roots everywhere, and were taking up our patio and threatening to take up the house. Should I be paranoid about planting fruit trees near the house? How paranoid? How close?
  
  Our soil won't do avocado trees, I'm pretty sure. I think it's too heavy. That's OK -- I have a friend in Fallbrook who's got them, and she shares. (:
  
  I'm currently growing some melons in an organic mix in some backyard boxes, and they seem pretty happy. But it sounds like I wouldn't be able to put them directly into the ground, if they prefer sandy soil. Is that right?
  
  I have scarlet runner beans growing in one of my backyard boxes as well! I didn't know they were perennials -- that's interesting! I'll have to keep that in mind. It's my first time growing them, so I don't even really know how they taste. (: The plants are growing, but we don't have any flowers yet on any of the beans.
  
  I'll definitely look into more varieties of strawberries -- we've been loving ours and getting more than we can eat, but not quite enough to make pie or jam. (:
  
  I would certainly love to do more flowers in the front yard, so I'll be looking into your suggestions. (: Thanks! Will be glad to hear from anyone else as well, too. (:
• GreenGrammie

  
   

  July 2, 2010 10:12:18 AM PDT

  If you have surface root problems it could mean the roots can't penitrate the rocky-clay very easily. I think there are only 2 options when this is the case: 1) dig an enormous jaged hole that is very deep and amend the soil. Deep crevases in the sides and bottom of the hole will help the roots find a way down and out. 2) LARGE raised beds. ...ALSO check with your neighbors who have the trees and see if they have surface root problems and what they did when they planted.   We have clay soil too, but it's only rocky on the north side of the house where the Pomegranate and Pinapple Guava are.
  
  We have used concrete blocks 2 high in the backyard to make raised beds.  We put hole side up and fill the holes with Alysum, Cosmos, Calendula and Nasturtums etc. It helps to attract bees for polination and confuse other undesirable bugs.  Last year we also planted carrots and letuce in the holes and it worked great.  Raised beds create nearly perfect drainage and soft soil that roots love.  It also makes weeding much easier.
  
• Leanne

  
   

  July 5, 2010 7:28:18 AM PDT

  No, I'm pretty sure that the problem with the trees was no water. (: I mean *none*. There was no irrigation in the back yard at all before we moved in. The difficult soil doesn't help, but we don't have surface roots issues with the fern pine out front, which is getting irrigation.
  
  We're rocky through the entire yard. (: So yeah, raised beds are helping a lot, but I'm not sure how to do attractive raised beds in the front yard. Hm.
• Deleted Member

  
   

  July 6, 2010 5:37:55 AM PDT

  You've had some really good suggestions. Just my .02 for the front yard veggies -- pepper plants, imho, look really nice. Pretty flowers, nice foliage. So something else to add to your edibles. : )
• Leanne

  
   

  July 6, 2010 8:24:49 AM PDT

  Heh, you have a good point. We've been complaining that we don't have enough peppers this year, and my husband loves them. I should see if I can talk him into adding some here and there around the front yard. (:
• Rodney

  

  • 3 posts
   

  September 9, 2010 4:36:57 AM PDT

  Pergola/arbor over the walk to the front door planted w/ edible vines. It could also wrap around over the garage and in the front of the house. Expensive to build but if done right will add value to the house and will also provide shade in summer. Possibly a fruit tree espalier fence between you and the neighbors. Well tended fruit trees always look good to my eye.
  Rodney
• Bull100

  

  • 57 posts
   

  September 24, 2011 6:08:06 AM PDT

  Several years ago we lost our 2 front yard Maple trees in an ice storm. We planted two new maples back and they are growing very well. Even though our front yard does have some usable space for garden I got to thinking that I don't think our neighbors or my wife are ready for this. So I asked myself how can I use this front yard. After a little fresearch I found that tapping maple trees is possible here in Mo and in fact there are a few people here in town doing it. It willnot be long befor our trees are large enough to tap. Iam loooking forward tothisnew form of gardening.
• rodneywt1180b

  

  • 16 posts
   

  February 20, 2012 6:26:48 AM PST

  Do they have to be the right kind of maple? I don't think winters here are cold enough.
  Rodney