Garden on Lawn Extensions
It is March and I have begun dreaming about consumable gardens. Evelyn and I miss our plot behind Zion and however wonderful it was to be a CSA member again–it just did not hit the spot. Hence, I will be digging around our home again.
I brought up the idea of turning our extension into a garden plot to grow a few crops intensively, for food, community, and service.
Even though I have tucked vegetables and herbs among the flowers, it isn’t enough. I also miss the community of sharing among gardeners and occassional visitors (bi-ped and quadri-ped).
One of our extensions has a bit more sun than our yard and would be a great place to grow a volume of greens, beans, and a vining fruit. It will be enough to share. Who knows, maybe someone more skilled in growing tomatoes will garden in the extenstion.
And so I have begun my garden dreaming and logistics planning. I certainly think Jeff and Lisa have a fabulous garden out front. I aim for attractive too. I will begin somewhat conservatively. I realize that although it is no longer against city code to use extensions for gardens, there is always the risk of damage and destruction when the city needs to dig. Until move myself to some agri-zoned acreage, I need to do something more here.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
March 7th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Great to hear you are still planning on digging in the extension. I just walked by your yard this morning and thought how good that front one could be. Let’s talk! I am glad to try to be of some help. I will be digging around my front yard for spots soft enough to spread a few pea or spinach seeds this weekend.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I like the idea of such–it always irked me that the city owned the extension(s) but homeowners had to mow them, etc. This seems like a way to get a fairer use of that patch of dirt.
But can you reassure me about how much salt or other road-related stuff would be in that soil?
And what about those quadrupeds that pause and leave their ‘calling card’?
I’m normally not fussy about such things, but at the moment, I think some part of me would wonder about such things when/if I sat down to a meal of extension grown goodies.
Of course, maybe it’s as simple as ‘washing removes a multitude of sins’–but if this something people have already thought out and answered, I’d be curious to hear what their answers were.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:37 pm
RE Steve’s concerns:
When I dug up my extension, I removed a lot of soil and replaced it with city leaf compost. I happened to need some fill for a rock wall I was rebuilding and this killed two birds. I am afraid the hard packed clay full of tree roots is a bigger issue than salt and “fertilizer”. Of course, some simple boxes placed on the surface and filled with topsoil/compost would do the trick.
Jeff
April 9th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Speaking of the Lost Plots at Zion–does anyone know if the city is considering putting traffic islands down Soule when they repave it this summer? Couldn’t they be used as garden plots? I’m sure they’ll get plenty of sunlight, seeing as how the city came through and hacked at the street trees last month.