I have to say that creating the front yard garden was one of the most exciting, yet scary things I have ever done. I say scary because I have always wanted to blend in. I am just saying here, that having a huge veggie garden in your front yard. Not blending! Sticking out, way out! See my story of creating my front yard garden here. However it has also turned out to be one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done. I say, “I have ever done” like I did it all by myself. I had a lot of help. Thank you to everyone who helped create the front yard garden! I learned a couple of things about having a garden out front, that I want to share with anyone who is considering it. “Food, not lawns! Just have to shout that out there

Things I have learned about having a front yard garden:

1. A front yard garden without a fence is just rabbit food! I think that statement speaks for itself. I put chicken wire half way up my picket fence to keep those buggers out! See how I made a fence out of free pallets here. While most cities don’t have a problem with front yard gardens, they have a HUGE problem with front yard fences! Check the laws in your city before you start to build.

2. A front yard garden needs good P.R. What I mean by this is, that a border of beautiful flowers in front never hurts. When the city came out to look at my garden, see my fight to keep my garden here:  They asked me; “Can you put flowers or something in front here?” I explained that 2 weeks prior, the bed I had put in front of the garden was grass, so it was NOT going to happen over night, but that was what I had in mind eventually. I had covered the space in front first with cardboard boxes and then a layer of wood chips. Last Fall it looked like this:

Oh what a difference a year makes. Now it looks like this:

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Most of the front flower border was done by throwing down seed! In the early Spring I removed the card board, or what was left of it. I Raked aside the wood chips and put down a layer of composted horse manure. Then I planted seeds: Sunflowers, zinnias, black eyed Susan, red salvia, marigold and basil. Thank you to my sweet neighbors and sister, who contributed purple cone flower, lantana and begonias, iris and day lillies. I am loved! You know, lately it has been all about the food I could produce, but let’s face it when you live in the city, it has to be about the looks of the food being produced.   Create something for your neighbors to marvel at and they won’t even notice the tangled mess of tomato vines you’ve got going on.

3. When you create your front yard garden make a border around it of 4 or 5 inches that can easily be controlled with a weed trimmer. When I created my garden it was A LOT of work, the last thing I was thinking of was defending the outside perimeter from grass.  A season later I could see how the grass and weeds had encroached on the garden and it was quickly becoming a mess.

So when you make your front yard garden or community garden, create a border around it of 4 or 5 inches that can be maintained. I had to go back and trench all around two sides of my garden. It wasn’t fun.

4. It doesn’t have to happen all at once. We started with 2 8 x 4 beds in our front yard garden. We added a few beds each year until it was full & thriving! While the fence all had to go up right away to make the city happy, we took our time with the garden beds.

So if you are going to put in a front yard garden, put a fence up, after you have checked with your city! Create a little P. R. in front with flowers! Also create a buffer around your garden that can be maintained easily. I have to say a big thank you to my sister here, who has a God given gift of making things beautiful! Thank you, Elizabeth for helping me make my front flower border look amazing, I love you!