Our front yard evolves

Front lawns are, in origin, an affectation of the aristocracy. A large decorative meadow in front of one’s manor was a way to flaunt the fact that you owned so much land you could afford to waste it. They also waste a huge amount of water, which in an arid climate like San Diego is criminal. Finally, unless you imitate a natural balance of nitrogen-fixing plants like clover with your grasses you need to constantly fertilize a lawn. The runoff from chemically fertilized lawns creates a hideous soapy sludge of foam, bacteria and algae. Nitrogen run off is also the number one cause of beach closures in this town.

Our goal was always edible landscaping, with a few flowers and native plants, which would also be edible or medicinal. We only had the vaguest of ideas as to how it would look, but after nearly a year of experimentation we finally have a plan. This is how it evolved.

At first it was a problem we totally ignored. We were trying to make our stripped-out, mildew-infested, sewage-leaking ruin, into someplace we could actually live. Besides, when we first saw the property the lawn was completely brown and we assumed that the previous occupants had abused the front yard the way that they had abused the rest of the property. We were quite mistaken. We found out from the many gardeners that knocked on our door looking for work that a year ago the house was fronted by one of the best looking lawns of the street. This is further evidence for our coyote theory. They were keeping up appearances as people conducting illegal activities tend to do.

Without knowing this we assumed no one would care what our yard looked like. The rains came, and the weeds and grasses grew to spectacular heights. Our children gleefully discovered that the soil of the front yard was easier to dig in and our eldest dug a miniature WWI trench system. We planted the sprouts that sprung from compost pile and mulched them with straw. By spring we the front the Estate was a forest of weeds, muddy ditches with a big mound of straw in the middle. To make matters worse, periodically some grimy freak with Martin Van Buren’s mutton chops would be hanging out on the front porch in ripped paint-splattered suspender pants. People must have wondered if characters from Deliverance were squatting in an abandoned house.

It is from the pile of hay, with its mass of vines, that the design of the front yard emerged. The first sprouts died off with spring chill which is not surprising since even in San Diego you normally don’t plant pumpkins until June! We assumed they were pumpkins given the origins of our compost pile, but as the plants grew it became clear that we actually had two varieties of pumpkins and a crookneck squash plant. We added onto the bed using the same layered mulch over newspaper and cardboard we had used for our squashes. This time though we laid down chicken wire. We’d seen evidence of gophers and I learned in my VGSD class that chicken wire is an effective barrier. We arranged the new beds into a keyhole bed design, another thing I learned from VGSD.

The gopher soon attacked devastating our squashes and pumpkins, but the beds with the wire base stopped the little bastard cold. I redid the end of the keyhole this time with chicken wire. To define this and some other beds I bordered them with local stones found from roadside deposits and our own land. Once I laid down the stones it occurred to me that the thing to do was lay plastic sheeting over the paths between the beds and cover them with gravel. Our onsite gravel supply is almost used up now but I had enough to create an area that suddenly didn’t look like it was made by characters from Deliverance at all.

So now we have a plan. Our front yard will consist of beds defined by winding gravel paths bordered by native stones. The outer edges will be planted with stone fruit and almond and trees and perennial shrubs like artichokes. I’m marking the old sprinkler heads and once enough of the yard has been converted I plan to tap into them for drip and micro emitter irrigation. The gravel paths will continue around back until the look defines the whole grounds. The materials to do this vary from cheap to free. All that is required is time, effort and vision.