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Liberating More Lawn

March 10th, 2009

“But each spring…a gardening instinct, sure as the sap rising in the trees, stirs within us. We look about and decide to tame another little bit of ground.” — Lewis Gantt

front-yard
With the coming of spring I’m planning out my gardens and inevitably I don’t have space to grow everything I want to grow. So I keep eying different areas of my yard wondering what I could convert to growing space. I’m considering bringing the lawn in from the edges of the property in the front yard by 4-5 feet on each side, that would give me a good 500-600 sq ft of growing area on one side and 200-300 on the other. One side is bordered by an empty wooded lot, so I wouldn’t have to worry about neighbors, but the tree roots pose a bit of a problem.
fenced-garden
The other side is behind a fence, I cleared the area of saplings last summer but never planted anything there. I’m thinking both of these spot are prime for tomatoes and other full-sun vegetables. I could also expand our front flowerbed in from the road some more and that would also add a few hundred square feet of growing space. In one of these areas I’d like to grow a lot of flowers like zinnias, cleome and globe amaranth for the bees and other beneficial insects. I also would like to put a 1-2 foot wide flowerbed by the rock wall that flanks our driveway, that would be lovely with a big row of lavender.
driveway-rock-wall
Whatever I decide it’s going to be a lot of back building work digging it all up (you remember our rocky soil), but it will be worth it in the end.

Are you thinking of liberating any of your lawn to expand your veggie beds this year?

8 Comments to “Liberating More Lawn”
  1. Mrs. Meyer on March 10, 2009 at 8:44 am

    I am expanding my garden this year too, but it isn’t really my yard. We did put in a raised bed to the south of our house, so I guess that is part of the yard, though I rarely go over there. The rest is more just part of the land. Out by our lean-to I have a bed about 30×50 or so, and if dh can get the brush pile (mountain) cleared we will be putting another bed about 40×60 or so. My 30×50 does great for all my tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onion, and green beans, but I’m needing another bed for vines – pumpkin, zuccini, watermellon, cantaloupe, cucumbers etc. They take up so much space and usually make a mess of the garden no matter how much I try to tame them:)
    Hopefully we’ll be able to get to that. And the raised bed is for salad greens and such that I want to be able to controll the amount of sun and heat it gets a little better.

    Mrs. Meyer’s last blog post.. This and that:)

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  2. Allie on March 10, 2009 at 10:10 am

    I love growing lavender! I’m hoping to add more to our garden this year.

    Allie’s last blog post.. An Interview with Douglas Farquhar from ReJAVAnate

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  3. Muareen on March 10, 2009 at 10:24 am

    Last year we took out our front lawn to put in veggies (small yard but we got loads of lettuce and brocolli out of it) and this year we may dig up the rest of the back yard. We are on a small city lot so there’s only about 200sq. ft. of grass left (and the only ones who’ll miss it are the dogs!)

    We are also gardening in a neighbors yard….it was empty and she loved the idea of sharing her property in exchange for fresh veggies….yea!

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  4. jumpingcactus on March 10, 2009 at 10:39 am

    WOW, I took a peek at your post on your rocks. I will never again complain about our bermuda grass LOL.

    We liberated another 50 feet this week and plan on more later this week. 50 feet doesnt sound ike much but it gave us a fresh new section for our corn.

    jumpingcactus’s last blog post.. Homemade Ricotta, part 2…………………………..

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  5. Di on March 10, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    Not liberating the lawn but liberating the front garden of weeds :) Probably more accurate, and yeah back breaking work alright!
    Also trying to eek out more veggie space in the back garden!

    Reply to Di's comment

  6. Pampered Mom on March 10, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    I hear you on the lawn liberation front! We’re incredibly limited in our yard as there are very few areas that get full sun thanks to the huge maple tree in our backyard and the neighbor’s ginormous conifers. Ours is more like landscape liberation as we remove the decorative landscaping the previous owners put in and squeeze all of those plants into less-sunny areas. The extra bonus there is that it should seriously cut down on weeding!

    Pampered Mom’s last blog post.. You do *NOT* Want to Miss This One!

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  7. Sinfonian on March 11, 2009 at 1:26 am

    Great that you have room for liberating yard. I’m not ready for neighbor beds yet, so there’s no room to be had. I am building more SWCs to plant more tomatoes this year though, so I guess it’s close. As close as I can get anyway.

    Great post. Good luck, and you’re right, it is worth it when it’s done!

    Sinfonian’s last blog post.. March 10, 2009

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  8. warren on March 11, 2009 at 5:40 pm

    I just got 50 strawberry plants in the mail today which are going to be part of my lawn liberation project! We’ve added fruit each year!

    warren’s last blog post.. From the Whens-day archives

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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