Edible Landscape

About a mile away from our home, there is a woman who lives on a city-like lot of less than ¼ acre.  She has very little yard, and what she does have is in the front of her house.  Last year, while I drove by her house to go into town, I noticed she had dug up rows in her front yard.  I was curious as to what she was doing.  By May, I figured it out: she planted an edible front yard of tomatoes exclusively!  Though it wasn’t the prettiest yard to look at on the street, I saw bright red tomatoes in her front yard every week when I drove past her home and I had to smile to think about what she was doing with all that produce!

As I walk around our yard, I get the feeling that we could potentially eat quite well (minus meat, dairy and grain) off our property.  We live on 1 acre of land divided up in two parcels.  I found this great diagram  from Ohio State University’s website that shows how to have an edible landscape in our zone (zone 6) even on the smallest of properties.

Over the next two weeks, I will walk you around our two parcels of property and show you how we are making it the most efficient we can in terms of growing our own fruits and vegetables. 

A picture of our property.  We own to the street at the very end of this road.

To those who would like to join me, please start getting ready to link up next week.  I would love to see how you “live off your land.”