How many of you have vegetable gardens in your front yard?

I am checking with my city but I am planning to put a vegetable garden in my front yard (an attractive one). How many of you have vegetables in your front yard? Post pictures if possible.

I'm considering it, but would hate to have to re-establish the SA grass if it didn't work out. I read a story about front yard veggie gardens in Green Prints which was sweet. The author's dad would plant vegetables in the front so that when people passed by he'd get to talk with them.

I would suppose (I live in a rather new neighborhood) I would get complaints about how it would look in the winter. But I am toying with the idea. I may at least put an A-frame trellis out there with beans on it, or okra, next year.

My city just got back with me and they said it's fine - no regulations about veggies in front yards.

If you live in a newer neighborhood, you may want to check with your HOA. They sometimes have specific rules. I live in an older one so it's not a problem (at least not on paper).

I'm fortunate enough to not have an actual HOA -- there's just a deed thing that says my yard needs to be in keeping with the surrounding yards. I do NOT interpret that to mean I have to plant red-tipped photinia and ligustrum and nothing else!!! If I do it, I'll just do it slowly...

If you're interested, "Weed 'Em and Reap" is an excellent book, and he tells the story of how the city tried to get him to clean up his front yard, in which he cultivated edible "weeds" his family ate. He wound up running for office and being in charge of the department that tried to shut him down! A good read, but a lot of good info as well.

There are ways to have a great vegetable garden mixed with flowers and herbs. My DH is making my beds in front and I plan on putting some really colorful vegetables and flowers to make it really look good. I already have sage and oregano in my flower beds. The best thing is if I don't like it I can put in perennials next year. I wish I could find some other front yard vegetable gardens in my area to see how it worked for them.

Hi Mobi,
When we moved into our new house last year the front yard was just grass with an empty flower bed. Boring!

Since then we have torn out grass and added flower beds and a raised area with shrubs and perennials. The old flowerbed in the center is full of veggies.

Wow, what a difference! Looks great

Thanks, people don't really notice the veggies from the street and the shrubs will hopefully block our view of the neighbors ugly, broken down suburbans. I planted a few morning glories and sunflowers in with the veggies and I haven't had any complaints from the neighbors yet.

Nice landcaping job Katlian. I wish I had the sun in my front yard. My front is like Sherwood Forest....

O.K. this is a topic I know more than I care to about. It all started with too much compost and a few extra tomato plants.... Anyone see where this is going LOL......Picture a neighborhood with HUGE houses all with the same 5 "in" plants. Now picture those neighbors when they realize a VEGETABLE plant is visable in a side yard in the middle of a huge flower bed! GASP! How does one explain that it's not that we don't "value their input" but really we love great food, plants, and animals more than their opinion? Next come the lawsuit papers and counter lawsuit. (I can't say enough about having pictures of all the neighborhood yards to illustrate plants that others are growing..like crabapples and dandelions) I explained to the silly neighborhood trustees that since there are many plants in all the yards that are fruits and vegetables and they'd never win the case. The Judge ended up telling them he didn't want to hear a case regarding stuck up ___ arguing about tomatoes and to "work it out" LOL Then I get a letter I should frame, saying that they think I've "gotten the idea" and they drop the suit. My husband calls my tomatoes the $10,000 tomatoes. I'm guessing the story will be one of many of my gardening escapades talked about at my funeral LOL BTW If I plant garlic and they can't see it would that be against the NEW subdivision indentures forbiding vegetables? Either way, I already harvested it and it smells GREAT! LOL If anyone needs it I have a GREAT attorney for "vegetable rights"

You are right about so many plants being fruits and vegetables. I don't know why some people have to control other people. And why a tomato plant is so horrible! And that most plants can be considered herbs! Vegetables can be very attractive - look at kale and cabbage, the sweet potato vine is edible, though very bitter and is not usually eaten, people have it all over. Perhaps instead of calling it a "vegetable garden" we should call it edible landscaping! I live in an older neighborhood so we don't have an hoa, which helps.

Why some people and hoa's go gaga over landscaping is beyond me.

So they added to the rules that you can't have vegetables in your front yard?

I have a raised bed system in one half of our front yard. It looks like a community garden, however, it is an excellent demonstration garden. It is the place for full-sun, so that is where it goes.

In the fall I will be involved with planting an ornamental, raised bed, organic front yard fruit and vegetable garden for a local community garden's display area. It will be used for my educational classes -and will will be involving the community as we build it too.

There are some new landscape design companies springing up around the country catering to this idea. I think it is a fine one!

GGG

If someone accuses you of illegally growing tomatoes, tell them you realize it LOOKS like a tomato, but it's really a lycopersicon, a non-poisonous nightshade variation. Nothing gets them like Latin.

Garlic? What garlic? You mean that allium?

{{{{{evil grin}}}}}

Hey since "going green" is the politically correct thing to do right now, I fail to see the point of the stuck up _____ types, lol. Maybe someone needs to tell them they are not "keeping up" with what's current.

We moved to Ohio 13 mos. ago. We had an older mobile home removed from the front of the property and turned the space into a 50 x 13 terrace garden. Had lots of cement blocks on the property so we bordered the "terrace garden" with the blocks. Next year we'll put in nice retainer walls. The front garden is flourishing as are the back yard gardens and corn patch.

Here's what the terrace part of the front garden looked like in May. The garden and perenials are below the edge of the terrace level.

Vegetables can look beautiful if you choose varieties for shape and colour, and lots can be grown among flowers if you like. Runner beans were originally grown for their attractive flowers, not the beans. Then there are leeks in lots of different shades and Bright Lights swiss chard, and some wonderful colours and leaf shapes of lettuce.

I'm not sure what HOA is, but I'm sure they would be told to mind their own business if they tried to tell anyone what they can or can't grow over here.

I've got shrubs along the edge of the road so people can't see into my garden very well, but I certainly have most of my veg beds at the front of the house mixed with flower beds, a pond and the greenhouse.

The chequerboard area is my new herb bed taken last year and this looks really lovely this year now all the herbs have grown - which could be another idea for you to try. You get some pretty flowers and can use them in cooking.

I know my garden looks a bit rough in the previous photo, but it was taken at the end of the winter before things had got growing properly, and I hadn't spread the manure heap.

I've just thought of another idea, Garden Pearl tomatoes are lovely and ornamental in pots as they cascade over the sides of the container and are covered in lots of flowers and fruit all summer. They taste excellent too.

Here is a summer photo with a bit more colour. I'm afraid I'm not a tidy gardener - I'm happier with a more natural look - and it is an excuse when it gets a bit unruly.

Wow, Patbarr--love it!

A lot of the kales are very ornamental, Redbor is a beautiful redish purple with an attractive shape and a great taste and looks good all winter, and I saw a display at a flower show recently where the vegetables were planted out in squares of individual varieties - a bit larger than the square foot gardening idea, but they had plants with colours that complemented each other in each block. Purple kohl rabi next to white stemmed Pak choi, and a frilly lettuce next to a red one.

You could also build an arbour or similar structure and grow both beans and flowers up it. I've just planted an outdoor grape vine on the one in the picture and also put Morning Glory and Sweet peas on it for colour.

Give it a go, it will look lovely, and don't mind the neighbours - you never know you might start a trend.

I did start some pole beans on trellises for the wonderful RED beans that they produce (they also have pole beans with purple beans). I am planning

Bright Lights swiss chard
tomatoes
blue potatoes
lots of different lettuce (for the cool season)
carrots
different kale
cauliflower in yellow, orange and purple

zinnias and marigolds for color

I don't eat eggplant but am considering it just because it looks neat.

I just happened onto this thread...I haven't been on the veggie forum before. Funny we just ate sweet yellow corn and yukon gold potatoes from our front yard garden. We live in an older neighborhood that doesn't have a HOA. We specifically avoided that when we bought our house 16 years ago.
I have seperate flower and vegetable gardens that go all the way to the curb. People stop frequently to discuss these, especially the veggies when they get really started. We grow tomatoes, peppers, squash, cukecumbers, and beans along with the corn and potatoes. I also have some sunflowers, bee balm and hollyhocks in the bed...sort of a cottage garden thing.
We share with the neighbors, have had some petty thefts, but not much, and have gotten others in the neighborhood into veggie gardening. A man has stopped here several times in his truck when he sees us out to ask questions. Seems his little boy is fascinated and wants a garden, too!
We are very lucky to be able to do this and have met many nice folks this way. I hope others can do the same:-))
Bev

That sounds a good selection Mobi, you can also plant a few flowers when you harvest the veg. to fill the gaps, something easy and colourful that attracts beneficial insects like Marigold, Nasturtiums or Phacelia. Here are some coloured cauliflowers I grew last year:

Out of interest is HOA home owners association? I don't think we have them over here, surely if you own your own home and garden responsibly your neighbours have no rights to tell you what you can and can't grow whether they have formed an association or not. You should try and get a video of "The Good Life", an old BBC TV series, if it is available. A couple decided to be self sufficient and grew all their own food, kept pigs and hens etc in a posh residential neighbourhood and highlights the problems they had both with their way of life and with their lovely but rather snooty neighbour who found this totally alien to her lifestyle and thought it lowered the tone of the neighbourhood.

This is a flower/ veggie garden 150 feet long down the road front.
Tomatoes, Peppers, eggplant, okra, pumpkin on the ends.
I guess this doesnt count cause im in the country.

Yes, HOA is home owners association which are in almost all newer homes here. When you buy your home you have to sign a form that you will go by their rules of what you can and cannot have in your yard, fence heights, plantings, signs etc. They have received some terrible reputations and there have been problems with them suing homeowners for infractions. They consist of a council of homeowners and some are almost militant in how they want to control people. Many people hate them, and I made sure I bought a home that didn't have a HOA.

I love those cauliflower!

I think we need more pictures of that garden Cricket! It looks fantastic!

cannas& Okra, peppers on this side

This message was edited Jul 1, 2007 4:34 PM

petunias, marigolds, eggplants, tomatoes, cleome, touch me nots, cockscombs on this side

It is so pretty!

What lovely colourful borders Cricket. It's a great example of flowers and veg. working together.

I don't like the sound of your HOAs they sound to be extremely high handed - surely they can't make you sign anything - what happened to the "land of the free"? I don't blame you for chosing an area that doesn't have one.

If you want to live in these areas they make you sign something. Some people want everything to look the same, but not me.

Mobi,
I do eat eggplant, but I would grow it even if I didn't. The flowers are lovely and the fruits as well. I especially like growing ping-tung ( lavender), rosa bianca ( pink and white), Fairytale, and round mauve. The white(Casper) is pretty but isn't as flavorful. Farmers' Long from Renee's Garden is reddish purple. Then there are some red ones that are extremely bitter but that are much loved in cultures that appreciate the bitter flavor -- not contemporary US. Check out the red ones in Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Some of them are used in flower arranging!
For a front yard garden, I would think eggplants would be ideal and you can probably find a neighbor who would adore them. Or you can dmail me and I will post some good eggplant recipes on the recipe thread.

HOA's are great for keeping the junked cars out of the neighborhood but can be stiffling for gardeners. Or, as in Greenjay's case, she took charge of the landscaping and grounds for her HOA and is busily turning it into a showplace -- all 5 acres of it. Some neighbors help and others gripe, but they are saving money and water.

Thai basil is a lovely garden flower as well as an herb to add zip to your food. Try that in your front yard. I have a neighbor who landscapes with pumpkins and the whole neigborhood is delighted with watching them grow.

I hope you'll post a photo of your garden when it is finished Mobi. I think a garden is a form of personal expression and if it makes you happy then you should do it. No two gardens should be alike and they change and develop over time, that is what makes it such a fascinating and enjoyable passtime, and if it is pleasing to the eye and produces great tasting fruit and veg. too you can't lose.

Good luck.

I remember reading a story in Gourmet or some similar magazine about an Italian immigrant who moved to California and proceeded to use his front yard to grow wonderful vegetables and fruits and even grapes for wine. He was the inspiration for Alice Waters and many other famous "local organic produce" type chefs. He was also an incredible cook and made heavenly dishes out of things we don't usually eat. I wish I could remember his name. He was married to an American woman and the first dinner party they had together he gave her the shopping list to buy the ingredients. She was appalled to learn that he had included tripe and told him no American would eat such food. He told her to calm down, that when the guests left they would think there was no dish so wonderful as tripe. And in fact, the guests loved it and devoured every scrap of it.
He published a book on cooking with fresh, local food which I understand is not just out of print, but also extremely rare.
According to his son, who was quoted in the article, the neighbors were absolutely fascinated to see his beautiful fruits and vegetables while they mowed their little patches of grass.
I think you will make a lot of friends if you make your front yard garden.

I live in a pretty nice (people nice) neighborhood but you never know who is harboring "yard police" fantasies! LOL.

You can always make a pretty 'flower' border then tuck a few 'ornamental' peppers, a nice 'trellis' of cukecumbers...pretty yellow flowers...and a 'lovely' tomato plant to add 'texture' to your cottage garden;-)

I have tomatoes in my backyard mixed with flowers and herbs and would probably have more if my evil greyhound girl didn't eat everything (she is currently eating all my strawberries). So the front yard was my best choice. I've already told my near neighbors what I planned and everyone seems supportive.