What you dream in your mind can be grown into reality if you truly believe that it can. It takes more than just belief though…it also takes daily work and dedication to grow your dreams. Learning to garden has taught me so much and continues to gift me with lessons from Mother Earth as long as I remember to pay attention. Philosophy aside, 2018 was the year we really started to realize our vision of turning our entire front yard into a garden and Frontyard Food Collective went from possibility to reality.
The sod cutter worked amazing and the cutting went quickly. The majority of the sod turned into a sod lasagna which makes great compost for adding back to the garden. If I could do it over again I would have spread cardboard and hay over the entire yard and built the topsoil that way…however, it’s never a bad thing to put some sweat into the garden. More importantly every mistake is an opportunity to reflect and learn how to do something better.
Luckily I had some serious help to remove the old fence and to dig and set the posts from my beautiful wife. Our high school chemistry teacher did comment many moons ago that she would be good in the garden. We used 8′ cedar logs from the local sawmill direct lumber supplier which was a huge win. Not only were they super cheap ($5/log), but they look great and weather nicely with zero maintenance. We set the posts 2′ deep in crushed road base and after tamping, the posts were set super solid.
A few rolls of 7″ deer fencing and some twine and we had an upgraded front yard garden. The left over logs we cut and used to make 14 in ground beds. We brought in a few yards of topsoil and a bag of sea soil for each bed. We were so proud and finally have a front yard food forest of our own. Walking out into the front yard and grabbing a handful of vegetables for dinner in the summer never gets old and is a daily reminder to show gratitude for the gifts from the garden. Happy Gardening!
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