Once upon a time, there was a nice house in Bellingham, WA surrounded by trees, a couple of flower beds, and of course, lots of lawn:
Old creosote soaked logs edged the boarders, and the owners annually fought the lawn vs. moss battle typical in the Pacific Northwest. The owners dutifully mowed, dug out the dandelions, mowed some more, nagged about mowing, and played a couple of croquet games over fifteen years.
Spring brought a bit of color to the garden, but the gardener didn’t have a handle on sustaining colors throughout the growing seasons. As she visited great public gardens like The Buchart Gardens on Vancouver Island or the Minter Gardens in southern British Columbia, she yearned for great masses of color around the garden.
But there were problems with that approach, too. After all, that would mean shelling out lots of money for annuals every year to sustain color in the garden, something the gardener didn’t want to afford. The gardener also has a sneaking suspicion that there could be more to gardening than looking at pretty flowers alone.
Then, in the comfortable ship’s library on an Alaskan cruise in 2008, the gardener read this:
“Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we’d know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle through. “
Reading this quote from Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, the gardener and her husband became galvanized, realizing they didn’t need to keep mowing their lawn. Better, they could grow organic food, share it with their family and friends, and even combine flowers, vegetable and herbs in something called “sustainable landscaping.”
On either side, her neighbors joined her in giving up their lawns to garden organically and sustainably. They invested in over 50 yards of four way soil, but after the 2009 growing season, realized that they still needed to improve their soil. The neighbor bought chickens, and shared eggs and aged chicken manure. The gardener bought a deck composter from Envirocycle in 2010 and began loving earthworm and recycling compostable materials from her meals, garden and junk mail. She researched seed companies, companion planting, greenhouses. She wept and gnashed her teeth over slugs, rain and deer, and swooned with delight as she saw bees flocking to her garden by the hundreds. Her family and friends ate amazingly flavorful tomatoes, lettuce, summer, winter squash. She proudly donated excess vegetables in the local food bank, and met amazing gardeners at local seed swaps.
On July 4th, 2012, this gardener celebrates her independence as well as her nation’s. From her perspective, freedom from that long ago lawn has been worth all the work.
Lettuce and dill make a fine display
Tomatoes, Jupiter’s Beard and peppers
Tomato, Fizz Kale, Garlic and Bee’s Friend
A plethora of peas
Where once was lawn . . .
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Absolutely fabulous post! I love it!
So fun to see how the spark ignited your whole neighborhood. Thanks for sharing your story! c:
Garden independence! I am aiming for it, slowly, slowly, and without the support you had from your neighbors. But I persevere, and try to make things as beautiful as possible, so the neighbors don’t complain.
Great job and I’m with you! When I see people buying grass seed, I feel a strong urge to do an intervention.
Since harassing people in public is against the law, I do it gently on the internet instead.
Your gardens are gorgeous and a great example of what a yard should look like.
Two Green Thumbs up!
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I always wonder why people sink so much money and labor into lawns just for the honor of mowing them. There are so many more exciting alternatives. Thanks for another example of smart and beautiful lawn replacement!
I agree, Jane. And worse, they buy dangerous pesticides that kill birds, bees, and probably a few humans, too, courtesy of the good people who lobby the EPA, but that’s another post.
I notice that in your work, you favor true landscaping–and that’s beautiful and inspirational to me.