093

June 19, 2008 :: I 'yam what I 'yam (and that's all that I 'yam)

I bring you proof that that garden thing from earlier this year has worked out famously. The spinach up there is the very first real harvest from the raised beds Blake and I built behind our yellow house. Despite a squirrel infestation, drought, bugs, and my general lazy ineptitude when it comes to such things, I seem to have not only not killed the seeds I planted, but they've actually thrived for the most part. Tiny fuzzy soybean pods, fat green tomatoes, and a bumper crop of long green beans are up for picking next.

Connectedly, I've had a brilliant idea. I love the crazy, wild way vegetables and fruits in raised beds end up looking. I hate the way my weedy, patchy, ill-tended front yard looks. So, I've come up with a solution, spurned on partially by this awesome article.

Edible Landscaping.

This fall, I'll build out the front yard in raised boxes, fill them with dirt and pretty cover-crop (clover probably), and let them marinate in their own fertile juices for the winter. In the spring, we'll grab the seeds and plant my little front yard as a wild tomato jungle. a crazy asparagus forest, a rampant herb patch.

I can't WAIT. And as for the 'yams that I 'yam....we've got so many of those they're threatening to choke out the fennel and the onions. It's a very high class problem.