Do You Have an Edible Yard? (I Do!)

Hey guys - so, my mom and I (both avid gardeners) have been cogardening for the last several weeks.

I finally finally finally got the nastiest bit of the east side of the driveway planted with perennials! (My poor lilac, it's been through hell..... )

anyway -
so, I hate mowing! I hate the noise of a mower. I hate the heat and gas emissions from a mower. Grass in a pain in the **ass is a pain in the why am I expected to try to grow grass in a yard that grass hates?

You know what my yard loves? Wild violets. Clover. Wild strawberries. Plantain. Moss. Creeping Charlie (Mr Wigs calls it "creepy charlie"). Vinca. Creeping Euonymous. Buffalo grass. Coneflowers. Dutch Hyacinths. We get mushrooms. We have earthworms. Cranesbill. Lilies of the Valley. We have grapevines, and blackberry canes. All grow here voluntarily and quite contentedly.
We have walnut trees and redbuds and oaks and mulberries (all with edible fruit!). I mean, it's not Cuba with juicy mangos and avocadoes the size of footballs and all that stuff - but still, it's, well - edible.....(my bestie Silvio came from Cuba - he talks about the fruits ripe off the tree for breakfast....)

Anyway - back to the lower Midwest deciduous forest along the Missouri river: we could survive on this 1/3 acre of land. I have no interest in pulling out my perfectly lovely self-sufficient, hardy ground ivies and wild edibles.
Lots of perennials that are not edible, but lovely and that also attract pollenators - butterflies, bees, wasps, hummingbirds. Do you guys have those?




It's been suggested to me, however, that for my property to have "market value", I should poison and depopulate it and make it a "grass lawn". I ought to to yank out all of what is growing here, till it up, get the roots out, add chemicals, rinse/repeat, treat it for grubs, worms, insects, etc.... and then plant grass. Aftercare includes the regular and scheduled use of chemical fertilizers, and chemical weed-killers at the same time. And chemical pesticides. Water and water, and then do some watering. Make sure you water it.

Then it will start to grow. (Especially if you are planting engineered grass - it comes with a chemical cocktail of required nutrition. so - give it what it needs.) Some will get so thick as to crowd out the edible weeds entirely (and you can get an herbicide that will target them directly, too!) -- eventually you have a perfect turf lawn of engineered grass that thrives in a chemical dry-bog. (Don't forget to put the sign on the yard that says "Keep Off! Chemically Treated Lawn!" And don't, by ANY means, allow your pets or children to walk on it. Can't believe I'd even have to say that, but there we are.)

So..........


now it's gorgeous! Oh my, who is your landscaper?





If SHTF, will you eat that grass? How in the world are you keeping this exotic that only lives on a remote South Pacific Island alive? I've never seen such a gorgeous specimen of a tropical plant here!! You have a lawn service? So - how often? Oh right...right. I've noticed the "keep off just poisoned" yard sign.....yeah, about every two weeks.

So - and you mow approximately every 60 hours, right? Because all that gorgeous fertilized chemically enhanced engineered grass grows like gangbusters there on your lot! What? You say it grows an inch every 48? Holy Moly!!!!! Well, I bet you have a very nice riding mower, though....right?

Yeah? One of those zero-turn arrangements? Spendy....but ------ how fun is that!???


Anyway, yeah - so - if the SHTF and you become a hunter/gatherer..... would (could) you eat your lawn?


I could and would eat mine. I could also fix many ailments and maladies like indigestion, sprains and strains, cuts, fevers, etc.




oh wow, so that just turned into an unsolicited monologue! LOL!!!
just wanted to chit-chat!

Well I don't have much of a green thumb... but...
I have plantain, wild strawberries, dandelions by the hundreds (great for salads but never tried wine), and a big crab apple tree. Would I eat wild edibles? Of course!
And omg..if anyone told me to dig up my garden and plant grass, I'd grab a nice handful of crab grass and serve it to them in a fancy bowl.
Bon appetit!

double post

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Come on Buzzy...We need pics!!!!

Sounds beautiful.

Every year my wife and I have less and less grass. Our veggie garden was enlarged this year to about 1/4 acre.

And we keep planting more perennials every year. ALL geared toward attracting our little friends, the humming birds!

We have been canning the last 3 years.

We have TINY green cherry tomatoes as of today!!! My fave!

Enjoy your little paradise and screw anyone who thinks you don't 'fit' in.

Mind me asking where abouts in the country you are?

a reply to: BuzzyWigs
For some odd reason when I read the title of your thread, I thought of this pic:

Silly me.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

I should have enough when I am done for a bushel of carrots, bushel of onions, 2 bushels of lettuce, 50-80 tomatoes, 40-50 bell peppers, 50 pears, 20-30 squash, 30-40 cucumbers, 30 full sized watermelon and maybe 8 5-gallon pails of black walnuts (4 black walnut trees). It's the wife's garden but I seem to be doing all the work lol. We have orchids, lilies, tulips, pansies, daisies and host of other perennials in 5 others garden areas, but the vegetables are the most important.

I can't eat my lot, but I can eat an awful lot that's growing on it ;-)

Cheers - Dave

Now I can drive by and say "damn, that woman takes pride in her property"

I feel your pain, I just paid the price of a new car to re-grade, install drainage into the ocean, and resod with the favorite, and nd of course overpriced grass.

Nothing like supporting the local college kids small businesses though. I pay 75 a month for 2-3 cuts per week, which includes cut, edging, trimming, weed prevention, and nutes as needed down here in Floridaville.

a reply to: AccessDenied

RIght?!!! Grass?

I'd rather be able to make a lovely salad and top it with blackberries and rosehips and pansies and rosehips --- all on a bed of wild violet and dandelion leaves. *licks lips just typing it* Complemented with ground ivy tea.

And maybe some dandelion wine. Too. Or dandelion/blackberry wine.

I have great soil, but I just don't seem to have time to tend to a garden anymore. My grape vines and blackberry vines are smothering my blueberry bushes. I bought a bunch of flower seeds this past winter, never got to plant them. With all the rain we've had, I'm lucky just to get the grass cut. The peach trees are progressing nicely though. Chances are, the squirrels and birds will get to all my fruit before I do. Every year, I hope to collect enough dandelions to try out my aunt's wine recipe. Never happens.

And I still need a clear weekend to put a new top on my convertible. Maybe this weekend (fingers crossed).

a reply to: stosh64

I am in Kansas City - on the Kansas side - one mile south of the Missouri river and three miles west of the State Line.

It's beautiful here. Deciduous forest....lots and lots of "unimproved green space" in the ravines and gulches. On top of a hill.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
If SHTF, will you eat that grass?

No. I have edible neighbors.

a reply to: Mandroid7



That makes me sad. I'm sorry you have to do that....

But thank you so much for validating the issue and contributing. What would you do differently if you had your druthers?

a reply to: VictorVonDoom

Isn't is amazing how fast time goes by?! So much to do - and so little time. Takes on a whole new meaning when you live it.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

edible neighbors.

Which, of course, you know how to cook so expertly as to be indistinguishable from ...........

living in the desert, a "lawn" won't happen. i keep my backyard green, and tend to an herb garden and small floral garden. next year we are converting the floral garden into a fairy garden with edible herbs (combine some of our work by putting it all in one place).

Im in Cali on just over 1/4 acre lot. I have built 9 raised bed gardens for edibles, Right now Im picking baskets of 2 types of cherry tomatos, green beans, purple beans, red runner beans, zucchini, paddy pans, japanese cukes, lemon cukes, lemons and oranges, tangelo, boysenberries. I also have red raspberries, purple raspberries, Sunchokes, artichokes, plums, figs, pomegranite, lime, swiss chard,kale, horse radish, carrots, onions, anise, purple collard trees, pecan, oak, olive, peas, corn, at least 10 types of tomatos, and the same for peppers. two types of thymne, sage, rosemary parsley, 3 kinds of mint. bamboo, peach, and Im sure I left some out. I do still have a lawn as well and several rasied beds are integrated into it also. I grow a winter garden too

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

What the hell? No pictures? You better upload some ASAP!

Sounds awesome but be wary because I just read an article about a town outlawing veggies being grown in front yards.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Now that I had to look up the word druthers, lol

I am all for all natura, but this is an investment property for me, so I need to conform to an HOA unfortunately.

The yard drainage issue, or lack thereof was how I scooped up a deal, in an otherwise unaffordable neighborhood, so I rented a bobcat, scrapped it down, installed surface drains and laid sod.

My plant options are limited by hoa, so I can't go buck wild.

My paradise would not include a lawn. I would go with crushed seashell paths thtough bordered, dense tropical plants.
Then use landscape lighting.
I am into the tropical look, you can do alot of funn stuff with the rainfall here vs the midwest.

this is a random pic, but it shows that the "greenness"(sp?) Comes from alll of the plants, and there is no yard to mow.

For veggies and herbs, I would do an attached hydro greenhouse to get lost in, and to ensure I eat my veggies before the bugs do.

Love it! I love all my weeds and as far as the lawn goes.....I let my horse mow that for me.

I could eat a lot of the plants in the yard. I can make noodles off of the bark of twigs on maple trees too. I actually have potatoes coming up near the woods where I planted some a couple of years ago, but to get potatoes of any quantity you would need to dig them up and get seed potatoes to plant in the garden. I have traveling onions and garlic in one spot, they keep on reproducing. There are dandelions and plantain to make some green leafy veggies out of. Hazlenuts grow here attracting squirrels, squirrels are pretty tasty if done right. Lots of marjarum growing and many medicinal plants are in the yard too.

I have been contemplating planting some coffee trees, but I can't order the kind that lives up here outside from anywhere at a reasonable price.