lawns to salads

Well. This isn’t too impressive looking, I know, but here is the successor to the personal meadow.

I’m quite enamored of the Lawns To Loaves model, but although I’ve grown wheat in the backyard for a few years, I haven’t worked up the nerve to grow it in front. Partly because I doubt most people could tell it from a lot of volunteer foxtails.

The kids across the street came over and helped me dig up the middle section and plant arugula. By “helped me,” I mean, they dug it up entirely on their own, and did a great job, too. What actually grew was arugula, and quite a bit of basil– I’d thrown that seed out there awhile back, and I guess it decided its hour had come.

They’ve been wanting to come again for a couple of weeks, so I finally told them to come yesterday and we’d weed it. They said they could come after school– school started on Wednesday. Barbaric! I asked them, would they have time? They assured me they would. I believe their exact words were, “We got nothing but time.”

I had already planted nasturtiums and vegetables in the top section. The vegetables are either squash, or cucumbers; for some reason I can’t exactly remember which. If it was cucumbers, they wanted to know, could they have some? I promised that if anything actually bore fruit up there, I would definitely cut them in.

While they were working, they pointed out that the people down the street had corn. I’d noticed this too, and told them I was a little miffed, as I was planning to be the first person to grow corn in the front yard. I also wanted to be the first person to grow squash in the front yard, but these people have a giant, mature vine, plus they actually had a pumpkin growing on their front walk. Oh well. The cause is all one.

So we grow the new world in the shell of the old. If things work out, we’ll have squash by Halloween. If not, well, next year in the cornfield. It’s a good life.