Subject: community gardens,front yard gardens

From: [email-masked] (Diane 3000)
Date: 13 Apr 1995 11:07:03 -0400

I'd like to hear stories from other gardeners about community gardens they
have been a part of, or of efforts to create front yard gardens in urban
areas.  I, after a sewer replacement in my front yard, began a garden on
the parkway in front of my house.  Using the predictable list of Zone 5
favorites (daylilies, achillea, ageapodium, perovskia, rudbeckia,
echinacea, geraniums, coreopsis, monarda, hosta,...) I created a nice,
tough garden. I am also involved in a community perennial garden at a
nearby park, and this spring we will be planting another near a park
fieldhouse.  The park garden gets little or no attention, except a
semi-annual deadheading and bi-annual mulch, but thrives anyway.  I'd be
happy to share the list of durable plants that have survived there.  We
have a heavy clay soil, full sun and lots of foot traffic from football
players.

I am also interested in starting a front yard garden program in my
neighborhood.  I seem to recall reading many months ago of a town in New
England that has instigated the planting of a large number of front yard
gardens via a contest.  Does anyone remember this town and program?  I
remember they had literature and lots of advice to share.

Thanks,
Diane in Chicago

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From: Donald Kackman <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 02:59:36 GMT

> have been a part of, or of efforts to create front yard gardens in urban

snip

> remember they had literature and lots of advice to share.

Wow I was just thinking about this as i read an earlier post and was going to
originate a thread on this subject. I live in the city and garden in my front
yard for a number of reasons.

The block on which I live is nice but very bland. Grey houses with little
or no color. When I moved in there were some nieghbors around who had thier
fronts somewhat landscaped but there really wasn't a lot of flowers out front
even though many had back yard gardens.

I though well that's a shame all this color and you can only see it from the alley.
So I got out my trusty spade and began slowly turning over the hard backed sod and
sifting out all that boring old bluegrass. I don't have the whole space filled
which is my goal but I'm well on my way. About half is covered with various
perrenials and space for annuals with more to follow soon (it's still a bit
chilly here in zone 4)

Not only do I get to enjoy all the flowers but passers by do as well (it's a 
fairly busy street) and plus with all the time I spend out in my front yard
digging I've met more of my neighbors than I ever would have otherwise.

In terms of what works; its been my experience that once the soil is turned and
loosened almost anything will grow. I have deep black soil here (much to nice to
waste on some stupid lawn). I have a couple of paths so the mail man can still
cut across the yard and visitors can cut diagonally from the sidewalk to the front 
door. This seems to keep most foot traffic out of the flower beds.

The squirrels started to dig up my sunflower seeds but a good dose of Cayenne
pepper took care of that. And besides the tendency for blowing garbage to collect
around my plants I haven't had any troubles and a lot of compliments.

Don Kackman