Front Yard Gardens

Front yard vegetable gardens, once frowned on in the suburbs, are becoming commonplace. Often the most desirable garden sites are in front yards where sunlight and air drainage are ideal. Some turfgrass areas may have to be sacrificed and, for cosmetic purposes, garden plots need to be mulched or planted in a cover crop during winter.

Front yard vegetable gardening tends to become "social." It is difficult to garden on the customary solitary plane when neighbors and passersby are stopping and inquiring about how you manage to grow such early sweet corn or those large tomatoes. Yet gardening "out front" has its advantages. When surpluses of leaf lettuce or zucchini develop, you can sell them quickly.

If you live in a conservative neighborhood, start with a few decorative vegetables in the front yard. Enlarge your plot gradually and dress it up with flower borders. If you have to dust or spray, wait until dusk or dawn. Certain people still look on food gardening as a rather vulgar, sweaty activity that should be restricted to the backyard. They will blow the whistle on you if local ordinances give them support.

Vandalism and theft in front yard gardens can be minimized by letting neighborhood kids watch as you plant and water, and by letting them sample fresh peas, carrots, and tomatoes. Melons, however, are much too attractive to plant out front.

Hedges of large annual flowering or foliage plants, such as cleome, four o'clock or kochia, can screen the garden from small children and obscure low temporary fences for keeping out dogs. A few cities have ordinances against permanent fences in front yards, so use a low temporary barrier such as chicken wire or snow fence.

Front yards, unless tightly fenced, are a poor location for fruit, nut or citrus trees or bush fruits. Passersby not only steal the crop but often climb trees and break limbs. The required spraying does not sit well with neighbors when it drifts on their property or automobile.

Place salad or herb gardens near an entrance where leaves, roots, buds, and seeds can be gathered quickly and conveniently with a minimum of walking. Beds of staples such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, and carrots can be grown some distance from the house because they are harvested less often.

Community Gardens

Community gardening almost died out in the years following World War II, before inflation began to be felt and the price of fresh and processed vegetables started to climb. In the early 1970's groups of young people, often in university towns, took up gardening as part of the ecological movement. They located the pressure points and resource areas in local, State and national bureaus and established many thriving gardens that have helped to feed people in low income areas.

At present, no organized Federal or State programs exist to fund and supervise community gardens except in impacted areas where minority groups are involved. Where funding can be arranged, the compensation for leaders is usually small and on a short term basis.

Youngster holds some produce he grew, at Children's Garden of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York.

Community gardens where you can grow as you please have begun to spring up. Most are in medium to large sized towns since small towns offer spacious home grounds and vacant lots for individual gardens.

Private entrepreneurs have developed large gardens in a few towns and rent plots of 500 to 1,000 square feet. In other areas, institutions such as savings and loan companies have converted large acreages to garden plots as a public relations gesture. State governments, through their Extension Service, have launched a few pilot programs, mostly aimed at low income areas.

By and large, the most successful programs have been organized by volunteer committees including experienced gardeners and citizens who know how to twist arms to procure land and startup funds.

A number of corporations are making company land available to employees for gardening. Some small gardens contain no more than a dozen plots, others as many as 400. Some are merely strips of land too awkwardly situated for buildings or parking lots; others are special areas carved out of lawns. Prosperous corporations have hauled in organic matter, piped the gardens for water, added paved access paths, and fenced in the garden area for security. Most are convinced that the benefits derived from happy employees more than repay costs of the programs.

Every community or corporation garden needs someone in charge to assign plots, collect fees, charge out tools from the supply shed, provide advice, and arbitrate disputes. Fees are usually set high enough to cover water bills, spring tillage, maintenance around roads and fence lines, and a stipend for the supervisor. Fees can be slightly higher if there are special services such as hauling in manure or other organic material.

Experienced organizers and supervisors of community gardens often follow seemingly unorthodox priorities in selecting garden sites. Quality of soil is not first. Guidelines include:

Accessibility and parking facilities. Better two or three small garden sites no more than a mile or two from users than one large garden site that attempts to serve people from 5 to 10 miles away.

Availability after working hours and on weekends.

Security. A high, stout fence and a locked gate controlled by the supervisor is, unfortunately, a "must."

Water. More squabbles occur over water than any other service. The best arrangement is at least one hose faucet for every four plots.

-Long term guarantee. No one likes to work hard to improve a garden that can be taken away in a year or two. It is not smart to plant fruit or nut trees in community gardens because they require from three years (almonds) to seven (pecans) to begin bearing significant crops.

-Roads. A wide bisecting or perimeter road is ideal.

Sheds. The ideal arrangement is a large shed that provides secure lockers for each individual's tools and supplies, and large cabinets for holding tools and community supplies purchased in bulk.

-Peripheral space. A resourceful supervisor can promote all sorts of organic waste material for composting, if he has a place to pile it.

Fertile soil. A determined gardener with access to lots of compost can grow pretty good vegetables on soil that was once compacted for a parking lot, or on the subsoil and rubble remaining after a building demolition. With built-up beds of compost, the fertility and structure of the base material becomes less important.