My Edible Front Yard Is Complete!

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Oh landscaping, my nemesis. How I love to hate you. I love to plan you. I love to execute those plans. I surely love to spend the money on you.

I just…hate you…at the same time.

No one ever claimed I made any sense.

I’ve already whined posted about how overwhelmed I was thinking of the yard. Trying to fit in everything that I want. Trying not to make the same mistakes that I made in our last house. Mistakes that of course, I should have learned from and I think I’ve done well.

The landscaping requirements in my area – common practice when you build a new house- are 8 shrubs/bushes and a tree that has a caliper (diameter) of 2.5 inches. This is what I had to complete in order to get my landscaping deposit back from the builder.

Oh ho. They got shrubs and more.

My first house had the front landscaping completed as part of the house building process, something I appreciated when I was 7 months pregnant and had a sweet little 16 month old boy tagging along too. Over the 6 years we spent in that house I ripped out almost everything they planted. I hated the shrubs, the tree died on me anyway and the only thing that I left intact was a gorgeous mock orange that I miss every single day.

This time around I knew that everything had to be edible, beautiful and maintenance free. The reason for the maintenance free in the front yard will be explained once you see what’s happening in the back yard.

My new yard is all party in the front, business in the back.

So here’s the before:

And the “party” after!

The after looks so much better in real life, I simply cannot get a picture that I am happy with. The flowerbeds are huge, each is around 45 sq feet. The back one was made larger and most likely is around 55 sq feet or so.

The rectangle shape of the flowerbeds?

Easy to mow around.

Yup. All about little to no maintenance.  I love grass, I really do, but hate mowing it. This was straight and easy and done in a few swipes.

Yessssss.

The pictures don’t do it justice. Taking shots of green on green isn’t something I am skilled at yet.

The front hosts three dwarf cherry bushes, which was a must for me. My children adore the sour cherries, indeed, will eat almost any berry that comes across their path. They are the taller bushes with the white tags on them.

The plan is that they will full up the back of that bed, even though the picture doesn’t show it they are lined up in a row at the back, with my aim that in a few years I will have one lovely, intermingled cherry bush hedge.

One can dream.

Everything is surrounded by bark for the mulch, making it hopefully weed free. Like I said, low maintenance required.

The University of Saskatchewan released the Romance series of dwarf cherries in 2004, much to the delight of northern gardeners. Unlike most sour cherries which tend to be yellow inside and clear juiced, they are completely red throughout and produce a red juice = meaning a larger amount of those amazing antioxidants that cherries are being touted for.  Processors of conventional canned cherry pie filling add colorants to make their product red while these cherries are naturally red. Win.

They also have a high “brix”, meaning sugar content/sweetness, which equals great taste for fresh eating. The higher the brix, the better tasting it is fresh.

A run down of my three types from the U of S site:

Juliet:

• Dark Red
• Fresh eating type: excellent quality
• Also good for processing
• One of the best for fresh eating flavor
• Most productive cultivar in 2009
• Moderate vigour
• Few suckers
• 5.0g fruit
• High sugar content (up to 20 brix)
• Pits are large enough for old fashioned crank pitters

Valentine:

• Medium Red Fruit
• Tart pie cherry: Processing type
• Some suckering
• 4.5g fruit
• This cherry may be best for making pies with no dyes needed

Cupid:

• Black to dark red
• Most years it is the largest of all sour cherries
• 6.5g fruit
• Good balanced flavour for fresh eating
• Consistent but moderate producer
• Blooms 1 week later than other varieties earning it the nickname ‘Big & Late’
• Few suckers
• Pits are large enough for old-fashioned crank pitters
• Fruit too large for standard commercial sour cherry pitters
• Very different genetically from all other U of Sk sour cherry cultivars

Between the three, I think I have it covered.

I also needed beauty in there as well because my soul needs flowers. In front of the bushes are tall perennials that will eventually spread out and fill in the area.

Like Shasta daisies…

Summer cloud larkspur.

My favorite- there’s three in the flowerbed- Echinacea.

Oranges and lemons blanketflower.

I let each of my children pick a flower that they wanted in the front and my son choose Veronica “pink explosion”.

My daughter chose the most beautiful lilies. Little magpie, just like her mom. Likes the purtiest things out there.

So we’re only at three of the required shrubs and no tree, but fear not.

Meet Annie the apple tree.

When you’re this big, you get a name.