# Converting Your Lawn to More Practical Uses...



## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

As some of you may know, most of my yard is comprised of raised beds for vegetable gardening and some ornamental flowering bushes to attract bees for pollenation. This year I added 2 more raised beds in the form of Stock Tanks and this winter I plan on adding a few more in place of my grass, which is a Emerald Zoysia Grass; a drought resistant warm weather durable grass that requires less maintenance.

Of course I don't have to deal with Neighbors or a Home Owners Association, but if done correctly, it can look nice as well as highly functional...

This year, I'm down to around 1200 Square Feet of Zoysia Grass and hope to reduce that in half over the next few years. I don't mind keeping some grass, as it just looks nice, but the more I can grow veggies, herbs or useful plants, the better I will be!

Here's a couple of links to get you in the right frame of mind...
https://gardentherapy.ca/raised-vegetable-garden/
https://www.thegardenlady.org/converting-your-lawn-into-a-vegetable-garden/
https://realfarmacy.com/lawn-to-garden/
https://www.motherearthnews.com/nat...mate-savvy-alternatives-to-lawns-ze0z1905zwoo


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## Yavanna (Aug 27, 2018)

I do also have a vegetable garden in my house. Nobody here minds what you plant on your yard, as long as it is kept clean (not overrun with weeds or full of trash). 
I have a small area, but I have fruit trees, spices and vegetables, and flowers as well. Last year we had squash planted in the walkway, nobody said a thing about it.


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## Mrs. Spork (Jan 30, 2017)

I think a lot more about dual purpose planting than I used to. I'd like more herbs but we don't have many optimal sun/shade spaces for it.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

double post


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

Plant what you can eat. Perrenials/long lived/orchard if feassable. Lots are spring/summer/fall ornimentals

Why spend $$$$$$$$$$$ on flowers if the $$$$$$$ could feed you all year???????


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## Yavanna (Aug 27, 2018)

Mad Trapper said:


> Why spend $$$$$$$$$$$ on flowers if the $$$$$$$ could feed you all year???????


Because flowers are pretty and we like them <3


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Our grass feeds the horse. It is an essential part of our homestead.

We do have some raised beds for vegetables, but they have been dormant last year and this year. That is the wife's area, and old age and disability has slowed her down.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Yavanna said:


> Because flowers are pretty and we like them <3


Many are edible in a pinch.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

rice paddy daddy said:


> Our grass feeds the horse. It is an essential part of our homestead.
> 
> We do have some raised beds for vegetables, but they have been dormant last year and this year. That is the wife's area, and old age and disability has slowed her down.


My dogs go out and eat the grass, too. But that's bad for dogs. The little guy got coccidiosis, which is some kind of bacteria that's spread from wild animals. Cost me $260.71 in vet bills this week. :sad2:

I hope your wife is doing okay...

I miss horseback riding. Do you do much riding?


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Another bit of information on converting a yard to a veggie garden.
https://outlawgarden.com/2012/07/13/10-rules-for-growing-vegetables-in-the-front-yard/


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## Old SF Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

I've been working on a raised bed of bacon bits, but those seeds ain't been producing shit yet. The muslim neighbors' chickens keep getting into em too. He don't know it but he's going to hell one egg at time.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

We do not have any grass, only the wild grass that grows in the high desert. WOO HOO!!! For the last two years, all of our gardening has consisted of container gardens. We have been doing okay with those, but it is a painfully manual process to keep them up. Still, we do not have enough of them to consume too much time.

This winter, my plan is to build six raised bed gardens in the back of the house from cast concrete panels. Since I have a guy coming out within the next week or so to dig the trench for the electrical from the house to the shack that I am building for Mrs Inor's art studio, I am going to have him dig the trenches for the water lines for the gardens at the same time. So last week, I had another guy come out with a front end loader to level out the area for the raised gardens.

We also have a wash that runs through the back of our property. So while the guy was out leveling a spot for the gardens, I also had him widen the wash so the water does not run as fast. I was having some problems with erosion along our fence line. (Obviously, I had gotten permission from the county before messing with the wash.) He had dug down about 8-10 inches at the bottom of the wash when we hit the biggest, blackest vein of black dirt I have seen since leaving Minnesota! That is a huge win because it means I will be able to get the dirt for the gardens from the bottom of our wash and save a buttload of money over having it hauled in!

Last fall, we planted 3 apple trees, a peach tree and an almond tree. The peach tree died, but the others are doing well and we may even get a few good apples from each of the apple trees this year. That seems crazy to me since they are only about 5 feet tall. This fall, I think I am going to do 2 more peach trees, 2 apricots and maybe 1 more almond.

@Slippy: I took your advice on our lemon tree and got some of the citrus tree fertilizer spikes. They helped it a great deal; the damn thing is growing like a weed and has more leaves than it has ever had. There is still not even a trace of a lemon. But it sure seems healthy. I think it might be a "woke" lemon tree and just refuses to work right. So this year I am trying a different tactic. Every time I go out and shoot a snake, I stop and show it the pistol.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Annie said:


> I hope your wife is doing okay...
> 
> I miss horseback riding. Do you do much riding?


My wife has had degenerative disc disease in her spine for decades. Won't get any better.
I have never been on a horse in my life. My wife has ridden since a little girl, and when we got our little farm 20 years ago she wanted her own horse. So, we got her one. We later added two more rescues, but they have both passed away, so now it's just the one mare.
The wife still occasionally rides around the property, but at 72 years of age that scares the heck out of me.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Slippy said:


> As some of you may know, most of my yard is comprised of raised beds for vegetable gardening and some ornamental flowering bushes to attract bees for pollenation. This year I added 2 more raised beds in the form of Stock Tanks and this winter I plan on adding a few more in place of my grass, which is a Emerald Zoysia Grass; a drought resistant warm weather durable grass that requires less maintenance.
> 
> Of course I don't have to deal with Neighbors or a Home Owners Association, but if done correctly, it can look nice as well as highly functional...
> 
> ...


Not to be a parade rainer but what woiuld prevent a person from knocking the zoza grass and raised planters in the head and planting the truck farm direct in the dirt? Dont make me come over there. Thanks.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Excellent plan with the cast concrete raised beds and congrats for finding the good soil from the wash area! You'll be in high cotton soon and when you do, give me and @bigwheel a call and maybe we can send you some folks to help pick the cotton! (SSSSCCCCRRRRREEEEEECCCHHHHHH...sound of record player scratching)...my bad, on second thought, maybe pick your own cotton, don't want to piss off your "woke" lemon tree! :vs_lol:

Speaking of Lemon Trees, time to prune some of your leaves and limbs from the tree. The leaves are stealing all the nutrients that you want to go to producing lemons. Did the Lemon Tree flower at all this year?

















My lemons should be ready in October or November. Good luck!



Inor said:


> We do not have any grass, only the wild grass that grows in the high desert. WOO HOO!!! For the last two years, all of our gardening has consisted of container gardens. We have been doing okay with those, but it is a painfully manual process to keep them up. Still, we do not have enough of them to consume too much time.
> 
> This winter, my plan is to build six raised bed gardens in the back of the house from cast concrete panels. Since I have a guy coming out within the next week or so to dig the trench for the electrical from the house to the shack that I am building for Mrs Inor's art studio, I am going to have him dig the trenches for the water lines for the gardens at the same time. So last week, I had another guy come out with a front end loader to level out the area for the raised gardens.
> 
> ...


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Slippy said:


> Excellent plan with the cast concrete raised beds and congrats for finding the good soil from the wash area! You'll be in high cotton soon and when you do, give me and @bigwheel a call and maybe we can send you some folks to help pick the cotton! (SSSSCCCCRRRRREEEEEECCCHHHHHH...sound of record player scratching)...my bad, on second thought, maybe pick your own cotton, don't want to piss off your "woke" lemon tree! :vs_lol:
> 
> Speaking of Lemon Trees, time to prune some of your leaves and limbs from the tree. The leaves are stealing all the nutrients that you want to go to producing lemons. Did the Lemon Tree flower at all this year?
> 
> ...


We had flowers coming out the wazoo and a couple even started lemons. But they got to be about the size of a small pea, then fell off. I think that tree is just out to mock me. :tango_face_grin:


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

I converted my land to a cement pond. No grass, no weeds!


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## SGT E (Feb 25, 2015)

Mad Trapper said:


> Plant what you can eat. Perrenials/long lived/orchard if feassable. Lots are spring/summer/fall ornimentals
> 
> Why spend $$$$$$$$$$$ on flowers if the $$$$$$$ could feed you all year???????


I

When I was younger and a lot more agile I'd plant enough potatoes for a year for the family and friends and then raise another 2000 to 3000 pounds of Kennebecs to give to food banks and the elderly. Cost to me was zero as I used potatoes from the year before to plant the new garden. We would HILL UP our potatoes underground and dig out what we would need even during the dead of winter and early spring the potatoes looked brand new.

Talk about trade materials in a SHTF event.. I could have easily raised 20 tons or so!

HINT...go around after Halloween and gather up all your neighbors corn shocks and bales of hay/straw as a favor and spread em over your garden and till them in deep...the more plant material you throw on your garden the better it will do.


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## Old SF Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

Inor said:


> We do not have any grass, only the wild grass that grows in the high desert. WOO HOO!!! For the last two years, all of our gardening has consisted of container gardens. We have been doing okay with those, but it is a painfully manual process to keep them up. Still, we do not have enough of them to consume too much time.
> 
> This winter, my plan is to build six raised bed gardens in the back of the house from cast concrete panels. Since I have a guy coming out within the next week or so to dig the trench for the electrical from the house to the shack that I am building for Mrs Inor's art studio, I am going to have him dig the trenches for the water lines for the gardens at the same time. So last week, I had another guy come out with a front end loader to level out the area for the raised gardens.
> 
> ...


Do trees follow normal biology, in that it takes two to tango and bear fruit? Not an arborist, but I've done some messed up stuff in trees.....just sayin ?


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Yall need to get busy and plan turnips. Last batch I did we had fresh turnipes all winter to go in in stew.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Old SF Guy said:


> Do trees follow normal biology, in that it takes two to tango and bear fruit? Not an arborist, but I've done some messed up stuff in trees.....just sayin ?


Excellent Question!

Some fruit bearing plants like Blue Berries need more than one Blueberry Bush to produce fruit. Others do not.

A Lemon Tree does not need two trees but for some damn reason our's only produces fruit every other year but then again we are in a USDA Planting Zone much farther north than recommended and our tree is in a container which causes some additional challenges with soil goodness.

All fruit bearing trees and plants NEED POLLINATORS. Like bees.

There is a chance that @Inor 's tree is a non fruit bearing hybrid Lemontree in which case he should go to the hippy that sold him it and punch them in the face.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

This is Spike. Spike is our non-fruit bearing Lemon Tree. We grew Spike from a Lemon Seed and he grew to about 6' tall and smelled wonderful and seemed to be a natural mosquito repellant. Spike never grew a lemon. One day, we left Spike out on the back porch and a huge storm came and knocked Spike over and broke his trunk.

I trimmed it but it has not grown one millimeter since the storm. I keep Spike fertilized with simple 10-10-10 Fertilizer. Spike still smells good but looks pretty sad.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

bigwheel said:


> Yall need to get busy and plan turnips. Last batch I did we had fresh turnipes all winter to go in in stew.


And the greens are very good, too.
I like to dice up turnips and cook them in a pot of rice.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

Left unchecked, many fruit trees will get into a rhythm of heavy fruit production one year followed by a lousy yield the next year. Peach is a good example of this. In the good year the trees will ofter over produce to the point of the excess fruit breaking the tree limbs. This over stresses the tree so production the following year is poor. Professional growers try to even out annual production by thinning fruit and properly trimming the tree limbs. I have been trying to master this technique for years without success. Last year I had tons of peaches on one tree. This year I got one peach! Not sure about lemon trees.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

I plant all my peppers and tomatoes along the back back fence behind the garage, ( Only good place to plant ) the last two or three years I was getting a good crop except this year. I am not sure what happened, All the peppers where going gang busters till a couple of weeks ago and then they all died, like over night. Tomato plants too. Kept them well watered and fed them, not sure what happened. I guess I go back to the drawing board next year.


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## Chiefster23 (Feb 5, 2016)

This year has been tough in the garden. My sweet peppers are not doing very good. Tomatoes are fair but nothing to brag about. I’m chocking it up to the extremely wet spring and early summer. That, and it’s probably Trump’s fault!


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## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

For larger lemons and oranges you need to remove (pinch off) excess fruit so the tree and concentrate it's energy on producing larger fruit. Generally about 2-3 fruit per limb. Lemons require a ton of nitrogen or the leaves turn yellow and the fruit stays green.

We have potted lemons so we can bring them inside the sunroom during the colder months.


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## Elvis (Jun 22, 2018)

We need to make better use of our open land. I got tired of bush hogging it so I fenced most of it and tossed a few cows in leaving me about 3 acres to mow which is still too much. I'm now considering putting cows on half the remaining unused land to further reduce the grass cutting.


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## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

Slippy said:


> View attachment 99577
> 
> 
> This is Spike. Spike is our non-fruit bearing Lemon Tree. We grew Spike from a Lemon Seed and he grew to about 6' tall and smelled wonderful and seemed to be a natural mosquito repellant. Spike never grew a lemon. One day, we left Spike out on the back porch and a huge storm came and knocked Spike over and broke his trunk.
> ...


I'm sure spike is fixing to grow his roots. He looks very healthy.


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## Marica (May 5, 2019)

> All fruit bearing trees and plants NEED POLLINATORS. Like bees.


There are many self-pollinating plants. Tomatoes come to mind.



> All the peppers where going gang busters till a couple of weeks ago and then they all died, like over night.


Do you by chance have a problem with moles? The overnight part suggests that something's happening to the root system. I can't think of anything top side that would kill peppers over night. And unchecked population of hornworms could devastate plants seemingly over night, but not kill them out right.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Elvis said:


> We need to make better use of our open land. I got tired of bush hogging it so I fenced most of it and tossed a few cows in leaving me about 3 acres to mow which is still too much. I'm now considering putting cows on half the remaining unused land to further reduce the grass cutting.


Good plan. A horse can eat twice as much as a cow. The little two acre patch we had could be reduced to bare ground by a Welch Pony in short order.


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## Old SF Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

Marica said:


> There are many self-pollinating plants. Tomatoes come to mind.


Theys some self pollinating humans too......just saying...Lancestar comes to mind


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Maybe convert it to a larger shooting range?


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Slippy said:


> Excellent Question!
> 
> Some fruit bearing plants like Blue Berries need more than one Blueberry Bush to produce fruit. Others do not.
> 
> ...


I'm pretty sure my lemon tree is a ****.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

In case you were wondering, lawns are also racist.

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/08/13/new-york-times-lawns-are-symbols-of-racism-and-bad-for-global-warming/


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

Old SF Guy said:


> Theys some self pollinating humans too......just saying...Lancestar comes to mind


Lancestar was some kinda special..


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