Cheering on a Kindred Spirit

Uncle Tom's vegetable garden takes over the front yard! Go, go! Once, in Santa Cruz, I decided to stop worrying about all the tourists (those dreadful garden pests) picking flowers from my narrow strip of a front garden and to indulge them instead.

The garden sat up about five feet from the sidewalk, hemmed in by a concrete retaining wall, so the flowers were at eye level to people on the sidewalk and quite tempting. So I planted Sungold cherry tomatoes and let them cascade down the wall. They loved the heat, and the tourists were welcome to the fruit. It worked--they seemed to leave everything else alone.

I think there's something glorious about planting fruit and vegetables in the front yard for the world to see. Let the neighbors nibble a bit--if you re-imagine the front yard as a place to share the bounty that is otherwise confined to the back, it becomes a much more generous, convivial space.

Uncle Tom's Garden