In another inspiration, I decided that I wasn't using the front yard to reach its highest potential. Sure I had tirelessly dug out sod from one side of the yard to make a quasi-meadow garden but I wanted it to now produce more than just flowers. It was another area where I can get something back in terms of fruit and food as well.
Last season I painstakenly reconfigured my sprinkler system to a drip irrigation, only to realize that there wasn't enough water going to the many plants I scattered throughout the yard. (I just now reinstalled my popups and the plants are coming back to life). Thankfully Lowe's, Home Depot, and Orchard Supply have their live plant guarantee because I pull out plants barely hanging on to life to return them for new substitutes on a monthly basis. I call it, "My dead plant run" errand. Plus, I usually troll the aisles of those places on a weekly basis anyway, so I don't feel like I am going out of my way to return even the scraggliest of dead plants.
Anyway, I ordered 20 organic wine grapevines from an online source in Grass Valley, CA. Who would have thought that shipping grape vines to California was restricted by county - mostly to protect the wine country, I guess. Well, I wasn't in one of the restricted counties and received my bareroot vines pretty quickly - along with my 5 free organic seed packets with my order....cool! I began digging up the sod from the other half of my front yard. I couldn't even believe the amount of 5 gallon buckets that was used to carry all the sod away. Eventually I got it out and planted the vines in neat little rows. I rearranged all the flowers and moved all the fruit trees into a mini-orchard. Hopefully when these plants get older, I can look out my bedroom window and see grapevines on the trellises and fruit in the trees versus abandoned shopping carts or beat up cars.
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