Kill Your Lawn and GROW FOOD!

Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison walks around his neighborhood pointing out 7 ways that you can get started with the Front Yard Farming revolution..
Oregon State University Online Permaculture Design Course:
workspace.oreg...
Andrew Millison’s links:
www.andrewmill...
permaculturede...
JOIN THIS CHANNEL to get access to uncut video content:
/ @amillison
SIGN UP FOR MY FREE NEWSLETTER:
share.hsforms....

[@DavidRodriguez-gl5pn]

I’ve got 4 more months until I get my biology degree then I’m taking your permaculture design class. I’m so excited to be a part of the future of humanity ❤

[@eugenetswong]

Congratulations, David.

[@noellethehuman]

I'm actually starting my Biology A.S. this year! I already have the classes done for my A.A.'s in Anthropology & Theater, and the gen ed for the Bio A.S. I just need to do the core major classes. I'm debating on if I still want to transfer as a Biological Anthro major, or just go for Bio. I would want to focus in Animal Genetics, I know that for sure. If I do the Bio Anthro major I would minor in Animal Genetics (it's available at UC Davis, where I have a transfer agreement with). But idk, I feel like my motivations have changed a lot since I started college. Just realized it's been 10 years now, I feel old! Do you have any advice for a Bio major hopeful like me? This permaculture class looks right up my alley, but not a good time for me.

[@BhaalooWildscapes]

Congrats on your pending graduation! I’m currently in the middle of the PDC Pro. I think you’ll enjoy it. Good luck!

[@breakdown2878]

Imma just say this. You don’t really need classes or to pay to learn permaculture. There is a world of information online. I’ve learned through KZbin, researching, and talking with my elders.

[@didierballet5535]

@@breakdown2878 thank you

[@JOATMASTERofNo1]

I turned a sugarcane farm into an aquaculture farm with mango, papaya, guava, lemon, lemon grass, Kaffir lime, coconuts, etc etc over 10,000 trees....the best part of it all is the shade and beauty that the animals and wildlife loves. The birds will be the first to come;) Hello from Thailand

[@brycebray9149]

Can ppl visit your place?

[@anthonysharp9136]

When I was stationed in South Korea 20 years ago, I was surprised and impressed at how they grew food in every little scrap of land.

[@matthewanipen2418]

It's how we in Korea gets awesome strawberries in the dead of winter!

[@DGibsonxio]

​@@matthewanipen2418we need videos. Anyone over there do that?

[@richardrichard4029]

​@matthewanipen2418 how? How do you get strawberries in winter? I'm guessing indoors?

[@Dirt-Fermer]

@@richardrichard4029 cold frames / greenhouses

[@0anant0]

I saw the same thing in rural Taiwan! They really know how to grow in small spaces!

[@JP-uf9sh]

There is no food crisis once you realize you can grow what you love, give away what you don't need and exchange what someone else does better. I firmly believe there is a little gardener in every single human being out there. It's just about what you love most. Some love most to grow plants, others love most to grow animals, others love to grow communities. It's just what we are.

[@etiennelouw9244]

I have a veggie patch in my back yard and I started a permaculture food forest in my front yard, still expanding both slowly. Also as an eco terrorist over here in Cape Town,South Africa, I am also planting in places I do not own.

[@perrinmarie8088]

I started to do that in a part of France where we have similar front yards.. my neighbours were very surprised but I carried on… and Îm very happy with that !

[@RickieBeubie]

the good thing is usually neighbors will be inspired and start to plant stuff on their yards too, and after a while the whole neighborhood turns into a friendly competition of who has the most lush yard

[@clausroquefort9545]

plant an excess of zucchini and tomato and give them away. that should make an impression

[@israelSamuel-ur4vq]

Is a good day when you posts

[@JB-eg1tb]

Unfortunate how some neighborhoods, cities, towns prohibit having a any sort of semblance towards food production in one's own yard. Good to know there are neighborhoods that do and they look amazing!

[@saxus]

Suburbia with all of those restrictions are just simply dumb in almost every single way.

[@JB-eg1tb]

@@saxus very much so

[@janetdw]

They all remind me of the movie Stepford wives where everybody had to be just exactly the same. HOAs are the worst offenders, backed up by the Karen’s and Darren’s that think it’s their business what you do in your own lot yard. If it looks like crap and it’s not maintained, yes it should be cleaned up. But why would you require someone to put something so nonproductive on their land? Generally the answer is control of other people.

[@CarrieLovesLife.]

Go to your city council meetings. Get it changed.

[@neetishraj]

Hi Andrew, Love from bengaluru India! Big supporter of what you're doing. I wanted to share my experience. If your neighbourhood is full of lawns and no trrees. Then the loud exhaust from vehicles are heard for many blocks. It's a stressful noise polluted environment. Whereas , if you move to a lush green neighbourhood, then trees absorb a lot of ambient noise. So peaceful, noise pollution free environment. Folks with tinnitus, sensitive hearing should definitely move in to such neighbourhoods. It's great for mental health as well.

[@timgroothuis1217]

This channel inspired me to pick op frontyard farming a couple years ago. I've now got cherries, prumes, figs, buchthorn, blueberries, blackberries, kiwi's, a couple more berry variations and Japanese wine berries all growing in my front and backyard, all tasting amazing! Thanks for the inspiration! ❤

[@matthewcain2880]

Love this ❤❤

[@libbyjensen1858]

I LOVE this! I'm slowly doing this a little bit at a time with my front yard. Some neighbors are NOT happy but to me it makes sense to grow our own food AND help feed others as well!!

[@frogstock2597]

Those idiot neighbours don't own your land so their opinion means nothing

[@Dirt-Fermer]

@@frogstock2597 they are the grasshoppers when anything goes bad one day

[@SoapBoxYes]

I spent 10x more time just MOWING my lawn this past year then growing 8 HUGE raised garden beds. The garden beds gave me more food I was just throwing it away. My goal is to only have lawn for pathways here and there.

[@CarrieLovesLife.]

Give that extra food to your local food bank, neighbors, or homeless folks.

[@mattiasdahlstrom2024]

It's also going to smell a lot better when biking through a neighborhood a summer evening !

[@magdassian]

Climate change scares me so much that I usually find it hard to learn about how we can adapt to it on the individual level. Your videos are inherently positive and exciting- I find myself inspired to start making changes! Thank you!

[@amillison]

Excellent! That's my whole purpose

[@jenniferdruery8661]

Absolutely! I’m in McMinnville Oregon not far from you. Since being in this house since 2016, we had a blueberry patch to start. Then in 2020 we got serious and got chickens again (we used to live out in rural area) and we have removed all grass out back and created raised beds. Then the next year we removed the grass out front and did the same and then the next year we removed the grass out on the right side front. Can’t eat the grass, right? Well some do but it’s distasteful to me. Anyway, we have found that the woodchip walkways are needing to be added to too often so I am planning to do some swales out there and have removed the chicken coop and run fences and going to remove some of the raised beds. Excited to put in swales with all kinds of plants and trees!! I love your videos! Keep on preaching!!

[@NateLee-nc6tb]

A sincere and heartfelt thank you, for continuing to inspire people

[@LittleKi1]

Took six years but finally got onto our site from the PDC. Put in a micro lawn to frame a patio but all other resources are towards food production and wildlife habitat. It is shocking how much food we've produced with relatively little effort and the perennials haven't even gotten going yet. If anyone has the chance to go this route with new construction, it is much easier than dismantling a lawn!

[@Fenthule]

In my city they've been pushing for more self sustainability and have allowed bylaws that let us grow and even sell our produce to our neighbors/friends a few times a year, So people have started turning their yards into gardens and selling stuff at their door then donating leftover stuff to food banks. There's a neighborhood similar to yours where all the neighbors compete for their food forest yards, and they converted a small local park that was tucked behind their homes into a big public food forest. I took a urban agriculture course this summer and the teacher there started the whole thing with his neighborhood and his yard looks very similar to yours. He even converted his drive way into raised beds because nobody in his family drives, they use ebikes to get around lol

[@brycebray9149]

Where is this?

[@matthewanipen2418]

Neighbors: HEY WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING!? GET OUT OF MY YARD! Sorry. I had to. Seriously this was a very informative video and I've been dying to make a little green house of my own. Keep spreading the good word about Holistic Agriculture!

[@suzyq6767]

I trained fruit trees, grapes, and berry bushes around the fences. Then, I underplanted it with perennial and annual veggies & flowers. I filled the middle of the backyard with woodchips because I have dogs. I compost in place with several worm stations, plus, I puree food scraps and place them under the mulch. My militant HMO put forth tons of restrictions, so in the front, I trained dwarf peaches and cherries into shrubs with strawberries, brassicas, and perennial flowers underneath. in 5 years, nobody has challenged my landscaping. Every year, I make the "flower bed" a foot wider and closer to the sidewalk. In another few years, it will eliminate the HOA-planted grass into a lovely edible landscape without anyone being the wiser.

[@markhoerner2354]

Go to Corvallis often. Like Eugene there is much evidence of this type of thinking. I live on the coast and I find my activities toward food production and soil building attracts more curiosity and questions than criticism, even though it definitely has a wild appearance not extant in the rest of the neighborhood. The attitude is changing, it is encouraging. Thank you for your efforts.

[@leandersearle5094]

The reason why lawn are the norm is because of English nobility, the estates would rolling hills covered in grass grazed by sheep, watered by the tail end of the gulf stream. So it was associated with luxury and propriety. TBF, for England, it isn't a bad system. But most places don't get that much rain, which means they're putting their water resources under stress... for grass.

[@janetdw]

And then to turn around and mow it and put it in landfills. At least the nobility had sheep to help crop the grass.

[@TijanaM-v5r]

And this grass isn't even feeding any sheep! Really wish we would move away from it as a society...

[@orsolyasalzberg2515]

Thank you for the best tour of your neighborhood gardens! So inspirational!

[@feuby8480]

Once again I delayed a bit watching it, and I regret it lol. I'm trying to move out of the lawn too, since we bought the house. I does not have to be a massive change, just little steps at a time, planting here and there, growing learning along the way. If you would like to get on that path, here is my suggestions : 1)Start out with the trees. First reason is because it is really low maintenance (so easy), and because it takes so much time to grow and produce a lot, especially when you don't know how to prune. So starting early with trees give them time to grow and gives you time to learn what works or not. And as I said, low maintenance. And the best thing is that when you will start to get really into gardening for food the next year, or even later, you will obviously start to have some success in form of tree fruits, even if your other plants fails because you don't know how to care about it. So you will not lose motivation. 2)Annuals vegetables. Here my suggestions : -Lettuce. Does not matter what sort, just get some on the plant nursery for starting. It is a bit more expensive than seeds, but if you don't like salads a lot, but like having some in your sandwichs, you always waste a lot when buying. Having lettuce on your garden does not require a lot (outside of watering here and there when it's dry), and you always have some fresh one for when you want it. And if you don't care about the plant itself, it will probably grow a lot, start flowering at some point and then... you get free lettuce seeds to grow from start the next year, and get it free. -Tomatoes are quite easy to get. Cherry ones are growing fast. You don't need be fancy, just leave the plant growing from some seeds you got in your tomatoes. -Peppers are quite easy too (bell ones). It takes some time to grow and produce fruits, so if you go that path and you don't have a long growing season, start it indoors. Harden it a bit when it's warm outside, then you can either plant it out or just move the container outside. Last year, I wanted to get rid of mines (inside ones) because I had bugs on them, so I just put them outside my walkway path, thinking to throw them later when i'd feel like it... and they produced quite some peppers without me caring about it lol. 3) Check for some berries. Raspberries are quite easy and resistant, and they come back the next year, so that's nice. Strawberries are good, but kinda need maintenance. Blueberries and grapes are quite easy too, but you will probably have to protect the berries from birds, so plan ahead. So overall : start small, and make small steps. Like, plan ahead "what would my ideal food garden have ?" Then start by the things that take the most time (trees). For annuals, take 1-2 (the ones you prefer). Do not try to put them where you want them in your ideal garden, plant them where you have space, where it's convenient, and learn how to get the plant to thrive. During the growing season, check for the plants, but I'd recommand planning ahead for the next year. If you want raised beds, then buy them for the next year, install them, put your leaves, your lawn cuttings, everthing into it. It will be free soil later when composting and you will have less soil to buy. And then on the next year you will have more experience with your plants, so you can put them in the raised bed, and care for it properly. The one thing that I'd find quite hard would be to invest in material (raised bed, tools, fertilizer, etc etc) and put a lot of hard work to get almost nothing because I made a mistake and didn't grow it properly. By spreading the things (investment, and efforts) you can have some little success that will keep you interested, and you will not really be sad if the plant does not thrive because you either didn't invest lot of money, or lots of time into it. So it's fine. One last advice : I'd greatly recommend to keep as much seeds as you can. Then, during winter, buy a heating mat, and some seed starting material. And start directly with your numerous seeds. It does not matter if they will grow during winter, the point with the seeds and growing them in fall is to make you learn what grow, how, how fast, and if you need to winterize the seeds before they even start to germinate. So, when spring will be there, you will have what's needed to start your plants from seed indoor, and you will have the knowledge onto how to do it, and a gross estimate of when to plant it to get something to plant for free in your garden later.

[@Ladadadada]

This is common in Poland. Not so much in cities, but in villages maybe half of the houses have several rows of food growing in the front yard, and a hoop house out the back with all the warm weather veges.

[@Hun_Uinaq]

A lot of city ordinance is prevent this from becoming the norm. For instance, if you make a hedge in your front lawn where I live, it can’t be more than 3 feet tall. That’s a bit limiting. You don’t want to keep certain bushes down at 3 feet.

[@HoboGardenerBen]

Gotta love being able to hold a tour of peremaculture design by walking around your neighborhood. Some neighborhoods have strict laws around the appearance of the lawn and house and everything. Changing those laws is a great first step to ending the madness of lawns. No need for lawns if there are nice little community parks spread throughout communities. A bit of shorn grass for various outdoor sport and picnics is great. But most lawns are just an old wealth flex from back when it meant you owned a lot of grazing animals. Then it became some HGTV nonsense about curb appeal, clearing the space around your house so people can drive by and look qt how expensive your lifestyle is. I cannot wait for that shit to die, even though it pays my bills as a gardener. People don't pay for food gardens, just decorative curb appeal. Well, not totally true, I have a client here in VT who pays me to do both. Some people use apple trees as their decoration, but most decorative plants are inedible and many are toxic. Quite a few are easily deadly, like monkshood, you can die from touching the root. We went collectively insane, permaculture is one of the expressions of waking up.

[@amillison]

I'm right there with you

[@louise2209]

My front garden is a postage stamp, but I do have rosemary & bronze fennel growing in the flower bed. Have also grown cherry tomatoes out there in a plastic trough container, in the shade 😊.

[@pongop]

Thank you for the beautiful, inspiring, and practical examples! This gives me hope.

[@ByMySelfGardening]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="231">3:51</a> this perfectly shows me the end of a plan in my head for my two South facing windows with muscadine grapes so summer shade and produce!! What a great time to be alive for me personally!!

[@redlily8101]

I plant grspes to go up yo a cable and extend it to many areas. My last house one grape trained this way covered 45 feet in the front of the house just like the one he shows, but I also ran it around the corner and covered a small shade garden with several arms of the vine. Easy to pick and prune when it is up on wire.

[@ByMySelfGardening]

@redlily8101 very helpful information!!!!

[@dankeener3307]

We enjoy Asian pears and American Persimmons among native plants for wildlife in our front yard. Our front yard is shrinking. Love what you’re doing!

[@kueckj1]

Love the video! One small wish as a European fan of this channel: could you include metric measurements in future? Would be super helpful for me!

[@leoa.633]

for square feet conversion you need to roughly devide by 10. so 1500sqft are about 150sqm

[@heinz812]

Andrew, always inspiring. I’m going to do my part this year! Come on spring!

[@jeromedevotta3406]

my garden among the attracts praise and criticism. being observed is silent admiration and acceptance too❤❤❤

[@solarpunkstories]

Another brilliant and inspiring video. The fruit fence was a new one for us. Thanks Andrew :)

[@o0CallOfTheWild0o]

I love this so much. Have a typical soul sucking computer job that gets worse by the day. Live in an overpriced apt in horrible city with toxic air quality and aggressive people. I feel so depressed and disconnected from nature. I have been going through life like a cow thru a chute the past 3 years. Putting money into the stock markert for retirement. A week ago, I started rethinking life. I quit contributing to retirement accounts - frankly what big oil and tech is doing at this stage is so wildly immoral any profits on stocks is starting to feel like the blood money of the earth and of humanity. Im saving all my money so i can afford a plot of land and a house, or just land and build a cob cabin on it. I want to be a part of this healing movement.

[@amillison]

Wow, major changes for you. Welcome to your new good life ❤️

[@one_field]

The city where I grew up banned food gardens, full stop. A lot of people were terrified of fruit trees and things like berries, tomatoes, etc drawing in hornets, wasps, possums and raccoons, and of course, rats. Naturally all of those pests were still present, but the argument ran that you'd have more of them, and more people getting stung by bees, etc if you let residents plant attractants. So, no fig or apple trees allowed. Even the flowering trees had to be "sterile" (non-fruiting) varieties: flowering cherries, pears, etc that would never produce food. However, you could plant an ornamental garden! SOOOO if you were clever, and planted things like scarlet runner beans, artichoke, cardoon, leeks, chives, borage, lavender, rosemary, elecampane, sunchokes, Solomon's seal, Egyptian walking onions, maypop, taro (elephant ear), dahlias, day lilies and other similar perennial food crops in a "decorative" garden, you could get away with growing a ton of food. Most people are totally ignorant of any food crops that aren't tomatoes, cucs, squash/pumpkin, eggplant, corn or berries. Even if they watch you digging up roots in the fall, you can just explain that you're lifting the bulbs and rhizomes for winter--just like so many ornamental gardeners do. And as long as you plant it in a decorative way, not in blatant rows, they couldn't tell you were food gardening--they just complimented the beauty of your garden. We had too many squirrels for things like hazelnuts to be worthwhile. You weren't allowed to snare, hunt, discharge a firearm, shoot a bow, etc anywhere within the city, so deer and squirrel populations were intense. Fences required pretty intense permits, too, so keeping the deer at bay was a bit of an art. My parents used ultrasonic noise deterrents with moderate success. On the bright side, the leash laws were really strictly enforced and doggie pickup laws started with a $100 fine for the first failure to clean up after your dog, and $1k after that (and they meant it, even back in the 90's), so you didn't need to worry that dogs would trample or pollute your garden. You just had to obey the height restrictions on plants within a certain distance from the sidewalk. It was a highly litigious urban environment, but you could still grow a lot of food if you wanted to.

[@joannaladocha2485]

My house is oddly positioned in the middle of the plot, giving me a short, north facing back garden that is shaded for a lot of the year. The front, unusually for here in the UK, is unfenced lawn and south facing. Slowly, I’ve been replacing the front lawn with vegetable beds and fruit trees. I’ve not had the objections I feared from neighbours, rather, curious enquiries as to what I am growing. It’s a learning curve, but an enjoyable one. Thank you for your inspiring videos, which are helping me along the journey!

[@anahidkassabian4471]

My front yard is a tiny profusion of berries: strawberries, raspberries, a mulberry tree, and gooseberries. So much fun!

[@ashishshukla_02]

I love such topics and videos made on them. And I am very curious to do such type of farming.

[@HaveAGreatDay54]

Sadly, too many municipalities will not allow this type of gardening. I am happy to see your community enjoying the way a yard is supposed to be used instead of the pretentiously groomed way of keeping a lawn that I am forced to keep up with.

[@Dirt-Fermer]

I found a right to farm county. If they try and make me stop growing things, I’ll make them take down the right to farm signs.

[@HaveAGreatDay54]

@ Beautiful.

[@CWorgen5732]

There are ways to work food into your flowerbeds. Leeks for glaucous, spiky interest and a beautiful flower the second year. Climbing beans mixed with flowering vines on trellises. Ornamental kale. Espaliered peach trees for beautiful blossoms in spring. Carrots for lacy leaves that grow umbelliferous flowers the next year. Sunflowers. Rainbow chard surrounded by alyssum in a flowerpot. Put millet or ruby amaranth in the middle of that flowerpot as the tall plant. Cilantro under the snapdragons. Potted mint with bush beans. Cannas to create (technically edible) biomass. Sunchokes as a fence. Weeping rosemary as a shrubbery. The list goes on! You can sneak all sorts of things in as "just flowers."

[@abender06]

Gardens are beautiful on top of everything else!

[@ShawnRitch]

I can envision that people will wise up and come together locally again to create wonderful food gardens in their communities while selling/canning the extra and feeding the locals in garden to plate eateries/restaurants.

[@NickCombs]

I very much support Andrew's mission here. I hate mown lawns! But a word of caution: check first if your lawn is a drain field. It's not recommended to plant food crops on one due to possible contamination. This is more likely in rural areas without central sewage treatment.

[@zabacinjsh]

If the soil survey paints a bad picture, there is also ways to garden without putting the plants in soil, like hydroponic and aquaponic gardening some of the ways can be affordable too. been following such a corner cutter in costs for aqua farming for a while now and it makes me think if you can grow food on a balcony like I do, there should be no issue doing some experimentation in hydroponics or growbags on platforms etc

[@AdamHazelton33]

I love houses like this. I’d love to excel in one crop and trade with other nearby gardeners.

[@joshlikesflannel]

This is an awesome idea!

[@kathleenmead9259]

Thank you

[@cleveland3352]

Again! I love the content , you deserved 1 mil subs

[@samueljenni]

well done video, thanks andrew. greetings from alemanic Switzerland :)

[@NewIndigo]

Currently on holiday in Portugal. Almost every house with a yard has a vegetable garden and/or citrus trees. Prosperous western economy, and the locals grow as much food as possible for nutrition and self reliance.

[@bc4198]

A single tear runs down the HOA's face 😂

[@YoungGirlz8463]

lmao

[@kennethbrush7300]

No tears, the scumbags just call the attorneys. HOA’s are like why communism doesn’t work.

[@MonoiLuv]

Let's all grow like this. Imagine what we could achieve

[@beatricevandeborne3088]

I invite people in my food forest and they are always surprised to see what you can do on small scale too!

[@krissieg-ic2ei]

Great video! Love your content, very relevant and useful information.

[@iivin4233]

"The keys are yours." "Yes! It's my house. Can I build a new unit? Can I farm my land? "No, and you can grow grass." "But you said it's mine." "The *keys* are yours."

[@timbushell8640]

... land of the free...

[@connieh.4212]

In my country, Jamaica, a lot of people have a fruit tree in their yard. When the fruits are ripe, the extra is shared with friends and neighbours. Then, when the neighbour’s fruit trees are ripe, the extra is shared again. These are the decade sturdy trees that grow on their own and shade your whole yard. Mangoes, bananas, apples, avocados, starfruit, plums, ackee, guava, tamarind,… Even my schools had fruit trees. They just grow out of nowhere.

[@TheRegenBeacon]

Such an important message, thanks for all of your work!

[@avgFloridian]

I need to do the tree fence. Hoping to find a local to help me out. It's above my paygrade to figure out quickly. I am testing a sugarcane fence in the back yard. I wish I started years ago.

[@DasBullWy]

Great video! Suggestion: Edit in visually key words in post so that folks know how to spell/definitions of the terms you use that laymen might not know. For example: the tree pruning technique for your apple trees! I always love your content especially about rainwater earthworks. Have you done anything with Brad Lancaster lately?

[@CryBabysSentimentalHomestead]

Espalier is such a neat pruning technique!

[@DasBullWy]

@CryBabysSentimentalHomestead I'll check it out, thanks!

[@CryBabysSentimentalHomestead]

@DasBullWy welcome 😀

[@TheRosangela9369]

Permaculturists are the Leaders of tomorrow🖖

[@YoungGirlz8463]

agroforestry 😘👌

[@PietroSperonidiFenizio]

Usually, I watch your video alone. Today, thanks to the automatic audio track in Italian we could see it with my family. Unfortunately only for the last 3 videos. Could you please activate the same options for your older videos about India, and the Sahel? Congratulations for the channel.

[@lamdao1242]

I live in the tropics. My apartment has a large open air balcony. 90% of what we grow on it are perennial fruiting plants including passionfruit vines, grape vines, chiku, lemon & kumquat shrubs, belimbing "tree", custard apple bush etc. etc. all grown in large pots. We then have smaller pots of herbs like basil, lemon grass, turmeric, ginger which we grow under the semi shade or move around to full sun. We also grow some annuals like peanuts, french beans, bitter gourd, chillis. Aside from the basil which is now self seeding, the lemon grass, turmeric and ginger plants all came from supermarket purchases. I've also learnt to let my basil plants bolt. The basil flowers attract a multitude of bees which then go on to fertilise the other fruiting plants. We have to water them on days without rain and, we have to fertilise them. I'm pretty sure it costs me more to maintain the plants than it would to just buy the fruit and herbs. But it gives us a great deal of emotional satisfaction to watch them grow healthily AND to pick the fruits and herbs as and when I need them and I've run out in the commonly used herb. May be a lemon or some lemon grass or a bit of ginger or some chillis or a thumb of turmeric. And of course, They provide shade as our open air balcony gets mighty hot. That saves us in airconditioning! When we first moved into the apartment, the balcony was bare. It was just HOT HOT HOT! on the balcony and in the living room which opens into it But as we added plants onto the balcony, the shade it provides cools the balcony floor and living room so much so that we don't need air-conditioning anymore to just sit and drink some coffee! It's wonderful.

[@sunshine3914]

I live in the tropics of south Texas, where apartments do not allow anything on balconies. Now they build them just big enough to squeeze two people on, because folks around just fill them full of junk.

[@rocketmanzimm]

Please make sure you point out how to do permaculture, which uses fewer resources and replenishes the land, rather than just farm, which can be resource intensive and deplete the soil. the row crop yard that you showed was an example of the latter.

[@justinskeans3342]

Head on up to MI come check out my urban yard. 27 some fruit trees tons of shubs and herds growing been super fun to set up. On less than 8th of acre. No more mowing just lots of woodchip love. Oh and quail 😁

[@YoungGirlz8463]

make a video

[@YannickROGER]

Hi, thank you for all the great content. When you provide mesurements, could you please also display a conversion in metric. For all of us outside the US, it makes it a lot easier.

[@Beck-u7g]

Great inspiration! Thanks!

[@vedranknight]

I LOVE this idea. It's the idea that's needed to revolutionize HOAs

[@Megan-nt7dm]

I'll be moving into a house with a yard next month. I've been planning, drawing maps, and dreaming about how I'm going to turn it from grass and a few ornamental trees into a permaculture food forest

[@YoungGirlz8463]

mulberries are underrated

[@eugenetswong]

Thank you, Andrew! I hope to try this.

[@skimusic3773]

Thank you for your work!

[@TheFabledSCP7000]

This is what HOAs are keeping from you guys Why haven't you abolished them yet?

[@modernkennnern]

I've never heard a positive thing about them (not American); what are they supposed to do?

[@wiezyczkowata]

HOA is a crazy thing, the more I learn about it the more I think Americans just like to be opressed, HOA can sell your house if they don't like something, they take money from you for street maintenance - something your town should be doing from your taxes, you basically pay twice,

[@matthewcain2880]

@@wiezyczkowatawe have no control, as an American I HATE them

[@Pharmaonly-d8n]

Whenever I see Your videos I feel like I am in your yard ❤😊

[@CIB8282]

Cool gardens, Im going to help my friend with a garden install in the spring.

[@Nphen]

In every city, there are acres of parks and school district lawns. They mow them with giant polluting mowers. Get gardens into schoolyards. Get wildflower meadows in local parks by stopping mowing some areas. Meadow is an ecosystem that can support insects, birds, reptiles, and mammals. Then add ponds in areas that get enough rainfall.

[@rezayaseri2790]

❤❤❤ Thank You

[@takeitslowhomestead5218]

Thank you for this inspiring video! 🌱

[@MrStreaty122]

My family owns a section of land about 15 minutes outside the city I live in. I’ve never been too interested with what goes on up there, but, given the horrific economic outlook in the next four years, with policies being enacted unilaterally and without concern for the layman, that’s going to change in the spring.

[@ClairvoyantTruth]

As someone learning plants, this is all incredible! I'd love a more basic guide as I don't know anything.

[@Sylvie_M]

Great video. One question: Given the changing climate and increasing demand for water, is there a US example of the Great Green Wall or regreening the desert?

[@wildlifegardenssydney7492]

Great video Andrew!

[@iris.inspired]

My food forest and cottage garden is in Portland. It would be great to have you and Marisha visit!

[@Cheesenommer]

With the big fires happening down in LA recently, any thoughts on how to create a yard garden which is fire-safe? Maybe stick with just low-level crops like lettuce, don't train anything up the sides of the house?

[@amillison]

Well hydrated vegetation will not easily burn. Develop your water resources from greywater and rainwater harvesting to grow luscious plants directly around the house. Do not plant plants that burn easily around the house. Place infrastructure like lawns, driveways, patios between the house and the likely direction of a fire. I made a whole video about this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5CrdnuiepKSmqcsi=HnI3VwYChtq2tFvU

[@anthonysharp9136]

I recently saw a video showing how effective just five feet of non-combustable materials was at saving a house. Each property could have three feet of gravel as a border for a six foot buffer zone.

[@gonzoexpress9885]

Food gardens NOT Fentanyl addiction. It's time to get back to the garden of eatin'. 😊😊😊

[@gabrielamora6265]

@@anthonysharp9136 Using grey water recycling and water retaining landscaping would be much more effective and environmentally sound than promoting more gravel mining and further deforestation.

[@anthonysharp9136]

@gabrielamora6265 not sure how much help a water retaining landscape would help against a huge fire. Once a campfire gets hot enough, it dries out green wood fast. I can only imagine how much faster a wildfire would do it. I saw pictures from the California fires with melted aluminum on the sidewalk. That's over 1200 degrees f.

[@anyuan3040]

I hope you can make a video someday about scalability and mass production in permaculture, like what type of crops can be produced to feed the world using these principles while economically making sense. The industrialization of permaculture if you will.

[@LittleKi1]

There are a number of people already way down the rabbit hole on this. Look at John Kempf, Darren Doherty, and others. John Kempf's podcast is a wonderland of conversations with production growers.

[@anyuan3040]

@@LittleKi1 Oh great, I'll check them out, thanks for the recommendations !

[@ddeuerme]

I’m working on this. I have no grass anymore. My backyard faces north so I’m building up my front yard. I’m also collecting rain and gray water to keep it watered

[@GrowsGoneWild]

This should be the default! At the least drop a couple of fruit trees in the front yard. Something like loquats or citrus can be aesthetically pleasing and produce food at the same time.

[@BobDodgey]

Thank You!

[@bluegrass4840]

Deer like front yard gardens too. And we have a ton.

[@shne388]

I WISH with all my heart people would do this!! This is the revolution people are seeking. Screw HOAs. Grow a food forest around your houses and exchange!

[@samdumaquis2033]

Very inspiring

[@Im-just-Stardust]

Do you fantastic work my friend! You are a great editor and communicator. I had a special request, could you please make a video on landrace gardening? I think its a subject not talked about enough. Thank you sir!

[@racebiketuner]

I'm going on my sixth year of doing this in a large US city. Most of my neighbors think it's pretty weird. Their idea of normal is spraying all sorts of toxic crap on their lawns.

[@coreyblack5]

My front yard is mostly in shade during winter.

[@keeparizonawild156]

You da man Andrew

[@jacobolus]

Andrew: You showed some lovely food gardens in your neighborhood, but I assume there are also some nice other kinds of gardens that are more ornamental or focused on helping local pollinators and other wildlife? It would be neat to showcase some of those in a second walkabout: where are the neighborhood butterflies, birds, lizards, snakes, squirrels, etc. hanging out?

[@flightycocktails]

No Lawns!!! 🌎🪴🌱🦋🐝🐞🪺

[@betespatiotemporelle]

Have you heard about ice stupas ? In Himalaya, they transform water into ice to store It and overcome they drought.

[@CryBabysSentimentalHomestead]

Where is this? Love it ❤

[@amillison]

Corvallis, Oregon

[@CryBabysSentimentalHomestead]

@amillison we have extended family in Corvallis! ❤️

[@melindawolfUS]

And if it isn't legal where you are - fight the rules! Protest! Put so many potted plants in your yard that they can't tell the lawn is gone :) Be a rebel and plant endagered species the city can't destroy, lol.

[@hoviksmail]

Every house should have a few fruit trees. People can grow different fruits, and you can trade with neighbors. I live in an apartment, and in a small space, I have a lemon tree, fig tree, apple, peach, and I grow 5 varieties of microgreens indoors.

[@tysondaniel5235]

We started front yard farming 4 years ago

[@sonukumarprasad4615]

Best video it feels like 90s lifestyle while watching the quality of camera feels nostalgia don't know why

[@alecwilliams9330]

cause everything was greener back then 😢😢

[@sonukumarprasad4615]

@alecwilliams9330 not only green but sunlight actually look yellow and world is more colourful than today camera couldn't capture