SHIFTING ROOTS

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How to Design a Front Yard Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

February 8, 2019

Space is at a premium in urban centres, and you might not have enough space in your backyard to plant as many vegetables as you like. But have you ever thought of going out into your front yard?

In some neighbourhoods, the front yard space is even larger than the backyard space, and can easily help you double your available gardening space.

If you’re thinking of starting a front yard vegetable garden, check with your city or municipality that they are allowed, ask for a line locate from your power, energy, or cable company, and start dreaming up your new raised bed vegetable garden!

Here’s how I made over part of my front yard into a raised bed vegetable garden.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read more about it in my privacy policy.

The Before

Our front yard was pretty uninspiring, to say the least. In the previous year my husband constructed these cheap wooden raised beds for me because I could not fit in everything I wanted to plant in the backyard. I had even more plans to expand my vegetable garden, so the dried out potentillas had to go.

The potentillas were so overgrown and parts of them were even starting to rot. I’m sure they were beautiful in their time, but if I was going to keep them, they were in desperate need of a good pruning because they didn’t flower very much in the summer.

Ordering Soil and Mulch

I’m not sure why, but the thought of ordering soil and mulch from a landscaping company seemed really overwhelming to me. However, I knew that this was too big of a project to be dragging bags of the stuff from a big box store back and forth in my truck.

However, I went with a friend to one of the larger companies in the city and got it done!! I ordered 1 yard of pine mulch (the cheapest option) and 2 yards of soil with compost and peat already mixed in.

I assumed that because compost and peat was already mixed in, that I wouldn’t have to make any further amendments to my soil.

I was wrong.

While the vegetables in the new soil performed alright, there was a noticeable difference from the ones in the soil that I had been improving with compost and manure for 3 years.

Planting your first vegetable garden? Here’s the 10 easiest vegetables to grow, plus 6 tips I wish I would have known.

Though these piles may seem on the small side, it still took me around 9 hours of work to move everything with a wheelbarrow to where it needed to be. Since I don’t have a driveway, I had to get it all done in one day before any of my neighbours complained to the city.

If you are in this situation, check the city bylaws to see how long you as a homeowner can leave something like this out on a city street. In my city it’s 24 hours, but in some places it can be as short as 6 or as long as 48. If you need longer, you may have to apply for a permit.

The moral of the story? Schedule your delivery for a day when you know you have the entire day to deal with your soil and mulch!!

Creating My Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

Almost finished our front yard project. The two wooden raised beds in the front will be upgraded next year!

I filled up the raised garden beds with soil, surrounded the area with cardboard, and layered over a 4 inch layer of mulch.

Technically, I could have left the grass, but I wanted this project to be as maintenance free and neat looking as I possibly could. I don’t want to risk getting complaints from my neighbours because I am behind on the weeding.

The occasional weed will still come through your mulch. However, I can promise you that these weeds are super easy to pick–especially when you compare the amount of weeds you would have otherwise.

Looking for the next cool front yard landscaping ideas?  How about a front yard vegetable garden?!  Here's how I turned my yard with no curb appeal into a low maintenance raised bed garden.  It's a simple design for a small space that anyone can do! #frontyard #design #vegetablegarden

Another thing you should know about mulch is that you’ll have to replenish it every 2-3 years. Wooden mulch will decompose over time, making your formerly 4 inch layer not thick enough to suppress weeds. You can use cedar mulch instead if you don’t want to top up your mulch as often. However, cedar tends to be more expensive.

The Best Method of Planting Vegetables in a Small Space Garden

Once the project was done, I planted my new raised beds using the square foot gardening method and the seeding square. (You can also get it on Amazon here.)

If you’re used to traditional rows in a garden, it can seem very strange to switch to this way of planting a garden. But once you try it, you’ll be hooked! You’ll be able to plant more vegetables in the same space and keep down the weeds much easier.

In fact, I found that once I had done the initial major weeding in June, there was barely any weeds after that, and it was easy to simply pull out the few that did manage to come up.

If you need ideas on square foot gardening, I have these 4 free templates (that are colour co-ordinated with the seeding square) that you might enjoy. If you don’t want to use the seeding square, you can figure out the spacing by using Mel Bartholomew’s book. (But seriously, you’ll save so much time and headache with the Seeding Square!!)

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Looking for the next cool front yard landscaping ideas?  How about a front yard vegetable garden?!  Here's how I turned my yard with no curb appeal into a low maintenance raised bed garden.  It's a simple design for a small space that anyone can do! #frontyard #design #vegetablegarden

In the bed on the right, should not have planted that pepper between the artichokes. I had never grown artichokes before, and had no concept of how tall they would actually get. (3-5 feet!) Needless to say, the pepper did not do well.

I also did not realize that butternut squash and watermelon would cross with each other. I was blessed with some lovely mutant squash. What do you get when you cross a butternut with a watermelon? A very weird squash that you really don’t want to eat!!

A Front Yard Vegetable Garden Builds Community

Overall, I was really happy with my front yard vegetable garden. It was easy to keep up with and I would often notice people who were walking by enjoying it.

Neighbours would often stop by to chat about the garden, and perfect strangers would stop their walk to ask me questions about the garden if I was outside working on it.

I was a bit nervous about possible theft come harvest time, but so far it has not been a problem.

Looking for the next cool front yard landscaping ideas?  How about a front yard vegetable garden?!  Here's how I turned my yard with no curb appeal into a low maintenance raised bed garden.  It's a simple design for a small space that anyone can do! #frontyard #design #vegetablegarden

In fact, my biggest problem was actually the birds that mercilessly picked at any lettuce, kale, beets, and swiss chard that I planted. Next year I will protect my plants with cloth until they are well established.

Looking for the next cool front yard landscaping ideas?  How about a front yard vegetable garden?!  Here's how I turned my yard with no curb appeal into a low maintenance raised bed garden.  It's a simple design for a small space that anyone can do! #frontyard #design #vegetablegarden

By late summer, the garden was very productive and my mutant butternut squash/watermelon vines had taken over. All in all, I’d say my front yard raised bed vegetable garden project was a huge success!

Recommended Resources

If you’re looking to plan your own front yard project, here are a few resources I recommend:

  • Mel Bartholomew’s 3rd Edition Square Foot Gardening Book.
  • The Seeding Square, on the product site, or on Amazon.
  • The Edible Front Yard Book by Ivette Soler
  • A Three-pack, 4×4 Raised Bed Garden Kit
  • Or this tiered wooden option
  • Or just a basic wooden raised bed.
Looking for the next cool front yard landscaping ideas?  How about a front yard vegetable garden?!  Here's how I turned my yard with no curb appeal into a low maintenance raised bed garden.  It's a simple design for a small space that anyone can do! #frontyard #design #vegetablegarden

P.S. If you’re a new gardener and looking for hold-your-hand-virtual gardening advice, my new online gardening course is for you!

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

3 Comments
Filed Under: Curb Appeal, Gardening, Landscaping Tagged: front yard, landscaping, raised beds, raised vinyl beds, square foot gardening, vegetable garden, vegetable gardening

Week 4: Yard Transformation Challenge

May 15, 2018

It’s almost May Long Weekend and I have been super busy getting my yard and garden ready.  Come see my blood, sweat, and tears in this week’s edition of the yard transformation challenge.

Thanks again to Nat of Simple Family Crazy Life for hosting this challenge!

[Read more…]

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

1 Comment
Filed Under: Curb Appeal, Gardening, Makeover, Seeding Square, Yard Transformation Challenge Tagged: Curb Appeal, raised vinyl beds, seeding square, square foot gardening, Yard

Curb Appeal in a Weekend

August 20, 2016

Like most things in this house, our front door and curb appeal leave much to be desired.  The trees are overgrown, the paint is tired, and the colours are boring.

Here's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy

Here's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy

There’s not much I can do about the trees for the time being, but I can try and liven up the rest.  I took a quick trip to Home Depot and found my inspiration:

Here's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy

This is Behr’s Calypso Blue, and it was just the thing to liven up the front door.  The deck was in good shape, but also looking a bit tired.  I subbed out the faded dark brown for a dark grey.  My sweet little helper even got in on the action.

Here's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy

He did very well considering his age and learned some important lessons about how much paint is appropriate for the paint brush :-).

Repurpose What You Own

I didn’t want to replace the numbers or the mailbox, so I gave them a quick coat of flat black spray paint.  $7 sure beats getting new ones for $50 or more.  I also ripped off the rug that was stapled to the deck.  It may or may not have been contributing to the smell when you first walk in the house.

Here's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy

Curb Appeal for Less than $100!

This project took about 6 hours of work and cost under $100.  There was lots of paint left over, so I’ll be using that for the front fences once my neighbours are on board.  If you’re planning a refresh similar to mine, I recommend setting aside a weekend for it because you need to allow for drying time.

Here's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy
You can’t really see in the picture, but the white door had a terrible paint job on it. Whoever did it before did not do enough coats.

imageHere's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy

7 Cheap Things You Can Do in Weekend to Improve Curb Appeal

  1. Paint your front door a vibrant colour
  2. Repaint or replace your house numbers and mailbox
  3. Plant perennials from a friend
  4. Paint tired stairs
  5. Add two large potted plants
  6. Buy a cute welcome mat
  7. Trim shrubs and mow lawn

image

Want to plant some perennials, but not sure which ones are beginner friendly?  Head on over to 28 Perennials You’ll Regret Planting and 53 Garden Favourites.

Here's 7 money-saving tips to improve your curb appeal when you're on a budget. With a little bit of paint, a few flowers, and no landscaping, you can improve the look of your front door and front yard in a weekend. Cheap, easy, and under $100. #curbappeal #landscaping #frontdoor #cheap #onabudget #moneysaving #flowers #frontyard #easy

Want to see the inside?  Make sure you check out our home tour!

What do you think?   Would you try a bold colour on your front door?  If you already have one, what’s your colour?

**UPDATE**  The neighbours approve of our new blue door!  We got lots of compliments when we went door to door for Halloween

 

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

6 Comments
Filed Under: 1929 house, Curb Appeal, DIY, Makeover, Painting Tagged: Calypso Blue, Curb Appeal, Front Door, Makeover, Paint, painting

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Welcome!

Hi, I'm Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

P.S. First time gardener? You'll want to download the quick start gardening guide below!

Recent Posts

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Welcome!

Hi, I’m Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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I love seeing the world through this loving boy’ I love seeing the world through this loving boy’s eyes.  Honestly, I’ve been so sick that I wasn’t really in the mood to “do Valentines Day” but there was this sweet little voice going on about how excited he was for today and how much he loves his family and I just couldn’t resist.  So whether you’re on your own, part of a couple, or in the thick of life-with-littles craziness, Happy Valentines Day!

#valentinesday2020 #mylittlevalentine #boymomlife #lifewithlittles
How do you pass a cold -28 day? By planning your How do you pass a cold -28 day?  By planning your garden, of course!  Today in my stories I’ll be going through the steps I take to start planning everything out.  I’m curious, do you start planning now or wait until the last minute?

P.S.  want your own copy of this planner?  This is the newly updated paid version and it’s on sale by itself from now until Sunday for only $5.  If you’re from Canada, use the code CANADA to make $5 USD be closer to $5 CAD.  Head over to the link in my bio to get yours.

#gardenplanning #gardenplanner #gardenersofinstagram #gardenersofig #organizedlife #organizedliving #wintergardening
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Okay, so maybe a little rant today.  I think sometimes in the gardening space we’re guilty of making things seem easier than they are.  Myself included.  This lettuce project is a case in point.

Was it easy?  Yes.  But will it provide me with endless salads all winter long? Nope.  Or at least not at this scale.  I’m going to estimate that I’d need at least 15 plants this size, especially since it’s winter and everything just grows slower.  And I’m the only person in my family who really eats salad.

In conclusion, this is a fun project to pass the winter, and not a truly sustainable source of lettuce.

Thoughts?

#growinglettuce #eatwhatyougrow #growwhatyoueat #wintergardening #indoorgardening #plantproject #sustainablefood #gardenersofinstagram #gardenerslife #northerngardening
Part of the mystery of seed starting is knowing ex Part of the mystery of seed starting is knowing exactly what to start when.  Every two weeks, I'll be posting these handy guides so you have enough time to order your seeds and be ready to plant when it's time for your area.  To find out when these veggies, herbs, and flowers need to be started where you live. . . ⁠
⁠
1. Search out your area's last frost date.  There are plenty of calculators on the Internet.⁠
⁠
2. Count backwards 8 weeks from that date.⁠
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3. Start these seeds when that date hits.⁠
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If you follow me because we're in similar zones--don't panic, it's not time yet!! I won't be starting my 10 week seeds for another two weeks, and even that is slightly on the early side. (I'm starting everything a bit early so I can hopefully plant it out before baby gets here--I won't be physically able to do it after.) I like posting the info early for followers in warmer zones and so you can save it and still have time to order/buy seeds & supplies.⁠
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Which one of these are you most excited to start?⁠
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#seedstarting #seedlings #homegardener #northerngardener #homesteading #urbandhomesteading #homesteadingskills #gardenlife #gardenlifestyle #startingseeds
Eeeek!!! My luffa seedlings are up!! I’m growing Eeeek!!! My luffa seedlings are up!! I’m growing the whole seed packet in hopes that a few of these little luffa babies will provide me with zero waste sponges that I can use for home cleaning, and as an exfoliant in home made beauty products.

The catch?

These plants are notoriously hard to grow, especially when you live somewhere cold with a really cold growing season—and if they get a hint of frost on them they turn to mush and all my hard work is ruined.

Gulp.

But gardeners are born optimists, so I’m giving it a shot—because you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

P.S. if you’re trying luffa in zone 3 like me, just basically ignore all the directions on the seed packet.  Start them immediately (two weeks ago would have been ideal) and follow along because I’ll show you exactly what to do and when.  I’ll be popping these under a grow light once the sun goes down.

#luffagourd #luffa #loofah #seedlings #seedstarting #northerngardening #northerngardener #gardenersofinstagram #gardenersofig #mygardenthismonth #gardenlife #canadiangardening
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Is there such a thing as a no-fail houseplant? I Is there such a thing as a no-fail houseplant?  I think the Sansevera or Snake Plant or Mother-in-law’s tongue comes close.  Sure, it might be the vanilla of the plant-loving world, but it is so good for so many situations!⁠
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It can handle you forgetting to water it, low light, or bright light.  It is somewhat forgiving if you are an over-waterer. ⁠
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I’ve had this one for 2 or 3 years now and I keep getting rewarded with more spikes.⁠
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Plant lovers, is there another houseplant you think would be perfect for beginners?⁠
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#crazyplantlady #houseplantsofig #houseplantsofinstagram #snakeplant #houseplantlove
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