Front garden allotment

[Cityvillagegardener]

I'll try to keep this quick.

We live in a lovely close. Nice detached houses with very manicured, good sized and open front gardens. Lovely neighbours although one man is a little bit of a curtain twitcher/ doesn't like change.

I would like to replace my front lawn with a big veg growing area-but I'm concerned my neighbours will be pissed off that we have gone against the grain.

We are quite new to the close, big young family. Most other people have been here 30+ years.
Don't want to take up the back garden where the children play.

I want to show the kids where food comes from and it is a hobby I used to really enjoy before life got crazy with babies (we had an allotment before but now not that near any)

Would it be unreasonable to dig up my front lawn and grow veg? Our deed say we can't put up any high walls (hence the close is very open with sweeping lawns)

Aibu.

It's amazing how much colour you can get from foliage. Quite apart from the fact that fruits and legumes have to flower first in order to produce a crop.

Many a parent has wondered why they never seem to get any peas. Unaware that their kids have been snacking on them when they get home from school

I live in a similar place to you, and have put in a front garden allotment. Tall raised beds and fruit trees round the edges, mini greenhouse. Neighbours all fine, in fact I talk to a lot more of them now. I put spare plants out on a table for neighbours to take and my next door neighbour has started adding her own spare plants too. One of my older gentlemen neighbours once knocked on my door to ask if he could eat the mushrooms growing out of his lawn, so be prepared to be thought of as the local weird gardeny lady 😅 I do make an effort to keep it tidy.

Going full on Good Life might upset the neighbours but some raised beds would possibly be in keeping.

Absolutely, it's your garden. I'll certainly be doing this once I'm able to buy a house. Nothing irritates me more than mowing the front garden and thinking of everything I'd grow there if I wasn't renting it. Those people saying ask your neighbors first, have they ever asked you about anything in their gardens? Our next door neighbour has concreted over his front garden so he can park his three cars there. Did he check whether we found it unsightly? of course not.

People who put that naff plastic grass and stupid plastic obelisks in their front gardens don't seem to go about asking the neighbours if they mind. Growing veg in the front garden is an excellent idea, although there is always a risk of people helping themselves to it, sadly.

Start with one bed, it should be no wider than you can reach to the middle without stepping on it, as long as you like. You will need somewhere to make compost so get nice looking ones or hide them with a bit of trellis, make sure they have lids so that no one can complain about smells or vermin. Grow stuff that you really like to eat. We have strawberries and raspberries, there is nothing better than walking down the garden and picking the fruit for your breakfast. And salad crops too,they grow really fast. I shall have a years worth of garlic from 2 Tesco bulbs this year and plan to grow a years worth of beetroot to pickle. Runner and French beans are easy and also pretty. There are loads of Facebook groups for allotment growers and most people are happy to share their knowledge. Good luck

Go for it! TBH if my front garden wasn’t so shaded I might consider this too - it’s a tiny patio (Victorian terrace) so I’d have to use pots but no one would see because of the wall. This article has some ideas that might be useful:

https://www.homesandgardens.com/gardens/front-yard-vegetable-garden-ideas

I would! Especially if you include flowers and it's attractive (eg no old tyres, random tarps flapping around, misc plastic containers that have seen better days...)

A well-kept allotment is a beautiful thing!

Check the covenants carefully!

This would be a good point to start at.
A new area of houses built where a sibling lived had a covenant that all gardens had to stay open plan and of grass only.

If there's no covenant I think growing fruit and veg in raised beds or at ground level in a front garden is fine.

I wonder if some people will think it's going to be like some allotments with old plastic/metal containers for holding water and plastic sheeting covering the beds.

I visited Vancouver in Canada some years back and many of the front gardens - even really tiny ones - were beautifully tended veg patches. Some people had even taken over the grass verges outside their properties.

Why is veg 'unsightly'? Why should OP give two hoots about making other people's property more difficult to sell?

It was traditional, OP, to grow veg and flowers together in a cottage garden. Some veg, like runner beans, produce very pretty flowers and were once grown solely for the flower. You can find out which flowers repel veg-eating insects and plant accordingly. You can plant tall flowers to hide the veg (from birds, not neighbours) but be careful that children don't confuse edibles with inedibles, with serious results.

Who knows, if the cost of living rises much more your neighbours might be following suit.

Is that you Felicity Kendal?

Exactly my thoughts.
Plus, do you have an outside tap at the front for watering? You will not want to carry drippy watering cans through the house.

Personally I'd love it.

Most front gardens are either a scrap of lawn with a small border or have been turned into parking spaces.
Curtain twitchers who think their street should remain unchanged for decades need to get a life in my opinion.

The only downside I see is when you are out the front tending to everything that you'll be subjected to talking to your neighbours 😄 🤣 otherwise, great idea!!

I'd only be annoyed if a neighbours garden was a mess. What is grown wouldn't bother me.

It's actually a good idea.

Although maybe start with a patch rather than removing the whole lawn. It's quite a lot of work growing veg. You might not enjoy it.

Your front garden, your choices yes they probably won’t like it but tough.

There are some lovely designs for veg patch gardens!

Unless you live next door to Margo and Jerry, it is no-one's business other than yours.
Just tell them you are digging for victory. Once they've had a carrot or two from you, neighbours will be fine!

What would be the point of that?

When we moved when I was a child my Dad planted potatoes in the front garden, he said they would break the soil up. We lived opposite a bus stop and my Mother used to check the bus time table because she didn't want people seeing her digging up spuds in a dress and Wellington boots.

I've got an end of terrace corner garden or in Estate Agent speak "a wrap around garden". I've got a scabby, uneven lawn which has one raised bed on it, the other beds are on the side part of the garden. This one raised bed looks lost but I plan on more.

If I had strange/awful/nasty or whatever neighbours I wouldn't give two hoots what they thought and they wouldn't get free fresh veg either.

We grow veggies on the front. I’m careful with the choices, so flowering beans on metal obelisks and tumbling tomatoes on pretty hanging boxes. I have dealt fruit trees there too- the sunlight is better.

IMO it looks nicer than the gravelled-over ones with cars stuck on them. We also can’t have fences.

I would only plant unpopular veg, sprouts, cabbage and suchlike at the front otherwise things like beans or peas will probably be stolen. You don't want to be the neighbourhood free pyo go to. Unless you have cctv then you can shame the thieving CF's on Facebook.

Sorry I keep on thinking in spurts, Swiss chard can go in borders especially the brights variety, beetroot and fennel has pretty foliage and less likely to be nicked.

I’d consider air quality if you face onto a busy road - much as I’d never berry pick from a BlackBerry hedge on a busy road.

aside from that, my main concern would be that I like to pick from my kitchen garden to have breakfast - fresh berries and leaves straight into breakfast…And wouldn’t like to be out the front in my summer pjs