I aspire to be a neighbour who is beloved by the children in our townhouse complex. No, I don’t give out good Halloween candy, and we don’t have any particularly cool toys. Nope, I plan to be the neighbour with the berries.
The front yard of our townhouse does not really deserve that moniker. It is a space that is about four metres long and a couple of meters wide. It boasts a lovely miniature maple tree that I can’t bear to get rid of, but the rest of it is covered in berry bushes.
Now, I am quite happy to rebel against accepted gardening norms and grow food on my front lawn. The sad fact is, however, that the front of my house is the only space I have that is at all likely to yield ripe berries. Our back yard is fairly shady.
At the moment, our moist front yard contains a couple of huckleberry bushes, a native vaccinium that yields small, tart red berries. It also has raspberry canes that I hope to work up a willow archway this summer, in the vain desire to get even more sunshine. Currants work well in our slightly shady front yard, with the odd jostaberry being one of the favourite currant-like plants. It has sweet-tart berries that are bright red and a favourite with children. Of course, blueberries are a delight, and I have several blueberry plants of various permutations, all of them designed to bear fruit one after the next.
I’ve taught the neighbourhood children which berries are edible and have asked them to check in before they pick anything unusual. They are delighted, as am I. In the few years that we have lived here, our collection of berry bushes has grown and so has my enjoyment of the berries. This was in evidence several years ago when I came home to people digging a hole in my front yard. I was appalled, not because a hole in the yard might mean that my pipes had burst and covered my basement in water, but because a hole in the yard meant soil covering my berry bushes.
Would you create a food garden in your front yard?