Home Grown ~ Lexa Fisher

The kiwi arbor

Several years ago we bought a house with a neglected yard and I joined the Seattle trend to "eat your yard". Old, long neglected plants were replaced with edibles. Though it took several years to get started, especially in the backyard which gets little sunlight, rosemary now thrives along with red currants, an elderberry shrub, raspberries, kiwi grapes, and gooseberries.

Despite the small size of our lot, in the sunnier front yard I've managed to squeeze in two plum trees, a four-way grafted apple tree, two columnar apple trees, two figs (our favorite), a dwarf peach, seven raspberry bushes, and nine different herbs.

Friends thought I was silly using strawberries for ground cover, but we get at least twenty quarts a year from the small strip where the plants have filled in nicely. Plenty enough to share with co-workers and friends! This year the raspberries that were planted last September have also given us an abundant and delicious crop.

June 2nd--strawberry season begins!

Planter buckets hold tomatoes, potatoes (so much fun to dig!), and rhubarb. Lettuce will be planted between the raspberries in late summer, and hot peppers find space in one of the herb beds. One day maybe I'll have grapes for wine-making from this little vine along the side fence.




Pollinators are important for fruit plants, so we do our part to keep them healthy. Did you know that bees get thirsty? In order to drink, they need to keep their feet dry while they sip water. Here's a bee waterer that my husband designed and made for our yard with his 3-D printer.

This thirsty bee gets a drink of nectar from a sage flower. When the herbs are in flower we have a lively yard!






I considered a hive with honey bees because 
we love honey, but a lot of new beekeepers lose their bees over the winter and my neighbor is allergic to bee stings. After donning a bee-keeper's suit and tending an active hive with an established beekeeper, I was convinced honey bees weren't for me! Instead, we have blue and green orchard bees and bee houses for their nesting. They don't produce honey, but they are prolific pollinators.



Birds are such fun to watch and provide great entertainment for our indoor-only cat who watches from her window perch. My favorite bird, the black-capped chickadee, has been nesting in this little house outside my home office. In the evening I can occasionally hear the babies chirping.





It takes a few hours of yard work on several weekends, but we now enjoy a lot of home grown goodness.