OK all, it's time for a SUPER GREEN, Tree hugger post that ended up being really long...but it's worth it so read on...
For a while now Brian has been planning to convert our front yard into 'the jungle'! It first started with a in depth tour of a good friend's property. He has a city lot and it really is a jungle. He did lots of the planting himself just within the last 5 years and we walked away completely inspired. Then Brian read the book Food Not Lawns which really drives home the fact that we are wasting so much of the world's energy sources by having lawns that don't give us anything back. As they say...we should be turning our yards into gardens! The amount of water that people use to water their grass, especially here where we have a dry season, is staggering. Lawnmowers spew pollution that worse than a car. Let alone the amount of sweat that is generated mowing a lawn with a push mower in the heat of a Florida summer is enough to make you call in the mulch man!!
We were lucky enough to get a 'hook up' on the mulch. Brian stopped to chat with a tree service guy who was cutting trees in the neighborhood and wouldn't you know it ...in the next week we had 6 loads of mulch across our front yard, an appointment with the workers (and one of their little munchkins) to have them spread it over the weekend, and a promise of as many more loads as we wanted...ALL FOR FREE!!!
The mulching took place a while back...I'd say it was before Christmas! And the neighbors have been giving us sideways glances ever since. Now that the grass and weeds are starting to pop through they're asking more questions.
Before the mulch we planted a bunch of bananas and now that the rains have started we put in a whole slew more trees! Hopefully, the neighbors will see a little of our vision now.
We had a few trees already planted, but now that Brian and I have gone over the list as a whole, we sure do have quite a fruit basket in the making! Here's our list (with handy links for the weirder ones)...Navel Orange, Page Orange (Tangelo), Atemoya, Valencia Pride Mango, Hayden Mango, Moringa, Chaya, Coconut, Jaboticaba (Tropical Cherry), Strawberry Fruit Tree, Loquat, Egg Fruit, Persian Lime, Green Tea, Papaya,and 
last but not least more Pineapples. As you see all of these will be producing fruit of some sort and I just can't wait for the day when we can walk through our front 'jungle' and just pick snacks off the trees. Dex is already loving the Mulberry in the back yard and it only has one or two berries every two or three days. I bet he'll be in heaven when these get bigger.
I have to say that I was a little skeptical at first,(maybe the sideways glances were getting to me) but now that the trees are in...I'm way into it. I'm trying to think of other plants to put in the low growing areas, some more shade loving trees or bushes, where our paths will go, maybe a bench or two...so much to do now that the jungle-izing has gone into full swing.
SO...if you've made it to the end of this super long post...first of all...CONGRATS. Second of all, please consider taking even the smallest section of your yard and making it NOT lawn, but maybe a nice salad bed, a fruit tree with some edible flowers or greens under or even a herb garden. In the end your tummy and the earth will thank you.
