Good-bye lawn hello mini-food forest.

I'm saying good-bye to my lawn and hello to sustainable agriculture. How? I'm starting with a mini-food forest in my backyard.

I live on a fifth of an acre. My home is a rambler (single level house with a large foundation) and driveway is more than 70 feet long reaching to the back of my home which is where the garage is! So really my yard is much much smaller than that. I have a million neighbors and the ones that show on the left are on a hill that is 10 feet higher than my backyard. I have no privacy, and my backyard often floods (neighbors over-watering) or is as dry as the Sahara (because the slope of my backyard doesn't hold any precipitation).

Key to my map

1. Damp full shade (Olive Green)
2. Very hot, dry, afternoon sun (Orange)
3. Wet, marshland (Green)
4. Rich well drained full sun (Light Green)
5. Very hot, full sun (Orange)
6. Rich, part sun, full shade [closer to fence] (Light Green)
7. Child swingset, kids area (Pink)
8. Prepped Food forest site with swales and berms (Yellow)
9. Fence (Red/Blue dashed line)
10. Property line (Blue line)
11. The lime green background is currently my lawn....

Last fall I tore into a 20 by 30 foot area of my back yard, used a garden fork loosen the grass. I dug a 3 foot deep swale and built a berm. This is to help catch snow melt, rain and my neighbors over watering. I put a layer of cardboard, manure, garden scraps, soil, then a thick layer of straw over the entire area. This is just the first stage of the main backyard mini food forest. I will convert my sprinklers into drip irrigation. Spring. 

It's too much. Really. I can't do it alone. But  have an idea. I'll host a garden party, feeding my peeps that want to help. Sending my helpers home with their very own perennial (vegetable) with plant care literature as a thanks for helping. Hopefully I can get neighbors, family, anyone interested in helping to do so.

I have 14 yards of  fine screened pesticide and chemical free manure/soil blend coming March. That is really my only cost (well plants, trees and seeds have a price tag too) as the cardboard, kitchen and other green waste (grass clippings, straw, news paper, rotten vegetables, worm compost) I've been collecting are all free. 

About the garden party, or series of them if that is what it takes. Here is the labor that needs done; 

1. Loosen the soil with a garden fork
2. Lengthen the swale and add more berms 
3. Spread in layers and wet with hose in between;
1. cardboard
2. soil/manure
3. grass clippings, wood chips, compost
4. hay
4. Plant the plants, seeds and trees. 

So I'll add on my spreadsheets of plants, trees and bush guilds later. They have so much information on them, and are still incomplete. Feel free when I put them online to add comments in for any information that is missing. I will also add on my general layout of the food forest area, and more detailed plantings as I get them finished.

I will be starting seed this next month for my food forest, and garden party. I'll include some photo's, dates of the party and more info as I progress through the months.