I’m curious what happens in the winter. I’m new to Utah and playing around with a large garden in my backyard. I’d love to have more native plants and flowers for the pollinators other than our grass, even if it’s not food. I’ve even just been looking at winter cover crops as green manure for our garden and it seems so hard with the snow. I’m in the salt lake area.
Good question! Sometimes we’ll have nicer weather well in to October and you can really extend the growing season. But winters here are harsh. From about November - March the ground freezes. You can plant a cover crop mix on your garden beds like a vetch, winter wheat and clover, in the early spring it will grow, you’ll just want to cut it and turn it in to your soil before it goes to seed. You can also grow well into the winter months with low tunnels or cold frames. See these two videos ua-cam.com/video/_u-G1VKdYlI/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/EVYwIhieGsM/v-deo.html
Most communities in our State will not allow this. You have to have a certain percentage turf, especially the front. I have never understood turf requirements in the 2nd driest State.
Thank you for pointing this out-some HOAs and cities will have ordinances that require a certain percentage of vegetation. Always be sure to check those ordinances before any large landscaping projects!
@@ModernGardener I'd recommend having your attorney consult those ordinances, and getting a guarantee that his or her recommendations will be acceptable under the code. I'm an attorney myself, and consulted the ordinances before we proceeded to do some very costly landscaping, and you'd be surprised how far municipal code enforcement will go to redefine commonly used terms, in obscure and capricious ways, ways that are entirely legally novel, just to achieve certain goals. This is the nightmare reality we are in now. If you'd like to grow your own food on your own land, I'd recommend only living in an unincorporated area, and in an unincorporated area that is likely to remain unincorporated for quite some time (i.e. wasteland). Otherwise, it is not worth the risk, expense, and regret when you are targeted for the crime of growing your own food on your own land. And Ken, you're entirely right, it is ecologically disastrous to require lawns in the front AND BACK yards of almost every home in the state (and in most states). What is so funny is that the people who used to use strong arm tactics to ensure that every square foot of outdoor land on your property is covered in a lawn will be the same people who will soon fine you into dispossession of your home if you do commit the crime of growing a lawn. Those times are coming soon. It only has to be written into the international building code, and poof, lawns will be illegal all over the U.S.. It's for the ozone hole, or global warming they'll say, and there will be nothing anyone will be able to do about it. I would not be surprised if there are already draft versions of lawn restriction code Lawns will be restricted to properties over an acre, or over ten acres in size. And we'll be back in the times of when the lawn was born, in the times of French Nobility who grew lawns as a statement of their extravagant and wasteful wealth. This is what everyone will cheer as progress.
@@alphanumeric1529 very insightful.. thank you for sharing. It seems to me that this is a matter of control, the more people there is that grow their own food, the less control government has over them.
Are you in Utah? You can send a soil sample into USU and they’ll send you back a report on what the NPK levels are and recommend what you need more or less of. extension.usu.edu/utah/gardening/soil-testing
I have enjoyed your videos thanks for sharing such great information! I haven’t watched all your videos yet but have you talked to Garden Wise Adventures? They have some great content about growing less common fruits here in Utah like figs, jujube, persimmon, and medlar. I’d love to see you do a video with them.
How do you grow artichokes in Utah? Are they an annual, or do you cover in the winter with something to help them come back? (Mapleton Utah-Zones 6a. 6b, 7a. )Thanks
Yes, if you are going to overwinter them, you'll need to cover them with heavy mulch (4-6 inches of soil and 8-12 inches of leaves) because they are sensitive to frost and freezing.
Here is Orem’s law: “At least fifty percent (50%) of each contiguous area required to be landscaped under this chapter shall be planted and maintained with some combination of grass, shrubs, trees, flowers, vines, or other living plants (excluding weeds).” Who knows what they can decide to call a “weed,” but at least it allows plants other than grass, so it SEEMS like foodscaping should be ok. Probably mostly matters that your neighbors don’t complain.
Every single person in utah should do this.
Glad to see a fellow Utahn!
I’m curious what happens in the winter. I’m new to Utah and playing around with a large garden in my backyard. I’d love to have more native plants and flowers for the pollinators other than our grass, even if it’s not food. I’ve even just been looking at winter cover crops as green manure for our garden and it seems so hard with the snow. I’m in the salt lake area.
Good question! Sometimes we’ll have nicer weather well in to October and you can really extend the growing season. But winters here are harsh. From about November - March the ground freezes. You can plant a cover crop mix on your garden beds like a vetch, winter wheat and clover, in the early spring it will grow, you’ll just want to cut it and turn it in to your soil before it goes to seed. You can also grow well into the winter months with low tunnels or cold frames. See these two videos ua-cam.com/video/_u-G1VKdYlI/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/EVYwIhieGsM/v-deo.html
Food Scaping ❤
Oh gosh!! This is exactly what I've been looking for!!!
Isn't Foodscaping awesome?? We're glad you found what you were looking for! 💚
Most communities in our State will not allow this.
You have to have a certain percentage turf, especially the front.
I have never understood turf requirements in the 2nd driest State.
Thank you for pointing this out-some HOAs and cities will have ordinances that require a certain percentage of vegetation. Always be sure to check those ordinances before any large landscaping projects!
@@ModernGardener I'd recommend having your attorney consult those ordinances, and getting a guarantee that his or her recommendations will be acceptable under the code. I'm an attorney myself, and consulted the ordinances before we proceeded to do some very costly landscaping, and you'd be surprised how far municipal code enforcement will go to redefine commonly used terms, in obscure and capricious ways, ways that are entirely legally novel, just to achieve certain goals. This is the nightmare reality we are in now.
If you'd like to grow your own food on your own land, I'd recommend only living in an unincorporated area, and in an unincorporated area that is likely to remain unincorporated for quite some time (i.e. wasteland).
Otherwise, it is not worth the risk, expense, and regret when you are targeted for the crime of growing your own food on your own land.
And Ken, you're entirely right, it is ecologically disastrous to require lawns in the front AND BACK yards of almost every home in the state (and in most states). What is so funny is that the people who used to use strong arm tactics to ensure that every square foot of outdoor land on your property is covered in a lawn will be the same people who will soon fine you into dispossession of your home if you do commit the crime of growing a lawn.
Those times are coming soon. It only has to be written into the international building code, and poof, lawns will be illegal all over the U.S.. It's for the ozone hole, or global warming they'll say, and there will be nothing anyone will be able to do about it. I would not be surprised if there are already draft versions of lawn restriction code Lawns will be restricted to properties over an acre, or over ten acres in size. And we'll be back in the times of when the lawn was born, in the times of French Nobility who grew lawns as a statement of their extravagant and wasteful wealth. This is what everyone will cheer as progress.
@@alphanumeric1529 very insightful.. thank you for sharing. It seems to me that this is a matter of control, the more people there is that grow their own food, the less control government has over them.
@@alphanumeric1529 Politicians will only have themselves to blame when there are food shortages nationwide as a result of their illogical rules.
@@erodigie Winner, winner, no chicken dinner!
I love to hear about how to figure out the best mixture of soil for your raised beds. Something is off in mine and I can’t figure it out.
Are you in Utah? You can send a soil sample into USU and they’ll send you back a report on what the NPK levels are and recommend what you need more or less of. extension.usu.edu/utah/gardening/soil-testing
I have enjoyed your videos thanks for sharing such great information!
I haven’t watched all your videos yet but have you talked to Garden Wise Adventures? They have some great content about growing less common fruits here in Utah like figs, jujube, persimmon, and medlar. I’d love to see you do a video with them.
Awesome! Thanks for the tip Ariel! We’ll check them out.
Is it just for people in the ogden area? Any way of getting to other counties like Tooele?
Hi Maegan, we're not sure. You'd need to reach out to Foodscaping Utah foodscapingutah.org/
How do you grow artichokes in Utah? Are they an annual, or do you cover in the winter with something to help them come back? (Mapleton Utah-Zones 6a. 6b, 7a. )Thanks
Yes, if you are going to overwinter them, you'll need to cover them with heavy mulch (4-6 inches of soil and 8-12 inches of leaves) because they are sensitive to frost and freezing.
@@ModernGardener Thank you very much for your reply!
@@Irish-Triplet You're very welcome! 💚
Is Foodscape Utah still working in the area? I’d love to be able to do something like this in our tiny back yard.
They are! They also have a great UA-cam channel with more gardening information: ua-cam.com/channels/OmHL1601YKWfoHqRNeY4cQ.htmlfeatured?app=desktop
Gracias por poner la traduccion en espanol !!
Here is Orem’s law:
“At least fifty percent (50%) of each contiguous area required to be landscaped under this chapter shall be planted and maintained with some combination of grass, shrubs, trees, flowers, vines, or other living plants (excluding weeds).”
Who knows what they can decide to call a “weed,” but at least it allows plants other than grass, so it SEEMS like foodscaping should be ok.
Probably mostly matters that your neighbors don’t complain.
most HOAs won't allow homeowners to do this in their front yards
HOA can be tough.
S
love your site might i recomend you put show on rumble and gettr for those that do not like the censership that goes on on y.t.