by David The Good
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Last week I posted this video featuring my friend Eddy:
Eddy took a small space in South Florida and used it to grow a good amount of food and medicine. Yams, soursop, avocado, passionfruit, Barbados cherry, guava, tamarind, bees, herbs, bananas and more. And that’s with a pool in the middle of the yard!
If you live in South Florida or another tropical climate, why would you plant ornamentals? Come on! You’re at the gateway to the bounty of the tropics… don’t waste your space!
I’m David The Good, gardening author, homesteading, survival gardener, nursery owner and plant geek. Let’s grow some food!
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9 responses to “My Friend Eddy and His Gardens”
In total agreement.
But here’s the reason why I’m having trouble, in three words.
Home
Owner’s
Association
One day….one day…
People would rather give up their rights to self sufencancy then have to worry about their neighbor bringing down their property value. Growing up in a rural unincorporated area, I see this as asinine. This is exactly why I would probably never buy property in a deed restricted community.
Have you read your HOA’s bylaws, rules, etc? There might be a loophole such as; ok to plant a vegetable garden or have fruit trees in the backyard. David has suggested before that people in this situation might be able to get away with planting something that doesn’t look like vegetables/fruit (malanga/taro, ginger, turmeric, etc.).
Let this be a lesson, ALWAYS read the contract before signing your rights away.
@Adam: RE HOAs
You might take a look into the laws regarding HOAs and yard plantings — there has been a swing recently in the legal system against HOA regulations concerning yards and what can/can’t go into them. For example, in view of regularly occurring drought conditions, the Colorado legislature passed laws a few years ago (http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/new-homeowners-association-hoa-laws-colorado.html) that, among other things, prohibit HOAs from implementing certain landscaping requirements such as mandating turf grass which is not drought-tolerant (like bluegrass). In a nutshell, this essentially wiped out many existing covenants regulating lawns in HOA areas (and non-HOA developments like mine, which nevertheless still have covenants).
That Florida just went through its own drought earlier this year (still is?) makes me wonder if they have considered doing something similar. If not, maybe you could suggest it to your own state legislators?
Related: Lessons from HOA lawsuit over Florida-friendly grass
Notice the homeowner involved in this lawsuit was growing pineapple in their yard.
david what about with the bees ??? his not have problem with the neigbors ???
No, not at all – he’s had them back there for years!
Wow, Eddy sure packs a lot into his small back yard! It would be hard for me not to use that pool as just a pool with these hot Florida summers. At the very least I would try to turn it into a ‘natural pool’.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/natural-swimming-pool-zmaz02aszgoe
Was he growing yams in pots? I may have to try that out next to my huge ficus tree. 1/3 of my back yard is dominated by my ficus which reduces what I can do in the ground near the tree.
david im sorry but i cant understand what he doing with soursop tree for get fruit very early …?????