Seattle | Backyard Roots

Diana Vergis Vinh says there’s advantages to planting out front on the “sidewalk strip.” That’s the strip of ground between the sidewalk and the street. In Seattle where she lives, it’s legal to plant there, there are set-back and height requirements and you do have to have a permit, but the permit is free. Diana says that being out front creates visibility and interest, and it helps build community that way. She’s met lot’s of her neighbors while working out front and she says gardening is also great for your mental health. It’s also more space to grow and when you’re in the city you need every inch.

Diana spent many summers on her uncles’s farm in Iowa and she’s always wanted her own farm. She’s been growing food and raising chickens for the past 20 years. Check out her blog Urban Farm Hub and read more about urban farm news of the Northwest.

Diana Vinh made this cool fence from found branches then wired them together and screwed them into fence posts.

Growing vegetables and raising animals takes so much time. Wouldn’t be easier to just harvest what you find? When I was working on Backyard Roots I met several city foragers including Melanie Vorass Herrera in Seattle who keeps an urban farm and forages too. She ended up writing an entertaining and informative book about city foraging that I just checked out. Front Yard Forager is definitely an eye-opener. I recognised so many weeds growing right in my vegetable garden that it really changes the whole idea of weeding–maybe it’s time to start eating the problem. I liked that she includes recipes in the book and that there is back section on poisonous weeds common to urban areas. Check out her book and blog to see the weeds you could be eating out of your front yard.

Narrow leaf plantain is a “lawn weed that can survive the driest of summers” You can eat the greens, seeds and roots too. The leaves can be used the way you’d use spinach.

Melanie suggests removing the midrib of dandelion leaves as shown to also remove the bitterness. Dandelion greens can be eaten raw or cooked. The flowers and roots are edible too.

Cat’s Ear is a dandelion like weed that can be eaten raw or cooked.

Melanie not only forages, she keeps goats and chickens too and between them nothing goes to waste.

Backyard Roots

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Category Archives: Seattle

Sidewalk Gardening with Diana Vergis Vinh

Front Yard Forager: Melanie Vorass Herrera