The Edible Front Yard - Ivette Soler

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Available on Kindle!

Put the fruits of your labors front and center! With plentiful sun, open space, and an audience of appreciative passersby, the front yard has all the ingredients for a beautiful and bountiful garden. Let famed blogger and garden designer Ivette Soler show you how to make over all or part of that space — too often simply unused or purely decorative — into a gorgeously designed oasis of fruits and vegetables that will be the envy of the neighborhood.

The Edible Front Yard combines the loveliest and tastiest edibles and ornamentals in a garden that is a year-round feast for the eyes. Soler teaches all the tricks, from laying out the design and choosing the best front yard plants, to clear instruction for a bounty of exciting projects like a fragrant carpet of herbs, a trellis privacy screen using runner beans, and an eye-catching raised bed that turns your "hell strip" into a little patch of paradise. From the curb right up to your front door, the information in these pages includes everything you need to have a beautiful front yard and eat it too!

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 I live in a small yellow cottage not too far from the sea in a warm sunny climate.  Though my yard is rather small it is big enough for me to have a lovely garden.  Rosemary, lavender, french thyme and oregano grow with abandon.  Cilantro and parsely occupy a slightly shady northern spot.  While the trees; lemon, bay, olive, avocado and plum enjoy their spot in the sun. As far as veggies are concerned I grow some but not as many as I'd like.  Because I am short on space I have stuck with the plants that will give me the most return for the effort and will also be lovely to look at or require a minimum of maintenance.  I do, however, want to grow more vegetables.  I long to pluck fresh carrots from the earth, I fantasize about picking my own lettuce...until now I just couldn't conceptualize how that would work.  Enter the Edible Front Yard.  

This fabulous book teaches the reader how to tastefully transform the front yard into a gloriously edible landscape that not only pleases the eye but also pleases the appetite.  This task may seem simple but in all honesty vegetables are not a pretty sight.  The authors show how to take the more comely vegetables and plant them in clever ways.  Through simple to understand steps and beautiful photos this guide makes it easy for the eager gardener to take that first tremulous step into front yard vegetable gardening.  My imagination when it comes to the landscape is not what I would like it to be.  While my spirit is willing it is often hard for me to visualize what all my plants will eventually look like once they become mature.  I love how the authors take the reader by the hand and really walk them step by step through the process. 

The Edible Front Yard could very well be an invaluable tool for any would be or well seasoned gardener.  By taking the authors cue gardeners everywhere could practically double their planting space while also taking advantage of all that fabulous sun.  My artichoke is basking in it's front row seat as I type.  I've taken that first scary step and I think a revolution has begun.

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* I received an advance copy from the publisher for purposes of review. I was in no way obligated to write a review much less a favorable one. The opinions stated herein are all my own.