Neighborhood Gardening Inspiration & Thoughts on Self Sufficiency

There are so many lovely gardens in our neighborhood. I usually take a walk in the morning, and I've told myself over and over to bring the camera so I could capture some of these inspiring spaces. The other day I finally got around to doing it, so now I have some awesome gardens to show. This time of year the Willamette Valley in Oregon is absolutely beautiful. Everything is growing, it's lush and green and I wish I could just pause the time and leave everything just like this for a little while longer.

When I walk around the surrounding neighborhoods, I get so inspired. I want to do so much with our little property and right now! To be fair, it could definitely use a bit more curb appeal, but one thing at a time. Until we get around to doing any real changes in the front (and back) yard, I will just soak all this beauty in, and get a better idea of what exactly it is I want to do.

It always feels a bit sneaky looking into somebody's backyard (and especially taking a photo!) In the area that we live, people are gardening like crazy so that's really nice to see. People definitely seem to prioritize putting raised beds in their back or front yard, as opposed to keeping a perfect lawn. I think that's so refreshing! Most of these properties are not very large, but people really do make the best of it. I've seen so many different edible plants, berry bushes and fruit trees in the area, and it makes a lot of sense to me to really utilize your property and grow edibile things on it, instead of just keeping it nice looking. I guess that's the self sufficient, scale-down trend going on right now where people live smaller, but hopefully better?

I realize it's not practical for most people to live completely self sufficient (and not for us either, even though I love the concept), but you can still move towards that direction to some extent. That's so evident when you look at these tiny properties where the residents are growing things even if they don't have a lot of space to do so. And even if you can grow just a few things (due to space or time limitations), it's still nice to be able to enjoy a home grown salad every now and then, or cook with your own herbs. I think that makes a big difference overall: that people feel like they have some kind of control over their food and their environment. I think it makes for a better life.

This property is one of my favorite ones around. It's small, it's organized. They grow so much! It's just lovely.

They have current bushes! If there is one thing I really want eventually, it's a few current bushes, preferably one red and one black (and one white as well if we're really going all the way out!) My grandmother had so many in her backyard when I was young and she made the best black current jam as well as syrup which we diluted with water and drank on festive occasions (or every time we visited her!) Currents taste like childhood to me, so it would be really nice to eventually incorporate a few bushes into our yard. 

This family also have their own chickens. What a joy to be able to get fresh high-quality eggs!

Here is part of their backyard, which is really situated to the front, but they have dwarf fruit trees blocking the garden from the street. I think that's a really nice idea too. 

They must have shaped these apple trees over time to get them to grow just like that. So you better not be in a hurry if you want your trees to offer this kind of protection from the street!

Here is another property which has raised beds and huge artichoke bushes facing the street. I really had to stop myself from going over and grabbing an artichoke. Of course I wouldn't, but I sure felt tempted to!

This property is just lovely! And I adore the white fence and the arbor. I wouldn't mind this look at all around our front lawn!

I also love the front porch on this house. And how the ceiling is blue!

This is charming as well, wouldn't you say, even though the benches might need to be replaced...

Here we have another arbor, however no fence. Everything looks so green and full of life in this picture!

Isn't this blue ground-covering flower so pretty!

I also don't mind this look. Here they have put stone tiles down on the ground, and reduced the amount of lawn. I like this idea a lot. A lot less maintenance, yet it looks really neat and orderly, and with a few of our elevated raised beds, we could grow stuff too.