Sideyard Food Forest Garden Terrace

This sideyard project had the benefit of being visible through large glass doors from the inside. The area was originally covered in very well established and stubborn ivy vines. It took a great deal of effort to clear and naturally inhibit the regrowth of the ivy, but over time the trees and vegetables did quite well in out-competing the ivy. I was glad also to apply and test the concept of replacing what's established that you don't want, with a similar but more useful and desirable plant. I planted a number of sweet potatoes which grow very much like ivy and thus did well to "fill the niche" the was opened when the ivy was cut back.

The simple retaining walls and terraces were easy enough to install at this small scale. It really added a lot of growing square footage and made it possible to harvest by walking between and among them using stone pavers. Sometimes it's ideal to use stone pavers to navigate gardens as full pathways take up a lot of potential growing space, and if you can't or don't need to get a wheel barrow in and out of the area, why not just step only and exactly where needed to have the most minimal foot print?