an excerpt from “Extreme Simplicity: Homesteading in the
City”
[Nyerges is the author of “Extreme Simplicity,” “How to
Survive Anywhere,” “Foraging California,” and other books. For information on
his classes and books, contact him at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com,
or Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041.]
When we first moved into our home, the front yard was ugly –
barren and oily. The previous residents
had used the yard to park their cars, an area of about 35 by 15 feet. Just a bit of crabgrass grew around the
edges. The inner front yard, which we
called the courtyard, was almost as barren, though there were a few trees
there.
One of our first improvements, once we had removed bits of
old metal, wood scraps, logs, and an old shack, was to very heavily mulch the
barren yard and the neglected courtyard areas.
Mulch consisted of natural materials such as wood chips, leaves, grass
clippings – organic matter that can be spread on the ground to hold in
moisture. As the mulch decomposes, it
helps to increase the soil’s fertility.
While driving home one day, we saw a yard that was covered
with fall leaves. We had our rakes and
bags with us, so we pulled over and knocked on the door.
“May we rake up your front yard and take the leaves with
us?” we asked the elderly man who came to the door.
He was silent for a moment, uncertain what we had said, or
perhaps suspicious of our intentions.
We repeated the request.
“We’d like to rake up your yard. We don’t want to charge you.
We just want the leaves to use for mulch.”
By now, his wife had come to the door and we had to repeat
the request again. They seemed to
realize that we were sincere, and agreed.
As we raked, they began to laugh at their good fortune with
sheepish smiles – someone had actually knocked on their door requesting to do
something for free that they usually had to pay for.
“Take all you want!” the man told us, cheerfully and loudly.
We busied ourselves filling up about four large trash bags
of the yellow leaves, and they watched us from their window with large
grins. We laughed to ourselves too, and
wondered if they would be telling and re-telling this curious story to their
friends and grandchildren.
When we got home, we scattered all those leaves around the
needy front and courtyard areas. We
knew that we’d have to add more and more organic matter before the soil would
be fertile enough to grow plants, so we collected leaves from other sources as
well and spread them in our yard.
Neighbors watched our leaf mulch project curiously.
We contacted an acquaintance who runs a tree-pruning
service. This man and his crew prunes
trees and then chips up the prunings, and when their truck is full of chips,
they take it to the local landfill and pay to unload the chips. In response to our invitation, they were
happy to bring a load to our place instead and dump it in a huge pile onto our
front yard.
The huge pile covered most of the front yard, and the
central peak was nearly five feet tall.
We knew the pile would get smaller over time as the chips
decomposed. In fact, the pile had sunk
down about a foot after the first week, and we spread the chips out on each
side so we’d have a mulch that uniformly covered the entire area.
If you’ve ever been around a big compost pile, you know how
it generates lots of heat as the contents decompose. We noticed our pile steaming in about two weeks, and we also
watered it to help the decomposition process.
One morning, a neighbor form next door yelled, “Your front
yard’s on fire!”
We ran out expecting to see flames somewhere but saw only
the steaming chip pile. We assured our
neighbor that everything was fine.
In two years, after
two big truckloads of wood chips, we were able to sink our hand down into the
soil in the front yard, and wild plants had begun to grow and thrive.
FOR THE CONTINUATION OF THIS STORY, get a copy of “Extreme
Simplicity: Homesteading in the City” wherever quality books are sold. Also available at the Store at
www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.
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