I've been threatening, I mean planning, to extend our fruit and vegetable growing into the front yard for awhile now, but this year it is getting underway. First came two persimmons and a dutch medlar, planted in winter. Hopefully (given time) they will provide us with summer shade and perhaps also the bonus of fruit.

Now I've set up a bed for corn in the front yard too. Because keeping water up to corn mid-summer has previously challenged us, I've added plenty of organic matter to the soil and will mulch it and hill the soil around the stalks as it grows. We'll see how corn goes with some greywater irrigation (along with rainwater from the tanks). The shower water can be diverted to out here using gravity alone.

Once the corn gets well established, I'll also try planting cucumber and/or climbing beans as companions to grow up the corn, shelter in the corn's shade and suppress weeds.

I used some spare former-decking-offcuts-made-into-garden-edging (as described here) from the back herb garden that has been partially dismantled in preparation for the shed. I even used the often-demonstrated tv garden expert trick to create the kidney shape by using a hose to mark it out and achieve smooth curves. The shape itself is mostly a reflection of the available space, with just enough room to access all sides and be able to reach all parts of the bed without needing to step inside it. In all, it is a couple of square metres in size.