Urban Homestead Photo Tour - Part 1 Front Yard, Non Edibles (Part 1 of 3)

You got the video version, now it's time for the photo version of our homestead!  This is mainly for Ron, who has requested more pics, and I'm quite happy to post them.  I took all of these pics today on the 4th of July.  I'm so grateful we can keep chickens and grow veggies in our back yard here in Humboldt County, California.  We're blessed, unlike others in other states who have to fight ordinances.  So, to celebrate our freedom, here is a photo tour of our urban homestead.  I'll start in the front and work to the back.  The front yard is our non edible area of the yard and we have bamboo trees, maple trees, flowering cherry and plum trees, and many perennials planted in it.

Here is our 1875 house.  We bought it 2 years ago, and when we arrived there were about 5 trees and a few rose bushes on the property.  We painted the house, added a new roof, some windows and a new front door, and also did a lot of restoration on the interior.

Left side of the front yard.  We put up this fence so the kids could have a safe private play area in the back.  I just painted the gate a nice shade of purple the other week.  To the right you can see one of the flowering plum trees that was here when we bought the place.

One of our beautiful lilies blooming in the front yard. 

The one edible plant we have in the front yard, strawberries!

Angel's Trumpet

The bath tub Ron re-purposed into a cool garden pond/bench.  All of the wood he used was re-purposed as well.  Those are baby Japanese Maple trees in the pots, and bamboo in the background. 

The beautiful Butterfly Bush that is blooming now along with some of our roses.  One of Ron's co-workers gave us a bunch of roses. 

Lobelia, Lamb's Ear, Lilies and a cool recycled glass Fire and Light bowl. 

Big Leaf Maple and more Bamboo, in pots so it doesn't take over the yard of course!

Right side of the front yard.  Ron built this little safety gate for our then 3 year old out of re-purposed redwood lumber.  It's a little hard to see in this pic, but we put in a brick walk way from the sidewalk to the porch.  The bricks were recycled from a nunnery on the hospital campus Ron works at. 

Our front yard pond Ron put in.  The liner was given to us, the deck and retaining wall was all made from re-purposed wood.  We found the rocks on the side of the road for free, score!  We've been carrying the Hydrangea on the left around in a pot for about 15 years.  It felt really good to get that plant into the ground finally.

Continue on to Part 2 and 3 which you will see in the right margin.