Having lots of land doesn't mean you need to have lots of lawn or lots of yard work. Use your land to grow food and reduce your work.
In creating abundance for your family through edible landscape the goal should be diversity, not excess. Remember we are trying to create a beneficial and useful abundance, not a malignant, or useless excess. As such, this abundance needs to be one of positive diversity in all areas of your life. You can plant your entire yard with potatoes, but, after a very short while everyone in your family will be sick of potatoes. Massive manicured grass is fine, if it is in the pasture and is being manicured by horses, or sheep who use it for food. Excessive manicured grass lawns only create an excess of work, expense, and environmental damage.
Ask yourself what plants create all types of abundance and are good for neighboring ecosystems? Although you may be able to sell some of your harvest for extra cash, that should not be the goal of edible landscaping. If you wish to earn a living producing food there is the option called Earth-Friendly Agricultural, which is a profession, and subject unto itself. You may be able to become more self-sufficient through edible landscaping, or spend less on food, thus creating more abundance in other areas of your life. However, I do not know of anyone who can become completely self-sufficient for their entire life. Even when Humans were hunter-gathers, we needed help from, or relied on trade with, others.
More Leisure, Less Work, Less Expense!
You may think gardening takes up too much time, or costs too much. Some types of gardening are expensive and do take up time. Some of you may already be slaves to those types of gardens, in the form of repetitive and expensive yard work. Edible Landscaping, if properly planned, can actually reduce yard work and expenses. If you have one of those large overly manicured "golf-course" lawns, at least one member of the family is going to spend a considerable amount of time on a fuel guzzling lawn tractor, which, sometimes may seem fun, at other times is tedious and very costly in terms of gasoline. That fuel, and your money, could be better spent on a family road trip, instead of going around and round in circles. If you pay a lawn service to do your yard work you still have an expense that may keep you at work and away from spending time on an actual golf course.
No matter if your yard is large or small, well planned landscaping can replace the tedium of weeding, with the joy of harvest, which has become my personal mantra in the garden. As you practice edible landscaping you will begin to understand the principles and benefits of layering in your garden. Since your harvest is meant for personal use, rather than as an income, segregation of plantings is not as big of a concern. Many plants can be planted in a smaller space and beneficial plants can be used to replace weeds. This cuts down on time spent weeding and money spent on dangerous herbicides. You will still have weeds but not as many of them. Remember, two objects cannot occupy the same space and if you replace nuisance weeds with carefully selected beneficial plants that have weedy tendencies, your yard work, and expense is greatly reduced.
Turn Boring High Maintenance Yards to Diverse Carefree Wonderlands
After you have gone beyond thinking that an excessive manicured grass is status symbol, or that you will become super wealthy, or completely self-sufficient, growing food on any property, then you can begin an effective edible landscaping plan. This will transform your property into a showplace and provide some of your family's food. In your plan you need to keep firmly in mind what space you have to work with.
You can still provide your family with outdoor living spaces like swimming pools, play areas, and patios. A Children's play area can be made more "Child Friendly" and "Earth-Friendly" by changing from plain grass to impact reducing materials on the ground around it. If you have more land, you may consider building a tennis court. If you have a golfer in the family try making a small putting green with Astroturf. Sure Astroturf is a synthetic product, but, can be justified by using it to replace the need to use fuel to mow that area for many years. Besides, you may even find a source of recycled Astroturf. If your family really likes volleyball consider making a proper volleyball area complete with sand, which could be used for Badminton as well. Such areas can turn time consuming and boring lawn space into inviting "garden rooms" if planned properly.
These "garden rooms" should be defined by surrounding them with plants that are also edible and lower maintenance to make your familys' life richer and more hassle-free. Remember proper landscaping is about enhancing your life not sacrifice. Although your initial investment in creating these spaces for your family might appear costly in either time or finances, the long term rewards will reduce your family's spending and free up more of their time. When you need to spend less, you can also spend less time at work.
Planting for The Future
Just as setting up a good retirement plan can help us gain more freedom in our future, so too can implementing well planned edible landscaping on our property. Edible landscaping can greatly reduce yard work and free up money we once spent on food, or yard expenses. We can now save this money or use for other things. The time saved can be used for other things that help us get further ahead in life or strengthen our relationships. Learning to play an instrument as you have always dreamed or taking a loved one to a special place they have always wanted to go. The freedom to go horseback riding with the kids instead of riding lawn mower by yourself. As having diversity in a stock portfolio can create wealth for our family, diversity in edible landscaping can help us achieve abundance in all areas of our lives.
