I'm thinking of growing veggies in my parking strip

[Wasatch Rebel]

I'm really thinking of doing this. I don't want to grow tomatoes, or squash as this would be too much of a temptation for kids and vagrants walking down the street to throw into the street. So, I'm thinking of corn. It's a great location with plenty of sun. I may look like an idiot for doing it, but I don't care about that. What do you think?

[Highlandsunrise]

Go for it, kid. Our daughter grew some vegetables in her front flower bed last year. They were healthy and looked nice. She had a row of onions as a border. The neighbors complimented them on their flower bed. They didn't realize what they were looking at. This year she is going to surround each marigold with carrots. Ferns??

Definitely a temptation for passing kids. We planted strawberries in our parking strip once. The kids kept them picked and eaten.

Our friends live across the street from a school. They have fenced their garden because things were walking away.

Good luck

[Earthling]

I wouldn't do corn personally - too tall and I am sure it will also walk away. I would plant something you need to "dig" up to get to i.e. potatoes, carrots (which are also decorative). beets, etc.. Maybe throw in some lettuce varieties & spinach that are pretty too - you need a knife to harvest those so I don't think they will walk away as easily as I can't see a kid picking a dirty spinach leaf and tossing it in their mouth. Beans could also be good - someone might pick a few but the time it would take to get them all would be prohibitive as they could get caught. Avoid strawberries & peas - too easy to pick & eat as you go.

[signseeker]

I think the "underground" veggies would be a good idea. And don't plant them in rows. I don't know, I just think it's sort of a "look at me!" thing if you go plant corn out there. Don't want people looking at me, anyway.

[Wasatch Rebel]

Yeah, I think I'm going to take that advice, but then again, it's the only place in my yard that will probably grow corn any more--I've just got too much partial shade, and the Church is to blame for a lot of it. A few years back, our stake let a young man do his Eagle project by planting poplars along the west side of the church property, which happens to be on the other side of the fence from our house. For the last 3-4 years, we have had trouble growing anything along the south side of our house which gets shaded by these poplars until maybe 11 am and then has some filtered sun for a few hours because our own trees have grown too. Maybe the area gets 5 hours of sun tops.

[hmscarrie]

Too bad about the poplars, but IIRC they are good for coppicing, which means they'll grow back from the roots if you cut them down--good for renewable fuel. For somebody. Anyway...just a thought about the parking strip: some neighborhoods are really Zoney about what gets planted there. The zoning laws will say what you can put there. Most of the time people overlook them, but I would think something like corn would get attention...you might want to check your local zoning laws. Not that I'm a big fan of such laws, but there they are, do with them what you will. I love the idea of planting root veggies there.