Our homeowner, Warren, grew up on a rural farm in southern Louisiana, next to a village with no grocery store. His family grew their own vegetables, grain, fruits and nuts, and fished, hunted and raised all of their meat. For the past 20 years, Warren and his wife Donna have lived and raised much of their own vegetables and fruits on a nearly-quarter-acre lot in Forster Ranch. It is truly an urban farm.

Their house and property are in a rustic SoCal French cottage style, with the emphasis on an edible landscape and vegetable gardens. In the garden bed along the front sidewalk you’ll find strawberries and a row of thornless blackberries. Directly in back of them you’ll find several rows of corn. Yes, we’re still in the city. Along the south side of the front yard are tropical fruit trees including avocado, mango, Jamaican allspice, fig, and banana. As you go through the left front gate and past the compost bins, you’ll enter an enclosed kitchen garden. The couple enjoys collecting bromeliads. Their collection is displayed along the back yard south fence alongside Warren’s “Pepper Experiment” which is beginning its fourth year. Continuing towards the rear along the south side, there is an acidic soil garden with fruiting blueberries next to a vine-covered arbor that frames the kitchen garden.

The rear of the property adjoins association-owned open space, with a vista of native plants, acacia, and gracile eucalyptus. The rear garden beds are set up for easy cultivation and crop rotation. In the shaded back south corner of the yard a mushroom patch in thriving under a mulberry tree. And, 3 tiers of beds on the Northwest back corner hill are topped by fruiting olives.

The north fence bed is devoted to a series of productive fruit trees which runs the length of the lot—from the rear to the street, supplying fruit almost year-round. Enjoy the photos of this most interesting urban farm. Perhaps you’ll gain some knowledge and inspiration to begin your own urban farm.

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Thank you Warren and Donna! The San Clemente Garden Club appreciates all of the time and energy you put into your garden in preparation for the 2022 Garden Tour. Your garden provided an educational opportunity for the attendees of the event and provided something new and interesting for our returning attendees.