A Vancouver family makes most of urban yard to grow fruits, vegetables

The Lafayette family — front to back, Ally, Max, Olga and David — maximize the space used for vegetables in their tight Hough neighborhood lot. (Photos by Steven Lane/The Columbian)

Max and Ally Lafayette tend to a flower bed at their home in west Vancouver’s Hough neighborhood.

Ally Lafayette pitches in to water a persimmon tree, part of the family’s effort to involve every member.

Max, Ally and Olga Lafayette handle a set of chickens the family recently acquired as a way of boosting the bounty of their urban garden.

When Olga Lafayette's parents come to visit from their home in Siberia, it's not the relatively tight urban lot that bothers them.

It's the lush green lawn.

"Here, when they come to visit, they say, 'Too much grass,'" Olga said. "They think we should plow up the whole front yard. 'That's why you have parks.'"

Olga favored her parents' approach. Her husband, David, and the couple's two kids resisted.

"It's all about balance," David said.

In the four years since the family moved into the Hough neighborhood home, they've reshaped the 7,500-square-foot lot to accommodate the wishes of everyone. In doing so, they've had to be creative in carving out play space for 8-year-old Max and 5-year-old Ally amid a prolific and pesticide-free garden.

The family offered six tips for others hoping to optimize a garden in a small space.

n Track the sun. Before positioning your garden, make sure you've selected a place that will get at least six hours of sunlight before it falls within the shadow of a house, fence or trees. By the same token, Olga added, it's important to understand the shadow that will be cast by any newly planted trees and shrubs when they mature several years into the future.

n Think small. Consider dwarf or semi-dwarf fruit trees to maximize space while still reaping a plentiful harvest. The Lafayette family has planted a semi-dwarf cherry tree that should grow only to 10 feet — providing ample space for the tree to spread out below the overhanging branches from a neighbor's tree.

An espaliered apple tree, named for the French word meaning "trellis," clings to a fence where it produces fruit from the cross-cuttings of six different kinds of apple.

n Think big. The couple estimated they reap hundreds of pounds of fruits and vegetables through the growing season.

Tomatoes and cucumbers are mainstays of the family's diet, David said. He swears he's harvested all the cucumbers one day, only to return the next to find new ones that have seemingly grown overnight. Olga's looking forward to picking ripe persimmons, which can cost $1 each at the grocery store.

They've interspersed a wide variety of fruit trees and shrubs throughout the property — blueberries, cherries, plums, figs, kiwi, red currents, black currents, strawberries and raspberries (red and yellow). Three 10-by-3-foot raised beds accommodate the bulk of the vegetables.

n Involve the family. Max and Ally add water and subtract weeds. In return, Olga said, the kids graze liberally on the resulting strawberries, raspberries and cherries. "That is their first stop before they even go into the house," she said.

The garden affords a valuable connection to nature in the center of a large city — an opportunity to nourish mind and body alike.

Getting everyone involved also frees up time to enjoy the urban lifestyle. The kids walk to nearby Hough Elementary School. The parents walk downtown to work. Coffee shops, ice cream and night life is available a few blocks away in the Uptown Village shopping district. The garden's great, but no one wants it to dominate their life.

"I don't want to be here working dusk to dawn," Olga said.

n Involve the neighbors. A grape vine hangs from a fence bordering the neighbor's driveway on the east edge of the garden, an encroachment the neighbor willingly tolerates in return for the free reign to pluck the fruit.

Which leads to the family's final recommendation.

n Share the bounty. "Nothing says 'You're special and I like you' as a casual gift of homegrown fruit, vegetables or flowers from the garden," Olga said.

The family emphasizes this point with a wooden bench David has constructed and placed along the sidewalk in front of the house. The bench provides a resting place for seniors strolling from a nearby apartment building, many of whom stop to ask about the burgeoning garden.

"What I want is everybody in the neighborhood to build eclectic benches everywhere," David said.