We've been helping a friend with a project for the past few weeks, and yesterday we received a great gift: the lemon bonus. That's lifetime rights to walk by and pluck a few organic lemons from her tree. We started thinking about how growing a fruits or vegetables in your yard can help create ties in a neighborhood.

This has made us reconsider our plans for the modest but sunny back yard at our new place. We're not after self-sufficiency any more, but, rather, abundance. Corn, perhaps? Zucchini? Watermelon?

We are total gardening novices and will need help choosing the plants, so stay tuned.

photo by woodsy via sxc.hu