Repurposing our yard

Thus far, this attempt at backyard agriculture is my grand experiment in Austin. I don't know how long it will last, but in an effort to make it sustainable (in the broadest sense of the word), I'm trying to invest some time to improve the efficiency and productivity for the next year or so. For example, I recently bought some drip irrigation pipe so I won't have to spend as much time watering in 2009 as I did last year. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'll spare you the economic and ethical philosophy behind any of it (blah, blah, blah) -- for now, let's just focus on the food.

Starting from the beginning . . .

These pictures are from February, when we first visited the house on our real estate hunt. When I stepped out back and saw this breath-taking view, I asked myself how could one man be so lucky to provide such a fertile paradise to his family? I suddenly felt a profound spiritual connection to the pioneers who originally settled the Pacific Northwest; it just didn't seem possible to me at the time -- beyond my greatest hopes and imagination -- that we could ever actually own a full quarter acre of such topographical brilliance . . . with all its varied color and wildlife, the unbelievably verdant vegetation . . . and of course, endless species of turf grass and crickets. A paean to biodiversity.