I'm moving into a new home and I really dislike mowing the yard, but I love gardening! My plan is to fill the front yard, which receives the most sunlight, with raised garden beds and put mulch in between them. However, I realized these beds will need watering, so I'm thinking about collecting rainwater in drums and putting goldfish in them to manage mosquito populations. Does this plan make sense?
3 Answers
I don’t know about using goldfish, but your idea sounds good! I did something similar after buying my house for the second time. I also filled my sunny front yard with raised beds. By the way, I think lawns can be a waste of space if you don't have kids or pets. I started with a few trees and some test beds, and I've just kept expanding since then. One thing I tried was using mulch between the beds, but I ended up going back to just having grass between them since it looked nicer overall, though maintaining the grass is more work!
Using rain barrels or IBC totes is a solid choice for collecting rainwater! Just make sure they're properly screened so they're mosquito-proof. If you want to go the fish route for extra nutrients in your garden, that's cool too, but check local regulations! If you have an HOA, they might not be supportive of gardens in the front, and even if you don't, your neighbors might have opinions. Just a heads up!
Instead of putting fish in the rain barrels, you might want to grab some mosquito dunks. They’re very effective at controlling mosquitoes without needing fish.
I actually covered the space with slate, which has worked pretty well. Occasionally some weeds pop up, but they're easy to remove.