Epic Yard Farm

Epic Yard Farm Permaculture inspired residential food forest. Always experimenting & building a balanced ecosystem. Property Size: 7,100 sq.ft. ft.

Epic Yard Farm (傳奇都市果菜園 - 自然農法)

Our goal is to dedicate majority of our water usage into growing edibles. We spent the first two years building front patio, sheet mulching to remove as much of the bermuda grass as possible and started planting some edible perennial plants and trees. Then, we removed all concrete and pool from our backyard to expand our food forest. So far, we manage to plant a pr

etty good diversity of edibles in our garden, without it looking like a farm. (0.16 acre or 5⁄32 acre)

House Size: 1,300 sq. Current Gardening Area Size: approx. 1,500 sq.ft.

Finally got a chance to clean up our Black Sphinx date palm and reveal all five beautiful fruit bunches hanging undernea...
06/20/2026

Finally got a chance to clean up our Black Sphinx date palm and reveal all five beautiful fruit bunches hanging underneath. We successfully pollinated them earlier this spring, and now comes the hard part… waiting patiently and protecting the fruit from birds and critters until they ripen in the fall.

I’ve grown extremely fond of our date palms over the years. They are surprisingly low-maintenance, provide wonderful tropical structure in the garden, and reward us with an abundant harvest of delicious dates. The only downside is remembering to watch out for those wicked spines when working around them! 😅

We simply feed ours with Tony’s Magic Mix Earths Original Organics, Nutrient+ from AZ Worm Farm Arizona Worm Farm, and a generous helping of compost, and they seem quite happy.

I think we might even have room for one more variety. 🤭 We already grow Black Sphinx and Barhi, so now I’m curious what else is worth adding.

Do you grow date palms? What varieties would you recommend that produce truly exceptional fruit and can rival some of the best dates available commercially?

Trying out a new fruit tree netting this year in hopes of finally harvesting some figs before the rats do.This is a 13’ ...
06/18/2026

Trying out a new fruit tree netting this year in hopes of finally harvesting some figs before the rats do.

This is a 13’ × 13’ fine-mesh net and is definitely oversized for our Tiger Panache fig tree, but the extra room makes it easy to drape over the entire canopy. I gathered the excess fabric underneath the tree and secured it around the trunk to close up the opening, which should make it much harder for rats to sneak inside.

Unlike traditional bird netting, this soft mesh shouldn’t tangle birds and is fine enough to help keep out many insects as well. Combined with some other rodent control efforts, I’m hopeful we might finally get to enjoy a decent harvest of these beautiful Tiger Panache figs this season.

We’ll see how long the netting lasts under the Arizona sun and whether it can outsmart our local fig thieves. 🤞🌿🩷

Let me know if you are interested to try this as well, I will DM the link to you.

Yesterday, our wonderful neighbors shared their amazing homegrown Asian eggplants, sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes, and ...
06/17/2026

Yesterday, our wonderful neighbors shared their amazing homegrown Asian eggplants, sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes, and figs with us.

For dinner, we made stir-fried eggplant with minced meat (肉末炒茄子) using their eggplants and peppers. The dish is traditionally made with ground pork, but I like to use ground turkey instead for a lighter twist. It was a hearty meal that paired perfectly with a nice bowl of white rice and the flavors of fresh summer vegetables.

We feel so lucky to have generous neighbors who share the bounty from their gardens with us. It’s a lovely reminder that growing food not only nourishes our bodies, but also cultivates friendships and community. 💚

We did not get to taste a single Galaxy peach this year… we came home from our trip to them eaten down to the stone (pit...
06/12/2026

We did not get to taste a single Galaxy peach this year… we came home from our trip to them eaten down to the stone (pit). Not the welcome home gift we liked. 😭

Superlicious™ Blackberry From Monrovia is ripening! Let’s see if we could keep some from the birds so we get a taste.
06/12/2026

Superlicious™ Blackberry From Monrovia is ripening! Let’s see if we could keep some from the birds so we get a taste.

“The garden waits for no one.”We just got back from a week-long camping trip exploring the beauty of western Colorado a...
06/07/2026

“The garden waits for no one.”

We just got back from a week-long camping trip exploring the beauty of western Colorado and, as always, the first thing we did was walk the garden.

Some things made us smile.

The passionfruit are finally coloring up. The Black Sphinx date palm is carrying one of its biggest crops yet. Chico jujubes are sizing up nicely, and the perennial flowers are putting on a show for the pollinators.

Some things… not so much.

We lost almost all of our peaches this year.

Between being gone 3 of the last 4 weeks and not having enough protection on the trees, the rats and birds got there first. Finding half-eaten peaches still hanging on the branches and scattered on the ground was a tough sight after months of watching the fruit develop.

That’s gardening though. Sometimes you get the harvest, and sometimes the wildlife reminds you that you’re not the only one excited about peach season.

Lesson learned. Next year we’ll be ready with better protection before travel season starts.

For now, we’ll celebrate what is still coming. Passionfruit, dates, jujubes, figs, and plenty more are on the way.

The garden always gives us another chance. 🌱

Been out of town for a couple of weeks and came home to find the local wildlife discovered our Tropic Snow white peaches...
05/28/2026

Been out of town for a couple of weeks and came home to find the local wildlife discovered our Tropic Snow white peaches before we could.

Looks like the rats or squirrels decided they were ripe enough already… forcing us to harvest earlier than normal this year.

Thankfully, Tropic Snow peaches continue to ripen pretty well indoors on the counter, so all is not lost. Still sweet, still juicy, just not quite tree-ripened perfection.

Gardening is a constant negotiation with nature sometimes. One year the challenge is late frost, another year it is birds, and this year apparently it is peach thieves. 🍑

05/21/2026

Quick how to Sprout TURMERIC and GINGER. Two of your stro...

Another photo dump… this time with what’s blooming at Epic Yard Farm 2.0 🌸The garden is shifting into that season where ...
04/29/2026

Another photo dump… this time with what’s blooming at Epic Yard Farm 2.0 🌸

The garden is shifting into that season where everything is trying to flower at once… and the pollinators are definitely taking notice.

Let’s see if you can name them all 👀

Some are loud and showy, others you’d miss if you weren’t paying attention… but every single one is feeding something.

That’s always the goal out here… stack blooms, keep something flowering year-round, and let the system do the rest. 😏

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Tempe, AZ
85281, 85282, 85283, 85284, 85285, 85287

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