EDIBLE ESTATES: Attack On The Front Lawn

[pinto]

EDIBLE ESTATES: ATTACK ON THE FRONT LAWN A Project by Fritz Haeg

description

The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape. It was initiated by architect and artist Fritz Haeg on Independence Day, 2005, with the planting of the first regional prototype garden in the geographic center of the United States, Salina, Kansas. Since then three more prototype gardens have been created, in Lakewood, California; Maplewood, New Jersey; and London, England. Edible Estates regional prototype gardens are planned for Austin, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland for 2008, and will ultimately be established in nine cities across the United States.

Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn documents the first four gardens with firsthand accounts written by the owners, garden plans, and photographs illustrating the creation of the gardens, from ripping up the grass to harvesting a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Essays by landscape architect Diana Balmori, garden and food writer Rosalind Creasy, Fritz Haeg, author Michael Pollan, and artist and writer Lesley Stern set the Edible Estates project in the context of larger issues concerning the environment, global food production, and generating a sense of community in our urban and suburban neighborhoods. The book also includes reports and photographs from the owners of other edible front yards around the country, and helpful resources to guide you in making your own Edible Estate.

praise

"The best ideas are usually the simplest ones. Fritz Haeg deserves a genius award for his wonderfully subversive plan. Instead of mowing your lawn, you should eat it." - Eric Schlosser, author, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

"Wherever I am, I'm always looking to see what's edible in the landscape. Every time I see the median strip in the street in front of Chez Panisse, I can't help but imagine it planted with waving rows of corn. Edible Estates describes wonderfully how a garden in front of every house can transform a neighborhood, sprouting the seeds not just of zucchini and tomatoes but of biodiversity, sustainability, and community." - Alice Waters, owner, Chez Panisse Restaurant

more at:

http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html

[Richard D]

1. It's a brilliant idea.

Could make neighborhoods neighborhoods again. But I wonder how long till agribusiness tries to make it illegal.

[kestrel91316]

2. Edible landscaping in the front yard WILL be pilfered. Trust me on this.

I speak from 8 years of frustrating personal experience.

Front yards should be dedicated to native ecosystem restoration by planting only native plants that can support native wildlife.

Back yards should have secure fencing and then they are appropriate for food production. Unless you like seeing all the products of your hard work vanish into thin air..........

[Vincardog]

6. The products of my garden mostly vanish into rabbits though on one occasion the organic lettuce

went to satiate the horse. Horses have no respect for fencing designed to keep out rabbits.

[NMDemDist2]

8. my only local CSA organic farmer has his whole front yard planted

and I assume his back yard too. his neighbors help keep an eye on it since when I stopped by to see what he offered they came out right away to see what I was up since he wasn't home.

depends on the neighborhood I imagine (and his house is in a very low income area)

the one thing I did notice about his front yard plots was that the plants out there weren't recognizable to the average garden thief. no beautiful tomatoes or chili peppers. it was cabbage and chard and herbs mostly from what I could see.

[kestrel91316]

10. I live in a decent neighborhood (homes $600-900,000 - post-war remodeled

crackerboxes) on the edge of a very expensive neighborhood. I lost count of how many time the neighborhood ladies came up my driveway, entered my fenced front yard, and pilfered my lemons, apples, oranges, etc. Sometimes they came into the back yard and pilfered tomatoes and such. And yes, I csught them in the act, and they would ask "Oh, are these YOURS?". I kid you not. Frickin' THIEVES, and unrepentant/unapologetic.

They all lived in my neighborhood, too. So they had yards and there was no reason they couldn't plant their own trees and gardens.

[NMDemDist2]

5. It's not 'illegal' but they already make it very expensive...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

But consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers’ markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect.

As a small organic vegetable producer in southern Minnesota, I know this because my efforts to expand production to meet regional demand have been severely hampered by the Agriculture Department’s commodity farm program. As I’ve looked into the politics behind those restrictions, I’ve come to understand that this is precisely the outcome that the program’s backers in California and Florida have in mind: they want to snuff out the local competition before it even gets started.

Last year, knowing that my own 100 acres wouldn’t be enough to meet demand, I rented 25 acres on two nearby corn farms. I plowed under the alfalfa hay that was established there, and planted watermelons, tomatoes and vegetables for natural-food stores and a community-supported agriculture program.

All went well until early July. That’s when the two landowners discovered that there was a problem with the local office of the Farm Service Administration, the Agriculture Department branch that runs the commodity farm program, and it was going to be expensive to fix.

read the whole saga... it's enough to make you scream!

[msongs]

3. we are replacing decorative shrubs with trees/shrubs that produce food nt

[pinto]

4. I'm redoing mine, as well. Pretty small, but big enough for lettuces, some herbs/greens,

a couple of tomatoes, a few chili peppers, a cuke on a trellis against the house, and what ever else I can fit.

(The house was tented for termite extermination a few weeks ago and all the plants in the ground out front were killed - so I figured what the heck. Dug out the remains, turned and amended the soil on Sunday.)

Already do some small stuff in pots out back - scallions and strawberries, a few herbs.

[NMDemDist2]

7. I have a motto here in the desert southwest

if it doesn't feed me or shade me, I don't give it water.

it's working so far :shrug:

I have a small veggie garden started, a plot ready to sow and am planning what plants can grow up my cyclone fencing next year when I have time to dig a trench and amend my very poor soil.

[blue sky at night]

9. Thanks for this most valuable

Post...I am on the "green team" at my Church, UCC btw. We are newly formed and working on different ideas for both implementation at the Church and for Advocacy to our congregation and the general public. I love the idea, we should all take a vow to stop spending money on grass.

[NNadir]

11. In my neigborhood, this is a great way to feed the deer.

Unless, of course, you surround your property with huge fences.

[fed-up]

12. espaliered fruit trees along the front would make a great fence nt

[diane in sf]

13. One of my friends made a great cheap fence by stringing wires from post to post

and planting native blackberries and then trumpet vines for flowers. No one would try to go over or through all those thorns.