That perfect manicured lawn in front of many homes requires a lot of work, pesticides and water.
This home green is one of the thirstiest things besides corn.
A fellow named Fritz Haeg turns front yards into Edible Estates .
He came to my attention thank to Turf Wars (by Simon Busch, FT Week End).
It starts with a humorous quote from Stan Cox, one of the participants in the project:
"Say, your yard’s looking mighty fine lately, Jim,” Stan Cox imagines commenting to a neighbour. “Everything OK with your wife?” The amount of energy devoted to lawn care in the US, he believes, is frequently in inverse proportion to the amount devoted to the bedroom."
The article also mentions Michael Pollan from his book In Defense of Food as saying that "lawns have “as much to do with gardening as floor waxing or road-paving. Gardening [is] a subtle process of give and take with the landscape.” Lawns, he says, are “nature under culture’s boot”. When Pollan mowed his own he “ruled a totalitarian landscape”. “Lawns,” he concludes, “are a form of television.”
A book Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn (Metropolis Books, cover is my illustration) documents the project which is not merely planting fruits and vegetables in front of your house but arranging the plots in a way that both makes sense and is visually appealing.
In Turning lawns into salad bars, Andrea F. Spiegel (Baltimore Sun) showcases one of the participants, Clarence Ridgley "whose red brick and clapboard home is now behind fruit trees, tomato cages, berry bushes and vegetables".
Makes you stand out from the crowd and in these days of high food prices might help your budget, good for the Consumed to Thrifty.
Outdoors for Green Day #32
Related: Basa, Dab or Vietnamese Clams, Sustainable Fish from A to Z
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