Edible Estates – Bye Bye Lawn, Hello Dinner!
(Image courtesy of the Edible Estates website)
Came across a very interesting website last night called Edible Estates.
Here is a little blurb to give you some idea what they are all about:
Edible Estates is an attack on the American front lawn and everything it has come to represent.
Edible Estates reconciles issues of global food production and urbanized land use with the modest gesture of a domestic garden.
Edible Estates is an ongoing series of projects to replace the American front lawn with edible garden landscapes responsive to culture, climate, context and people.
Edible Estates is a practical food producing initiative, a place-responsive landscape design proposal, a scientific horticultural experiment, a conceptual land-art project, a defiant political statement, a community out-reach program and an act of radical gardening.
I love the bit about an “attack on the American front lawn, and everything it has come to represent!” – Priceless!! 
I also LOVE the overall idea behind this! I have thought about doing something similar with my current property, but may wait since we’re aiming to move in the next few years. (sadly, edible landscapes aren’t a huge selling point in the suburbs just yet!)
The Edible Estates project involves setting up demonstration gardens in 9 US cities over the next 3 years. An “adventurous family” in each city is encouraged to volunteer to have their lawns transformed into a masterpiece, similar to the one you see above (more on that location in a minute), but specifically designed for the particular climate etc of the region. This regional prototype garden then serves as an attraction and educational tool for other property owners in the area. Apparently there is even a little pamphlet box installed on the property so people can take literature and learn more!
The picture above is one of two (I think) demonstration gardens in Los Angeles. It is own by the Foti family – be sure to check out their blog: Foti Farm
For a VERY cool video all about setting up this location be sure to click >>HERE<<
These kinds of initiatives really hit home for me personally (and likely Steve as well)! Aside from being a passionate gardener and eco-conscious person myself, I strongly believe that there is SO much to be said for connecting people with nature -especially close to home. I think much of society tends to think of nature as being something outside of our city realm – something we all run off to visit on weekends during the summer when we are feeling adventurous, but not something to be welcomed onto our property (nor into our homes). Sure, lots of people enjoy dabbling in gardening and general landscaping, but usually only under highly controlled conditions. We love to be the master of our domains – nature is fine and dandy, so long as it knows who is boss!
Anyway, bottomline – we need to see more of this kind of initiative taking place in the cities! Imagine how much extra food could be produced if everyone had edible landscaping? Imagine how much more respect society as a whole would have for nature?
Technorati Tags: edible estates, gardenlab, foti farm, edible landscaping, vegetable gardening, green gardening, organic gardening
Written by Bentley on October 25th, 2006 with
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