TreeHuggerTV - Edible Estates
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 12. 5.06
Did you know that the average lawn uses 88 gallons of water per day? This week TreeHuggerTV joins Fritz Haeg to find out more about his Edible Estates project. Fritz describes the lawns on the street outside people’s house as “a no man’s land, a kind of hostile territory where nobody is really welcome.” His idea is to transform these unused spaces into vegetable gardens. Fritz is concerned with the global issues of land use and food production, he says, “the ultimate goal is to have everyone that comes in contact with the project, in whatever way, to reconsider how they occupy their land.” Did you know that if lawns were a crop they would ran as fifth largest in the United States on the basis of area? With Edible Estates Fritz is demonstrating that one person can make a public gesture of producing food in the most local way possible, on your own front lawn. What if keeping up with the Joneses meant you had a better tomato bush or a bigger plum tree? We hope the Edible Estates example will grow.
If you've got green fingers and want to dig deep into the earthy TreeHugger archives you can pick-up some handy eco-friendly gardening tips about NaturaLawns of America, Beyond Pesticides, and Organic Lawn Care. There's also John's series of posts about Victory gardens, and the THTV' Urban Homestead epsiode about the amazing Dervaes family garden, a 1/5 acre city lot in Pasadena, CA. If that isn't enough you can read the interview with Joe Polaischer about his Permaculture Garden in New Zealand.
In other THTV news - Simran Sethi of THTV will be appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show this afternoon. We hope all of you get to see Simran and Oprah discussing ways to green your Christmas.
We hope you are all enjoying the easy access THTV screens at the top of every TreeHugger page. Just so everyone can choose their favourite format here are a number of other ways you can watch THTV: Subscribe to our weekly podcast from iTunes, so that you receive a new episode every week without any effort at all! You can also use the TreeHugger XML feed to subscribe. Or you can visit BlipTV, You Tube and Google Video. Last, but definitely not least, iTunes and Quicktime users, here are your links: iTunes MOV – Don’t forget to check it out!
Of course it's a great idea (if I only had a lawn..).
>>"What if keeping up with the Joneses meant you had a better tomato bush or a bigger plum tree? We hope the Edible Estates example will grow"
OR if 'keeping up with the Joneses' meant I made onions and they made tomatos and we traded.. that would be fun (oh, if I only had a lawn..)
unfortunately you can't grow big macs in a garden, so i doubt many people would be enthusiastic.
In my small 150 sq ft garden i grow more vegetables than 3 people can realistically consume. If everyone did this, farmers would be out of business. But like i said, the majority of people don't like vegetables anyway.
This'll be great when our lawns are overrun by pestilence- and disease-carrying rats and rabbits that feast on our front-lawn food!
What about tresspassers contaminating your organic front-yard crops? Or stealing them?
I keep my herbs and veggies in my backyard.
I think a desert or meadow/wild/local approach to front-yards would be better. Use of ground-covers that are not water-hogs. etc.
I've been thinking about this kind of thing for some time now. Pepper plants and tomato plants were a feature of my front lawn design this year...
... and wouldn't it even be cooler if town governments thought this way too? Imagine baskets of hanging strawberries and streets lined with fruit trees? Instead of just petunias and poplars?
Hey, just wanted to say i enjoy the treehuggertv! ch ch ch
At first read, I thought that this would just be so not pleasing.
I think it looks for much more pleasing, plus it has functionality.
Ohhh, maybe I will buy a home. Or just try to get my family to do this.
Looks great!
Greenjablonky has a point! My uncle in California had the most delightful plum tree on his front lawn, but ended up needing to get rid of it because it attracted rats in incredibly alarming rates.
Is there any suggestions as to how to grow fruit trees/veggie plants without becoming rat/bug infested?
Wait a dang minute. WHAT? Fruit and veggies attracting rats? I grew up on a farm. Rats did not eat our fruits and veggies. I have a backyard garden. Ditto. Something else is attracting them. You know what? You stop using pesticides and you get some harmless garter snakes hanging out and you have no rats. We have become afraid of the very world we live in.
Check out the Dervees (sp?)at www.pathtofreedom.com and see how many rats they have.
ANYTHING in the front yard that is not stupid resource-wasting grass would be a vast improvement. I love these people and am going to grow something in my front yard just to make a point.
We are pestered by deer and can't grow a thing without investing $$$ in fencing to protect trees and plants= I'm still in mourning over the recent loss of a willow tree to deer. Our small family garden is behind fencing where we don't mind sharing with the occasional rabbit or squirrel...but those deer....they haunt me..........oh my willow.........