The Front Forty - Feeding Ourselves and our Neighborhood from a Former Lawn
For 15 years I had a lawn in my front yard and didn’t know why. I never stopped to look at it or sit in it - when people came over we ended up in the back. Nevertheless, I hired a gardener to mow the grass, keep it watered (along with the sidewalk) and well fertilized (along with the Bay). In my neighborhood, lawns were just something we did - maybe because no one wanted to be the first to change the uniformity - run the risk of de-valuing our properties.The one thing the front yard did have was sun. Sun, sun and more sun. For years I thought about turning it into a vegetable garden - but the expense, the design, the installation, the responsibility - blah, blah, blah.
But by last winter, my partner, Marilee, who designs sustainable gardens and produces an annual Green Gardens Tour, and I were so far into the green movement there was no turning back. Our light bulbs were compact fluorescents. We used cloth napkins instead of paper towels; figured out the cost of our carbon foot print and sent a donation to a wind farm; got rid of household chemicals; planted our backyard with plants that attracted good bugs who, in turn, controlled the bad bugs - and watched nature make a modest comeback. Along the way we bought a composter and a worm bin - turned our green waste into organic matter then realized we had nowhere to put it. We certainly weren’t going to waste it on the lawn! So last February, feeling dangerous, we tore up our front yard. We recycled great hunks of grass and what was left - hard, malnourished dirt - sat while we debated how best to design and use the space. For two months our neighbors thought we’d gone the way of white trash. There’s two hour parking on our street - we’ve all had our share of tickets. We even thought, “why not pave the whole yard over and be done with it?”
You could hear the neighborhood sigh with relief when word spread we were creating a vegetable/flower garden - with raised beds … very raised - our bodies doggedly merging with age. In April, we called a friend who is handy with a dump truck to haul away the dead dirt before the crabgrass could re-establish itself. Then we called a friend who is handy with a hammer and he put the raised beds together. By mid-May we’d filled our beds with fresh soil and organic matter (what a composter and a worm bin can do with leftovers - pure poetry!) and installed a drip irrigation system in the beds and along the perimeter of the garden so we only watered what needed water and eliminated run off.
I love growing vegetables from seed and had a whole thing going on the kitchen steps and soon found myself running out of space. Lucky for us, one of Marilee’s clients threw out two old windows - perfect for a cold frame right over a portion of the raised beds. And little by little zucchini, eggplant, watermelon, cucumber, cantaloupe, okra, peppers and tomatoes began to grow, attracting bees, ladybugs and butterflies. Before long dog walkers were stopping by: “What if somebody steals your food?” Hmmm … well, what if they do? Marilee and I decided, whenever possible, we’d plant for the neighborhood. We took an old teacart and attached it to the garden fence and spread the word, “When anything’s on it that’s edible, it’s there for the taking.”
Now, at the end of the day, Marilee and I sit on two Adirondack chairs under a beach umbrella that lives among the beets in one of the raised beds and wonder how many neighbors will be stopping by to trade tales and tomatoes - join us for a glass of wine or string beans fresh off the vine. When we started this venture we wanted to eat really locally grown food and use whatever water we were going to use wisely and well. In the process we created another living space that teams with the natural order of our planet while affording us spontaneous visits with the people who make up our funky, friendly, neighborhood. All feels, somehow, very … well … organic.
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Leigh Curran - Ecoist
Leigh Curran is the Founder/Artistic Director of The Virginia Avenue Project, a 15 year-old non-profit using long term, one-on-one arts mentoring to help children growing up under difficult circumstances think creatively and critically about what they want to do with their lives. The Virginia Avenue Project’s spring fundraiser is the very happening Green Gardens Tour designed to teach children and adults of all ages how to turn their gardens into sustainable, eco-friendly landscapes that team with the natural order of things. Leigh is a published author of three plays, various poems and a novel, and an actress with many stage and TV/Film credits.
Tags: community, edible garden, growing vegetables, lawn removal
April 29th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I loved finding this story here. I am one of the many neighbors who has benefitted from Leigh & Marilee’s gardens and I can tell you the impact has been huge. The feeling of community that this garden has inspired is monumental. In a city famous for anonymity and driving (”Nobody Walks in L.A.” anyone?), I’ve watched parents begin to take nightly walks with their children by L&M’s gardens to check on the progress of a favorite melon, or to marvel at the size of the enormous artichoke plant, and always to stop and chat with the proud, grinning garden gals in their adirondacks. In fact, my krusty old father-in-law was so inspired he delivered homemade eggnog to them in their garden on Xmas Eve. Best of all, they’ve inspired us to take action. I have started my own vegetable gardens and have begun a green renovation of my entire landscape - as have the neighbors across the street, and many others on our block. We’ve gotten to know our neighbors a little better, become aware of how our actions can impact others and basically fostered a feeling of community I’m proud to be a part of and have my children experience - all because L&M showed us how it’s done. Bravo, ladies. Bravo!