Baltimore residents Clarence and Rudine Ridgely flaunted neighborhood custom and covered their gorgeous, lush front lawn in favor of a gorgeous, lush vegetable garden, as chronicled in Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, 2nd Edition, by Fritz Haeg (Bellerophon Publications/Metropolis Books, 2010). It’s a beautiful book about a wonderful series of projects around the country: turning lawns or unused space (sometimes considered unusable due to size or location) into food-producing gardens, and in the process changing people’s perceptions of what a front garden should be. I started my own vegetable garden this year. Having never had outdoor space of any sort before, I didn’t even realize that my small–12′ x 19′–townhouse front yard was supposed to be a lawn. I grew up in the fog belt of San Francisco. One year my father planted tomatoes. We had so little garden knowledge that we didn’t even realize they really did need sun to grow. I think I thought sun was optional, that it would make the plants better, if you wanted something really good, but that you’d get something even without sun. I realized my mistake this past spring when I tried to grow peas in our shady back yard in Baltimore. They sprouted, produced a few pods, and died from lack of sunlight as the overhanging tree’s leaves filled out. So I moved the whole project–tomato sprouts, basil, strawberries, and cucumber sprouts–to the front, where they thrived. No one complained because it looks better than the weeds that were there. Clarence Ridgely is remarkably tolerant about neighbors taking his produce, something I thought I wouldn’t be. I wanted to build a fence, but couldn’t afford the wrought iron required in my neighborhood. By mid-September, with five happily producing cherry tomato plants, I was begging people to come over to harvest some.
Edible Estates also includes several essays about the importance of vegetable gardening by Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma and Food Rules; Will Allen, who started the Milwaukee Urban Farm; Lesley Stern; and Rosalind Creasy, who grows heirloom vegetables. Fritz Haeg also writes about another important area garden: the White House vegetable garden, which he loves for its accessibility and inexpensive choices of what to grow. Any American family can grow an edible estate; the ones included in Edible Estates are inspiring local examples. Even in the fog belt of San Francisco, the lemon trees thrived.
Filed in: Baltimore natives, Baltimore setting.
Tags: Clarence Ridgely, Edible Estates, Rudine Ridgely
