Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape. It was initiated by architect and artist Fritz Haeg on Independence Day, 2005, with the planting of the first regional prototype garden in the geographic center of the United States, Salina, Kansas. Since then three more prototype gardens have been created, in Lakewood, California; Maplewood, New Jersey and London, England. Edible Estates regional prototype gardens will ultimately be established in nine cities across the United States.
Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn documents the first four gardens with personal accounts written by the owners, garden plans and photographs illustrating the creation of the gardens--from ripping up the grass to harvesting a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs. Essays by Haeg, landscape architect Diana Balmori, garden and food writer Rosalind Creasy, author Michael Pollan and artist and writer Lesley Stern set the Edible Estates project in the context of larger issues concerning the environment, global food production and the imperative to generate a sense of community in our urban and suburban neighborhoods. This smart, affordable and well-designed book also includes reports and photographs from the owners of other edible front yards around the country, as well as helpful resources to guide you in making your own Edible Estate.

Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but not what I expected February 21, 2008
60 out of 64 found this review helpful

Honestly it was a bit of a let down for me. Nearly the first half of the book is dedicated to why lawns are bad and reads a bit like an attempt to convert the reader from front lawns to gardens. Since I already hate mowing my lawn, don't use chemicals or water it and have more ornamental front garden than lawn, it was preaching to the converted. To my thinking, people who use chemicals and yard services and water their lawns excessively aren't likely to become front yard organic vegetable gardeners. I was expecting more of a documentary on how the project yards were created and what resulted from them than what the author provided - more substance about the projects themselves. The publisher's description of the book presented a a nice idea but the end result was art and social commentary - which is fine although not terribly useful to me. I was also expecting a few more large pictures. The things that I did really like about the book were the design plans for the project gardens, addtional gardeners' reports and the tables in the back with planting dates for crops organized by USDA Hardiness Zone. I think that this would be a good book for people who have considered getting rid of their lawn but haven't for fear of public opinion as it does show a lot of public support, but they'll need to go to other resources to be successful in the garden.

5 out of 5 stars

"lawns all mown, some poisoned, all free of weeds, all free of cover..." - Lydia Davis March 31, 2008
26 out of 28 found this review helpful

Fritz Haeg himself issues a kind of disclaimer at the end of his preface to look up Rosalind Creasy's The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping if what you're looking for is a definitive how-to guide to creating an organic garden. I felt it necessary to counter the previous review with this point. I'm sure there are a few other resources for those already interested in permaculture (I can think of H.C. Flores' Food Not Lawns) and I do agree that "the end result [is] art and social commentary" (Edible Estates is infinitely more than just "fine" because of it). Making ecological use of otherwise superficial ground is not a new idea, but it is far too simplistic to look at this as a book on sustainable gardening. Edible Estates was not created to preach but rather present documentation of the development of an artist's project. From impulse to open end, Fritz Haeg offers a political poetics. There are beautifully written essays by some excellent contributors and reports from different zones across America by people who have independently made their own edible estates. Like Agnes Denes' Wheatfield, grown and harvested on a Manhattan landfill in 1982, the gardens Haeg facilitates become small "confrontations", green thresholds between the public and private. I also appreciate this work's attempt to undo a dominating aesthetic that has long developed from notions of wealth and excess. Edible Estates is a convergence of subversions. It questions the systems of containment and measurement that can be found in your very own produce aisle. It additionally is an argument for pluralism. It is an examination and celebration of the reverse side of the house and garden cross-stitch. It is a work for which I have the utmost reverence.

4 out of 5 stars

Vegetable Art May 5, 2008
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

I received this book for my birthday this weekend, and sat down and read it that afternoon. As a permaculture student and an artist, this book fit my approach just perfectly. There are many books that deal in nitty gritty details of why and how to grow your own food and reduce your consumption, etc., but I've long been frustrated at the few texts and individuals devoted to the PR necessary to communicate with those not already fanatical about the ideas of permaculture and home gardening. This book is a start. I would have liked to read about more of the planning and ideas behind the presentation of the gardens to the respective neighborhoods. I'm interested in ways of bridging the gap between those who are "green" and those who remain mainstream in their ideas about the environment. This book offers some examples of injecting new ideas into the mainstream manicured lawn set.

3 out of 5 stars

Not enough ideas for my own front yard June 16, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

My husband and I want to convert most of our front and back yard to fruit trees and gardens, as we have long thought that most people do not make use of their grass anyhow. Most of the book made the case for using property for food production, but the book was short on ideas for plants and layouts. The layout on the front cover is good, but there are a few such suggestions contained in the book. I would have liked a book full of ideas that I could use to help me plan my own edible estate.

2 out of 5 stars

no oomph August 26, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book reads more like a book report, or maybe a master's thesis than a full-blown book. You can get through it in an hour or two, and although it is an interesting read, it's not something you'll turn to again and again. Honestly, I haven't thought about it since I read through it weeks ago. Thankfully it's not as mind-numbingly verbose as Slow Food Nation, but it also doesn't have the depth of, say, a Pollan book.

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