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Why It's Good:
What if your lawn was just one, big, beautiful vegetable and fruit garden? We’ve found a few edible landscapers who can help you convert your lawn so that you don't have to go further than your own front yard to get favorite farmers' market finds!
Why It's Green:
Between water use, chemical pesticides and weed killers, regular lawns are an eco-nightmare—as bad for the planet as they are for little bare feet and pets. (Nationwide, watering lawns uses more than 7 billion gallons of water each day.) With edible landscapers, drip irrigation is employed to conserve water, and composting to replenish soil nutrients. Edible landscapes are also organic: No synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, plant growth regulators, or genetically modified organisms are used to make these lawn-gardens (or garden-lawns).
Where To Get It:
Click on the above landscaping companies for information on consultations. Edible landscaping is a relatively new phenomenon burgeoning on the West coast, and just beginning to spread to other parts of the country. If you're interested and don’t have resources in your area, look for gardening consultants and see if they can be persuaded to do edible landscaping. And if you know of any edible landscapers in your area, please let us all know by posting a comment, below. Thank you!
What's Better Than a Lush Lawn?
Why are we so enamored of an emerald green, tightly clipped lawn? For all the work that goes into it, it doesn't do anything. You could buy an Astroturf carpet and be done with it, for all the good conventional lawns do (and we know they do a lot of bad). We think Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser said it best: "Instead of mowing your lawn, you should eat it." How great would it be if the onion you needed for your famous Thai tofu curry could just be picked off your front lawn-garden? Thanks to some progressive landscaping companies on the West Coast (we hope others will soon be available in the rest of the country), that tasty, amazing-looking, charming—and very eco—innovation can be had. Here are some of the companies that are at the forefront of this latest eco-trend called edible landscaping.—Allison McCarthy
Fritz Haeg
Fritz Haeg is the architect and artist who started this edible landscape movement in July 2005. His mission has always been to replace all or part of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive, edible alternative. He has created four gardens so far in Kansas, California, New Jersey, and London (think intricately manicured grounds that you would see at a botanical garden); projects in Texas and Maryland are planned for 2008. Haeg's book Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn (Schlosser's quote comes from the cover) illustrates his creations and provides firsthand accounts by their owners.
All Edibles
If you want a lawn that looks like a cool puzzle of giant, gorgeous window boxes—Tetris shapes, strictly optional—check out the work of this Berkeley, California-based dynamic duo. Sara Weihmann and Kirk Saunders have been creating edible gardens since 2006; All Edibles began as a final school presentation and launched into a full-time business after the success of their first few projects. Their goal is to make high-quality food accessible and local while maximizing the productivity of urban spaces.
Seattle Urban Farm Company
Whether you're looking for a lush, flowery forest or a serene Asian-inspired garden sprinkled with pebbles and unique stepping stones, Seattle Urban Farm Company can tailor the perfect design for your taste. Founded in January 2007 by Colin McCrate, this edible landscaping company offers a range of services from garden consultation and revitalization to installation and weekly maintenance. They're so excited about organic farming that they'll even teach you how to work your new produce patch.
Your Backyard Farmer
Dig way back into your childhood memories and visualize Mr. McGregor’s garden from Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit series. Your Backyard Farmer can recreate the quaint veggie patches from these tales, minus the cottontail bunnies. Whether you live in an urban, suburban, or rural location, this team will build a customized garden so that your fork will never be without fresh, organic fruits and vegetables again. Check out their website to see how Your Backyard Farmer puts a new spin on community-supported agriculture by bringing the farm straight to your home.
Homegrown
Visions of Martha Stewart's home garden pop into my head when I look at Homegrown's portfolio. Imagine organized flower troughs and perfectly trimmed hedges alongside well-kept clay pots and you'll get a sense of what Marta Teegan can design for you. This trained Master Gardener and chef started Homegrown, after years of working in politics and nonprofits, as a way of bringing the pleasures of organic produce to urban residents. Don't miss the delicious salad recipes on her site when you're taking a peek at her handy garden work. They're great examples of the tasty fruits of an edible landscaper's labor.
