Food Not Lawns Springfield

The State Journal-Register ran two articles last month about a Springfield chapter of Food Not Lawns forming. Kathryn Rem's article Be at one with your land ran on May 7. Another article, Local Food Not Lawns chapter focuses on homegrown produce, ran on May 28.

I own the book Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community by Heather Coburn Flores. I was interested in the topic, even though I rent, but before long I found myself very turned off by the tone and ideology of the book. I had expected practical advice about things like:

• how to determine whether there are local ordinances or covenants that would prevent you from turning your lawn into a garden
• how to discuss your plans with your neighbors and allay any concerns they might have
• how to choose plants and plan a garden that won't royally piss off the neighbors during those months when things are dormant and ugly
• how best to remove the sod from your lawn, and what to do with it
• special preparations that you might need to take to transform soil that has been regularly sprayed to support grass to one that works well for vegetables

Instead what the book was filled with was advice on how to mooch off of those around you so that you don't have to pay for anything. Seriously. Suggestions included:

• plant vegetables around the plants in front of stores, so that the store owners water and fertilize them, then you can come back later and harvest the vegetables
• find a space in a public park, dig it up, and plant yourself a garden there
• plant as close as possible to the fence separating your yard from your neighbor's yard, so that when your neighbor waters their lawn, your plants get some of the water
• poke around in the donation bins outside of charity thrift shops and steal anything that might be useful for your gardening

After reading that last bit, I was so disgusted I stopped reading the book. Perhaps the book eventually gets to the sort of practical stuff that I was interested in, but I didn't get that far. The author seemed more interested in revolution and living off of others' (involuntarily donated) efforts than in gardening.

It was particularly appalling because the book claims in its subtitle to be about community, which very much interests me. I don't think you can build community by stealing, tricking others, or just forcing yourself into places that aren't yours.

Community must be built on volunteering and trust, not on commandeering and trickery.

Anyway, that was the book. Presumably the local  group is better than that.

The local chapter, Food Not Lawns Springfield, held its first meeting on Wednesday, April 30, at 10:00 am in the Bicentennial Room on the 3rd floor of Lincoln Library. Its second meeting, a vermiculture workshop, was held on Wednesday, May 28, at 1:00 pm in Lincoln Library’s Carnegie Room South. Its next meeting, discussing fermentation, will be held on Friday, June 20, at 1:00 pm in Lincoln Library's Carnegie Room South.

Notice anything odd about those meeting dates and times? They're all during the week and during the day! Don't these people have jobs? (I ask that only somewhat facetiously.) Well, if they don't hold their meetings either in the evening or on weekends, I don't think I'll be able to make it to many of them.

However, they do have a Yahoo Group, with a quite active message board, which I've joined. Hopefully I'll find that they're not as radical as Heather Flores!

Comments

[Henny Penny]

I have been poking around this week looking for turning lawn into garden this week. I saw that book and I didn't order it because it didn't seem to be QUITE what I am looking for. Now I know it's not what I'm looking for. We have 3/4 acre, but live in a neighborhood that has a huge lawn culture. Saturday morning at 9 am all the riding mowers start up in sync. We built 6 raised beds for gardening this year, but I see so much potential in the remainder of the yard. Our homegrown strawberries and hops have so much flavor.

[Henny Penny]

I think Edible Estates is more what I'm looking for than lawns to food. http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main01.html
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7JgenD4fdw