Fritz Haeg Is A Total Badass
There are many things that I love the English for; The Sandwich being one of them and John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich.
Or Earl Grey tea. And we can thank Charles Grey (Second Earl), who was a British diplomat on a mission to China for this lovely blend.
And of course I love the English for
David Beckham and what he does with balls. He can bend them...Yeah.
However, what I'm not quite that fond of that we've imported from the English have been our lawns. It's not really that I dislike beautiful green lawns. It's that I dislike the amount of energy, water and chemicals that go into treating a present day American lawn.
THAT, I not only dislike, I...I...STRONGLY dislike it!
So, there. And why so STRONGLY do I dislike it you ask? Well: Grass Cutting Beats Driving in Making Air Pollution for one.
And then, add in the amount of water and Chem-lawns to eradicate weeds and other "pests", and then weed-whackers and leaf blowers...It just strikes me as not only ridiculous, but destructive and toxic.
Somewhere along the lines, I think that some people have forgotten that the "Environment" is not a separate entity from us. And it's truly more our home than the houses we construct and inhabit.
Growing up, I often thought that we should just let ivy, or some other ground cover fill in the lawn. Or better yet, just plant more trees.
We rarely really used our lawn. For Frisbee occasionally, or tossing the football. My family occasionally used to have a football game in the backyard on Thanksgiving Day. And I understand having a little bit of lawn for recreation.
I don't understand polluting in order to do so, though.
In the United Kingdom, they're one thing. And the climate there can certainly support them. But, when I see the amount of lawns out here in the West, where most of the climates are dry and desert-like, it's just ludicrous to me.
Well, anyway,
Fritz Haeg is a total badass because he's declared war on America's lawns. And he wants to replace them with "edible garden estates". Hence, his Edible Estates Gardenlab project.
And not only has it succeeded in people growing and enjoying their own organic food, it's bringing neighbors together in Salinas, Kansas, and Austin, Texas and Baltimore, Maryland and...It's creating community.
And yes, it's "Greener Than Grass".
Will and I look forward to the day when we have a house with a garden to grow our own food. We're in a condo for the moment and we have a patch of patio that measures about 2 feet by 2 feet and is just large enough for us to go out there to take a piss. It keeps the coyotes away. They like really small patios.
So, we're looking forward to one day having a little more space to grow some vegetables and have some fruit trees.
And I've already begun contemplating what type of scarecrow we might have.
I think that something like this would work. No?