A Veggie in the front of the bus????

OMG, what's that Veggie doing in the front of the bus?  Send that veggie to the back of the bus where it belongs.

OOPS, did I say bus?  I meant yard.

Gosh, have we Americans become prejudiced?  Can't have no stinkin' edibles in the front yard where somebody might see them.  Nor peeking  over the fence from the back yard.  Don't want no stinkin' veggies contaminating our pristine bowling lawns.  Can't have any veggies around to be a bad influence on our overweight poorly nourished children.

Do you have something against vegetables and fruit that you don't want to see them growing?  Do you think that a growing veggie has cooties that you might catch?

Or, do you just have a bad case of white trash trying to put on airs and pretensions?  After all,  green carpet grass bowling lawns were originally an affection of the very wealthy.

These days, if you are pouring money, chemicals, and equipment chasing the perfect green carpet lawn you are just environmentally criminal.  And wasting a lot of money.

Excuse me Mr & Mrs Prejudiced Against Edibles, but have you noticed that a green wave is flooding the country?  The world?  Have you given thoughts to sustainability of our limited resources?

Green Wave Facts:
- More and more cities are allowing hens [female chickens] in backyard suburban and urban neighborhoods.

- Think your HOA is going to refuse rain barrels in the front yard?  If you live in one of the extreme drought states think again - States are passing laws to protect environmentally conscious homeowners from HOA Nouveau Riche aires.

- Some water districts even offer rebates for rainwater catchment systems to encourage water conservation and stewardship

- Think your neighbor should be restricted from hanging diapers out to dry in the sunshine? In Maryland (and many other states - including Florida) it's a legal right of the sustainably conscious to use a clothesline.

- Don't want your eyes resting on no ugly solar panels?  So sorry.

- Texas is pretty progressive and sophisticated about rain water harvesting. 

- Michelle Obama has a veggie garden on the White House lawn.

Which edible in the garden should be chosen to walk in the footsteps of Rosa Parks?  To stand up and say 'I'm tired of being relegated to the back 40.  I am beautiful and appealing in my own right.  And, I bring nutrition, good health, and sustainability to the family who grows me.'

I'm growing my edibles with pride and with beauty.  In my front yard.  Edibles are not automatically Ugly Gardens.

In 1985, Steven Kenney of Kenmore, NY dared to scatter wildflower seed on his 15'x15' patch of front yard.  The nerve of him to have grass not like everybody else's grass.  He was convicted of a 'radical deviation from the norm', fined, harassed, and his garden was mowed down.  The prosecutor called it an issue of "community rights".  Does any of this sound like prejudicial harassment?  Gosh and golly, the needs of the white supremacy neighborhood to have their look-alike mowed an inch tall, fertilized and poisoned until the rivers run with contamination.

One of my friends in the computer is being harassed by her HOA.  Her corn grew taller than her 6' fence.  Her indeterminate tomatoes had the nerve to stick their heads over the fence also.  She can not have any edibles growing where they can be seen by the neighborhood.

Hello, I'm a veggie head and I'm not welcome out with the ornamental's.

Leaving out the 'radical deviation from the norm' and all that hocky cock.  Who defines edible or ornamental?  False Roselle is a very beautiful bush in the Hibiscus family.  Hibiscus are usually considered ornamental?  But Roselle is not only beautiful but edible.  Okra is also in the Hibiscus family.

You tell me, is this bush is an eyesore and a blight on the community?  Pretty thing isn't it?  And the okra is sure yummy in my tummy.

This past fall our local Casa Depot carried these pretty annual winter plants for color in the garden.  Proudly displayed in the annual ornamental section.  And they were very pretty,  as well good to eat.  Brite Lites Swiss Chard.

Loquats are some of the prettier small yard ornamental trees.  Oh yeah, they have edible fruit.  Ban them.  And ban Johnny Jump's Ups while you are at it.  And many other edibles that cross dress as ornamentals.

Personally, I think it is important to maintain curb appeal.  We want our home to have her good face on when somebody glances our way.  We have worked to weave our vegetables into the front yard with beauty, grace and good eats.  It certainly increases the challenge of growing food, and frankly costs a bit more.  The resulting eye candy and good eats is just ..... well, just wonderful.

I get a kick out of listening to people walk by and talk about our garden.  Some people don't realize it is a veggie bed.  Other people remark on how nice it looks with all the wildflowers mixed in (lettuce going to seed), some tell me our yard has never looked nicer.  My neighbor and I continue our 'is it a weed' or not friendly bickering.  Most of all, I like when the kids come by.  I like to pull a carrot from ground and hand it over.  This is how a carrot grows and looks.  Try it.  And watch the pure as a child look of awe and wonder.  I am thrilled beyond imagination when a child comes back and tells me they have talked their parents into letting them start a veggie garden.  Want to make a start on curing childhood obesity?  Get your kid a garden.  Yup, get closer to your food.  It might improve your health.  And wealth.

This is the year 2011.  We are decades and half a century away from time in the spotlight for Rosa Parks and Steven Kenney.  An 1100 sqft vegetable garden is growing on the White House Lawn.  You would think the get with the 'sustainable' green program would be widely accepted by now, would you not?  Hmm, just ask Alexis Morena about the City of Alhambra.  Or Julie Bass about Oak Park Michigan.  As a nation, we have contaminated most of our fresh water rivers and lakes, killed off our honey bees and are building mountains in places that never should have mountains of trash.

I would like to issue a challenge to the cities and towns of America.  Go forth and read your local ordinances.  Read them and reconcile them with what and where we are today.  Economics, Ecology, Entomology.  Go forth and serve the citizens of your town.  Educate them on how to reduce their global footprint.  How to live sustainably, save money, eat healthier.  How to harvest and use rainwater, how to build a compost bin and convert garbage to lovely compost for the yard.  How to cover $$$ bill soaking carpet grass with cardboard and mulch.  Teach right plant right place.

Learn, live, breathe and teach sustainability.  It will be our gift to Earth.


** Aug 8, 2011 - I originally wrote this a month past, and didn't post it.  Perhaps comparing a vegetable growing in public view with Rosa Parks was a bit much, even in hyperbole.  And it is a bit of tongue in cheek, but meant to cause the engaging of brain cells.  And imagine my dance of joy when I read this post:  Sustainable Living as Civil Disobediance.  I need to get out more often and see what folks around the world are thinking and saying.