I Support Food Not Lawn

For those who don’t know, I have a passion for growing my own food here.  In fact I am so in to growing our own food that I ripped up all our lawns and replaced them with garden beds and fruit trees.  The vast majority of our plants are edible which is by design.  I’m a big advocate for Food not Lawn!

Now, I had often wondered if this trend was catching on.  It didn’t seem to matter how far I walked around my neighbourhood, I couldn’t find anyone else with food growing in their front yard.  Maybe I’m not as trendsetting as I think I am.

Anyway, I was pleasantly delighted when I was contacted by Sue St Jean who lives in Rhode Island, USA, who also grows food in her 464 sq metre yard.  I caught up with her over the weekend and recorded a chat which will be published via tomorrow nights podcast episode.  It was really interesting to learn how she grows so much food in her small urban block and her front yard, and still manages to make it look really nice which gets the neighbours onboard and manages a big crop.

Then as luck (or fate) would have it, Christie, one of my Facebook followers and podcast listeners brought this story to my attention.  It was regarding food not lawn!

http://tedxinnovations.ted.com/2015/06/25/spotlight-tedx-talk-the-new-neighborhood-trend-lawns-made-of-food/

It’s about Tim Rinne who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA, who was very worried about climate change and food scarcity, so he decided to take action.  He ripped up his own lawn and started to grow food.  This had a massive ripple effect throughout the neighbourhood and many other families now grow their own food in their yards.

His story was so inspiring that I had to embed the TED talk into this post.

 So here’s to growing food not lawns and all the trailblazers throughout the suburbs who are trying to make a difference and set an example to show that it is easy growing food with a bit of practice.

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for my chat with Sue St Jean!