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 - Vegetable ArtI received this book for my birthday this weekend, and sat down and read it that afternoon. As a permaculture student and an artist, this book fit my approach just perfectly. There are many books that deal in nitty gritty details of why and how to grow your own food and reduce your consumption, etc., but I've long been frustrated at the few texts and individuals devoted to the PR necessary to communicate with those not already fanatical about the ideas of permaculture and home gardening. This book is a start. I would have liked to read about more of the planning and ideas behind the presentation of the gardens to the respective neighborhoods. I'm interested in ways of bridging the gap between those who are "green" and those who remain mainstream in their ideas about the environment. This book offers some examples of injecting new ideas into the mainstream manicured lawn set. Rating:  - "lawns all mown, some poisoned, all free of weeds, all free of cover..." - Lydia DavisFritz Haeg himself issues a kind of disclaimer at the end of his preface to look up Rosalind Creasy's The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping if what you're looking for is a definitive how-to guide to creating an organic garden. I felt it necessary to counter the previous review with this point. I'm sure there are a few other resources for those already interested in permaculture (I can think of H.C. Flores' Food Not Lawns) and I do agree that "the end result [is] art and social commentary" (Edible Estates is infinitely more than just "fine" because of it). Making ecological use of otherwise superficial ground is not a new idea, but it is far too simplistic to look at this as a book on sustainable gardening. Edible Estates was not created to preach but rather present documentation of the development of an artist's project. From impulse to open end, Fritz Haeg offers a political poetics. There are beautifully written essays by some excellent contributors and reports from different zones across America by people who have independently made their own edible estates. Like Agnes Denes' Wheatfield, grown and harvested on a Manhattan landfill in 1982, the gardens Haeg facilitates become small "confrontations", green thresholds between the public and private. I also appreciate this work's attempt to undo a dominating aesthetic that has long developed from notions of wealth and excess. Edible Estates is a convergence of subversions. It questions the systems of containment and measurement that can be found in your very own produce aisle. It additionally is an argument for pluralism. It is an examination and celebration of the reverse side of the house and garden cross-stitch. It is a work for which I have the utmost reverence. Rating:  - Interesting but not what I expectedHonestly it was a bit of a let down for me. Nearly the first half of the book is dedicated to why lawns are bad and reads a bit like an attempt to convert the reader from front lawns to gardens. Since I already hate mowing my lawn, don't use chemicals or water it and have more ornamental front garden than lawn, it was preaching to the converted. To my thinking, people who use chemicals and yard services and water their lawns excessively aren't likely to become front yard organic vegetable gardeners. I was expecting more of a documentary on how the project yards were created and what resulted from them than what the author provided - more substance about the projects themselves. The publisher's description of the book presented a a nice idea but the end result was art and social commentary - which is fine although not terribly useful to me. I was also expecting a few more large pictures. The things that I did really like about the book were the design plans for the project gardens, addtional gardeners' reports and the tables in the back with planting dates for crops organized by USDA Hardiness Zone. I think that this would be a good book for people who have considered getting rid of their lawn but haven't for fear of public opinion as it does show a lot of public support, but they'll need to go to other resources to be successful in the garden.
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