RESOURCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Stephen Albert, The Kitchen Garden Grower's Guide: A Practical Vegetable and Herb Garden Encyclopedia, BookSurge, 2008
Liberty Hyde Bailey, Garden-Making: Suggestions for the Utilizing of Home Grounds, 1898; reprint, Obscure Press, 2009
Jeff Ball, The Self-Sufficient Suburban Garden, Rodale, 1984
Mel Bartholomew, Square Foot Gardening, Rodale, 1981
Fern Marchall Bradley and Barbara W. Ellis, eds., Rodale’s All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Resource for Every Gardener, Rodale, 1992 (2nd rev. ed.)
Norris Brenzel, Sunset: Western Garden, Sunset Books, 2001 (7th ed., rev. and updated)
Rita Buchanan, The Shaker Herb and Garden Book, Houghton Mifflin, 1996
Eliot Coleman, The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener, Chelsea Green, 1995 (2nd ed., rev. and expanded)
François Couplan, Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America, Keats, 1998
Rosalind Creasy, Edible Landscaping, Sierra Club Books, 2010
Tanya L. K. Denckla, The Gardener’s A–Z Guide to Growing Organic Food, Storey, 2004 (rev. ed.)
Heather C. Flores, Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community, Chelsea Green, 2006
Fred Hagy, Landscaping with Fruits and Vegetables, Overlook, 2001
John Jeavons, How to Grow More Vegetables (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine, Ten Speed Press, 2006 (7th ed.)
Kelly Kindscher, Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie, University Press of Kansas, 1987
Donald R. Kirk, Wild Edible Plants of Western North America, Naturegraph, 1970
Robert Kourik, Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally, Permanent, 2005
Joy Larkom, Grow Your Own Vegetables, Frances Lincoln, 2002 (rev. ed.)
Stella Otto, The Backyard Orchardist: A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees in the Home Garden, Chelsea Green, 1995 (2nd rev. ed.)
Lee Reich, Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden, Timber Press, 2004 (2nd ed.)
Jan Riggenbach, Midwest Gardener’s Handbook: The What, Where, When, How, and Why of Gardening in the Midwest, Cool Springs Press, 1999
F. F. Rockwell, Home Vegetable Gardening: A Complete and Practical Guide to the Planting and Care of All Vegetables, Fruits, and Berries Worth Growing for Home Use, 1911; reprint, Forgotten Books, 2008
R. J. Ruppenthal, Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, Chelsea Green, 2008
John Seymour, New Complete Self-Sufficiency, Dorling Kindersley, 2003 (rev. ed.)
Rachel Snyder, Gardening in the Heartland, University Press of Kansas, 1992
Steve Solomon, Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, New Society Publishers, 2006
Ruth Stout, The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book, Bantam, 1971
Muriel Sweet, Common Edible and Useful Plants of the West, Naturegraph, 1976
Frances Tenenbaum, ed., Taylor’s Master Guide to Gardening, Houghton Mifflin, 2001
Roger Vick, Gardening: Plains and Upper Midwest, Fulcrum, 1991
Pat Welsh, Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide, Chronicle, 1999
Biodynamic Gardening and Permaculture
Graham Bell, The Permaculture Garden, Chelsea Green, 2008
Toby Hemenway, Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, Chelsea Green, 2001
David Holmgren, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability, Holmgren Design Services, 2002
Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay, Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual, Tagari, 1997
Wolf D. Storl, Culture and Horticulture: A Philosophy of Gardening, Biodynamic Literature, 1979
Patrick Whitefield, How to Make a Forest Garden, Permanent, 2002
Companion Planting and Seed Saving
Suzanne Ashworth and Kent Whealy, Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, Seed Savers Exchange, 2002 (2nd ed.)
Sally Jean Cunningham, Great Garden Companions: A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden, Rodale, 2000
Carol Deppe, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving, Chelsea Green, 2000 (2nd rev. ed.)
Louise Riotte, Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening, Storey, 1998 (2nd ed.)
Composting, Pruning, Pest Control, and Rainwater Harvesting
Mary Appelhof, Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System, Flower Press, 1997
Suzy Banks and Richard Heinichen, Rainwater Collection for the Mechanically Challenged, Tank Town, 2006
Steve Bradley, The Pruner’s Bible: A Step-by-Step Guide to Pruning Every Plant in Your Garden, Rodale, 2005
Barbara W. Ellis and Fern Marchall Bradley, eds., The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy without Chemicals, Rodale, 1996
Brad Lancaster, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape, Chelsea Green, 2006
Art Ludwig, Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choosing, Building, and Using Greywater Systems—Includes Branched Drains, Oasis Design, 2006 (5th rev. ed.)
Deborah L. Martin, The Rodale Book of Composting, Rodale, 1999 (rev. ed.)
Allan Shepherd, How to Make Soil and Save Earth, Centre for Alternative Technology, 2003
Kenneth Thompson, Compost: The Natural Way to Make Food for Your Garden, Dorling Kindersley, 2007
Food, Plants, and Ecology
Steven B. Carroll and Steven D. Salt, Ecology for Gardeners, Timber Press, 2004
Dorothy Crispo, The Story of Our Fruits and Vegetables, Devin-Adair, 1968
Wes Jackson, Becoming Native to This Place, Counterpoint, 1994
Wes Jackson and William Vitek, Rooted in the Land, Yale University Press, 1996
Sandor Ellix Katz, The Revolutions Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements, Chelsea Green, 2006
Sue Leaf, Potato City: Nature, History, and Community in the Age of Sprawl, Borealis, 2004
Katherine Lerza and Michael Jacobson, Food for People Not Profit: A Sourcebook on the Food Crisis, Ballantine, 1975
Marion Nestle, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, University of California Press, 2003
Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World, Random House, 2001
Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Penguin, 2006
William Woys Weaver, 100 Vegetables and Where They Came From, Algonquin, 2000
The History of the Lawn
Diana Balmori, F. Herbert Bormann, and Gordon T. Geballe, Redesigning the American Lawn: A Search for Environmental Harmony, Yale University Press, 2001 (2nd rev. ed.)
Ted Steinberg, American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, W. W. Norton, 2006
Georges Teyssot, ed., The American Lawn, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999
Urban Agriculture and Homesteading
John E. Bryan, Small World Vegetable Gardening, 101 Productions, 1977
Mary Lee Coe, Growing with Community Gardening, Countryman Press, 1978
Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City, Process, 2008
Abigail R. Gehring, ed., Homesteading: A Back-to-Basics Guide to Growing Your Own Food, Canning, Keeping Chickens, Generating Your Own Energy, Crafting, Herbal Medicine, and More, Skyhorse, 2009
Laura J. Lawson, City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America, University of California Press, 2005
Carleen Madigan, The Backyard Homestead, Storey, 2009
Margaret Morton and Diana Balmori, Transitory Gardens, Uprooted Lives, Yale University Press, 1995
Susan Naimark, ed., A Handbook of Community Gardening, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1982
Richard Reynolds, On Guerrilla Gardening: The Why, What, and How of Cultivating Neglected Public Space, Bloomsbury, 2008
David Tracey, Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, New Society, 2007
Andre Viljoen, ed., Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Agriculture for Sustainable Cities, Architectural Press, 2005
Piers Warren, How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency, Green Books, 2003
Harry Wiland and Dale Bell, Edens Lost and Found: How Ordinary Citizens Are Restoring Our Great American Cities, Chelsea Green, 2006
Peter Lamborn Wilson and Bill Weinberg, eds., Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in the City and the World, Autonomedia, 1999
Victory Gardens, Monticello, and the History of Home Edible Gardening
Amy Bentley, Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the Politics of Domesticity, University of Illinois Press, 1998
Susan Campbell, A History of Kitchen Gardening, Frances Lincoln, 2005
Peter J. Hatch, ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, University of North Carolina Press, 2001 (2nd ed.)
Angelo M. Pellegrini, The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts on Food and the Good Life, Modern Library, 2005
Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991
Victory Garden Guide (pamphlet), U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1948
TEXT FROM EDIBLE ESTATES: ATTACK ON THE FRONT LAWN (Metropolis Books, 2nd Ed., 2010)
STATISTICS
2,4-D is the most widely used herbicide in the world, 60 million pounds are used annually in the U.S.
-EPA Proprietary Data, 2000-2001 Pesticide Market Estimates
Studies have found that dogs whose owners use 2,4-D lawn products are twice as likely to develop canine malignant lymphoma.
- Hayes, T. et al. 1991."Case-control study of canine malignant lymphoma: positive association with
dog owner's use of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid herbicides". J National Cancer Inst. 83
Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 13 are probable carcinogens, 14 are linked with birth defects, 18 with reproductive effects, 20 with liver or kidney damage, 18 with neurotoxicity and 28 are irritants
- National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns
Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 17 are detected in groundwater, 23 have the ability to leach into drinking water sources, 24 are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms vital to our ecosystem, 11 are toxic to bees, and 16 are toxic to birds.
- National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns
Homeowners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops.
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
96 percent of all fish analyzed in major rivers and streams contained residues of one or more pesticides at detectable levels.
-United States Geological Survey
2,4-D, the pesticide in most Weed and Feed products, is a neurotoxicant and contains half the ingredients in Agent Orange.
- Extension Toxicology Network (ETN). 1996. Pesticide Information Profiles for 2,4-D.
lawn chemicals drift and are tracked indoors where they may remain in carpets and on surfaces for up to a year when not exposed to direct sunlight.
-Nishioka MG, et al. 1996. “Measuring lawn transport of lawn-applied herbicide acids from turf to home: Correlation of dislodgeable 2,4-D turf residues with carpet dust and carpet surface residues.” Environmental Science and Technology 30: 3313-3320.
North Americans now devote 40,000 square miles to lawns, more than we use for wheat, corn, or even tobacco.
- "The Lawn: North America's magnificent obsession' by Robert Fulford (Azure, July-August, 1998)
Americans spend $750 million a year on grass seed alone and more than $25 billion on do-it-yourself lawn and garden care
- from the exhibit at CCA, "The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life"
Hydrocarbons from mowers react with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight to produce ozone. Since lawn mowing occurs during the summer months, it exacerbates the already high levels of ground-level ozone present in the summer.
- Westerholm, Roger. Journal of Environmental Science and Technology. June 1, 2001
approximately 9% of some types of air pollutants nationwide come from lawn and garden equipment small engines. In metropolitan areas, the concentration of lawns causes this percentage to increase to 33%.
- EPA STUDY, reported in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, Westerholm, Roger. . June 1, 2001
1% - 2% of America’s food is locally grown
- estimate by Brian Halweil of the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organization / reported by Jim Robbins, Los Angeles Times Magazine, July 31, 2005 pg. 8-11, 34
the produce in the average American dinner is trucked 1,500 miles to get to the plate, up 22% in the past two decades
- according to a 2001 study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University / reported by Jim Robbins, Los Angeles Times Magazine, July 31, 2005 pg. 8-11, 34
485,000 truckloads of fresh fruit and vegetables leave California every year and travel 100 to 3,100 miles to reach their destinations
- Hagen, J.W., D. Minami, B. Mason, and W. Dunton. 1999. “California’s Produce Trucking Industry:Characteristics and Important Issues.” Center for Agricultural Business, California Agricultural Technol¬ogy Institute, California State University – Fresno.
6% - 12% of every dollar spent on food consumed in the home comes from transportation costs
- Rhodes, V. James. 1993. "The Agricultural Marketing System", 4th Edition. Scottsdale, Arizona: Gorsuch,Scarisbrick, Publishers.
in 1999 The food system was estimated to account for 16 percent of total U.S. energy consumption
- Environmental Protection Agency. 1999. “Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions 1990-1997
TEXT FROM EDIBLE ESTATES: ATTACK ON THE FRONT LAWN (Metropolis Books, 2nd Ed., 2010)
PRECEDENTS
The federal government encouraged Americans to plant Victory Gardens during World War Two. Young farmers were away at war, and food rations limited supplies of fresh produce. Front yards, empty lots and rooftops were converted to productive vegetable gardens. Read more about Victory Gardens here.
Similar gardens were started in other countries during wartime. In Russia these lawn gardens were called Dacha. In Germany Schrebergartens still exist in the ouskirts of large cities in places like abandoned train-yards. Gardens also exist in Burma, Japan, and Holland, where 50% of city dwellers have a garden of some kind.
Today in Los Angeles Christopher and Dolores Nyerges have created an urban homestead out of their suburban home. The Nyerges own chickens and a pig and grow crops in their normal sized back yard. Jules Dervaes, an urban farmer from the hills of Altadena, started a garden called Path to Freedom. He yielded over 6,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables last year. Another group, Fallen Fruit, who has deemed the city of Los Angeles a garden in and of itself, create maps of fruit trees and lead fruit hunts through the neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park. They discovered a Los Angeles city law that states that any fruit hanging over the sidewalk is public property. There are also a number of highly functional community gardens here in Los Angeles. The South Central Farm, located at 41st street and Alameda covers 14 acres and houses 360 individual plots. Hundreds of community members are fed by this large garden space. Another lovely garden is Wattles Farm located on Hollywood Boulevard. Many people only think of the Farmers Market on Farifax Avenue when they hear the word 'farm' in this city.
LINKS
San Jose Mercury News article on lawns