Call Me A Rebel For a Cure

Rumor has it that you can not grow food on your front lawn. That is not exactly true, it is the city owned front easement (that strip between the sidewalk and the street) that you may not farm on.

Gangsta Gardner, Ron Finley, has been grappling with the city of Los Angeles for two years now over his “Food Forest”, as are other front-scape gardeners.

Time for me to flex my rebellion muscles in my own neighborhood.  During the 9 years since my move out of the adjacent to the Angeles Crest forest home in Lake View Terrace and back to the much smaller city home in LA, I’ve neglected myself by not having the garden I’d become accustomed to.

With a local market at the end of our street, it seemed silly to recreate the old garden. After all, I don’t have very much land and not so many kids at home, I convinced myself.

“Growing your own food is like printing your own money,” Ron Finley reminds us. Somehow I had forgotten this major benefit of home gardening. Fortunately, I had not forgotten the health benefits as I set up container gardening last month.

I’ve also decided that my front yard needs to provide for my family and others. In the coming year, as budget allows, I will remove all the front hedging and replace it with dwarf citrus tress. The grass area that once had a 3 foot strip of flowers along the front of the property will welcome next spring and summer with kale and other salad vegetables to cure our body and souls.

Just to be sure there is no confusion between anyone who passes by and our great City of Angels, I’ll post a sign that reads “please help yourself”

Have a sustainable life.