Announcing the OPEN CALL for the Aarhus community for EDIBLE ESTATES regional prototype garden #14, commissioned by THE AARHUS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

Deadline 19 April 2013

Edible Estates brings visible food production to cities, working with families around the world to create diverse organic productive pleasure gardens out their front door. It was initiated on Independence Day 2005 with the planting of the first garden in Salina, Kansas, the geographic center of the United States. Since then others have been planted in Budapest, Istanbul, Rome, Ridgefield (CT), Manhattan, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Austin, London, Maplewood (NJ), and Lakewood, (CA), plus Tel Aviv, Stockholm, and Minneapolis coming later this spring. Prototype garden locations are selected for maximum impact, visibility and influence, providing a vivid contrast with surrounding landscapes of suburban lawns and inner-city concrete.!

The design and planting list will be developed in collaboration with the owners. Materials and expenses for the first season of growing will be provided, but the household(s) commit to continuing the garden indefinitely. We will remove the entire front lawn and plant in May 2013 in partnership with students and local residents.

The garden will be documented through the first season in a journal by the owners and weekly photos to be featured in the expanded third edition of “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn” (Metropolis Books) to be released in 2014.

Here are the guidelines for the ideal Aarhus garden site:
- The RESIDENCE should be a typical or common local suburban living situation opening on to the front yard with windows or doors.
- Estate OWNERS should include at least one avid gardener, be enthusiastic about the project while aware of the amount of work it will involve, committed to continuing the garden as long as they are in the house, and eager to share stories about the project, including a regular journal through the first growing season.
- The FRONT LAWN should be flat, pesticide free, with good sun exposure, few large trees or major landscaping, and very visible from the street with regular traffic. It should ideally be surrounded by other front lawns where a disruption would be dramatic.

Email marie.markman@aarch.dk by April 19 with questions or submissions, which should include :

- Images of your street, front lawn, home and family


- A brief statement about why you are interested


- Your complete address, contact information and full name

LINKS

Edible Estates webpage
general info and guidelines
: http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/edibleestates/main.html

Walker Art Center interview with Fritz Haeg
: http://www.walkerart.org/magazine/2012/gardening-halfway-between-hope-and-doom-fritz

American Society of Landscape Architects interview with Fritz Haeg: http://dirt.asla.org/2010/09/22/interview-with-fritz-haeg-author-of-edible-estates-attack-on-the-front-lawn/

Time Magazine story: http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/08/everyday-radical.html

Edible Estates book, 2nd ed. (Metropolis Books): http://metropolisbooks.com/books/active-backlist/edible-estates/