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County Collection

Descanso Gardens

Edible Estates

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Project Description

In 2005 in Salina, Kansas, artist Fritz Haeg initiated his Edible Estates project. Edible Estates demonstrates how urban and suburban front lawns can be transformed from just a few decorative plants, such as grass, into growing dozens of herb, vegetable, and fruit producing gardens.

For each of his previous Edible Estates projects, Haeg worked with families to design and install a landscape in their front yard. He then provided them with support and input as they tended to their “Estate” and harvested their plants over the course of a year. Since 2005 he has designed six Estates at homes in England and the United States, including one in Lakewood, California. In January 2008, Descanso Gardens invited Haeg to create an Edible Estates demonstration garden for their “center circle” area near the Gardens’ main entrance. The area has diameters of 35’ x 70’ and was divided into two halves: a traditional grass lawn and an Edible Estates lawn. In the center of the circle was a house structure which featured information about American lawns as well as a running tally of the water usage, fertilizer amounts, and biological diversity of each side of the demonstration lawn. This allowed visitors to consider suburban lawns in a new way and to explore front yard possibilities. The demonstration garden was on view from March through November 2008.

About the Artist

Fritz Haeg was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1969 and attended the Istituto Universitario d’Architettura di Venezia and Carnegie Mellon University.  He established his studio in New York City in 1995, but later relocated to Los Angeles.  He is both an architect and an artist and has been a faculty member at the Parsons School of Design, Art Center College of Design, the USC School of Architecture, and the USC Roski School of Fine Arts.  Haeg has been included in exhibitions at the Tate Modern, Mass MOCA, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, and the MAK Center in Los Angeles.  His book, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, was published by Metropolis Books in 2008.