Garden play.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
~Proverb

PLANetizen recently posted an article by Julia Galef called Making a 'Playborhood' about "Mike Lanza, an entrepreneur in Palo Alto, CA,...[who is] using his front yard as a place for his friends and neighbors to gather and play." Basically he wants to bring back the kid-friendly, neighborly communities of the past that disappeared about the same time front porches, followed closely by family dinners, did. He wants his kids to experience the outdoors, community and play with the same kind of freedom that he enjoyed as a kid. When I read his manifesto, it turns out Mike Lanza is fondly recalling his childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! Well, whaddaya know?


When we lived in RI, we had a bungalow with a front porch (pictured above just before we sold the house). I grew all sorts of perennials in my front yard, and when I'd be out there planting, watering and weeding, I really got to know my neighbors and my neighbors' kids. Pretty soon I was like an Auntie to all the neighborhood children—kids would scrape up their knees and come to me for a band-aid; one teenage girl would stop by on her way home from school to cry about her boyfriend troubles; little girls would ask me for sunflowers seeds to plant in their yards; and two adolescent boys would come by to help me with yard work in exchange for some money for their video game savings fund. In a short amount of time, I knew everyone on the block, and I was the one introducing the older neighbors to one another even though they had lived on the same street for decades and decades. And when I thought about what the difference was between me—a new neighbor and the life-timers, it was because we had a front porch and I gardened, and they did not.


We now live back in Pittsburgh, and we so wanted a bungalow with a front porch, but alas, it was not meant to be. We ended up buying a 1940s Mock-Tudor (pictured above on move-in day). It lacks a porch but has a small front stoop which was in dreadful condition and has been under construction for last six months (winter and a zoning regulations can sure slow a process down). The front yard is south-facing and is the only place that gets adequate sunlight, so it is by default the place of my vegetable and herb garden. I had always envisioned a backyard garden, but since I have decided to go ahead with my front yard food garden, I have already experienced the neighborhood benefits of gardening "in public" as I am getting the pleasure of meeting all sorts of lively characters and gentle souls. Our yard and projects have become sort of a conversation topic amongst the old-timers who frequently stop by to ask me what I am planting this year, how much they enjoyed last year's tomatoes, and when on earth are we going to finish the front stoop?

I am not sure I want to turn our front yard into a Playborhood complete with jungle gym and trampoline per se. But the article about Mike Lanza did get me thinking about how we can make our front yard more welcoming. The stoop will already be an improvement with wider landing, sturdier railings, shallower risers, and deeper treads. Even the walkway (now permeable with a brick herringbone pattern) is wider to allow two people to walk side-by-side or make it easier for a visitor in a wheelchair or walker, though unfortunately my grandmother died before she could benefit from this. But I have been acutely aware that when our 92 and 87 year old neighbors come to visit us, there isn't a place for them to sit. Kids can park themselves on the stoop, but Russ and Helen deserve a proper bench, and preferably one that is shaded. Perhaps instead of tepees, my sweet peas, cukes and Italian tree tomatoes can grow up a lil arbor. Wouldn't this be dreamy? Haha.

And perhaps the best place for the raspberry bushes and long-stemmed daisies is near the public sidewalk so passers-by can nibble on some sweetness or pick a flower to put behind their ear or the lapel hole of their jacket. I should take the time to make labels for my plants even though I know what they are, so that others enjoying the garden can identify them. And maybe there should be a bike rack of some kind and a lil spot to leash a dog. And I would love to make some sidewalk chalk paintings and quotes-of-the-day.

That's my vision now. Not just a food garden with pollinator flowers for my personal enjoyment or to be viewed from a distance or an interior window, but an interactive space for sittin' with our neighbors, chattin' and sippin' lemonade.

Perhaps, 'Playborhood' gardening is the ultimate organic gardening because it takes into consideration the health and happiness of all the creatures in the ecosystem, including the human creatures.

Through the PLANetizen article, I also found these websites that are really worthwhile, so the links are included here:
Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
Making Places (the PPS blog)