By Christine Hill
Say goodbye to a high-maintenance, green lawn and hello to an edible, paradise garden with advice from leaders of Food Not Lawns.
Heather Flores, national founder of Food Not Lawns, will be in Kansas City as part of a three-day Lawn Liberation Workshop that is open to the public June 25-27. She will speak from 6 – 8 p.m. on Friday, June 26 at a free celebration for workshop participants and guests at the Quilombo Cultural Center, 3504 Woodland Ave., Kansas City, MO.
The Lawn Liberation Workshop is part of the Kansas City Food Not Lawns Edible Nation Tour events. The workshop serves as an introductory course in the Food Not Lawns edible landscaping movement, and it includes three sessions for $50, plus an additional $8 for the final tour.
The workshops include:
- Session 1: Flores will teach workshop participants the theories, goals and practices of permaculture design to help them replace standard chemically treated grass lawns with sustainable edible paradise gardens. 6:30 – 9:30 p.m., Thursday, June 25 Quilombo Cultural Center 3504 Woodland Ave, Kansas City, MO
- Session 2: This is a hands-on lawn eradication and installation of a small food source on urban lots on 34th Street and Troost Avenue. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Friday, June 26 1201 E 34th St., Kansas City, MO
- Session 3: A guided tour of the five-year-old Cultivate Kansas City Food Forest is part of the Urban Grown Farm and Garden Tour. The tour costs an additional $8 per person or $20 for a group. 1 – 3 p.m. Saturday, June 27 5425 Mastin Street, Merriam, KS
The Food Not Lawns movement began in 1999 with Flores and a group of “Food Not Bombs” activists in Eugene, OR. The organization started weekly groups, free permaculture design courses and annual seeds swaps. Soon, a new Food Not Lawns chapter began in Montreal, Canada. Since then, more than 50 chapters have sprouted across the United States. The movement inspired Flores to write the book Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community in 2006. During the 2015 Edible Nation Tour, Heather Flores will visit chapters across the country to give workshops, plant gardens and unite communities for the Food Not Lawns’ cause.