Green community: A volunteer with Crop Swap LA harvesting lettuce at the La Salle microfarm in the View Park neighbourhood. Front yards transformed to tiny crop farms in Los Angeles provide vegetables to dozens of families and use a fraction of the water needed by grass. — Photos: ©2024 The New York Times Company
ON a corner lot in Leimert Park in dusty South Los Angeles, not far from Obama and Crenshaw boulevards, sits a curiosity that’s wildly different from all the neighbouring grassy yards. Abundant and lush, it looks like a mash-up between a country idyll and something dreamed up by Dr Seuss.
Tangles of grapes and blackberries grow in clusters along a trellis. Leafy rows of basil, sweet potatoes and mesclun spring from raised garden troughs. Most striking are corridors of elevated planters stacked four high, like multilevel bunk beds, filled with kale, cabbage, arugula, various lettuces, eggplants, tatsoi and collard greens.
