But he wants people to rethink that.
For Ridgley, 59, a plastic bottle manufacturing supervisor, the project has roots in his online noodling for blueberry bushes to add to his backyard garden. He came across a notice that Haeg and the museum were seeking a Baltimore lawn to replace. He gardens, eats his tomatoes off the vine, so why not?, he figured. His application was accepted.
On Friday, Haeg, Ridgley and volunteers laid weed blocker over the grass and began to create a landscape of circular raised beds and a bamboo teepee for pole beans. On Saturday, with the help of 20 volunteers of all ages, a garden emerged.
Volunteer Shannon Young, 42, a digital arts graduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, gently sculpted mulch around thumb-high lettuce plants, as Haeg watered the mounds. Nearby, a few of the Ridgleys' grandchildren helped tidy up as others pressed the last of the veggies into the soil and Clarence Ridgley gave mini-tours to neighbors. Taking a breather on the shady brick porch, Rudine Ridgley surveyed the scene six steps down, envisioning the yard in the height of season.
"I can be like the Barefoot Contessa," she said, referring to Ina Garten, the Food Network celebrity cook. "I can go out in my garden and get some herbs."
But right now the yard looks like blobs of dark brown with splotches of green poking out. Between the walkway and the driveway stand fruit trees and blueberry bushes, but unseen are edible flower seeds that will add color and texture as the days warm.
"This is going to be great. I can be out here reading my newspaper and eating figs," said Clarence Ridgley, whose next-door neighbor said his raspberries and grapes could grow into her fence.
"I'm going to have to change mine. I want mine to look as nice as his," mused Wilhelmina McNeil, 67, a retired dental assistant, as she looked from one side of her fence to the other.
The garden raised a few eyebrows. Some people were ready to follow suit, others not. Will the garden bring cute animals or undesirable ones? Will vandals trash it? How backbreaking is this replanting, anyway?
Out-front edibles are not for every neighborhood. That's a nonissue for Ridgley, president of his Callaway Garrison Improvement Association. It's a neighborhood group, not a regulation-intensive homeowners group where renegade landscaping would have to win approval. Haeg says that's fine for people who like that lifestyle. From his perspective, they can stick a fork in their restrictions.
