Edible Estates - Help Me Eat My Yard!

Partly being broke, partly trying to be "green", partly trying to be self sufficient, and party being paranoid of food shortages as part of some New World Order, I have wanted to start growing food for a while now. Last summer I proved that I can at least keep hastas alive. This summer, I will test it on veggies. I was raised helping my parents tend their garden so it is nothing really that new to me. The key issue for me is where to plant. The obvious choice is my backyard. However, half my backyard is driveway, and the other half is shaded by trees. That leaves the front yard, which at least last year, was just a plot of dead grass. It might be because I grew up with a huge yard that I had to mow a lot, but I really hate typical yards. If I want to enjoy laying in the grass, I can walk to the park a block away. So, why not turn my front yard into a food garden? This seems great, but I am sure my neighbors would dislike a big patch of open dirt where there at least used to be dead, un-mowed grass. Then my friend Dave put me on to "Edible Estates : Attack of the Front Yard", a little art project started by architect Fritz Haeg. Basically, the concept is taking the front yard, which Americans love, and putting it to better use - i.e growing food, but doing so in an attractive fashion.  The twist is that he suggests how to make it more aesthetically pleasing. I need to pick up a copy soon and think about how to make this work. I'm stoked. Here is an interesting interview with a number of speakers at the NY Public Library. Audio version here: http://media.nypl.org/edible_estates_3_7_08/edible_estates_3_7_08.mp3