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The beautiful and sometimes extravagant public parks that exist in all the cities of the world are generally maintained by the government. Instead of filling these parks with nameless, indistinct trees and other plants, why not have apple trees, grape vines, tomatoes, banana trees, lettuce, even a longan
tree etc, any of these would look better than a palm tree for instance.
The tax payer could not only make leisurely use of the public space, but could also obtain a healthy diet. At lunch you could stroll down to the park and grab an apple, or better still, pick a fresh tomato to add to your sandwhich (thus preventing your bread from getting soggy had you put it in the sandwhich in the morning).
It would be ideal for the homeless, and very handy for the backpackers. endless beneifts really. Of course it would have to be organic, and therefore probably always be half eaten through by worms and birdlife, but hey, still better than palm trees.
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It's generally not the done thing to delete all annotations that you don't like. What I said wasn't even anti the idea - I was just observing that large cities tend to be a bit dirty due to the amount of human traffic. |
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Fruit trees = Fruit availability
Fruit availability = Fruit-loving animals
Fruit-loving animals = Rabies, roadkill, mysterious leavings on your car, etc.... |
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This sounds like a nice idea, but I could see people taking advantage of the free fruit and trying to make a market out of it. The only way to make sure distribution is fair is to have guards, which takes away from the lovely Garden-of-Eden scene this idea conjures up. Good try, though. |
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What's wrong with palm trees? |
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Around here, there are many places with citrus trees in greenbelts along side roads. They are remnants from orchards that were replaced by houses. Not necessarily government funded but it's been done. Ironically, where the same thing does exist in city parks, there are laws against picking the fruit. |
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Don't park under the cocoanut trees... |
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My dog likes to urinate on low-level vegetable plants.......actually, so do I after 15 pints. ;-) |
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Eww, good point - don't eat the tomatoes. |
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I live near a cycle path (old railway line) full of brambles. I love this - traffic-dirt free blackberries right near my house. |
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Local kids don't know they're edible. Nearly every time I stop to pick a few (I think I'm the only one doing it), someone will stop and stare, then ask if it's OK to eat them in an amazed tone of voice. |
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Enlighten me - what is a bramble? |
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Actually, I looked it up: |
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SYLLABICATION: bram·ble
PRONUNCIATION: AUDIO: brmbl
NOUN: 1. A prickly shrub of the genus Rubus, including the blackberry and the raspberry.
2. A prickly shrub or bush.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English brembel, from Old English bræmbel.
OTHER FORMS: brambly —ADJECTIVE |
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I hope he's talking about the fruity kind. If we're talking about eating a prickly bush, well, that's a whole 'nother discussion. |
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<aside>[dingbat]: sounds like where I grew up in northern California. Wild blackberries everywhere. I made good money picking and selling them in the summer time. We also had plums and other "volunteer" fruit trees growing along side the irrigation ditches near my house.</aside> |
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Wild raspberries, blueberries, lingonberries and wild strawberries in the Swedish woods. |
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They have seville oranges growing everywhere in seville- granted, they're only used for marmalade because they're so bitter, but still....
Whether or not people pick all the fruit and try to sell it, or dogs pee on it, or it gets covered in motor oil, all depends on the specifics of where this stuff is planted. I went to a park in Budapest where people dig up the flowers and sell them or take them home- but that's obviously not an issue in many other places!
I have found countless black walnut, mulberry, and other native trees in my area that nobody snacks on, because they just don't know they can/they don't have time. I think it'd be great to plant native edibles in city parks and educate people on their use- when the fruit runs out, so what, and if people are greedy about it, then your city has other problems. |
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<hint hint> In a semetary north of London where Carl Marx is berried, there are a dozen cherry trees growing at the back edge. they are far enough from the actuall tombs, by the way. </hint hint> |
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Am I the only one that read this as Pubic Fruit and Veg? That has so many possible meanings... |
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Great idea, you could develop the idea and have fruit tables carved from tree stumps and pine needles to pick up pieces of apple... |
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[Madcat] gets me that way too and gives me strange visions, esp. about mustard and cress. |
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Hey Dave, we must be sick in the head! |
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