what is a traditional yard?

Here's a picture of Dumbarton in the early 20th century -- the site of a vegetable garden. The notion of using one's land to grow grass and shrubs is an anomaly in history. Land has always been used to sustain people, and it will be used that way again.

Here's a family in their vegetable garden in Catonsville around 1920. And here's what you see in roughly the same spot in Catonsville today:


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Thanks to the Baltimore County Public Library for helping me dig up these historical pictures.