PARKWAY GARDENS Growing veggies and community in the sidewalk strip Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by JESSICA TURNER
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arrett Ratner’s construction company built a duplex townhome in the Bishop Arts area a few years ago. He and his wife, Lauren, liked it so much that they moved into it, coming from Keller to the corner of 10th and Adams, with their two kids and three dogs. Ratner’s parents also moved from Richardson to the other side of the duplex. Living in Oak Cliff reminds them of the community they found in Chicago after college — he is from Dallas,
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and she is from Atlanta. They were happy to leave the suburbs, but with no backyard, they missed having a vegetable garden. Since city code requires property owners to maintain the parkway — that strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street — they decided to turn theirs into an edible garden. As they started planting, they “ended up in more conversations with the neighbors,” Ratner says. Neighbors began asking to snip oregano or pluck
