Food Not Lawns : How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community

by Flores, H. C.

• ISBN13: 9781933392073
• ISBN10: 193339207X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-15
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co

Summary

Gardening can be a political act. Creativity, fulfillment, connection, revolution--it all begins when we get our hands in the dirt. Food Not Lawns combines practical wisdom on ecological design and community-building with a fresh, green perspective on an age-old subject. Activist and urban gardener Heather Flores shares her nine-step permaculture design to help farmsteaders and city dwellers alike build fertile soil, promote biodiversity, and increase natural habitat in their own "paradise gardens." ButFood Not Lawnsdoesn’t begin and end in the seed bed. This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden--simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community--to all aspects of life. Plant "guerilla gardens" in barren intersections and medians; organize community meals; start a street theater troupe or host a local art swap; free your kitchen from refrigeration and enjoy truly fresh, nourishing foods from your own plot of land; work with children to create garden play spaces. Flores cares passionately about the damaged state of our environment and the ills of our throwaway society. InFood Not Lawns, she shows us how to reclaim the earth one garden at a time.

Author Biography

Heather C. Flores, a certified permaculture designer, holds a BA degree in ecology, education, and the arts from Goddard College. She offers environmental landscape design and consultation services. Flores' next project is to use low-tech performance arts to bridge cultural and economic gaps in environmental education. She lives in Oregon.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Free Your Lawn	1	(23)
Gaining Ground	24	(26)
The Water Cycle	50	(26)
The Living Soil	76	(30)
Plants and Polycultures	106	(33)
Seed Stewardship	139	(21)
Ecological Design	160	(29)
Beyond the Garden	189	(25)
Into the Community	214	(33)
Reaching Out	247	(21)
Working Together	268	(17)
The Next Generation	285	(20)
Acknowledgments	305	(2)
Resources	307	(19)
Notes	326	(4)
Index	330