About Randy
Rock and Roll Permaculture Punk
@randywhitepdx
@brightneighbor
I’m Randy White, the founder of Bright Neighbor. Bright Neighbor is a start up company helping forge America’s new bottom-up “Creative Economy”. All in all I am a technologist, a writer, a Leo, a not-so-good video producer, a pretty good urban farmer, a public speaker, a power point comedian, and periodic rock-and-roller.
My personal goal in life is simple: to help people and organizations learn how to better thrive in the current predator-and-prey economics of humanity. We have built up a great society full of buildings and highways. Great. Now that easy energy is over and gone, we must still maintain and power the society we have created. The good news is, there are many, many talented people working on real, local answers to fix our global challenges. You are probably one of them. That’s why my company Bright Neighbor has combined a unique technology, community skills classes, and community organizing to help fix this mess we are all in together. Bright Neighbor helps communities learn to live better using their existing infrastructure.
So here’s a little bit about my background: I have been in software since I was 18. I have headed up the Internet technology divisions of both software and media companies (one of the world’s largest). As a student of radical economic theory, I have a historic record of accurate market insights, but don’t worry – my wife is always there to remind me of how wrong she thinks I am. (I keep telling her Rent-A-Lawn and GardeningPimp will hit big one day). My work has been featured in many media outlets awareness articles and major advertising campaigns regarding our transition to a modern post-oil society.
A couple of years ago, I helped the City of Portland, Oregon research and write their now nationally recognized local response plan for dealing with the consequences of the predicted economic collapse. (That’s me holding the gas can on the cover below). I highly suggest you download and read this report, especially if you work in a municipality’s Emergency Management division.
In my engagements with government, businesses, and the community, I find that many people are absolutely unprepared in regards to the financial collapse. I have changed my life to try as be as oil-independent as possible while still living in the current system construct. The effort has been documented in the “Lawns to Gardens” Web show. You won’t find this program on your local TV network.
Here is an example… Episode 5 is a good one.
I also created Bright Neighbor TV, our media programming channel over at YouTube.
Bright Neighbor was founded on the idea of the hyper-local. What are you doing that is affecting your neighborhood or street? We measure and report on the success of community adaptation to rapid planetary changes.
Bright Neighbor is:
* A free public tool that encourages sustainability, food system security, and thriving community practices for neighborhoods by encouraging green behavior through participation, evaluation and sharing.
* A Private Layer for collecting information on green behaviors by companies, as well as a tool to communicate special initiatives, private resources and information to a
group. Like how the Portland Trail Blazers want to use it for ride sharing.
* A locally based advertising platform that supports businesses to participate in the same way owners of Private Layers do, but who just want to have their name attached to “something green” without all of the work. Companies sponsor good works being done in the communities we serve.
* A platform that can, in time, collect and report information relevant to emergency services and governments.
For our customers like the City of Portland, Portland General Electric, and Gerding Edlen Development, even people who join Bright Neighbor through private layers, are Bright Neighbor users first, participating in their neighborhood, and Private Layer members second. This is done to allow the continued participation of users in their own neighborhoods as the continue to improve their hyper-local community so we can track the results. This allows Private Layer customers to take credit for “sponsoring” the good works of their members while allowing them to track the results of their organization-centric efforts.
By focusing on a specific region per Bright Neighbor, we track activity or actions and their involvement in making their hyper-local community better. Though we do the work of a non-profit, we are a for-profit eco-fixing market development company. Local businesses are served through their participation in Bright Neighbor, and they shouldn’t necessarily need to pay for it. Bright Neighbor understands the collapsing economy and how to navigate it, working within the existing financial and political system until they realize money is not going to solve their problems.
Our paying customer markets include:
* Major sports franchises and arena-owners. Interested in keeping eco-costs low and lessening their carbon footprint through ride sharing and a way of communicating large-scale green initiatives to their sporting audience, employees and guest of their facilities.
* Corporations with a green agenda (PGE). Same as above, but with the ability to get more relevant reporting to encourage shifts in corporate culture.
* Municipalities interested in uniting their city-wide neighborhood outreach.
If you are interested in sponsoring Bright Neighbor’s October 2009 launch across North America, please contact us through www.brightneighbor.com
Nothing makes me happier than helping other people and seeing others discover how to help one another in the quest to persevere in the face of the global challenges poised by 21st century living.
To schedule me for speaking engagements, please send an e-mail to my booking agent.
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1.
Pierre Lourens | April 17, 2007 at 6:12 pm
“I firmly believe we can save this place and not have to be depressed about how absolutely unprepared the United States is in regards to how fast the Energy Crash will go down.”
You are the man, for saying that and writing this blog. Added to my feed reader.
2.
deliberately | April 25, 2007 at 2:42 am
Love the blog, love the movie. Keep up all the good work. More than Portland is listening.
3.
Nutrition Mamma | May 8, 2007 at 8:12 pm
This is absolutely what everyone needs to do with their lawn. We’ve started transitioning our lawn into edible gardens and ponds; one area at a time. This year is phase 2. We have one small area 6′x6′ left for soccer goal kicking. When there are no more soccer players in the family we hope to have three different garden areas.
This video helped motivate my kids. They actually saw someone younger than myself telling them to turn off the tv and that growing food is fun. If you could do an rated G episode I could link it to my own blog that runs with our daily newspaper.
Thanks for your work. Please let me know when a rated G episode is ready for our nation’s children! Thanks again, you’re work is more fun than most extension agents and dietitians.
4.
stefan mattlage | May 29, 2007 at 12:27 pm
We have three rainbarrels to harvest and use rain water, All but three specialty lights in our house are cfls. have installed super windows and insulated shades. Every new appliance we have purchased is energy star rated. We have turned our back yard into garden and are sharing part of it with a yardless friend. If we all started to take these actions we would start to wean ourself of high energy costs. Also in the public sphere tell your reps that energy independence policy of candidates will be a strong determining point in casting the next votes. Every week take some action that will lessen your energy use.
Stef Mattlage
NH
5.
GARY N. PANSEY | May 31, 2007 at 6:32 am
Thanks for all your important work. I found your site by searching for the quote, by Einstein, about atomic power and watchmaker.
Please take a moment to learn about the cruelties of the Chinese Communist Party and how it harvests organs from still-living innocents.
http://organharvestinvestigation.net/
Thanks againg, I’m learning much!!
Gary in FL (oranges and grapefruits in backyard…but the lawn is still narcissistic…)
6.
Robert Reeve | June 4, 2007 at 6:23 am
Hi there,
I’m contacting you from http://www.videojug.com. Thank you for previously linking to Videojug in your blog/ website. We have recently re-launched our website with new ‘Ask the Expert’ video content. These videos bring you reliable and trustworthy advice from world class experts on a range of topics including love & relationships, modern manners, food & drink, technology, and much more. If you could provide another review and a link back to VideoJug on your blog that would be great!
Here’s a link to our homepage: http://www.videojug.com
Please let us know what you think of them, because we’re planning to make more in the future.
Thanks
The VideoJug Team
7.
Matt Savinar | June 21, 2007 at 8:57 am
Randy,
Can you email me, I can’t find a contact button on this site?
8.
Dave Schmitke | November 8, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Randy,
Your story about your lawn will be on this Saturday. It will also be on the web @KPTV.com for some time. I hope you get this in time so you can watch it. The story looks great I hope you like it.
Thanks again,
Dave
9.
bibomedia | February 29, 2008 at 7:53 am
10.
Keith | April 5, 2008 at 2:12 am
Hello,
Question about your Blog
I am writing in the hopes of opening up a communication channel with your blog (if you are interested).
We are a blog and website that is frequently writing about topics that are beer and spirits related (usually from a label perspective).
We are always looking for interesting content/posts to mention and link to on our blog and website. As such, if you post something you feel is very unique/interesting on your blog, please let me know via return email.
We are happy to give it a mention on our blog and send a link to it your way.
We are serious about quality content and I think that our content generation is creative and high quality (ie. we don’t blogspam).
Here is a link to something that we did recently that has generated a lot of interested:
http://etiquettesystems.com/beer_labels.html
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Keith
keith.bradbury@etiquettesystems.com
11.
Ron Owen | April 7, 2008 at 8:26 am
Randy,
Great work on this topic. I just started a Peak Oil – related meetup group near Seattle that is focusing on direct action; much like your activism. I myself have volunteered for a county-wide energy efficiency committee where I intend to use my engineering and planning background to maintain or enhance services with a peak oil perspective; should be fun.
I’ve subscribed to your feed and I’ll keep you posted as developments arise.
Best Regards,
Ron Owen
12.
peakoilboy | April 7, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Excellent Ron!
Even my parents, who used to dismiss the idea of peaking energy and the way it relates to the crash – are relishing their tasty garden vegetables and getting to better know their neighbors. It’s always a good place to start!
13.
David | June 5, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Extension and the County Budget
The budget priority is obvious: Food, shelter, clothing. Food comes first.
Similar to here and now, four and a half years ago, the Board of Directors of {FoodBank} was thinking of cutting costs by cutting the “overhead” of the gardens, which supply part of their food. I gave them five reasons for continuing their support. The first reason still applies here. “Gardens will provide an increased percentage of your Food. As the economy continues going down, there will be fewer donations of Food and money and volunteer gardens will provide an increased percentage of your Food. We obtain things in three ways: we earn money to buy it, it is given to us, or we make it ourselves, i.e.: if we cannot afford new automobile tires and none are given to us, and we certainly cannot make our own, we are stuck. Food has an crucial advantage: even if people cannot afford to buy Food and the donations of Food or money to buy Food are declining, WE CAN GROW FOOD.” When I wrote that, on 8D2K3: gold was $407-411. Today it is $905-935
With all the current emphasis on Climate Change, pollution, food supply, and the collapse of infrastructure, and economics, when some of those issues were brought up 30-40 years ago, the messengers were labeled, ridiculed, and ostracized as being some kind of Commie-Pinko, Hippy, Tree-Hugging, Faggot, Environmentalist, Liberal, Weirdos. Now it is organic, green, sustainable, and permaculture. And money is short.
In my comments to you over the years about Food and HomeLand Security and other issues, I have not said all I wanted to. Perhaps now you are ready.
Future: Let’s talk economics. The father of Reagonomics is Paul Craig Roberts who was the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan. Mr. Roberts thought these following comments would get harsh criticism from so called Right Wingers but many agreed and even told him that it was far worse.
After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Mr. Roberts said, to paraphrase, “FEMA was incompetent ON PURPOSE, in order to cause chaos, to have chaos as an excuse for martial law, to get people used to martial law solving their problems, most Americans are brainwashed, and America is alot like 1920’s-’30’s Germany.”
Currently he is saying such as: “…US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran. … Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, “terrorist” events in the near future.” As in: fake attacks and/or outbreaks of weaponized diseases, as an excuse for martial law.
If that kind of government action sounds baseless, consider Operation Northwoods where the Joint Chiefs of Staff planned to use terrorism against American citizens as an excuse to attack Cuba. There are many references for this including an archived copy at George Washington University.
( http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf )
Further, the New Zealand DoD used conventional explosives to produce tsunamis in WW2 so we may have “man made natural disasters”.
Emergency planning is for social services and people to be triaged.
We cannot trust our Washington government physically or politically let alone for it to be monetarily fair.
People need to be able to grow as much food as possible. The WW2 Victory Gardens need to come back.
Local, sustainable, permaculture food is our ONLY way to survive. The Extension Service is in the best position to teach this. Extension must be a priority and must be fully funded.
14.
andrew blechman | June 5, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Hi,
I just wanted to make sure you were aware of my new book, Leisureville, which was blurbed by Andres Duany and Jim Kunstler. It is about the proliferation of age-segregated retirement communities for people in their 50s and 60s. Children may visit, but their guest passes time out much like international visas, after which time they are basically reduced to the status of human contraband. In the book, I trace the history of this phenomenon to the Arizona desert of the 1950s, as well as profile the world’s largest gated retirement community in Florida. It’s called The Villages and it is nearly twice the size of Manhattan, will have a population of more than 110,000, and no children are allowed.
The growth of leisurevilles represents nothing less than a revolution in our societal living arrangements as well as the intersection of many themes that define us today: manufactured leisure and convenience, segregation, escapism, sprawl, fortressing, government by contract, etc. Twelve million Americans are expected to move to leisurevilles in the coming decade or so, and that’s a very conservative estimate. This is not a sunbelt phenomenon — the majority of leisurevilles are now being built in the North, outside major cities like San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Below are two reviews from the New York Times Sunday Book Review, and The Washington Post Book World. (You can read the full reviews by hyperlinking on the newspaper titles.) You can also learn more about Leisureville by visiting my website: http://www.andrewblechman.com
Best Wishes,
Andrew
Fascinating…. Secession movements are an American instinct, and Blechman sees one afoot in the migration of young, well-off retirees to the land of golf and sunshine…. Blechman disappears down the rabbit hole.
— The New York Times Sunday Book Review
After reading Leisureville, the first thing I have to say is: Listen up.
— The Washington Post
x
15.
andrew blechman | June 16, 2008 at 8:20 am
I just wanted to make sure you were aware of my new (non-fiction) book, Leisureville, because I think your audience may find it of interest, especially given your organization’s mission.
In Leisureville, I profile the world’s largest gated retirement community, The Villages of Florida, where the average resident is only in their fifties or sixties. It’s nearly twice the size of Manhattan, gated, and with a population of 110,000. Children may visit, but their guest passes time out much like international visas, after which time they are basically reduced to the status of human contraband. Life inside the gates: 45 golf courses, make-believe downtowns with faux historical markers, golden oldies pumped out of lamppost and fake rocks, and lots of boomer shenanigans. Life outside the gates: children peering in, exhausted natural resources, poverty.
The growth of leisurevilles represents nothing less than a revolution in our societal living arrangements, as well as the intersection of many themes that define us today: manufactured leisure and convenience, segregation, escapism, sprawl, fortressing, government by contract, and energy depletion. More than 12 million Americans are expected to move to leisurevilles in the coming decade or so, and that’s a very conservative estimate. This is not a sunbelt phenomenon — the majority of leisurevilles are now being built in the North, outside major cities like San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia. Leisurevilles typically form large voting blocks that vote down school budgets and other funding to children (parks, etc.). They also deteriorate after a number of years because a community consisting entirely of older residents tends not to reinvest in itself. In the book, I trace the history of Sun City, AZ., which is slowly turning into a necropolis.
There’s more on my website, including two reviews from the New York Times Sunday Book Review, and The Washington Post Book World: http://andrewblechman.com/leisureville/index.html.
The author Jim Kunstler has this to say about Leisureville:
“Andrew Blechman’s account of the rampant unreality that has become the normal condition of life in Florida’s child-free retirement ghettos is fascinating. The generation that enjoyed the greatest economic boom in the history of the world is going out with a bang—the sound of society blowing up in our faces. Blechman has a laser eye for the tragicomic absurdities of all the fun, games, and wild sex in theme-park senior villages where Oz-like control is exercised by the developer and his minions. His mordant report from a strange land is consistently interesting.”
—James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency
Andres Duany has this to say: “Leisureville is like the science fiction of Kurt Vonnegut—except that it is reality. What a great country!”
Best Wishes,
Andrew D. Blechman
http://www.andrewblechman.com
16.
James Cassidy | July 21, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Randy,
Let’s get to work! What’s next?
James
17.
Luke | August 8, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Randy,
I sent you an email through the ACBAG forum, but you must not have received it.
We will be moving away from Portland in a couple of weeks and I am very interested in seeing your setup, if possible, so I can possibly do something similar when we move back in Iowa.
I have been having some email issues, so if you have sent me an email, I apologize for that.
Thanks
Luke
18. Five Ways To Build A Successful Social Network And Online Community « Lawns to Gardens | November 1, 2008 at 4:13 pm
[...] Meet Randy [...]
19.
Charles Cresson Wood | November 7, 2008 at 8:39 am
Hello Randy –
Thanks for doing all that you are doing to help people adjust to the post-peak world! I wanted to bring a book to your attention, a book that I wrote called Kicking The Gasoline & Petro-Diesel Habit: A Business Manager’s Blueprint For Action. It provides specific hands-on advice on the methods and technologies that organizations can use to (1) reduce their consumption of petroleum-based transportation fuels, (2) make the petroleum-burning vehicles they current have considerably more efficient, and (3) convert to eleven commercially-available alternatives to gasoline & petro-diesel. The book includes many useful lists, such as over 500 vendors that can assist with this transition away from oil. I would be pleased to team with you on consulting projects as client needs dictate.
Best wishes,
/s/ Charles Cresson Wood
Alternative Fuels Management Consultant
Post-Petroleum Transportation
Sausalito, California
http://www.kickingthegasoline.com
20.
Kate Clark | November 29, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Randy- we met in Michigan last spring. I’m coming down for the Transition Initiative training…email me, we should all get together for dinner Monday or Tuesday.
Kate
21.
Robert Singer | December 5, 2008 at 8:15 am
Letter to the Mayor of Los Angeles, Please contact me.
December 3, 2008
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
200 North Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Subject: LA City Commission on Urban Farming
Dear Antonio:
I am offering to volunteer my time to head a new commission formed to promote Urban farming in the Los Angeles area. Please contact me as soon as you have time to review the following so we can meet to discuss the details of its implementation.
President-elect Barack Obama calls the current crisis as “the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime” the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Unemployment is already officially at 8.2 percent, not counting those who have given up on looking for work, and it is certainly going to get much worse with more layoffs every day.
Is the city or the nation prepared for the social dislocation, economic despair and breakdown in law and order that could occur as the crisis worsens? Are there enough police, National Guard or military to keep order when millions of out of work, out of home and out of food?
You as Mayor can steps to mitigate the chaos and possible anarchy now before it is too late. One activity that can have the most far-reaching effects in these times of crisis is Victory Farms as put forth by Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
As you can see from this slide from Dmitri Orlov an eyewitness to the Soviet Union collapse 1991 we are especially vulnerable in our food distribution system. He believes “that, with a bit of preparation, such events can be taken in stride.”
<>
Although the Soviet agricultural sector was notoriously inefficient many people grew and gathered their own food even in relatively prosperous times. There were food warehouses in every city, stocked according to a government allocation scheme. There were very few restaurants, and most families cooked and ate at home. Shopping was rather labor-intensive, and involved carrying heavy loads. Sometimes it resembled hunting – stalking that elusive piece of meat lurking behind some store counter. So the people were well prepared for what came next.
In the United States, most people get their food from a supermarket, which is supplied from far away using refrigerated diesel trucks. Many people don’t even bother to shop and just eat fast food. When people do cook, they rarely cook from scratch. This is all very unhealthy, and the effect on the nation’s girth, is visible, clear across the parking lot. A lot of the people, who just waddle to and from their cars, seem unprepared for what comes next. If they suddenly had to start living like the Russians, they would blow out their knees.
Therefore I propose you create a Victory gardening commission to educate and encourage Urban Agriculture in the Greater Los Angeles area. Throughout the United States homeowners have already seen the benefits of exchanging their front lawns for front gardens of organic fruits and vegetables, which no longer waste the water we no longer have because of the draught.
When Eleanor Roosevelt did something similar in 1943, she helped start a Victory Garden movement that ended up making a substantial contribution to feeding the nation in wartime. By the end of the war, more than 20 million home gardens were supplying 40 percent of the produce consumed in America.
You as Mayor should throw your support behind a new Victory Garden movement, this one seeking “victory” over the reality of millions of homeless people without jobs or money
Eating from this, the shortest food chain of all, offers anyone with a patch of land a way to reduce their fossil-fuel consumption and help fight climate change.
Just as important, Victory Gardens offer a way to enlist Americans, in body as well as mind, in the work of feeding themselves and changing the food system — something more ennobling, surely, than merely asking them to shop a little differently.
I don’t need to tell you that taking out front lawns will be controversial: Americans love their lawns, but we are in the 5th year of a draught and LADWP has already called for mandatory rationing: the lawns are going one way or the other.
Imagine all the energy, water and petrochemicals, not to mention the pesticides that go on the cities lawns.
Gardening promotes community as families and neighbors share their experiences as well as their garden bounty. Families learn together and work together for a common goal. Gardening allows many people to develop an acceptance of different ideas and practices and helps develop a sense of peace and tranquility, a necessity in the coming time as President Elect Obama will lead the nation out of its unsustainable American Dream and into the great new depression.
There will be chaos, perhaps, but with Urban gardening we might avoid anarchy.
Visit my Authors page: http://www.opednews.com/author/author20310.html
22.
John | January 2, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Thanks for getting in contact with me Randy and keeping me motivated. I was pretty hot to trot with prices high. I have cooled off a little. I still want to put my money in a farmers hand instead of it leaving eh country, in regards to buying gas.
I still run 50% E-85 in my unmodified vehical. I stopped at the part of my business plan were I buy 1000 gal and create a CO OP If I could buy it withing 200 miles I would do it. I could easily get the people to do it with me. I would most likely do it at a loss for a while. I feels so good to help and turn people on to this.
23.
Rob Thurman | January 2, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Hi Randy – this is great. Thank you for sharing.
May I suggest that you look at my Froiends of Koox Tun Ning site. I put the URL in on your questionnaire and also look at squidoo.com/acbag, where I have built a lens about Alcohol Can be a Gas.
24.
michael popilek | January 5, 2009 at 2:04 pm
thank you, for contacting me i love what i read on your site. i will keep reading your site. really like hearing some of the peoples coments. on what they are doing.your site is something that each of us could use for idea,s on energy. we need to get rid on oil dependencey and put the money in our own countrys hands. and create jobs in energy for our childern. please keep me in your e-mail contacts. thank you and the people who responed to your site. michael popilek
25.
Bart | January 15, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Hello, my name is Bart Dabek I’m the founder of a network of green sites you might have visited. We’re looking to exchange blog roll links with other green sites and we’ve selected your site as part of that initiative. Would you be interested in exchanging links with our sites?
Here is a list of our blog network:
http://www.AboutMyPlanet.com
http://www.GrowNews.com
http://www.EcoFriendlyDaily.com
http://www.HybridMile.com
http://www.GadgetAddiction.com
http://www.GirlSustainable.com
Thank you and have a great day
26.
gabriel fraley | January 16, 2009 at 12:43 am
Heya. edifying videos! i’m a community garden coordinator and professional garden designer here in san francisco.
i’m currently focusing on converting a few neighbors lawns into edible landscapes. something i’ve been interested in for many years. as well as creating and presenting a curriculum through the community garden that demonstrates how to garden in the urban environment. vermi-culture, composting, soil building and effecient garden management.
there is definitively a shift happening in the way people perceive their property — and wanting to use it more wisely.
this past summer there was a fairly large ‘victory garden’ planted @ city hall in san francisco as a demo garden. all the food produced was donated to those in need. there are a few organizations here in the bay area that build edible landscapes for lower income families and help them grow some of their own food — which then empowers people to do more for themselves.. and their communities. it’s a food revolution! keep up the good works..!
27.
dee dee bowman | March 26, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hi Randy,
I’ve just written a book called The Complete Idiot’s Gudie to Vegetable Gardening. I’m doing all I can to convince people to grow their own food – even if it’s just a pot of herbs on the window sill. Would you like a copy of my book?
best regards,
Dee Dee Bowman
(I write using the name Daria Price Bowman – you can google it to see my books)
28.
mom | May 18, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Hi Randy, Love your site so posted it in our blog on holeinthefence.net. We are in San Luis Obispo, CA doing the local sustainable thing here too. Keep in touch I think we have stuff we can share. Jeanne (mom)
29.
Nora | June 25, 2009 at 10:20 am
Hi Randy,
I have a lawn related inquiry I’d like to get in touch with you about, could you send me an email when you have a chance?
Thanks
30.
Garden Geek | September 10, 2009 at 8:30 am
Hi there.
Thanks for writing your blog.
I have spent my life in moderate to upscale suburban hoods with acres of professionally landscaped and tended lawns. Most of the time, neighborhood CCRs have limited or prohibited the presence of gardens for the sake of aesthetics. Acceptable landscaping requires large amounts of water despite local climate and rainfall expectations and a preference for toxic chemicals that don’t create offensive odors for neighbors.
Meanwhile, in the current economic climate, even some families living in large, beautiful homes surrounded by a half acre of fertilized fescue and flowers are having trouble with the cost of groceries. I know, I am one.
We need a mind shift to restyle existing neighborhoods, because most U.S. families want don’t want to relocate to a commune or co-op. Front yard worthy gardens, so kids and pets can play in backyard privacy. Those trying to sell home in current market are concerned about resale, and no-one wants to stand out in a negative way. Multi-family communities could set aside some common area for community garden patches.
Drought garden style are only popular/”acceptable” in certain regions, although many areas of the country are increasingly affected by drought. Lush, sprawling lawns in areas with shrinking water reserves and reduced rainfall is irresponsible at best.
We need the media and taste-makers to promote sexy, fashionable, well-designed suburban garden options that are aesthetic, healthy, non-toxic, climate and resource sensitive, easy to manage, nourishing to inhabitants, and plenty of curb (or herb) appeal. Recall the stylish knot gardens of yore?