Edible Landscaping: Community Alternative for Sustainability

Your emails have been really challenging as well as interesting and touching. I know many of you are very worried, but I think "change" starts with each of us, not with the politicians who basically (have we noticed yet) serve very big corporate interests. So, I spent the weekend brooding and here is my first idea and there are several more queuing up in my prolific psyche.

Let's start a landscaping revolution. There are countless reasons to do this. First, genetically modified crops have taken over the heartland of our country and arable land everywhere is planted with this dastardly excuse for food. Your greatest protection from cross-pollination is actually distance and urban areas tend to be somewhat less contaminated by GMO invasions.

Second, food prices and transportation costs are skyrocketing so let's be self-sufficient. It takes very little space.

Third, most people have, excuse me, idiotic landscaping. They have yards that require constant mowing, weeding, and manicuring, just for looks, what sort of looks, the same boring grass you see in one yard after another. Moreover, many people use toxic chemicals in the very places that their children play. All these chemicals go into the soil and ground water and create all sorts of short- and long-term hazards.

Four, this could be really fun, not to mention practical.

	African Purple Basil Photo by Ingrid Naiman 2008

My idea is to get together in groups, let's say 10-20 people and tackle one yard as a starter. Everyone "digs in" and transforms the yard into an aesthetic and functional garden. We can create little funds and treasure chests. For instance, if the cost of plants is a few hundred dollars, we can each contribute $10 or $20 to convert one yard in our neighborhood. In a few weeks, our volunteer crew can transform another yard and then another and another. We can pool resources, people, tools, seeds, plants, and so on. Let's say one property has room for a greenhouse and can produce starter plants but another has better sun or shade or water. If we make it beautiful enough and practical enough, people will copy the ideas but the key is cooperation because to overcome all the lack of integrity of the corporate model, we have to demonstrate the generosity and goodwill of "normal" people.

This plan is also a way to restore productivity. We outsourced the production upon which stable economies are built and became a service society. Well, you might say, too many people were involved in occupations that are the equivalent of doing laundry for each other. Sure, it's not all laundry, but in a financial services economy, the products are largely intangible. We need to get back to basics, and believe me, I have lots more ideas that come after this one.

Many blessings,

Ingrid