My entire yard is a permaculture garden that feeds our family if five as well as my direct relatives families. It's about 1/4 acre and includes a 20x50 greenhouse as well as numerous fruit and nut trees, bushes and native species. Two chicken coops (one for laying one for meat), rabbits and quail. We sell our extra at the end of our driveway to cover seed costs which are insane now. We don't use any machinery and everything is no till and regenerative meaning we make and provide all our own inputs.aside from greenhouse plastic which we can't seem to avoid without a major cash injection we just don't have. We also maintain a 250 acre reserve of undisturbed forest land to try offset our agricultural damage.
And before anyone brings up how wealthy we are to be able to do this just know I am permanently disabled and raise my family on disability income of less than $12,000/year Canadian. That's less than half of extreme poverty for a single person where I live. I worked for 20 years before I was disabled and was born in a time where I could afford my own small home and the setup.
And we are really fucked this year because our 100 meat birds do not exist due to avian flu decimating all the hatcheries south of the border. Americans may not know this since your dictator suppresses that information. The little guy gets fucked and commercial gets the eggs first. That is a huge part of our proteins for the year. There will have to be some magical hunting seasons for us this year.
The overwhelming majority of people are too lazy and uninterested in learning to manage a garden
Everyone hates on golf, but I suspect we could play golf - or at least a very similar sport - on less artifical terrain.
There's literally a club for playing on sand, you're telling me you can't make a golf course out of clover or dandelions or whatever? I call bullshit.
Yeah, I mean can't they just make a course out of whatever natural terrain exists and then adjust the par accordingly? If the terrain makes it challenging, then it's a high par.
That also sounds way more fun than what golf is now.
I don't see why not. If we had public golf courses, free for anyone to use, that were designed to minimize ecological harm, and incorporated other uses for the space (hiking trails, picnic tables, etc.) then I think it might actually be a really good use of land.
Also it's an easier sell. Instead of telling people to stop doing something they like, you can encourage people to adopt healthier ways of engaging in their hobby.
We just have to make it happen.
Every effort matters, no matter how small.
Is there a neglected sidewalk island near your home? Plant rosemary and thyme plants.
Is there any water near your home? If not, find a shallow bowl at Goodwill, put some stones in it, and start a watering hole for insects, birds, and critters.
Volunteer to help plant trees and remove invasive species, pick up garbage from streams, maintain trails and green areas
These are all things we can do today or in small increments as time allows.
i get fined if i have a garden in my front yard unless the ground is covered by 50% or more "green". its fucking dumb.
my lawn is even slightly out of the way and behind a short fence. its like the perfect spot for free food for everyone walking by.
Land of the freeeeee
Hear me out - divide your lawn into 1' x 1' sections and checker board that shit. Every other square is garden, every other is green lawn. It'll be a bitch to mow, but it's wonderfully petty
clover that grass up and piss off the entire neighborhood
You can still work with that a bit. Basically you just want to have stuff other than just non-native turf grass. Even having clover mixed in makes your lawn not need fertilizer to stay green, and it has flowers that benefit insects. Dandelions and plantains can grow anywhere, and they both produce edible greens, and they basically show up on their own.
My yard is a wildflower yard, and I've taken great pains to keep my dipshit neighbour from causing problems via the city
Making every yard a vegetable garden may be impractical, not everyone has the time or inclination or know how to grow vegetables. There should be a native trees/shrubs/ground cover starter pack list for each US region with plant-and-ignore native plants to replace invasive grasses like st Augustine and Bermuda grass.
Usually extension services in states have great resources for native planting etc.
Alternatively, depending on your preferences and financial situation, your HOA could do something useful for once and pay someone to care for all the veggies of the neighborhood.
It's a matter of organisation, nothing more. All those useless, sad lawns could be beautiful places. Especially the one's in the front.
I'm starting working on it! I'd like to have my whole yard permacultured. It's just tough figuring out where to start!
I wanna get rid of the grass... but if I'm gonna have to do some digging it might as well wait till I can do that. Maybe I'll look at trees tomorrow.
My friendly neighbors have a bunch of equipment but I'll probably just rent a Bobcat or a mini-ex for a week.
No dig gardening is a method that can help you get rid of your grass without the effort of digging or renting equipment.
Thanks!
I feel like this makes it sound easier than it is. The powers that be won’t let us do these things. It is possible but it means evading or overcoming them.
