Food Not Lawns! How and Why to Turn Your Yard into a Garden

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Heather Jo Flores and your neighbor’s front yard…and the local park…and…and… ​Lawns use more equipment, labor, fuel, and agricultural toxins than industrial farming, making lawns the largest (and most toxic) agricultural sector in the United States, so grow food, not lawns.​ Growing food at home is hardly a new idea. But in this culture, where more people know how to take the perfect selfie than how to grow a potato, urban agriculture has become a form of activism. The slogan “Food Not Lawns” is spreading like wildfire. Here are some reasons why to grow food not lawns: ​Lawns are the…

Decolonizing Permaculture: Bridging the gap between privilege and oppression

Permaculture Womens Guild

by Heather Jo Flores As Published in issue #98 of Permaculture Design Magazine, November 2015 First of all, I want to say that I do not represent anyone but myself, and though I have vetted this article with several peers and mentors, I do not presume to know the needs and desires of anyone else. However, it seems to me that there are ripples of injustice coursing through the permaculture community, manifesting as a pattern of landowners and/or self-proclaimed leaders doing things that hurt, offend, oppress, and devalue others. These behaviors discredit the permaculture movement at large, and unless we…