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… Are two sides of the same coin. Vegetation and good soil, and the ground’s natural bumps and contours, act as buffers mitigating wet-dry extremes. We have paved, ploughed, flattened, filled, and scalped our buffers, just about everywhere, so the extremes are getting extreme-r.

Every place I’ve ever lived (even the super wet spots like Florida) has droughts. Every place I’ve ever lived (even the super-dry spots like Los Angeles and Santa Fe) has flooding. To an extent, drought-flood cycles are natural. But in recent decades, human activity such as sprawl development, excess pavement, and the scalped-lawn/leafblower norm of landscaping has exacerbated things.

Each one of us can do our part to mitigate drought-flood extremes by turning the ground back into a sponge. Soil and vegetation (especially robust native vegetation) does this. Small-scale earthworks (berms and swales) can greatly help.

Today at 2pm Eastern time, a Florida expert on native plants (and also on vegetable gardening and on climate-wise gardening) is doing a 1-hour online presentation about rain gardens. These are, literally, just what they sound like: Groupings of plants — and also rocks and other materials — that catch the rain and slow it from running off. Although Ginny Stibolt’s talk is meant for a Florida audience, the principles she covers are applicable everywhere. Simply consult your local native-plant-savvy nursery or Master Gardeners group for specific plant information. Ginny’s talk is at 2 via Facebook Live (on Cuplet Fern Chapter of Florida Native Plant Society’s page), but the recording will be available afterwards if you can’t make it. The live talk will include a Q&A session so I hope lots of folks can make it.

Below, I am posting the original Facebook post I made this morning to promote Ginny’s talk.

And below that, I am posting a Facebook post I made three years ago about drought/desertification. In it you will find useful links. Because, as I said, drought and flooding are two sides of the same coin. And the way to tackle them is start local (as in your own backyard, balcony etc.). Things that work, will spread and scale up.

Rain Gardens:

Rain Gardens! (a powerful conservation tool, and a beautiful landscaping feature)
Catch the Facebook Live TODAY at 2pm, on Cuplet Fern Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society FB page.

“Ginny Stibolt will discuss planting rain gardens in time for Florida’s summer rains. Talking points will include appropriate native plant selections that tolerate seasonal wet/dry patterns. Rain gardens are an important water conservation message as espoused by the St. Johns River Water Management District.”

Ginny Stibolt is a Florida native landscape conservation expert, and author of multiple books. She’s an excellent speaker. If you can’t make the Facebook Live, the recording will appear later on Cuplet Fern’s Facebook feed. Also check out Ginny’s websites Sky-Bolt and Green Gardening Matters.

As environmentalists, we spend a lot of time lobbying the powers-that-be for water conservation. But we sometimes overlook how WE, with our landscaping choices, are a major power-that-be! Our influence is two-fold: By adopting regenerative landscaping practices, we benefit water and ecosystems, AND we influence our neighbors by example.

Drought/desertification:

Most deserts are human-made. And most deserts can be reclaimed as green fertile land. A few years back, I stumbled onto a book that blew my mind. It’s Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, by Brad Lancaster. Brad, based in Tucson, Arizona, is probably the country’s foremost expert on rainwater collection. He’s a great writer and dynamic speaker. Links to his work appear below.

It turns out that “drylands” are not just in places like Arizona and New Mexico. We are creating them everywhere by destroying the dense, moisture-retaining natural vegetation and replacing it with pavement, buzzcut turf-grass, and isolated ornamental shrubbery.

Wherever you live, human practices are creating desertification.
It is very painfully observable here in Florida where we (used to) get 49 inches of rainfall annually in many places. As more and more of the “juicy vegetation” (trees, shrubs, tall grasses, dense growth of everything) gets paved over or turned into ruthlessly buzzcut turf grass, the land gets browner and browner; the air gets drier. The hydrological cycle is disrupted. The drier it gets, the drier it gets. In systems thinking we call it a negative feedback loop.

The solution on the personal/home/office level lies in creating dense green micro-climates wherever and however you can. It adds up to a difference, the more of us do it. Compost; mulch; cultivate & allow natural vegetation to grow in its natural density.

Right in my neighborhood, I can see two very different microclimates. One is an empty lot of buzzcut turf-desert of grass, now brown and sparse. And at the other extreme, an example just down the block, I see dense green ferns and dune-daisies growing in a vibrant emerald clump. Neither one gets watered by humans, and yet the latter persists in being green and healthy despite this drought.

There’s a lot you can do, and it’s pretty simple, and it makes a difference. Let’s restore the hydrological cycle; reverse the desertification. If it helps & inspires you to do so (it does me), you can think of it as sort of a people’s mobilization to create a modern version of the Victory Gardens of WWII.

Recommended reading: Brad Lancaster book and website – Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond
Also check out Brad’s video channel on YouTube — the one I usually show to new audiences first is his 16-minute TED Talk “Planting the Rain to Grow Abundance.”

Charles Hugh Smith, one of my perennial top fave bloggers (OfTwoMinds.com), posted this excellent piece about how to survive (and thrive) amid the economic challenges of this year and beyond. As I’ve been saying for awhile (not only about the pandemic but about our economy in general, and about restoring our planet’s ecosystems to health): Building local community is an essential element. And taking charge of local supply lines (including creating our own supply lines).

CHS echoes my sentiments here: “The strongest ‘survivor’ is not the most heavily armed individual but the individual surrounded by a community which values his/her contributions and support, and who cares whether he/she lives or dies. Nobody gives a damn if the individual holed up in a bunker somewhere lives or dies, and that’s the fatal weakness in all too many survivalist scenarios.” (CHS also provides a link to one of his previous posts, about the weakness of survivalist thinking, which I somehow missed the first time around but I just now read it, and it is a goodie, again corroborating my own experience and observation.)

He also voices “my sentiments exactly” about the importance of taking charge of one’s own health and fitness.

And about the financial unsustainability of government on its current path. The pension obligations alone are staggering, and I always think how could the whole thing not crater? And in the meantime, as CHS puts it:

“We pay high taxes and make a fraction of what the public employees make and have nowhere near their healthcare benefits, working or retired, but then we get to hear about how poorly paid they are compared to private-sector jobs. Get real, people; the pay in the real-world private-sector is lousy and going down. If you’re so underpaid, go onto monster.com and get yourself one of those plentiful high-paying private-sector jobs. You will find them less plentiful than you might have imagined.” (All of which has occurred to me, but one can feel like a traitor to one’s city by voicing such thoughts. I hear local people in public-sector jobs saying a person can’t get by on 40K, but a lot of the local people I know who work in restaurants and hotels and such are getting by on a half to a third of that, without benefits. When you point this out, people look at you like you’re from Mars. Of course, when I say people are getting by on this amount, I don’t mean they are thriving. Without conscious conservation and thrift practices, and a sense of higher purpose, living at such a low income level in our society is a constant brutal slog. My heart aches for the people who are trying to get by on that without roommates/housemates, and/or with the expense of a car.)

But my point here (as always) is not griping about how well-off some people don’t realize they are; it’s about personally taking charge of one’s own life, and finding some measure of creative freedom and economic independence regardless of one’s income. It really can be done, as I hope my book and other writings are helping people to realize.

Everything that makes sense is pointing to personal responsibility; building community from the neighborhood level.

Other tips from CHS: Prune away debt; get a job closer to home; stop moving all over the country and put down some roots. Grow at least some of your own food. Learn permaculture design principles and start applying them to every area of your life. All stuff I’ve been saying repeatedly, but I really really like how he says it. He offers a bunch of other stellar tips also; I particularly like what he has to say about weaning ourselves off of cable and other passive entertainment. Really meaty post. If you feel so moved, you can contribute to his “tip jar” or buy his books, both of which I have done.

When all the truth-arrows are pointing in the same direction, I tend to listen — and to feel vindicated in my own opinions, though my take on things has been considered “eccentric” or not even worthy of response in some circles.

I have friends (mostly fellow activists of the older Boomer generations, but a few younger folks as well) who have always earned a solid middle-class income, and who refuse to believe it’s even possible to live, let alone live happily, on less than 40K. When I tell them I can live fine on 12K and live like a queen on 15K, they just look right through me. And the truth was I have lived on 7K in some lean years. Not saying it was a picnic (and in fact, was at times quite the opposite of a picnic, as some skipping of meals to make rent was involved), but I survived, and have never been on any public assistance nor would I want to. (It doesn’t really go with being a libertarian.) There are more of us on this Possum Living–type path than one might think; I introduce several in my book and on this blog. (Possum Living by Dolly Freed is a classic; check it out if you haven’t already.)

On a note of supporting local micro-enterprise and rebuilding the community fabric: Yesterday I ordered seven hygienic masks from a local woman who started up a sewing business. She is soliciting business by posting on the NextDoor app (one of my favorite fusings of new technology with old-school neighborliness). She offers customers a wide choice of fabrics from her collection. I picked seven different prints out yesterday; she is sewing them of fabrics of my choosing and will deliver them today(!). Now that is service!

Yes, I could sew them myself, but straight-line precision-measured sewing is not my strong suit; this lovely lady only charges $3 per mask; and she’s doing this to make her livelihood. Win-win!

Oh, and to top off your reading for today — another great “Surviving 2020” post by Charles Hugh Smith. Readers of Deep Green book & blog will find some overlap of the good ol’ familiar solid advice here, which also happens to reduce one’s eco-footprint: cut expenses to the bone; build multi-layered local networks; create a business that meets a non-outsourceable local need; have “hybrid work” of multiple income streams; and (I know I keep saying this but I can’t emphasize it enough) get to know your neighbors by sharing things you have with them, and realize you don’t need to be best buddies, just be able to cooperate and get along.

“Coronavirus is causing a flurry of plastic waste. Campaigners feel it may be permanent.” (WRAL news report.)

I have been worried about this and have been pondering ideas. One thing I’m doing is buying several pairs of cotton gloves; maybe this will catch on. (Photo shows my new cotton gloves, I have 7 pairs. And my 7 masks ordered from a local seamstress.) UPDATE about gloves 5/19/2020: According to what I’ve been reading from expert sources I trust, gloves are unnecessary and may even spread more germs. Just good ol’ washed hands are best. So I will just be using the gloves for fashion.

And another thing — I haven’t done this yet but I’m seriously considering, is give a package of cardboard containers or other compostable containers to every Mom & Pop restaurant I frequent for takeout. They can offer them as an upsell to other eco-minded customers (maybe charge a buck extra), and of course use them for my takeout orders also. On that note, a Facebook friend just did a Google search on “corn-based takeout containers”; here are the results.

Any other ideas?

Update: The scientific consensus seems to be that gloves are not necessary and may even help spread germs. So I feel vindicated with my bare washed hands. And will use the gloves just as fashion; or while I’m sleeping — during the dry-skin season to help my hands absorb coconut oil more effectively, etc.

A person on the Journey to Zero-Waste group just asked for ideas on how to keep her house fresh-smelling in a way that is not wasteful or harmful to people and pets.

My answer: Keep the windows open as much as possible. (Which for me is just about always, except on the few coldest days we have here in Florida.) Scrub the sinks, tub & toilet w baking soda plus a few drops of whatever scent of essential oil I want. Burn incense when I want extra scent. And, my linen-closet is scented by a bunch of tissue-wrapped herbal soaps I’ve gotten as gifts – whichever ones I have not used yet. Sometimes I put a soap in the stack of sheets or towels.

And if you love tips like this, on every possible area of life, I really encourage you to check out the J2ZW group! Also linked in my sidebar, J2ZW is one of my top go-to’s. Tens of thousands of people, from all over the world. The many perspectives are so liberating. You really learn which products/chores are essential, and how much of what we do and spend (in the hyperconsumerist industrialized countries) is just a product of cultural indoctrination.

To tell you the truth, part of why I like the group so much is that I can honestly share about my household practices, and have people value my comments as being eco-friendly and practical, instead of having them look at me like I’m some kind of cave-dwelling savage 😉

Brown University President Christina Paxson (quoted in this article in The New Yorker magazine) says college campuses need to reopen in the fall. “One of the reasons Paxson believes we need to open schools is that many of them are heading toward financial disaster. … Heavily dependent on tuition, and uncertain that online courses will attract or retain students, many institutions anticipate a loss of revenue so large and precipitous that they fear they may have to close.”

Actually, it feels to me like money is the main motivation for the push. Which is crazy; how do the high-end colleges suck so much money and are still so strapped? (Sort of like the airline industry and other big corporations, huh?) The other day I read somewhere that Harvard has an endowment of forty BILLION dollars. Billion with a B. And probably Brown and other Ivies have hefty endowments as well.

This is crazy! We are looking at a giant money-suck. It seems to me that something about the design of our campuses and our whole approach to school needs to change.

I got this idea that maybe campuses could turn into a hybrid, de-coupling the classroom learning function from the residential function. Dorms could become apartments available to anyone. Students enrolled in that college could live there on campus, or take classes remotely, from their homes anywhere in the world. People living in the dorm-apartments could be taking classes at that university, or not.

Colleges with high-tech facilities such as labs could rent space out to corporations, or to anyone. Schools with nursing programs could turn some of their dorms into actual care facilities: eldercare living and so on. College cafeteria kitchens could be taken over by culinary trade-schools, and offer café service not only to students but to the general public as well.

For students choosing to physically live on campus, they would be living amidst people of various generations and economic classes. More of a real-world life, in other words.

In such a free-form setup, universities might face new challenges: How would an institution maintain its branding; its unique identity? Humans are creative and would figure out ways.

As a permaculture designer, I pretty much see the world in terms of design challenges. Since our “higher learning” system is sucking massive amounts of money (while turning out massively indebted graduates), it’s an opportunity for creative re-tooling. As part of this, we could look at how the Europeans do it. My friend’s son attends college in Germany for free. It’s a highly selective system; not just anyone gets in — but if you do, it’s tuition-free (taxpayer-funded).

Just some musings. What are your thoughts on this? What else would you add? And has the pandemic got you musing about any retoolings of other hallowed institutions? Do tell!

And, to circle back to the New Yorker article I cited above, the main idea of that article was that public universities such as the CUNY system (which offer a path to upward mobility for the poor and working-class people who constitute the bulk of their student body) offer incredible value and are highly worthy of public support. The article is titled “The Pandemic Is the Time To Resurrect the Public University.” I concur, and that’s saying a lot given my libertarian leanings!

To quote the closing sentence of this article by Corey Robin, “Public spending, for public universities, is a bequest of permanence from one generation to the next. It is a promise to the future that it will enjoy the learning of the present and the literature of the past. It is what we need, more than ever, today. Sending students, professors, and workers back to campus, amid a pandemic, simply because colleges and universities need the cash, is a statement of bankruptcy more profound than any balance sheet could ever tally.”

Yes, indeed. (By the way, Robin is a professor at CUNY.)

“Many Pakistanis are suddenly unemployed, so the government has given them jobs as tree-planters. Unemployed day laborers have been turned into ‘jungle workers,’ planting saplings for 500 rupees a day ($3), which is roughly half of what a construction worker would normally earn. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to get by, and that can mean the difference between survival and starvation.” Read the full article at TreeHugger.com

Earlier today, I was cleaning up trash from a small wooded area in my city. I go there to enjoy a slice of urban nature. But sometimes it gets a little too “urban,” as people throw unbelievable amounts of trash in there. Sometimes homeless people camp there. I sometimes fantasize about giving “camp hygiene” workshops. You would think that if nothing else, a wish to remain under the radar would motivate the campers to clean up their trash. But that is assuming a degree of rationality that not everyone is fortunate enough to have.

For awhile, our city had a “streets team” of homeless people who picked up trash in exchange for a few bucks, lunch, and a place to sleep. I would love to see more of this kind of program.

Furthermore, I would love to see “caretaker’s huts” set up in every park. One or two people would get to live there in exchange for cleaning up trash and being “eyes on the street.”

Awhile back, a privately owned empty lot by the river started turning into a homeless camp. It wasn’t visible from the road but I guess the folks in the condo next door could see it. The upshot was that the lot ended up getting “cleaned up,” by which I mean a large oak and other trees were cut down. And the lot is now mowed on a regular schedule. We are supposed to cheer that as an improvement, but it is hideous to see nature being scalped as a “solution” to a human problem. Not to mention the fact that the vegetation was providing ecosystem services: biodiversity (there were many species of native plants); stormwater absorption; pollutant filtration. Some landscaping (landscraping, landscalping) company gets a steady gig now though. Meh.

What if, instead, there could have been a caretaker(s) living on the property in a little hut? Cleaning up trash, being “eyes on the street,” and doing minor trimming with hand-tools just to create a “looked after” appearance? This kind of thing was common in the “olden days,” but reintroducing it now would take considerable effort, not only in terms of designing codes and ordinances to accommodate such, but also in terms of gaining social acceptance for such arrangements. Mentioning it in conversation (be it in person or via a blog) is a step in that direction! So here you go.

And to circle back to the article linked at the beginning of this post: There is more to landscape maintenance than cleaning and trimming. We could use a lot more people planting trees! What if instead of unemployment checks, people could get tree-planting checks?

The trash I cleaned up today was just a tiny fraction of the total, even though I filled two of those giant black plastic yard trash bags. Clothes, shoes, endless plastic shit: water bottles, soda bottles, bags bags bags f’in shoot me now. Cans. I talked with a couple of homeless folks who were hanging there, think I may have got them to see our common interest in keeping the area clean. Me, because I didn’t want some power-that-be to come cut the trees and tall grasses down. Them, because they wanted to stay under the radar. I left my last remaining trash bag with them, and they were picking up trash when I left.

The trash bags I brought for the job were ones I had “recycled” from curbside. Bags of other people’s oak leaves and other valuable mulch material that I brought home and then kept the bags to reuse sometime. I hate that those thick, single-use plastic bags even exist. I hate that any single-use plastic bags even exist.

Ditto single-use gloves. Am I the only one who doesn’t feel they are any more hygienic than just plain well-washed hands? Ugh! I actually feel kind of grossed out by them, always have. At some point in our history they became mandatory attire for food service and certain other settings, and of course the pandemic has just multiplied that trend. I’m horrified at how many disposable gloves must be piling up in landfill now that almost the entire population of the United States is using them on a daily basis.

As for me, I’ve just ordered several pairs of easily washable, sun-dry-able cotton gloves for my post-pandemic-world attire. I hope to start a fad. Cloth gloves instead of those yucky disposable rubber ones. I don’t really think that gloves, no matter how clean, are any cleaner than well-washed hands. But if the sight of gloves (together with mask, which I also wear when going into stores or other close quarters) is reassuring to a restaurant employee or store cashier who’s ringing up my order, maybe it’s worth it. And hey, it’s a look! Kinda retro.

After the virus had hit multiple countries, but before the pandemic shutdowns had stopped most travel, I took an overnight train trip to a town about 60 miles away. A sweet woman I met on the train was wearing cloth gloves as one of her precautions. They were floral-patterned, and they looked very chic with her outfit.

Earlier this week, for the first time in its history, the U.S. Supreme Court 1) heard arguments by telephone; and 2) allowed the world to listen in live. Things went fine.

Also earlier this week, I got an email from my sorority, Delta Delta Delta, announcing that the 59th biennial convention will take place online for the first time.

And my alma mater, the College of William & Mary, has been holding alumni networking events and other functions online. (Actually they’ve been doing that for awhile now, even before the pandemic.)

All of the above organizations are known for being extremely traditional. And yet here they go, breaking new ground to keep serving their constituencies.

In other news, a Mom & Pop dairy farm in Pennsylvania started bottling and selling milk direct to customers rather than have to dump its milk when the retail trade ceased amid the pandemic. They sold out in hours. And Florida farms, too, are selling direct to customers to avoid dumping produce. (Both stories from ReturnToNow.net)

Speaking of my home state: Brava to Florida Ag Commissioner Nikki Fried for approaching supermarkets in our state and asking them to carry more Florida produce. The department even set up a “Florida Farm To You” page on its website to connect farmers with retailers and consumers.

Sensing a common theme here? I call it Hashtag #YesWeCan ! or #OldDogsNewTricks

Some of you might be wondering if I’m ever again going to make a post not related to the pandemic shutdown. I will, I promise!! But — to share a meme I saw today on Facebook:

World: There’s no way we can shut everything down in order to lower emissions, slow climate change, and protect the environment.

Mother Nature: Here’s a virus. Practice.

So have you noticed any old dogs learning new tricks in your world? Do tell!