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Not only has the “homesteading/pioneer” virus infected the permaculture-design movement; it’s infecting the #Degrowth movement as well.

The thing we need to (re)learn in order to do #Degrowth is not “homesteading” (a thing that is rooted in the infinite-growth paradigm), but rather, village living. 

So-called “modern” people in capitalist society, the skill we need most is getting along with others, living in close connection and cooperating, learning together and refining skills together. As indigenous societies have done for millennia and are still doing. (Including the old-fashioned European towns/villages.) 

We rich westerners/Global Northers keep trying to sidestep that, but the planet does not contain enough land and stuff for all the privileged people to “escape” to; buy, hoard, and live isolated on. 

I think the whole “Homestead”/”pioneer” mentality is creating the worst hardships of all. It’s colonialism all over again. People with the privilege to buy isolated acreage are gentrifying entire countries. Living isolated on plots of land and reinventing the wheel. This is not the way to save humanity.

The real skills of the future, the core of Degrowth, is people skills, including self- regulation.

To find out more about #Degrowth, and engage in conversations with others who are exploring, check out the Facebook groups Degrowth – join the revolution and Degrowth – it’s urgent. 

Added later:

I should clarify that when I say village, I’m not talking about a bunch of “likeminded” people moving out onto acreage and trying to make a new village together. 

The “romantic utopia Ecovillage” trope is about as toxic as the “rugged pioneer homestead” trope. So much perfectionism with the concept of “like-minded” people etc. And still doing the thing where we go buy a bunch of land and plop ourselves down in a place where we know no one, chop down a bunch of trees to clear land, etc. 

As opposed to being present with the people who are around us right now.

I’m talking about adapting into the existing towns, villages, neighborhoods where we already live. We chose the places we live for a reason. 

Even if that “reason” was just a “job” that will not be sustainable over time. Still, we are here. Now it’s time for us each to be cells of the Degrowth movement for our neighborhoods and towns.

I’m not saying no one ever has any legitimate reason to move and start over, but time is of the essence, and for most of us the village is right here right now, and possibly our first task is simply meeting our neighbors. This is particularly true in the USA where car culture and material affluence has created so much social isolation that many people have not ever needed to know who their neighbors are.

Also, If you are in a suburb and don’t know where to start physically, one book that might be helpful is Retrofitting Suburbia. It’s by David Holmgren (who founded permaculture, together with Bill Mollison).

But really the main thing we all need most is the skills of living in community. We can start to develop those from wherever we are right now. Even if we know nothing about that, still we can start and learn and it is the essential task that most of us have been avoiding with all of this moving “away, ” planning on moving away, fantasizing about moving away etc. There is no away. We need to develop the skills of coexisting with each other, building beneficial relationships, doing mutual aid. All the old-fashioned stuff our grandparents used to know.

If you already know your neighbors and have a neighborhood culture of helping and checking on each other, sharing skills and tools and rides etc., congratulations — you have a head start on the core task.

Here, from the good people at degrowth.info, is a good one-paragraph description of #Degrowth: https://degrowth.info/en/degrowth?fbclid=IwAR32SkTDKHfg87BHmYjdu-kfJ7ewXccOUroTMeC_1nKNPy9lpBToAS0xuDM

Yesterday my friend & fellow permie Dennis H shared a great quote:

“A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.” — Gustavo Petro

That’s definitely how I felt, living in Japan. And also in my travels around Europe etc. Transportation is anything but an abstract subject for me, especially as I get older. Will share some personal details at the end of this post.

In my opinion, the blame for the lack of reasonable transportation options in all but a few towns/cities of this country rests on the subset of Boomers who identify as “environmental”.

If we eco Boomers — a subset of the most-resourced and loudest generation in history — had pushed for public transportation instead of so many of us retreating to leafy half-acre lots in the car-dependent suburbs and becoming NIMBYs, I strongly suspect we would have public transport as a well-funded, unquestioned norm. After all, we Boomers have tended to get whatever we screamed and whined loudest for.

Instead we now have car-dependence as the well-funded, unquestioned norm. And all the ills of social isolation and frayed community multiplied; and roads more dangerous than ever with speeding impatient cars.

Well, as you know, this blog and my book are not about crying over spilt milk. Also we have not yet invented a time machine to go back and do over. Accordingly we have to work with what we have now.

I’m not saying that any of the following is likely to happen. But it might be very helpful and a good start. These ideas are based on the fact that Boomers are still a major political and economic force who carry the weight to make a difference.

• The oldest boomers are now age 77. People in this age group could proactively choose to move out of car-dependent suburbs and into smaller-lot houses in closer-knit neighborhoods, where they could take advantage of public transportation and/or ride-share with neighbors. Those who don’t want to move could rent out a room or two in their houses to younger people who are needing a place to live. (Actually not just younger people; lots of us older people nowadays are seeking “room in a house” situations too.) The housemates could help with driving and share the expenses of a car.

• The children of the oldest Boomers are in their late 40s and 50s, and are or will be facing the task of caring for their Boomer parents, often at great geographic distance, which causes a lot of expense and worry. These children of Boomers have a stake in pushing local governments to prioritize multimodal transportation options and desirable neighborhood density (nearby basic shops & services, etc.) for their parents.

• Some developers, such as developers of 55+ communities, are offering shuttle buses for their residents. This is a good idea.

• Many churches have large numbers of Boomer-generation and older people in their congregations. These churches have a stake in securing housing near the church for those of their elderly members who’d be open to it. Some congregations might want to pool their funds to rent/purchase a nearby house with many bedrooms, or purchase a small apartment or condo building.

This is just some ideas off the top of my head. Please feel free to share your ideas on some practical ways we could retrofit the fabric of the USA physical and social landscape to improve safety, and better serve people’s basic transportation needs.

PS. As promised above, I am sharing some personal details about my transportation situation.

I have always been relatively healthy and physically fit, at least for a USA citizen. I have generally gotten around by foot or bicycle for most of my adult life, and have always insisted on living in places where that is an option.

However, in recent months I am having what feels like a serious knee problem, whereby I can no longer walk farther than a couple of miles without serious pain. Riding my bicycle seems to be helping somewhat to strengthen my knee and possibly strengthen the adjacent muscles or at least let the injured tissue or whatever rest. But if it’s an ACL or ligament or whatever, that will end up needing surgery, I just have to try to make it till I’m 65 and can have it covered by insurance. I’m 60 now. 

Also regarding bicycle transportation. Although I’m a very experienced cyclist, accustomed to riding on roads alongside cars European style, including some solo multi-day inter-city rides in my younger days, the roads have gotten markedly more scary in the past year or so. More motorists seem to be exceeding speed limits even on what used to be the gentler, less-speedy urban core roads (what I used to consider the “eye of the hurricane”), and the traffic is getting worse.

At the same time, there has also been a decline in basic services in my neighborhood. For example, we have lost three laundromats and one convenience store, and a thrift store. The drugstore on this side of the bridge has closed down its pharmacy.

And we have lost our bicycle repair shop. Now the nearest bicycle repair shops are about 7 miles away, or two or three buses.

And yesterday I found out that our downtown farmers’ market is going to be closing permanently. I used to be able to walk there in 20-25 minutes when my knee was good, and I can still get there on the bicycle in about 10 minutes. Many of us have depended on this weekly market; at times I have gotten over 90% of my groceries there).

The people who casually say, “Well, the farmers’ market customers can just drive to Ormond or Port Orange farmers market” are completely out of touch with the realities of the non-auto-owning public. Those markets are MILES away. Furthermore, we need to be planning for LESS auto-dependence, not more. Each downtown area needs its own grocery shopping, etc. Particularly with traffic becoming increasingly severe.

There is one excellent little food store downtown that sells local organic produce and prepared health foods that are otherwise not available anywhere near here. And nutritional supplements which serve as most of my medicine, along with the wild plants I forage in the urban margins. Jo Anne’s shop on West ISB just east of Palmetto is an oasis in more ways than one. Unfortunately, most people don’t seem to know about it, so I worry about its survival.

If that food store goes, I will seriously be in question about my ability to stay in this neighborhood and city, where I had planned to grow old and make as much of a contribution as possible. It would be a sad decision, as picking up and starting over in a new place is not an appealing thought.

For me there are only two options: push for the public good; or leave my beloved adopted home city Daytona Beach and try to find a place that is more transportation-hospitable. Actually, the latter is not really an option because

1) I AM IN LOVE with my adopted home place: its culture; the people i’ve formed ties of friendship and co-activism with; its natural beauty. And

2) if *I’m* feeling unsafe and having trouble getting basic needs met, then the many many more people who are more vulnerable than me, with fewer options, are even LESS safe and having far more trouble than I am. Therefore, I will continue to activate for transportation options and dense neighborhoods equipped with basic essential stores and other essential services, for the greater good of us all.

By the way before I moved to this neighborhood, we actually had a public library right in this neighborhood. It closed down before I moved in, and lay vacant for some years before now being occupied by a veterans’ museum. Nothing against veterans’ museums but I think we needed the library more. I ran a Little Free Library for my neighborhood for 10 years, but it became exhausting because too many people weren’t aligned with the fundamental LFL concept of small-scale, grassroots sharing of books, and I finally shut it down last month.

We do have a pretty good bus system for a small city. I have generally not ridden the bus because bicycle had been so much faster. But now out of necessity I am taking some bus trips. If this continues, I will probably have to cut something out of my budget in order to be able to afford bus fare on an ongoing basis. Not only my financial budget but my carbon budget as well.

Finally, to those of my fellow environmentalists who persist in believing, or pretending to believe, that electric cars or hybrid cars are going to save the world: The cult of the lithium battery is a dead end, just one more way to trash the planet and outsource pollution to other people’s lands and children. Accordingly, I will continue to speak up against assorted greenwashing and techno-evangelism.

We just plain need to DRIVE MUCH LESS, and ride-share, and really start questioning the default of private automobile ownership, and insist on better ways. For our OWN good at least, if we’re not willing to do it for other people and the planet.

Photos (for these pix, see my DEEP GREEN Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/deepgreenbookjennynazak/):

1) my new buddy, the latest edition of the Votran schedule;

2) today’s lunch, which I am getting ready to sit down and eat on my favorite outdoor bench with a great book; all of the ingredients for this delicious hearty salad came from Jo Anne’s shop Natural Concepts Revisited LLC – and several of the items were grown locally.

MARKET UPDATE 5/12; I posted this in my county forum on Facebook:

Daytona Beach Downtown Farmers’ Market on Magnolia will run through the last Saturday of June. Please visit the vendors and enjoy.

The City Commission will decide at its next meeting whether or not to keep the downtown market open.

Regardless, a new market is happening at the riverfront Esplanade. It’s only once a month for now, the last Sunday of the month, but there are hopes of expanding.

Regardless of how you feel about the market location, new or old, I hope that all of us who like and depend on being able to get groceries from a downtown market will give this market a chance and support it. A couple of the existing vendors are working on getting spots at the new market, and we hope others will follow.

Anyone interested in getting a vending spot, contact the Esplanade. BTW huge bonus, canopies are included!!

Anyone with questions for the city, contact the CODB redevelopment office.

The DDA meeting yesterday was informative. Vendors, customers, & other citizens had opportunity to voice their opinions and ask questions.

Thanks to City Manager Deric Feacher, Zone 3 Commissioner Quanita May, Redevelopment Director Ken Thomas, Esplanade manager Joe Yarborough, and others for clarifying the various circumstances that have created challenges for our downtown markets, and the thinking that went into the new location.

Facebook event invitation: https://fb.me/e/2v3DXAI62 (Riverfront Esplanade market Sunday May 28)

For photos see the companion post on my DEEP GREEN Facebook page. Ooops, looks like Facebook won’t let me copy-paste links anymore. Sorry for the extra work, but if you want to see the pix you’ll have to manually scroll down to May 9 on my book’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/deepgreenbookjennynazak/

Photo 1: Rainwater scooped from one of my rainwater collection tubs just now. It has not even been run through a cheesecloth or other filter.

Photo 2: Fresh tapwater from a nearby town where residents report experiencing issues w the water.

Mother Nature’s filters are very sophisticated & powerful.

PS. Some people have asked if I am off-grid. No, and I do not aspire to be. Of course as a city resident, I am hooked up to City water and other utilities. Our tapwater in Daytona Beach is clear and delicious! I mainly use rainwater for showers and irrigation. And the communal goal of my rainwater collection system is to do my part to keep stormwater from running offsite. I do drink rainwater too though!! Once I did a 2-month experiment of living entirely on rainwater.

(It’s part of my self-selected job as a permaculture research station / low-footprint-living laboratory to test things like this out, and serve as a “database” for the neighborhood & community.)

#rainwater

#stormwatersponge

Eco landscaping business PR copy; anyone reading this you are welcome to use, adapt to your needs/circumstances. (Post with pics in the Transformative Adventures group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/238637257015056/permalink/1189619575250148/ )

My work “truck” has been very busy for the past few days! Working on some boutique projects that will become a key addition to my landscaping services portfolio.

For the project I am gathering valuable materials that someone else thinks are “trash” (but they are too lengthy for waste collection to pick up — fortunately for me as it has bought me a few days’ time for this large collection endeavor!).

Main tools for preparing cut bamboo to transport smoothly and utilize easily:
scissors, loppers, mini saw … and of course my ever-trusty cup of coffee (from one of the scrappy, stalwart beachside bodegas that are situated within walking distance of DG headquarters AKA Harvey House).

#boutiqueproject #trellis #fabulousbamboo #DeepGreen #ecolandscapingservices #spongecity #puffylandscaping

“DEEP GREEN landscaping services: Doing my part to reverse desertification of the barrier island and reduce the flooding in Midtown … one little Beachside yard at a time!”

“I use the city green waste stuff for kitchen scraps but keep seeing advertisements for electric kitchen composters. I live in a complex with a lot of green space and am involved with gardening that green space. But we are along the a city greenway/Railway so can’t do a traditional compost due to fears of rats (due to co-op rules). Has anyone tried an electric kitchen composter? Are they helpful with gardening or are they mostly just another attempt to sell us stuff? Does anyone have any thoughts?”

FWIW I have been composting in intensive, densely populated urban settings for years and have never had rats in the compost.

Things that may help:

• make sure there is enough “brown” matter (fallen leaves, twigs, cardboard etc.)
• the urine of a large mammal has been found to be an extremely effective deterrent of rodents etc <wink>

Came across my socials feed this morn; permaculture group newbie getting more & more alarmed as she finds out that the trees and shrubs around the home she’s just purchased are invasive (or as someone else said, “monstrous”).

My response:

A reassuring note: Remember that in permaculture, even a species we humans don’t see as “desirable,” does have value and serves a function in the ecosystem. (Second ethic of permaculture design: Care of people and all other species.)

If nothing else, right now for you these mature trees are providing shade (essential in Florida of course!) and maybe privacy buffer; noise buffer around your house. Of course, planting natives is great and you can always add in natives and edibles (and, if you choose, cut back or remove the nonnatives) as your time and budget permits!

Also in permaculture, sometimes we find that “invasives” are edible or have some other good use such as building materials. In one place where i lived, I built a little outdoor shower-stall using branches cut from an “invasive” tree. Also its fuzzy leaves were useful for various applications such as TP for the compost toilet.

Sometimes, the permaculture movement doesn’t necessarily totally overlap the native-plants movement. Although many of us are endeavoring to support & promote the spread of native plants, most of us are also into learning about plants that provide food, fuel, fiber, building materials, etc. Some of the most useful and beneficial plants growing right around us are not necessarily natives.

So what might those nuts be useful for? What unique properties do they have? What might the branches, leaves, etc be useful for? Even if you don’t end up directly finding roles for them other than the shade, beauty, stormwater absorption, and heat mitigation they provide, researching the various co-inhabitants of your home place can be a fun adventure. And can help you feel better, less stressed about the land around the home you have bought.

The permaculture design principles and ethics offer us an exciting invitation to become learners and fellow-residents with the natural world (of which we humans are a part too, though we “modern” humans have cut ourselves off).

Whew, that got sort of longwinded! But anyway, Hi and welcome to this group! And congrats on your house, may you enjoy getting to know the nonhuman fellow residents who might have lots to share.

#Stormwaterabsorption #heatmitigation #naturehabitat #oceanfrontnaturalbeauty

2min36sec video
A tale of two oceanfront vacant lots. Both are privately owned and not intended by their owners for the public to use.

#1 is kept mowed super short, which is costing money & energy needlessly, and reducing natural beachfront beauty while compromising Mother Nature’s highly effective “sponge” of heat mitigation, drought buffer, erosion control, & stormwater absorption.

#2 is a classic wild oceanfront dune-meadow of grasses & wildflowers, offering sustenance to many birds & other species. And for humans, it offers improved stormwater absorption, heat mitigation, erosion control, drought buffer, and natural beachside beauty!

The beachside is a barrier island, actually a giant sand-dune!! What we do with restoration of natural landscapes on the beachside has great potential to rebuild the SPONGE function, which can greatly help mitigate the deadly flooding on the mainland!! (and also help mitigate the heat and drought on the beachside). Plus, when people come to the beach, they expect it to look BEACHY!!

A fellow activist asked what we might be able to do to shift the landscape.

It seems to need a multi-faceted approach, for example:

• my little signs recognizing nature landscaping seem to be having some effect, in terms of giving moral support to people who are doing a good thing
• in local govt, landscaping maintenance policies are determined by multiple departments, and we are attempting to communicate w as many of the departments as possible to find leverage points
• citizens are invited & encouraged to attend the Beautification tree advisory board meetings which are the first Tuesday of every month at 4 PM
• I have had also some success by communicating at neighborhood watch group meetings in Daytona Beach specifically my home group BNW Beachside Neighborhood Watch, and our sister group on the other side of the bridge the Midtown Neighborhood Watch, regarding the importance of vegetation for heat mitigation and stormwater absorption.
• Further leverage points exist as well. Both the grasscutter industry and the lawn equipment manufacturing industry need to be somehow coaxed to see their self-interest in becoming more aware of the importance of the “sponge.” On this note, property owners/managers/stewards who have money-spending decisionmaking authority re landscaping decisions, have an essential role to play.