I finished reading Food Not Lawns on my roof, just after I checked my new vermi-compost bin. The roof compost represents my adaptation to life in the modern world whereby I try and lead a more sustainable lifestyle within my means and ability. I was hoping to read Flores’ book and gain tips on how to build and maintain an edible yard in my future home, and possibly how to manage to grow edibles in the most unlikely of places like a concrete wasteland in Tel Aviv.

As it turns out, I was in for a bit of a surprise.

Flores sets out to write two books: the first on how to convert one’s lawn into a garden and thus live a more ecological life (in which she includes sweet anecdotes and exercises like planting one’s self in their own garden); and the second on how to reject modernity and reclaim our land, government and culture from post-industrial life.

I’ll begin with her first book. Flores is clearly an accomplished landscape designer and permaculturist, though her writing is a bit dry. She starts each chapter with a brief, somewhat vague meditation on the state of our modern world: