POPULARITY
2 episodes with xeriscaping
3 episodes with xeriscaping
2 episodes with xeriscaping
2 episodes with xeriscaping
2 episodes with xeriscaping
Explore the extraordinary world of exotic gardening with Paul Spracklin, author of The Dry Exotic Garden. Paul shares his infectious passion for transforming gardens conditions into lush, visually striking landscapes using drought-tolerant plants. Tune in to hear about the inspiration behind his book, the unique joys of cultivating exotic species, and the techniques that make gardens with drought loving plants not just possible, but breathtakingly beautiful. About The Dry Exotic Garden Discover everything you need to know about designing, choosing and planting cacti and succulents to create a drought-tolerant garden in this lavishly illustrated guide with experts forecasting reduced summer rainfall, xeriscaping – the practice of landscaping with minimal water – is now a popular choice for many gardeners. Links The Dry Exotic Garden: A Gardener's Guide to Xeriscaping with Succulents by Paul Spracklin Other episodes if you liked this one: If you liked this week's episode with Paul Spracklin you might also enjoy this one from the archives: 161: The Jungle Garden with Philip Oostenbrink - This week's guest is Philip Oostenbrink, Head Gardener at Walmer Castle and Gardens, Collections Coordinator for Plant Heritage in Kent, Plant Trials committee member for the RHS and self-confessed jungle plant nut. Philip has just published a new book titled ‘The Jungle Garden' and in this interview, I talk to him about what a jungle garden is, whether they can work in shady and sunny aspects, easy jungle plants, rarer ones, plant hardiness, seasonal and winter interest and where to get plants. 175: Seeking Rare Plants - This week's guest is Nick Macer, plant hunter, self-taught botanist, rare species expert and owner of Pan Global Plants, a nursery based in the Severn Valley, which, to quote the website, offers “a selection of the finest, most desirable and often rarest plants capable of growing on these isles”. And that's key – Nick hand selects plants, in the past, directly from where they were growing in the wild and brings them into cultivation. He's renowned for choosing sublime varieties and for openly sharing his knowledge and experience. I did intend to talk to Nick a bit about his plant hunting trips, but as a stop has been put to these recently due to rules around the transportation of plant materials, the conversation went in other directions. Please support the podcast on Patreon
In this episode, Ralph and Luc unpack how Americans got so obsessed with maintaining square green carpets on their front lawns. We dive into the history to trace back the origins and dissemination of this artificial aesthetic. We also look into solutions, ranging from bans on leaf blowers to cash schemes to encourage people to quit their lawn.We read a poem about the lunacy of leaf blowers, and highlight ways in which manicured suburban imported lawn grass is a synecdoche for colonialism. You can also watch this episode on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-l1JO3FbzEChapters:00:00 Introduction: Local bans on gas-powered lawn equipment01:48 Poem about leaf blowers by Touch Moonflower03:59 Commenting on the poem06:51 How did lawns become so common in the USA?07:56 Versailles' green carpet and Italian Renaissance landscapes inspired the British lawn18:59 How 18th Century aristocratic English turf grass took root on the new continent21:53 Thorstein Veblen on why American elites found lawns so respectable24:10 Founding fathers disseminate the pastoral ideal27:05 Planning communities of continuous lawn: Andrew Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted32:03 Frank J. Scott tells suburbanites that homogenous manicured grass is neighbourly34:48 How the lawn got cemented into the American imaginary in the aftermath of World War II37:16 Post WWII suburban developments empowered Home Owners Associations (HOAs)41:01 Quantifying the environmental impacts of modern US lawns45:47 Why imported turf grass is a synecdoche for colonialism50:40 Carpets of grass are fuel that spreads wildfires51:38 Gas powered leaf blowers are huge polluters55:00 How loud are leaf blowers?55:51 Lawn care is a Sisyphean task of sterilisation57:53 Norms around lawns are socially enforced59:59 What solutions have helped people quit their lawn?1:09:50 Conclusion and wrap up: the zeitgeist is shifting!1:11:50 Luc's cover of "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni MitchellSources:• Ann Leighton, American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century, 1986. • Michael Pollan, “Why Mow? The Case Against Lawns”, The New York Times Magazine, May 1989.• Georges Teyssot, The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life, 1999.• Monique Mosser, The saga of grass: From the heavenly carpet to fallow fields, 1999.• Cristina Milesi, “More Lawns than Irrigated Corn”, NASA Earth Observatory, November 2005. • Paul Robbins, Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are, 2007.• Ted Steinberg, American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, 2007.• Elizabeth Kolbert, “Turf War”, The New Yorker, July 2008. • Joseph Manca, "British landscape gardening and Italian renaissance painting", Artibus et Historiae (297-322), 2015.• Jamie Banks and Robert McConnell, National Emissions from Lawn and Garden Equipment, Environmental Protection Agency, April 2015.• Christopher Ingraham, “Lawns are a soul-crushing timesuck and most of us would be better off without them”, The Washington Post, August 2015.
Xeriscaping literally means "dry-scaping", and it's been popular in desert towns in the U.S. since the 80s and 90s. But it's got a lot of promise for fixing the issues you may have with making an eco-friendly lawn even if cactus isn't your aesthetic. Get some tips for xeriscaping on a budget in this episode of your favorite greenliving podcast. BONUS CONTENT: A bit about rain barrels!As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links below are paid links.PBS Newshour - What is xeriscaping? How you can turn your lawn into a sustainable oasis - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-xeriscaping-offers-a-water-efficient-environmentally-friendly-alternative-to-lawnsBudget Dumpster - How to Xeriscape on a Budget for an Eco-Friendly Yard - https://www.budgetdumpster.com/blog/how-to-xeriscape-your-yard/EcoWatch - Xeriscaping: Everything You Need to Know - https://www.ecowatch.com/xeriscaping-facts-ecowatch.htmlDeseret - Xeriscaping Drawbacks (from 1990!) https://www.deseret.com/1990/8/1/18874220/xeriscaping-drawbacks/Today's Homeowner - States Where It Is Illegal to Collect Rainwater - https://todayshomeowner.com/gutters/guides/states-where-it-is-illegal-to-collect-rainwater/FCMP Outdoor RC4000-BRN 50-Gallon BPA Free Flat Back Home Rain Catcher Water Storage Collection Barrel for Watering Outdoor Plants & Gardens, Brown - https://amzn.to/3QbsqHgInstagram: @greeningupmyactFacebook: Greening Up My ActEmail us with questions: greeningupmyact@gmail.comYouTube: Greening Up My Act
In honor of Earth Day, Doug sits down with journalist and founder of Climate Positive Now—Kenn Busch, to discuss the intricacies of carbon management and its environmental implications.Throughout the episode, Kenn demystifies the complex dynamics of carbon's interaction with our environment and highlights some innovative approaches to utilize carbon management for environmental gain.Looking for continuing education credits related to sustainability? Check out Ken's CEU below! Climate Positive Materials for Sustainable Interiors, A CEU course brought to you by OFS Follow Doug on LinkedIn.Click here to get your copy of Doug's children's book—Design Your World.Follow Imagine a Place on LinkedIn.
Xeriscape Swan has recently released its newest article about Xeriscaping in Texas. This is for individuals interested in implementing xeriscaping in their yard to conserve water and reduce expenses. The complete article is available for viewing here https://xeriscapeswan.com/texas-hoa-xeriscape-landscaping-rules-allowed-plants-guide Xeriscape Swan City: Whitehaven Address: 76-77 Lowther Street Website: https://xeriscapeswan.com/
This week we enjoyed talking with Keren Mackay, aka The Professional Country Woman.Keren designed a wonderful Crop Rotation Poster that Ali has been referring to for about 10 years - it's a gemKeren has kindly gifted a poster to one of our listeners - Listen in to hear how you can win.Jen and Ali enjoyed fresh apple tea - this delicious drink made with fresh apple juice, a splash of lemon juice, and topped up with boiling water was absolutely delicious. Ideal on a cooler morning.How can Epsom Salts help in the garden?Gardening by the Moon - this week we are busy sowing and planting above-ground vegetables. Xeriscaping plant to add to your dry garden - Perovskia - Russian Sage, this is a beautiful addition to your gardenHappy GardeningSupport the showYou can contact us at coach@yourgardencoach.nz Please follow our Instagram page @yourgardencoach_nz where we regularly upload interesting gardening tips Our website is under construction, as you know good things take time.Keep a lookout for http://yourgardencoach.nz We hope you enjoy our podcast, designed for gardeners in the Central Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand - but not exclusively. Join us from wherever you happen to be and simply check the title of the podcast. e.g. Spring Ep1. to fit in with the season in your location.
Hamish from Seacliff Organics @seaclifforganicsjoins us and talks all about the variety of products we can add to improve our soil.We mentioned the book - 'The Intelligent Gardener' by Steve SolomanSeed libraries - all you need to know Garden tasks this week - Sowing and Planting for winter crops.Tea - Bee balm… not one of our favouritesChelsea chop - Jen discovers this is not a dance move!Vegetable of the week - KohlrabiGreen - Early White Vienna, Grand Duke & Green DukePurple - Purple Vienna, Early Purple Vienna & Purple AzureWe highlight a Xeriscaping plant - Curry Plant / Helichrysum italicumPest plants in the Otago region and what to do if you discover any (contact biosecurtiy@orc.govt.nz orc.govt.nz/pesthub Auckland Seed Saving Society (see Facebook for more details)Happy GardeningSupport the showYou can contact us at coach@yourgardencoach.nz Please follow our Instagram page @yourgardencoach_nz where we regularly upload interesting gardening tips Our website is under construction, as you know good things take time.Keep a lookout for http://yourgardencoach.nz We hope you enjoy our podcast, designed for gardeners in the Central Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand - but not exclusively. Join us from wherever you happen to be and simply check the title of the podcast. e.g. Spring Ep1. to fit in with the season in your location.
Happy New Year to our lovely listeners. Gosh, it's hot, gardening is happening early in the morning and after dinner these days, definitely not during the day.Our big concern here in Central Otago is WATERING!!! We're parched and any rain we have been receiving has barely wet the surface. This is why we MULCH liberally, it really does help retain moisture around the roots.In today's episode - We enjoy a simple cup of Lemon Tea, lemons always uplift my mood, even just to look at them.We talk about this week's garden tasks - What was that about fish scraps?…Plan for sowing root crops on 8th & 9th January.Propagation by layering is a technique to grow new plants from existing plants in your garden.Are you renting and are a wanna-be gardener - we can help… Container gardening is not as tricky as you might think.One of my favourite books - this week we talk about The Dry Garden by Beth Chatto When water becomes precious you'll find wonderful ideas for Xeriscaping (dry gardening) in this book.Take a look at the @bethchattogardens account on Instagram for more information.Congratulations to Claire for winning the beautiful Garden Journal by @madison_coulter_artist This 10-year journal will bring clarity and purpose to your gardening.Happy gardening, Ali and JenSupport the showYou can contact us at coach@yourgardencoach.nz Please follow our Instagram page @yourgardencoach_nz where we regularly upload interesting gardening tips Our website is under construction, as you know good things take time.Keep a lookout for http://yourgardencoach.nz We hope you enjoy our podcast, designed for gardeners in the Central Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand - but not exclusively. Join us from wherever you happen to be and simply check the title of the podcast. e.g. Spring Ep1. to fit in with the season in your location.
Ogden man arrested for citizen’s arrest attempt Full-day kindergarten check-in Student loan repayments resume Rep. John Curtis considering running for the US Senate seat Xeriscaping your lawn
Have you ever considered xeriscaping your lawn? It can save you a lot of water. Savannah Peterson, Coordinator of the Flip Your Strip and Landscape Incentive programs for the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, joins the show to explain how it works and what it costs to get it done.
Your lawn may be your pride and joy, but is there an environmentally friendly alternative? Join us in the weeds with Michael Regilio on Skeptical Sunday! Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and fact-checker, comedian, and podcast host David C. Smalley break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. On This Week's Skeptical Sunday: Lawns are a symbol of American culture, but they have significant environmental drawbacks — including water wastage, pesticide use, and habitat destruction. The origins of lawns can be traced back to British aristocracy, who sought to emulate Italian landscape paintings with vast, manicured lawns around their mansions. Lawns in the United States became more widespread after World War II, with suburban developments like Levittown contributing to their popularity. Noise pollution and the emission of greenhouse gases from lawn care equipment are on the rise in a landscaping industry that pulls in over $100 billion per year. Transitioning to alternatives like xeriscaping, native gardens, or even painting brown lawns green can reduce the environmental harm caused by traditional grass lawns. Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know! Connect with Michael Regilio at his website, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and make sure to check out the Michael Regilio Plagues Well With Others podcast here or wherever you enjoy listening to fine podcasts! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/901 This Episode Is Brought To You By Our Fine Sponsors: jordanharbinger.com/deals Sign up for Six-Minute Networking — our free networking and relationship development mini course — at jordanharbinger.com/course!
Xeriscaping Techniques: Designing landscapes that are water-efficient and suitable for arid climates.
Join us for an informative discussion with Tom Wichman, an expert on eco-friendly landscaping with nearly 50 years' experience in the industry. A self-proclaimed plant nerd, Tom is currently the Assistant Director for the Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program and the statewide coordinator for the Green Industries Best Management Practices Program. Tom is also the radio host for Florida-Friendly Landscaping in a Minute radio show, and he and his team just completed filming season 3 of the television show Flip My Florida Yard. We'll highlight the importance of eco-friendly landscaping and break down its core tenets. In this episode, learn about: - How to build biodiversity in your home landscape - Water wise practices - Recycling yard waste Learn more about Florida-Friendly Landscaping on the website: https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu/ And check out the Free Florida-Landscaping Handbook: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeysnTNBRS6LK6Kcqvdv6gcM6dk5KuUVc-KH2K0OG4BOHkOxQ/viewform Find your local agricultural extension agent for local events: https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/find-your-local-office/ Support the showWe hope you enjoyed the episode! Please help us continue to produce more valuable content by subscribing to our Fresh Take Podcast Series! Subscribe here SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY- Learn more about the many benefits of becoming a Sponsor of Florida Organic Growers! Your contribution will not only help to advance an organic and sustainable future but gain brand awareness through our growing audience. If you are interested, click here
During this week's board meeting Jacqueline Moran gave a moving speech about sexual misconduct she said her daughter endured as a student at Buena several years ago.Support the show: https://www.myheraldreview.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Utah Water Wise home use tips -- State senator steps into "xeriscaping" vs HOA fight
Brainy Thing: 17:34 Behind the Redwood Curtain 26:50 What we're learning from our knitting: Catherine is delighting in quickly-knitted and fun baby items -- a hat and socks from various designers: Kate Atherley https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-socks---worsted-dk-version; also https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-socks-23 Bianca Boonstra: www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-socks. Knitty Gritty: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/easy-peasy-newborn-sock-hat Margaret mixed and match gnome parts from Sarah Schira: All Work, Gnome Play. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/all-work-gnome-play Leave Gnome Stone Unturned. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leave-gnome-stone-unturned Brainy Thing: Who suffered more from covid isolation? Maybe you'll be surprised. https://greaterdivide.com/2020/04/30/the-resilience-of-extroverts-in-a-time-of-lock-downs/ Behind the Redwood Curtain: The ongoing drought and naturally dry areas like deserts require a different type of landscaping. Margaret introduces xeriscaping. https://frontsteps.com/blog/7-principles-of-xeriscaping/ https://calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/xeriscaping/ https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/xeriscaping-creative-landscaping-7-228/ Welcome to Episode 136 of Teaching Your Brain to Knit where we ask the question "Who suffered more from covid Isolation -- introverts or extroverts. The answer might surprise you. Catherine talks about the pleasure of knitting quick, colorful baby items -- a hat and socks and Margaret shares her experience mixing and matching gnome parts. Then we look at xeriscaping -- a way to landscape for dry and drought-ridden areas.
Our future will be defined by those who understand deeply ingrained systems but have the ability to harness that knowledge, think outside of the box, and free the system to move toward a better model. Few are doing this as well as Claudia Carter. Claudia will take us on a journey from her hometown of Manta, Ecuador to her current role as Executive Director of the California Wheat Commission. In this episode, you will hear how the passion for great food, wheat, and healthy children is changing the way we interface with one of the oldest and most significant crops on the planet. This recording takes us through the complex world of commodity wheat, protein levels, quantitative lab evaluation and beyond. You will learn how the conformity in nutrient composition dictates market pull and price. This helps us to see how the industry has problems using wheats grown outside of conventional systems (both organic and regenerative) and why the market has had a hard time adapting to it despite proof that these crops can often perform beautifully in bakery applications. We discuss the pressures in California from prolonged drought, irrigation access, and the recently passed legislation that is forcing farmers to make some very serious decisions. SGMA (Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) is changing the future of California's agricultural sector and we hear about what farmers, advocates, and academics are doing to help prevent the land from becoming fallow. Claudia is so passionate about children and we will hear about the Grain to School program she has worked to develop that helps kids connect with grains and grain-based foods from the soil up. Claudia's zeal for life is infectious and on top of all the incredible things she is doing, she is also pursuing her Ph.D. in Nutrition. It is thrilling to see this union of nutrition, cereal sciences, and industry coming together. Claudia embodies the visionary insight that is needed to build a healthier, more resilient food system. Learn more below: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiacarter/ http://californiawheat.org/ https://www.instagram.com/californiawheat/ https://twitter.com/CAWheatComm https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/sgma-groundwater-management https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/people/mark-lundy https://civileats.com/2021/09/10/the-next-chapter-for-farm-to-school-milling-whole-grains-in-the-cafeteria/
Tripp is a Colorado native with a long history of involvement with water, water rights and conservation. Water is the most important “commodity” on Earth and today we kick off our first of several sessions dedicated to the complex relationship that humans have with this precious resource. Tripp is a student of Axiology which is the philosophical study of value. In this session, we navigate the layers of “value” that are placed on water by society from the perspective of access, purity and scarcity. Tripp has spent his professional career in finance, business, grocery and impact investment. He has also dedicated time to both Western States Water Partnership and the Colorado Wildlife Foundation.https://www.linkedin.com/in/tripp-w-1904195/ https://www.trailheadcap.com/our-team https://foodsystems.colostate.edu/events/colorado-food-summit/speakers/#wall To learn more and sign up for our newsletter, please visit the Regenerative by Design page at: https://snacktivistfoods.com/pages/regenerative-by-design-podcast This podcast brought to you by Snacktivist Inc. We create delicious foods from regenerative ingredients that are soil, water and carbon focused, all while radically impacting human nutrition.
Yay! Julie is super excited for Spring--she's so happy for the warmer, sunnier days and she's rather enthusiastic about ornamental redbuds, white cemetery iris and gets a little nerdy about xeric landscaping. Oops.
Rusty Schmidt, President of the Long Island Native Plant Initiative explains the crucial importance of Native plants in our local ecosystems. Long Island Native Plant InitiativeInvasive and native plant Symposium on April 7th!!https://linpi.org/Nelson Popehttps://nelsonpope.com/Invasive Species Management Long Islandhttps://liisma.org/Lawns to Legumeshttp://bwsr.state.mn.us/l2lNorthport Native Garden Initiative NNGIhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/northportngi/Long Island Native Plant Gardening Grouphttps://www.facebook.com/groups/LongIslandNativePlants/New York State Flora Atlashttps://newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/Grow Native Missourihttps://grownative.org/Burnsville Rainwater Gardenshttps://burnsvillemn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/450/Rain-Garden-Project-Summary-2006?bidId=Doug Tallamyhttps://homegrownnationalpark.org/tallamys-hub-1Heather Holmhttps://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/info@linpi.orgrusty@linpi.org
Beyond the clues dissected in today's episode, there were a few surprising answers lurking in the grid: 41A, People credited with discovering mechanoluminescence, using quartz crystals to generate light, UTE (but still no word as who discovered how to spell it); 22A, Big gun, you might say, BICEP (not, as Mike originally hoped, GIANTSPACELASER); and the at first blush perplexing 4D, Schedule listings, FEES, which may (or may not) be an Ebay thing. Regardless, we liked the crossword overall, and give it a 5 squares on the JAMCR scale.
We talk water -- and other hot issues. The vaccine. Pall bearers. Xeriscaping. Kids and masks. It's all here.
There is a whole world of plants that look amazing and put on a show of color under low water conditions. Xeriscaping doesn't mean bland, desert-like color schemes. Here are some great ideas for bedding plants that put on a show while still conserving water in the yard.
Here in UT, where even at the best of times getting the rain and snow we need is a constant preoccupation, this year's extreme lack of water is very concerning. Up and down the western half of the U.S., we're seeing record high temperatures and record low moisture. Adopted voluntarily or not, water restrictions are becoming a reality, and that's going to affect your lawn. That's got people really considering the costs of maintaining turf. Do they really need or want to maintain a lawn? Do they need all of their lawn? What options do they have to keep their lawns alive through this summer? Today we're talking about extreme drought and your lawn in this episode of Eco Lawn Science.
00:01:29 – 2020 Kansas Net Farm Income Report: The executive director of the Kansas Farm Management Association at K-State, Kevin Herbel, and six association economists discuss the numbers from the KFMA's just-released 2020 Kansas Net Farm Income Report: They look at the average net farm income for the state and for the six KFMA regions, highlighting the percentage of that income attributable to government payments. And they talk about the other factors that led to a strong income year for most producers. Joining Kevin are Jordan Steele, Lindsay Bryant, Bob Kohman, Clay Simons, Craig Althauser and Dillon Rapp. 00:29:30 – K-State Garden Hour webinar preview - Xeriscaping: On this week's horticulture segment, Shawnee County Extension horticulture agent Ariel Whitely Noll talks about xeriscaping: designing a home landscape for limited water use. It's the topic she'll be addressing during the next K-State Garden Hour webinar. Send comments, questions or requests for copies of past programs to ksrenews@ksu.edu. Agriculture Today is a daily program featuring Kansas State University agricultural specialists and other experts examining ag issues facing Kansas and the nation. It is hosted by Eric Atkinson and distributed to radio stations throughout Kansas and as a daily podcast. K‑State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well‑being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan.
How-to tips on xeriscaping. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Episode Notes In this episode, Margaret talks to Liza Kurtz about disaster studies and elite panic. The guest, Liza Kurtz, is a a PhD candidate in disaster studies who studies the impact of disaster on society, specifically how class and other antecedent conditions make people vulnerable to disasters. She is @semihumanist on twitter, and you can email her at liza.c.kurtz@gmail.com. The host, Margaret Killjoy, can be found on twitter @magpiekilljoy or instagram at @margaretkilljoy. You can support her and this show on Patreon at patreon.com/margaretkilljoy. Transcript 1:07:41 SPEAKERS Margaret, Liza Kurtz Margaret Hello, and welcome to Live Like the World is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. I'm your host, Margaret Killjoy. I use she or they pronouns. And this week I'm talking with Liza Kurtz, who is a PhD candidate in disaster studies who studies essentially the impact—well, the impact of disaster upon society. And we talk about a lot of stuff, we cover a lot of ground in this episode. But primarily, we're talking about the ways in which people do and don't respond to disaster. And basically, are trying to kind of bust the myth of that everyone runs around and, you know, murders each other or whatever. And also we get to talk about elite panic which is the idea that basically the people who are invested in the system are the ones who panic during times of extraordinary crisis. This podcast is a proud member of the Channel Zero Network of anarchist podcasts, and here's a jingle from another podcast on the network. Da daaaaa. Jingle Speaker 1 Kite Line is a weekly 30-minute radio program focusing on issues in the prison system. You'll hear news along with stories from prisoners and former prisoners as well as their loved ones. You'll learn what prison is, how it functions, and how it impacts all of us. Jingle Speaker 2 Behind the prison walls, a message is called a kite. Whispered words, a note passed hand-to-hand, a request submitted the guards for medical care. Elicit or not, sending a kite means trusting that other people will bear it farther along until it reaches its destination. Here on Kite Line we hope to share these words across the prison walls. Jingle Speaker 1 You can hear us on the Channel Zero Network and find out more at kitelineradio.noblogs.org. Margaret Okay, if you could introduce yourself with your name, your pronouns, and then also just kind of, like, what you do, like, what do—you know, why did I bring you on this show? Liza Sure thing that sounds great. So my name is Lisa Kurtz. I am a PhD candidate at Arizona State University. I use the pronouns she and her. And my research really focuses on specifically heat and power outages in the southwest. That's what my dissertation will be about. But in general, I am grounded in disaster sociology as a discipline, looking at it from sort of a conflict theory lens, which is a fancy way of saying, I look at class struggle and how antecedent conditions of disaster make people vulnerable to what we perceive as these, like, natural events that cause great harm. Margaret Okay. What does that mean? That last part. Liza Sure, yeah. That's a good question. So basically I think we have a tendency, and certainly there's a tendency in popular culture and in the media to perceive any kind of disaster as—the term you'll hear used in legal circles, and sometimes in the press, is an "act of God," right? Like something no one could have predicted that just happens, that's nobody's fault. And it causes great suffering, but that suffering often isn't really drilled down on to see why did this happen. And so what disaster sociology and disaster studies try to do really is pick that apart and really trouble the implication that these things are just natural and just happen. Because they don't. And so if you look at who suffers most from disasters, if you look at why disasters happen at all, really all they are these natural events make a lens that that focuses and amplifies what's already going on in society. So if you have inequality, you have injustice, disaster brings all of that to the fore. But there's a temptation to think of it as coming out of nowhere, when in reality, we create the conditions that make suffering happen during a disaster. So Katrina is a great example of this. You can say, "Oh, it was, you know, a hundred-year storm, nobody could have predicted a hurricane that large." And there's some element of truth to that, but there's more elements of truth to how we built the city of New Orleans reflects, like, the racial injustice of its history and the poverty that we've allowed to flourish there. And all of that can get hidden behind the idea that this storm just happened. Margaret Yeah. It's interesting, because one of the things that I focus on when I pay attention to disasters is actually the almost—the inverse consideration as far as it goes, as far as class—not in terms of like, clearly, people who are oppressed in society along numerous axes are far more likely to suffer during disasters. But I guess I like, I put a lot of my energy into thinking about how people come together during disasters. And the main thing that I've been learning slowly and I kind of want to talk to you about is this idea that, like, everyone except the elite come together and, like, work on shit together during disasters. Is that— Liza Oh, man. Margaret Is that true? Is that, like—that's my conception, right. Liza That is certainly. Yeah, that's pretty spot on in a lot of cases. Yeah. And you're right certainly that people who suffer disproportionately during disasters, the folks who are vulnerable, who take the hardest hit, whether that's health or money or property damage, that doesn't make them not incredible at self-organizing and incredible at building community and responding to those events. It just makes—means they take a disproportionate amount of damage. And yeah, you're super right in the sense that we see—so, to really talk about this I'm gonna have to backup, and maybe this isn't that interesting, but I hope it is. I'm not sure if you know anything about the history of disaster studies. Margaret I do not. Liza Okay, so a lot of disaster studies came out of World War Two, like, civil defense ideas. The idea that there might be air attacks or even a land invasion of the United States by Axis forces or, right afterward and during the Cold War by Russia. And so there was this—oh, yeah, of course. Like it all goes back to the Cold War if you look hard enough, right. Margaret Yeah. Liza So there was this enormous interest in what the civilian response would be if something like that happens, and how we can encourage regular civilians to take the stress off of military forces that might be forced to respond by becoming self-reliant. So that's where you see this, like, advertising in glossy magazines about, like, build your own fallout shelter kind of thing. All the stuff that you see in video games now, all that was super real during the Cold War, and before that it was it was air raid shelters during World War Two. And it was really to take the pressure off of military and humanitarian forces who might be forced to respond. The idea was, you didn't want to be part of the problem. And so there was this massive wartime militaristic interest in what civilian populations would do and how we could train them to be self-sufficient. And so part of that was a ton of interest in and research into—that was funded by the military and a lot of cases—into how people would behave if something went really, really wrong. Like, would they panic? Would there be mass chaos? Would they turn on each other? And the perception that still lingers to this day in the media, if you see any bad disaster movies, and they're pretty much all bad—although some of them are bad and fun and some are just bad. If it's got the Rock, I'm there and I don't care. Margaret Yeah, no, that's just natural. Liza Yeah, so the perception and the expectation was that civilian populations would panic. That if there was an air raid, or a bombing, or something went wrong, there would be this mass panic. And then, as you get researchers starting to look into this, what they find actually is that people are usually pretty good at self-organizing in response to an immediate crisis. And so even though the perception is still, in the media, that if anything goes wrong it will be immediately a Walking Dead kind of scenario, as one of my interviewees put itrecently—that's not really true. Especially not among, like, middle class and lower class communities that live side-by-side with each other all the time. And we'll go into elite panic a little bit more. So that's where there started to be the seed of dispelling the myth of disaster panic was then. And that research happened in the 70s and the 80s, and the late 60s a little bit. And that has since been borne out by most of the available data, that people are really good at self-rescuing, that the real first responder is your neighbor most of the time or a family member, and that folks are pretty good at making the best of terrible, terrible situations and making life easier for each other. Now, where you see that start to fall apart is in elite panic, which is when affluent communities or communities that tend to be racial enclaves—like all-white suburbs, and things like that—get that fear of the other bite, because their perception is that as soon as anything breaks bad, it's going to be a Walking Dead scenario and everyone is going to come for their stuff. And I don't know what goes on in their head. It seems like a very, like almost a wild west, like, take your wives and children kind of mentality. Yeah. Which is really, I mean, the more you unpack that and really think about it, the more fucked up it gets. Um, and so the elite panic can be super dangerous. Margaret I mean, on some level, I might be coming for their stuff. Liza Yeah, well, fair. Yeah, absolutely. Margaret Like, I might come for their stuff. I mean, you know, they have too much of it and they're not sharing. I mean, not to tie into their own fears. It's just, you know, the billionaires of this world like... Liza No, that's real. I've never confirmed this. But there's anecdotal reports in the Balkan Wars of people who stockpiled supplies because they sort of saw things going poorly becoming extreme social pariahs and sometimes even the targets of violence because of their, their hoarding tendencies, stockpiling goods in advance and keeping other people from getting them. So apparently that was like a severe social crime at the time, although I've never confirmed that in the literature. I've just heard that anecdotally. And it's, it's easy to understand why, like, if you're taking it and not sharing, then I can certainly see something similar happening here. I mean, I often tell preppers—when people ask about preppers in my work, I tell them preppers are going to die alone in a bunker full of goods because it's great you have all that stuff, but there isn't much you can really do with it if you don't have the social connections to make social life happen. I think prepping in particular is a particular—a particularly elite and American form of the myth of individualism taken to the most dramatic extreme Margaret Well it's interesting thoughbecause it—if it comes from this idea of us being asked to self-rescue, us being asked to be resilient, you know—I know maybe it's like I'm always, like, trying to, like, salvage what I can out of prepping because in my mind, yeah, like the the bunker mentality—which I talk shit on, and probably every single episode—because I basically find people who are, like, functionally know a lot about prepping but don't call themselves preppers for a lot of good reasons. The bunker mentality is obviously just going to get you killed, whether it's by disease or, you know, there's like—but, but it's interesting when this idea of like being resilient, being prepared, rather than being like "a prepper" maybe. I don't know. Liza Yeah, absolutely. And I want to draw the distinction here between what I would probably call if I, in academic speak, like the practice of prepping, which is the knowledge and the goods and knowing how to do basic survival tasks if needed, and sort of the classic American dominant culture of prepping, which is that hyper-masculinized, hyper-muscular Christianity, like, it's just going to be me and my family and my guns and a bunker full of food kind of thing. So when I talk about prepping in a derogatory way, I definitely mean the culture and not the practice. Yeah, no, I think—I have a really complicated relationship with the idea of resilience because, on one hand, I think resilience can be used to recognize how incredible some communities are at self-organizing and taking care of themselves in the face not just a disaster but of tremendously difficult conditions. Like, it is truly astonishing what people can do to find ways to survive. And here especially we see that a lot. In Phoenix, air conditioning—which is where I am—air conditioning is really not a luxury like it is in many other places. It is 110%, a survival skill or a survival tool because it is not uncommon for summers to be 115 here, which is, if you can't cool off that can be extremely detrimental to health. And so the people who have to live without air conditioning, in my work, have a tremendously creative number of strategies. Now, should they have to use them? No, of course not. They should, they should be able to have access to air conditioning for equity and health reasons. But that doesn't make the things that they do any less creative or impressive in doing so. And what's interesting to me is that sometimes we talk about prepping and the failure of systems or natural hazards can sometimes invert the relationship of who is most—how would I put this—of who is, like, doing the best in the sense that in my work in Phoenix, people who live without air conditioning are far more prepared for blackouts. So they may be more at risk in the everyday scenario as opposed to having air conditioning, but if the city's grid failed, they already have the culture and practice of staying cool without access to air conditioning down in a way that somebody who like me, honestly, who can afford air conditioning and uses it all the time really doesn't. Margaret Just as a tangent that I'm curious about, what do people do without AC in severe, like, in severe heat. Like what do you recommend to people in power outages in the southwest? Liza Oh, boy. Well, yeah, that's a complicated question. But we've been very fortunate here in Phoenix to never have a truly widespread power outage. And so generally when there are smaller scale outages here, it's possible to seek indoor cooled shelter in another part of the city. But my dissertation focuses on asking residents what they would do during a three day power outage where the entire metro area does not have power. And I think I definitely ruined some people's days asking them that because it's one of those things that's uncomfortable to consider, for sure. But people who don't have power really talk about very, very smart ways. And what's especially interesting is they tap into knowledge that was present prior to the city having electricity. So these really old practices of things like hanging wet blankets over doorways so that your humidifying the air that comes into your house for greater evapotranspiration is one of them. Fairly straightforward things that most of us might think of, like wearing lighter-colored clothing, or staying out of the sun. But then also some really amazing stuff like knowing, you know, knowing which structures in the town are adobe and were built prior to air conditioning and are designed to stay cool. So if you're in a modern house in Phoenix now when you don't have AC, the temperature inside the house will rise very quickly. But many adobe structures were built prior to air conditioning or even, like, swamp cooling which is another thing we use here which is basically a giant humidifier prior to those being accessible. And so adobe structures will stay cool significantly better than modern buildings. Margaret Yeah, I like—then you also have the problem how dry it is because, yeah, the thing that immediately strikes me as evaporative cooling, like, I would be like, oh, can you like, you know, I don't know, build, like, water catchment on the roof that holds water on the roof so it evaporates instead of transferring heat or whatever. I don't know. But that's dependent on a very different ecosystem. And also just some bullshit that I made up right now. Liza I mean, if you think about it, that's how all survival strategies started, right? Like, hey, I wonder if this works? Yeah, no, water is a huge, a huge cooling strategy here. And it's funny because I'm originally from Tennessee, and I literally until I moved here did not know it was possible to buy humidifiers. I'd never seen anything but dehumidifiers. And so when I got here I was like, why would you want to put water in your house? And then my first summer I was like, oh, I get it. Yeah, water is hugely important in everyone's cooling strategies here. And that's another issue with blackouts in particular, because certainly if you go and ask many people who are responsible for critical infrastructure systems, they will tell you that power outages will not cause water treatment and pressure issues. But if you look at the history of citywide blackouts, the United States, there's almost always somebody who is having to cope without household potable water at the time. And so it seems like these systems are not as resilient as we would like in terms of critical infrastructure. And here, if you don't have access to household water, a huge number of your cooling strategy is, like, you know, just slam dunking yourself in a cold bath if you need to—suddenly become less tenable. And that can be really, really a problem. Margaret Yeah. Let's talk about—I kind of accidentally derailed you or intentionally derailed you while you're talking about elite panic. But I'm really interested in that, because I'm really interested in this idea—like, again, the the working understanding that I've had, just from my my layman's perspective or whatever, is that during disasters, overall, people like essentially self-organize—not in a utopian way inherently, but often in a way that people kind of miss when things go back to normal. But then when everything gets really fucked up seems like when the existing power—the previous power structures attempt to reassert themselves. That's like been my observational understanding of, like, talking to a lot of people involved in disaster relief and things like that. But it seems like that ties into elite panic, this idea that people who are actually invested in the previous power relations, and especially property relations, are maybe the ones who can't handle the idea of everyone suddenly taking care of each other and shit. Liza Yeah, absolutely. I think that's spot on. And I think you really see this sort of that—well, you might almost call it like a pivot point, or an inflection point where things could turn one way or the other in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. And you really see that reflected in the practice of disaster capitalism. So I think sometimes we overlook—because it seems so inevitable—that disasters have poor outcomes, and they do for many people. Disasters can also be an opportunity to say, "Hey, business, as usual, is what got us to this outcome. How can we do things differently?" Because there's sort of a shock to the system, whether the system is you as a resident or the household or the town or the county or the state, like, they're really, they're a shock point. And so they provide an opportunity to stop and say, like, okay, business as usual—the everyday practice of how we run things—got us here? How do we make sure this doesn't happen again? And if you really start engaging with how does this not happen again, that means transforming those everyday practices that got you there. So I think you're spot on with that idea that elites and people on the top who have an interest in preserving the status quo see the inflection point and sort of grab it and pull as hard as they can in the other direction. And so it's not just that there's, I think, a desire to go back to the way things were and preserve the power structure and the property relationships and everything else of the place before the disaster happened. In a lot of cases, they're perceived as opportunities, which is extremely messed up and amoral, but it's true that really these things are seen as, here is a great opportunity to restructure things towards a more capitalist, a more stratified, a less just system. And one of the things that I think you can see right now with that is because COVID closed public school systems, which is a good thing, like, kids don't need to be spreading COVID. Like, I'm broadly supportive of the public health need to close school systems. It provided this vacuum for all these alternatives, and these think pieces to crop up, etc. And these companies to start pitching like, well, do we really need public schooling anyway? Margaret Oh, shit, uhuh. Liza Can this be replaced by a different system that's more private, that's more controlled by capital, that's less interested in the public good, that is more about profit. And that's a classic, classic example of what's called disaster capitalism, where something goes wrong and suddenly it becomes an opportunity for someone somewhere to restructure things so they can make more money. Margaret Yeah, and that's, I mean, you know, Amazon, Jeff Bezos, all that shit. Like, with COVID now, everyone buys everything online. I buy everything online. I'm terrified of COVID and I work from home. So, you know—and then you're like, I don't know, just watching. society restructure itself to buy everything online. And online is kind of, it—I don't know whether it's naturally or it's designed that way by evil people. But, like, overall, the internet is so good at decentralizing things and yet in terms of, like, commerce, it seems like it's really good at centralizing. It's like really good at having the everything store. You know? Liza Yeah. And I don't know enough about the architecture of the internet and economics therein to say, like, if that's by design, or just a function of the way it works. But yes, it does seem to be—seems to be so good at creating monopolies in that way. Margaret When you're talking about adobe houses, you know, and how, okay, the old houses are actually built with adobe or whatever. You know, it just—it really strikes me about how completely arrogant the colonial and industrial system is, in that it's like, well, whatever works in New England is what should work in Arizona. And it's so baffling to me, you know, because it's like, well, there's so obviously, like, a steep pitched roof exists that way to shed snow, you know, and then people were like, "Oh, we'll just put these steep gables everywhere." And like— Liza Right. Margaret It's just... I mean, I say that as someone who lives in a a-frame somewhere where there's no snow—well, not no snow, but not much snow. But in my defense, I actually just built it that way because it's the cheapest and most structurally sound way for someone who doesn't know how to build a house to build a house is have fewer walls, more roof. I don't know, it just, it—it depresses me to think about. Yeah, no. This the centralizing urge. Go ahead. Oh, I just, I think you're so right. And I think it's, it's—maybe there is something to the idea that accelerated consolidationist capitalism makes everything sort of a bland universalism in much of the way that Amazon is a bland universalism. Because I do think one of the things that we've really lost that is super helpful in the practice of preparing for disaster is local knowledge. Just localization in general is such a huge thing. Whether it's knowing where in your landscape the water is, or knowing what kind of house does best without AC. And certainly here in Phoenix I have been known to just, like, scream a little bit in my car driving around because there is a massive fad for pulling out old, beautiful 50s Ranch homes and putting in—I've heard them referred to as "McModerns." So houses that take up the entire lot, that look, like you say, very much New England-y. They're often two storeys which is dumb in the desert, they have no green buffer around them at all to help cool anything, they're made of, like, the cheapest possible, like, wood and sheet rock and very little insulation, very large windows that face, you know, like east and west, often. And so you just look at these buildings that are literally the worst possible choice for this environment. And they are building them constantly and it really like it is tremendously painful to see in these beautiful neighborhoods that were originally orange groves. And so when people started building houses there, they would leave the orange trees around their houses, and so there was significant shade and food in your front yard, and then they will just rip them all out and replace them with these. And what really gets me—and this is like such a classic example of a thing people think they're doing for a good reason that is actually worse —s many of them have astroturf lawns, which I understand from the perspective of not wanting to use water or like your grass always being green. But you've replaced, like, not that I support suburban lawns, but you've replaced something that is at least a plant, even if it's a monoculture, with plastic. And sure it doesn't use water. But the thing that gets me the most is my colleagues study surface temperature, and astroturf is the worst thing you could put down for heat. Margaret Yeah. Okay. Liza Like, it's worse—you might as well have paved your yard. Margaret Yeah. Liza And it's also carcinogenic. And so there's this, like, pseudo-greenwashing that's actually just absolutely the worst thing you could do for everyone involved, all these horrible McModerns that are the worst thing you could build for the desert. And we have—and I think it really all just comes from a desire for, I want to live in a place that looks like every other place. And we've come so far from, like, the localized knowledge of knowing adobe is better and xeriscaping is better and all of that. Margaret Xeriscaping?. Liza Oh, sorry, X-E-R-I. Xeriscaping is desert landscaping. So it's the practice of planting your yard in a way that is congruous with, like, the natural environment of the Sonoran Desert that we're in here. Margaret Yeah, it's this arrogance that I almost can't handle. Because it's, like, if you build your life around, I assume that I will always have a gas line and a power line and, you know, I will always just have as much electricity as I could possibly want. You know, it's like, now that I live somewhere where I generate my own electricity—I mean, a solar panel generates the electricity for me. It, which isn't, you know, carbon neutral, either, you know. But I'm so aware of, like, how incredibly not necessary wasteful AC is, because you kind of need it in a lot of circumstances. It's not a waste. But it's not exactly this, like, low power device. You know? And, I don't know, just the things that we take for granted, it confuses me sometimes. Liza For sure. And you shouldn't have said solar panel, because in my head it was just you biking furiously on like a bike generator to keep the computer on while we do is so you could have had me there. No, absolutely, I think—yeah, I mean, an AC is one of those things where, I don't know, it's almost like putting a band aid on a bullet wound here a little bit in the sense that I'm not going to argue that centralized air conditioning is the single most effective intervention for saving people from dying from heat, which is a huge problem here. About 500 people in the state died last year from heat-related causes last year, which is not an insignificant number. And actually, extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather-related hazard. So you know, when you worry about hurricanes or tornadoes or things like that, it's really heat that's the major killer of people. And so I would never say, like, don't have central AC for ecological reasons, because it is a huge and immediate public health intervention that saves lives. But also, it doesn't solve this fundamental problem which is, part of the reason we need AC so badly is we built the city in a really stupid sort of 70s-thinking kind of way, which is there's tons of uncovered pavement, and really tall buildings that, you know, like, the urban heat island here is very, very real, it doesn't cool off overnight. And so the need for AC is great, but the need to think beyond AC and think about how do we look into the future and actually reduce the need for this, like, immediate public health triage of just get in a cool environment so you don't die right away? Margaret Well, okay, so the the need to fundamentally restructure huge parts of our society seems very apparent and increasingly apparent to more and more people, especially as, you know, climate change barrels down on everyone, even if you were willing to ignore all of the systemic oppression that people face. And I think sometimes—and I know I do this, and I wonder whether—you talk about how capitalists look at disaster as opportunity, and that's a problem. And I'm like, so do revolutionists, and so do people who want society to be fundamentally different. Because you have this, some level of like wiping the slate clean, and there's a certain amount of opportunity to restructure society. And it seems like very often capitalism is better at this than us. But there are also these, like, you know, like watching mutual aid networks pop up all over at least the United States last year in a way that like—and I wouldn't, you know, I don't want COVID to have happened, right? But when people look at that and say, well, we actually need to learn how to take care of each other and build these, like, networks by which to take care of each other. To me, that's the beauty of it. But then it's—now I wonder whether I'm doing the same kind of ambulance chasing that capitalists are. Do I let myself off the hook just because I think what I'm doing is good and what they're doing is bad, right? Like, they think the opposite. But I'm right. Liza Well, yeah, I mean, I don't think it is—if it's ambulance chasing, you're only chasing the ambulance, to help stop the bleeding as opposed to charge the patient. So I think that there's a fundamental value difference there. And so yeah, no, you're you're absolutely correct in the sense that they're are opportunities, and there are opportunities, whether we want them to be or not, so we might as well seize them. But I think part of the problem is about how—not just in media, but even to each other-how we storytelling around disasters as, like—it's very hard to hold the tension in your mind. Like with COVID, it's very hard to hold the tension in your mind between so many people, particularly people of color and otherwise vulnerable folks have paid this horrible price for our inability to cope with an epidemic. And at the same time, this sort of—and that's, there's nothing good about that, that is massively negative. And at the same time, we are being presented with this opportunity that could allow us to build something better, like these mutual aid networks that you mentioned. But it feels–it's very hard to talk about, in a way that feels respectful and honorable—to say like, this is an opportunity for something better to be born out of the ashes of this enormous tragedy. And so I think it's easy for those conversations to get derailed, one because of how we talk about disasters as, you know, like always negative with the panic and everything like that—the mythology around disasters makes it hard. And then two, the difficulty of respectfully talking about this. But I would certainly argue that if we want especially—and I'll use COVID, as the example here—if we want to honor the people who died unjustly of COVID, there is no better way to do so, than taking this opportunity and seizing it to make a system and a world where that won't happen again. Margaret Yeah, that's a—that's a good way to put it. And I wonder, you know, it's like, I mean, what we should be trying to do—and what people do try to do is just that the systems of power we're up against are rather good at what they do of maintaining their power—is do this anyway. You know, it's like, there's been mutual aid networks for—well, ever, obviously—just assigning a word to it in the 19th century, or whatever. But, you know, we need to restructure things anyway. And if you were to take Phoenix as an example, it's like—I mean, I kind of, I have to admit, I look at Phoenix as like this just grand arrogance in the desert, that, like, probably shouldn't be there. And I know that that's not fair to the actual individual people who live there, you know. And so I don't want to be like, get rid of Phoenix or whatever, right. But like—but instead it's like, well, probably the slow, hard work of restructuring needs to happen anyway. Like the slow, hard work of figuring out how to rebuild the city in such a way that it isn't just, like, waiting for disaster. I don't know. Liza Oh, yeah. I think you've touched on something there that I always try and challenge people with when they talk about Phoenix as a grand experiment in inevitable failure—building I think at this point the fifth largest city in the United States—or the fifth largest metro area, actually—in the desert which is—I don't necessarily disagree that that is not an immediately intuitively good idea. But now that it's here, I like to think of Phoenix as the perfect testbed and sandbox because it's the hottest large metro area in the United States. And if we can turn this thing around, and we can make Phoenix in the next 30 years cooler and more livable and more just and more sustainable, than it can be done anywhere. We're the edge case, and so this is the perfect place to find those solutions, and then take the lessons learned and the things that worked and export them to less extreme environments where they might be useful. So in that sense, even a little victory in Phoenix might be a big victory in somewhere else. Margaret Yeah. Okay. So, to go back to disaster studies, we've talked about how the mainstream, like, certainly the media conception of disaster is, you know, the Walking Dead scenario is the everyone running around, like, you know, everyone for themselves scenario. And—but, but disaster studies, it seems like even though it came from this, you know, kind of shitty background, it seems like—have the people who study disaster academically, have they kind of known this entire time, that's bullshit? And if so, why isn't that getting out? Like, why aren't more people aware of the fact that everything we know about how people respond to disaster is wrong? Liza That is a great, great question. And I'm not sure I have, like, a perfect answer for you. But I can certainly offer some thoughts. So yes, you're right that disaster studies, even though it came out of this very militarized and military-funded background, really starting with a wonderful scholar named E. L. Quarantelli who was active in the 60s to the 90s really started questioning those views and pushing on this idea of panic and other things like that. And so, disaster studies in general as a field—not all of it, but for a long time—has been very justice-oriented in its approach. So if you've heard the words "social vulnerability," a lot of that is coming out of disaster studies. If you've heard the words, you know—or heard talking about the concept of resilience as applied from the top down being a way of almost victim blaming—which certainly it can be, you know. Like, why aren't you—it's a repackaging sometimes of the idea of like, why aren't you self reliant? Why are you making us help you? Kind of thing. All of that is really coming out of a disaster studies. The problem is, unfortunately, that you almost have two separate silos of disaster studies, because disaster scholars are not the people who respond to disaster. They're not the people preparing for it. They're not the people deciding what mitigates it. Those people are part of what I would broadly call sort of the emergency management class, at least here in the United States, they are. And many of them are emergency managers, but that also includes things like crisis communications and information officers, or Public Information Officers, and fire chiefs and firefighters, and EMS first responders, and in many cases public health officials as well. And that is a professional class that has existed for a long time—and this is slowly starting to change—that has really stayed rooted in that military idea. So it's not directly connected to the military, although sometimes it is. But it's a militarized service. It's very about hierarchy—so I was a firefighter, I was a volunteer firefighter in Tennessee for about two years. So you have a commanding officer, you know, it's structured like the military, basically. In a lot of cases it works very closely with law enforcement and the military, like National Guard, for instance. Here in Arizona, I think it's very indicative that our agency is DEMA, which is the Department of Emergency and military affairs. And how you became an emergency manager, or fire chief, or someone who is really directly involved in the world of preparing for and responding to disasters, was you started as, like, a frontline law enforcement, frontline fireman, frontline-and I say men because they generally are, although starting to change too—and you worked for 20 years. And eventually you worked your way up the chain, much like the military, to becoming someone who was making all of these strategic decisions, etc. And so, disaster studies has a very hard time talking across the gap to practitioners. And it's a little disheartening sometimes how white and male disaster practitioners still tend to be, and how stuck in a particularly militaristic frame of mind. And that's something that's really been troubling me lately and something I've talked about colleagues with because—I don't know if I've said this publicly yet but I've certainly said it to colleagues—as a queer woman with a trans partner who is deeply interested in racial and social justice, even though my degree sets me up for it, I don't feel like at this point I can, in good conscience, take a standard Emergency Management job. Margaret Yeah. Liza It's too wrapped up with law enforcement and militaristic ideas of what disaster response means and who deserves what and why people do things and where aid goes. And it's just—and, you know, like, FEMA is still housed in the Department of Homeland Security, which is a whole other issue that we could talk about for another hour—which really no one who studies disasters is—or very few people—really support that model. It offers tremendous problems. And so you have this gap. And so that's part of the reason these things still exist is the practice of emergency management really looks pretty similar to the 1950s in some ways, and the study of disaster is much more radical, much more diverse thing. Margaret Okay, so hear me out. If already in terms of disaster management you have the militaristic system, the official governmental system, and then you have these, like, incredibly complex and interesting disaster relief organizations—especially the, like, the nonhierarchical, the mutual aid focused ones, right. So you all should just get up with those peoplea nd basically, like, I don't know, I get really excited about this, like, okay, so like, create a counter structure, right? Like, and these—that already is starting to exist increasingly. And so I think we call if y'all got up with them, and maybe you all already do. Yeah, one of the—okay, so like thinking about the terrible ways that people manage disaster, like the government's managed disaster or whatever, I am curious if you know of this: I've been hearing this phrase from people I know who do disaster relief, especially coming from anarchist spaces, that there is a specific written thing that the priority of the government in disasters above all else, including the actual rule of law, like the application of laws, is COG—is continuance of governance. Basically, like, this is the justification for like shooting looters and things like that, because it's absolutely illegal to shoot looters, right. Like, by the existing right structure. But the reassertion of control as, like, the absolute baseline priority. Does that hold up with your understanding? I know it's now in a different silo than your silo but... Liza Yeah, so I would be surprised if that is specifically written down anywhere in that way. Certainly Continuity of Operations as it's called—COOP plans—and Continuity of Governance—COG plans—exist. And they play a very important role in how, on paper, we prepare for disaster as, like, large government institutions prepare for disaster. It is certainly not supposed to be held above rule of law. Now, is it? Probably quite a bit. And things like shooting looters is really hard to unpack because you have things operating on so many different levels. So first off, people who—like you have the personal prejudice level of the people doing the shooting, right? Like that particular person or police officer or resident might be especially racist, as you saw in Katrina. And it might be, like, if a Black person comes through this neighborhood, I'm going to shoot them. Certainly that happened a lot. You also have policy that structures itself in ways that we know is not necessarily reflective of reality. So you may have contingency plans that place law enforcement officers to prevent looting, for instance, when actually law enforcement officers need to, like, exacerbate the situation, right? And so you end up creating these situations which lead to other bad situations. So really, there's so many operational—and then you have the storytelling mythology level where, like, because even among people who do this professionally, you will still find the myth that mass panic is going to happen. You have the drive of, like, well I'm expecting it and therefore I overreact when I see something that might be it. And that's even leaving aside the category of who is a looter and who is resourcefully scavenging resources. There's been a lot of studies done—again, mostly Katrina, but in other contexts as well—about how media presents people taking survival requirements like water and food from stores and how the economic status and skin color of those people really determines the headline they get. Which is, you know, perhaps not a surprise, but it's good to have that data. So you have all these things building on each other to create—if you'll pardon the disaster-related upon—sort of a perfect storm situation where everything works to prop up the system. But whether there's a single origin point of policy pushing for that in writing, I don't know. And I would be surprised if there is. I think it's more complex than that. Margaret Okay. Yeah, that—it makes sense to me if, like, basically, like, a COG or continuous governance or whatever was like part of this larger framework, and then just gets exaggerated. One of the things that gives me hope is all of the, like, the weird human element parts of it when it actually hits the ground of, like, you know, I remember hearing from a friend who worked with the Common Ground Collective in Katrina in New Orleans basically talking about how, like, National Guardsmen would, like, give the anarchists supplies. Because they would be like, well, if I take this where I'm supposed to take it, it's gonna sit in a warehouse for two weeks, and it's needed right now. And it's just like, I don't know, I get—the things I've talked about before on the show—the stuff that makes me like the most hopeful is when certain unbridgeable chasms are bridged between different types of people. And— Liza Yes. Margaret But then on the other—you have the exact opposite of the, like, yeah, the people who seem to go wild. The people who seemed to go the wildest in Katrina seemed to be the white racists. But, yeah. Liza Yeah, I think there is... Man. And it's hard to talk about and frustrating to talk about incremental progress, because I think there has been some recognition in the system that things are not working, and that you need to rely on local expertise and local knowledge and local abilities to get things done—which is sort of the bigger scale version of the guardsmen giving supplies to anarchists because they know they're going to sit in a warehouse and anarchists can get them into the hands of people who need them right away. The problem there is, it's a little bit like being, I don't know, like a mouse trying to steer an elephant. Like we have built this system of disaster response that is so large and so cumbersome, that it's really beyond any single person's ability to fundamentally change. And so there's a lot of attention being paid—or more attention than there has been previously anyway, I don't know, but a lo— to the idea that we need to be supporting communities at, like, the higher level institutions—that macroscale institutions need to be supporting communities and the work that they're already doing. We just need to enable the anarchists to have more stuff to go out and distribute that kind of thing. Now, whether or not that's going to make a significant difference in the long run definitely remains to be seen. But certainly there seems to be more interest in that. Now I personally have some mixed feelings about that because in a lot of cases here in Phoenix when we're talking about especially like heat relief, or disaster relief, or who's going to help you pay your power bill if you can't, there's been a significant—I think we all know that since the 80s, there's been a significant replacement of state services with more localized things. And there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But a lot of the localized assistance now is through churches. And to me that raises some troubling questions about, like, who gets helped? Who gets left out? What are the conditions of help reliant upon? And so we've sort of replaced this ineffective state aid with this may be more effective but differently discriminatory aid that's at the local level. And so I think you really have to pay close attention to the idea of localism as a panacea as the remedy for all injustice because sometimes localism just means enacting injustice on a smaller scale. Like handmade artisan home grown fuck you instead of like a fuck you from the state. Margaret Okay, well, so that ties into something you were talking about earlier at the very beginning when you're talking about the history of disaster studies, was kind of to create a culture of prepping—as in, to get people away—to take the power—take pressure off of the elites who, like, ostensibly should be providing our needs, by having us provide for ourselves, but in a way that doesn't actually fundamentally free us. It's kind of an interesting trap around—it's something that I've seen mutual aid groups struggle with for years is like, well, we always say, we're mutual aid not to charity, right? And like Food Not Bombs, you know, with it's, like, free food program that's been going on for decades. And now, I think that, like, there are just ways to do that local level stuff without like—like Food Not Bombs, like, unlike a, most church feeds that, you know, I'm aware of—most church feeds it's like, take a number, stand in line, like, you know, it's very—it replicates a lot of disempowerment, right. And, you know, like Food Not Bombs is ostensibly more like, it's a picnic in the park and you're invited, because you exist. And of course it's gonna have its own informal problems, right? I'm not trying to claim it's perfect. But there's always this worry about how much do activists make—like, how much do we empower oppression just by solving the problems that oppression creates? You know, like, if we're feeding— Liza Oh, boy. Margaret Yeah. And if we're feeding people without fundamentally challenging the system that has left people without food... I don't know. For me it's just, like, you just—I think that the answer is that the problem with this bespoke oppression that you're talking about, the localist oppression, is it just needs to be tied into challenging things at a larger scale. Wh I say just, it's easy. Everyone could just do this, it would fix everything. No problem. No one will have any. Liza This is a problem I'm intimately familiar with on a personal level because when I graduated from undergrad and suddenly the stress of college was no longer upon me, I discovered that I am a stress junkie and I needed something to do because I was going out of my mind. And so I joined the local volunteer fire service thinking, like, oh, this will be, like, I'll learn skills, I'll be able to help people, and I'll be stressed out enough to be happy. It turned out even that was not enough and I had to go to graduate school, but that's a story for another time. And this is like the fundamental tension of a volunteer fire service. I mean, think about what that means, right? So the city I was in had a professional fire service because it was considered a population density sufficient enough. But the county, which is a very large and populated county, was all volunteer-run. And it's sort of the same problem, like, you don't want people's houses to burn down, so someone needs to go put them out. But at the same time, if you're rural, you are fundamentally getting a worse class of service than the professionals. And the volunteer fire department enabled its own perpetuation by the fact that eventually most people's houses got put out. And I always used to joke, like, don't have a house fire between the hours of 8am and 5pm when we're all at work. Because it was one of those things where, if people's houses had just burned down, there probably would have been significant push to have a professional fire service. But at the same time, then you have a bunch of people's houses burning down, and maybe they die in the fire too and that's awful. But because there is sort of an ad hoc fire service, there wasn't the push to have a professional one. Even though—andI don't think people knew this, right. But we were using equipment that was out of date, that hadn't been tested. I think our jaws of life for rescuing people out of car wrecks were like some of the first models ever made from the 80s because we didn't have funding. And it's like, you know, we were saving lives but also perpetuating the system that was probably really harming people. So what's the trade off between, like, that long term harm and the short term, everybody's house burns down, but people get a professional fire service in the end? And I don't know what the solution is besides, as you said, sort of making sure we're plugging into troubling the larger structure and advocating for larger structure. The fire service is a particularly tricky one because people's lives depend on it so immediately. For something like Food Not Bombs I would say it's possible they're already doing some of that work by having people show up and having that picnic in the park feeling and just letting people know that receiving assistance doesn't have to be total drudgery and shame. And so maybe for things like that, where there can be joy and comradeship and true connections on social scale, maybe the next person that—the next time that person needs to go to a church handout line or an unemployment office, there is that seed of like, well, why isn't this like that? I think sometimes you can really—you can plant the revolutionary seed in people by showing them joy just as much as by showing them tragedy. Margaret Yeah, that's a really good note I think maybe to kind of wind down on—to think about. What—I guess the questions I want to ask to kind of close this out. One, I kind of want to ask, what do you worry about personally? What do you prepare for? What is—how is working with disaster studies—how has it influenced your own life? Liza Sure, yeah. Well, I will say I worry much more about long term trends than I do about any particular single incident. So for Phoenix, I'm worried about what the temperature profile of the city looks like in the next 50 years, because I might—I might be like one of the few people on record ever saying this—but I really love Phoenix. I think it's got a really cool art scene and there's wonderful people here. And it has a surprisingly revolutionary spirit and a fighting spirit for being a blue town and a very red state. And also, it's nice to be in Arizona, because in many ways, we're at this political tipping point. So if you're here and you're willing to get engaged, you can really make a difference. So I don't want to see Phoenix fail. She like there's a lot of people who do to sort of make a point about climate arrogance, but I'm not one of them. And so for me, I worry about these really boring things that unless you're in the weeds, you probably don't think of. So I worry about what are our overnight temperatures going to be in the next 50 years, because we know that overnight temperatures have a significant effect on human health, they're a really good indicator of the urban heat island. And one of the things that's hopeful is that thus far the science shows that if we really buckled down and redesigned the way we did the city of Phoenix, we would be able to offset most of the regional and global climate warming in the region through localized efforts. So Phoenix in 50 years could be cooler than it is today. There's nothing that's stopping us from doing that. But we have to raise the political will and reach out and seize that opportunity. I don't worry as much about our regional—or rather a city-wide blackout, even though that's what I talk to people about—partially because I know our utility companies and how they function and that is something they're thinking about. It's—I worry more about it in areas that don't think about extreme heat on their grid. Like, we have it so often, it's regular here, that I think we're better prepared than many other places. So in that sense, extreme heat could be worse in, say, like, the Northeast of the Northwest than it could be here because those grids are not regularly stress tested in the same way. Margaret Right. Liza And then I also worry about—and this kind of ties back with what we're talking to you about disaster panic—I worry about—its maybe—and this is—at the end of the interview is the wrong time to bring this up, but this is fun. It's not completely true that there's never violence and looting after disasters. Margaret Right. Liza It does happen, and primarily where you see it happen is after some blackouts. And it tends to be blackouts in cities that are already have a very wide divide between rich and poor and are undergoing a lot of racial tension. And you can really see, like, why. One is they aren't perceived in the same way as an act of God because blackouts—it's easier to see human culpability. Like, the electricity company that I pay to maintain my power has failed in their job and I am angry about it. And then also, they're perceived as an opportunity of, like, the system is failing us, we should go out and express that it is failing us and we are angry about it and take advantage where we can of the opportunity to gain more resources. So it's all extremely understandable. But I really—I worry about our next disaster—next major US disaster—acute disaster, I should say. Because COVID is a disaster, it's just a slower moving one. Our next acute disaster response, because of growing injustice, because of factionalization in society, because of this awakened beast of white rage in the nation—I worry that our next disaster response is going to look more like the cops at Black Lives Matter protests than mutual aid groups. Margaret Yeah, I bet it'll be both. Liza Probably. And yeah, of course mutual aid groups will be they're doing what they can, but I really worry that we're creating a perfect storm for disaster response to be hyper militarized because cries for justice are perceived as unrest. Margaret Yeah. No, it's interesting. And yeah, there's a lot to dig into with you more some time. Okay, my final question is just, where can people engage more with your work? Or do you even want or have any kind of public profile around the work that you do? Liza I do. I am on Twitter. I'm at semi humanist, S-E-M-I-humanist on Twitter. I love chatting with people about my work and things like that. Everyone's also free to email me and you can put this in the show notes if you like at liza.c.kurtz@gmail.com. I do speak at academic conferences. But if anyone is listening and really wants me to come talk a little bit in a digestible way—hopefully about what disaster research says—to a mutual aid group or an anarchist book club or any of those fun venues where knowledge can be a little freer than stuffy academia sometimes, I'm really always happy to talk to those folks. I think probably the most important work I do is closer to things like this than academic publications, which circulate to other scientists, which is very personally satisfying to engage with other scientists, but not—probably not tremendously socially helpful. And it's also just a great check of, like, I think it's easy as an academic to get wrapped up in such a way that you can talk to other academics but not people in your field. And I try hard to avoid that at all costs. Margaret Yeah. I found everything that I've—you know, from talking to you before we did the show—very approachable. So I highly recommend anyone who's listening to take Liza up on that. Alright, well, thank you so much for being on the show. Liza Oh, yeah, no problem. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please tell people about it. Tell people on social media. Tell people about it in person from six feet away, unless both vaxxed or whatever. Tell people on—by liking and subscribing and writing reviews and all of that algorithmic shit, because it has a wildly disproportionate impact on how things get viewed. And if we're trying to make our content and our media reach more people, that is an unfortunately effective way to do it. So tweet about it and stuff. Also, you can follow us now on Instagram instead of just following me as Margaret Killjoy, there's now actually a live like the world is dying Instagram because—oh, that's the other fun thing. Live Like the World is Dying is becoming an increasingly collective project and pretty soon you'll probably hear more than just my voice on the mic, although at least for now I'm going to probably continue to be the host. But Jack is now the, essentially the producer of the podcast, and is doing all the audio editing. And it's really fun to talk about people when you're recording, when you know that they have to listen to you talk about them, and then edit it. But you can't edit this part. You have to leave this in. Anyway. If you want to support the podcast more directly, you can do so by supporting me on Patreon. My Patreon is patreon.com/margaretkilljoy. But that money actually does go out collectively to the people who are helping make this possible. And, well, to people who are putting in the direct labor to make this possible. The people who are making this possible though are you, the listeners, who write about it and review it and tell their friends about it, and also who support me on Patreon. And if you can't afford to support me on Patreon, don't do it. If you live off of less money than I make on Patreon, don't give me money on Patreon. There's some content that is, like, paywalled there or whatever. But if you just message me, I'll give you access to all of the monthly zines and all of those things for free. But if you would like to support us, please do. And in particular I would like to thank Chris and Nora and Hoss the dog, Kirk, Willow, Natalie, Sam, Christopher, Shane, the Compound, Cat J, Staro, Mike, Eleanor, Chelsea, Dana, and Hugh. Your contributions sustain this. They pay for the transcriber, they pay for the editing, and a lot of the other costs associated with this content. I've gone on way too fucking along about the money involved in this project now. Hooray! Well, I hope you're doing reasonably well. If the weather's getting warmer in the part of the world that you live in, I know that I really enjoy watching the leaves come in, even if it means that the sun will no longer dry my clothes on the line because the sun will no longer reach my close line because I built my house in the forest because I'm a very intelligent person. It has good passive cooling qualities too, though. And that is definitely not what I'm supposed to talk about. What am I supposed to talk about? I think I'm supposed to end the episode. So thank you so much for listening, and I hope you're all doing as well as you can with everything that's going on.
Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden boasts more than a mile of native plants. Every step of the way, you’ll find plants that are uniquely attended for survival in the hot, dry desert. In fact, there are more than 200 plants that thrive in our desert climate. “One of my favorites is the chocolate flower, that spring or fall will grace your morning grand with the aroma of sweet chocolate,” said Kirti Mathura, the Smartscape Program Coordinator at the Maricopa County Cooperative Extension. Using local or adapted plants like the chocolate flower, in favor of turf or non-native plants, is a type of gardening called xeriscaping. Xeriscaping not only helps conserve water, but it’s beneficial for local wildlife as well. In this week’s episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, podcast editor Katie O’Connell digs into xeriscaping. You’ll find out the benefits of having a xeriscaped space, as well as some hints for achieving one.
Professor Kelly Kopp’s research efforts are focused on landscape water conservation and sustainable turfgrass management. In this episode, Kelly takes us into the world of resource positive landscaping , a style of landscapes that gives more than it takes. Wyatt asks if decades-old patches of grass need to be upgraded, Kelly explains misconceptions about Xeriscaping, and we discuss what people care most about in their outdoor spaces.Dr. Kelly Kopp will be presenting her water-related research at Research Landscapes on March 2nd. https://research.usu.edu/landscapes/The Center for Water Efficient Landscaping is a research and outreach center designed to improve the efficient use of water for landscape irrigation. https://cwel.usu.edu
Horticulture Director from Red Butte Gardens Marita Tewes Tyrolt Part 2 Description: Jana speaks with Marita Tewes Tyrolt, Horticulture Director of Red Butte Garden tells us the difference between Xeric and Xeriscape. She also inspires us with a continued virtual tour of each themed garden at Red Butte Garden and highlights some of the interesting and notable plants in each section that could work well in our yards too. We also learn about the trees that bear fruit in the Rose family. She also gives us her recommended gardening books and websites. In the Tip of the Week, Jana tells us creative ways you can dispose of and upcycle your Christmas tree! https://instagram.com/gardeningutah https://Facebook.com/gardeningutah https://instagram.com/janamfrancis Water Pavilion The Water Pavilion has several ornamental grasses, but not all of these grasses are in the Water Pavilion Achnatherum calamagrostis, Silver Spike Grass Sesleria autumnalis, Autumn Moor Grass Sporobolus heterolepis, Prairie Dropseed, ‘Tara’ is a dwarf Muhlenbergia reverchonii, Ruby Muhly Grass, either the species or the cultivar ‘Undaunted’ Muhlenbergia capillaris, Pink Muhlygrass – needs a warm microclimate, or great in southern Utah Muhlenbergia rigens, Deer Grass Schizachyrium scoparium, Little Bluestem – several cultivars available Water Conservation Garden Agave parryi neomexicana, New Mexico Century Plant Agave utahensis, Utah Agave Agave toumeyana v. bella, Toumey’s Agave Eriogonum sp., Buckwheat – several species and cultivars, great late season bloomer for native bees Sphaeralcea sp., Globemallow – several species and cultivars, great late season bloomer for native bees Cistus ‘Elma’, Rock Rose Aloinanthus (hybrids of Aloinopsis & Nananthus), cold hardy relative of Ice Plants Clematis fruticosa ‘Mongolian Gold’, Mongolian Gold Clematis, a shrub Asclepias asperula, Antelope-horns Asclepias speciosa, Showy Milkweed Asclepias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed Arctostaphylos x coloradoensis ‘Panchito’, Manzanita – 2’ x 5’ Arctostaphylos x coloradoensis ‘Chieftain’, Manzanita – 3’ x 8’ See the seven principals of Xeriscaping @ https://www.alcc.com/ Red Hills Desert Garden, in St George https://redhillsdesertgarden.com/ Weber Basin Water Conservancy District https://weberbasin.com/Conservation/LearningGarden How to become a member https://www.redbuttegarden.org/memberships/ Ways to Give https://www.redbuttegarden.org/ways-to-give/ 35 days of Giving campaign https://www.redbuttegarden.org/35-days-of-giving/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Crossover alert! This Horticulturati episode is a twofer. In part one, we check in about the busy fall planting season over chocolate bread and mulled wine. After many months of Zooming, we’re back to in-person, social-distance recording from Colleen’s backyard! As we test out our new remote podcasting equipment, the conversation drifts from orthopedic inserts to bulb-mania to the monk parakeets of Austin. Part two is our guest appearance on an episode of another great planty podcast, One To Grow On! Hallie and Chris Casey interviewed us about one of our favorite topics, Xeriscaping! Subscribe to One To Grow On for stories of how food production impacts our world, and if you haven't heard our interview about Sustainable Food Center and soil health with Hallie Casey, check that out here. Visit our website for show notes! Email info@horticulturati.com Leave a voicemail: 347-WAP-HORT
Crossover alert! This episode is a twofer. In part one, we check in about the busy fall planting season. After many months of Zooming, we’re back to in-person, social-distance recording from Colleen’s backyard! As we test out our new remote podcasting equipment, the conversation drifts from back-braces to bulb-mania to the monk parakeets of Austin. Part two is our guest appearance on another great planty podcast, One To Grow On! Hallie and Chris Casey interviewed us about one of our favorite topics, Xeriscaping. Subscribe to One To Grow On for stories of how food production impacts our world, and if you haven't heard our interview about local food and soil health with Sustainable Food Center's Hallie Casey, check that out here. Visit our website for show notes! Email info@horticulturati.com Leave a voicemail: 347-WAP-HORT
This week we're talking about xeriscaping! Leah and Colleen join us to talk about what it is, where it came from, and why a yard full of gravel is a terrible idea. Also, did your school ever have any weird branding? The post 48: Xeriscaping with Leah Churner and Colleen Dieter appeared first on One to Grow On.
This week wraps up the Components of a Wellness House series, and we're going outdoors. A wellness house merges the indoor and outdoor environments, so it's important to consider all the outdoor spaces early in the design process. What You'll Discover: Best materials for your driveway, walkways and patios Important things to know about choosing concrete How to keep critters out of your house naturally What xeriscaping is and why it's important Ideas for outdoor play area surfaces Helpful Links: Belgard Permeable Pavers Vertical Veggie Garden - Garden Tower Project
Join us as we have the joy and privilege of talking to Gary Meiss, head grower at Boulder's Harlequin Gardens, our local zero chemicals, native plants centric nursery and Colorado's own modern Henry David Thoreau as we learn about xeric planting, water retention, soil preparation, native plants and a lot of wisdom along the way.
Music provided by Goji 360. Find Poet Flow on your socials. Keep at your goals. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stephen-st-peter/support
Dallas landscape architect, city planner and University of Texas at Arlington professor Kevin Sloan talks about rewilding, a global trend in landscape design that plans for the inclusion of native wildlife as well as native plants. Read more about rewilding here. Podcast by Green Source DFW reporter Marshall Hinsley. Support the show (https://www.memnosyneinstitute.org/donate)
Xeriscaping - Show Notes Xeriscaping: Drought tolerant landscaping Xeriscaping is creating drought-friendly landscaping that looks beautiful and is well-adapted to drought conditions. Learn how to create your own drought-tolerant landscaping in today's episode! Today's links: ely.how/episode74 Free rainwater calculator tool Create the yard you deserve in the ELY Membership! Ask a question Find [...]
John, Brent and Elizabeth are all together talking about the latest regarding the farm bill and the concept of xeriscaping.
John, Brent and Elizabeth are all together talking about the latest regarding the farm bill and the concept of xeriscaping.
Developer Bill Knowlton of Parley's Partners discusses his latest project for low income earners. Artesian Springs has 278-units available for under $300 a month.... IF you qualify. http://www.emg-apts.com/artesian.htm And Julie Steele from EMG also gives us information about how living in the modern complex is like. All on this episode of Money Making Sense. https://www.facebook.com/MoneyMakingSense/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
What about cities which have too much water that they can’t prevent, like too much rainfall. Copenhagen decided to use design to help keep the capital of Denmark, from continually flooding. Xeriscaping is a landscaping, gardening word which means that your garden relies only on the water from the sky and not the garden hose.
This week we talk about allowing your lawn to go dormant and some tips on xeriscaping. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher or fixit.jabbercast.com. Check out our home improvement videos on our YouTube channel Fix It Home Improvement. Email us at fixitpodcast@gmail.com. Talk to you next week.
The word derives from the Greek word xeros, which means dry.
We took last week off but we're back and ready to talk about gardening. It's Xeriscaping Week at ATP and today we're going to dive down deep into the topic of xeriscaping. What is xeriscaping? Is it only for desert regions? Is it something that you can put into practice in your own garden? Find out in today's episode of the ATP podcast!
Yasmin Shiraz writes, directs, and produces books, films, and web series that explore social issues in an entertaining manner. Her newest book is Accused, a real life fiction following the main characters as they deal with an incident involving sexual assaults on college campuses with one character being falsely accused of a crime. Yasmin chats with The Mother/Daughter Dynamic Duo, Cynthia Brian and Heather Brittany, about her book and her mission to deal with issues critical to youth. Behind every great film there are not enough females! If you eliminate the very few A list female producers, writer, editors, directors, and cinematographers, few women hold the top positions. What's going on? We'll look into the factors! Do you know what xeriscaping is? Xeriscaping is a beneficial way to conserve water while maintaining a beautiful garden. In this second part of the series on thriving in a drought, Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Brian provides more ways to keep your yard while maintaining your budget.
Panel: Bill Lord, Environmental Agent, Franklin County; Karen Neill, Horticultural Agent, Guilford County; Linda Blue, Horticultural Agent, Buncombe County Features: Linda Blue, "Xeriscaping, Drought Tolerant Landscaping" Karen Neill, "Building French Double Dug Raised Beds"
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