Blog

We have some exciting Unlawnful updates! For all our Unlawnful resources, visit the main page.

“Unlawning Your Life: A How To Lesson” Webinar

Join us to learn how to remove grass and install regenerative landscapes that support biodiversity and ecosystem health! In this webinar, we’ll discuss how to foster ecosystem health using native and perennial species while growing food, medicine, and fiber. We’ll cover how to salvage materials for use in landscapes and provide tips for organizing community around rewilding lawns at various scales. This webinar is suitable for individuals, community organizers, and anyone interested in making a local impact as part of the PAN Unlawnful campaign.

Join our much-awaited “How to be Unlawnful” webinar on Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 7 pm (Eastern time). Register here.

Meet and Greet

Join our online “Meet and Greet” for the Unlawnful project on Thursday, November 10, from 7pm to 8pm. There will be an introduction to the Unlawnful Map and Toolkit, some q&a, and breakout groups to connect with folks in your area. This is a great opportunity to learn about the Unlawnful campaign and to find out more about getting involved. We hope to see you then.

Online Map

Check out the people, projects, and partners that are being Unlawnful, and add yourself to the map. Is the Unlawnful Map new to you? This quick video tutorial shows how to navigate the features of the map and get started.

Action Toolkit

As part of our year-long campaign to incite civil acts of Unlawnfulness, we’ve been putting together an Unlawnful Action Toolkit. From small groups of neighbors digging in on weekends to community coalitions making bigger scale change, this is a resource for anyone who wants to help transform lawns into beautiful, useful spaces.

Native meadow gardens. Clover lawns. Salad gardens. Food forests! We include planning and design ideas, funding and grant application basics, tips on how to host fun and successful volunteer work days, ways to contribute to the campaign, lots of extra resources, and an FAQ to help you get started.

Check out version 1 of our Action Toolkit.

Laminated Posters

Show your neighborhood that you support PAN and the Unlawnful campaign! Purchase laminated Unlawnful posters to display on your converted lawn, balcony, patio, or wherever you would like! (They’re a great conversation starter with neighbors.) Posters are printed on blue 110 lb. card stock.

To post in the ground, we recommend you find a stick or repurpose a stake and use heavy duty tape–puncturing the lamination with staples will allow water to damage the sign. Tip: you can use a wooden paint stirrer as a stake!

Shipping is included for US orders, and the cost per poster decreases with quantity. Order a sign.

Your dollars help us support a mass Unlawning!

Trailer

Watch our new Unlawnful trailer.

One community member, Charley Eiseman, has been working on rewilding his lawn for nearly a decade. He has documented his experience in blog posts here.

His lawn has gone from standard mowed grass to a luscious food forest for him, his family, and critters of all kinds. He and his wife are able to fill themselves with fresh fruit and vegetables, ranging from raspberries and beach plums to cucumbers and tomatoes. Their hoophouse and vegetable garden allow them to plant annual crops in addition to their perennial fruit trees and shrubs. Goldenrod and milkweed attract swarms of pollinators and provide habitats for many other local animals.

While they have done quite a bit of planting themselves (transplanted from family members’ and friends’ yards or grown from seed), much of the life has come unexpectedly! Charley writes about a black cherry sapling that a red fox had planted and blue-eyed grass that came up on its own. His lawn has become its own regenerative ecosystem, spreading more diverse native plants as it continues to grow and develop.

In addition to all of the greenery, they also have solar panels and raise chickens! He goes into detail about how certain plants have grown in their enclosure that happily cohabitate and can withstand their foraging.

Charley has counted over 300 different plants in his yard and adjacent woods, 135 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles, and over 1000 invertebrates! In 2020 he tallied 130 wild and cultivated plant species in his yard that he personally used for food. He has other posts that go into detail about the 200+ species of leafminers he has found in his yard and their associated plants.

Charley’s lawn is an excellent example of what is possible in a NOT lawn–he and his wife are able to feed themselves with its abundance while increasing biodiversity and designing a green wonderland for humans and non-humans to enjoy! Check out some of his before and after pictures below.

Compiled by Stephanie Aubert

If you’re like most people, you probably haven’t given this group of plants much thought. Solidago spp., commonly known as goldenrods, are a plant genus with 100 to 120 known species. They are native to all of what we know as North America, though there are species native to Europe and Asia as well.

Different species flower at different times. This staggered flowering provides important food for pollinators and other critters that rely on flowers. If you look closely at the goldenrods you encounter, you may notice subtle differences between species. For example, they range in height from 2 inches (5 cm) to 2.5 meters!

The leaves and seeds of goldenrod have been used for food in different ways over generations. The flowers and leaves have been used in earth-based medicines for centuries and are still used in this way today by some people. There are many resources available to dig deeper and get to know goldenrod better, including much documentation on different uses of the plant over the course of history. Check it out!

Fun Goldenrod Facts

• Many people believe they are allergic to goldenrod, but this is rarely the case–in fact, goldenrod pollen is actually relatively large and does not travel far by wind. The culprit is often and likely the pollen of ragweed which has smaller pollen that readily blows in the wind.
• Goldenrod contains rubber and has been used for rubber production in the past.
• In this study, researchers found that the collective compounds found in the oils of one goldenrod species had diuretic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic and spasmolytic, antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer and immunomodulatory properties.