The Gardens Across Iowa!™ Campaign

 by Sondra Wilson. Last updated 2/11/2025.

Wild Willpower PAC is currently developing an extremely useful piece of technology called the Gardens Across Iowa!™ App.

Once it is finished being developed, the App will make the statewide gardening program feasible. See Right to Garden Act for more info!

Ways to Support

Order a Homesteading Starter Kit (or ten!)

Become a Business Sponsor

Or make a campaign contribution:

[button coming soon]

Phase II: Modeling a Movement – Wild Willpower PAC is seeking a plot of land in Ames, Iowa

Wild Willpower PAC is currently seeking a plot of land to work with in spring 2025 so we can create a model garden. We would like to approach Iowa State University with a proposal to implement an on-campus student-run garden. We will seek to automate watering with timers wherever possible, and to troubleshoot any problems to make the garden as hands-free as possible. It is our hope that positive media attention could broadcast our model garden so it may be replicated anywhere in Iowa. At Iowa State University we have one of the top engineering colleges in the world and one of the top horticulture colleges in the world: if we can’t engineer a horticulture movement, I don’t know who can!

Phase III: The Gardens Across Iowa! App™

Once the Calendar is complete, it will be used to develop the Gardens Across Iowa! App™. which will include location services. That means:

• Advertising slots, located at the bottom of each calendar (database) entry, will show local sponsors at the top of the list. For example, if we have 5 sponsors in Ames, and a user in Ames is looking at an entry on tomatoes, Ames sponsors will be located at the top, followed by ads from other nearby sponsors who are slightly further away. If that person drives to Des Moines, nearby Des Moines area sponsors will located at the top, and so on. A list of all Iowa sponsors may be toggled by the user so they look through all sponsors and find deals.
• Each local sponsors’ ads will be shuffled and randomized. For example, if we have 5 sponsors in in Ames, there will be a 1 in 5 chance that your business is located in the premium spot, followed by the other 4 sponsors.

The App will also allow users to toggle various plants within the calendar on and off, so if they don’t want to grow eggplants, they can toggle those notifications so they don’t show up in the calendar. Next year, if they decide to grow eggplants, they can toggle it back on to receive those notifications.

Phase IV: Replicating Our Model Garden:

Proceeds from sponsorships and campaign contributions from private citizens (donate here) will help us hire our app development crew to get this all running as described above, however that is a finite process. Once the Calendar/App are finished and there are only maintenance and fixed costs for Wild Willpower PAC, proceeds will enter into a fund that goes toward purchasing land around the state for use in opening up community gardens.

Phase V: The Gardens Across America! App™:

The Gardens Across Iowa! App will be used to develop the Gardens Across America! App™. This means that if a person were using the app in Colorado, for example, the dates for each plant will relocate within the calendar to dates which match Colorado’s frost date. This App will be useful to anyone in the U.S.

Phase VI: The Gardens Across Earth! App™:

The Gardens Across America! App will be used to develop the Gardens Across Earth! App™. It is our hope that what we are modeling here in the Heartland can help end food insecurity around the world. Heal the Heartland; heal the world!

Thank you so much for your support!

If your business is interested in becoming a sponsor, please email [email protected] with “Gardens Across Iowa!” in the subject line.

If you are a US-based business, politician, PAC, or Citizen, we are very grateful for your contribution!

Gardens About Iowa! is a joint venture between Wild Willpower PAC, Sondra Wilson for Iowa Governor, and our sponsors:

Wild Willpower PAC is registered with the IRS as a 527 tax exempt political organization, and with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) as the first registered “Civil PAC” in the nation. While many PACs primarily focus on getting candidates elected (or not elected), Wild Willpower PAC utilizes campaign contributions toward Service Projects to help the general public.

Sondra Wilson for Iowa Governor is the name of Sondra’s campaign committee registered with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board for the 2026 gubernatorial election. The Calendar and App (see Phase III) will be used to make Sondra’s proposed Statewide Gardening Program feasible. The plan includes:

• A school program to teach students to manage a garden, with produce then being used within Iowa’s school lunch program. Remember that low-income students just had funding cut for Iowa’s school lunch program, so here is a low-cost, common sense solution that provides students with valuable skills that will serve them the rest of their lives. Also, kids love playing in dirt!
• Allocating funding to municipalities across Iowa so they can purchase land to open up community gardens “in every town and city across Iowa”. Professional gardeners will be hired by the state (similar to FDR’s public works program) to help manage the gardens – essentially taking care of any tasks not being maintained by individual plot-holders. Also this provides plot-holders with not only the Calendar/App to help them with gardening, but also a local professional to talk with to help resolve any issues they may be having, or help that they need. Additionally Iowans have access to Iowa State University’s Extension Offices to find assistance as well. This part of the plan is important because:
  • Iowa recorded record high food insecurity in 2023 (Food Bank of Iowa). With some of the most rich, fertile soils in the world, there should be no reason for this.
  • In 2022 $802M in crops were destroyed due to the derecho and drought which happened in the same year (Des Moines Register). Currently Iowans are not prepared for major natural disasters, war, or severe economic downturn. In urban areas, this leaves Iowans as sitting ducks,. God forbid should such a disaster should occur.
  • This plan will help beautify cities, connect people with nature, and bring community members from all walks of life together within a healthy setting.

Benefits of an En Masse Homesteading Movement:

• improve local food supplies.
• stop landfills from growing because “gardens aren’t wrapped in garbage”.
• provide families the opportunity to live self-sufficient, healthy lives.
• reduce dependence on welfare programs (and thus, to reduce taxes).

    Why the term homestead? – The term “homestead” is actually a very important common law legal term which prevents a person who is working to live sustainably from having their home foreclosed on.

Thank you to Saboteur365 for this great commemorative graphic we’re using in accordance with Fair Use.

References:

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Other sustainability resources:

#1.)  Clean Energy Inventions:

• Innovative Solar Solutions

• Ingenius Wind Energy Inventions

• Water-Powered Energy Inventions & Purification Systems

• Charge Your Electronics Using The Heat of a Campfire

• Brilliant Inventions That Clean Up Trash

#2.) “Simple-Tech” Home Improvement:

• Cob Housing – mixing mud to work like clay for walls, etc

• Build Your Own Low-Cost Swimming Pool

• 7 Ingenius Uses for Salt

• Vegetable Storage- for Best Results

• Join ‘The Zero Trash Commitment’

#3.)  Organizations Currently Involved with Ecological Restoration