Civilian Restoration Corps Team #1:
Gardens Across Iowa!™
Time to Transform Urban Iowa from Scarcity-Inducing Economies, to Entrepreneur-Fostering, Production-Based Powerhouses
The Gardens Across Iowa!™ team is one of six teams Iowa Citizens, Esteemed Guests (e.g. immigrants who are legally in Iowa), and Inmates can join. Non-inmates may sign up via their local County Office or the state’s new Civilian Restoration Corps (“CRC”) online portal. Inmates may sign up through a caseworker who will be assigned to them through the state, as detailed within the “Set the Captives Free!” Act.
If elected, Sondra shall:
1.) Commission a team to finish developing the Gardens Across Iowa! App™.
2.) Direct a collaborative effort between Iowa State University’s Department of Horticulture, Master Gardener Program, and College of Engineering to create The Model Garden. Companion planting techniques and pest-repelling plants will be used so that pesticides and herbicides will not be used in urban areas. The garden will be set up with automated watering, soaker hoses, and rain caches to make it as low-maintenance and hands-free as possible. The team’s findings will be used to improve the Gardens Across Iowa! App™. Sondra will assist with direction and oversight (see credentials and CV), as she has years of research compiled, as well as a plethora of resources to contribute.
3.) CRC’s Gardens! teams will install replicas of The Model Garden in three types of locations, within every town and city throughout Iowa:
i. Statewide In-School Gardening Program — Students will learn to manage a garden, and produce will be used in school lunches. This will:
– Reduce the cost for Iowa’s school lunch program;
– Teach the little critters valuable skills;
– Instill a sense of “where resources come from”;
– Reduce the amount of waste schools produce;
– Help reconnect young people with nature, among a world gone mad.
Each week, a limited number of students may volunteer to assist school lunch cooks in preparing school lunches in order to receive perks. This will help promote the value of volunteerism as they get older. Iowa’s new in-school gardening program will improve the health and teach valuable lifelong skills that in the long run will reduce dependence on welfare programs while increasing personal freedom.
Above image by LiveKindly, posted on Facebook, used for First Amendment purposes in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Fair Use Policy and the Fair Use Doctrine.
ii. Food and Herbal Medicine Gardens in Every Town and City — Just as the Cobell Settlement‘s buyback program enabled Native American tribes to buy back land for tribal use, Iowa’s buyback program will enable every municipality in Iowa to purchase land so that CRC teams can install Model Gardens. Viable land throughout Iowa’s concrete jungles will be entered into a state website portal, assessed, and purchased. This could even include some empty lots, such as shown in the following image, so that raised beds and soil may be brought in and built atop:
Gardens, including piping for for the purpose of watering, will be installed near apartment complexes and other places where access to soil is scarce or non-existent for members of the public. Installing gardens everywhere will allow us to expand Iowa’s Right to Garden Act so that it includes every Iowan — not just land owners. When members of the public have access to space for growing their own food and herbal medicine, people will naturally begin developing products, thus helping to transform Iowa from a rent-and-scarcity based society to an entrepreneur-fostering, production-based powerhouse that is now producing from both urban and rural areas instead of just rural areas. This will increase Iowa’s GDP. We have the best soil in the world — let’s make the most of it and end Iowa’s totally unnecessary food insecurity crisis.
The Gardens! Program will ensure every Iowan has access to magnificent, efficient, productive, low-maintenance gardens. Here is an example of how the Michigan Urban Gardening Initiative has helped to transform Detroit’s inner cities (Gerard 2023):
Safe, gorgeous rock fire pits will bring communities together. Natural sound barriers, such as bamboo walls, for example, may be installed to surround the fire pits so as not to disturb nearby residents. This will be especially nice for Iowa’s renters, who currently have nowhere to garden or have safe fires. Use of clean burning woods, such as oak, cedar, and juniper, will be encouraged. This will also provide a convenient way to deal with getting rid of yard waste within urban areas. Here are some examples of the types of fire pits we can build near the gardens:
Above image by Gatlinburg Cabin Rentals used for First Amendment purposes in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Fair Use Policy and the Fair Use Doctrine.
Above image from “20+ DIY Fire Pit Design Ideas“, posted on Pinterest, used for First Amendment purposes in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Fair Use Policy and the Fair Use Doctrine.
Above Image by Ryan O., posted on Pinterest, used for used for First Amendment purposes in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Fair Use Policy and the Fair Use Doctrine.
iii. Sustainable Villages to Help the Homeless – At some point, as a society, we need to face it: not everyone fits perfectly into the business community. Many simply don’t have the wherewithal to hold a steady job and make ends meet. It becomes exhausting for Iowa’s homeless population and nonprofits trying to keep up with Iowa’s growing homeless population. Modeled in part after Joppa’s proposed village, sustainable village will use cob housing, papercrete using recycled paper, and be outfitted by Solar Installers, with Master Gardeners helping to tend food and herbal medicine gardens.
Above image by Joppa used for First Amendment purposes in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Office’s Fair Use Policy and the Fair Use Doctrine.
4. Hire horticulture, permaculture, ethnobotany, Master Gardeners, arborists, and other small-scale agricultural specialists to maintain, troubleshoot, and improve upon the the gardens. These specialists will also be charged with procuring aesthetically-pleasing instructional signs to set up around the gardens, which teach about the various plants and how to properly maintain and harvest from them, and so on.
5. Ensure that the Lead Helmsman of the Great Iowa Treasury remains happy, so that he may in turn ensure everything is joyously and non-wastefully funded.
6. Require city governments to zone for community gardens whenever approving residential developments. Renters must have a right to garden and have small outdoor fires, because life without access to nature sucks. It is time to restore the commons.
7. The Gardens Across Iowa! App™ will be used to develop the Gardens Across America! App™. This App works the same, however instead of being centered around Iowa’s median frost date, all notifications will shift to match the user’s GPS location. For example, if the user is in Colorado, notifications will pop up based on Colorado’s frost date instead of Iowa’s. The App is to always remain affordable, and if Sondra is elected, proceeds shall go toward the common benefit of future Iowans: helping with legal battles to fight for civil rights, kickstarting and securing patents for budding inventors, and simply helping people in need. Any theft of my inventions, however — bootlegging or pirating, for example —shall be prosecuted and will incur civil penalties. Scammers Beware!“
How Gardens Across Iowa! is Funded
There are multiple ways Gardens! (including the buyback program) will be funded:
1. Optional 2% tax on rental property owners. Owners can opt out of the tax via making 15′ x 15 ‘ gardening space available to each rental unit.
2. Remember how the US Government sold War Bonds to fund WWI and WWII efforts? Upon my election, I the State of Iowa shall execute an art design contest to create gorgeous looking Iowa Gardening Bond certificates. People may purchase these bonds for $20, $50, $100, $500, $1000, +++, with each price affording a more radiant and eye-catching design. These are historic documents you will be able to tell your grandkids about: “That time we changed the course of history, and changed the fate of humanity and nature.” You can tell your kids about it sitting around the fire pits over by the community gardens. Sure is better than the direction we seem to currently be heading, as a society.
3. The “Set the Captives Free!” Act will greatly cut overhead costs, while also reducing taxes statewide.
To build the gardens, teams will use CRC Vouchers to purchase supplies from Iowa businesses
When installing the gardens, Gardens Across Iowa! teams will use CRC Vouchers to purchase wood for raised beds, sheds, hand tools, greenhouses, and other supplie any hardware store in Iowa, who will be provided a list of ideal products C.R.C. requires.
Image source (fair use): https://dailysquared.com/work-hard-poster
“I’m concerned that if we don’t do this, the next generation will never know the joy of picking a raspberry from a bush, or a cherry from a tree. Those are some of the best moments as a child, but today everything seems to have been cut down. We’ve strayed so far from nature. This may be our last opportunity for humanity to correct our course. If we can unite for anything, let it be for future generations.“
Now, The Garden Song by John Denver (Fair Use):
Notice of Reservation of rights
Civilian Restoration Corps™, Gardens Across Iowa! , Gardens Across Nebraska!™, Gardens Across California!™, Gardens Across America!™, and Gardens Across Earth!™ are trademarked names, owned and with all rights reserved by Sondra Wilson (“Inventor”). All Apps and related technology; everything described herein is solely owned by the Inventor. Wild Willpower PAC, The Peaceable Assembly, and Sondra Wilson for Iowa Governor have express permission to reference, fundraise, and perform outreach with regard to the Gardens Across Iowa!, Civilian Restoration Corps, and related App technologies.
Was this a $5 idea?
Did you like this idea? Want to see it happen? If you thought this was a $5 idea, please consider making a small contribution to my campaign for Iowa Governor. Thank you for your support!
References:
All materials used throughout this page are used in accordance with the First Amendment and the US Copyright Office’s Fair Use Policy.
20+ DIY Fire Pit Design Ideas. Bright the Dark and Fire the Bored | Advantages & How To Build It Pinterest. https://in.pinterest.com/pin/690247080367577495/
Food Bank of Iowa. (December 7, 2023). Records shattered again as more Iowans seek help with food. https://foodbankiowa.org/news/records-shattered-again-as-more-iowans-seek-help-with-food/.
Joppa. https://www.joppa.org/village/.
More Iowans Face Food Insecurity as Food Pantries Report Record-High Demand, www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/2023/09/07/more-iowans-face-food-insecurity-as-food-pantries-report-record-high-demand-dmarc-food-bank-iowa/70771259007/ . Accessed 16 Jan. 2024.
Gatlinburg Cabin Rentals; The Cabin Rental Store. Weddings in Gatlinburg, TN. https://thecabinrentalstore.com/cabin-rentals/weddings/?plus_oc=1.
Gerard, Michelle. (2023). The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative in Detroit. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/CityPorn/comments/12ek3zn/the_michigan_urban_farming_initiative_in_detroit/.
Horticulture Research Station. “Iowa Soils”. Iowa State University. https://iastatedigitalpress.com/farmreports/article/992/galley/865/view/.
Kornei, Katherine. (August 20, 2022). USA: Only Two States Have Passed ‘Right to Garden’ Laws. Will Others Follow? City Farmer News. https://cityfarmer.info/usa-only-two-states-have-passed-right-to-garden-laws-will-others-follow/.
LiveKindly’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/livekindlyco/posts/do-you-think-gardening-should-be-taught-in-schools-/779994784330642/.
Ryan O. Pinterest. https://in.pinterest.com/pin/11259067813422887/Pinterest.
Wilson, Sondra. Photo of parking lot in Boone, IA.