So I have a dream
I want
to inspire people to make a difference
all over the world
but I'm just a little gardener
and there's two different ways to do it
I'm going to show you how you can
So the first way is you get a big group of people
to make a change
you know they all come together
they hangout
and they make a decision
They're usually whining about something first
For example
everyone has complained about the
presidential elections, right?
a billion dollars to elect a president
everyone's nodding!
It's like OH MY GOSH that's ridiculous
everyone hates the idea
Ok, well I say two million dollars
two months worth of electioning
cut the drama and we're done, right?
So all you people nodding, let's get together
and have a little group
[laughing]
and let's make a change
well that's one way to make a change
but I'm talking today about
how one person can really
make a difference
on the ground and I'm going to show you
how I did it
this is the garden behind my fence
it looks rather unimpressive
and how it all started
is I went out there and planted
even though you can't see this from my house
because I wanted to inspire the rest of
the community
and when I went out there to garden
I was working in a marketing sales job
long hours and I rarely saw my family
and I was super super stressed and ill
I took over a dozen prescriptions a day
and felt sick all the time
I wanted to change that
and so I started this garden
a few months later
I asked my next door neighbor
if I could put a few flowers
out behind his property as well
sh'bang!
[laughter]
I have a bit of an addiction issue, right?
[laughter]
and so this is what I did
I planted this sucker up with you know
the most incredible drought tolerant plants
I planted vegetables in between it
and my community reacted
what happened is
everytime I was out working in the garden
something wonderful would happen
people hugged me!!
I mean HUGGED ME
complete strangers
that I had never met before
it was SO COOL to be
you know touched in a way
that I'd never been touched before
I mean hugging, loving, and
they left love notes and messages for me
It's beautiful
and this is planted along
a hell strip area
a hell strip is an area that is
really a sidewalk and next to it is
like this ugly grassy area
and the grassy area is really what cities
promote around the globe
I want to change their thinking
and have them think a little more
about this type of garden
You know, that back garden
wasn't enough for my community in my opinion
right now asthma is over a billion dollar industry
just in the United States alone
and that's important to me because
I have asthma
it's also important to me because people
it's caused by something
right?
it's caused by something
doctors swear that it is
and I know that
so here's the thing
everyone continues to ingest chemicals
into their bodies
either through food,
inhalants, the fumes from our cleaning supplies;
all of that
without thinking about the result that
that might cause cancer
or asthma or other diseases
so I started a little blog
and I wanted to tell a story about
from the beginning
of growing the plant
how then bringing it around and consuming
it can be a healthy experience
and so I opened up a vegetable
garden challenge
that's my front lawn before
before I planted anything in it
and it's the only sunny spot that I have
so I was convinced, you know,
that if you only have a sunny spot
well then that's the only place you can plant
vegetables because that's what my
grandmother used to do
and so here you see my little girl
she's sitting right here all grown up now
[laughing]
next I planted the front lawn
vegetable garden
[applause]
now I'm lucky...
THANK YOU!
[laughing]
I'm lucky because my city does support
front lawns
you know whatever you want to do with it
you want to plant vegetables in it
fantastic
This is an ornamental edible garden
and it's full of nutrition
I donate over 100 pounds every year
to the local food pantries.
and then I write about it on my blog
so I'm telling people here's how you
grow a tomato and then I'm showing them
that in real life you can
absolutely do it
and this garden is organic
this is - by the way - this years season
we had a horrible drought in Chicagoland
and guess what it still looks beautiful
because it's about common sense planting
not a fertilizer that's non-organic is
ever used in this garden
that's how it looks from the sky
I'm so proud.
[laughter]
Well that wasn't enough
because you know I have an addiction issue
and so I built this backyard
This is my backyard
I ripped out all the grass and
I planted a shade vegetable garden
and everyone told me
you can't grow vegetables in shade
well you can
and very nutritious ones at that
my favorite is the blue right there
it's kale
I would eat it every day of my life
and before I grew vegetables
I'd never tried kale
so this is the first time in my life
and I come from a farm country
you know you'd think I know
more about kale
well that wasn't enough
you know
and so now I ripped out my side yards
forget the grass
down with grass up with vegetable gardens, right?
and I went up
I went vertical
and I planted anywhere I could
using techniques that were
all sustainable
and then talking and educating about that
so here you see a wine bottle path
everyone was drinking for Shawna
it was awesome
[laughter]
and you also see that I've used some
creative ideas on the way I decorate the
back wall
you know they're old shovels that I've painted
well that's called sustainability
and reusing what I already have
and I'm making something new out of it
and I wanted more people to do that
well that wasn't enough
the next step became
okay now I'm growing these vegetables
how can I get people to
eat the vegetables
well what I found out is
no one knows how to cook
a good meal these days
you know I need a Jewish mother
I really do
we couldn't find good recipes
well you can find them online
but the people felt they were too hard
and they wouldn't cook them
okay fine
here's what we're gonna do
I'm going to set up my table in my front lawn
and then I'm going to prepare a meal for four
for under ten dollars
and I'm gonna use my organic vegatables to do it
and so I now have tons and tons of videos
out online
Partnering with Google
I partnered with Google Plus
they have something called Google Plus Hangouts
which allows you to interact live
and I really wanted to talk live
while I was cooking
and so this represents
I set up on my front porch
right in front of the garden
the same concept
where I'm talking live and
answering questions
right there on the spot
both about the garden and
also about the culinary side
of it because you can't have
a garden without the culinary
you can't
they are united and married
and it's important
and so before I knew it
I had 170 videos on YouTube
with over a half million views
I have 65,000 followers on all the
different venues I work on social media
and it became the most powerful
experience of my life
because now instead of just talking
to the local community
about growing a vegetable
suddenly I was talking to the global
community about making a difference
which is really really important to me
so let's jump back
to the back behind the fence garden
so after the garden had been there
for five years
my city decided to fee me
for that garden
because they said it wasn't planted
on easement property, it was planted on
right-of-way
when you plant it on right-of-way
it could cause trouble for the city
and I know that they could dig it up
at anytime if they wanted to
but I got mad
they decided to fee me so
I went to the city council and
I got up on the stand
and I had five minutes
and I'm like you have to allow me
to do this without a fee
because it's not about me and the fee
it's about the thousands and thousands of
people in my community
who are poor
who are going bankrupt
who are losing their homes
and they can't afford to write a
10 page report and submit
fees to anyone
the city said I'm outta luck
and that blog post that I wrote about it
became international news
WGN News ran a feature on it and
they called me a guerrilla gardener
that's awesome right?
I'm a criminal
[laughing]
And also you know in the interview
they said it's tantamount to graffiti
that's how bad that garden is
you all just saw the garden
do you think I'm graffiting anything?
you know
and so this came down to
government bureaucracy
I was not going to give up that garden
I wanted to keep it
And so I had to follow the rules
which we should all be working with
our cities to do
so I removed a ton and a half of rock
and got very very angry
kind of like Gloria Steinem
"burn your bra" mad
you know I was ready to rip off my bra
and throw it on the mayor's front porch
I was so mad
and he's a nice man
[laughter]
I just was so upset
So I decided to do something
you know I had to do it
I painted my park benches kiss my ass green
[loud laughter]
and there you have it
my kiss my ass green park bench
it's the small things that are victory
you know
then something happened one day
I'm sitting on my park bench
and a little old woman walks up
and she sits down beside me
and she says some amazing things
first she says, "Nice color!"
[loud laughter]
And I'm like, "yeah I know!"
And then she said
You know what?
a house a few blocks over
sold and rebought immediately
and the owner said that the reason
that they bought the house
was because of this garden
because this is a good community
because of this garden
and there are other gardens
in other beautiful areas
but this is what community is about
and she got me all excited
she got up and walked away
and I was like oh my God
you know I'm going to cry
because something occurred to me
a garden is not a garden
this is about feeding the hungry
reducing crime
making a difference in community
beautifying community
and most important of all
it's about economic feasibility
it's about showing your communities
that you can keep the money within the community
you want more people to come in to visit
to live to shop
and you can do it
so what started out as a simple garden
turned out to be a way to make a difference
to restimulate our economy
my local economy
but imagine if everyone were doing this
all over the globe
I'm not talking about the United States here
I'm talking about EVERY WHERE
that we can restimulate the global economy
by working together and sharing with our neighbors
the way that our grandparents used to share
cooking dinner for other people when they're in need
taking things to them and helping them
and helping them garden
it's about community
and guess what?
we are not going to restimulate our economy
by the big government idea
we're not.
It doesn't come from the top down
It comes from the bottom up
small businesses and every day people
contributing to their every day social life
that is what's going to save our economy
and so here's how one person can make a difference
you buy local
you help your local neighbors
meaning you just don't wave at
Joe across the way
that you actually get to know your neighbors
and you help them when they are in need
and you build local economy
in the way that I'm describing
if you beautify thing the businesses
will come
if you feed people they have a reason to be there
and share with you
it's doing local things
so I made a decision about this green
it's not the color of green that I thought it was
because I feel now after having
this experience
that it's about working
with our community
this is NOT kiss my ass green
this is
KICK ASS GREEN!!
[laughter and applause]
and this is good
[more applause]
Thank you.
and by the way I have a secret weapon
to make all this happen
I mean this is about men and women
in communities working together
across the globe
but here's the really cool thing -
the secret weapon is
GIRL POWER!!
[laughter]
Right?
We're all here in this room
and we're women
In every community around the world
in every neighborhood there is a woman
and she'll sock it to you
you know she's the one who wants to share
to help to make a difference
to grow things
to do anything that she can to be positive
we want all of those women
doing their things just by themselves
one small step at a time
you don't have to do everything giant
and big
it all starts at the bottom
and you can easily do that yourself
I know that I started out thinking
that I would only influence my family
and now I have a global following
of people who want to learn
and who want to make a difference
and one last thing
that WGN News feature that ran
got nominated for an Emmy
[reaction from the crowd]
it's because people are so passionate and
they all want change
and they want to make good
social good
so that's what I leave you with today
a challenge to go out there and make a difference
for your communities
starting one simple thing at a time
just the way that I did
Thank you
[applause]