Author: jennynazak

Following is a comment I wrote in one of the “blue” women’s groups. Someone had posted looking for an HOA, preferably 55+, that was not overwhelmingly red.

I commented that HOA’s tend to attract people who are attracted to authoritarianism. Another person said something similar.

Another group member laugh-reacted our comments and said they were silly.

At first, I laugh-reacted that person in retaliation. But the old “taste of their own medicine” thing doesn’t sit so well with me these days. So I changed it to a sad react, and wrote the following comment:

A bit earlier, I changed my laugh-reacts to sad-reacts because the latter are a more honest reflection of my emotions. Regarding the slow but steady creep in authoritarianism in our country.

Of which the increasing prevalence and dominance of HOAs is but one manifestation.

I say this as a Boomer. It’s been a journey to see so many people of my generation who were all about Woodstock and “question authority” and protesting the war and all that

… and now wanting to live in planned communities that severely restrict creativity and freedom of expression.

Of course, freedom of expression always has a flipside. If we are all free to express ourselves, then a neighbor might do something we don’t like. But I am willing to deal with that. I’d rather have my neighbor be allowed to put up some weird decorations or paint their house a wild color (personally, I actually like those things, but to each his own), in exchange for me getting to do the landscaping and decorations that I want to do.

I guess to a degree it will always be human nature that some people are willing to trade a bit of freedom for what they see as stability and security. And we will all have different ideas about that.

Myself, some pretty extreme stuff would have to be going on in a neighbor’s house or yard for me to want to tell them what to do.

Note, there are and always need to be prohibitions against hate speech – displaying swastikas, painting obscenities on one’s house or fence, etc.

That’s not what I’m talking about here. I live in a regular neighborhood, not an HOA, and still nobody would put up with us putting swastikas etc.

We also have local code enforcement to make sure people aren’t creating a health / safety hazard on their properties. Like for example, if a person is breeding dangerous animals on their property, or has a bunch of leaking cans of chemicals sitting out in the yard. That kind of thing.

(Example of inviting the public to experience my eco yard)

Subject: “jenny’s corner” 501 house

Greetings Neighbors!

At our meetings, I have mentioned my mini forest & wildflower yard, where I have set aside space for the public to enjoy. (I call it “porous property.”) This is my home and place of business (I am a writer, artist, landscaper, and eco educator.)

Many of you have already been here. But it’s always evolving!

The public amenities include benches, and a Little Free Library.

See 3 photos attached.

Also, because it’s a corner lot, much of the property is readily visible from the sidewalk, making it easy for the general public to check out examples of various trees & plants.

On any given day, you might also notice the solar oven in action using the sun’s free energy to cook food. Or you might observe the rain-gauge displaying the liquid bounty from the latest storm.

Additionally, various signs and art objects are placed for everyone’s enjoyment and education.

This, my home and workplace, is the most durable tangible embodiment of my mission as an environmental educator.

I sometimes joke that my extra-high-visibility urban corner lot is like an Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm, where I am the “ant” being observed by the passing humans as I go about my experiments & data-gathering.

IMPORTANT Note, this house and grounds is also shared with my housemates, who are private citizens and not part of the educational outreach. Therefore a large part of the property is restricted to residents only.

BNW members and friends who would like a landscape tour beyond the sidewalk and benches are welcome to email me, or text my phone 512-619-5363. I can also give you a tour by FaceTime or other video chat app. We could even make it a group tour if you like!

Additionally, there are several neighboring properties that have been past winners of beautification awards from the Beautification Tree Advisory Board of our City. I will be happy to point you to these wonderful yards. There are some superb examples of edible landscaping, stormwater mitigation, and xeriscaping, to name just a few features that you can observe from the street or sidewalk.

Much love to all of you! Enjoy this beautiful spring weather and the abundant rain we have received.

PS. Caveat!!! Although my space has a very eclectic look, please be aware that this is a meticulously curated space. If you have clothing, knick knacks, or other items that you no longer want, please take them to our Lady of Lourdes thrift shop, or other worthy organization that is set up to accept and distribute such bounty.

One exception: Of course, all are welcome to donate books to the Little Free Library! Just put them directly onto the shelves. If there is no room on the shelves, there are numerous other little free libraries all over town that could use your gift. Thanks for promoting literacy!

See 3 photos attached.

Also check out my little 1-minute “before & after” video here on my YouTube channel. (Sorry about the music; it came with the TikTok and I don’t know how to shut it off. You can just turn down the volume if you’d like.) https://youtube.com/shorts/lICC3POSRvI?si=8oomqebYKiB-5nTO

(The “before” is from when I first moved into the house, in March 2018. This video was taken a while back, so even more lush landscaping and other beautification has been added since then!)

Posting this for any locals who might be following this page. And also, for a wider audience, sharing as one example of a post combining eco advocacy plus promoting a related local business. Please feel free to use any of my wording that is helpful for your efforts.

Hey Fellow Volusians!! What we do with our residential yards & other outdoor spaces makes a huge difference in our local quality of life, and on the planet that is our only home.

The landscaping we choose for our yards has a great capacity to mitigate temperature extremes, absorb stormwater, help slow or stop the deadly die-off of pollinators & other species on whom all our lives depend, etc.

Lush landscaping is also a game-changer in terms of screening out unpleasant views of a sea of asphalt, ugly buildings, light pollution from excessively bright street lights, etc.

And, it helps buffer noise pollution and air pollution. Turning your house or apartment into a little oasis.

You can even choose to grow fruit trees, it’s such a joy to pick your own fruit. My Florida native mulberry tree purchased from Katie offers lovely shade and delicious fruit.

The following is from the latest email newsletter of Dr. Katie Tripp, who offers sales & installation of Florida native plants and is tirelessly out in the county raising awareness via her educational talks & booths:

“Hi Everyone,
It has been great seeing so many of you at recent events. There are more sales and educational events upcoming throughout April and into May. I have attached my event calendar, along with an up to date inventory of what’s available in my nursery. Please email me with your order requests. Enjoy the spring!

—
Katie Tripp, Ph.D.
Owner, Natural Beauty Native Florida Landscapes, LLC
Cell: 727-504-4740
Follow us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554883535835&mibextid=9R9pXO
Natural Beauty Apr May 2025 Events.jpg “

PS. Go here to see Katie’s latest flyer listing her (numerous, as always) upcoming events.

“We all grew up with the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. Did you know there are more that we didn’t learn?! Others include: rethink, refuse/reject, repair, rot, and responsible disposal. And remember, these are ordered. You should try to refuse, reduce, reuse, and repair BEFORE you recycle. Recycling wasn’t meant to be a solution on its own.” — Northwest Vermont Solid Waste Management District. (Go here to see their Facebook post with the friendly little green graphics. It’s a good page to follow; they’ve got lots of tips.)

“Refuse” is a personal favorite of mine because it’s a great way to put money in our pocket as well as helping the planet.

It’s not always possible to avoid taking on some product or packaging, but I’m always looking for ways to refuse stuff I don’t need. It’s almost like a little resistance game. We are less vulnerable, more secure, if we don’t have to depend on lots & lots of stuff produced by big faraway corporations that don’t have a vested interest in the wellbeing of our communities.

“Rethink” is another favorite of mine. Interestingly, rethinking often involves reaching back in memory and asking ourselves, “How did people used to get along without this ?”

Sometimes the old-fashioned way actually works better, but we just forgot. Convenience is very seductive and we sometimes just forget the hidden costs.

A fellow landscaper Evolving Landscapes LLC commented on my Facebook, saying they like to include “Restore” as one of the R’s. Yes please!!

Yesterday afternoon/evening’s lovely, leisurely, fat soft rain ended up filling the tubs and topping off a barrel.

The rain gauge sits out front with an easy view of the sidewalk so it offers educational opportunities & visual enjoyment to passersby.

I sometimes joke that my extra-high-visibility urban corner lot is like an Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm, where I am the “ant” being observed by the passing humans as I go about my experiments & data-gathering.

#PorousProperty

And, regarding heat mitigation (in response to a reader’s questions regarding do the trees reduce the AC load):

1) We do not use air conditioning. The house was wired for it, & has duct work etc, but it does not get used ever.

Since I knew I would never use the AC system, I actually got rid of the giant outdoor component of it (that big outdoor boxlike thing that makes all the noise and blows out all the hot air — I don’t know how people live with those things nearby, I can’t even hear myself think when I’m near one) in order to make room for a birdbath.

Housemates are permitted to use a quiet electric fan in their own rooms, but I myself don’t use a fan.

2) And no I don’t collect temperature data. I use subjective data. From countless visitors who report the instant feeling of cooling the minute they step under the trees.

3) The foliage definitely is an essential part of keeping the house cool. As well as keeping it warmer in winter.

Also essential for keeping the house cooler are awnings on each window. Where there were no awnings, I have made cute little trellises out of bamboo and palm fronds etc.

This is the first year that I have added bamboo and palm frond trellis awnings over the windows on the corner of the house that gets struck hardest by the summer afternoon sun.

The house has awnings on the south side and southwest, but none on the northerly west side windows.

Even with the trees off to the west providing lots of shade in the yard, the windows still therefore get struck by the hardest sun in the late afternoons.

So I’m looking forward to how my little DIY artsy + functional bamboo & palm frond trellises improve the comfort of this side of the house in the summer afternoons.

Fortunately my room is on that very “hard sun” side of the house, so I get to be the “experimental subject” — a role I embrace!

More pics here.

PS. This sausage was left over from a catering event that my friend worked at. It was going to be thrown away if we didn’t use it #StopFoodWaste

Here’s the recording of last week’s radio show. The Rev Dr. L Ronald Durham has been a great advocate of environmental issues, devoting many hours to environmentally themed shows.

Big caveat: I get really stressed out about modern-day radio, because it involves additionally being on video. I am from the old days where all you had to worry about was how you sounded. I am not fishing for compliments about my appearance or how I am on video; I am voicing a real reality that probably a lot of fellow activists struggle with as well.

All of that said, I am still very very happy to be invited onto Dr. Durham’s show!! As a bonus, it’s his independent show. So I feel more “free to be myself” than back in 2019, when he invited me as guest for a monthly series of eco shows when he was the host of the City of Daytona Beach radio show. (I think we did about 11 or 12 shows.)

I keep saying I’m going to dig those links up, and hopefully I will. I’ve managed to dig up maybe four of the old links and compile them into a post on this blog so people can listen to the old recordings if they like.

After the show I was chatting with a fellow activist / artist. Both of us agree that we are not eager to be on display — we would love it if only our work itself could be on display –but we are doing our job and it’s part of the territory.

Further exploration:

“Liner Notes” from the show – people; organizations:

Thank you to these three local/regional environmental leaders who accepted my invitation to call in to the show today:

Dr J. Cho, Bethune-Cookman University Environmental Sciences Department
Check out her YouTube channel “Halifax river urban watershed”

Shyriaka Morris, @Peace Arts Youth Garden New Smyrna Beach

Suzanne Scheiber, DREAM GREEN VOLUSIA

Also check out the following organizations for information & upcoming events:

UF IFAS Extension Volusia County (for garden planting charts & other growing info; educational events)

Florida Native Plant Society
(Our local chapter is Pawpaw Chapter FNPS)

Florida Wildflower Foundation

Daytona Beach Permaculture Guild (admin jenny nazak — we are mainly an online info hub but we have occasional meetups by zoom and in person)

Ormond-Flagler Permaculture Group (admin Merideth hosts regular monthly meetups — outstanding resource; you’ll love her spectacular seaside garden of natives & edibles)

Heard of plans for community garden at historic Howard Thurman house; not sure of status

Stories depicting displacement, gentrification, destruction of community, cultural erasure:

MOUNTAINS film, by Monica Sorelle
https://monicasorelle.com/mountains (“While looking for a new home for his family, a Haitian demolition worker is faced with the realities of redevelopment as he is tasked with dismantling his rapidly gentrifying Miami neighborhood.”)

Also, meant to mention but forgot, a play titled A Chance for Redemption – “produced by Sheila Kay Davis, written by Lynn Thompson and directed by Tai Thompson – all with direct ties to the Daytona Beach community” (Daytona Times)
https://www.daytonatimes.com/community/a-chance-of-redemption-draws-large-crowd/article_c1786f2a-4e07-11ee-9507-03683f1fae1f.html

And a huge thank you always to radio host the Rev. Dr. L Ronald Durham for being such a steady champion of ecological awareness and practice!

In my other novel in progress, the protagonist dies at the beginning of the story but sticks around afterward to narrate.

(Themes of this book include mother-daughter love & struggle; sisterly love & struggle; forgiveness; alternative subculture; being “in the closet” financially; green burial; composting.)

The protagonist has a song playlist that serves her as a memory catalog of her adoloscent years 11-17. It’s actually IRL my playlist, which serves me in that way. Songs that were popular on the radio during those times. It even helps me clarify between if something happened in the fall, summer, winter, or spring of the given year.

Note, it’s not perfect; my memory at some points is foggy. It’s a huge asset though, and it brings me joy to be able to call up old feelings and smells/atmospheres of rooms, and just how certain times felt.

How about any of you? Do you do this too? Or have something similar?

I actually used to have this playlist on Spotify, but it disappeared the way things do sometimes when your old laptop dies and you go for awhile without getting a new (used) one and can’t necessarily access old apps / accounts once you try again.

Anyway, here is the playlist.

new paste

In my other novel in progress, the protagonist dies at the beginning of the story but sticks around afterward to narrate.

(Themes of this book include mother-daughter love & struggle; forgiveness; alternative subculture; being “in the closet” financially; green burial; composting.)

The protagonist has a song playlist that serves her as a memory catalog of her adoloscent years 11-17. It’s actually IRL my playlist, which serves me in that way. Songs that were popular on the radio during those times. It even helps me clarify between if something happened in the fall, summer, winter, or spring of the given year.

Note, it’s not perfect; my memory at some points is foggy. It’s a huge asset though, and it brings me joy to be able to call up old feelings and smells/atmospheres of rooms, and just how certain times felt.

How about any of you? Do you do this too? Or have something similar?

I actually used to have this playlist on Spotify, but it disappeared the way things do sometimes when your old laptop dies and you go for awhile without getting a new (used) one and can’t necessarily access old apps / accounts once you try again.

Anyway, here is the playlist.

11-17 playlist

Horse with no name – America
Ventura Highway – America
We May Never Pass This Way Again – Seals & Crofts
Me and Mrs. Jones – Billy Paul
Midnight at the Oasis – Maria Muldaur
Rollin Me Down the Highway – Jim Croce
Summer Breeze – Seals & Crofts
Jazzman – Carole King
It’s too late – Carole King
I Saw the Light – Todd Rundgren and Carole King
Hello it’s me – Todd Rundgren
Brandi you’re a fine girl – Looking Glass
Time in a bottle – Jim Croce
Fly Robin Fly – Silver Convention
TSOP – MFSB
Corazon – Carole King
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do – Partridge Family
My Maria – BW Stevenson
Saturday in the Park – Chicago
I’ve Been Searching So Long – Chicago
My Sweet Lord – George Harrison
What Is Life? – George Harrison

Don’t let the Sun go down on me – Elton John
It’s too late to turn back now – Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose
My love – Paul McCartney and wings
Pillow talk – Sylvia
Saturday in the Park – Chicago
Just You ‘N Me – Chicago
Sunshine of my life – Stevie Wonder
Don’t worry about a thing – Stevie Wonder
Ain’t no woman like the one I’ve got – four tops
Until you come back to me – Aretha Franklin
Listen what the Man Said – Paul McCartney & Wings
Kodachrome – Paul Simon
Band on the run – Paul McCartney
Jet – Paul McCartney & Wings
Fire and Rain – James Taylor
Don’t Rock the Boat – Hues Corporation
Brandy – Looking Glass

Philadelphia freedom – Elton John
Changes – David Bowie
Mandy – Barry Manilow
Fight the power – Isley brothers
Pick up the pieces – Average White Band
Living for the city – Stevie Wonder
Black water – Doobie Brothers
Let it ride – bachman-turner overdrive
School’s out – Alice Cooper
Shinin Star – Earth Wind & Fire

Midnight blue – Melissa Manchester
Take me in your arms (Rock me) – Doobie Brothers
My Love is alive – Gary Wright
Someone saved my life tonight – Elton John

Year of the Cat – Al Stewart

I’ll be good to you – Brothers Johnson
Got to get you into my life – Beatles
Moonlight Feels Right – Starbuck
Love will keep us together – Captain and Tennille
More, more, more – Andrea True Connection
Tear the roof off the – Parliament
Uncle Albert – Paul McCartney and Wings
Let em in – Paul McCartney and Wings
Shower the people – James Taylor
Hypnotized – Bob Welch
You’ll Never Find – Lou Rawls
Young hearts run free – Cady Stanton

Lido Shuffle – Boz Scaggs
I Wish – Stevie Wonder
Still the One – Orleans
Teacher – Jethro Tull
Dazz – Brick
Tonight’s the Night – Rod Stewart
Games People Play – The Spinners
Laughter in the Rain – Neil Sedaka
Magic man – Heart
Song on the Radio – Al Stewart
After the Loving – Englebert Humpledinck
I Wouldn’t Want To be like you – Alan Parsons Project

She’s Gone – Hall & Oates
Love will find a way – Pablo Cruz
I’m in You – Peter Frampton
Easy – Commodores

You make loving fun – Fleetwood Mac
Lucky Man – Emerson Lake & Palmer
Always and Forever – Heat Wave
Groove Line – Heat Wave
Disco Inferno – Trammps
My Baby – Paul McCartney & Wings
I Just Wanna Stop – Gino Vanelli
Ffun – ConFunkShun
You’re in My Heart – Rod Stewart
Sometimes When We Touch – Dan Hill
How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees
Ain’t No Stopping Us Now – McFadden & Whitehead
Roundabout – Yes

Reminiscing – Little River Band
Fool if you think it’s over – Chris Rhea
Knowing me, knowing you – Abba
Looks Like We Made It – Barry Manilow
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow – Fleetwood Mac
Two Tickets to Paradise – Eddie Money
Dark Star – Crosby Stills & Nash
On and on – Stephen Bishop
Copacabana – Barry Manilow
Mama Can’t Buy You Love – Elton John

Bye Bye Love – The Cars
Loving, Touching, Squeezing – Journey
Isn’t it time – The Babys
Shake Your Groove Thing – Peaches & Herb
Pop Muzik – M
Money – Flying Lizards
52 Girls – B-52s
Knock on Wood – Amii Stewart
Gone, Gone, Gone – Bad Company
Promises – Eric Clapton
On the Radio – Donna Summer
Fool in the Rain – Led Zeppelin
Escape (The Pina Colada Song) – Rupert Holmes

White lies – Nils Lofgren
Steal away – Nils Lofgren
Ah! Leah! – Donnie Iris
Getting in Tune – The Who
Steal Away – Robbie Dupree
Hold on Loose – 38 Special