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The EFSS Framework for A Better Yard

Listen to the EFSS Framework Podcast Episode Click play above to listen to go deeper on this post. Listen and subscribe to A Better Yard: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Pandora May is not just…

The EFSS Filter

Listen to the EFSS Framework Podcast Episode

Click play above to listen to go deeper on this post. Listen and subscribe to A Better Yard: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | Pandora

May is not just another month in the yard. It’s the month. It is the month to dive deep in the EFSS Framework!

This is when habits are set. When systems either get locked into place…or spiral into another season of overwatering, overfertilizing, and overmanaging. What you do right now doesn’t just impact the next few weeks—it defines your entire growing season.

This isn’t just about your yard. 

We’re living through skyrocketing cancer rates tied to chemical use and environmental exposure, collapsing pollinator and songbird populations, corporations polluting our water systems, and a climate that’s getting less stable by the day. 

headlines about chemical use leading to cancer. the effs framework works to combat this

And yet the systems that got us here—the chemical companies, the “perfect lawn” industry, and the policies that enable them—keep rolling right along. That should make you a little angry. Because this isn’t inevitable—it’s allowed. We absolutely need our government to step up with stronger regulation and real accountability, but we aren’t powerless. It starts when enough people opt out of the broken system and refuse to play along. That’s what this is. Not just lawn care—a quiet rebellion, one yard at a time.

You don’t fix a lawn in July. You don’t build ecosystems in August.
You start in May.

And the difference between a conventional lawn and a truly better yard comes down to one thing:

Starting the EFSS Framework now.

Note: A Better Yard is a community of Upper Midwest homeowners bucking the status quo and quietly changing how landscapes are done, so that we can push back on chemical dependence, bring back pollinators and songbirds, and protect our clean water.

Each month, we explore a different theme with discussions, lessons, guides, checklists, and extraordinary input from our members. I usually don’t share these outside our membership, but thought it was important for people to understand what we do here at A Better Yard and why it is important for us all to take action – big and small.

A Better Yard used to be free, but we found people take more action when they invest in a service. So I made it as easy to join as possible. You can join A Better Yard for just $7 for the first month with promo code ACTION by clicking the button below.

Join A Better Yard

How We Got to the EFSS Framework (And Why This Matters So Much)

If you’ve been around A Better Yard for a while, you’ve heard pieces of this before. But it’s worth revisiting—because our work here isn’t theory. This is my lived experience.

I grew up on a farm in northwest Iowa. Livestock, row crops, gravel roads, and long summer days exploring the creek. That upbringing shaped how I see land—not as decoration, but as something alive.

I went on to study horticulture at Iowa State University and eventually worked in traditional landscape maintenance. The industry standard. Clean lines. Perfect lawns. Inputs for everything.

Then we moved to Minnesota, I started Quercus Landscapes, and I did what everyone in the industry does—just a little “better.” Organic fertilizers instead of synthetic ones. Smarter plant choices.

But still…

Too much water.
Too many chemicals.
Too little ecology.

Then everything changed.

COVID brought people into their yards. Questions started coming. Teaching started happening. A Better Yard was born.

And around the same time, I lost my dad to a rare, aggressive cancer linked to chemical exposure.

That was the line.

This stopped being landscaping. It became a mission. Today, I work to build a business empowering you with the knowledge and community that we can do this better.

And we must.

The EFSS Framework: Built on Better Thinking

What we’ve built at A Better Yard didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of learning from people who were already pushing the boundaries of what landscaping could be.

People like Rebecca McMackin, who redefined ecological landscape management.
Researchers like Doug Tallamy, who showed us the critical role of native plants in rebuilding ecosystems.
And long before any of us—Indigenous land stewards, who managed landscapes in ways that enhanced biodiversity, soil health, and resilience.

EFSS Framework (pronounced effs – like multiple letter Fs) is simply the clearest, most actionable way I’ve found to bring all of that wisdom into your yard:

  • 💀 Eliminate Chemicals
  • 🐝 Feed Birds and Pollinators
  • 💧 Save Clean Water
  • 🌳 Store Carbon

And here’s the key:

This is not a checklist. It’s a filter.

Every decision you make in your yard—especially in May—should pass through EFSS.

☠ E = Eliminate Chemicals

A healthy yard is not a monoculture—it’s a community. Lawns dominated by a single species are inherently fragile, which is why they need constant inputs to survive. Diverse plantings, on the other hand, build resilience. Insects are a critical part of that system. Ladybugs eat aphids. Lacewings control soft-bodied pests. Ground beetles patrol the soil. When we reach for insecticides, we’re not just removing a “problem”—we’re wiping out the very organisms that keep future problems in check. The result? More imbalance, more outbreaks, and more dependence on chemicals. If you want fewer pests, you don’t start by killing insects—you start by supporting the right ones.

A Simple Decision Tree You Can Actually Use

Every time you reach for a bottle of herbicide, open a bag of fertilizer, or spray a bug killer, use this decision tree to see if you actually need to use a chemical.

1. Is this actually a problem?

  • Can I see this from ten big steps back?
  • Is this impacting function, or just appearance?
  • Would I notice this if I wasn’t looking for it?
  • Is it dangerous?

Take ten big steps back.

If you can’t see the issue from there… it isn’t a problem.

A few holes in leaves. A patch of clover. Slight color variation. That’s not failure—that’s life.

→ If it’s cosmetic, accept it or redesign around it.

2. What’s the root problem?

  • Has something changed recently (weather, mowing, watering)?
  • Is the soil compacted or low in organic matter?
  • Is this area lacking plant diversity?

Don’t treat symptoms.

Most “problems” come from:

  • Not enough helpful plants (too much lawn!!)
  • Compacted soil
  • Difficult mowing area
  • Water problems

→ If you don’t know the cause, don’t treat the symptom.

3. Can I fix this without chemicals?

  • Can I adjust mowing height or frequency?
  • Can I change how or when I water?
  • Can I add seed, plants, or organic matter?

→ If a system change can solve it, do that instead.

Run every decision through this, year-round—not just in May—and you’ll eliminate the vast majority of chemical use while building a yard that actually works.

🐝 F = Feed Birds and Pollinators

The Shift From Decoration to Function

Most yards are designed to look good from the street. Very few are designed to do anything. Feeding birds and pollinators changes that.

Pollinators are the engine behind plant reproduction, and insects are the foundation of the food web. When you support them, you’re not just helping bees—you’re feeding birds, too. Most songbirds, especially during nesting season, rely heavily on insects to raise their young. No insects means no birds. It’s that simple. Research highlighted by Doug Tallamy shows that a single pair of chickadees needs 6,000–9,000 caterpillars to raise one clutch of babies. Not seeds. Not birdseed from a feeder. Caterpillars. That’s the scale we’re talking about.

This is where monoculture lawns completely fall apart. A sea of turfgrass offers almost nothing. No nectar. No pollen. No seeds. No caterpillars. It’s green, but it’s empty.

A Better Yard doesn’t eliminate turf entirely—but it stops pretending turf is the focal point.

We should be aiming for at least 80% of our landscape plants to be helpful plants. These are usually native plants that have evolved alongside your region’s birds and pollinators. They aren’t just “adapted”—they’re connected. Native plants host the insects that birds depend on, produce seeds and berries at the right times, and support a much wider range of life. The closer we move toward that 80% mark, the more our yards begin to function like real ecosystems instead of decorative spaces.

Not all insects—or the birds that rely on them—use plants the same way, which is why variety matters so much. Some species are specialists. Monarch butterfly caterpillars, for example, can only survive on milkweed. No milkweed = no monarchs. Many birds, in turn, time their nesting around peak caterpillar availability. 

If we only plant a few species or only have blooms and food for a short window, we leave gaps where nothing is feeding anything. A truly functional yard provides diversity and continuous food sources from early spring through fall—nectar, pollen, seeds, berries, and insects.

A Stop Starving Your Yard Decision Tree

Most yards aren’t landscapes—they’re food deserts for birds and pollinators.

They might be green. They might be tidy. But they aren’t feeding anything. No insects, no birds, no life. And when a yard isn’t feeding the system, the system disappears.

Feeding birds and pollinators isn’t about adding a few flowers. It’s about making sure your yard is actually contributing something.

Start here:

1. What activity do you actually see?

  • Do you see bees, butterflies, or other insects?
  • Do you hear birds actively foraging—or just passing through?
  • Does the yard feel alive, or strangely quiet?

Actually observe. Sit and watch. Pay attention long enough and the answer becomes clear.

→ If there’s little activity, your yard isn’t feeding anything.

2. Is my lawn earning its space?

  • Do my kids or pets actually use this area?
  • Are we gathering, playing, or moving through it regularly?
  • Or is it just there because that’s what lawns are “supposed” to be?

Most lawns are way bigger than they need to be.

→ If it’s not being used, it’s not doing its job.

3. Where can I take space back?

  • Edges, corners, and fence lines
  • Anywhere you have to linetrim like mailboxes or basketball hoops 
  • Thin, struggling, or hard-to-maintain turf
  • Low-use open areas

You don’t need to rip everything out.

Just stop giving space to something that gives nothing back.

→ Every square foot you reclaim can start feeding life.

4. What actually feeds birds and pollinators?

  • Helpful plants (work toward ~80% of your landscape being native)
  • A mix of flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees
  • Plants that bloom and produce food across seasons

Remember:

  • Monarch butterfly needs milkweed
  • Chickadees need thousands of caterpillars—and those come from native plants

This isn’t decoration. It’s infrastructure.

→ If it doesn’t feed something, it doesn’t belong everywhere.

5. Am I maintaining this as habitat—or tidying back to nothing?

  • Will I have a bee lawn and let flowers bloom?
  • Will I leave seed heads and stems standing?
  • Will I avoid “cleaning up” too early in spring?

This is where most people undo their own progress.

Over-maintenance is doing damage to maintain the status quo and not actually help.

→ Maintain for life, not just appearance.

Keystone Actions for “F” (Year-Round)

  • Reduce lawn area by 20 to 50 sf each year
  • Work toward 80% native plantings
  • Build continuous food sources (spring → summer → fall→ winter)
  • Let parts of your yard be a little (a lot?) feral.

The Bigger Shift

You’re not just adding plants—you’re reclaiming purpose.

From empty to functional.
From decorative to alive.

And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

You stop asking, “How do I make this look better?”
And start asking, “What is this feeding?”

That’s when everything changes.

💧 S = Save Clean Water

Stop Wasting the Most Important Resource We Have

Water is the one people feel the least urgency about—until it’s gone or polluted.

We turn on irrigation systems like it’s harmless. Like it’s infinite. Like it disappears when it hits the ground. But it doesn’t. It runs off. It carries fertilizers and chemicals with it. It ends up in storm drains, creeks, rivers, and lakes.

Across the Upper Midwest—and really the entire country—we’re also watching massive water use ramp up from places most people never think about. Datacenters, industrial operations, massive corporations with HUGE lawn pulling enormous amounts of clean water for their irrigation, often with very little direct benefit to the communities we live in. 

Meanwhile, homeowners are told their individual use is the problem and they can’t water their tomatoes every other day.

That disconnect matters. 

It should make you pay attention. It should make you more intentional. Because clean water is shared—and once it’s degraded or depleted, we all feel it.

And here’s the part most people miss:
Overwatering doesn’t just waste water—it weakens your yard.

Shallow, frequent watering creates shallow roots. Shallow roots create stressed plants. Stressed plants lead to more inputs. It’s the same broken cycle we see everywhere else.

A Better Yard uses water intentionally—not automatically.

Keystone Actions for “S” (Year-Round)

Only water when it’s actually needed

  • Don’t turn irrigation on just because it’s “spring startup”
  • Watch your lawn—look for signs of stress, not a calendar
  • Let rainfall do the work whenever possible

Water deeper, less often in spring and fall

  • Train roots to go down, not stay at the surface
  • Aim for fewer, more meaningful watering events
  • Avoid the daily “just a little bit” habit

Water shallow, more often in the heat of summer

  • Under stress, turf kills off it’s own deep roots
  • Mow higher for cooler soils and deeper roots
  • This keeps the root zone moist and avoids dormancy

Water at the right time

  • Early morning is best
  • Avoid midday (evaporation) and evening (disease pressure)
  • Push watering as close to sunrise as possible

Fix what’s broken or inefficient

  • Adjust sprinkler heads so they hit plants—not pavement
  • Repair leaks and broken heads immediately
  • Eliminate overspray onto sidewalks and driveways
  • Add soaker hoses and drip irrigation for maximum water use efficiency

Build soil that holds water

  • Mulch clippings instead of bagging
  • Add compost and organic matter
  • Reduce disturbance (less dethatching, less stripping)
  • Leave the leaves

Healthy soil acts like a sponge. Poor soil sheds water.

→ The goal is to keep water where it falls.

Reduce the need for water altogether

  • Shrink lawn areas that require the most irrigation
  • Add native plants that are adapted to local rainfall
  • Group plants by water needs instead of treating everything the same

The best irrigation system is the one you don’t have to use.

The Bigger Shift

Saving water isn’t about restriction—it’s about awareness.

It’s recognizing that clean water is shared. That what leaves your yard doesn’t disappear. That your habits—multiplied across thousands of homes—shape entire watersheds.

And once you start paying attention, you’ll notice it everywhere:

Sprinklers running in the rain.
Water hitting pavement.
Systems running on timers, not need.

That’s not maintenance. That’s waste.

A Better Yard breaks that cycle.

You stop asking, “How much should I water?”
And start asking, “Do I need to water at all?”

That’s where real change begins.

🌳 S = Store Carbon

Carbon isn’t abstract—it’s the story of where energy ends up.

Right now, massive amounts of carbon that were locked underground as fossil fuels are being released into the atmosphere. That shift is driving real, measurable climate change—hotter summers, heavier rain events, longer droughts, and more volatility across the Upper Midwest and beyond.

We can’t solve that from our yards alone. But we can be part of the solution.

One of the most effective places to store carbon is right under our feet—in soil and plants.

Healthy landscapes pull carbon out of the air through photosynthesis and move it into roots, soil, and long-lived plant material. The deeper and more permanent that storage, the better.

That’s where natural systems teach us something important. Prairie ecosystems—especially those with deep-rooted native grasses and forbs—store enormous amounts of carbon below ground. Many of these plants send roots down 6, 8, even 10+ feet. Year after year, those roots die back, regrow, and build soil organic matter. That’s long-term carbon storage—not something that disappears after one season.

Keystone species—like oaks and big bluestems—don’t just store carbon in their wood, they support entire ecosystems while doing it. They host hundreds of species of insects, which in turn feed birds and other wildlife. One well-placed tree or a few helpful prairie plants can do more ecological work than an entire lawn of turf.

A Better Yard isn’t just about reducing harm. It’s about actively storing carbon and building something that lasts.

Keystone Actions for “S”

Keep organic matter on your property

  • Mulch grass clippings—never bag them
  • Leave fall leaves in place or mulch them into the lawn
  • Start a compost pile for anything you do remove

Every bag you send to the curb is carbon leaving your system.

→ Keep it. Cycle it. Build with it.

Feed the soil, not the plant

  • Add compost instead of fertilizers
  • Topdress thin areas with organic material
  • Let biology do the work of nutrient cycling

Plants don’t need constant feeding when soil is doing its job.

Reduce disturbance

  • Avoid unnecessary dethatching or power raking
  • Limit tilling or soil disruption
  • Let roots, fungi, and microbes build structure over time

Healthy soil builds slowly—and breaks quickly.

Plant deeper, longer-lived systems

  • Add native grasses and perennials with deep root systems
  • Incorporate shrubs and especially keystone trees (like oaks)
  • Increase planting density to maximize photosynthesis

More roots = more carbon stored below ground.

Electrify your tools and reduce emissions

  • Switch from gas to electric mowers, trimmers, and blowers
  • Reduce unnecessary blowing and mowing passes
  • Use quieter, lower-emission equipment whenever possible

It’s not just about storing carbon—it’s about not adding more than you need to.

Shrink high-input lawn areas

  • Lawns can store carbon—but only when managed well
  • Overmanaged, stripped, or shallow-rooted turf does very little
  • Replace low-value turf with deeper-rooted, diverse plantings

Not all green space is equal.

What This Actually Does

For you:

  • Better water retention (less irrigation needed)
  • Healthier plants (fewer inputs required)
  • Softer, more resilient soil

For your neighbors:

  • Less runoff and erosion
  • Cleaner water leaving your property
  • More stable local landscapes

For the future:

  • Real carbon storage at scale
  • More resilient systems in extreme weather
  • Landscapes that give back instead of take

The Bigger Shift

This is where everything connects.

When you eliminate chemicals, soil life returns.
When you feed birds and pollinators, organic matter builds.
When you save water, soil holds more of it.

And when you store carbon, all of it compounds.

You stop treating your yard like something to manage…

And start treating it like something to build.

Not just for this season—but for the next 10, 20, 50 years.

That’s the long game.
That’s a Better Yard.

Bringing It All Together

A Better Yard’s EFSS Framework isn’t four separate ideas.

It’s one filter.

Every decision you make in your yard—every time you mow, plant, water, or “fix” something—run through it:

  • ☠ Am I eliminating chemicals or reaching for them out of habit?
  • 🐝 Am I feeding birds and pollinators—or starving the system?
  • 💧 Am I using water intentionally—or just letting it run?
  • 🌳 Am I building soil and storing carbon—or slowly stripping it away?

That’s it. That’s the work.

And it’s not seasonal. It’s not something you turn on in May and forget by July. This is a year-round way of thinking—a different relationship with your yard and it starts now.

Because this was never really about lawns.

It’s about what we choose to support.

A system that depends on chemicals, waste, and constant input…
Or one that builds life, stores carbon, protects water, and feeds something real.

You don’t have to do everything at once. Start where you are today.

One decision. Then another. Then another.

Shrink the lawn a little. Let something bloom. Skip the spray. Leave the leaves. Plant something that matters.

It adds up faster than you think.

And when enough of us start making those choices, it doesn’t just change our yards—it changes expectations. It changes neighborhoods. It creates pressure for something better at a much larger scale.

That’s how this works.

Not perfectly. Not all at once.

But consistently.

One yard at a time.

🔥Accountability Time

If you’re done playing the “perfect lawn” game…

Say it.

What’s one thing you’re opting out of this season? Send me a DM on instagram.

EFSS Framework Podcast Transcript

Hello and welcome my friend to a better yard podcast. I am super excited to have you here with us today. It is actually a little quite a personal privilege. First year it’s my birthday. So uh 47 today, and I’m really excited about where things are going in life and how things are happening. So it’s been a rough two years, and so we are just really excited about where things are going and what’s happening personally in my life in the Minnesota legislature, as well as at a better yard. So having switched over to a better yard for Minnesota Gardening has just been a really great thing and excited to do it all together with you. So thank you so much for

being here. So today we are going to talk about F’s. And uh F’s is a framework that we put together, a filter may be a better word for it. But F’s stands for eliminate chemicals, feed birds and pollinators, save clean water, and store carbs. So E F S S F syns. Now technically could call this a framework, but I think that framework is not really the right word anymore. As in to practice, and as we’ve been taking and using this in the real world, it isn’t really a checklist. It’s not like do 12 things and congratulations, you’ve completed environmentalism. It’s it’s that’s just not real life. So most people are busy, most people are overwhelmed, and most people inherited yards that were built around very different priorities than what we are trying to achieve and get to together. So instead of thinking of S as a rigid system, I would like you to think about it more as a filter, maybe a lens, a simple way to evaluate decisions in your yard without needing to become a perfect native plant expert overnight. And that shift really, really matters because perfection is how people get stuck. That’s where where we start to deny moving forward on things and where we start to question ourselves. And so, just perfection gets people stuck. And actually, this whole idea is a big part of why I’m so excited to finally start rolling out something that we call now rebel gardens. And I’ll tell you a little bit more about that toward the end of the episode. But the short version here is what would happen if we stopped treating our yards like status symbols? It’s a caste system, a class system, and started treating them like ecosystems again. So, what if a small section of your yard could eliminate chemicals, support pollinators, save water, and store carbon needing to completely rip up your entire property without uh becoming a full-time gardener and taking small manual steps to move forward on things. So that’s where this whole thing is headed. And first, let’s start talking about the F’s filter itself. So, one thing I really want to clarify before we go is F’s is not a checklist. It’s not a do these 10 things perfectly or you fail. That’s not how the real world works, as we talked about. And this kind of thing is part of the reason why so many people feel overwhelmed trying to build a healthier yard in the first place. A lot of people just give up with after the thought, but you’re not that person. You’re not the person that’s going to give up. We’re going to do this all together and we’re going to put this, move this forward. So F is a much better as a filter for decision making instead of a checklist, instead of a framework, because every single week, whether you realize it or not, you’re making decisions about your landscape. You are deciding what to plant, what to spray, what to mow, what to pull out, what to water, what to tolerate, and how you are going to spend your money, especially in this economy today. We need to be very careful as to how we spend our money. And so most of us were taught to make those decisions based on habit, convenience, what we’ve learned from our parents, from our in-laws, whatever the lawn industry normalized for us. And all those commercials on Hong Depot and all those social media commercials, the perfect lawn and dudes spraying in their flip-flops, which you should never ever do. The S filter gives you a different lens to work from. So instead of asking, what does the perfect lawn industry want me to do? Start asking, does this help eliminate unnecessary chemicals? Does this feed birds and pollinators? Does this save clean water? And does this store carbon? And no, every decision does not have to be perfect. It doesn’t need to hit all four categories. That is just not realistic. And so the point is simply to interrupt the autopilot, to interrupt how we’ve been making decisions and start making slightly better decisions over time. Because once you start viewing your art through that filter and through that lens, you can’t really unsee it anymore. You start noticing how many landscape practices are designed around constant total inputs and dependency instead of on healthier ecosystems that support clean water, that support birds and pollinators, that support eliminating chemicals and support storing carbon. And that awareness changes everything. So I think one of the biggest reasons people never start building out healthier landscapes and they stick to this perfect look of a lawn that is just green, no weeds, constantly growing where you’re constantly working on it, constantly putting chemicals on it, is I think they have to go in

immediately. So you have to pull out all your lawn, never use chemicals again, or only plant native plants, or every species must be perfectly matched. And if they can do all of that, you do nothing. You get stuck in this analysis paralysis kind of world. Meanwhile, the traditional lawn industry has spent decades convincing you that the only good yard is one that looks like a golf course or center field, a target field, perfectly trimmed, perfectly green, perfectly controlled, even if that requires constant fertilization, constant use of herbicides, constant use of fungicides, constant use of insecticides, lots and lots of water for irrigation, gas powered equipment, and tons of your time where you could be spending your time with your family. And that system has become normal. Normal doesn’t automatically mean healthy. And in this case, it absolutely does not. And so many of us are just exhausted by it. Uh spent way too much money and financially exhausted, mentally exhausted, and physically exhausted, and would rather, you know, be on a lake instead of uh working on your lawn. So the S filter is about opting out of that pressure, not from guilt, not for perfection, just with better decisions over time. So here we’ve got an idea. So we have uh four things again F E F S S. Eliminate chemicals, eat birds and pollinators, save clean water, and store

carbon. So the first one here is eliminate chemicals. And now, before anybody gets upset, this is not a purity test. This is not uh something that you have to be 100% all in. I am absolutely not in the 100% uh yes or no. It’s not a switch that you flip on and off. It is not a again, a purity test on things. I think that’s really important. Here at Abeta Yard, we are not pretending chemicals never have a place. I use chemicals to kill thistles. I use chemicals to kill off lawn areas in order to uh plant uh native and helpful plants. I use them in those strategic untime kinds of uses to help solve a problem. They’re there and they’re important for it. And some people don’t believe that’s okay. I get it. Um but our job here and our goal here is to eliminate chemicals wherever we possibly can. And sometimes to eliminate chemicals, we have to use them. It’s a paradox, it’s uh it’s a mind shift. I understand if everybody doesn’t agree with that, but that’s where I am, is that they are useful upon occasion and sparingly. So we uh yard are not pretending again that chemicals never have a place. Sometimes they do. Sometimes targeted use is reasonable, sometimes you inherit situations where you need tools to transition away from a larger problem. But what I am challenging is the idea that routine chemical dependency should be modeled, that every spring automatically means you put down pre-emergent, which is so dangerous. Fertilizer, weed killer, insect killer, fungicide, mosquito control. Most people were never even taught to ask why. It’s just what we do. They were sold a system. So the ask become becomes how can I reduce dependency over time? And so maybe that means mowing higher, maybe that means overseeding with uh bee lawns, improving your soil, reducing your lawn size, tolerating some weeds, planting dense native plant gardens, and skipping cosmetic treatments just for aesthetic reasons. And so we’re not going for perfection, we’re just going for progress. And so that’s eliminating chemicals wherever we possibly can.

The F in the F’s framework is feed birds and pollinators. So this is one that really gets people excited because once you start noticing life returning to your yard, it changes everything. It is really great for your family. Watching your kids find caterpillars and look for chrysaliss and those those kinds of things, and seeing birds is really awesome. And so I have uh gotten to the age where birds make me very excited. So saniel cranes are one of my favorite things to see. It’s just cool dinosaurs that are so fun to see in the wild. And my youngest for my birthday today gave me a weaving tapestry kind of thing of a Saneo crane she made in school. And it’s the coolest thing ever. So I’ll put that on Instagram and uh show you guys because it’s uh it’s baller, that’s for sure. So that’s a little side note here. So getting families and other people involved in your uh obsessions and the things that you care about with this framework is really important. So my family is really excited about uh birds and pollinators, and so it changes everything. You stop seeing your landscape as a decoration and you start seeing it as a habitat. So you start bringing in pollinators, songbirds, flies, native bees, airflies is a huge one. Most suburban landscapes are ecological deserts. And and people think because there’s green and because there’s uh life with the grass there, it doesn’t support anything or anyone. There is nothing that feeds on our grass that is uh supporting uh pollinators and birds and other things. And so most suburban landscapes are an ecological desert. And it’s not because people are bad, it’s mostly because people are never taught another way. And so we were taught that a successful yard is control, is a class structure. But living systems aren’t controlled, they are supported. So even a small rubble garden in 150 or 200 square feet can suddenly become nectar, shelter, batat, nesting spaces, food, insects, and then the birds show up, and then more insects show up, and suddenly your yard is alive and send us sterile, like a uh controlled lawn is. That is super, super

powerful. The first S of the F’s framework is safe, clean water. So this one matters a lot here in Minnesota and the upper Midwest, and honestly everywhere, because the amount of water pollution connected to lawns and landscapes is staggering. So fertilizer runoff, nitrates, pesticides, erosion, overwatering, nutrient loading, all of those things. In so on a farm kid, as uh you may have heard in previous episodes. So grew up on a farm and row crops and those kinds of things. Lawns use so much more fertilizer, so many more chemicals, exponentially more chemicals on lawns. And lawns are the largest irrigated crop in the nation. And so we are equally responsible for this runoff and we can do our work together. So we need to make sure that we are protecting clean water. And so participating in a system designed around inputs instead of ecology, if if we do that intentionally and make sure that we’re making these changes, we will have a healthier yard that slows down that water from entering the system and causing more erosion. The absorbed water, it filters that water and it uses significantly less irrigation. So we have native plant roots alone can completely change how water moves through your property. Many suburban uh lawns and landscapes were taken all the topsoil was removed and sold off, and you’re just left with clay and junk and whatever the side layer was on top. And so we need these native plants to start digging deep and uh adding new soil, adding new organic material to our soil in order to make it work better for everyone. So every time you replace unnecessary lawn with deeper rooted plants, you’re not just making your yard prettier, you are helping protect lakes, rivers, groundwater, and downstream ecosystems and aquifers. And that really,

really matters. So the last S and the S framework is store carbon. So we’ve had eliminate chemicals, feed birds and pollinators, save clean water, and now we’re at store carbon. This is probably the least talked-about one, but it is super, super important. So healthy landscapes store carbon in the soil. They store carbon in the roots of plant material, they store carbon in organic matter, they store carbon in trees and shrubs and perennials and grasses, and traditional lawns, especially heavily managed lawns, do not store carbon in those lawns. And so if you look at any of those pictures, and I’ll post some of these as well, of the differences between turf grass root systems and a well big blue stem or a little blue stem, it is vastly different. So blue stem grasses have roots that go down literally four to six to eight feet, depending on the soil. And Kentucky bluegrass will have a and our turf will only go into the soil two or three inches, and that mostly dies off every year. And so with that, um, we have lawns that require constant mowing, synthetic fertilizers, leaf camp removal, bagging clippings, removing organic material, and this is just the way we do it. It’s not the way we have to do it, and we can learn a better system. Meanwhile, nature is over here trying to build soil. Think about a forest war here at a veteran yard. We try and emulate nature wherever we possibly can. So that means cycling roof nutrients are encarding underground where it belongs. And one of the most rebellious things you can do in modern landscaping is actually work with natural systems instead of constantly fighting them. So leave the leaves, mulch the clippings, build soil, like perennials, produce unnecessary lawn. These little actions have big cumulative impact. And so we have to make sure in our lawns that we’re doing everything we can on a personal, uh homeowner level to reduce the impacts of climate change. So we have so many big freak storms, we have uh significantly more hail, especially in the upper Midwest, and these nasty storms, big rain events that were previously 100, 500-year events that are now happening on a yearly, decade-wide basis. And so those are really important that we are doing everything we can, both in our homes and also encouraging our government to make larger changes for how we are handling and moving forward with climate change, and storing carbon on our properties is a really great way to do

that on our own. So, again, this F framework, S framework is not about being perfect. I really want to emphasize that part. The S filter is not about perfect environment. Becoming a perfect environmentalist, perfection culture is part of the problem. You get overwhelmed, feel judged, feel left behind, different from your neighbors, and then you disengage entirely. And that’s just really not useful. What matters is taking the next best step. What matters is building some momentum so that maybe this year you will reduce your chemical applications. Maybe this year you will plant one native bed. Maybe this year you will stop bagging those leaves and clippings, and maybe you’ll stop doing that removal, which isn’t a thing in our area. And one keystone shrub. Maybe this year you’ll also let your lawn grow a little taller and be a little feral, and those things count. And if enough people start making those shifts, then neighborhoods change, expectation change, demands change, culture changes, and that’s how we really make things happen in our neighborhoods, in our communities, in our state, and in our nation. And it won’t happen overnight. It won’t happen through perfection. We need to make this accessible. We need you to use the F filter so that you are able to make the best possible decisions that work for you and your family and meeting you where you are at to start making those decisions and head down a path that is safer for your family, safer for the environment, and helps support pollinators and songbirds, support our future, our kids, our grandkids, and lots of really great things. So this has all led me into a product that I call Revel Gardens. And so that thinking is exactly what led me to create Revel Gardens. And because one thing I’ve realized over the last few years is that a lot of people want a healthier yard. They just don’t have a realistic entry point. So most people are not going to rip out their entire lawn, they’re not native plant experts overnight. They’re not going to spend the next five years turning their property into a prairie reserve. And so that, and that’s okay. But they are open to something meaningful. And when we started uh Minnesota Gardening and then a better yard, with this understanding, we’re going to give people the abilities to do those on their own. And I’ve very much come to realize that people want to do these kinds of changes and want to make the kind of changes, but they’re not able to really get it going. So we have this Rebel Garden new offering for folks that is going to help make sure to reduce that friction and make sure to reduce that entry point. And so people are open to doing something meaningful. The problem is the landscape industry tends to give people two choices. Either you maintain the perfect traditional lawn system forever that is really easy to replicate, which is the acceptable way of moving things forward, or you completely overhaul your entire property immediately. And there’s a really big gap, I think, in the middle in that entry point. And that’s what Rebel Gardens are meant to solve. So Rebel Garden takes a relatively small section of unnecessarily long, um unnecessary lawn around 150, 250 square feet, 250 square feet max, and transforms it into a densely planted native garden designed to support pollinators, birds, clear water, healthier soil, long-term ecosystem function, all the things with the F framework that we talked about here at a better yard. And the size matters. We max out a 250 square feet with a rebel garden because it’s intentionally manageable to make a real small enough that it doesn’t feel overwhelming, small enough that people can actually say yes to it, and that is important. So a lot of environmental messaging unintentionally asks people to change everything all at once. That’s not what we want to do. We want to give people a very small, easy entry point, but behavior change actually works differently than changing everything at once. Most people need a visible win first, so something beautiful, something manageable, something that proves this will actually work. And once people experience that, once they see the monarchs start showing up, the goldfinches, the native bees, the fireflies, and realize they’re watering less, spending less time managing a dead section of lawn, their relationship with the landscape will change naturally. So a yard stops feeling like a chore you constantly fight against and starts feeling like something that is alive. And that’s the bigger vision here at a better yard behind Rebel Gardens. And so it’s not just prettier landscaping, it’s a different relationship with our yards entirely. And one that asks, what is the space contributing? What is it supporting? What would it become? How safe is it for my family? And how safe is it for my pets to be running through? Because the gardens are built around the S filter. Every installation is designed to do multiple things at once. So we take 250 square feet of your yard, reduce chemical dependency, feed pollinators and birds, slow and absorb that water, build healthy soil, store carbon, and build increased biodiversity. Consumes resources. A rebel garden gives something back. And I think a lot of people are ready for that shift. Not because they want perfection, not because they’re tired of spending time and money maintaining a system. So

if this resonates with you, I’m officially starting a rebel garden installation this season at a betteryard.org. And so this is 100% completely done for you rebel garden. So it’s somewhere 250 square feet and less. Minimum uh cost of $17.50. So it’s $1,705. We install really dense plantings that are uh one square foot uh on center, so it’s got a lot of plants to it, so that shades the ground out earlier, and it is a really, really cool thing. We are starting this gym. So if you want to be one of the founding uh Rebel Guards, you can sign up today and pay a deposit. There’s a deposit of 750. We talk through the plan, we install everything, and then it’s yours. You get three, three months of a Better Yard membership. So you can subscribe to a Better Yard and learn best how to take care of those plants and make sure that this is successful in the long run. So head to a betteryard.org and learn more

and sign up for your Rebel Garden today. So this is the first UN podcast phones. This is the first that I have announced this and talked about it publicly, and I’m really, really excited about it. So, so in closing, that is uh a rebel garden is the S filter where we want to eliminate tentacles, feed birds and pollinators, safe clean water, store carbon. And I want you to use this not as a rigid checklist, but as a way to evaluate your decision. So as you’re reaching for a chemical to uh kill off tenth caterpillars, do you need to do that? Is that something that’s important? Usually not. It is okay to skip killing off all those tenth caterpillars. It’s okay to skip a chemical application of uh pre emergent. It’s okay to do those things. I just want you to ask those questions. Is this helping build a better yard or just maintaining the status quo? And that question alone can change a lot. So if you have enjoyed this episode, I really would love to have you join us next time better yard. Membership. If you uh want to make these changes but don’t have the time or nervous about doing it yourself, make sure you can contract today to get a better rebel garden installed at your home. You have to be, just so you know, within uh 20 or 30 miles from Shockabee, Minnesota. This is an in-person service that we provide, and so it’s not uh all over the upper Midwest. You just have to be mere Shockabee and we can figure that out from there. So head to aboutteryard.org and uh pay and pay a deposit today, and we’ll get everything started. We have a very limited number of things that we’re going to do because this is a pretty high value service and it will take a ton of time. And I’m just excited to get this started for everyone. So head over to aboutteryard.org and I will talk to you again next week. Have a great day.