Inspired Magazine

In Ron’s words ...
What inspires me
Air inspires me every day. It’s the most important thing in life and
it doesn’t get the respect it deserves.
Best advice
Use the garden as your canvas, to tell the story you want to tell.
BUCKING THE SYSTEM
It was 2010 and Ron Finley was sick of the sight
of the lawn on the verge in front of his home. He
was sick of mowing it. Sick of picking up rubbish.
Ron wanted to create something beautiful,
somewhere he could seek refuge, that pleased
the eye. So he ripped up the grass and planted a
garden. “It became a meditation,” he recalls. “It
became my solace. I was seduced by it.”
But the LA authorities were not so smitten. They
demanded he remove the garden, claiming the
sidewalk was not his to beautify. Ron refused. They
insisted. He ignored them. They issued a warrant
for his arrest.
“I just said ‘bring it’,” Ron recalls. “This was the
second time it had happened – I’d taken it out before
and I was not taking it out again. It was ridiculous –
what was wrong with beautifying the verge?”
Supporters rallied to Ron’s side, gathering 900
signatures on a petition. But it was the media
interest that sparked change. Ron’s bid to beautify
his verge and bring the community together
through gardens stirred public interest. The
bureaucrats buckled. Ok, they said, but you need
to buy a $400 permit.
“I just said ‘I want to beautify it and now I have
to pay you?’” Ron says. “I didn’t have to pay them
when there was trash there and I picked it up, I
didn’t have to pay them to mow it. I just said, ‘no
I’m not subscribing to that’.”
POWER OF A MOVEMENT
Ron’s stubbornness prevailed and he eventually
received permission to continue his garden.
But the public stand-off led to far more than a
pretty verge. For Ron had realised the power of a
movement.
He began planting gardens – particularly
vegetable patches – in unloved pieces of dirt
across the neighbourhood. Other people joined
in. This was an area where you had to travel half
an hour to buy a piece of fresh fruit. No wonder
the kids were fat, the adults were sick. Why not
surpass the obstacles to healthy living by taking it
into your own hands and planting your own food,
Ron questioned? Why not help kids understand
what real food is? Why not eat food that’s not
made up of ingredients so complicated they are
near impossible to pronounce? “If kids grow kale,
they eat kale, if they grow tomatoes they eat
tomatoes,” Ron says.
A VISION SPREADS
Ron dreamed of a world where everyone planted
foods and started sharing their produce – I’ll give
you a lettuce in return for your carrots. He dreamed
of people taking their health into their own hands,
and at the same time saving money, meeting
neighbours and forging a sense of community.
“I want to open people’s eyes,” he says. “I want
kids to know that a lettuce doesn’t come out of
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RON FINLEY