Start in Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where We Live with Radical Common Sense

If it's not working change it . . . one backyard at a time.

Visionary placemaker Steve Nygren chronicles the rise of Serenbe, a pioneering model in biophilic living outside Atlanta, and charts a path for others wishing to challenge the status quo, embrace optimism, and reinvent their communities--and themselves.

For many Americans, life is no longer working. We are increasingly sick, stressed, anxious, and unhappy. Many feel left behind by the economy, disillusioned by once-respected institutions, and helpless in the face of environmental decline. Steve Nygren argues that much of this can be traced to where--and how--we live. By rethinking and reinvesting in our own communities, we can rediscover the joy of connected, meaningful lives for ourselves and future generations.

Start in Your Own Backyard provides a blueprint for developing sustainable communities where citizens of all generations can thrive, and awe is found in everyday moments, which requires understanding:

The unintended consequences of sprawl, and why clustered development supports more green space, more housing, and lower costs Why being disconnected from nature and each other is at the root of many environmental, societal, and health-related woes Tactics to encourage a local food-based economy (and why that matters) How small yards, front porches, and blueberry bushes at crosswalks lead to strong, supportive neighborhoods The benefits of aging in place, and how to nurture connections between uncaged elders and free-range kids

Whether you're a placemaker, developer, civic leader, business owner, or parent or grandparent wishing to improve the things that complicate your life, this book is for you. It educates and inspires, demonstrates the impact of local action, and sparks hope that one person can change the world in amazing ways by starting in your own backyard. Why shouldn't that person be you?

Author: Steve Nygren
Publisher: Matt Holt Books
Published: 10/07/2025
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781637747438

About the Author
Concerned by the trends of poor human health and a degraded environment, Steve Nygren was on a treadmill trying to effect change but going nowhere. He surrendered to hopelessness and retreated to the countryside on the edge of Atlanta to raise his family. After seven years of retirement while walking the trails, he realized the tentacles of dysfunction could destroy his rural paradise. Rather than retreat further, he launched an effort to save his own backyard expanding the effort to the surrounding 40,000 acres that is now a living laboratory for change offering solutions and hope to communities around the world who are curious about a better future.