When most people dream of a garden, they picture lush lawns, shaded arbors, and plump vegetable patches. But for a group of students at the California College of the Arts, their vision of a garden began with the potholes at the intersection of Van Ness and Division Streets in San Francisco.

Pothole Gardens is a project intended to draw attention to the priorities of road repair in the city while greening particularly polluted urban spaces. The Gardens also present a challenge to vehicular traffic—will the driver swerve to preserve the greenery? Slow down to marvel? Or will he be oblivious to the intervention entirely?

It’s a small, inconvenient gesture that presents an alternate urban environment. On the project website the students critique the city’s expensive focus on constructing and maintaining asphalt roads which give priority to the individual car rather than other forms of transit. San Francisco has over 900 paved miles, half of which need some restoration on an annual basis.  In the fiscal year of 2005, the Department of Public Works (DPW) filled 17,858 potholes at an average cost of $41.80 per pothole.  The repairs required 2800 trips around the city and used around 4,000 tons of asphalt.

When the environmental costs of destructive asphalt mining and the litigation costs that result from pothole traffic accidents are accounted for, the whole enterprise of road paving seems massively consumptive and wasteful.  If many of our roads could be reclaimed for healthier, greener purposes, could we change our car-centric vision?

You can join the project and spread the gardens around the city. Check this Google Map to find a pothole near you.

Way before I knew anything about the coming solar and wind energy revolution, I was using the sun that comes through our kitchen window to defrost frozen fish, heat up burritos and plump up bread dough. I'd dry my hair by riding my bike downhill. On hiking trips, I "cooked" our food in the perfect solar cooker-my car dashboard on a summer day. I also used to set my ceramic artwork out in the sun to harden and dry-instant kiln! Sure, these techniques took more time than zapping something in the microwave, plugging in the hairdryer or heating up our gas oven, but it's fun and free to work with nature.

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I've avoided it for 24 years, thanks to living in big cities, but now that I'm moving back to Connecticut, I can no longer deny it - I need to buy a car. Unfortunately, cars are not like houses, which you earn equity on. The moment you drive a brand new car off the lot, it starts to depreciate in value drastically. Of course, we can't forget the eco-implications of having a car: oil changes, burning fossil fuels, buying something that is mass produced … etc. Thanks to my car-need realization, I began delving into the world of green automobiles last month. You know what I found? Numerous choices, most of them out of my price range. Add on the choice of what type of eco-car to buy (gas hybrid, electric hybrid, ethanol-ready, biodiesel-ready … etc) and you've got one frustrated consumer. If I had the opportunity, I'd save for the new Chevrolet Volt, which is scheduled to be released in 2 years. Reality check: That is 2 years from now. I need a car in 3 months. So, back to the drawing board - and to the Yahoo! Autos Green Center. Those little Smart cars are adorable - I could pick one of those up in NYC after I get back to the East Coast. Reality check: Those suckers are small! For just a bit more, I could get a brand new Prius. I doubt a Smart car would handle the Connecticut winters very well either. Having a Toyota Prius Hybrid or a Honda Civic Hybrid would be a joy! Reality check: they both start around $23,000 for a 2008 model. Then it hit me … used cars. Duh! While buying a used car can be a stressful process (if you work with an obnoxious used car dealer), it will cost you much less and save from having to use fresh resources to build a new car. Yes, there is the undeniable issue of fuel efficiency, but there are a number of ways to improve that. If you are willing to make an investment, you can buy a kit to turn you current vehicle into a hybrid (or pay someone to do it for you). You can also shop around, and compare MPG's of used cars- be sure to check the engine type and any options packages (sports options can make a fuel-efficient car into a bit of a guzzler) against published reports. Some smaller cars can have very good fuel economy, even it they aren't hybrids (the Honda Fit is an example).

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