A quick glance at the cover of H.C. Flores' new book "Food Not Lawns" is all that is needed to ascertain that this is not your grandmother's gardening book.

The cover image features a fist-pumping gardener on a bicycle loaded with all the ingredients of a successful urban farm on her bike rack. While the book may not help Grammy and Gramps with their rose bushes, with any luck, this inspiring and informative new title will become a manual for our children and grandchildren.

The book's subtitle, "How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community", gives a good overview of the book's content. There is a bumper-crop of "how to" information about organic gardening and permaculture. What sets this book aside from the rest of gardening pack is its underlying message about gardens as a vehicle for social change.

Flores is a passionate and effective communicator who'll have you pumping your own fist (and old bicycle tires) in solidarity before you're even done with the first chapter.