It *always* seems longer
.... but in your case it just is
Ecology Action was a different place. They started up in the late 60's or very early 70's and just closed this past year. Rents just got unsustainable in Palo Alto (Shallow Alto). It was the first place that I remember seeing big jars of seed that you could buy by the teaspoon, or weight. If you've read any of John Jeavon's books, he was connected there.
Paul Hawken started with a place called Briarpatch in Menlo Park. It was a small, cool, coop market run by hippies. I think that's where he saw a need to reach out to the gardening world by offering good tools... I was really sorry when he was forced out.. Smith and Hawken was eventually bought by Scott fertilizers, which is the antithesis of his philosophy.
There were a lot of good things going on around then... The Whole Earth catalog was centered out of Menlo Park too... Jerry Garcia worked in a music store in Menlo where I got my first guitar in the mid 60's.. I went to High School with Bob Weir, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.. Times change.. So much money in that area now it's scary.
