Courtesy of Serenbe
When Steve Nygren first bought a farmhouse in Chattahoochee Hill Country (now Chattahoochee Hills) in the early 1990s, it was meant to be a weekend retreat, a place for his family to unwind. But the quiet rural escape soon became something much bigger and more meaningful. When bulldozers began clearing nearby forests for development, Nygren, the founder of Atlanta restaurant group Pleasant Peasant Restaurants, realized he had to do something to protect the land he loved.
That moment spurred him to organize 500 landowners into the Chattahoochee Hill Country Alliance. They created a land-use plan that preserved 70 percent of the surrounding 40,000 acres for green space and agriculture, concentrating growth in walkable hamlets and villages. This was the blueprint for Nygren’s Serenbe, an innovative wellness community he founded in 2004, 35 miles south of Atlanta.
“Don’t wait for development to decide what you don’t want,” he says.
Serenbe demonstrated that preserving nature and fostering human connection can coexist with economic viability. Now, Nygren has authored a new book, Start in Your Own Backyard, which distills those lessons into practical steps anyone can take, whether they live on 500 acres or in a multistory condominium. He shares books that inspire him, lessons learned in developing Serenbe, and tips for applying biophilic principles at home.
Both personal and relatable, Start in Your Own Backyard acknowledges universal truths like “We are busier than ever” and follows them up with easy-to-implement ideas. He highlights Serenbe residents and business owners to exemplify people who have made small changes that resulted in major life improvements.
The book underscores ideas key to Serenbe’s ethos, such as replacing lawns with functional landscapes, creating front porches to encourage neighborly interaction, and advocating for communal mailboxes near parks or walking paths. “It’s simple things that build community,” he says.
Nygren writes of his passion for intergenerational connection, something he says modern development often undermines. “Pre-1950, we didn’t have these compounds where we shipped all of our old people away,” he says. In Serenbe, children ride bikes past porches where older residents sit and chat. Serenbe resident Shelton Stanfill, former Woodruff Arts Center CEO, told Nygren before his death in 2017 that he would have “paid 20 percent more” for the joy he experienced having daily interactions with neighborhood kids.
Nygren acknowledges that not everyone can afford to move to a place like Serenbe. But he feels confident that everyone can make sustainable changes, whether that’s convincing their homeowners’ association to create shared green space or planting fruit trees instead of ornamental shrubs.
“Stop waiting for someone else to fix what’s driving you crazy,” he says. “Step forward and use your talents.”
Nygren’s goal with this book—and with Serenbe itself—is to encourage healthier, more connected communities. “Our lifestyle is one of the prime reasons for death in the U.S.,” he says. But he believes that small steps can help people reclaim a sense of place and, with it, a deeper connection to each other. The tide can turn with a little effort, starting—quite literally—in their backyard.
This article appears in our November 2025 issue.
