visit to the Bullocks Brothers Homestead on Orcas Island

WOW! so that was inspiring

the photos below are also mental notes on what I saw.  interplantings of asparagus and overwintered parsley, the colors of grains, the height of yakon (?), how little trellising scarlet runners need, the configuration of the open yurt meeting area, and lots of photos of pruning.  Sam said "its hard when you're a greedy fruit-lover" to prune as hard early on as seems necessary for strong trees that are easy to harvest.. 

a few notes in no order: I was struck by how I was outside all day but never seemed to need my sunglasses even in the heat and open.  The texture of the land must have made it so, in addition to its irrigated lush green, not the brown that stubbles our soil.  I seemed almost always to need to step only a few feet in either direction for shade.  I was struck by how many people live there without it seeming so.  the simplest of dwellings were so cleverly tucked and slowly disguised.  I was struck by Sam's enthusiasm and patience in his explanations of answers to the littlest of questions.  Truly a loving teacher.  I have made a major note of Dave's comment that the mild and even nature of their climate is peaceful no doubt, BUT many fruits don't ripen because they don't get enough heat.  Dave was answering my question about whether or not my new sumac was going to self-sow. He said not likely because it needs more heat. Luke and I were comparing notes on temperatures this summer- while we have had at least 2 weeks of days in the upper 90s, they've had only a few in the lower 90's.  certainly not around 100 like we have.  Sam said their lowest low was 10.  If I'm not really mistaken, the winter we were comparing (2 ago), Danny said that he had -10.  I had 8" of frost heave that winter.

I have no delusions that everything is always peaceful there, but overall, the sense that I got was of a relatively relaxed and close-knit group.  There was ribbing and the usual frustrations (someone not pulling their share, etc), but overall, I perceived a general peace and conviviality.  Certainly I had a very hard time leaving, not just because of the sense of healing, but also wanting more time to enjoy forging what doubtless could have grown into real friendships. Despite Doug inviting me to remain, I still had get back to work.  But, now I know that it is less restrictive than I'd thought re that.  Brock from Alabama was a dear one, and remaining for a while.  Some people impressed me more than others.  Katie, Greg, Pete, Anna, Coulton.  I write to remember names. Some seemed on a young idealism head trip (I can't throw stones at that).  And I must remember accidentally hitting Doug in the eye with a hacky sack. terrible!  I was aiming for someone behind him, secretly.  Behind his slightly ever-stern demeanor, I could see the twinge of a smile on the underside of his white beard as I apologized repeatedly through the mirth.  Later, he guided me towards the chinese herbs.  thank you thank you!

I love the lack of detail on the website.  How can a person even begin to explain what the hell is happening there?  or map anything but the most major paths? It forced me to think through contingencies and then explore.  I proceeded to do so upon my first arrival so early, but was circuitous, as usual, finding the property line first, then coming inward.  that led me into the newer claimed areas not faring as well, and for a moment I wondered if I was in the right place.  circling the ponds and "far far" gardens, I was absolutely bewitched by a sculpture garden of driftwood.  Beguiled.  lost-- I wandered more deeply.  I did see a distant little house, and took a step further.  Only then did I hear an unusual small sound, a knock.  I stopped, saw the sun-darkened man without clothing standing in a nook of branches- beautifully raw.  even an apology would have been further invasion- I turned, slowly and quietly wandered away..

later, we (most) all nude hopped in the sauna the rainy second night, and I was forced to tamp my desires.  running to the pond, and watching them wrassle on the floating dock- what delight... what immense delight to spend time with these creatures in Eden.  one climbs an apple tree for its fruit, so I am comfortable climbing the mulberry, and fall in love with that fruit, and the feeling of childlike simplicity.  balancing myself and the basket of precious berries, bent on a task.  depositing them on the kitchen table in a bowl of my own making as my afternoon's contribution.  then finding the hammocks by the marsh and sliding so deeply into being there like I never really meditate- I am always somewhere else unless I'm at the wheel or deep in my own garden.  I don't sit well, I don't do nothing well.  But there in the hammock, I thought about nothing for almost an hour.  The way the frogs blinked, the tail of the muskrat so upright, the dart of the dragonfly, and the willows so graceful...

that night (most visitors gone) they cooked venison (perfectly) with mushrooms, plum sauce, and I can't even remember, the selection of delectable greens is so long.  Someone was dandied up in a house coat (swoon), someone was speaking warmly about queers (swoon).  a little boxed wine.  almost everything within 100' of the property, lets say.  who needs walls on that kitchen?  not they...  

I had to leave.  once I had gotten up, I could not stop walking for any reason.  having reached my car, I made myself turn the key.  Having started the car, I had to drive it.  I broke down on the ferry- staring at the sunset and then the moving water of the prop wash.  my eyes grew accustomed to the motion of the prop wash over time so when I looked back at the sunset, the clouds suddenly seemed to reach quickly towards me, from Orcas towards me in a quick fuscia hug before my eyes settled into that pattern and the clouds relaxed again into their incremental motion.  that's when I broke.

I'm going to do this, alone if need be.  But damn it sure would be nice to have a friend to enjoy Eden with...  I'm home now, and I visit the area of sloped and graded grass where I plan on making a swaled in-ground nursery.  so much work.  I sit, curled, in the grey light, planning apathetically.  I know that once I get under my own momentum, I'm a bit of a perpetual motion machine. but right now... I need to go make pots anyway... that's what pays the bills.. 

blackberry garden- may day 2015

winter was warm and dry, wonderfully but frighteningly so. spring brought back rains but not the usual. this will be a drought year.  I have drip irrigation, and will not be growing anything high-maintenance.  once starts are established, I will water only when really necessary.

I'm definitely winning against the blackberries.  I've gone through the area with a fine-tooth comb for seedlings and shovel for old roots twice a year as the ground is soft- spring and fall.  I anticipate a few years of that.  right after I weed, I re-seed whatever seeds are good for that time of year.  fall of 14, I seeded evening primrose in the "back" (into the forest), foxglove, daisy, rye, tall legume____ to the north end of the area with no compost and sunchokes. the existing snowberries and added seaberry are strong.  it is now spring and I see lupin, primrose, daisy, foxglove I think, no rye.  existing mullein and foxglove are now in their second year, and getting huge.  to that area, I transplanted sculpit incubated inside a fence last year, and some motherwort from Ruby, and gold raspberries.  all three were promptly munched by dear, but just the tops.  I also seeded calendula and borage, both of which are coming up but very small amongst the mature plants, so cross fingers.

moving south, the hexagonal rhombusish area (balance beam pathway)- weeded and seeded in the back with parsley, cress, sorrel, sweet sisely, buckhorn plantain, lambsquarter, lupin and later, borage.  lupin and borage came up.  This area has no amendment and is shady. the soil is tight.  I planted a mugwort (the tall kind) and lovage last fall and this spring, horseradish.  All those are doing fine along with the artichoke in front and the seaberries. (need to move the male closer to the sun). wild ginger transplanted there was off to a rough start but better now, st johns wort is hanging on.

in the front of that area is a patch of amended soil where cali poppies, sorrel, salad burnet and a different mugwort (creeping) came up just fine.  removed the creeping mugwort because it was a little too happy there, and will transplant the P sorrel back into the forest in fall. deer love the salad burnet and a pea plant. I'd be happy to see that area with only salad burnet, and enclose it.  tansy phacelia self-seed coming up too, and I will try again to seed purslane.  I think soil too cold for it when I did so earlier.  decorative compost mix from bountiful gardens seeded early spring- looks like every single seed came up. need to id and thin 

moving south, the patch of rye not weeded of blackberry this year yet, is looking scraggly but ok.  and the mother stump behind it is supporting some eatable ferns (elephant? fern) from OGW, which are creeping. 

largest cage with climbing tower - got starts of peas in there early april, I think, a tomato, and a chia !, asparagus, cilantro, all of which look fine.  (gave them all a dash of vermicompost as planted) seeds of lettuce coming up and quickly eaten down (slugs?), fall seeded asian cabbage didn't make it. seeded chervil is good, nigella,  thinned the garlic border, and also coming up are forest ferns- don't know the name- 4'

moving south, unamended area no seeds came up in back (decorative compost mix, sorrel) gooseberry and new asparagus and other motherwort transplant all fine.  P something coming up in front from last year, much stronger- looks like ecinacea family.  phacelia self-seeded also fine.

round cage/fence to south: seeded winter radish in fall.  one survived and now making a good flower head.  must have also tried cress at some point, because one at the edge is making me seeds too. cress seems to be biennial. early spring this year planted starts of red mustard w vermicompost, and they are looking gorgeous.  slightly chewed on.  will let them grow and self-seed.

southward, an area I have not weeded yet. fall- transplanted evenign primrose and daisies look great. jujube tree is slow and unhappy but amazingly tough for what its been through (spent a whole year in a pot including a very hard freeze).  no amendment in its planting hole. deco compost coming up, some cress. old blackberry roots coming up- I'm thinking to leave a few and prune hard, to get those yummy berries- really the best berries- that was my only regret about going after the whole area.  plus, I don't really have time to go at it with shovel, and the ground is drying up.  an artichoke start is looking just great.  seeded sorrel did not come up (maybe the seeds weren't viable from that nursery plant). shrubs look fine. one miner's lettuce in its second year is looking great - hope to see lots of babies next year.

one more small fence area not weeded yet looks like a lot of vetch and bird's foot.  I'd like to get shiso self-seeded in there. the cage is small enough that I could perhaps wrap it in plastic as a tiny greenhouse.  nettles creeping into that area (amended) from south. bush beans did great there last year

southward to the last unamended area- large. fall seeded foxglove, cress along the one drip hose, mustard.  cress is up, but weak, and a few mustard made it. a yuzu is looking miserable.  crocosmia is fine. elderberry and aronia look great, but the aronia tip is rubbing on the metal cage trying to protect from deer and hating that. tip dies.  in spring, starts of mizuna with vermicompost, which I think got munched and quickly. try again? seeds (lots) of beneficial insect mix, mostly deco compost mix just before a big rain and week of overcast.  upon dry weather returning, I missed a day of two of watering, and thought they'd all died, but just yesterday, looks like a lot came up :) and the mustards are looking stronger there with my morning watering and warmer temps. seeded calendula coming up, and nettles existing are looking either very weak or they don't like any water at all. or they just take a long time to grow back, having been stuck under a mountain of blackberry.  but the patch deep in the forest border is also looking weak this year- puzzling.

other things coming back are one little trillium near the mother stump, and a bunch of tall ferns, goats' beard, dandelion, dock, queen anne's lace, and of course the real weeds, no known value: annual yellow flower, grass, bull thistle. and the bigleaf maple seedlings are having a hayday in the open soil. deep taproot- hard to pull unless soil very soft.

otherwise, the big area of miner's lettuce in the old range is strong despite the goose grass I hope I didn't give new vigor to by letting in the light.  Ruby suggests juicing it- Beth says its a great spring cleansing tonic.  the deer plant grass along that path which I will continue to remove.  salmonberries are slowly growing, thimbleberries, native blackberry. all kinds of other things I want to learn about.  I still want to try growing ginseng in there.

happy may day!

blackberry garden: one year old assessment

this will take many years of close watching and weeding before it is the way I want it to be, but as it stands now: the area is about 4000 square feet, the edge between sloped lawn and native forest. sun until 2pm until the chestnut trees to the east grow up.  it had been disturbed soil from initial construction (2000ish) and of course blackberry took root.  I removed them as best I could (see previous post) and promptly seeded a mix from Danny- 4' peas, rye, and something else? most of it eaten by birds..  In spring, I planted strong shrubs (other previous post) and nitrogen-fixing seeds among other things.  I tended those areas the best.  From 2 (?) packets of decorative compost mix from bountiful gardens, I harvested about 30x that of seed for next year.  The plants grew towards the sun and best on the eastern/ sunny side, so I needed to harvest them because I want to get them established and self-sewing in areas deeper into the forest than they were.  Specifically, my idea for the area is to have a self-seeding spread of nitrogen fixers (short ones) in which are planted the shrubs making yummy berries.  periodic weeding but otherwise highly competitive with blackberry seed (embedded in the soil for ? years) and the numerous other undesirable seeds.   Areas are also dedicated to salad weeds: daisy, which I have transplanted from other areas, long-leaf plantain, salad burnet ( a rhizomatic spreader), stag-horn plantain, purslane (which didn't do so well this year), sorrel, borage, mustard and cress.  

*they will all grow uphill towards the sun.  ok, so remove the grass moving uphill, and let them seed themselves * that's the idea.   BUT...

**friend at Naomi's says that after 4 months under cardboard, grass is weak enough to be peeled up easily w his favorite solid hoe.  I said great, what if I want to compost it in place?  he guessed that a year should be safe, but crucial to plant in the area something healthy and competitive.  meanwhile, Peter has an area near the house that was cardboard for a year, then tilled and seeded with flower mix and blueberries, and I observe plenty of remaining grass now with healthy competition. so indeed, having the competitor in healthy state, and no tilling, just layers.  deadish grass one year via cardboard, mulch, then healthy starts cut through the cardboard. 

-not seeds.. but I would cardboard and then peel back the grass and remove it, a little each year. (?)

-not to mention that the bull/ canada (?) thistle in the hulenkugel (sp?) area further uphill has 30' deep roots.  I think the approach will be multi-pronged. 

observations I want to record:

-worms infrequent, but better than none of a year ago. only the fatties, near as I've seen.

-helpful to have stepping stones to keep soil loose. need more/ known paths

-will intersperse tall n-fixers w sunchokes, and also seeded/ transplanted evening primrose. seeded areas of foxglove. curious how quickly the tall plants will overtake short ones in the race to the sun.. rye too

-latent mature bberry roots sending shoots up in watered areas needed pulling on about once a month 

-unwatered areas very mature roots sent shoots about 10' in this year.  removed last week.  plenty of seeds, and bigleaf maple seeds need pulling immediately only in wet soil (long tap roots)

-sunchokes grew the promised 10', and were promptly knocked down by fall winds just before they were ready to send out miniscule blooms.  prune them hard mid summer. note: as a hedge, deer hate sunchokes (gaia garden).  very easy to harvest if the soil is loose and dry.  perhaps this will change as they get more dense over time?  

-red giant mustard grew slowly, happy in the sun, I did not harvest leaves for salad, or not much, they bloomed, seeded (august), and and were quickly attacked by aphids.  a month later the aphids were dry and the plants re-growing seeds.  need to see where they are now (oct 23, about 2 weeks heavy rain).  want to get a patch going of just mustard re-seeding. 

-bush beans were the real winner this year- planted in added-on-top rich soil/ compost from pdx city, grew quickly, productive. falling over.

-" cut flower mix" was not a winner.  poppies?!  batchelor buttons. dumb..  

-"beneficial insect mix" was a good one- lots of short plants, and then the occasional cosmo (P, and tall), one ammi laceflower came up, and I gathered as much seed of it as I could.   I did not notice many insects on the flowers.  either I don't know what I'm looking at, or they need time to find the area.

-tall plants are easily knocked down in this area, standing alone.  will transplant the cosmos amongst the raspberries near our parking area for late summer beauty, and seed laceflower. 

-because of time restraints, could not tend all areas as well as I would have wished, but got at the northernmost area in spring for a pretty thorough weeding (other than staying really on top of the caged areas with things like tomatoes). in that area, the sunchokes were the strongest, still plenty of moldy cloudberries. popping up were foxglove, lots of mullien, daisy.  I watered the area occasionally, and it has a soaker hose running through part of it to to take care of the shrubs.  want to get more borage in there.

just to state the obvious, but I tried.. I started an area of mizuna pretty deep in the forest area, to see how tough it really was.  it wasn't happy.  half-day sun needed.  starts of mizuna planted in spring bolted pretty quickly in a better area. will try again - seems like the toughest peppery green from what I've learned

-rye seeds that I sewed in fall after I watched the birds eat most of the other rye clover mix peter gave me formed one good patch of that.  the mature blackberry grew through it, and will continue to.  not sure how to really effectively dig them out without disturbing the rye, but I suppose I will do so and transplant chunks of rye to sunchokes area next year.  in july, I rustled through there in the mostly mature rye berries chopping down the bberry shoots and then folded the seed heads backwards into the forest to fully mature and then seed next year.  (just following my gut- maybe this made no sense?).  oct now, and I see the heads sprouting.  also, rye is a grass, but is it annual?  the ones that grew this year pull out really easily, as if they're dead.

-uh, yea, eggplant was a stretch.  they are only just now trying to make me some fruit, in late oct.

-tomatoes could have been much worse

-of the shrubs: everybody seems happy except the gooseberry and the one seaberry stuck behind the sunchokes. (moved it last week).  some caterpillar could not get enough of the gooseberry, and ate it as soon as it made new leaves.  the race lasted all year.  and the deer-protection wire cages were fine except that if a growing tip touched it for long, the tip would die (jujube :(.. )    watering was infrequent and deep via soaker hose

-late sept, I thoroughly weeded the southernmost part, where the berries had been most dense and crawling up into the trees. it had not been tended until that point (and certainly not amended w compost), nor watered other than the soaker hose beginning in there and some overspray.  "dewberries" are also very deep-rooted, grow faster than himalayan blackberry, and do not produce fruit that I noticed. found 2 patches of nettles which I carefully saved (among the sunchokes that got knocked down with roots remaining). nettle is part of the trilogy of female support herbs along with red clover and raspberry leaf.  immediately seeded in that ~200 square foot area foxglove in the back, cress along the hose, mustard towards the sun, and calendula where overspray is likely from a nearby fenced area.   

-part of that chunk of time was also weeding the area behind the southernmost fence area, and seeding evening primrose forest-side of the hose, and sorrel/ cress along the hose. intention is to remove fallen leaf  in spring and sew the collected decorative compost along the hose 

-remaining is to weed the two areas between the southern round fences, as well as remove the silly cut flowers mix and prepare that area for self-seed salad greens

-seeded a bok choy in late sept in rich soil w tomatoes,  along with the other seeds to the south, and all seeds everywhere seem to have come up.  after this period of intense rain chills out, I'll see what's still there and consider transplanting baby plants to weeded area w mugwort. I can't yet figure out what makes sense given that the big-leaf maples are going to drop their leaves all over soon. best to seed before they mulch?  I assume so.  that's why I was pretty focussed on getting the south side done early.

-still need to remove maple seedlings (1 yr old) from the west/back-most parts. hope that the leaf mulch combined w seriously competitive weeds (miner's lettuce?) in the most shady parts will help beat out the maple seeds.  either that or I let some of them grow into saplings and use the wood for basketry/ cages around other plants

-poppies: must isolate varieties by 1/4 mile.  thankfully Peter has not planted poppies. not sure if californias cross-pollinate w bread seed.  I want to keep cali's as a n-fixer (and i love them!!), but want to cultivate bread seed.  fennel is another matter- w dill.. P has planted wild fennel (harvested the green seeds this year- creamy amazing! fermented).. so I have to think hard about planting dill or bulb fennel.

-artichoke was jammed against a fence and watered but otherwise rudely caged.  didn't like metal any more than jujube.. I gave it up for dead.. late oct I am cleaning up and find two healthy small shoots.. its a perennial.. sweet..

....-  I haven't even mentioned that as the blackberry was removed from this area, it was also plucked from the old chicken area.  then graded. ... just as the annoying yellow-flower annual was coming in, I burned those seed heads ins place

blackberry garden may

blackberry reclamation project update late may: in late march, I brought in a truckload of leaf compost (and hazelnut shell for pathways) from the city of portland.  I'm learning that perhaps this isn't the best idea, since even though the city doesn't spray its trees, a lot of anti-biotics are injected instead, not to mention the leaves are scraped off the street.  so I'll call them for chemical analysis if they have it, but for the moment, treat my eatibles with care. not that I know what "care" would look like.  somewhere between not eating the tomatoes and realizing that we live in a poisoned world any way you slice your tomato. next time grow flowers.  actually, lupin is a sponge for toxicity, as I read about it... radioactive toxins, even...  and then I promptly planted garlic and sunchokes

in late april, started nasturtium, sunflower, chervil, elecapane, sculpit (campion), borage, melons, fennel (bulb), hyssop,, ground cherry and leeks. most of the seedlings were ready in a month

Mid-may: got the shrubs planted.  I was going to wait on buying them to observe just how many blackberries came roaring back over the course of the year, but I seem to be able to remove the ones that do easily enough to proceed.  from onegreenworld.com permaculture nursery in molalla, I bought a bay tree, evergreen huckleberry, and a few rugosa roses for a different area (privacy hedge).  All of them are shade and drought tolerant.  For the b-berry bed, red george gooseberry, crandall currant, a few seaberries, 2 european elderberries, viking aronia, and giant ostrich ferns. From Naomi's garden in portland, two kinds of mugwort, crocosmia, coneflower, a rosemary, mizuna.  Direct seeded: "decorative compost" mix from bountiful gardens, a mix of phycellia, cali poppies, lupin, red cover, and wooley vetch (all nitrogen fixers), as well as their benficial insect mix in the front.

looking southwest: a little cage of mustard

There's a method to the madness, though the learning curve is steep.  I want an area for foraging salad greens/ chlorophyll-rich leaf ferments..  maybe to harvest just in the early part of the year, but point is that what I don't want is to maintain tidy rows of lettuces just to have tasty nutritious greens.  If I can identify greens high in minerals that will aggressively self-seed in relatively poor soil, I have the beginning of what Peter has deemed "conquering" an edge.  I have identified: miner's lettuce, mizuna, borage, lambsquarters, chervil, salad burnet, purslane, parsley, staghorn plantain, sorrel, mustard/cress.  Of course they all grow to different heights, so when getting their seeds started, I tried to make my own mixes based on that. also, the deco compost mix is generally on the 4' side of things, so I'll try to seed that only in the back, relative to the sun.  the question now remains: for the future, how tightly will I need to select out (weed) the seedlings.  if I let them all compete, will the tall ones move forward into the shorter ones? or will it be more a question of who's most competitive?

I have asked the question of: so, nitrogen-fixing plants benefit the soil around them as they grow.  within what radius? I am not finding a definitive answer. will keep asking.  what I have learned is what organic farmers seem to know so well: harvest before they seed, since the nitrogen is concentrated in the root and upper parts until it is time to make seed, at which point all nitrogen is concentrated there.  if you let it go to seed for next year, fine, be be warned... !

this area gets sun till ~2pm.  for kicks, I planted a few tomatoes and eggplant too.  I love my nightshades...

woodfiring oven research

I had about 1200 pounds of porcelain designed for pots in the Tin Man kiln.  I guess I could have tried to sell it.  instead, I had a solar flare and formed most of it into a hearth and dome for cooking.

wet state: about 4" thick, 3' wide

like making a giant coil pot

I cut it into pieces when it was wet, let it dry for three months, and have now fired the hearth bricks.  they cracked, of course, because I don't have the kind of kiln that can carefully control the firing temperature, and it was absolutely the wrong kind of clay to use for the task anyway.

so now I'm anticipating the next stages of construction: raising it up to a low table height, insulating it all around, protecting it from the elements.  you tube shows me this serious structure designed for a living roof.  and here is the mortar mix which must be very specific and quick for these elegant joined arches. here's the beginning. looks like he knows that curve so well that now he just free-hands it. gorgeous. completely not what I need, but that's you-tube. One of my students teaches spanish- I'll have the translation here soon! 

a family laughing

I didn't move here with the intention of joining someone else's family.  It was clear to me in my initial conversations with Peter that I was requested to participate in one shared meal a week, to essentially participate in whatever communal gatherings were occurring as he slowly created an intentional community.  Great! I love sharing meals, hell, I'm a gregarious potter who loves to cook- absolutely I want to share meals! this is what the good life is about...

so I'm rolling into the end of a week unusually full of friends and sunshine and cirque du soliel, anticipating a bit of vacation with my long-distance lover and it is time for the weekly gathering at the DuDank farm.  I bounce up the front stairs.  Peter is the first one that I see: his hair is gathered in bands that make little poufy trees of decoration adorned with flowers and - what is it- something vaguely like a doily around his whole head- immediately my heart remembers decorating my dutch grandfather with christmas ornaments as if he were a tree, a photograph is how I remember, since he passed long before I was grown.. he had a little paper flower over his eye, and was gamely saluting in his tasteful floral-printed shirt.  Peter is slumped on the couch, and merely smiles at my delight.  His little boy Yohann is similarly adorned- three gatherings of his longer blonde hair replete with daisies and grass and grape hyacinth- he is unbelievably adorable and quickly crawls into my lap where I can't even yet process how precious this moment is and just hold him as tightly as I possibly can.

The girls who ostensibly initiated this wonderful nonsense look relatively normal, fresh as they are from a visit to mexico with their grandmothers, and the evening dissolves further into laughter over april fool's jokes and a colorful slide show of their adventures.... it's just ... it's almost too much, too good...  like the bottom is going to fall out some day and I will be left on the rocky beach in my leather jacket calling to Poseidon for his endless churning grace...

meanwhile, my brother sends me a link to a little video of him wake-boarding behind a catamaran sailboat- some rich man's toy so tightly tuned that it was hauling ass at 20 knots in 40 knot breeze in the bay of virgin gourda - filmed from a few angles and nicely edited, it reminds me of his adult choices and circumstance: he also has fallen in love with a family he did not know as a child.  He is employed by a family with 5 kids that owns a pleasure yacht, and he adores them, all of them.  I have my opinions about the entire structure that yields his career, but there he is, happy for the first time in a while, to serve a family he loves.  I, new resident of someone's barn, cannot throw stones.  We are adult humans without children of our own- the void is filled, the need is served.  love knows no rules.  it will find its own path.

land reclaimed from blackberries

1: there was a large hedge of himalayan blackberry at my new place, happily occupying some prime real estate in the sun.  oh yes, the berries were delicious! no doubt!  and I had no intention of doing anything about it two months after moving in to this new studio but when the weather turned unbelievably gorgeous in October of 2013 and promised to remain so for a full month, well, I would put money down that every gardener in the region could not stay indoors.  Me?  I grabbed my pruning clippers and headed down to the offenders, initially intending to find a way to whip them into arches suitable for harvest.

from the back- the only way to attack

one half done

semi-hilarious irony: my new landlord didn't see them as a problem, claiming that he could keep them under control with the lawnmower, but I tell you (as him), they were climbing not just 30 feet up into the trees but also planting their runners into the grass and forest.  a thorny veneer of green over a boney dry monoculture forest that had me ruminating on the homeless warrens I'd observed amongst the blackberry forest between interstates and under bridges in urban Portland.  My mind wandered to bladerunner-style plant-hybridized communications between messanger-birds bearing the seeds of the sweet fruits embedded with crytographic messages from the disenfranchized: we are tribe "6xq", population 243 at location 98320, mission "_____", enemy "____", etc...... slowly cutting 4000 square feet of blackberry into 4 foot lengths allows the mind time to ramble. 

look at the lovely mushrooms growing in a rotten stump behind the hedge that now isn't

after all that, I hired my neighbor with a backhoe to claw the roots out of the area, down to a foot or more, so now I have a huge area that is essentially double-dug in the sun. 

input 2: biodynamic gardening?  in my internet wanderings months ago, I blunder into a blog detailing the conversion of part of a dead lawn into a super-high yielding garden bed.  double-dug, with added sand for drainage and compost for nutrients... and planted densely with starts.  stuck in my head.  biodynamic requires a lot more attention than I have to give but I can see spreading a few inches of compost on my newly loosened soil and throwing in some seeds in the way Ianto Evans does: densely sewn, and eating the thinnings, gradually replacing the whole plants you remove with the appropriate season's seed. 

input 3: Peter pruned the orchard, leaving me with branches more than suitable for a lashed-together tomato playground. I will dip the end grain in mineral oil to slow the rot.

more to come!  I found a place for nitrogen-fixing flowering seed mix