Taking it to the Street

This past summer I started a brand new garden right on the road in my front yard which faces the sun as it rises. I removed the grass from this plot and added many a wheelbarrow full of  rich compost soil.

 There were many weed seeds in the soil, I spent the most time pulling grass in particular. I would lie the weeds down right where they were pulled for mulch. Because I planted so many things in the garden weeds didn't get too big, but competition was fierce.

The soil closest to the street would dry out rather quickly, but warm conditions are good for squash and okra. The taller sunflowers eventually made great shade, and worked over time as a trellis for the climbing beans.

High density planting

Okra growing nicely in between some squash, corn (top left), and radishes

the sunflower mix was started in a bucket and moved into the sun a few times a day.

early june 2012

yellow crookneck

Post-Apocalyptic Ruminations

We have entered into a new multitude of complexity, where once we waded through a bog of genetic material, we are now the creators of a digital fractal universe in the palm of our hands. An ever deepening well of information, created by anyone, anywhere, at any time, which lives in a vast memory bank we often call the cloud. The statistical sphere of this data is so expansive it far surpasses the human capability to comprehend.

Eons passed without the artificial contrivances of man, everything was natural. Life's objective is first to survive, and second to allow for the variety of specialized structures that facilitate adaptation on a wild and unpredictable planet. Survival depends on the ability to adapt, but that takes time. Everything must reproduce in a universe without empathy. Specialization requires a niche to fill, and perhaps not the other way around. When an organism's habitat is threatened its lineage, a genetic line, old as the species itself can be lost for all time in one generation. What is the higher order? More complexity, more stringent requirements for the adaptation of life. The way humans behave, leaves some species unable to adapt.

I can understand the notion that the human race is the most important life form on this planet, or even in the universe. We have what so many other creatures do not have. We can hang our hats on abstract thought. With this ability we should give pause to ponder the relationship we have with not only our planet but our own minds. We feel that this separates us from the animals, but we are not separate.

Our evolution could be called a series of fortuitous events; this is to say we are an accident of cause and effect. Our ancestral past is as earthly as any others, and whichever random mutations and environmental factors shape us, an equally complex set of occurrences unfolded to create other forms of life. When we realize that we are no more special than any other living thing that we share this planet with, we can understand that our role is still very important.

It is our responsibility to protect the genetic abundance that only (to our limited knowledge) this planet supports. To what lengths should we go to for an endangered species? What wonders of the genetic code could have been found in a long lost fungi? Losing this information should be averted at any cost, once it is gone it is gone forever.  Millions upon millions of years created it, we should not expect to recreate it ever again in our lifetimes.



You are implicated in the processes that are destroying habitat. Our continuous stripping of the land for it's resources, the waste, and the wasted. All in the name of profit, the destruction is not all your fault but we all bear the responsibility. The resources we mine are no more precious than the habitats we destroy getting them; only we have not yet found a way to make saving the environment profitable - although we should. There is a moral imperative, it effects all generations, it effects the knowledge the human race will be able to access in the coming crisis. How much has the natural world shown us already? How much more can we learn? Nothing, if we destroy it. The solutions to real human problems have already been solved by the stringent process of evolution in natural selection. Penicillin is a fine example of a naturally occurring remedy. Although not scarce, its structure was not synthesized until it was discovered in nature.  Millennia have passed and what survived is no accident. Modifications of the genetic structure in search of perfection, form a limitless font of information. When we cast this information into the abyss we disrespect the struggle that took place in its creation.

We don't know what life is for, it can't be quantified or measured. An importance must be placed on the  intelligent design of creatures that did not evolve on the same path as we did, species that discovered different strategies for living. So far we have not done so. The dire position we have created is quickly spinning out of control and is more destructive as we approach its vortex, the longer we wait to steer the ship off its current heading the harder it becomes to pull away. We continue towards that crushing abyss ourselves with every destructive act of greed.

They* say there is a singularity coming, and they tell us it could be one of many things. In this post fill-in-the-blank era, an individuals mind is the most powerful and lasting tool. But what is the mind if it cannot be populated with information and knowledge created beyond ourselves. To decipher our world we need to learn from it first. The mental, social, and/or cultural event that awaits us should be better served with a healthy living planet. It may turn out the thing we need most is coded in the slime of a slug. Our new state of consciousness might have been connected with the end of the Mayan calendar, it is a cognitive sign post, maybe the singularity happened and maybe it is yet to occur. An unpredictable new complexity will arise if we allow it. With a denser bio-infosphere new qualities will be condensed from thin air like water droplets on a glass of iced-tea.

Grapes

I was out pruning my grape vines today, where it is cold and windy outside. It is
the perfect time to prune the grapes as they have gone dormant for the winter
although some new buds are peeking through. I imagine they are sleeping, and
cutting them is like cutting someone under anesthesia. They don’t feel a thing.
I wasn’t out there very long, and I haven’t given these grapes a winter prune
in the four years I have had them, yet it seemed more like a final detailing
than an intensive job. Now going on my 5th summer with the grapes I
expect to get the same incredible harvest that I did last year.

I didn’t know how or what to prune at first. I was a bit pensive about my
first cuts; my methods had to be a bit different than a vineyard’s. First off my
grapes are 8 and in some places 9 feet off the ground. They are not attached to
horizontal wires. And my first canes (branches coming off the core vine or central leader) are
not tired at 6-inches.

There are a myriad of wild grapes behind my house in the woodlands surrounding. They grow up with the trees. Young grape vines on boarders of the forest grow at
the same rate as young saplings. Normally the tree is well established, enough for
the grapes to trellis on them. So at 4-years old when the tree is hitting its
prime growing age; the grapes at 2-years old are mingling with its branches.
The tree is already six feet tall and next year it will grow to at least 8.
Grapes grow fast, a couple feet a year easy. The tree will get less light and
slow down its growth because of them, but the vine won’t kill it. If it were
going to kill the tree how could there be grapes at 40, 50, some even 60 feet
up in a tree with no branches to climb on lower than 20? This brings me to
an important point; please discourage people from cutting wild grape vines in
trees. They are an important food source for birds and other wildlife. The tree
will be fine I promise.

Now back at the vineyard they have cut their vines down to the spur, this is just a fancy term for the place on the stem where new cane shoots will appear. With the cutting all the previous year’s growth and energy is lost. Yes, new wood is fruiting wood, and pruning like this may help you control the vines growing habit, but what about the grapes needs? I just give some of the control back to the plant. It is higher up like it might be in a young tree, and gets to grow towards the sun. I just didn’t decide to grow my grapes on living trees, but you could.

Pruning is an art, let’s not all be minimalists. Not in the sense that we should all
have spur pruned grapes anyhow. I am a minimalist when it comes to cutting
things off. I guess I should explain that this summer I was heavily involved
with these grapes. You see I have four of them all growing in the same place,
along with the wild grapes around them in the woods. The leaves were thick from
all that non pruning that I did. This combination coupled with a mild winter
last year, made ideal conditions for an outbreak of black rot. This is where
all the pruning began.

Prune dead wood and in the case of having a fungal infection burn it or bury it. Relieve the vines of canes growing under other vines where leaves are partially or fully shaded, more aggressively with a fungal infection. Fungus travels from leaf to leaf in water droplets during rain events. There is a short incubation period, if the leaf dries off well enough before that time the fungus will not take hold. Giving the leaves proper ventilation is key. I believe I read that there are anti-fungal properties in pine smoke, so I actually built a fire under my grapes and added - wet from the rain - clippings of a nearby bush. I think it helped, if only to dry things out. The infection I had was bad, and it took many man hours to clear out all the infected leaves, but if I hadn’t the infection would have spread and I could have lost 90 or 100 % of my crop.