Water Conservation or Moneyscaping?

This an "improved" water conserving landscape.

On a study day at one of the local water conservation garden I found this great example of how you can save water in your yard. Or is it?

The above photo has this great concrete patio with a matching bench/amphitheater, a built in BBQ (off camera)

This is the "standard" water wasting yard.

It is clear that the first picture requires less water, but only because it does not have the same amount of turf. The tree and shrub selections are not that much better than those of the standard landscape. The concrete pad is not intended to gather water for any of the plants, so really, its only function for water conservation is to reduce the amount of grass.

What bothers me most is that the water conserving garden is obviously designed and a huge amount of money was spent to install it, while the normal landscape is a mockery of what a home owner might put in themselves.

People are not going to be inspired to save water if it feels like it is beyond them financially. They are not going to save water if they feel the only way to do it is to hire a designer. (Although if they do, I would like to be at the top of their list!) 

And people are not going to save water if their efforts are going to be treated as if they are stupid. This display needs to be redone with respect to the real needs instead of it being a landscape architect's resume building dream.

Time for us all to get back to the real world!

October Country

Welcome to autumn sights!

Fall is my favorite time of year. Here is a selection of photos I've taken in my recent travels. Feel free to post some of your own literary pictures in the comments section.

Enjoy!

Native oaks. The coloring is so subtle it defies the 

camera.

Pink banana squash, a favorite in Utah.

Lovely color on this ash tree. I just wish
it were easier to keep the bugs out.

Spooky Halloween Tree

This looks good for the scary season, but 
will be bad through the life of the tree.

I appreciate the macabre spirit of Halloween as much as everyone, but making a tree into a permanent horror is simply too much.


For the rest of its life the tree will have problems with:

• Bad form caused by quick growing limbs.
• Branches constantly rubbing together and leaving open wounds.
• Rot and disease entering into the trunk and main limbs.
• A drastic increase in limbs falling. Some of them might be quite heavy.

I understand why the homeowner would think this is a good idea, the tree really is too big for the location. A better solution would have been to remove the tree and replace it with a smaller tree.

The worst horror of this botched job is that the pruner thinks he did great work. I am disappointed that someone who professes to love their job refuses to put the study into understanding the basic do's and don'ts.

I strongly recommend that if your friends get work like this, don't go to them for recommendations on a tree service.

I bid you peace and hope that your Halloween horrors last only through the season!

Living with Diabetes

Tools I'm using to fight diabetes. Clockwise from
the top: blender, bread maker, no sugar added
apple sauce, extra virgin olive oil, and agave juice.

For just over a month I've been dealing with diabetes. That is to say, for a month we have known that the mysterious disease that my wife was fighting with for the previous six months is type 2 diabetes.

Now, as serious as diabetes is, we are overjoyed to have a diagnosis and we are happy to have a disease that is treatable. Heck, it is even curable. But it ain't gonna be easy. And whatever else, we are going to have to make big changes.


The first of these changes is to realize that type 2 diabetes is not a mystery. It is simply the body's inability to keep up with its weight. With that in mind it is easy to figure out the cure: eat healthy and exercise.


Of course the simple explanation gets complicated by the fact that we have to keep her alive long enough for the cure to be effective. Our bad food habits, the evil agri-food machine, and additional health issues also complicate the matter.


The biggest thing my wife needs is support. This comes not from patting her on the back and saying, 'You're doing a great job!' or from getting her the best and latest diabetic cookbook or even from cooking her the best, most luscious diabetic meals 'just for her'. It comes from living the lifestyle with her.


This means not eating the things she loves in front of her, making meals she can eat for the whole family, and cutting back on my excesses even while she is not around. Sure it is ok for me and my daughter to splurge when my wife is not with us, but these should be infrequent and cautious. 


And over all, I am grateful for the changes in me. As we all have been cutting back on the sugar I have found that some of my aches and pains have lessened, I feel better about myself, and I feel that the way I eat now better matches with my permaculture ideals.


As long as both of us stay the course, diabetes will end up being a win/win rather than a terrible curse.

Respect

I went to a gardening lecture last spring, featuring a local garden 'expert'. This guy was conventional to the core, but what bothered me was that he opened the lecture by bashing the techniques of some nationally published books in a way that was disrespectful of the authors.

Now, I expect differences in ideas, techniques, and background, but I choose to celebrate the differences and find that more often than not, I can still learn from folks who disagree with me even on the deepest levels.

When I looked at going to the second class, I just couldn't face the idea of suffering through a guy that had no respect for his peers. So, I didn't go.

And what is the point? A lot of people that read this blog are on the edge of forward moving gardening. We are all likely to be teachers in the field at some point

When we get there, we need to be able to step back and say, 'No, I don't agree with many of the things you are doing, but I'm glad you are gardening. Oh, and by the way, here is something that has worked for me. I hope it will work for you as well.'

Peace be with you and let me know how your gardens are doing!

Permaculture Pruning: Lesson One

Me climbing into the main crotch of a peach tree.

To prune properly, you need to know something about how the plant is structured and how it responds to getting cut. The following is a list and description of some of the important parts of a woody plant for you to know when pruning.


In future posts I will teach how to prune right.


Branch A subordinate shoot coming off of a larger stem.

Branch Bark Ridge This is a pucker of bark that appears on the upper side of the angle where two limbs meet. It is most common on angles where one limb is bigger than the other. Branch bark ridges do not appear on all trees. Lindens, for instance, rarely have them.

Crotch The area where two limbs meet.

Co-dominant Stems Two branches that are about equal in size and vigor.


Collar A swollen ring at the base of a branch where it meets the trunk of a larger branch. This ring contains wood created from the branch itself as well as the larger limb it is attached to. The collar is easily visible on some limbs, but it is usually hard for the beginner to see.

Included Bark When two branches grow close enough together that they are unable to knit together properly. This causes the back to get caught and die between the two branches. Crotches that have included bark are common breaking points when the tree is under stress.


Node The point on a stem where buds and leaves are or were attached.


Scaffold Limb The major branches of a fruit tree.


Spur A short, slow growing stem that is often the area of fruit growth.

Sucker A shoot growing from the base or roots of a plant. Watersprouts are often called suckers.


Trunk The main stem of the tree.


Watersprout A vigorous, fast growing branch. Watersprouts usually grow vertically.

Choosing to Remove Trees

Removal of a tree is always an emotional decision. Usually the one wanting the tree removed is passionate about why he wants to remove it. There is almost always opposition to the removal that is equally passionate. Sometimes that opposition is silent, but the bigger the tree, the more the conflict and trouble that is likely.


Some of the legitimate reasons to remove a tree are:

1. Competition with another tree that has greater financial, esthetic, or emotional value.
2. Competition with a man made structure, whether it be a house, power lines, or sidewalk.
3. The tree is dying.
4. It has lost the value it was originally planted for.
5. The tree is a weedy species.
6. It is creating a bad phycological impact on those who live and work around it.
7. The tree has become too much of a safety risk.

The last point is the most important: safety is the overriding decider in anything with trees. 

I don't think I need to list the reasons to keep a tree, I think we all have plenty of our own. I do ask that you respect the property owner's right and responsibility for his trees. While there are trees worth fighting for, they are not as frequent as I would like.



Too often I see that the trees that are being fought over are in bad shape and causing problems for the whole neighborhood.



A particular case in mind was a lot with large Siberian elms. These elms were dripping slime from a bacterial infection, had weak limbs that were a risk to the neighborhood kids, and were spreading seeds that were growing in every crack and fence line within a mile radius.


In this case the preservationists won, but I have to wonder if at this point, ten years later, they would be happier with what the property owner wanted to plant as part of the project, or the sick trees they stuck themselves with.

I know I would have chosen the healthier, safer trees.

Gardeners and Santa

A friend of mine told the truth about Santa to his kids a couple of days ago. This admission received a wide chorus of 'how could yous' with a few, quiet 'at-a-boys'. The 'how could you' crowd seemed to focus on how this friend was robbing his children of some 'vital experience' for growing up healthy.


My wife and I have never taught our child that Santa is a real guy flying around the world with reindeer and a red suit. She knows the stories, but she knows them in context of reality. And honestly, I think she knows them deeper than many of her friends.


Many of those friends spend horrific amounts of time putting together long lists of what they want Santa to bring them. The larger the family tradition of Santa is, the longer the lists seem and the more time the kids spend making them.


My daughter, on the other hand is much more likely to ask what work she can do to earn money to give a well thought out gift. Yes, she has a wish list. But it never makes it to paper unless she is asked. And while she has fun opening her presents, she is more excited to see the reaction to the ones she is giving.


Somehow I don't think she has missed that 'vital experience'. She has, however, gained several key traits for a gardener. Humility, a realization that one must give, and deep caring about others.


After all, where would our gardens be if we didn't put so much into them? If we didn't realize that we are subject to the greater power of the elements? And that our vegetable and fruit gardening always leads to helping someone else?


And aren't all these traits the same ones that make all civilizations work?


No, I am sure that teaching the truth about Santa will lead to much more magic in the lives of my friend's children.

Permaculture Progression

One of the key ingredients of a good sustainable garden is to guide the garden into duplicating natural patterns while also getting it to provide food, fuel, and building materials. While there are many things that need to be understood to accomplish this, one of the most important is to understand the natural progression of vegetation.

While I'm not going into extreme detail, it is important to have the picture of the plant life in a temperate 'juvenile' area to be annuals, new perennials, and very young woody plants. As the years progress the dominant plants are 'climax' woody plants with an assortment of shorter plants making the most of life underneath the climax plants. How tall the climax plants are depends a great deal on how much water is available as well as many other growing conditions.

For instance, in spots in California, the climax trees are giant red woods. In places in Utah, the best we can do is medium sized sagebrush.

In a traditional garden the climax plant is often an annual that will be cut down at the end of the growing season. In a forest garden it is often a large fruit or nut tree that produces food for many years.

Because of this long term food production, there are many who think this is the ultimate in gardening and that they are fully obeying nature's laws.

I myself would have to disagree with this conclusion.

Even now I hear the cries of "burn the heretic!" But please, consider that the food forests that the American Indians maintained were in fact maintained. That is, they were burned to eliminate undesirable plants and cut out competition from younger plants that might cut down on production.

This is in fact not a climax condition anymore that a tilled garden is. (Please remember that I am not a fan of tilling!) It is an artificially maintained condition that nature is fighting against.

So if what I am saying is correct, why am I saying it? Because real sustainable gardening is about choosing the best option for what your conditions, resources, and production needs are. It is about letting your garden progress to the level it needs to be, then starting the cycle over again.

This start may be taking the orchard to the ground and planting vegetables. Or it may be replacing a worn out tree by planting the new one in part of the annual patch and planting vegetables where the old tree was.

Or whatever. It really depends on conditions, resources, and productions needs coupled with what you have observed works.