Ukiah Permaculture Guild

Here is a link to a site with great information about this strange situation.  Please educate yourself, your friends, and family about this issue so spraying stops before it begins.  Basically, the Bay Area is slated to be arial sprayed to eradicate the Brown Apple Moth, a species that has been there for quite a long time, causing little harm during that time.  Does this spraying debate have ulterior motives at its core?  Find out more:http://www.ecologycenter.org/alerts/200803applemoth/ 

It seems like the most ridiculous contradiction, that death could have the effect of creating life.  To humans, death appears to be the end, since we have no memories from before our births nor inklings of what lies beyond, in the most physical way of understanding the world.  The physical world, to many, appears all there is, for no proof of otherwise existence is present in our surroundings.  Evidence of other worlds is not conditioned in to us from an early age; rather, the concrete science of solid things dominates early learnings from our elders, as it was taught to them.  It seems not a thing, then, to understand how one might perceive death as a standstill.

In the garden, death is the tipping point into a flurry of diverse life.  When a leaf from an oak falls to the ground in the fall, it collects atop other leaves that, slowly, over the winter, are pulled into the soil by earthworms, beatles, and others.  The soil is exponentially alive, inviting the nutrient rich possibility of the years leaf-load on to the soil.  Nature, the ever present alchemist, adds water to carbonous material, and dead animal bodies (tiny in the case of soil organisms), working up all involved into an explosion of decompostion, nutrient release, excrement production, and eventual death.  Death boosts Life which falls to Death which creates more Life, which eventually dies………

Today I was confronted with a weedwacker, and given the option, I cut down all the tall grass around our yard.  It was one of the most difficult things I have done in a long time, to create all that extreme Death with such unsustainable methods.  I always want to avoid doing it; recently, however, the grass has grown so much that it had to be cut, or pulled,which I’ve been doing slowly.  Weedwacking for me is a confrontation of a wall of large wells of denial, having to deny life with the swift, sloppy string, knowing the termination of so many tiny lives is occuring at my hands…It’s the gardeners conflict, how to harmoniously destroy for the sake of regeneration, without hurting beyond repair.  Bringing loving energy, healing vibrations, and colorful light is much of the reason I must do the job myself.  I feel my energy helps to intend healing; being present is important, as well as knowing the area.  For the next time I must cut the grass and weeds, I envision a sythe without a motor.  Though we did hack up a few food plants, I am grateful for the cleanse:  now we can begin to create flower beds!

Get the fork to work, and pull up some roots,

It’s time to add the compost, and roust up the worms,

Spring she has come blazing back, wildflowers bloom it so,

and seeds we shall plant, to bring the color in,

for when we’ll kick back in our chairs and watch.

I’ve been observing my local backyard for over a year and a half now, wondring what in the world I could possibly come up with in the sea of possibilities.  I have been a firm follower of the “hammock principle” quoted by many permaculturists, that it takes a whole bunch of laying around in the hammock and watching to create an informed, functional design.  I haven’t had tremendous practise with design, besides a PDC last summer in Bolinas, a few other workshop settings, and reading about it;  in my backyard I’ve considered each inch, speculated on every uniqe bump…well, I’ve done my best to keep track of specific variables, mainly sun, wind, water, and soil structure.  Most of what I understand about my watering system is that it is completely unsustainable and subject to any whimsical control of the public, city-water system.  The possibility of rain water catchment is only a far-out renter’s fantasy at this point.  Sun is plentiful in most regions, as there are large amounts of wind at some times of the year, like early spring, which tends to dry up available soil moisture.  Thus, mulch becomes an important part of the system.

Last fall, I was able to embark on an experiment in soil work.  I looked at a really bare, dry area of my yard, in around august, wondering if it could ever grow flowers or otherwise return to health.  Soon afterwards, I read more about what soils need; mostly carbonous organic material (mulch) is added in the wild to systems which create more soil over time, and nitrogeneous material that adds nutrients and life to it.  Most people don’t consider leaves they rake up as a valuable resource, but most trees give nutrient-valuable leaves which can be used for mulch. Used grain from our brewery had caught my attention lately; I had used a large amount of the nitrogen-rich barley and hops in a wonderfully warm compost pile, and I got the urge to put it on the soil.  A large, untamed cherry plum had just dumped a load of ripe fruit on the bare earth  and were rotting.  I decided to leave the plums on the ground and layer the entire area with “spent” grain, covered with rotting straw.  During the winter months, the rain poured down, creating a delightful ammonia smell at first, attracting all sorts of decomposers, and now in early spring it’s earthy, mellow, and turning back to earth.  Sometime this week, I’m going to get some good compost, cover what’s remaining, and make a new flower bed.  Summer will be lovely…

A few days ago, after many afternoons of wandering along the paths we’ve created in the yard wondering what task to pick up, I began weeding the tall grass from the south-east corner of our yard.  I planted a small Japanese Maple in the region last fall, which just leafed out with small red velvet jewels.  I layed down all the pulled grass to add nitrogen, as well as other nutrients to the soil.  I will top off this area too with compost, plant seeds, and let nature do the rest.  Over time, the grass will decompose below the compost, soil will be created, and biodiversity increased.  That’s my job as human participant in the sytem:  I use my enlarged animal brain to create healthier soils, sustainable systems, and healing areas of renewed planet integrity.

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