Possibilitarian Garden

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Ode to the Maypop!

I have allowed the Maypop to take over much of the spaces where I initially planted last year (a thank you weed from Gather Round Farm, a large permaculture-based garden built atop a parking lot on the west side of Cleveland). This native herbacious perennial, the true soulmate of the Bumble Bee (about three bumble bees can rub in its pollen at once), loaded with a stop-you-in-your-tracks fragrance, all of its parts can be used to make a delicious tea soothing to the nervine system, with an edible fruit - Maypop deserves a prize for most charming plant ever! Maypop is a wild one indeed, and a well named one, at that, considering the way it spreads, I have been saying it just "may pop" up anywhere (and everywhere)! Hurray for Maypop Passionflower!

The mysterious and alluring fruit of the exotic-seeming-native Maypop Passionflower.

Rain Harvesting in Vermont

This past summer gardens in Vermont got much more water than our little garden did in the Midwest world of Cleveland, OH. Rain harvesting continuously shows itself to be a vital element in gardening and farming, as the weather is growing more and more variable and less reliable. So, when I saw this rain harvesting system at my friends’ place up in Vermont, I thought I’d document it. Though much of this particular system is used for indoor kitchen and bathroom sink systems, it shows an ingenious way to collect and use the precious water resource come down from the heavens!

a smart and simple homemade filter made from a sock to keep leaves and any other debris from getting into the rain barrels.

The Outdoor Dish-Washing Sink

The set up of the raised rain barrels from back.

The plumbing set-up for the rain barrels, though well thought-out, were incredibly simple. With plumbing to connect the water use for doing dishes outside, there was also pipes that went inside to make for doing dishes possible indoors as well.

Rosemary ready to do the dishes!

Vacating

Returning home from vacation can arguably be just as good as being on vacation. That satisfaction of being back at home base. Looking forward to routine and familiarity.

Well, living in Buckeye, in Cleveland, OH, does not necessarily provide that same scenario. On second thought, maybe it does, but the familiarity and routine that one can rest upon is the routine of constant change. Things are so very much in flux here. The scene of people can be radically different, the feel on the street, what the activity level is like- all as variable as the weather these days & moderately as unpredictable.

Upon returning home this time, we discovered that the neighbors at the back of the lot, the ones I had written about on the "which path are you on" post, the family, had been evicted from their house. But not only had they been evicted, but their landlord must have decided that it was cheaper to take all of their possessions- including their mattresses, dressers, clothing, shoes, trash, furniture- and drag it out of the house, through their backyard, through the opening in the fence, and dump it all in the back of the lot & behind the abandoned house.

Perhaps it was the compost bins that we had recently set up that were the most striking. Here was a place that has intention to collect the waste and recycle it back into something useful for society. In many ways, the compost bins filled with our neighbors clothes and trash from their kitchen, showed the real waste with which our society is dealing.

Yes, this compost will eventually hold food scraps and grass clippings and cut-up leaves - even old newspapers; but at this moment it is filled with the remnants of, what seems to be what some consider, a disposable population. It is shocking to see the extent of brutality and violence that is so common place in the lives of people here. That this sort of way of treating each other is almost acceptable and perhaps even expected, because no one is held accountable, is unfathomable where I am from (what I hadn't realized before about where I am from was that though this sort of violence happening in Buckeye- though I never witnessed before, was a violence necessary to happen in order to keep the "peace" I experienced growing up in a white suburb.) Maybe I am naive to think another way is possible. Despite how nonchalant and even-keel the kids, the former residents of the house, seem when I see them on the street and ask them about what happened, I feel in my gut that part of them must wish that things were different. It is too sad to imagine otherwise.

Whatever the case, The compost bin isn't for trashing things- aka dumping and burying in the earth as a giant pile - hiding your waste while it leaks toxic substances. The compost bin is for repurposing, recycling, and transformation. In that same vein, I don't plan to trash my neighbors' old possessions, cover where it had been with a layer of dirt and bury away the experience of witnessing such violence in my mind. I plan to take this experience and recycle it in my mind. Transform it into a greater vision. With this garden lot there will always be an understanding that to be an urban gardener here in Cleveland, OH is to constantly encounter the brutalities and realities of the current society and capitalist system. Hopefully, one day this image too will be transformed into disposing of resources and instead creating ones for the community. With that hope, goodnight.

Away in Vermont

It has been over two weeks, and I have been away from the computer and the internet, immersing myself in the observation of an incredibly biodiverse ecosystem that I can only dream of recreating in this lot next door. I was in my former homeland, the countryside of Vermont. Being there was a reminder to myself of where I take much of my gardening inspiration. I stayed with a friend who lives up a top a mountain with a breathtaking view and a huge garden, orchard, chickens, vineyard, and in the past there's been sheep and pigs. It was not only the gardening way of her and her partner that was interesting to me, but the incredible insect metropolis that ran the land with its wild field of goldenrod and milkweed and joe pye weed. It brought me such joy to watch the fields and observe the many layers of flying beings. Crickets, and grasshoppers, beetles and ladybugs. Dragonflies, hummingbirds, bumble bees, hornets, butterflies. Ravens, heron, woodpeckers, roosters. (not to mention the pack of coyotes howling nearby at night.) It was all so reviving. It made me think about the ecosystem in the lot next door. Where I had lamented cucumber beetles, I now saw cucumber beetles as part a million more bugs I couldn't identify. It made me realize how few bugs there are in the lot. That being said, it was such a nice greeting when I returned to the garden here and was met by the constant visiting Monarch who seems to love the mexican sunflower that sits center in the garden! I feel one major goal has been accomplished - create a giant welcome mat for monarchs and other butterflies. (more on that later)

As of now, I feel I need to play a little "catch up" with entries, and get up and posted many of the things I saw and the issues I have been mulling over. So, stay "posted" for the latest.