Lafayette Farmer's Market!!

The City of Lafayette will have a trial farmers market at the downtown Plaza Park on the first three Thursday evenings of September (9/3, 9/10, 9/17) from 4-8pm. This market will be have a local focus with most of the farmers coming from less than 100 miles! The purpose of the trial is to see if there are any traffic or parking issues, and to gauge the impact on local businesses. So, please try to find an easy place to park and then walk to the market, (Mt. Diablo Rd., east of the new library has many parking spots) or ride your bike, and consider visiting other stores and restaurants while in town. Please spread the word and help make the farmers market a big success!! http://www.cccfm.org/pages/laf.html

I will be working with Feral Kevin at table "From Our Backyards". I will be selling golden delicious apples from the tree at our home. The family who grew up in this house planted the tree as a graft from a tree in Wisconsin. Lots of love in these apples...

Wendell Berry

Within the circles of our lives
we dance the circles of the years,
the circles of the seasons
within the circles of the years,
the cycles of the moon
within the circles of the seasons,
the circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon.

Again, again we come and go,
Changed, changing. Hands
join, unjoin in love and fear,
grief and joy. The circles turn,
each giving into each, into all.
Only music keeps us here,

Each by all the other held.
In the hold of hands and eyes
we turn in pairs, that joining
joining each to all again.

And then we turn aside, alone,
out of the sunlight gone

Into the darker circles of return.

--Wendell Berry

Transformation and healing.

Our landscape, when we found it...

and now.

"Work, motion, life. All rise from the dirt and stand upon it as on a launching pad." From Dirt, The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan.

http://www.citydirt.net/

Experiencing the wisdom of others

When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego,
And when we escape like squirrels turning in the
cages of our personality
And get into the forests again,
We shall shiver with cold and fright
But things will happen to us
So that we don’t know ourselves.

Cool, unlying life will rush in,
And passion will make our bodies taut with power,
We shall stamp our feet with new power
And old things will fall down,
We shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like
burnt paper.

--D.H. Lawrence

Opportunities and choices

The urban American landscape has reached a critical state wherein it may either settle again into equilibrium or it may destroy itself. The opportunity for the restoration of ecological balance is reliant upon the choices made with regard to urban development. The anthropogenic activities that include creation of vast impermeable surfaces, as well as regular applications of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, have created a condition wherein the decline of soil health is rampant. At risk is the health and wellbeing of all life. The journey of humanity in the urban landscape can become one of healing and this can be achieved through education. If we begin to understand the essence of life in the soil – its microbiology, the soil food web, nutrient cycling and the affects of urban development – our recognition of the interconnection we share can be articulated. From this we can refine the decisions that affect our soils, choosing sustainable options. Through presentation of the general structure of soils and the microbial life therein, this opportunity for integrated learning includes discussion of quality composting methods as well as ecological landscape design and maintenance methodologies.

Healing and the Soil

Wisdom is often found in the uncomfortable. Picris echioides L., known as Bristly Oxtongue or more fondly by a friend as Velcro Plant, was the day's assignment for me in a garden. The intent was to prevent proliferation of the already plentiful plant by cutting its stems and flowers prior to its seeds being dispersed by the wind. As I cut each, Felco pruners in hand, the common names for these plants found expression on my garden gloves, bristles spearing through the glove's thick mesh. Tolerable. The occasional plant merited a tug and as I pulled out the strong tap root, the dialogue within me transformed. In our rich clay soils that can result in broken shovels, these tap roots become a path over which water, insects and microbes can travel into the soils. FeralKevin has found it beneficial when planting among the Picris, as the roots of a more delicate plant can follow this fearsome tap root down into the soil on a quest for moisture and nourishment. On this particular day, I was thankful that I had not time to dig each plant out; in fact, my small shovel had broken in the clay after just two attempts. As I gathered the cuttings, I reflected upon the similarity of Picris and Comfrey, the marvelous healing plant with high biomass, whose name is from the Latin word conferta, meaning "to grow together". Shall we then keep the Picris within the garden and attend to it with a simple pruning? Coexistence? I think so. Conferta? With open minds and resilient choices, we shall.

Heroes, Microbes and Earth

My interest in the Microbiology of Soil is rooted in the fact that the health of our plants begins and ends the level of microbial diversity in the soil. It is this that creates the essence of the soil food web. You can glance at this page and it illustrates beautifully the topic. http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/concepts/soil_biology/soil_food_web.html My fascination with this information allows you to understand why Soil Geek is an appropriate title for me.

One of my heroes is a microbiologist, Dr Elaine Ingham. She now heads a firm, Soil Food Web Inc. http://www.soilfoodweb.com/03_about_us/approach.html My work with her has transformed my vision of how we can work with soil and nurture plants. Another hero, Dr Carole Ann Rollins, brews the Actively Aerated Compost Tea ("AACT") that I apply to my own and clients' gardens. http://www.nature-technologies.com/

Organisms live in the microscale environments within and between soil particles. Differences over short distances in pH, moisture, pore size, and the types of food available create a broad range of habitats. Therefore, dirt doesn’t turn to soil overnight nor does compaction transform in a short time. However, if we nurture the opportunity for microbiology to regain its natural state in a situation where dirt and compaction exist, we can create the opportunity for the soil food web to become engaged and, thereby, soil is made. We just provide the conditions for the abundance.

Our response to conflict impacts the outcome. Our response to change impacts its effect. Ethos Landscape implements the principles of Permaculture with recognition of the socio-economic and environmental impacts these decisions imply.

We are about nurturing—plants, soil, creatures, individuals, communities. No chemicals, no synthetic fertilizers, no toxins. We plan lush gardens that are drought tolerant. We incorporate natives as often as possible. Simply, we seek to design, install and maintain beautiful and functional landscapes that enhance work, rest, learning and play while honoring the ecosystems within which we all live.

- Jae Koenig