Book messiness

In case it was not obvious, I am usually reading from multiple lists at a time. While I have been reading for Spooky Season, I have also been reading for Native American Heritage Month.

There have been three NAMH books that could be considered a little spooky, two of which seem to be series.

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Bad Cree by Jessica Johns

Now, Moon of the Crusted Snow is the only one that actually has a sequel out (Moon of the Turning Leaves), though Elatsoe has a prequel, and I believe there will be others.

Moon was something I read specifically during this time, because I had seen it described as Native horror and I thought it would fit. 

If I were writing about these books now for real, I would argue that Bad Cree fits the category better, and that Elatsoe does not, despite the presence of ghosts and vampires.

I am not writing about them now because there are different things I want to say about them. Besides, there is one viewpoint from which it might makes sense to treat Bad Cree and Moon of the Crusted Snow with Braiding Sweetgrass

I mention this because I had thought that Native Horror could be the bridge for ending Spooky Season and moving into Native American Heritage Month. It could, except that there are ways in which there is an equally good bridge between Native American Heritage Month and some science reading I have going on.

That seems like it could work too, except part of that relates to the reading associated with Caliban and the Witch. Okay, I already wrote about that, except there are aspects of it that sent me down paths I didn't expect. I had not expected to be looking at any medieval studies, yet there I was.

This is a big part of why I am always behind in my reading, but that isn't just me being easily distracted by potential knowledge.

It is also how much of this knowledge connects to other knowledge. It is the patterns that we are constantly repeating, with not nearly as much variation as you would hope and certainly not the desired learning.

Next Friday I am pretty confident that I will write about the last couple of books that were read for Spooky Season.

After that, well, I could start with Science or things we misunderstand about the past or I might take some time to berate James Comey, though with those last two they might end up escaping the Friday posts and happening as part of the earlier writings in the week.

I will probably not start writing about Native American Heritage Month until I do some of those, but I am not positive. 

There will be more writing about music too, so there's that.

Permaculture

When I wrote about messiness, one reason I had been thinking about the term was an article I had read about how cities did not want to deal with fruit trees, because then you have fruit falling and rotting and it takes more work. Of course, then there is a missed opportunity for a food source. 

In fact, I do remember an Italian prune tree on my way to the bus stop that scattered plums all over the sidewalk each year, where they would turn to fruit leather.

They are a fruit I like a lot, but it didn't feel right to pick them off of someone else's tree before they fell, and it was not desirable to pick them after they fell.

What puts the "perma" in permaculture is that there are members of the system that fill multiple different roles in the cycle so that it can be self-sustaining. That does tend to eliminate waste, but it can be messy.

About the time I went to Outdoor School (many years ago), there was this process going on of moving away from the concept of a food chain to a food web. They were beginning to understand that it wasn't linear.

Having ground cover of native species does mean that there should be local pollinators and probably soil compatibility and maybe that your ground cover acts as a source of food and housing for local fauna.

To get it so that there is food and shelter for the fauna at different stages of life, and something handling the decay so that nutrients are put back in the soil, that becomes more complicated, but at the same time it becomes sustainable. It can continue.

Yes, it produces food -- lots of food -- but not all of the food is for you. Then you have lots of healthy living things around you that contribute as part of the web to the part that is for you. 

It's beautiful, and something that takes place naturally all the time, but something that our interference can make really difficult.

I admit that if you are looking at trying to set that up it can feel overwhelming. You need to start looking at different layers and interactions. What's going on in the roots? It will take time to grow a canopy.

It also shows us a path for healing and making things better.

One of the most beautiful books I have ever read was Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway.

It not only helped me understand some things that I had already observed, but also gave me hope for things I would not have expected, like a permaculture area in Arizona that was always 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the area.

Five degrees may not seem like much, but when we are talking about climate change, we are talking about one or two degree increases overall. If we could expand the area, and if we could heal polluted ground, and strengthen endangered species... there are a lot of things that we can do.

I recommend the book, no matter where you are in having a yard and what to do with it.

And it looks like next week -- instead of starting on one of the six areas I was already looking at -- I am going to go in a completely different direction.

These things  happen. 

Planting native species

Let's say you are still pretty much looking at a ground cover -- maybe with some shrubs and flowers bordering the house -- but you want them to be plants native to your area; what then?

Obviously, it will depend on your area. I will focus on mine, but "area" can also be kind of a loose term.

One potential starting place is PNW Native Plant Exchange:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1723453557818882

Nurseries in your area will almost certainly have some native plants, but they will also be selling them. 

With the exchange you will literally see people saying that something they have is splitting off and they may be giving away or trading. You can also ask questions and get tips, so it can be helpful with knowledge and with a sense of community.

Extension services remain a good source of information. For Washington County in Oregon, that's https://extension.oregonstate.edu/washington. 

Many years ago I became a Master Food Preserver through an extension program. I would team up with a Master Gardener at the Hillsboro Farmer's Market and we would answer questions and distribute information.

I can tell you that the most common question for the Master Gardener was about blossom end rot on tomatoes, which was related to not enough calcium in the soil. The favored solution was egg shells, which I believe gets recommended for roses too, but it was always the tomatoes.

On a possibly related note, the most popular food preservation publication was the one on making salsa.

At the time, I thought I wanted to later go through the Master Gardener Program, as well as two other programs; I would be master of it all!

I did not end up doing that. Programs have changed over the years, mostly for the better. 

That being said, it is possible that there is a program out there that will teach you a lot and that you will love. However, you do not need to become a master to be able to do things.

(And even mastering something... I have never canned fish, and it is not going to happen.)

The point is that there is information out there and people that are interested. If you need a slow learning curve or are ready to plunge right in, there should be options.

There was also a book I enjoyed:

Real Gardens Grow Natives: Design, Plant, & Enjoy A Healthy Northwest Garden by Eileen Stark.

In fact, that book goes a little beyond the ground level, as does the author, who is based in Portland and does landscaping consultations: 

https://realgardensgrownatives.com/?page_id=6376

Regardless, the book describes local plants that would makes sense as part of local ecosystems.  

Messiness

Last week I did not post on Thursday. 

I planned to, but I got busy with school. Besides, the topic was not fitting right.

I am writing about bigger things now, so it takes more time; I have accepted that.

There has still been this feeling that if I can cover something in one week -- so three posts, not counting the Friday post on media or the Saturday and Sunday blogs -- then there is still at least a semblance of order.

It just wasn't going to work. 

For school, I did finish the one course, but then I just started another one. It's going to be that way through the end of the year.

Bless this mess.

As it is, I can incorporate the theme of messiness into my Friday media post. 

It's fitting that it happened on this writing section. As you garden or work with nature or try and impose your will on nature, you will find a fair amount of mess. 

Things are really working out.

I believe the next two posts are going to be about native plants and permaculture, but that next week I will move on. That will probably be to one of six topic areas that I have been thinking about, but it can be hard to say.

There is so much to think about.

If you also feel like a mess, pulled in too many directions and not able to do nearly as much as you would like... hey friend!

Value what you do.

Let's support each other in good ways.

Spooky Season: Witches

While most of the books did not have "witch" in the title, it was still something that came up.

First of all, there was some fiction that was not great. 

The best of those was The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.

I saw it on a library post for the Shameless Romance Book Club. 

That in itself would tend to put me off, but I decided to go for it. It was at times too cute and I was amazed at how awkward the unnecessary sex scene was, but I didn't hate it; that was a win.

In this world, witches are born and have to learn how to use their power. Fear often gets in the way of connection. I thought the relationships in that area were handled well.

With Spells For Forgetting by Adrienne Young, I believe I saw that someone else read it and was curious about the mystery. That resolution was actually pretty satisfying, except that you have some people who don't seem to be unusually evil doing some pretty twisted things, while other people who should be really motivated just let things go for years. 

I could have liked the book more if the people were more compelling.

The better fiction was The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent, from my Daughters list.

I kept getting it confused in my mind with Gallileo's Daughter, also on that list, but about a different heretic.

This is based on the story of Martha Carrier, executed during the Salem Witch Trials and written by one of her actual descendants. While a fictionalized account, it draws from a fascinating family history. 

Relationships are hard here, as is life, but you can appreciate the struggles and the choices.

Then there was a non-fiction book that was not great, but it led me to a book that was amazing:

In Defense of Witches:The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Challet

There are good points, but then there are attempts to be cute. Some of it could be the translation. 

The premise of looking at the types of women accused of witchcraft and why was interesting, but another reviewer wrote that all of the good points were in the introduction. Well, the introduction was written by Carmen Maria Machado.

However, in reading In Defense of Witches -- and reading about it -- there kept being references to Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici.

The funny thing about that was that it was already on my larger to-read list. It did come up with the word searches, but since it seemed to be more statistical I was going to hold off on it. The various references convince me otherwise.

There is so much in Federici's writing that is interesting and that points to other things to study.

The title is a reference to Caliban from The Tempest and his mother, whom is referenced in the play, but not seen.

The play was written at a time when slavery was expanding, along with persecution of "witches". That becomes the theme of what was going on in society, largely driven by the rise of capitalism.

That actually led me to yet another book (which wasn't as good), but that kind of becomes something else.

We will get there, but I will take one more week to wrap up Spooky Season. 

Increments

Let's say that at this point you are committed to dumping the lawn, but you can't see your path beyond that.

That's still a good start.

There are many directions you can go, and none of them have to be the final destination.

The suggestion you will probably see the most is creeping red thyme. I see stories about it shared a lot, though I don't think I have ever seen someone who has done it.

I am not against it. It will be lower maintenance than grass, it is more interesting to look at, and it is more fragrant, though there could potentially be objections to that. 

It is better for pollinators, in that you do get blossoms before you cut it down, unlike grass.

It is native to Greenland, Europe, and Turkey, so there is a good chance it would not count as a native plant.

That might mean that it feeds some pollinators in their adult form, but may not be good for the larva or eggs or other parts of the ecosystem. It is still a step forward, but it might not hurt to research native ground covers.

One year I got volunteer clover that just spread. I loved it. It was so much springier to walk on than grass. 

Then the heat dome killed it, and it didn't recover quite right. I planted some white clover, and I have some, but I could not recreate what nature had done on its own.

Regardless, it doesn't hurt to check native ground covers for your area. If all you want to do is go away from a lawn, ground covers is the right category to search.

I remember being confused when I would keep seeing various strawberries coming up as a ground cover; wouldn't they be too squishy? Because I was thinking that if it's a ground cover, you walk across it. Then I visited the Willamette Heritage Center. 

The parking lot is two levels, with a pretty steep grade in between. The soil in between is anchored by strawberry plants. It is a ground cover, but not for walking. 

Think about the desired function for your area.

I am going to give you three more ideas.

If this is a holding place, where you think you will want to do more planting next year, you could consider a green manure. That would allow you to use the time in between to build up nutrients in the soil:

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-green-manure-1761842

If you like the idea of the creeping thyme, but maybe not that much red, you might want to consider a tapestry lawn. This could be a chance to mix in some native and non-native plants. If there is something you don't like, it's no longer the whole area:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/tapestry-lawns-why-you-need-this-low-maintenance-grass-alternative  

And maybe if you don't like one patch, you replace it with a bush, adding to the complexity.

Maybe it will be a berry bush.

Finally, to get a broader range of ideas, try reading Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.

There are many contributors for writing, but the artist and architect is Fritz Haeg. 

I promise there will be ideas that would never have occurred to you. Even if they are not for you, it can open your mind to what is possible.

You can find more information at https://www.fritzhaeg.com/edible-estates-book.html.  

Sheet mulching and humanity

I am going to be spending a bit more time on yards than initially intended. That is at least partly because it relates to greater issues.

A few years ago I sheet-mulched a small section of our front yard.

If you are not familiar with the term, you lay down sheets of cardboard or newspapers (if newspapers, six pages thick) and then cover them with mulch and water well.

The way it was supposed to work was that in six weeks I would have a pretty good soil base and it would take out any weeds or grass underneath it.

The positive part of that is that it is still a good piece of ground. Many of the bird and bee-friendly things I planted were perennial and still growing with very little care.

The somewhat flummoxing thing is that it was more like twelve weeks after the start that things actually germinated. I don't know if that was because of the method I used or some other factors.

The unfortunate thing was that it was so much work for such a small patch of ground that I have only tried it one other time, and that was with mixed results.

That means that even though it is much more disturbing for the soil, I am having someone till it to mix in the mulch, and there might even be some spray involved. I am not proud of that, but as someone who is neither physically strong and energetic nor rich, I do have to be practical.

There could be other options that would be somewhere in between in terms of how environmentally friendly they are, but they would also be much more expensive. Back to that not rich thing...

(Plus, most landscaping companies want you to have a lawn, with or without other plants, that they will come regularly and tend to. Even trying to describe what I want gives them the impression I am deranged.)

Regardless, there are two other things I want to mention about sheet mulching, if you are so inclined.

First of all, it used to be much easier to come up with old newspapers. The last time I tried it, I was only able to because someone else had collected some papers when they meant to try it, didn't get around to it, and then were moving and clearing out their garage. The first time, my sisters had ordered some bookcases and I used the cardboard boxes.

You can purchase paper specifically for it, but times have changed and it affects things in ways you don't always expect.

The other thing is where we get to the humanity.

When I was researching sheet mulching, there were things that made sense. For the cardboard packaging, I needed to remove the packing tape. For the newspapers, I didn't use the glossy inserts.

There were comments that all of it was unnatural and bad, that even if the paper was from trees the ink wasn't.

I was worried about that, but it was part of an overall trend that I have seen before.

Some of us will remember Sarah releasing curls to the wind after cutting hair so they could be used in birds' nests in Sarah, Plain and Tall. I once found a post railing against that; that hair is not appropriate material and would tangle the birds feet!

Since some birds do use animal hair -- sometimes longer -- and long grasses, I was not completely sold on that, but I had also seen that you could compost hair and dryer lint. 

No! With your hair dye and shampoos it is all chemical and bad.

You will see similar things about feeding birds and bee houses and pet ownership.

There are things that I am sure are right. I do believe that bees are better off feeding on flowers than leaving fruits out and that leaving food scraps by the road side puts animals in danger of cars. That's completely logical.

I have seen the pictures of angel wing and I know not to feed ducks bread. 

However, if the main theme of the communication is that humans are disgusting sources of contamination... it's not even necessarily that a case can't be made, but that it's not helpful.

What I know how to do better, I will. I will also remain open to learning more and changing how I do things.

I am still here, and I want to be here. I want other people to be here. 

We can work out how to make that better if we have the will. 

That will should not be confused with despising each other. 

I should also note that the warnings about angel wing say what you can safely feed the ducks. The article about not leaving fruits out for bees explained why and talked about how to set up a watering station, which could be helpful.

Some people only have anger and contempt to offer. They are not the best sources.