Chrysalis Garden Care LLC

Wintertime Visioning

11/26/2019

Winter is an excellent time to dream of gardens. The long evenings are excellent for paging through seed catalogs and gardening books, and for taking time to appreciate plants like rosemary that make our lives fragrant and delicious all year round. I really know what matters to me when I keep track of what I'm missing in the winter, and I really know what keeps me afloat in dark times when I find myself awe-struck on even the dullest days. The former list includes fresh snap peas, fragrant sweet peas, an array of herbs and bright meadowy flowers. The latter includes orange witch hazel blossoms, exquisite cyclamen foliage, boldly structured deciduous trees, and mats of interestingly shaped leaves snugly covering the ground. What elements of the natural world keep you getting out of bed? Would you like to bring them closer to home, perhaps even into your garden?

Even if you're not planning to fully re-design your garden, I'd invite you to take some time to vision what you're longing for. Here are the questions I use to guide my design process. I hope that they provide you an intriguing window into possibilities for your garden and beyond!

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Forest Teachings from a Rouge Ecologist

10/30/2019

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Dylan Mendenhall is a lifelong student of the forest. After growing up near one of Seattle's largest forested parks, he's pursued the understanding of forests both academically and personally. I invited him to this conversation because I appreciate his roots in both rigorous academic study and imaginative ecology. I hope you, too, learn something from this conversation:

Marisa: A few weeks ago we were talking about job titles, and the one that felt most apt for you is Rogue Ecologist. I really appreciate that you bring ecology into any space you're in. Are there particular ideas or concepts that you'd like everyone to know? Is there a message you find yourself returning to?

Dylan: Hah, rogue ecologist. I do invite ideas and processes into the project of ecology that are too often shunned or ignored by scientific institutions: empathy, intuition, imagination, justice, trust… We should openly ask questions like, how will this knowledge affect the land? Who will benefit from this research? What kinds of privileges, identities and desires am I bringing to the table? The subjectivity and nuance of these questions would seem to run counter to the expectation of being an objective, impartial and abstract observer. But I’m not even sure how to be objective without asking about the dynamics of power and oppression in my life.

To focus in on imagination, I’m pretty sure that daydreaming is a crucial part of the scientific process for most people (it’s not like we’re robots) but that well of creativity within us is rarely discussed in any serious manner, let alone the possibility of being trained in the use of scientific imagination. What helped me develop the right questions for my master’s research was imagining what it’s like to be a network of mycelia interconnected between multiple trees, to really get my mind in there, underground, and try to embody the fungus. What does it feel like to be a strand of hyphae encountering another strand growing from the same individual? Is that bewildering? Does it feel aggressive? Do I feel like giving an enthusiastic high-five? I imagined contentious dialogue between deer and plants and mushrooms. Eventually I drew a picture of what I saw and that formed the basis of my hypotheses. I think I even brought that drawing to a committee meeting.

A wonderful example of scientific imagination can be found in one of Einstein’s thought experiments. He imagined himself riding alongside a beam of light travelling through space, only to be absolutely puzzled by what he found there. And that puzzlement led to his special theory of relativity. Powerful stuff. I’d like people to know that there are many paths towards knowledge, many ways of knowing. The logic and empiricism that characterise the scientific method are only two ways of knowing things. Intuition, imagination, memory, faith… these are also ways of knowing, and they complement each other.

You asked about a possible message that I keep returning to. I’m reminded of how I once tried to design a deck of tarot cards based on the themes, symbols and stories of my experiences in the woods: the bumble bees working themselves to death for the sake of their little hives, the falcon perched on a snag reaching up through the canopy, the decomposing nurse logs serving as a refuge for tree seedlings, the salmon returning to their stream of birth, the seasonal antlers of a stag, the flush of fiddleheads every spring… I wasn’t able to complete the deck because I kept seeing the same story everywhere. The forest is perpetually changing, dying, creating, transforming, giving birth to itself, over and over again. It is a painfully brutal yet also beautifully interconnected world, and we are a part of this eternal recurrence.

What I learned through ecology is that we have a choice about how to participate in this unfolding brutality and beauty. Getting to live as a human being, even for a short time, is a very special privilege because we are an opportunity for the forest to experience a curiosity and loving kindness towards itself that is so difficult to achieve when you’re constantly going through cycles of change. And when I say forest, I mean the world. Like Carl Sagan said, “We are a way for the universe to know itself”. Intelligence and empathy are, of course, expressed in all sorts of plants and animals and ecological processes, not just in our species, but nothing quite compares with the possibilities and capacities of being human.

So knowing that choice, when I see a mushroom trying to lift up a big rock, I lend a hand where I can. I know how triumphant and magical that must feel because I’ve survived my own challenges with a little help from my friends. It endlessly delights me to be that kind of mischievously loving force of the woods. And it doesn’t need to be a mystical we-are-children-of-the-cosmos hand-wavy sort of thing. I relate to trees as though they were trees, soil as soil, birds as birds, and fungi as fungi, to meet them where they are, but I strive to do that from a place of curiosity and kindness where possible.

Nurse log. Image via mnn.com

Marisa: So right now you're working on two projects, as far as I know. One is writing up research you've been doing on mycelium in conifer forests, and the other is studying the Sword Fern die-off going on in Seward Park right now. I wonder if you could share what these projects have in common, and the key dynamics you're seeing?

Dylan: At the University of British Columbia, I studied the cascading effects of an invasive deer species on the plants, fungi and soils of Haida Gwaii. I was particularly curious about the mycorrhizal fungi which form symbiotic relationships with the very plants consumed by the deer, such as salal, sword fern, red huckleberry and oval-leaved blueberry. The plants provide sugars for their fungal friends, and in return, the fungi transport water and nutrients from the soil to the plant roots. If the invasive deer completely annihilate the food source of these fungi, it seems pretty intuitive that the fungi would perish.

But that’s not quite what I found. While some species of fungi do seem to prefer some islands over others, overall, the mycorrhizal fungi associated with those understory plants are just as abundant on deer-invaded islands as on islands without deer. So my research stumbled upon a new mystery: Who is supporting these mycorrhizal fungi? How are they able to survive in the absence of understory plants? I suspect the overstory trees may be involved, which raises the possibility that they form common mycorrhizal networks with the understory plants via a poorly understood group of fungi, the dark septate endophytes. That may be my next rabbit hole

Haida Gwaii Island. Image via amainsider.com

After moving back to Seattle, I recently joined a network of citizen scientists trying to figure out what is driving the phenomenon of sword ferns dying off en masse throughout Puget Sound. The die-offs slowly spread through the forest, consuming acres and acres of sword ferns while leaving other native plant species perfectly fine. It certainly sounds like the behavior of a pathogen, but so far no one has been able to figure out what it is. Could it be a virus? Bacteria? A fungal pathogen? Recently, in a controlled greenhouse experiment at the University of Washington, we were able to successfully transmit symptoms from a die-off site in Seward Park to healthy ferns, providing evidence in support of the hypothesis that a pathogen is involved.

We also found that in Seward Park, the proximity of sword ferns to big trees and decaying logs is associated with a greater chance of the ferns surviving. Assuming that our seasonal drought adds compounding stress onto the ferns, this pattern of enhanced survival could be due to common mycorrhizal networks shared between cedar trees, big leaf maple and sword ferns, or hydraulic redistribution or both. Similarly, large decaying logs might act like a water reservoir for the ferns during the summer, relieving some of their drought stress. By lowering the drought stress in the ferns, their close proximity to trees and logs may give them an advantage in defending against a pathogen. At least, that’s what I imagine.

What these two seemingly disparate situations have in common, the deer invasion of Haida Gwaii and the sword fern die-offs of Puget Sound, is that they are ecosystems out of balance, ecosystems that had been sustainably managed by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, but are now struggling to adapt to rapid changes caused by a disturbance agent. On Haida Gwaii, that disturbance is caused by a species of deer introduced by Euro-Americans. In Puget Sound, it is likely a pathogen of unknown origin. In both cases, that disturbance has ripple effects on the rest of the ecosystem, propagating in the soil where the earth’s lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere all intersect.

Sword fern die off. Image via sewardparkswordferndieoff.blogspot.com

Alberta tar sands. Image via earthfirst.org

Marisa: So zooming in to the Sword Fern die-off project. I'm amazed to hear that you're part of a voluntary group conducting scientific experiments. Can you say more about this? I'm concerned about how funding for science often comes from petroleum, pharmaceutical, and military sources, so hearing about this independent science project is exciting to me.

Dylan: We should all be concerned about how money and power influence the scientific process. There is an obvious conflict of interest between the responsibility of a scientist to provide knowledge to our community, and their financial dependence on extractive or exploitative industries. When research is primarily funded by big corporations or the military industrial complex, there is an incentive to only report findings that support those benefactors and to suppress findings that would compel our society to regulate, curtail or shut down the industry should it be found to be harmful to our community and planet.

A great example would be research into habitat restoration or soil reclamation funded by the tar sands industry. A so-called objective scientist receiving funding from those corporations might claim that knowing how to restore degraded soils, after the wood from the forests and the petroleum from the soil has been extracted, can only benefit our society. But how will that knowledge actually be used? The tar sands industry is hijacking the science of restoration ecology to justify their destructive practices by showing us how green it can look afterwards. Meanwhile, they would let the world burn, the ice melt and the seas rise as a result of the climate change driven by their industry. Such research is complicit in their crimes and fundamentally irresponsible.

One way that scientists can ensure that their research is conducted in a more ethical way is to directly engage with the communities who are affected by their research methods or who have a stake in the knowledge that would be generated. This is especially true in ecology which is a fundamentally place-based discipline. You have both the land and the people to consult with in terms of the potential benefits and harm associated with your research.
I suppose citizen science is another way to engage with the community. Unfortunately, when researchers talk about citizen science, it is usually in terms of volunteers providing free labor for menial tasks like data collection or data entry. Yes, it’s a way to involve people that might not otherwise have an opportunity to participate in science, and yes there are some questions in ecology that are simply too big to address without a small army of volunteers. But it’s worth remembering that this model of citizen science is a hierarchical system of power. As a result, reciprocity with the community is often quite superficial, perhaps limited to some basic job training. It should probably be called something else like “minion-based ecology”. I say this as someone who has practiced minion-based ecology and who is forever grateful for the hard work of all our volunteers!

Working with the network of citizen scientists studying the sword fern epidemic has been a very different experience from how research is typically practiced at a university. It is a diverse and inclusive group with people from many backgrounds: volunteers, non-profit organizations, municipal government, university-based researchers, independent rogue ecologists like me… Communication is fairly open and non-linear. People share ideas for small projects and self-organize into semi-autonomous committees to see a project through. What really sustains this kind of research is our generosity with knowledge and resources, reciprocal relationships, and inclusion in the full process, from generating the research question to interpreting the results. Navigating such unstructured relationships can be challenging, especially in the absence of the rituals, authority and policies that define an academy. But it is intrinsically rewarding to do research that is without a doubt needed, called for and supported by the community.

Native columbine, Aquilegia formosa. Image via growiser.net

Marisa: Are there ways people might manage their own gardens that contribute to healthier ecosystems?

Dylan: In urban environments, our gardens are part of a living mosaic connecting the fragmented remnants of our native forests, prairies and wetlands. Every garden contributes to the quality of that matrix, positively or negatively, so the most important thing is to first recognize that underlying interconnectedness. When you realize the power of your garden, a living system that will likely outlast us, then you are ready to ask, how am I participating in this greater urban ecosystem?

Ecological health is a bit subjective but I would define a healthy ecosystem as having a similar balance of physical structure and biological diversity as our native forests or prairies, or some other reference ecosystem, as well as facilitating the typical ecological processes of those systems: pollination, migration, nutrient cycling, predation, succession, etc. While a tiny garden patch can’t replicate all of the complexity of a vast forest, it can certainly contribute to the structure, diversity and processes of our urban ecosystem. A simple way is to do that is to incorporate more native flowers, shrubs and trees into the mix, with special care taken to consider the space and environmental conditions that those species need. Once they become established, native plants are remarkably easy to care for because they are already perfectly adapted to our Mediterranean climate, with its midsummer drought and mild winters. I enjoy gardening with native plants in part because of all the creativity involved. Do you want plants that have edible berries or showy flowers? Groundcover to outcompete weeds? Attract hummingbirds or butterflies? Provide shelter for migrating birds? Protect against soil erosion on steep slopes? There is a native plant for every function of a garden.

One of the most harmful ways that our gardens influence the urban ecosystem is through the introduction of invasive plant species such as English ivy, Himalayan blackberry, English holly, yellow archangel… the list goes on. It’s truly a mind-boggling menagerie of species. When we allow invasive plants to thrive at home, our gardens become a seed source for those species to become established in our forests where they create monocultures that outcompete our native plants, eroding way at the processes sustained by those ecosystems. Although most non-native plants sold at a nursery are quite safe to garden with, the converse is also true: most invasive plant species come from our gardens.

It can be a lot of work to remove invasive plants from a garden but it is a part of good stewardship and homeownership. Unfortunately, because of the corrupting influence of big horticultural and agricultural businesses, you can’t rely on the noxious weed boards of our local governments to inform us about all the invasive plant species that we should be on the lookout for. The official list of noxious weeds is only the tip of the iceberg, so good stewardship requires a lot of self-education, or an experienced gardener or arborist.

Invasive Japanese Knotweed. Image via gardenista.com

Marisa: Are there any resources or role models that you'd point people to, if they're curious about the connections between plants, people, and soil?

Dylan: To learn more about garden stewardship and native plant ID, I highly recommend the books The Conscientious Gardener: Cultivating a Garden Ethic by Sarah Reichard, and Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon. I also recommend Keeping It Living by Douglas E. Deur and Nancy J. Turner, Native Seattle by Coll Thrush and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Those three books were very eye-opening. As for role models, Dr. Suzanne Simard has been a great source of inspiration to me. Check out her TED talk, How trees talk to each other. And for something to really tickle your imagination, suspend your disbelief temporarily and read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.

Marisa: Thank you, Dylan! I appreciate all you've shared here so much. I hope that creative and humble inquiry such as yours can continue to move us towards coexisting on this planet more fully.

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Gardening in Partnership with Land

8/25/2019

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One of the questions I'm endlessly pondering is how to align my gardening practice with the way the world works best. In my dabbling with various wisdom traditions and searching in my heart, I know there's something truthful about being in partnership with all life. Something like the golden rule, "treat others as you would like to be treated," that can be ingrained in our every action. Even when taking other lives so that we may eat, or altering the other life courses of other beings in all the ways we do when we make our homes and pathways, I think this is possible.

I also hear from many human and non-human communities that this is not happening. There are humans affected by racism, patriarchy, war, drought, brutal police and military presences, and economic exploitation who are screaming out to be treated with dignity. There are multitude plant and animal species who are no longer able to survive on our planet.

So I keep asking myself: How can I both embrace the change and flux that is an inevitable part of life, and also make clear choices about how to honor the dignity of all beings and my personal desire to support a thriving planetary ecosystem.

I find myself faced, as I'm sure you do, with many decisions each day. Shall I move a plant? Shall I reduce it's size? Which birds are using the plant for forage or shelter? Which pollinators are using that plant right now, what eggs might be laid on it already that end up in the yard waste if I cut it back? How can I navigate wanting a garden to attract and support songbirds and knowing there exists an overabundance of domestic cats prowling for those very same songbirds?

In sifting through what guides me through these questions, I've begun to synthesize a framework of guiding principles. I'd like to offer you some beliefs that I see commonly motivating what I would call "domination-based gardening" and offer a partnership-based way of seeing. I'd like to acknowledge leaders who have informed this framework, including herbalist Susun Weed and her teaching of the Wise Woman Tradition which has reached me through EagleSong Gardener. I've also been the fortunate recipient of countless stories of navigating power, beauty, wildness, control, and humanness in general and the tools that have been borne of these lives lived. Perhaps that list is for a separate post, since it's too long and complex for me to grapple with in this small space.

Here is a humble attempt at naming the beliefs I see forming the basis of many people's unintentionally dominance-oriented approach to land care, and what I'd love to see replace them (in bold). I'd love to know what you think!

1. The unknown is scary and to be avoided. A good gardener gets the results they meant to get. The unknown is an integral part of the unfolding of life. Encountering mystery evokes awe and inspiration, and leaves room for new and unexpected (emergent) solutions. Honoring the sovereignty of other beings over themselves means being willing to be surprised. A good gardener stays observant and curious, and creatively responds to all outcomes.

2. An "expert" is useful to lessen the risk of the unknown occurring. Cultivating more awareness from direct observation and interaction allows us to feel more at-home in an ever-changing world filled with glimpses of the abyss. People who are dedicated to observing and interacting with particular parts of the world (gardeners, health practitioners, teachers, etc) can help guide the building of relationships with parts of the world we're unfamiliar with.

3. Health is the absence of disease. Disease is an indication of an impetus to change. In the case of plants, it's often a need for different conditions or care. A thriving garden has multitude ever-changing conditions and relationships between plants, so it's normal that some plants become susceptible to disease at times in their lives.

4. Productivity can be measured by what's harvested. "Productivity" takes many forms, many of which are invisible. In each successional stage productivity looks different. Early pioneer plants rejuvenate, stabilize, and aerate soils, attract and stabilize insect populations, and feed herbivores who then return their manure to the soil. In this way, a path is formed for later-succession plants such as trees to thrive. Different harvests relate to different successional phases, and none are inherently better than others.

5. The gardener gets to choose what goes in the garden, and is responsible for delineating between which plants are "weeds" and "desirables". The gardener humbly seeks alignment with patterns used by nature (see 7 layers in Forest Gardening) while seeking yields that will support her own thriving. This means certain niches will be filled in the garden, and the gardening will be easier if the gardener supports each niche to be filled. When niches are unfilled, the gardener creates extra work and stifles the flow of life between each life form. Examples of this are perennials and deciduous trees forming autumn mulches, insects and worms digesting large organic matter in the soil, large trees taking up water and releasing it as humidity to sustain surrounding plants and control temperature fluctuations. Each missing function creates tension in the garden ecosystem.

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Wandering in the Woods: Gathering Ancestral Knowledge

8/25/2019

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This month, I spoke with heartfelt student and teacher of the natural world, Grace Woods. Here's our conversation:

Marisa: Grace, I wanted to talk with you for the newsletter because you’re someone I know really sincerely faces the question of what’s right to do with your life. I’ve seen you navigate the tumultuous waters of our economy, that isn’t centered around serving life, with tenacity and perseverance, and I know from your end it hasn’t always felt pretty or clear. I think a big part of honestly facing the moment we’re in in our culture and ecology is the day-to-day discomfort of grappling with what to be and who to be and how to be, and I admire your courage in that pursuit. So I wanted to learn more about what that path has actually felt like to you, and what's kept you going along the way. I hope the questions I have lead us there!

One of the communities you’ve really dedicated yourself to is the Wilderness Awareness School. Can you say a little bit about your work there, what led you there, and what initially spoke to you about that work?

Grace: I started as a student at Wilderness Awareness School (WAS) six years ago. Before I moved to Duvall, I had been living on Orcas, WA and the southeast of Alaska, working in many different fields (literally and figuratively) and jobs. Some of those were farm labor and management, kayak guiding, ecotourism, and environmental education. I was in the midst of creating a business plan to start my own forest preschool on Orcas, when I learned about the 9-month Anake Outdoor School (AOS) at WAS. I went to a visit day of the program and chose to enroll right after. The curriculum was like learning to down-shift a bicycle while already going uphill. It added framework and tools for a field I was already dedicated to (environmental education), but also offered me as an educator more ways to make the job sustainable, me personally more resilient, and all around more conducive to my vision. All this as a naturalist student focusing on education, while undergoing major, perspective-altering rites of passage. Since completing AOS I have been a student-teacher for short-course and yearly adult and youth programs, I’ve done the Wildlife Tracking Intensive, a Soul Tracking Intensive (connected to but not sponsored by WAS), volunteered for the school in various ways, taught and directed yearly and summer programs...many different hats.

What drew me in was the inspired curiosity brought for all aspects of the natural world. It wasn’t about fulfilling the state requirements for public education in environmental science—though I firmly believe it offers students the same, or even better, methods of learning. It was about learning to ask more, broader, attuned questions, and expanding awareness of self, place, ancestry, and connection. Learning to ask the right questions and having to earn the answers through personal curiosity and patience. And ultimately for me, returning to the roots of ancestral sciences.

Marisa: Now that you’re deeper into that path, have you honed in on a purpose or question that moves you forward? What is the call you’re responding to in your body or spirit, and what does that feel like for you?

Grace: I’ve tracked in many communities I circle past that a lot of people are feeling burn-out. I have the thought this is a cumulative, empathic, and epigenetic response to everything humans have been experiencing for many generations, with the added sprinkle of near constant, poorly filtered awareness on what’s going on in the world (social media, smart phones). Depression and mental illnesses seem to be a majority baseline, whether people are talking about it or not. I feel it myself. One thing that helps me have a sense of purpose and keeps me motivated towards healing are acts of ceremony. Sometimes ceremony is a major rite of passage I undergo or support others in going through (either way it works). Sometimes it’s a spontaneous feeling and acknowledgement in my body during a movement exercise. Sometimes it’s a quiet moment of stillness. I have an idea that I have a gift for creating and supporting a complete spectrum of ceremony. I think most all of us do. And I know I receive appreciative feedback from people in my life, and feedback from myself that this is a path to continue dedicating energy to.

Marisa: I know it hasn’t been super easy for you to navigate having a strong internal sense of purpose and a world that doesn’t offer an obvious path to put that into action. Do you have any thoughts to offer people struggling with how to show up in the midst of great atrocities happening right now?

Grace: I was just listening to a dear friend this morning as he expressed his despair and grief for Amazonia amidst the devastating wildfires currently transforming the land. I often wake up at night, or feel consumed during the day by my grief of sensing and knowing suffering in the world. It’s not unusual to find myself weeping for road-killed animals, be them snake, frog, raccoon, coyote, crow, deer, mouse, opossum, or other kin. I witness a young child struggle to understand the desires of their caregiver, as the child seeks to please them and also remain an autonomous person. I hear of the pain of a family’s separation or loss. Some moments I feel debilitated by these griefs, some moments I think of no pain or pleasure but my own, and some moments I believe I’m insufficient to give and return love needed to offer healing to the world. But when I go out, I take all that comes with me, and by the time I return I’ve shed what’s weighing me. The chaos and order of the natural world reflect all and more back to me, and almost always I can take a deep breath again.

Marisa: What are some of the learnings you’ve experienced through your study of the natural world that have most changed your life? What’s an example of how you carry that into the human-centric communities you’re also a part of?

Grace: That I’m not alone. Being a human can be so alienating. But spending “alone-with-self” time (be that no human in sight or alone in a crowd) makes me resilient. And when I join in with a group of people (at work, at a gathering of friends, even with meeting with people I just met) there is always something to offer in awareness of what the natural world is doing, and I’ve never had no one respond in delight, curiosity, or connection to my observations. People gravitate to honest connection. And what better way to connect than to offer time, observation, reflection, and imitation back to the natural world. Time will pay off. It felt like it had been a long while since I’d had a remarkable connection. Then a few months ago I was on a night hike and I sat to take a break with my friend, and a creature came and hovered feet from out heads. It took me a day before I concluded it was a Flammulated Owl! A very rare and exciting encounter, and one to remind me that I belong, as destructive as a feel sometimes.

Also, I love having weird, exciting, odd facts of the natural world on hand to share with people. I only recently learned (which I can’t believe I didn’t know, and am certain this fact came only at the right moment for me) that the American Badger and Coyote will hunt together, and spontaneously led a game with children that offered time to teach of this behavior. I’ve seen lots of other facilitators do this and felt so joyful and the natural rhythm it offered. The more we learn, the more we learn of the infinite possibilities the world offers.

Marisa: That's such a good reminder. Thank you. One of my dear friends who does racial equity work is calling for white people to find something greater to belong to than whiteness. She sees that white people are scared for the societal-level change that would occur if we actually dismantled the bedrock of racist and otherwise oppressive systems that we live in. It would mean we (white people) would have to seek belonging, a sense of mattering, and relational security in a different way than is currently accepted. I think something you and I share is a sense of belonging to a web of life that transcends human-created systems. Are there particular role models or guides you turn to to reconnect with yourself, or your purpose in life?

Grace: Yes. I believe that at some point in our ancestry, every one of us was led through rites of passage. Today, those rites of passage in our culture look like getting a driver’s license, prom, hazing at college, weddings, baby showers, and a few others. A bit to my dismay these celebrations of life chapters are more often that not fully marked by consumerism. To pattern ourselves with highlighting momentous life changes with the acquisition of more material belongings, or stories of humiliation or destructive behavior, doesn’t actually provide lasting belonging.

I don’t know where it originated from, if anywhere, but I’ve heard in many ways this sentiment of “initiate the children, or they will burn the village to the ground”. When we offer people the opportunity to struggle, be challenged, even suffer, and persist, while they are intentionally supported by a mindful collective, we offer them the chance to see their own worthiness. This (ideally and usually) doesn’t lead to the arrogant righteousness I see to be rather toxic. When done well, rites of passage work evokes among many things humility, grief, strength, compassion, connection, love, and willingness to stand for something centered in the ecocentric thought, rather then egocentric.

Bill Plotkin, founder of Animas Valley Institute, writes about this prolifically and often eloquently (if not sometimes verbosely, but I’m guilty of that too!). The late poet Mary Oliver also comes to mind, I know a beloved one to you, your mother, and myself.

And, if you’re question is also asking specifically of non-human people who I personally feel a sense of kinship too, the answer is, yes. Those relationships are evolving, impermanent, and often come to my awareness seemingly spontaneous. As a curious naturalist I love to learn about them, their behavior and lifestyle and native lands, and then keep asking why we connected. I’ll share a short story about that. Recently I was in a remarkable meditation when a completely new-to-me four-legged animal showed up. I knew next to nothing about this unique, beautiful species, had never encountered them nor studied them. Since then I’ve learned they are the fastest mammal in North America! And they’re not at all good at jumping, unlike what I would have expected. I was a distance runner and a terrible sprinter when I ran track. And loved the hurdles. So that’s fun.

Marisa: Are there any simple practices or activities you’d recommend people do if they’re feeling called to enter a deeper relationship with non-human life around them, particularly things that people can do from home?

Grace: I always thought myself a dedicated “plant person”, until I began studying bird language and wildlife tracking. Since I began amateur studies of birds, my daily wanderings--be it an intentional walk, watering my garden, going to my car, or to check the mail--have immensely enriched my life and sense of belonging. If it’s possible, take a short (or intensive!) course in bird language, wildlife tracking, ethnobotany, or some other ancestral craft skill (That includes something as common as knitting! Or learning friction fire making.). Anything that can get you without a roof over your head and a bit more into your body. If you find finances are tight, ask the organization for financial support. Or find a free Audubon class. Take your shoes off and walk around barefoot--even if that’s just your neighborhood sidewalk. Let your body be drawn to somewhere outside that

Marisa: If people wanted to support your work or know more, where would you recommend they start?

Grace: Filip's podcast is a great start. I shared it with a bunch of my adult students this last year and they sent a lot of positive feedback and encouragement. It's called "Listening to Land Podcast" and can be streamed or downloaded on most any podcast provider. He also works for Raven's Roots Naturalist School in Sedro Wooly, WA, and I highly recommend connecting with them on the internet or social media.

Some beloved book and author recommendations: Linda Hogan, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes. Mother Night is a favorite - I got an audible account just to listen to her prolific library.

I know I wasn’t condoning social media, and I still enjoy using the instagram for following some ancestral skills students. There are far to many to list or even chose a few favorites, but people could find some through my followings (without even following me), at @water_xylem_woods. You can also message me directly at grace.cecilia.woods@gmail.com, though apologies in advance if it takes me a week or two! I’m in a work transition myself right now to take a little down time from teaching youth, but if anyone has any questions for me, I look forward to connecting.

Thank you for these questions, Marisa. As I said in other words when we opened, I am very grateful our paths have crossed the way they have, and as our friendship and sisterhood challenges me to rise up and also surrender to warmth and love. And my naturalist curiosity for the day is, how many people read to the end, but before they did, web-searched “fastest North American mammal”.

Grace using a bow drill to ignite fire!

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Our Bodies Are Gardens Too

6/27/2019

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This month, I sat down with Asako Fukuda Sullivan of The Sustainable Collective to discuss what led her to pursue cooking and sharing truly sustainable food. She shares her latest innovations as well as how she formed the path she's on today.

Asako preparing food for a fundraiser benefiting Salish Center for Sustainable Fishing Methods in April 2019. https://salishcenter.org/salish-sea-halibut-event/

Marisa: Asako, we met through working in the kitchen at 21 acres together. I was really drawn to you because I saw the depth of intention you were putting into each dish you made or item you baked. You were expressing a lot of your values in each project. Can you say a little about what your values and mission are, and how they relate to food?

Asako: My response to that question may be a bit different from what people expects… I am not an environmentalist, a climate change activist, a food fighter, and/or a nutrition specialist. Perhaps the best way to describe me is that I am a bit of a nerd, and I sometimes go overboard when I am hooked on something.

Certainly, I always loved nature and good food. In fact, my favorite childhood memories are going fishing or foraging with my father into nature and cook our harvest of the day with my mother at that evening. I have always been a huge fan of the world flavors, and one my life-long hobby is to visit different supermarkets when I travel. Until I started working at 21 Acres, I had never thought about or realized the relationship between environmental problems, climate change and food.

As I worked at 21 Acres kitchen every day, I became more interested in the concept of the sustainable cooking, and it became my challenge to pursue. We were writing our definitions of the sustainable cooking and our own rule book. Being cooks, we naturally were drawn to fresh ingredients and choosing local produce was the easiest part. From there we learned that there are deeper and complicated issues with food systems, and we could not ignore other environmental considerations. Food mileage for commodities, for instance, is more serious issue than sourcing fresh local fruits and vegetables because 60% of US agriculture consists of grains, oil seeds, and sugar production whereas Horticulture (Vegetables, Citrus, Non-citrus Fruits & Nuts) production is only about 6%. That means sourcing local vegetables and fruits is insufficient for truly sustainable cooking.

Farming practices are another huge issue. Each spring, farmers use an immense amount of fertilizers on their land preparing for a new season, and the surface runoff washes the applied fertilizers into streams and rivers. This creates "dead zones"in water bodies where excess nutrients from fertilizers stimulate growth of algae. The overgrown algae will eventually decompose in the water, consuming oxygen and depleting oxygen necessary for healthy marine life. One of the largest dead zones forms in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of fertilizer use in American mid-West; the major states growing products such as grains, oil seeds, and livestock feed for meat and dairy production.

Dead zones, formed by excessive fertilizer runoff, produce overabundant algal blooms.

There are so many issues intertwined when it comes to food system. It is rather difficult to have access for good for our body, soul, and environment. Farming practice, menu planning, sourcing of processed ingredients, energy use for refrigeration and transportation, cooking methods, use of additives and preservatives, storage and packaging, how they go into the waste stream, and on-and-on, there are so many aspects. For example, if chefs knew organic oil, compared to most of conventional cooking oil which is often genetically modified or grown with using large quantities of glyphosate, cost at least four times more, they probably will not think about frying food often. We are aiming to take this sustainable cooking "game" a bit further from Farm-to-Table cooking, so we use practice to discover new ‘“rules” for sustainable cooking.

Now as graduates of 21 Acres kitchen, we apply almost the same rules as when we cooked at 21 Acres kitchen. With our new project, The Sustainable Collective and our original brand Local Food Works, we want to position ourselves as "kitchen assistants for farmers and families in our community", and we want to become the bridge between farmers and consumers. Some people have expressed to me that they don’t always know how to cook produce farmers offer at farmer’s market. Some say it takes a long time to prepare food from raw ingredients. We want to inspire people and show them how they can cook tasty meals easily with local ingredients, but not everyone can come up with their own ideas. We want to show people good examples of what we can create, so everyone can cook sustainably perhaps once in a while. It may be small changes for the environment, but it will definitely create some changes.

Moreover, some farmers expressed to us that they need to create value added products for winter-time revenue, but they do not have time to develop and cook products during busy farming season. We want to create solutions for them and assist them to deliver the products year-around for consumers. From that point of view, we source the cleanest additional ingredients which will most enhances the value of farmers' crop. Our products will always be made from local farm-grown produce, clean with no additives, and always small-batch handmade from scratch.

Value added products, like pickled vegetables, can help local farmers have year-round income.

Marisa: I love how deeply committed to showing people to use locally available foods creatively. What are some of your favorite discoveries? What are three things you'd recommend people do at home that will inspire them to think more creatively about locally available foods?

Asako: My personal favorite right now is gooseberries. We have been using that in the place of lime and lemons. In the 21 Acres kitchen, lemons and limes are one of the most significant types of produce we avoided using in the kitchen as citrus fruits are not commonly grown in Pacific Northwest. Now with our new project, we may use lemon/lime when it makes the most senses for the local crop we are promoting, but we will try to avoid when possible. Local small farmers are growing vast amount of cilantro, but they have such a short harvest timing that we wanted to create something people could eat in more volume than as garnish in salsa or sandwich. We created cilantro chutney with gooseberries which is awesome to be eaten as spread. Other one may be sumac. Some co-workers at 21 Acres had sumac trees in their yard, and we learned to use it in the place of lemon too. We mix it with other herbs and seasoning, and we make our original sumac seasoning blend as well as rub for poultry. Just to be clear, there are poisonous varieties of sumac tree. We talked to some people with knowledge and did extensive research before using it, so please be careful if you are trying this at home. Moreover, this is not an ingredient, but I am a big fan of utilizing scrap vegetables such as herb stems, asparagus stem bottoms and others. I have been cooking Dolmas, stuffed grape leaves from my garden at home for research purposes, and I use a lot of herb stems for this recipe. From stock, soup, cooking grains and legumes, to many other applications, scrap vegetables add extra layer of flavors to your cooking. Organic vegetables are expensive. We need to stretch our bucks by using every bit of ingredients.

Dolmas cooking in freshly made stock. Image from Asako Sullivan.

Marisa: I heard you spent a bunch of time in Japan getting a really in-depth certification on fermenting. What led you to fermenting? Why is it so important?

Asako: My journey for fermentation started because I wanted to add one more layer of flavor to our cooking. For being born and raised in Japan by a Japanese mom, Miso, Soy Sauce, Mirin, Sake, and all of those Japanese ingredients are very critical for my cooking. I do not necessary use them for every cuisine, but I knew fermented ingredients add Umami. The word "Umami" literally means “tasty flavor" in Japanese language, and a professor from Tokyo University discovered Glutamic acid (a type of amino acid) in 1908 from kelp stock. Now they commercially process Monosodium glutamate (MSG) and sell it as a food additive, but Umami is naturally contained in many natural ingredients such as animal and poultry bones, fish, kelp, vegetables such as onion, carrot, celery, tomatoes, cheese, and many other food which we sense "tasty". The probiotics that activate fermentation process, in many cases, generates enzymes to break down proteins to amino acid, which is Umami.

I also wanted to learn traditional preservation methods passed down as a farming practice. I want to learn from Russia, Germany and other countries with in-depth fermenting traditions near future, but Japan, naturally, was the easiest point of access for me. Now I better understand the mechanisms and health benefits of fermentation better, and we are utilizing the knowledge for our product development. Fermentation process increases not only Umami, but also preservation properties and vitamins, digestive enzymes, and minerals. In the US, one of the most popular fermented or soured vegetables is sauerkraut, but you can sour any kind of vegetable. Instead of chasing cabbage crop south as season progress and temperature begin to drop, we can sour vegetables which are available from local farms. We may not have cabbage available at this moment in this area, but we have curry flavored cauliflower. Cucumbers are starting to come up, so it is almost time for dill cucumber pickles. We have created Moroccan spice flavored soured carrots, celery root and apple slaw, and other wild-fermented pickles. Currently we are in contact with the State authorities and hoping we can start marketing Miso near future too. With Japanese fermentation techniques, we can create sugar-free, Umami rich, nutritious condiments that even offer protein tenderizing properties. It is extremely interesting, and I cannot wait to introduce the products when they are licensed.

Marisa: I know we've talked before about really wanting the "food movement" to be accessible for all sorts of people, not just people who have time and money to experiment with expensive fresh produce. Do you have any tips for people about how to make a big impact on their diets and the local economy without a big budget?

Asako: I have been thinking we, most of us as consumers, need to rethink our relationship with food. There was an article I saw when I first started my sustainable food journey on the New York Times called "Why Does a Salad Cost More Than a Big Mac?" The chart was put together by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and the New York Times stated "Thanks to lobbying, Congress chooses to subsidize foods that we're supposed to eat less of."

The data may be a bit outdated now, but I think this chart still says a lot about how everyday Americans eat. It is, in fact, cheaper to eat processed mass-produced food than freshly prepared salad made with local clean ingredients. On what expenses though? Local farmers? Environmental resources? Energy resources? Our health? We see people driving with "No Farms, No Food" bumper sticker, but I feel many of us are not aware of the implications with the statement.

When we choose food, we often consume mainly using price and convenience as decision making factors, but there are many hidden consequences when we are not well informed. Many of us now have questions about the food we buy, as there are too many “imitation foods” as author, Michael Pollan calls it, to choose from. Many of us are concerned about the safety of the food we purchase. Most of us do not know where our food is grown. Many processed foods and so-called healthy foods would not have been considered food by people a few generations ago. Among the many causes for these problems are industrialization, commodification, idealizing perfection in produce, and making food more convenient and longer lasting; these factors have changed every aspect of our food system. Our environment is polluted as a result of food production’s use of chemicals and industrialized farming.

There are many discussions on comparing nutrients in organic and conventionally grown produce, and many concludes there are not much difference. However, locally grown organic vegetables are less likely to be held and transported for a long period of time compared to conventional vegetables grown in large farms in California or Mexico. There is a study done by University of California that indicates “...that vegetables can lose 15 to 55 percent of vitamin C, for instance, within a week. Some spinach can lose 90 percent within the first 24 hours after harvest" I think it may be necessary for all of us to revisit our relationship with food and update our sense of fair prices for food.

As a wife and a mom, I understand how time consuming it is to cook everything from scratch every day. Home cooked meals are a luxury for some people. We like everyone to have access to clean, local, fresh ingredients with full nutrition, but organic produce is expensive. As a food business owner, I know that our products are too expensive for everyone to enjoy when we pay a living wage to our employees. Other food business may negotiate with food growers for discounts or pay minimum wage for their employees, but I really don’t want to do that. A chef I used to work with pointed out that it’s normal for cooks not to be able to afford the food we cook at good restaurants.

For local small farms with not much resources such as machinery to reduce the need for physical labor, it is their actual cash revenue and compensation for the time they spent on farm away from their family and friends. Of course, we will ask the farmers to be reasonable, but I do not ask the farmers for a discount. Then what can we do? We try to think of how much value we can add to every produce that come into our kitchen. That is the reason why I try to utilize even scraps and something we could forage to add extra flavors. When I say scraps, I am not quite talking about something people hesitate to eat, just FYI. I mean green tops of leek, bottom of asparagus, green tops from radish and turnips… ingredients as such. I just refused to believe good clean scratch-made food is only for the people with resources. Believing that it was out of reach would have prevented me from feeding my family good food, so I, with the help of my trusting husband and cook of 35 years, wanted to create this project. Maybe we could prepare and share dishes, pantry items and other food which we already make for our family.

Marisa: What are you looking forward to? Are there particular projects that are really inspiring your right now?

Asako: We are in the process of starting a new service this fall. We are still noodling on the name and details of the project, but it will be something in between a CSA box and meal prep service. The box will consist of some ideas for breakfast, snack, and/or supper items enough for each person 2 or 3 days a week. A few ready-to-cook items such as frozen pastries, breakfast sandwiches, or ready-to-use batter for crepes or fermented flatbreads, dips, chutney, dressing, condiments, prepared meal such as soup, ready-to-bake casserole, fully cooked salmon or vegetable patties, dessert items such as pie dough, sponge cake for shortcake or some way that you can enjoy local fruits with a little amount of work. Since I am Japanese and the farmer we work closely is growing many Asian vegetables, we will include some Asian menus such as ramen, pot stickers with chili oil made with local ingredients as well as other international flavors. We have a staff member of Mexican heritage, and he is making mole sauce with local fruits, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds and scrap chocolate that local chocolate artisans couldn’t use. Traditionally, mole contains tropical fruits such as bananas, but he uses apples, cranberries, and some other local dried fruits. We also make tamales with this mole. Everything will come with cooking instructions, and a little back story why we designed the recipe the way it is. We like to offer this somewhere in the vicinity of $15/person per day. I will make more in depth announcements with logistic information when we are ready; probably sometimes in July.

Everyone has their preferences, habits, and routines for eating. There are adventurous eaters, but they may not have time to cook everything from scratch or cooking skills. Not every family, especially my family, can switch and become vegetarian overnight to reduce our meat consumption. It is simply not a sustainable solution for us if we define sustainable lifestyle as something we can practice for a long period of time. If we can suggest a menu or create a dish that is tasty, satisfying, and sustainable, maybe that is a better and more sustainable way of eating; not only for the environment, but also for our body and mind. For instance, I have been teaching Pork Tonkotsu (pork bone) Ramen making class for the last several months. I am showing how to cook broth from pork bones which may not have been efficiently utilized in traditional American household. We make noodles with wheat flour grown in Skagit valley. We garnish the Ramen bowl with boiled and marinated free range chicken egg and about 2oz of pork slices, unlike conventional 7 or 8oz portion of pork steak. I consider that one more step closer to sustainable eating.

It is very difficult to communicate the work that goes into inventing and cooking our dishes, but when we place our products next to other products in grocery stores, it just doesn’t do justice for our products. We are a team of cooks, bakers, sustainable living advocates, home-cooking supporters, in-training herbalist and fermentation enthusiasts. We have been cooking this way for almost 6 year, and we’re ready to introduce our ideas to more people in the Seattle area, departing from our cozy environment at 21 Acres.

Marisa: How can people find out more about your work or support your work?

Currently our products are available at 21 Acres market in Woodinville. There is a small deli, and we offer sandwiches, soups, deli salads, and desserts from Wednesday to Saturday. 21 Acres is a great facility to visit if you are interested in living more sustainably. It offers ideas for sustainable lifestyles, from growing food, to living and eating. The building has LEED* Platinum certification, and it’s used as a laboratory for sustainability.

We are looking for small coffee shops, grocery stores, or retail outlet that are interested in carrying our products. We cannot make large quantities, so it may have to be small outlets, but I would like to create a small community of people who want to live and eat the way we do. Please send me an email if you are interested at info@thesustainablecollective We will send you more information about our products and service information as they become available.

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HumanEco Consulting and Chrysalis Garden Care

6/27/2019

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For the past year and a half, I've co-authored a monthly newsletter with Hannah Johnson of HumanEco Consulting. Last month, Hannah published an interview she conducted about my work. Check it out here, and sign up for our newsletter here!

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Question. Wonder. Listen. Play.

4/28/2019

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This month I sat down with Tracey Byrne, a Seattle-based writer, educator, gardener, and all-around curious person. You can learn more about her work on her website, and read our conversation below.

Tracey and I at an undisclosed location ;)

Marisa: Hi Tracey!, I wanted to sit down with you in particular because we’ve been gardening over the last few years together in your garden and I’ve learned a lot. It seems you’re really able to zoom into the details of what’s going on with the insects and birds in your garden and also have that backed up by a bigger picture.

In our newsletter this year, we decided this year to focusing on how people are responding to this moment in history. There’s a lot of flux going on in big global systems and people are experiencing a lot of pain, fear, and uncertainty. I’ve felt a lot of inspiration watching the way you respond, but I’m not quite sure how to put it into world. So I wonder what intentions you’ve set, priorities you’ve made?

Tracey: Well you mention global systems, and I think the biggest thing for Brian and me when we’re walking out in the garden is that it’s a system. It’s an ecosystem. I think it’s important for me to look at the really big picture, which is what draws me out of the house and into the garden, with my camera, or my nature drawing notebook. If I’m working with children, we’ll start with the big picture - describing, noticing sounds and things - and then slowly move it down to what’s in your eye-view, and then focus on one small thing. And really become intrigued with it. Spend a minute or a half an hour drawing, taking photos, talking about. Maybe researching a little, finding out what the bug is, what it’s eating, what it’s doing.

I see all kinds of things when I’m out in the garden. I remember once I was sitting with you and we watched this weird looking blue many legged bug moving by, and it turned out to be some kind of wasp dragging a spider back to its lair. Those kind of things delight and fascinate me.

It’s important to me to really take the time to say “who is that?” or “I really want to take the time to get to know this creature.” It makes me feel like they’re part of my family after a while, and I feel a little protective of them. That’s what we’re trying to do in our garden. You can call it a backyard wildlife habitat or a pollinator garden or whatever, but mostly it’s a place where I’m inviting all the faeries in, whether they’re mammals or birds or bugs, they really need a safe place to be. And I feel safe out there too.

Marisa: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. One thing I love about working in people’s gardens is that the pace of weeding keeps me slow, so I get to notice more.

I think there’s some piece of that question I didn’t hear an answer to. Something more about your intentions and priorities in creating this safe space for everything that wants to emerge. Wanting to engage in a different way, not just researching. Watching.

A curious sighting in a Wallingford garden. Arisaema sp.

Tracey: Yeah, To take delight in it. I showed you my guiding principles that I’ve always had posted in my classroom. I give them to kids when I give them drawing journals. The four things are to Question, to Wonder, to Listen, and to Play. I think being playful is one of the things that really gets lost for kids nowadays. So one of my intentions for working with me, or working with students, is that we have choices. So we do decide what to do with our time. That it’s not just finishing something up quickly or check that box off, but it’s actually something that’s going to move you forward to a greater good. Or towards a place where you can be more comfortable.

Younger people especially have experienced so much immediate gratification. They often haven’t learned the value of patience, or the value of boredom. And I mean boredom in the broadest sense, where you have nothing to do, so all possibilities are open, and you get choices. I work with a lot of younger kids, maybe middle school age, where they actually get really nervous about having free time. So we have to create lists of possibilities, like what could you do with time when you’ve already finished your homework or don’t have anything planned? And that fills me with real great sadness, because I had so much of that growing up. I had a lot of permission, I had a lot of freedom, I had a lot of outdoors to play in and explore. And I had parents who were interested but not hovering.
Marisa: Yeah, so there needs to be a lot of room for people to allow themselves to be playful. One of the things on your list, Wonder, I relate to more as a sensation or a feeling. I can’t always just conjure it up. Question, and interrogate, I can totally just conjure up. Just finish the worksheet.

Tracey: Yeah, well the wondering for me is that magical part where there are no right answers. It’s what grabs you and pulls you in and makes you want to investigate. Wonder pulls you into details and makes you want to ask better questions and come up with better solutions.

Marisa: I’m reminded of this pattern, like in rivers, that they widen and have some braiding (diverge), and then they converge again into one stream. Spending more time in that diverging area might be helpful.

Tracey: Right, because you might not know where you are, or where you’re going to end up.

Marisa: Another element of your work, switching focuses a little, is that you just got an article published in Pacific Horticulture magazine that you quoted me in. It focuses on gardening in parking strips. So I was curious how you chose that topic and why it matters to you.

Tracey: Well, as far as choosing the topic, I always feel like the topics choose me. You know, I went back to school about 6 years ago and got my masters in Biological Inquiry and Teaching. My focus was on urban ecosystems and nurturing biophilia. The whole idea of having a biodiverse backyard. And in my teaching, how can I broaden this and get it to more people. I realized there were many ways of being a teacher. I’m more of a mentor, I guide by giving possibilities to people or being a good example, rather than having a lot of information that I need to impart.

Pacific Horticulture has been really open to publishing my articles and it segues with what I’ve talked about in my blog, which is urban biodiversity and nurturing biophilia. Those are my big focuses for nurturing ecological stewardship and outdoor play.

The most recent article was the fourth that I’ve done, and it’s all about making urban wildlife corridors. That’s important to me not just for the creatures that inhabit them, but it gives neighbors the chance to have an everyday experience with nature. The pollinator parkways or gardens just attract so much. They not only are beautiful, but they take a lot of pesticide load off of what’s getting pulled into the sewers and off the street. You don’t have to maintain them with leaf blowers, which are one of my personal pet peeves. They create spaces for the creatures that are getting driven out by all of the development.

Here's the garden Brian and Tracey have built as a safe space for all the creatures. Summer 2018.

Marisa: Yeah, I see in the beginning of that answer a way you’re opening an invitation for people to connect. And just leaving it out there for people walking by it, whether they’re going to the bus or whatever they’re having to do anyway. They’re just getting a little dose or invitation into this process of wonder and play.

Tracey: Yeah, and in Seattle there are so many wide parking strips. In a lot of places they’re called hellstrips, they’re maybe full of rocks or weeds or they’re too far away from the house to be anything anyone wants to put much attention into. They might get driven on, and like you wrote about, they get abused in a lot of different ways. So by making them into spaces that look like gardens, whether they’re full of wildflowers or berries or vegetables or shrubs and trees, it just creates a whole different kind of space. I love walking around our neighborhood here on Capitol Hill because there’s a real diversity of parking strip gardens. Every one helps. It takes a little at a time, but it gives back instead of taking away.

Marisa: I heard you use the term “biophilia” and I was wondering if you could go into that a little more.

Tracey: Yeah, I like the sound of the word. Bio-Philia just means “love of life.” E.O. Wilson, the famous ant guy, talked about biophilia as being more of a spiritual connection that you would have with nature and a lot of people have kind of spectacular eye-opening experiences that might draw them in. I think of it more in the way of what happens with a child who is born with a natural sense of wonder and who is allowed to go out in their backyards and play. They just have a sense of rightness. I start thinking about that feeling you get when you just know you’re in the right spot, and you know you’re connected to everything, and the borders dissolve. People who’ve had that sense of biophilia, it changes how they approach everything. They don’t make decisions out of a sense of duty or what they’ve heard is right, but it comes from deep inside because they have a love and connection.

Marisa: Yeah, it’s been hard for me to figure out how to navigate this climate change issue, because there are a lot of solutions being promoted that don’t feel right to me. They feel really unrelated to me to that core sensation of “the world works”, and it has a system that it’s working in. So it’s hard for me to see that link when the solutions are really high-tech or involve a lot of modification to natural systems.

Tracey: Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t know how to really make good intuitive decisions. If they haven’t been allowed to have that freedom to know what’s ethically sound. An example I can give is when I was teaching elementary school I was seeing a lot of adult issues getting pushed further down into the curriculum. Where all of a sudden you have fourth graders being taught about endangered species, and the need for them to be concerned about pollution and runoff. A lot of these kids didn’t even have a connection to the park in their neighborhood. Instead of already loving to go outside and play and climb trees and catch turtles and frogs and get muddy, they were being concerned and crying and making posters about eagles whose eggshells were thinning. Not that these aren’t important issues, but as far as developmentally appropriate, these kids were being burdened with adult issues when they should have been encouraged to have a joyful and playful relationship.

Marisa: And in a way it problematizes them and their impact on the planet. Like, if you want to climb a tree are you hurting it? So there’s a way that even beyond just distracting from the potential to develop a relationship with nature, it actually diminishes the potential. It helps people construct their sense of identity as harmful.

Tracey: Yes, and they end up working from a place of guilt rather than a place of love. I think it just changes the way you approach things. When I research for articles, I try to find people who are making good decisions and coming up with good solutions or who have been role models for me. Even when I present some pretty hard statistics about what’s going on, I try to have an open hand to offer the information rather than be shaking a finger. So they can absorb it at the rate that works for them, and a little at a time. To say “Wow, that would be really lovely to turn our parking strip into something. I’d love to grow some herbs.” To start with that rather than saying you need to take out your whole lawn and stop using weed and feed and your dog’s going to get cancer and your kids are going to die. That’s not going to encourage anyone to join you.

People need information, and they’re only able to absorb what’s appropriate for them on their timeline. Everybody’s at different places in both their emotional and worldview growth to be able to take in certain things.

Marisa: I like how you’re looking at starting points, and the idea of an open hand rather than focusing on an end goal where we’re all perfect and living in harmony with nature. What are some of the ways you’ve seen that are most effective for people to start that process? What are some of the ways you’ve seen kids you’ve worked with join up with that spark?

Tracey: I have lots of funny stories about kids. I’d say in the garden, I had one young girl who had to do a project about composting. She and her group did the research and they made a nice powerpoint, but I noticed some of the information they had seemed a little wonky. I asked her if she’d ever seen compost, or if she composted at home. She hadn’t, so I invited her to come over and check out my compost bin. I couldn’t believe it. This was a girl who wasn’t really into getting dirty. She dove right in and scooped up handfuls of compost, and couldn’t believe the amount of life that was in it. She thought it was going to be stinky, or dry dirt. When we got back to school, she had become a poster child for what real compost was. She joined up with some other kids and they started getting composting going on in the kitchen. They said “it has to happen!” That was really fun.

Another great story is taking a group of kids to the zoo, with artists from another high school, these were 9th grade boys mostly, they just weren’t interested in doing the art part of the trip. I took them off and we were going to see the giraffes, who happened to be mating that day. It was eye-opening for everybody. Those kids were all so interested in what was going on. It was really fascinating and real life and awkward and funny. To be with 9th graders in a mixed group and there’s this sex going on. They all became really interested though, in giraffes, and what was going on at the zoo. It changes the way they approach things - they wanted to come back.

Marisa: What I got from that answer is that you just have to go out into the world and something will shock you into awareness. And just be open to it. There’s not this one particular method, just be out and it’ll come to you.

Tracey: Though I do know if you go walking with a pair of binoculars around your neck, you can guarantee you’ll be stopped by other birders.

Marisa: Yes, you can set yourself up to get more hints. My last question is about what is inspiring you lately? What are the pathways you’re starting on?

Tracey: Well, the big picture stuff is I’m really happy to see that there’s people pushing back against GMOs and there’s a lot of hope for real food labeling. There are a lot of younger people who are interested in doing farming in more old-fashioned ways. Getting away from using any kind of poisons or toxins. I like that because when you start talking about food and food systems and health in general, it’s a system. We’re all suffering from poor decisions that were made by our grandparents and parents generations, and it would be wonderful if in the next 10 years we can really have some wake-up calls.

That’s the really big picture. More locally, I’m excited to see more and more people who are putting up little signs that say “pollinator garden” or planting out their parking strips. Who are raking instead of using leaf blowers. And when I thank people who are doing that, they say “yeah, there are some cities who have outlawed these things!” It’s not just the noise, it’s all the other consequences.

When I use the word consequences, I think that’s the other part of it. If people start to take more responsibility for their small actions and responsibility or being willing to look at the consequences of the ages of making poor decisions. I’m a little bit hopeful. I don’t think it’s a huge movement yet, but I think there’s a really strong undercurrent, like you and your friends, who are just getting out there and letting people know that there are alternatives. The paradigm being offered isn’t the only one. There are lots of other ways to approach things. If you slow down and relax a little bit into what you’ve got in your own backyard you’ll feel a little better about how much you know your neighbors, human and plant.
Marisa: Yeah, and how much of nature is already going on. That it’s not as suppressed or hidden as we sometimes think of it as. Yesterday I was working in Wallingford and a racoon came and ate a chicken right in front of me, like it was shopping at the grocery store. It walked right into the coop, picked a chicken out, and killed it. That’s probably happening every day in Seattle. The natural cycles are not so far removed.

Tracey: Yep, all we have to do is open our eyes up and see them there.

Marisa: Is there anything else you want to say? Is there an invitation you’d like to cast out to people that read this?
Tracey: Go outside and play! And be open to possibilities.

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Low Maintenance Gardening Part 1: What Do you Want?

4/28/2019

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Most people want a low maintenance garden. Even people who love gardening don’t necessarily want to commit to a particular schedule or workload. However, I’ve noticed that “low maintenance” is a term that’s used a lot of different ways, and it’s really helpful to clarify what a particular person means when they are requesting it.

In any garden, I start thinking about the purpose of the garden. A purpose might revolve around particular values a person wants to practice living in their garden, or a particular way they’d like it to contribute to their life. The purpose can also help guide you towards particular maintenance strategies. Birds and insects benefit from the abundance of material, cover, and forage that exists in “messier” gardens, which means less work for the gardener. Once a purpose is defined, I look at how that purpose will best be enacted. What might success look or feel like?

When one of the key elements of the garden’s purpose is ease of maintenance, I first check for stacking functions. Is there something that the person loves to do that qualifies as maintenance? For example, harvesting routines can accomplish a lot in the garden and can be quite simple (more on this later). So I start with a few simple questions:

1) What are your tolerance levels for various fluctuations? Which fluctuations do you actually enjoy?
2) How do you enjoy interacting with your garden?
3) What types of work are you least willing to do?

This colorful mixture of volunteers starts the spring with Johnny-jump ups and Kaufmania tulips, then gets a flush of forget-me-not, columbine, and foxglove. Tall orange lilies come up in back, just as the pink yarrow sends up its stalks. Each year the composition is a little different, but there's always plenty to enjoy.

Let’s go through these questions one at a time. First of all, what fluctuations do I mean? Here are some examples:

Fluctuation in color: Do you like lots of changes in color and texture? Do you like stability and consistency, like an assembly of evergreen shrubs provides? Using slow-growing evergreen shrubs in a garden is a simple way to keep maintenance tasks to a minimum, but it can reduce the opportunity for more lively shifts in color palate throughout the seasons. On the contrary, using a wide palate of sturdy self-seeding plants like calendula, foxglove, columbine, forget-me-nots, poppies, and johnny-jump-ups gives you a lot of easy-care color. The main maintenance task associated with that strategy is editing and “keeping in check” the wild proliferation of seedlings.
Fluctuation in seasons: I take care of some gardens that are very flower focused, and others that rely more on things like seed heads and bark for interest. Planning to enjoy garden elements like seed heads means you don’t have to cut back perennials right away, and many double as bird food for the winter. Flowers can require deadheading to keep the duration of their bloom time long, but perhaps that deadheading can occur when you’re harvesting a bouquet?
Fluctuation in water needs: Does walking slowly around your garden with a hose in the summer sound more like a meditative blessing or a chore to you? Plan accordingly! Using plants that don’t require much water is an obvious way to cut down on the resources your garden needs. Don’t forget that everything needs water sometimes, especially newly planted garden-mates. Plan to deliver water in a way that works for you. If you don’t think you’ll be able to keep up on watering, scale down your garden plans to avoid the burdensome task of replacing dead things and keeping out the weeds that thrive in neglected areas.
Fluctuations in scale & composition: Every plant in your garden will grow at a different rate in relation to the others, so over time some will dominate and others will fade out. If this is not OK with you, plan to do consistent pruning and/or transplanting to make sure everybody’s got room. If it is OK with you, make sure you pick plants you love as the most-likely-to-dominate.

As you can see, learning what types of fluctuations you enjoy lets you identify which maintenance tasks aren’t urgent for you, and plan your garden with plants that will still satisfy your longings.

Second, let’s take a look at how you want to interact with your garden. When I hear people say “low maintenance” some people really mean they never want to think about their garden. Others mean they don’t want it to look dilapidated if they’re not out there every weekend, or that they don’t want to constantly be investing in solutions for areas that aren’t working.

Wandering perennials like violets and geranium cover the ground nicely and prevent weeds.

My goal as a gardener is to create gardens that are so engaging that people want to interact with them. For many people, pulling a handful of weeds as they wander through with a cup of tea in the other hand doesn’t feel like work. Trimming a holly hedge, on the other hand, will always feel like work because of its prickly nature and the need for precise lines. Here are a few examples of maintenance tasks that I’ve seen clients pick up without realizing they’re doing work:

Harvesting herbs like mint and oregano, especially ones that are in danger of falling into pathways. With large batches of herbs, you can make and freeze pesto, or simply dry them for using in tea and soups.
Harvesting flowers, especially continuously blooming flowers like columbine and calendula, or flowering branches from quince, lilac, and mock orange can serve as deadheading and pruning. Plants that do best when consistently deadheaded, like roses, do just as well when the blooms are cut for an arrangement as they begin to bloom. Being thoughtful about where to cut blooming branches helps to shape the plants you’re working with.
Weeding while harvesting veggies. I know, how could you weed without it feeling like work? When you pull weeds before they go to seed, you can leave them in place to wilt on the soil surface and function as mulch. It feels very natural when wandering through a veggie bed to harvest a salad to pluck a few weeds here and there.
Dividing perennials. How many times have you had a friend over for tea in the fall, and then wanted to go outside because there’s a brief sunbreak to take advantage of? Perhaps you end up on a wander through the garden, and cut them off a piece of a perennial that’s become dominant, or snip them a bouquet of seedheads to pass on? Strawberry runners in pathways, irises, cranesbill, coreopsis and phlox can all be quick to divide. Seedheads of poppies, nigella, coriander and parsley travel well.

Cutting flowers for bouquets doubles as deadheading. And how could you resist?

Third and finally, it’s important to identify the types of work that detract from your experience with your garden. Constant weeding? Pruning large shrubs? Mowing the lawn, or keeping the sidewalk edged? Put some energy into reducing or eliminating these tasks up front! Here are some quick tips:

Mulching using arborist chips and planting densely are the quickest ways to reducing weeding. Making sure weeds don’t go to seed is the easiest way to prevent future weeds, so timing any weeding you have to do well can save you many hours in the future.
Pruning large shrubs is easiest on a dry day in the winter, when the structure of the shrub is most visible, and you need help convincing yourself to get outside in the short hours of daylight. Just take out a few of the most wayward larger branches back to a junction point that’s easy for you to reach. Cut out smaller branches that are dead or excessively cluttered-feeling. You’ll be left with a shrub with a more balanced shape and a bit more air circulation inside. For most shrubs, taking a few cuts like this once a year is a reasonable maintenance approach. It gets more burdensome when you wait 10 years!
Unplanned plant replacement can be a drag. The best way to avoid it are picking the right plant for the conditions in the first place, using careful observation and reality checking (I know, you might not be as prone to optimism as me, but I think you are). Is it going to be soggy in the winter? Be baking hot in the summer? Are you really going to hand-water?

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Why does Waste Matter?

3/29/2019

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Last month, I reminded readers how important conserving nutrients in your garden is. What about parts of your life that you don't typically think of as gardens? This month, my newsletter co-founder Hannah Johnson and I sit down to talk about why waste matters, and how to think about such a big system.

Marisa: How did you find your way into waste reduction? What has surprised you about where there is demand?

Hannah: I tell people that I really tried to run away from the waste industry and do something more sexy like renewable energy or green building design but waste always had a way of bringing me back in. The biggest thing I've realized in my work around waste systems and education is that EVERYONE has something to say about it! I sort of did a social experiment one month of bringing the topic of recycling up at any social gathering I went to, just to see the response. Almost everyone had some thoughts on the topic and expressed similar frustrations. Saying things like, "it's confusing", "there's no uniformity", "I am not allowed to recycle certain things in some areas", "what do I do with...", and they all wanted to know why it was that way. Which has helped me to frame my work in aiming to help address the "why" question and in that process to attempt changing the system so that reusing, recycling and composting can be more intuitive and accessible.

Marisa: I love that experiment! And I love that you followed where the need was, rather than what felt most alluring. One of the things that I see a lot in my work is that people are drawn to new approaches to horticulture, like growing new varieties of foods that don’t normally grow well here or composting in novel ways, and sometimes I see that overshadowing the lessons we can learn from more basic ways of doing things. Taking it back to your work, I wonder if we wouldn’t need to focus so much on green building design if we had actually been tending to our waste and our energy footprint all along. We wouldn’t need so many new materials if we had been using fewer and more long-lasting materials in the first place. So I really appreciate you going back to basics and focusing on waste.

What surprises you about the day to day work of helping people reduce their waste output? What do you actually spend your time doing?

Hannah: I am surprised most often by the lack of holistic thinking people have around waste. It's very much an out of sight, out of mind mentality for all forms of disposal (recycling and composting included). The thought is always that "someone else will handle it". But the truth is that, most often, those "handling it" are completely inundated and reliant on failing systems that don't support our current rate of consumption. Thus these people and companies are not managing materials in their best and highest use like they should be.

I spend most of my time trying to understand the complex organizational structures of companies. In understanding how a company was built, how it currently operates and who all is involved, I work to identify where there is a lack of holistic thinking which inevitably causes inefficiencies, specifically related to waste. Often times, companies are overpaying for garbage service, getting their dumpsters picked up when they aren't full and mindlessly restocking single use items despite employee's desire to use reusable or more sustainable options. I help companies come up with the plan for waste avoidance and reduction and then through education, awareness and team building I begin to connect people to efficient waste management systems.

Marisa: Cool! I wonder if you could give us some quick questions to ask ourselves that would help us know where we are thinking holistically and not. Are there some indicator questions you use to suss out how people are approaching their decision-making? Do you ever come up against resistance when you approach an organization about “bad habits” like single-use items, or have you had mostly experiences of people being relieved that someone like you is finally addressing the inefficiencies they know exist?

Hannah: Thinking holistically means you are thinking about impact. Impact is understanding how your choices and actions are influence the entire system. An example would be, if you’re at a store and you’re going for a plastic produce bag for your zucchini, you’re not thinking about that plastic bag not being recyclable when you’re done with it. Whereas paper bags can also hold zucchini and be recycled and or composted after they are used. Most grocery stores have paper bags by the mushroom section, so head on over there and grab a paper bag instead of plastic, or, better yet, don’t use any bags at all and just wash your produce when you get home! (which you should do anyways)

When I am approaching companies about behavior, I use an approach of observation and listening before ever making suggestions. I want to understand the language that the company speaks and tailor my plan to meet their goals and objectives. For most companies, the environmental message is important and meets certain business objectives, but a focus on financial and efficiencies seems to speak more clearly to most businesses. The great thing about sustainability is that it achieves goals of a triple bottom line. Meaning it’s good for the planet, for people and for profit.

Marisa: If you had the attention of everyone in the US for a few hour workshop, what would the key points you would convey be? What are the actions you'd like to see everyone take?

Hannah: I would like to bring attention to the reality of how recycling and composting actually work. I would like to highlight the fragility in both systems and the importance for consumers and manufacturers to think more deeply about consumption and design. I'd like to see everyone holding up an item and asking themselves, "where is the best place for this to go?", "what is this actually made out of?", "did I really need this, or was there a better alternative that I could have used or bought that could be reused?", "Am I helping or hurting the system by my choice of disposing this item?". Thoughtfulness and connection help to guide the most accurate recycling and composting decisions.

Marisa: Your answer above reminds me that in our newsletter, we spend a lot of time focused on individual action. I think a lot of your work these days is looking at bigger systems of waste production (larger companies) than the household size. Has that changed how you think about waste in general? Has that changed how you look at household waste?

Hannah: I tend to work with organizations of different sizes and also individuals and what I've come to realize is that the individual is the most important part of this narrative. We, as individuals, have value systems which drive a majority of our actions, including actions which prioritize environmental awareness. By adhering to our value systems, we don't pick and choose when we decide we should and shouldn't live by them, they are a part of us. We live in our values in our home life and thus should in our work life. Some companies meet people where their values are and thus create a very cohesive relationship between work and home. Other companies don't do that and might even go against someone's values. However, it really only takes one dedicated and passionate person living fully in their values to make a whole systemic change. Sure-- it helps if that one person is already in a leadership position, but if not, there are ways to bring awareness to the leadership that can be done thoughtfully and economically. There is information sharing and coalition building around the uniformity of like minds that can bring about a norm shift. It starts with the individual but can have the reach of the whole world. We're all connected.

Marisa: What a good reminder. Every organism is built of cells, essentially, and the health of each cell affects the health of those around it. I also appreciate the reminder that our own responses to our environment, such as the tension we feel when our workplace isn’t in alignment with our values, are great starting points to notice what problems need to be solved. We have such intricate sensory and emotional cues.

One place I feel that tension is hearing all of the competing messages about waste these days. Is recycling worthwhile or not, are the biodegradable straws actually biodegradable, etc. How do you recommend people keep it all straight?

Hannah: Again, I think it goes back to truly understanding how the systems of recycling and composting actually work. When you understand that a composting facility is really just heat and oxygen which facilitate the natural growth of microbial organisms which break down organic materials into fertilizer, then you will stop and really think about your contribution when at a waste station. For example, if you're holding an aluminum bottle with a plastic lid that says "recycled content", "ECO can" and you're thinking about putting it in the compost bin then you've bought into the green washing tactics that make you think you can throw synthetically made products into a natural decomposition cycle. Synthetically made products such as aluminum, plastic, and most textiles cannot be broken down in natural processes. Instead they have to be remanufactured (melted, mixed with other chemicals, molded and formed) to become something else. They won't just decompose. So understanding the systems and the products you're purchasing will help you make informed decisions.

A great video that really captures these processes and highlights where we as consumers have been sucked in is The Story of Stuff by Anne Leonard

Marisa: Yeah, there are so many types of materials we have to keep track of in modern life, it’s totally overwhelming! I like the idea of narrowing the things we each consume so that we can really understand them well, rather than having to keep up with the plethora of new materials and packages and products that come our way.

I love hearing you talk so clearly about where you see opportunities for change. What are you most looking forward to this year? What is the most exciting learning curve you're on right now?

Hannah: I am looking forward to the opportunity to compete for managing waste and recycling for the U.S Forest Service Incident Response Camps. I will basically go live in the woods for periods of time with forest fire fighters and manage the waste and recycling efforts with a focus on education. I will hopefully influence purchasing patterns for these camps and the Forest Service at large and work to institute composting processes for leftover food. I think the pace and scale of that environment will be a huge learning curve! Also, I can't say I've had to educate about waste to a group of firefighters who risk their lives every day protecting forests and towns.

Marisa: Wow, cool! I want to see so much more of this in the world! I'm imagining it's tricky for you to scale your business because it relies so much on your expertise and adaptability, but part of me wants to see it be so much larger so more and more organizations can have access to your work! How can I (or any of our readers) support waste reduction specialists, including you?

Hannah: Thanks for asking this! Support is always needed and encouraged! I would say being the waste advocate at your work, in your friend group, in your family, is an area of activism you can engage with. Educate yourself via Resource Recycling magazine, Waste Dive, Food Dive, YouTube videos, and local government sustainability webpages, there are so many resources out there. You could put together a “lunch and learn” style event for your work to share what you've learned with your colleagues. Also, if you ever want to come and volunteer with me for events, I am always looking for folks to help out managing the zero waste efforts!

Marisa: Awesome, thanks for sharing all those resources! Before we finish up, is there anything else you want to share?

Hannah: If you are a human, which if you're reading this then you probably are, you inevitably produce waste. When you chose to throw something "away," there really is no "away". There's always someone or some piece of land that is being affected by your consumption. We all have it in us to seek out more mindful alternatives. Alternatives that are not only less wasteful, but that are less toxic. Alternatives that are made supporting health and well-being, equitable wages, stewardship for community and land. There are alternatives such as these out there, they just need more support and more demand to become more accessible. My biggest complaint about the "zero waste" movement is affluence. I am just as much a part of this, being a middle class white person living in one of the most expensive cities in the country. But it doesn't have to be something that only people with money and time can think about and take action towards. It can be a lifestyle that starts with something like going through your grandmother’s linens and asking if you can use them in your dinner set for your family, replacing the paper towels you would have otherwise used. It can be a trip to Goodwill to buy clothing instead of shopping new at Forever 21. It can be going to garage sales with your family on the weekend and looking for containers to store your lunches in. The whole culture of reuse and repurpose is out there, all you have to do is start to see the world with that mission in mind and you'll be surprised the treasures you find!

Marisa: Ooh, I know we’re supposed to be finishing up, but that last answer reminded me of so many of the things I learn through gardening, that I have to follow up.

The first thing I wanted to highlight is just how much more complex the layers of interaction get in all the examples you gave of using less waste. Interacting with family members, neighbors, or anonymous people who donated clothes. All of those experiences of accessing a resource you need are so much less predictable than what’s “mainstream” in our culture right now, and they all involve other people who are much closer to us than, for example, the sweatshop workers making Forever 21 clothing in Vietnam or Bangladesh.

That principle, of relying on complex interweaving or different lifeforms, is one of the main things I like to promote in gardens I steward. When I know a garden needs more nitrogen, what are my options? Is there a legume that would be appropriate to grow to fix nitrogen from the air, or a local manure source, or a possibility of making more high-nutrient compost with a worm bin? Why is there low nitrogen, and is there nitrogen leaving the garden somehow? Perhaps as lawn clippings?

The other thing I noticed when I heard that answer was how disconnected we often are from the cyclical nature of everything. So even the concept of “waste” is actually pretty new. In my vision of the world, we look for “where’s the next step” for a particular item or material, not “where is away.” Another way of looking at that is asking “Who will eat this?” Or, “Who could benefit from this?” In our current way of doing things, there are a lot of materials and items that the answer is nonexistent. Materials we use are toxic to nearly all life forms, and aren’t very easy to form into a new type of tool or supply. I think as we start seeing things more holistically, we’ll start getting a lot of pleasure from using other people’s “waste” and passing on our “waste” as useful goods for other people. I could imagine more people specializing in certain types of repurposing, like composting, refurbishing and retrofitting tools or instruments or vehicles, processing food scraps into usable food like vinegars or juices, and so on. Who knows! But for now, it makes sense to look at where that cycle is breaking down - the fact that there are so many items that aren’t an option to pass on in a way that promotes someone else’s health and wellbeing.

Thanks for letting me respond there, and sorry I took your last words! For real this time, any final words?

Hannah: No final words from me, just that we're all in this together, we are all connected, and I continue to have hope that our collective consciousness is expanding.

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Plan your veggie garden for excitement all summer!

2/27/2019

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We've nearly made it through seed catalog season. For me, the slough of brightly colored catalogs that show up in my mailbox invite a vigorous exercise in self-restraint. For others, I can imagine it's overwhelming in other ways - trying to suss out what will grow well in your space available, trying to remember which cucumber it was that you liked so well last year and wondering if the seeds you have left can be used again. It's easy to get a little caught up in this moment of the gardening season, and forget what's down the road in July and August. I thought I'd share some of my tips to help you have a garden season that feels good the whole way through.

1. Plant only things you're truly motivated to eat.
It's hard to dial in your planting to get exactly the quantity you want, and some things come in quickly and abundantly all of a sudden. Beans, peas, zucchini, and cucumbers need to be harvested at least every other day while they are fruiting, and depending on how much you plant that could be a lot of work. It might happen at the same time that the raspberries are ripe, and also need to be harvested every day.

Make sure your planting plan leans heavily towards foods you're willing to follow through on, otherwise you'll end up with more of your garden space devoted to sad semi-failures than great successes. The biggest places where I see people stumble mid-season are watering, harvesting, and keeping up on succession planting (more on that below). There's no way around the endurance challenge of raising veggies amidst your already busy life, but making sure you're in love with everything you plant is one way to build in motivation.

2. Keep "days till harvest" in mind when you plant.
One of the most helpful pieces of information on a seed packet is the "days till harvest." Aside from telling you (obviously) how long you're going to have to wait to see your harvest, it gives you a sense of whether that space in your garden will be freed up during the season or not.

I like to have a few spaces come available for summer cover crops (I like buckwheat, for the beauty, fragrance, and nectar source), usually following the first round of radishes and greens out, and planted under the peas as they finish fruiting. I find I'm more engaged with a garden when there are moving parts, so long "days till harvest" crops are trickier for me to pay attention to. Some long "days to harvest" crops are quite rewarding (tomatoes seem to be popular), and others (onions, potatoes) I leave to farmers who have more space. You may be the opposite type of gardener - in it for a big harvest at the end, and not so concerned with building a palate for your daily salad. Either way, being aware of how long each item in your garden will take to bear fruit is a good place to start when thinking through your desired rhythm.

3. Plan a simple rotation.
Rotating crops, even in a small space, helps ensure that nutrients are getting used evenly throughout your garden and pests have to move around even a little to search for their favorite foods. The simplest way to think about rotation is to break crops into 3 categories - roots (anything underground), fruits (anything that is the result of pollination), and leaves (photosynthetic parts of a plant). Plan not to grow two of the same category in the same space sequentially. Ideally, you could grow one round from two different categories and then grow a cover crop. Keep track of what's been grown where, so even if you don't have a formal rotation plan, you can make sure to mix it up.

4. Work on your soil as much as your plants.
It can be easier to see and understand what's going on with plants - "oh, the leaves are wilting," or "oh, the slugs are eating the lettuce," - than it is to know what's going on with the soil. So it's tempting to just respond with pest management or fertilizer when you see something going on with a plant. A successful garden relies on preemptively caring for the soil, as an ongoing process that takes about as much attention as the plants themselves.

One way to think about soil is as a digestive system. It needs macronutrients (carbs and proteins from decomposing) as well as micronutrients (minerals) and building blocks of fiber (tougher-to-digest organic matter). Feeding it only fertilizer would be like trying to sustain yourself on multi-vitamins. Not likely to help your long term health, or your willingness to be cooperative and supportive to those around you.

To put this into action:
- Leave as many greens as you can as a mulch layer on top of the soil. Pick a carrot and not planning to eat the greens? Leave them in the garden.
- Grow some plants specifically as green mulches. This could be traditional cover crops like crimson clover and buckwheat, or it could be something else prolific like sunflowers or borage. Search for plants known as bioaccumulators to find out what might work for you.
- Keep the soil covered. If there isn't much extra green waste coming from your garden, figure out some other way to cover the soil. This could be compost, straw, or even cardboard.
- Compost: For mulching, I like to prioritize things that don't attract rats. That means that too-big-zucchinis and other more luscious waste needs a different place to decompose. I'm in favor of worm bins, but you can experiment with many available composting systems.
- Take advantage of King Conservation District's free soil testing program before you decide to add fertilizers or lime. Use only what you really need!

5. Use succession planting to keep your harvest coming.

Instead of planting the whole packet of carrot seeds all at once, plant a few each week throughout the summer so you'll always have some that are ready to harvest. Again, I find that harvesting and planting are good excuses to get me to slow down and see what's going on in the rest of the garden, so I try to keep as many simple planting tasks on my list as possible. They give me that "oh, it will just take 30 seconds to plant the next row of carrots" type motivation that always ends up sucking me in to a 20-30 minute weeding and grooming session.

The best crops to plant in succession, in my experience, are carrots, beets, radishes, and greens or any sort. Things like peas and beans tend to catch up to each other, and hot season crops like squash, tomatoes, and peppers really only have one window in our Pacific Northwest climate.

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Wintertime Visioning

Forest Teachings from a Rouge Ecologist

Gardening in Partnership with Land

Wandering in the Woods: Gathering Ancestral Knowledge

Our Bodies Are Gardens Too

HumanEco Consulting and Chrysalis Garden Care

Question. Wonder. Listen. Play.

Low Maintenance Gardening Part 1: What Do you Want?

Why does Waste Matter?

Plan your veggie garden for excitement all summer!

Here are some resources to help you make the most of your garden.

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