Lava

Lava

This might be the beginning of a new collection called,
LAVA.
Up close Lava makes the most exquisite abstract paintings, an excellent subject which I find myself very much drawn to.
In this case you might say art turns fury into beauty…
Having said that, I hope that with today’s progress, we have all of its beauty without its tragedy.

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hugelkultur – the ultimate raised garden beds

I received a post in my mailbox from an absolutely amazing blogger I follow from my beginnings in WordPress. http://theecograndma.blogspot.be/2015/03/wasteful-wednesday_25.html#more
I love getting them. I am always in for a surprise (Oh by the way her “Good news Monday” is sheer delight too 🙂 ) wondering what I’m going top learn next… this time was no exception, a treat was awaiting.
I got this link http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
A fascinating one, rich with information for those interested in organic gardening or farming with a video I posted here.
I hope this will be a source of enjoyment & use for everyone 🙂

“Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.”

Published on 7 Nov 2012
Sign up for my daily-ish email, or my devious plots for world domination: http://richsoil.com/email.jsp

http://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
http://permies.com

Hugelkultur is raised garden beds that reduce or eliminate the need for irrigation and fertilizer.

This video shows the why and how of this type of raised garden bed. Hugelkultur can be built by hand or with machinery; urban lots or large acreage farms;

The focal point of this video is a project in Dayton, Montana where Sepp Holzer installed nearly a kilometer of hugelkultur beds in early May of 2012. Then the video shows the results in mid September.

Michael Billington is currently the land manager there. He explains how the beds have not been irrigated and goes into some detail of the qualities of the food from the different aspects of the hugelkultur: the north side tends to be sweeter and the south side tends to have more bite (lettuces tend to be more bitter and mustards tend to be hotter).

Special appearances by Christy Nieto from Bellingham, Washington (see her smaller berm / raised garden bed in the background – she reduced, but did not eliminate irrigation); Melanie and Brad Knight from Sage Mountain Homestead in Corvallis, Montana (building hugelkultur with a bobcat); Sepp Holzer adding branch mulch plus throwing seed; Jessica “Jessi” Peterson showing the mulching technique.

The recipie is: wood and brush covered with soil; immediately plant seeds; a bit of mulch helps.

Because the sides of the raised garden beds are usually steep, adding mulch is done by pinning the mulch to the sides with branches shaped like pegs (referred to as nails in the video) that hold on branches that hold on the mulch.

Once the hugelkultur beds get to be about three years old, the plant growth will be about five times greater. This is just the first year and the wood has not yet rotted much.

Hugelkultur also extends the growing season. Areas that have 90 frost free days can now have 150 frost free days!

Notice how ALL of these feature polyculture. Polyculture is one of many ingredients which help to reduce the need
for irrigation.

The end of the video features the attendees of the 14 day intensive permacultur design course offered in Dayton, Montana in April of 2012.

Relevant:
http://www.permies.com/t/17/permacult…
http://www.permies.com/t/15981/permac…
http://www.permies.com/t/12206/permac…
http://www.permies.com/t/15068/plants…
http://www.permies.com/t/12649/bugs/T…
http://www.permies.com/t/16366/permac…
http://www.permies.com/t/16405/permac…

music by Jimmy Pardo http://permies.com/t/6301#62570
Category
Science & Technology
Licence
Standard YouTube Licence

Our harvest & preparing for winter…

Our harvest!
©copyright2014owpp

Today it started to freeze… I had to quickly bring in the last green tomatoes to go on riping indoors & try to protect the plants by wrapping them up with thin plastic sheets.
Without knowing if I was doing the right thing I cut the leaves & put them around the root to keep the heat assuming the plants needed all their energy to stay alive.
As we have many gardeners out there I’d like to ask if I did the right thing or did I weaken them by taking it off & is plastic enough to stop them from freezing as I have no place for the portable greenhouses suggested by other bloggers?
Here are photos of our “garden” & of our seeds drying system 😉

Our “garden” ready (?) for winter
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Our leek seeds drying system
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Oregano leaves drying too
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And onion seeds…set for next year!
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A bumblebee in our balcony! Un bourdon dans notre balcon…

A bumblebee in our balcony!
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A bumblebee in our balcony…
So rare a sight I thought it was reserved to the eye of the privileged, those living among completely natural environments.
To my astonishment it was there, hanging so still on the flower of my plant I was sure it was dying & had accidentally landed in our small haven of peace, all I could see was its hairy tail moving rhythmically.
I ran to fetch my camera wondering how it would all end, if I could eventually be of any help… came back to find it still hanging on, quickly took all the shots possible & to my delight saw it fly healthily away a second later!

Un bourdon dans notre balcon …
Un spectacle si rare, je pensais qu’il était réservé à l’œil des privilégiés, ceux qui vivent parmi un environnement complètement naturel.
À mon grand étonnement, il était là, suspendu si immobile sur la fleur de ma plante, J’étais sûr qu’il allait mourir & avait accidentellement atterri dans notre petit havre de paix, tout ce que je pouvais voir, c’était sa queue poilue faire un mouvement rythmique.
J’ai couru chercher mon appareil photo me demandant comment tout cela finirait, si je pouvais être d’une aide quelconque éventuellement … je revint le trouvant toujours suspendu, rapidement pris tous les shoots possibles et à ma grande joie l’ai vu s’envoler sainement au loin une seconde plus tard!

Stepping closer…
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And more so…
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Only too happy to go on 🙂
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Last but not least…
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Pink golden or brown you are reality’s delicacy

Tall & restful
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Tall, pink, golden or brown
you rest the eyes
Frame the mind
and sooth our soul.
Upright and genuine
You are reality’s delicacy

Resilient yet strong
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Dainty & frilly frame
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Our visit to an organic farm

Pure & organic view 🙂
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We have achieved one of our many dreams… visit an organic farm & it was sheer bliss!
The welcome was as genuine as its surroundings.
We got a sneak at paradise 🙂
It was very hard to select the photos but I think (and hope you do too!) I’ve managed
to choose the ones that speak of the precious gifts we have been given on planet earth.
P.S
A few small precisions…
There are fifty cows, two donkeys, twelve thousand chickens producing nine thousand organic eggs per day & are free to roam to their delight, around five hectares.

The essence of living!
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Cow paradise 🙂
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Nature’s Finesse
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A restful niche
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A hatch (left) to roam out
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…and about in five Hectares!
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and more…
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Our friendly host showing us chicken food
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All organic grains…
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Which produces organic eggs
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Long walks…
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and sports 🙂
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The gate to…
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Blessedness!
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and more…
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Sublunary’s gifts
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And to top it all…this!!
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Life’s garlands I am hanging on this post

Spring’s tender moments
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There is a quote that says…
Life is a party but you are the one to hang the garlands.
May these photos be the garlands I am hanging on this post
As an ode to nature’s creation and its inhabitants.

P.s There is not much to add besides that I carefully chose each & every photo that spoke in a unique way to my heart as I hope it will do to you 🙂

Weeds are beautiful!
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Nature’s canvas
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The way of the wise…
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My way of painting 🙂
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Should not earth be more apprized than our riches
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The small but valuable too
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Heavenly glow
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Powerful beauty
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Creative blend with nature
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Light & reflection
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Why are you staring at us
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Still image yet chirping reality
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Earth’s promises…
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It is us, it is earth… for we are one

Peeking between the cracks
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We peek between the cracks of infinity & wonder how is it possible
To know the truth which others are strangers too?

We see the world as an untouched birthstone whereas some explore
Its potentials for profit.

We know it as a growing process nary a bleeding one. To love, cherish
& bless every single breath inspired, expired.

We want to live it not kill it so we can go on inhabiting this underestimated
Arcadia .

We have the greed to breathe & pass it on intact as a legacy to our children’s
Delight.

It is green it is pure,
It is blue it is clear,
It grows it flows,
It sings in the day & hums at night,
It cries & hurts enough in natural misfortunes
Without us adding our punch…
It pours love & offers hugs to the indebted,
It is consoling in sadness, rejoicing at birth,
Mostly, it is us, it is earth for we are one.
Born as one, die as one.

Let us not leave it tinted, poisoned by blinded stupidity nor give right
To nightmare’s prophecies but help the dream…

To stay as one.

P.s
I wrote this with a gushing heart & hopeful soul.
We are sitting on a fall, patching up a wounded & bruised
Planet nevertheless I wish that positivity is the message that
Transpires throughout.

From the benches I pay homage (Trees 5) 2.6.2013

Bench retreat
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From the benches…
———————

From the benches I read and pay
Homage to the reverence I feel
Toward the decorum surrounding
Me.

From the contrast in colors…
To peaceful hidden spots or thick
Shiny roots exploring the mysteries
Of earth’s nether.

All groan…Whisper in harmony
A lullaby to the ones who see.

Lake, bench, nature
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Serenity bench
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Sheltered
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The hidden
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The comforting
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The charitable in town 🙂
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Exploring the nether
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Authentic Holland-The port of my wandering 1989 Adjusted January 2013 with French original text. La Hollande authentique- Le port de mon errance.

Enkhuizen2010
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Enkhuizen
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This poem was the result of an enchanting and memorable trip on Holland’s thin roads running along its canals. It obviously had to be adjusted but the words, emotion and kernel were kept. The photos are fairly recent.
Enjoy it!

Authentic Holland
——————

Earth and paradise
In this country
Peace in its nature
Green, blue so pure

Narrow roads
Water on all sides
Line of earth
Precarious but salutary

Solitude and tranquility
Propitious pleasures
Picture perfect
Grandiose and magnificent

Landing
From time to time
In small quaint villages
Reminiscing a fairy tale

One final flight
Grazing the ground
Ethereal scenery
Coasting the imaginary

Euphoria and sadness
Contradictory feelings
Belonging to an evening
Of nature in triumph

On the highway, tired
Feeling purified
Of buried anxieties
Hitherto asleep

Furrowing this beautiful country
Its character dazzles us

And we regain…

The Holland of our youth
The port of our wandering.

________________

La Hollande authentique
————————-

Terre et paradis
Dans ce pays
Paix en sa nature
Vert, bleu si pur

Routes étroites
L’eau de toute part
Ligne de terre
Précaire mais salutaire

Solitude et tranquillité
Plaisirs propices
Tableau parfait
Grandiose et magnifique

Atterrissant
De temps en temps
Dans de petits villages coquets
Rappelant un conte de fée

Un dernier envol
Frôlant le sol
Paysage irréel
Côtoyant l’imaginaire

Euphorie et tristesse
Sensations contradictoires
N’appartenant qu’un soir
A une nature en allégresse

Sur l’autoroute, fatigué
Se sentant purifié
Des angoisses enfouies
Jusqu’ici endormies

Sillonnant ce beau pays
Son caractère nous ébloui

Et nous regagnons…

La Hollande de notre enfance
Le port de notre errance.