The Importance of Trees

This is a gentle, touching and inspiring movie called "The Man Who Planted Trees", and I encourage you to fix a cup of herbal tea (or a glass of wine), and make the time to and sit back and enjoy watching it. The video is beautifully drawn in what appears to be hand drawn pastel charcoals; it is narrated by Christopher Plummer. Written by Jean Giono, this popular story of inspiration and hope was originally published in 1954 in Vogue as "The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness."

The Man Who Planted Trees tells the story of Elzeard Bouffier, a man who, after his son and wife die, spends his life reforesting miles of barren land in southern France. He patiently plants and nurtures a forest of thousands of trees, single-handedly transforming his arid surroundings into a thriving oasis. Undeterred by two World Wars, and without any thought of personal reward, the shepherd tirelessly sows his seeds and acorns with the greatest care. As if by magic, a landscape that seemed condemned grows green again. A film of great beauty and hope, this story is a remarkable parable for all ages and an inspiring testament to the power of one person.

There's an interesting story about the importance of trees in our world, "Why Trees Matter" published in the New York Times.

Excerpt:

 

"What we do know... suggests that what trees do is essential though often not obvious. Decades ago, Katsuhiko Matsunaga, a marine chemist at Hokkaido University in Japan, discovered that when tree leaves decompose, they leach acids into the ocean that help fertilize plankton. When plankton thrive, so does the rest of the food chain. In a campaign called Forests Are Lovers of the Sea, fishermen have replanted forests along coasts and rivers to bring back fish and oyster stocks. And they have returned.

Trees are nature’s water filters, capable of cleaning up the most toxic wastes, including explosives, solvents and organic wastes, largely through a dense community of microbes around the tree’s roots that clean water in exchange for nutrients, a process known as phytoremediation. Tree leaves also filter air pollution. A 2008 study by researchers at Columbia University found that more trees in urban neighborhoods correlate with a lower incidence of asthma.

Trees also release vast clouds of beneficial chemicals. On a large scale, some of these aerosols appear to help regulate the climate; others are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral. We need to learn much more about the role these chemicals play in nature. One of these substances, taxane, from the Pacific yew tree, has become a powerful treatment for breast and other cancers. Aspirin’s active ingredient comes from willows.

Trees are greatly underutilized as an eco-technology. “Working trees” could absorb some of the excess phosphorus and nitrogen that run off farm fields and help heal the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. In Africa, millions of acres of parched land have been reclaimed through strategic tree growth.

Trees are also the planet’s heat shield. They keep the concrete and asphalt of cities and suburbs 10 or more degrees cooler and protect our skin from the sun’s harsh UV rays. The Texas Department of Forestry has estimated that the die-off of shade trees will cost Texans hundreds of millions of dollars more for air-conditioning. Trees, of course, sequester carbon, a greenhouse gas that makes the planet warmer. A study by the Carnegie Institution for Science also found that water vapor from forests lowers ambient temperatures."

I'm planting trees this year, are you?

More edible food forest garden additions

Ramp shoots to re-plant

Last week I received a package of 3 dozen cultivated Ramps to plant, which means now I need to research and plan a shady mountainside garden that will enhance growing the ramps, and still include most of the basic tenets of a food forest garden. I think that will be a real challenge!

I have written before about ramps here. They are an interesting plant, but border on being endangered in the wild by over-harvesting. Ramps are an Appalachian delicacy!

"A wild leek, this onion relative with a garlicky flavor may have anticancer properties, with edible leaves and roots. Found in the rich woods of upper elevations, it's eaten raw or fried with eggs or just make plain old ramp sandwiches. The plants grow about a foot tall and, when eaten, a strong odor emanates from the skin of the ramps gourmand. Scientific Name for Wild Ramp (Allium tricoccum Aiton) better known as a wild leek, some other common names: rich woods leek, ail des bois, ail sauvage." Source 

Ramp Festivals are everywhere in the Appalachians in spring, as both a social and a culinary event. Visit one if you can, just do a Google Search. This webpage lists some of the Festivals, and several recipes.

I'm thinking my shady hillside garden for the ramps should include some ginseng, and goldenseal tubers (and maybe some mushroom logs), but at the moment I'm at a loss for what else to include.

Any suggestions? Maybe a Paw-Paw?

My Passive Solar Nautilus House

It has been a struggle for me to post the pictures of the floor plan and the model I'm constructing of my Nautilus House. Generally, anytime I (or anyone) mention something different than the accepted mainstream beliefs, we end up being ridiculed and thought totally weird. The concept for this house came to me from Spirit, in a meditation about 10 years ago.

The shape of this house is based ion a Fibonacci Spiral, or Phi:The Golden Number/Golden Mean/Golden Ratio.

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Putting that aside, there are still many, many questions still to answer in fine-tuning in the plans for this house. The changing pitch of the roof in each section will be a real challenge to build. The "public space" of kitchen, dining and living room are planned to be one large open space, with probably a kitchen counter/bar as a visual separation. Then there are the things not definable, like the energy contained within the Fibonacci spiral shape.

There are a number of things I see built into this house. First off, it is basically Passive Solar, with the long exterior window-wall of the living room facing south. I envision radiant hot water pipes in a well-insulated concrete slab floor, now that hot water heat with long flexible lengths of piping to prevent leaks at junctions is possible, and affordable.

Some sustainable considerations include: a greywater system, composting toilet, earth cooling tubes, rocket mass heater, solar chimney, solar heated water, possible passive solar greenhouse attached, sustainable forestry adjacent to the site, and a sheet-mulched, no-dig permaculture / edible food forest garden.

I envision this as a long term project that includes other eco-buildings, food forest gardens, aquaculture ponds, coppicing and possible timber production depending on the site, a classroom for courses and workshops, orchard, cider making facility, wild food, wildlife refuge and maybe even part a future small sustainable community.

This house is only 1 bedroom, with slightly under 900 square feet of living space, but could be built to include one more turn of the "nautilus shell" so there are 2 bedrooms. Alternatively, there could be a loft bedroom above the private spaces (laundry/pantry, bath, and bedroom) without increasing the footprint. I didn't even consider a 2 bedroom mock-up since there is so much interest today in smaller houses, rather than McMansions.

I looked into several different types of exterior construction... from straw-bale, earthbag, and cob to a cast-in-place sculptural form like Flying Concrete. In the end I decided the transition to a passive solar non-conventional shape would be more readily accepted by using conventional stick-building techniques. The large vaulted, open (public) space with exposed wood beams supporting a wood tongue and groove ceiling would be striking, with a strong feel of "mountain getaway cabin".

I am hoping to interest some university (or perhaps private) schools with sustainable and/or alternative energy departments into considering this house as a hands-on teaching project.

Expanding my edible food forest garden, round 2

Cornus mas, photo by wlcutler

Last year I started my first guild (and updated here) in a long-range plan for an edible food forest garden. Now with spring approaching, I'm ready to expand my food forest garden a little. I'm actually not expanding it yet since it's only March, but I just bought a bunch of new perennial plants that will get started in some new areas of my yard when it gets warmer. Oh, and I've also put a whole slew of woody fruit cuttings in little mini-greenhouse enclosures, hoping some will root.

Hardy Kiwi (female), photo by Joe+Jeanette Archie

My new plants just purchased include: 2 Cornus Mas (dogwood family) aka Cornelian Cherry which has edible fruit and shown at the top of this post; 1 Aycock green leaf plum that I have lusted after ever since I ate one right off the tree 4-5 years ago; two hardy kiwi (one male and one female) vines; 2 table grapes (a Concord and a white variety); and 2 different Haskap varieties.

Haskap, aka Juneberry; photo by Jeena Paradies

Haskaps are also known as Juneberries, and as Saskatoons, but for all practical purposes the fruits look and taste like blueberries. However, they do not require the acidic soil that blueberries do, and that's a big plus for me and my more neutral soil.

I had my three 20 gallon pots of figs, and my  several potted blueberries stored in the barn for the winter, covered in fiberglass insulation. Either mice or voles got into them, and only one blueberry survived. They didn't leave a speck of root nor branch except one blueberry and that one is iffy! The Haskaps will go in the ground soon and start to replace the blueberries. 

My big concern is that since some critters ate the roots and stems of my potted plants in the barn (like they ate all my sweet potato tubers in the ground last year), how do I protect new tree and bush roots in the ground? My instinct tells me to encircle each of them with planted garlic, chives and garlic chives. It will be a challenge, and my cat is sure not earning her keep killing the voles!

In April I will be attending an Extension Service grafting class about 2 hours away; it's being held at an antique cider apple orchard. They say we'll each go home with 5 apple grafts to plant! 

The woody fruit cuttings I now have under tents here at home include 2 trays of elderberries... the first tray of over a dozen seems to be growing fine. The second tray was just set a few days ago, so there's a long way to go. Other woody cuttings include beach plum, filberts (hazelnuts), Nanking cherries, Chinese chestnuts, black currants, buffalo currants, and maybe even some red currants (my currant bushes are unmarked).

I don't expect a lot of success with my woody cuttings other than the elderberries, since it's my first attempt, but I have to start somewhere... and buying a lot of fruiting plants is not in my budget. Any of these that do not root will be attempted again in summer with softwood cuttings. And again in winter with woody cuttings if necessary.

Been Hiding under a Rock?... Find the Groasis Waterboxx

Groasis Waterboxx  ©AquaPro

Groasis Waterboxx  ©AquaPro

I guess I DO live under a rock, because this terrific sustainable tech product has been around about 4 years, and I only stumbled on it about 3 months ago. I've been incubating the possibilities in my mind since then, and after a second review of the system recently, I still think the Groasis Waterboxx™ is the best product to support worldwide sustainable food production to come along in many, many years. (ps... I have no financial interest in this company, nor receive any remuneration from writing about it.)

As the Manufacturer says, "It's nothing more than an exceptionally well-designed bucket" that will grow trees even in the desert!

Groasis Waterboxx via Popular Science  ©AquaPro

Popular Science selected it as the 2010 Best of What's New, Innovation of the Year.

"This "waterboxx" is an ‘intelligent water battery’ that produces and captures water FROM THE AIR through condensation and occasionally a tiny bit of rain. The condensation is caused by artificial stimulation and the water is captured through physical capacities, without using energy.

The “Groasis” waterbox makes it possible to plant trees or bushes on rocks, on mountains, in gardens, in ashes of recently burned woods, eroded areas or deserts or any other place, without the help of irrigation with a 100% planting result. In moderate climates the “Groasis” waterbox causes a 15 to 30% faster growth after the start. There is no other planting solution comparable to this.

It is a product that the inventor foresees as a means to help save mankind as the world's population soars, a plant incubator that doesn't need irrigating, and which could help make fertile again the 70% of the world's arid and semi-arid lands whose productivity has been hit by deforestation and over farming."  Source

How it works is pretty cool... you put down a seed or two (or 1-2 seedlings), put the Waterboxx base over it, add 3 gallons of water to the box and another gallon to the seeds/seedlings... add the cover, and forget about it for the rest of the year.

The planting tub drips about three tablespoons of water a day into the soil via a wick, sustaining the plant while encouraging its roots to grow deeper in search of more water. By forcing the tap root deeper it strengthens the tree for it's entire lifetime making it less prone to wind damage and more likely to tap deeper for drought protection.

Too much water and a tree will create a layer of surface roots to maximize water consumption. These shallow roots, however, will bake and dry out whenever artificial watering stops.

Too little water and the tree dies.

Just enough water keeps the tree alive, but searching for more water - by sending the roots in the one direction that water can always be found - down.

Once these roots reach the aquifer, even if it is a seasonal aquifer, there is normally enough water to sustain the dry season.

I'm only surprised that such results can be reached in a single year!

Since I don't think I can adequately describe why it works, here's some text courtesy of www.groasis.com :

The Groasis waterbox - using natural principles

•Capillary: in each soil is capillary water. As soon as the sun shines on the soil, the capillary dries up. The Groasis waterbox prevents this. Do a test at home in your garden: lift a stone during the hottest days and look at the difference between the soil beside the stone and under the stone. Under the stone the soil is damp or wet.

•Rain: almost every place on Earth has rain. Even in the middle of the Sahara it is 50 mm per year. That is 50 litre per square meter. In most of the so called deserts or savannahs it is around 250 mm. That is 250 litre per square meter. The problem of this rain is that it falls in 2 days, and it all evaporates within a week. So the problem is not a lack of water, but the capture and distribution of the water over a year's period of time. The Groasis waterboxx captures this rainwater and distributes it via an ingenious stand-alone system over the year to the tree.

•Condensation: everywhere in the world where there is a minimum of relative humidity, and when surfaces are able to get colder than the air temperature, there is condensation. Two examples: 1) if you are cooking in winter and the warm air of your room touches the cold glass of the windows they will be wet. In Summer this phenomenon does not happen. 2) if you walk with glasses from the outside where it is cold into a warm place, your glasses will be covered with condensation. This is the phenomenon that the Groasis waterbox uses: during the night the temperature of the surface is able to drop lower than the surrounding air due to radiation. Due to the temperature difference between the surface of the Groasis waterbox and the air, the air is locally cooled down below its dew point. Now the air condensates at the surface of the Groasis waterbox and it gets wet. Because of its design which stimulates the production and collection of the condensation, the Groasis waterbox produces condensation daily. So the Groasis waterbox does NOT only collect dew, but also enhances the generation of it. To conclude: the Groasis waterbox produces on an artificial basis condensation that develops against its cold surface. Dew is the condensation of air humidity that develops when warm air is crimping.

•Distribution: the produced and collected water is distributed in small daily dosages via a small wick throughout the year or even for a longer period, to the plant.

•Avoid evaporation: the biggest loss of water is evaporation. That is why irrigation via tubes or sprinklers are so ineffective. The Groasis waterbox covers the place where the tree is planted. Therefore the capillary cannot evaporate nor the distributed water either. This means that the Groasis waterbox stimulates a 100% effective use of the added water. Compare this to irrigation: only between 10 to 20% of the added water is really used, the rest evaporates.

•Use of capillary: in nature seed is spread by grazing animals and birds. The seeds are sown ON TOP OF the soil. This is not a coincidence! In nature, coincidence does not exist, everything has its reason. The manure pastes the seed to the soil. In this way the capillary makes the seed humid, stimulating it to put a small root directly into the soil, giving it direct access to the available capillary humidity, allowing it to further grow. The Groasis waterbox planted with seeds copies this process: it does not disturb the soil and therefore maintains the existing capillary structure of the soil. Without capillary the soil would dry out to dust and erode.

•Temperature balancing: the buffer of water in the Groasis waterbox functions as an equalizer of the soil temperature. Avoiding extreme temperatures stimulates growth.

Here's what happens with the sun's movement over the waterboxx..

©AquaPro

©AquaPro

©AquaPro

I will tell you upfront that these planters are not too cheap. Bought in quantities of 10, they are $27.50 USD each... BUT, if you consider they are reusable for new trees/shrubs/plants for 10 years (or more), that brings down the cost PER TREE to under $3.00. I can't tell you how many expensive trees and shrubs I've lost over the years, but it's quite a lot of money. If I were planting trees up on the hill above my house, these would more than pay for themselves, because I surely WILL NOT carry water up that steep hill!!

It is amazing to see the possibilities we have available to provide all basic necessities for humanity. "Money" is pretended to be the constraint, but its only because providing trees would hardly be profitable for any financier. That’s why this kind of thing doesn't happen enough. We need to realize we have to use every resource, including money, to be efficient and sustainable.

Video Links:

How it works video
 

Growing Vegetables in Desert Conditions

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Video channel with many Groasis videos

Here's what a South African Dealer has to say.

Starting Babington Leeks

Last September, a friend gifted me with some bubets of rare Babington Leeks. This will be my first non-traditional perennial vegetable in my garden! (I have a few of the traditional ones like asparagus, rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes, etc.) I followed her planting instructions and planted about a third of them in the garden last Fall, but if they have ever grew, or at least I never saw them. The other 2/3rds I separated into very green, or fairly tan bublets... moistened them slightly and threw them in baggies in the crisper where they have been all winter, buried under other baggies of seeds being stratified. (I don't think they needed to be stratified, but I wasn't sure I wanted them to dry out, either. Information on growing them is scant.)

While I was digging around in that crisper drawer last week, I saw they had sprouted! So today (Sunday Feb. 12 as I'm writing this), my Biodynamic planting guide said it's the right time to plant them. I couldn't find any planting guides on the internet, but the woman who sent them to me said that in her garden they fall to the ground and sprout. (I don't recall what zone she's in.) Well, it is a chilly 15ºF outside, with a light snow cover on the ground so obviously putting them outside on the ground won't work.

I poked a few drain holes in a deep aluminum container, filled it with about 2-3" of potting soil (slightly dampened), and made depressions for the roots. This pan went inside another deep pan, with spacers between them to allow water to collect in the lower tray. I know I should have used a much deeper soil layer, but I only had a bit of potting soil warm inside the house... and I didn't think planting them in 15º potting soil brought in from outside would be a good idea!

I lightly sprinkled what potting soil I had left around the bublets. I don't know if that's the way to go or not, since I couldn't find directions. However, I only planted about 40% of the sprouted bublets so I have more if this fails. (I don't think the sprouted bublets will last much longer in the crisper, though!) 

If they grow, I will transplant them to individual 4" garden pots before all the roots grow together, and hold them for warmer weather when they can go in the ground.

Update: The photo above is 12 days after putting them in potting soil. Sorry about the glare off the windows... we have a lot of light reflecting off the snow cover. I ended up planting all of the bublets with roots... I was afraid I'd lose the rest. This tray (1 of 3) was the greenest of the bublets when I got them last September, and stayed greener in the crisper; they are significantly ahead of the others. I'm greatly encouraged with all of them, though!!

This is NOT a leek in the traditional sense. It is more of a Wild Leek, but not to be confused with the N. American Allium tricoccum of the same name, and more commonly known as Ramps. In tidewater Virginia, this plant is commonly known as the “Yorktown Onion.” 

The Babington leek has many uses... the greens can be harvested and cooked during winter, tasting a bit like shallots. The bublets taste more like leeks, and the bulbs and bubils (underground) taste more like garlic. Medicinally, Babington Leeks have about  same properties as garlic.

It might take 2-3 years to get these established to edible and renewal size in my garden but I'm really looking forward to them! (Assuming I don't kill them while I'm trying to sprout them.)