2012 Spring

This is the 3rd year for the little garden that keeps expanding.  Last year there were 50+ grape globes and lotsa rhubarb... and from the look of it this year there will be hundred's - amazing what a bit of pruning and proper bracing will do.
Straw bales are truly amazing.  i wish I had discovered them decades ago.  It saves SO much de-weeding work, it's wonderful to walk on barefoot, it protects runoff and soil, decomposes in 5+ years and adds nutrients to the soil, it's cheap!, can be used as building and sitting blocks, on and on... 

So the construction of the iLc begins.  It's a momentus decision to pour the first footing.  There should be some sort of a celebration or ribbon cutting.  This iLc (international learning center) will shape not only the future of WinSol3, but also a future eco-village (i call it Sieben Linden West) based on living by the sun.

Felling four tall fir trees the other day gave me pause to admire the beauty and bounty of trees.  Sometimes I wish I would re-incarnate as a tree - they are so buddha like.  There's a wonderful buddhist saying:  'the Banyan tree even gives shade to the person that cuts it down'.  I am careful which trees I harvest in thinning the forest, I use every little bit of the tree (lotsa biochar from the slash), I debark them immediately when the sap is running, and then they dry for a year before they become the long-standing main supports for the iLc. 


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Of all the seasons, Spring is by far the hardest working and most joyous time.  Farmers used to celebrate the spring planting and fall harvest seasons, and gardeners relish the daily observations of newly sprouted blooms and growth.  Each year the flowers and shrubs and trees seem to multiply ten fold.  


There are irises, poppies, rhubarb, grapes, lilacs, lavender +++ blooms just exploding here every day - almost too much to handle, not!  For the first time in 9+ years, I have my 100+ strawberry plants back.  I tried a supermarket strawberry the other day:  tasteless, methyl iodide, and unnatural - yuk!  But for me, one of my most relished rituals is to pick fresh strawberries from the garden each morning with cereal bowl in hand.  ahhhhhhh..................

And straw bedding makes it easier and so much less work!