Pensamiento Sistémico para la Sostenibilidad Más allá de cultivar un huerto orgánico

En lugar de utilizar la hipérbole para el efecto literario que llevaría a creer que soy propenso a la fabricación de, Estoy dejando que la historia que el e-mail dice que ejemplifican el tipo más social, en el extremo de hacerlos evidentes.

Hace unos años, Me ofrecí como una empresa de consultoría jardín / paisaje profesional de los primeros "Jardines de la Gratitud" en Los Angeles. Yo estaría tentado a rebautizar el evento orientado a proyectos, si no se deshonra el espíritu de la abundancia y la distribución que Devin Slavin (un compañero de clase en el programa de la Agricultura Ecológica en el New College de California 1N 2005) quería que la idea de "Jardines de la Gratitud" para encarnar. La intención detrás de materiales para la fabricación y la experiencia de bajo o sin costo alguno era hacer jardines comestibles sostenible accesibles a personas de bajos ingresos, no subvencionar la codicia adquisitivo de los que tienen (que con toda probabilidad podría darse el lujo de los materiales y servicios cuando querían pagar por ellos) a expensas de descuidar los que no tienen en las zonas como el este de Santa Mónica, Westlake, Parque MacArthur, Southcentral, Watts, o Pacoima. Lo contrario de la gratitud no es la ingratitud, que es el derecho.

El derecho es una manifestación generalizada de la sombra de Estados Unidos y es lo que san. Teresa de Ávila llamado "reptil en el alma", según Caroline Myss. Hasta que usted es dueño de sus aspectos de la sombra, que usted es dueño de.

De:

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Fecha: Sol, Mayo 3, 2009 1:30:43 PM

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Tema: Re: Jardines de la Gratitud – ¡Gracias por registrarte

Saludos Sean & Todo:

Gracias por darnos la bienvenida en el evento. Sólo para hacerle saber, nuestro conocimiento es mínimo (libro, aprendí la curiosidad de permacultura), y ser un lote de esquina, nuestra paleta en blanco es grande y en forma de L-. Para ese día, Hemos dividido fuera de un 12×20 pleno sol sección rectangular del patio para trabajar con, y han estado haciendo algunos bocetos.

Nuestra meta es hacer esto sin tener que gastar mucho en todos.

Uh-oh. Esa última frase era una bandera roja.

Un poco de conocimiento es algo peligroso cuando sacados de un libro sin ningún tipo de fundamento en la experiencia, pero anclada a las altas expectativas. La única manera de que esta familia visual podría alcanzar los de lujo "arquitectónica" los resultados que se esforzaron por hacer sería en la parte posterior(con) de quien fue generoso y / o lo suficientemente estúpido como para subsidiar a sus empresas. Traducido, los párrafos primero y segundo significado: "Tenemos grandes expectativas con forma de cereza por las ideas recogidas en los contextos de aplicación sans libros y estamos con la esperanza de desviar una buena calidad de regalos de quien quiera y donde quiera que podamos conseguir."

Hemos adquirido unos montones de tierra libre de (sobre 6 pick-up cargas) que mi marido ha debidamente cernida. También se encontraron algunas rocas de tamaño medio para ayudar con bermas, ya que nuestra visión es crear un aspecto natural de la pared elevada para mantener en la altura, con la elevación que desciende a la acera y algunas vías de la DG.

Hmmm .... vamos a ver si lo entiendo. ¿Quieres un muro esculpido y descompuestos vías de granito y quieres materiales y mano de obra de estas características de forma gratuita? No hay caridad y la generosidad por un lado,, Y luego está el ordeño de un evento por todo lo que vale la pena.

Mi esposo quiere un aspecto arquitectónico más sequía tolerante–no es un jardín de alimentos obvia, así que no hay camas abiertas planteadas. Pero ya que tenemos hardpan, tenemos que apilar en las cosas buenas… Así, en nuestros esfuerzos para poner en peligro, Voy a estar intercalando los comestibles en el esquema. Voy a tener una mandarina y un mini-sitio de níspero para ese día, y, probablemente, tomates. Cualquier otro consejo de sigilo comestibles es bienvenido!

No se puede tener un jardín de alimentos obvia a la vista de los vecinos. Suena la clase oh-tan desordenado y de baja (Dios no lo quiera). ¿Cómo será ellos pensar? (¿Quién da un higo de vuelo, siempre y cuando las plantas están felices y con habilidad para el cuidado? Un tendido, bien amado jardín siempre se ve mejor que un alma, arreglo de siembra rígida diseñada para apaciguar a los vecinos y obtener su aprobación.)

Aquí es donde se pone interesante ya que el sujeto quería mezclan las plantas que han contrastantes requisitos hortícolas. Una vez establecida, la mandarina y níspero, probablemente lo haría muy bien entre las plantas tolerantes a la sequía, siempre y cuando los árboles estaban periódicamente profunda remojo, pero los tomates y la variedad de jardín (un juego de palabras) comestibles no estaría consiguiendo satisfacer sus necesidades entre las plantas tolerantes a la sequía. Si el suelo se regaron con la frecuencia suficiente para satisfacer las verduras del jardín, las plantas tolerantes a la sequía finalmente sucumbir a la enfermedad de hongos y la pudrición. Aunque la pareja en cuestión podrían resistirse obstinadamente siguiendo los consejos que dicen querer, que tendrían que elegir bien la paleta anual de la planta comestible o las plantas perennes resistentes a la sequía, en lugar de conceder el diseño de jardines con alguien que sabe lo que están haciendo.

También, Creo que tenemos algunas bolsas de arena Snakey de Cal-Earth en el garaje que se pueden moldear en las paredes de retención de baja… TBD. Eso podría ser divertido jugar con!

He aquí nuestras preguntas a ser más listo para el día:

• BASE DE PREPARACIÓN:

Toda la hierba ha desaparecido y estamos hasta la capa dura. Estábamos pensando que simplemente se acumulan la suciedad nueva en la parte superior de ese, con un lado bermed, y la otra inclinada a la acera. (Los montones de tierra están a pocos metros objeto de dumping en la sección de no resuelto de la yarda). Leemos los jardines de enlaces sobre la gratitud Instant No Dig Camas Jardín y Haga doble excavación… Nos preguntábamos:

     – Can we drill holes into the hard clay to help make more permeable and skip the hard labor? (the carpenter has a pneumatic drill…)

     – Or get out the pick-axes to loosen the hardpan (we’d rather not!!!)

     – Should we have cardboard onsite to place on top of hardpan (as we saw on the Mar Vista Garden tour last week)? Or is that just for lawn-suppression?

     – Any other prep tips we should know about?

I’m not going to comment on what they could have done more specifically about that alleged hardpan because I don’t know enough about their prospective garden site. This family didn’t specifically request a site analysis and I wasn’t about to volunteer one for known takers. Without that site analysis, more specific comments would be conjecture.

Dicho esto, there’s a possibility that lugging in the 6 pickup truckloads of soil and then sifting it (¿Por qué? To cull stones or remove glass?) on relatively short notice was a waste of effort because these folks were working under the incorrect premise and assumption that they have “bad” soil. I haven’t a clue why this mystifying judgment is prevalent. Los Angeles has buried some of the most fertile agricultural soils in the world under endlessly contiguous miles of asphalt and concrete. It’s not the soil’s fault that it’s been abused for almost a century. Hardpan due to compaction and ignorance is one of the least of the wounds inflicted on this land. If this family had not gotten greedy about availing themselves of freebies and if they had been patient enough to allow sufficient lead time working in tandem with the rhythm of the seasons without compulsively feeding their addiction to instant gratification, it would have been possible to use organic methods to condition that “hardpan” so that the soil would have been workable.

Drilling holes in the soil? I wonder if this carpenter and his wife ever considered that drill bits manufactured for wood aren’t made to bore holes in soil and 2) the inevitability that the drill bits (he’ll go through a lot of them) would strike unseen pebbles and rocks buried in the fill. Oops.

So many people find the idea of prolific, beautiful gardens bursting with color and life alluring and yet they’re not willing to put their backs into the effort of planting and maintaining them. There is no such thing as a free lunch. In spite of the eternal nature of this truth, people look for ways to circumvent the effort if they can’t get someone else to do the hard work for them for free (yo. Gardens of Gratitude volunteers) o, if need be, for cheap. (The quick excuse at the ready is “I don’t have the time” but when you consider how much time is spent watching TV and fiddling around on technological toys and dig deeper, the excuse actually translates to “I don’t have the interest or skills and besides, nature scares me when it’s icky”.) Gardening and landscaping are like so many other life endeavors – you get out of it what you put into it and there are no shortcuts to working with natural systems like gardens, which are human-designed and created pseudoecosystems, but natural systems nonetheless. Nature sets the tone through microclimate, geology, and climate and ultimately calls the dance. Get over it.

Personally, as much as everyone complains about clay, I’d rather work with clayey soil than sand. It takes a lot longer to build up the organic content and create good tilth in a sandy soil that leaks water and nutrients like a sieve.

• COMPOST:

In addition to our acquired topsoil, we need to enrich with compost, right? Si es así, should it be in separate piles, or mixed in with the dirt? If mixed, what are the proportions, etc.? Where to acquire FREE compost if possible? We saw some sacks available on the Mar Vista Gardens tour, but didn’t note where they were from. Let us know.

• Same for MANURE: how much for our 12×20 space, and where to acquire FREE if possible?

• WOOD CHIPS, etc.: Should we have mulch piles on-site ready for spreading at end of the project?

     We’re running out of room. Could that come later? También, where to acquire FREE if possible. Our official Culver City source seems to have closed…

Again, this family is working under the premise and assumption that they need compost, manure, and wood chips for their allegedly “bad” hardpan soil. How did these folks arrive at their conclusions about what soil amendment materials they need for this landscaping project? What were their assumptions and why did they make them?

Eager about and enamored by the prospect of dabbling in their idea of Permaculture, they didn’t research drought tolerant plants or edibles to determine what those plants need to thrive. By their own admission, they don’t know much of anything about Permaculture or gardening, let alone the horticultural needs of plants. That kind of reading isn’t as sexy as jumping onto the Permaculture trendwagon but the blunt truth is that a lovely garden is not the end result when all the plants are struggling to survive because their needs are not being met. Attractive home gardens and landscapes, especially ones that increase property values in the long-term, are not accidents of short-lived attention, fashionable interest, and design on aesthetic whims. (Hint: Designing a daisy-shaped garden for the sake of designing a daisy-shaped garden without considering the needs of the plants, the mature sizes of the plants, or maintenance is setting yourself up for failure.)

Of the three materials that this family is requesting free source information for, I’d only recommend the wood chips for mulch and I wouldn’t skimp by going for free material unless my back was against the wall. Chipped material can be acquired gratis from a cooperative tree trimming company but since beggars cannot be choosers, the recipient 1) would not be able to specify quantity (you take whatever they give you), 2) cannot request specs on the tree and shrub species in the mix, o 3) expect to have a request for a minimal leaf litter to wood chip ratio honored. If you refuse to compromise on special requests and place conditions on the tree trimmings you are willing to receive, take a number and expect to wait until a tree trimming job that happens to meet your exacting specifications crops up. That wait could take months. If the need for mulch is time-sensitive, it’s best to just pay for it.

The vast majority of tree trimming jobs generate both leafy and woody material in equal proportions. Mix the finely chopped wet green stuff plus the moist woody stuff, leave it in a pile about a cubic yard in volume, and in a few short months you have…TA-DA!…compost! Pure wood chips that are coarsely chopped (yo. pieces 2-4 inches in length) don’t break down as quickly as free tree trimmings and where mulch is concerned, you want that 3 a 4 inch protective layer on top of your soil to last at least a few years as opposed to only several months but no more than a year. Left to its own devices, nature generates its own mulch. It may be minimal or plentiful depending on the ecosystem and plant community, but it’s there.

A propósito, I didn’t put the word “free” in all caps for emphasis on how cheap and stingy this family was. The text and its formatting is how it appeared in the e-mail verbatim. I kid you not.

• SPRINKLERS:

We have sprinklers which we don’t use, but are still hooked up. We have not retrofitted to any of the low flow dribblers or whatever–don’t have the expertise (My husband is a carpenter, not a plumber). He doesn’t want to use auto sprinkling at all, but go to hose, and says he’s willing to hand-water. I think we need a FREE pro consult on this–If the workings are there, do we want to take advantage and make life easier?

I hope this family actually tested the sprinkler system to check to see whether it still worked. I didn’t offer up my services and don’t know what sucker, um, I mean person…yeah, if anyone, stepped up to the plate to offer professional advice to tailor the irrigation system. The type of retrofit would entirely depend on the type of plants chosen for the project and since the planned plant palette was going to be mixed, you can bet that the results would be as well.

Hand watering is often a good enough option but the system failure often lies in whoever handles the hose. For busy, scattered, distracted suburbanites, the committed intention to hand water the plants wears off in direct proportion to the garden project’s novelty. Remembering to deep water drought tolerant plants on a frequency of once every 2 a 4 semana (actual frequency depends on time of year, la exposición solar, el tipo de suelo, and weather) can be another challenge if the irregular ritual of watering doesn’t become a habit. More often than not, people forget. The other challenge with hand watering is that the tops of the plants usually get sprayed, leaving the roots where the water is really needed to slowly dry out after the last of seasonal rains. Few well-intentioned hand waterers bother to check soil moisture below the mulch layer, if one is present.

• THIRSTY TREE:•

Any tree experts out there who can help advise us about our thirsty parkway magnolia which is sending sausage-sized roots up to the surface of the yard, and blasting the sidewalk out of its way in doing so? Since we stopped watering our hardpan, it’s gone wild looking for water. We’re trying to coordinate with L.A. City about sidewalk repair, and hoping to talk to the city arborist, but much redtape and perhaps many moons before we get info there. So if anyone has info here. (This challenge is separate from the 12×20 area delineated for the workday…)

Any info is much appreciated!

Thanx from the Cheapskate Family (surname changed to protect the guilty)

Harry & Virginia & boys

Want to raise some sidewalk, maybe destroy a nearby cement block wall or even a building foundation? Plant a Ficus or a Magnolia tree nearby.

The City of Los Angeles Public Works has a warped interpretation of job security. One department is charged with planting and maintaining trees that destroy infrastructure so that another department charged with infrastructure repairs and periodic rebuilding never runs out of tree related damage to address. Too bad the City is going broke and like other fiscally stretched governmental entities is postponing repairs and maintenance wherever and whenever it can.

The poor magnolia was ill-chosen for its planting location and as a result there is no solution that this family could implement that wouldn’t cost them something. But seeing that spending anything – time, strenuous effort, or money – is almost completely out of the question, there wouldn’t be any point in anyone offering these folks any advice since they wouldn’t be willing to follow it anyway.

If the family whined and complained long and loudly enough to the City’s arborist, a crew might eventually come out, sever and remove the “offending” roots, and then repour concrete slab to patch the sidewalk. The operative word is eventually. The family’s sons will likely have flown the nest by the time L. Un. Public Works slogs through their backlog, which even conservative estimates peg at a decade long wait. If that’s a bit much, Public Works suggests that residents take matters into their own hands by paying for a licensed arborist’s services out of pocket on top of a tree permit issued by the city, neither of which, I note for the record, will ever be FREE.

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