therealflowerfairy

[therealflowerfairy]

I got a bit of land!

I've just been admitted into my local gardening club, which means I get a community garden plot to lease for $5 this year! I picked out the plot, I paid for the year, and I guess I can start growing on it starting right away!

This is, strictly speaking, not guerilla gardening. The land is reserved for my use. It's totally transparent and it's in a block with a bunch of other garden plots assigned to other gardening fiends so it's not like I'll be growing stuff in secret.

At the same time...

I mean...I get this additional sunny bit of land which maaaay lend itself to getting certain plants started before I stick them in other areas. For instance. Also I'll be spending a lot more time in the neighborhood of the garden plots, which is well outside of the neighborhood of my house, so I maaaaay see some opportunities to drop off my leafy babies on some unused land. I may also get some ideas from the other gardeners. You never know what kind of trouble I'll get into.

[therealflowerfairy]

I will go to Toys R Us and buy stuff for myself.

I’ve had this vision in my head for a while of growing a cave made of wisteria. The big question was what to use for the structure. And then I saw this:

Okay not this one in particular. I want to have a cave that I can walk inside. So the structure would need to be open at one side. But this is a good starting point. I could totally buy a kids’ playset and use it for training vines into pleasing shapes.

[therealflowerfairy]

Do we really need this fancy shit?

I saw an ad for some Kickstarter project a few days ago for something like, “Buy this lump of mycorrhizae spores for $150 and help save the planet from climate change!” Looked at it, and I realized: I’m fairly sure I have mycorrhizae growing in my containers already. That shit multiplies; I’ll give you a baggie of starter for free. 

And then I saw another ad for another product that I’ve seen before, and which I like, but do we really need an Indiegogo for this thing? It’s a hollow cone of porous ceramic material with a textured surface. You pour water into the cone and stick plants on the outside, and the material draws water to the plants. It certainly looks like fun! And I feel like, I could assemble something like that with materials I already have on hand? It might not look quite as elegant, but it would be good enough for the plants? You know, it’s something to try. 

[therealflowerfairy]

In which I use shit to make pretty flowers grow.

The onset of garden-friendly weather has coincided with a new pandemic which is making it really difficult for a lot of people to get the care they need, make a living, and get on with their lives.

Coronavirus is bad. One thing you can do that doesn’t risk spreading the virus? Gardening.

Especially if you’re a guerilla gardener and your most promising project is just outside the property line of an elementary school. And your state is closing schools for the next two weeks.

A nasty virus going around is bad. Parents having to scramble for childcare is bad. Poor kids going without hot meals is bad. People being unable to work because their jobs depend on people showing up: bad.

These are shitty times we’re living in.

When life gives you shit: make fertilizer. 

#guerilla gardening #pandemic #coronavirus coping #hobbies for social distancing

[therealflowerfairy]

I have some bamboo now.

I must have looked like a character in a Monty Python sketch, hauling a bundle of 20+-foot bamboo home by hand.

However, as it was nearly 1 AM, I don’t think anyone saw me.

It was heavier than I expected. If I need more I think I’ll do it in smaller batches.

#guerilla gardening #suburban plant life #bamboo canes #in which i help myself to some tree-skeletons in the middle of the night

[therealflowerfairy]

It’s just sitting there!

Out in front of the elementary school is a tree with this big gaping hole in the trunk facing the street. And...it’s just there, with no effort being made to either repair the tree, remove it, or fill up the hole. 

And I’m all like...folks, I’ve got compost to spare and more seed packets than sense. Hold my coffee and watch this. 

#guerilla gardening #tree stump gardening #public spaces

[therealflowerfairy]

Experimenting with piling up wood.

I wouldn’t try to build a hugelkultur on a playground. Nah, it wouldn’t last; the kids would knock it down or someone’s dog would tear it up. At some point the Public Works folks would see it and they’d be all like “dafuq is that thing?” and they’d get rid of it. Nope, public playground half a block away from an elementary school is no place for a long-term guerilla project.

However.

If I wanted to have some spare wood sitting around to add to the hugelkultur I’m building out behind said elementary school? The public playground would be a perfectly fine place to get some together. 

#guerilla gardening #hugelkultur #public spaces

[therealflowerfairy]

And I call this one the Scrapyard. Then my phone ran out of space and I couldn’t take any more video.

[therealflowerfairy]

Here’s the spot I call the Haunted House.

[therealflowerfairy]

Here’s my intro to the Sunshine Court.

[therealflowerfairy]

According to this, pine needles can be used as mulch. Fascinating. 

[therealflowerfairy]

Composting is Downcycling

A quick aside before I go on a walk to visit my guerilla sites:

I like to use compost in gardening. I basically see it as soil and fertilizer in one.

My philosophy of composting is: Downcycling.

It means composting should be as simple, cheap, and fun as possible. It means taking stuff that’s outlived its usefulness, and making it useful again by letting it fall apart. It means everything I need for making dirt is already in my household waste or outside on the ground. It means I can make compost wherever I set my mind to it.

#composting

[therealflowerfairy]

(via The Permaculture Research Institute)

Allelopathy: in which some plants are dangerous to others. The most notorious of allelopaths is black walnut, which basically doesn’t want anything else growing near it. 

#allelopathy #permaculture #plant biology

[therealflowerfairy]

(via The Many Benefits of Hugelkultur | Permaculture magazine)

Here’s a more-detailed primer on the technique and the benefits of hugelkultur beds. 

#hugelkultur #gardening #composting #organic

[therealflowerfairy]

Here’s a handy little instruction post on building a hugelkultur bed. 

[therealflowerfairy]

Aspirations

I want to do hugelkultur. I really like the idea of building a hill that’s extra-rich, extra-warm and self-watering, and trading CO2 for pretty green things.

I’m fairly sure I can’t do hugelkultur on my own property. The back yard is small and shaded, and the front yard is smaller. I don’t expect to live in this house forever, and when I do sell it, I don’t want the new owners to bulldoze my little hill. Also the housing co-op may have opinions about me altering the topography of the land. So I’m looking at guerilla-gardening some public land.

So then the question is...WHAT public land can I use for this? It’s a long-term project and it’s not portable. I need a place where I can build a little hill and the authorities won’t care. Preferably if they just don’t even notice what I’m doing.

And...I can’t be totally sure about any little plot of land. So right now my strategy is to gather and watch. I’ve found several spots that look good for cultivation, that are legally accessible and with very little foot traffic. And while walking around these spots, I realized there’s no reason why I need to commit to just one hugelkultur. Let’s not put all our eggs in one basket! So for now, at least until I can get in touch with the local gardening group, I’m going to focus on setting up wood piles at each of my guerilla sites and see how much stuff I can stack up before some governing body or other knocks it down. And while I do that, I’ll also learn as much as I can about what’s permitted and what’s likely to attract attention. If I ultimately end up with 6 hills all around town, so much the better. 

#hugelkultur #guerilla gardening #carbon sequestration

[therealflowerfairy]

(via Uses for Common Garden Weeds)

I’ve come to change my thinking on “weeds.” Rather than certain plant species being undesirable no matter what, I just think there are some plants I want in my garden and some that I don’t want. Those that I don’t want are the “weeds” and I figure out how to get rid of them while keeping the desirable plants intact.

Anyway. Many of the plants that we tend to think of as undesirable are actually very useful to us. Here are some examples. 

#horticulture #gardening #useful weeds #edible plants #medicinal plants