“It will never rain roses;
when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees. – George Eliot
‘We gotta’ have water! Just too inconvenient not to have a water tap.’ He said. He was adamant. And there are many people just as adamant and difficult to be persuaded to change their minds. We humans are the Masters of Convenience. If we can use fossil fuels and convenience to do our bidding, then why bother with any other way? ‘Until the fossil fuels run out…’ says that little voice in my head. This voice is always on the pulse of planetary weaknesses, overshoots, decline and disruptions. We will eventually run out of the vast quantities of oil products, those products that fuel convenience for us. They fuel reasons for war.
Our descendants will run out of fossil fuel, but they will not be free of the fossil fuel pollution that is dogging our life here now on the organic planet. Not us, but the people of 2050, 2075, 2100 will be the ones running out of ‘convenience.’ Over time, not long in coming, all living elements on the planet will be out of dirty energy and left living in a mess. When the fossil fuels’ party ends, our culture will be left with a big, toxic mess. Won’t be convenient when that happens. ‘Why not practice now by sampling to different ways of living? Why not practice now by not riding the saddle of fossil fuels? Let’s dismount! Why not practice living within boundaries without using convenience to determine what happens?’
That little voice is not to be soothed. A voice, usually correct in making the points, is not always gracious in the delivery. I guess we all have inner voices. We gardeners could be practicing how to build and maintain rain gardens in a drought while we still can turn on a spigot. Maybe we wouldn’t need the spigot at all. We can practice building sponge soil. We can practice slowing and spreading water to stop erosion. We can change our choices of plants to plants that live leaner. Gardening without on-demand water is difficult. Hard. Not practicing gardening without water won’t serve us in the future. How do we build a garden that conserves water in every possible way? We keep practicing using less and needing less.
April started out dry and hot, as we all expected.
April Fools brought in a pitiful amount of rain. Just enough for us to remember what rain is like… In AnnaMaranna Gardens, the chunks of maple stump were absorbing the rain… every bit of it was pulled into the network of wood and is being held, perhaps even to this day, weeks later. The stump pulls the water in, and slowly releases it over time. Perfect!
The stump, as it ages, crumbles into smaller and smaller pieces that will join the soil and add to the soil’s ability to hold onto moisture. If one pays attention, one can watch it happen. Logs run along the pathways, holding the garden beds back, but also absorbing excess waters and keeping that moistness close to the roots. Close to where the mycelium can find it and deliver the wet to the plants. Mycelium is critical to living soil.
Middle of April brought no relief. The drought is so apparent to the gardeners. Situational awareness of climate change, estimating the risks using current scientific research, will help early adopters to avoid the worst of the drought. Better watering practices, the use of gray water (now legal in the State), building earthworks as erosion controls, creating sponge soil, applying proper fire mitigation and using biochar techniques, while planting native plants, are just a few of the choices that could change the future for all of us in the Pikes Peak Region.
Climatic changes won’t stop or go away, but will continue to evolve and unfold before our eyes. Tipping points are at the doorstep. Are we listening to the science? This consumer culture continues to pump carbon and methane into the atmosphere, plastics into the water ways and our bodies; the ocean continues to warm. Coral reefs continue to die back. Glacial ice continues to melt as the permafrost continues to collapse. Living soil is destroyed. Our beautiful forests struggle. The awful list goes on. And, on. So what is the next step?
We need to stop using fossil fuels.
The human community must build trust and move away from fossil fuels, using our human brilliance to come to know and understand how to apply appropriate technology to the local ecology. We need to do this without fossil fuels. This is exactly what the leading scientists have been telling us for decades.
This won’t be easy and takes getting the people together and moving forward with common goals. Common goals could include growing food in our yards, sharing vehicles and carpooling, stopping the need to shop, shop, shop for entertainment, going local for our needs… All doable and new to many. Serious changes, those!
Come activists, conservationists, ecologists, nature lover, preservationist, indigenous! How do we tackle the day-to-day steps of deflating an economy down to a manageable, local economy? Blue Zone is a regular show on Netflix that portrays and showcases such ideas. https://www.bluezones.com/ Blue Zones spread out over the world, healing their personal soil.
These zones build a relationship with the soil to grow food in harmony with ecosystem services. Like soap bubbles on water, they come together. Economy is the main key to reducing fossil fuels. Need less is first, eyeballing one’s life and seeing where the needs are. Seeing what is wasted. Discovering what is missing in our home systems. These are basic steps forward, knowing what we have now, and what we truly need.
Can our species return to a state of being in intuitive connection with the natural world and can we stop destroying it? We certainly can live on less, but will we? Only time will tell us. Either we will reverse the trend of destruction and return to the garden of living in harmony. Or we won’t. Many, perhaps most, people don’t see that possibility, but I do… just not easy. People these days are ‘trained’ to be lazy and fixed on convenience. Trained by a culture that only cares about money.
I had a conversation recently with another gardener about whether to put a water set up into a native garden, or to allow the native garden to be nurtured with ‘carry water’ until it doesn’t need to be babied anymore. That is how the Vermijo Community Garden is doing so well – with carry water days at the garden. Everyone brings 5 gallons or so of water and it is doled out to the plants. ‘Oh no! We have to have that convenience of a spigot!’ Even if we only need water for maybe three years? That gardener is willing to tear up concrete, bring in heavy equipment, dig big holes, run piping under the garden and such… Just to have convenience for three years. Such an opinion works against us in adapting to a new world.
Inequalities fundamentally weaken our societies.
People together will survive catastrophe easier and makes better decisions to keep everyone safe, if we work together. Community Care. We desperately need to build a stronger community for the coming changes in climate. Environmental justice needs to be addressed. Decisions should not be made by corporations or those with the most money. Communities can hold together and make their own decisions. But there must be those who are willing to truly be ready, to truly adapt to a different world. This world is no longer the world we grew up in. We have changed the world and now we must live in it as changed people.
Two red-tailed hawks banked in the sky overhead. A pair of red-tailed hawks is good news to a semi-wild neighborhood. Predators bring balance to the wild. I find amazing wonders in Colorado and often in my own backyard wildness. Spectacular views are inspiring and, in Manitou, we are blessed to have this little piece of nature, so we work to protect it from overuse. Dramatic new niches found in wildness and feral gardens continue to inform us, like the arrival of gray foxes a few years ago. Filling niches in the ‘hood. Today, in the leafing elms, sparrows were silhouetted against a gray sky, eating the elm buds. Salad in the sky. Flowers are up. Buds are out. The soil is waking. And moisture is in the forecast. Maybe. Let us keep the rain dances going. Make your plans, plant your seeds and count your blessings.
Dark times are upon us.
Gardeners and earth keepers must stay aware and alert to our man-made world and how nature is faring with that world in it’s midst. Practice self care and community care. Know your neighbors. Help each other. Nature is our partner in life. And our community is a part of that nature. We need to protect those partnerships. We can learn more about the natural world, so much to know. We can learn new skills. We all need to make changes. Adopt a peaceful pace and learn something new today. Don’t forget to enjoy the journey along the way, we are learning how to proceed. Peace and promise.
Blue Planet Becky the gardener
“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, universe, a part limited in time and space.
― Albert Einstein
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest,
a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires
and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures
and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
