Hedge Fund: Investing of a Different Sort

My love affair with hedgerows only began recently, but it runs deep, so I was thrilled to discover this article on sustainable living fences in the recent issue of Mother Earth News.

"A living fence is a permanent hedge tight enough and tough enough to serve almost any of the functions of a manufactured fence, but it offers agricultural and biological services a manufactured fence cannot. For instance, it provides “edge habitat” that supports ecological diversity. As more species (insects, spiders, toads, snakes, birds and mammals) find food and refuge in this habitat, natural balances emerge, yielding, for example, a reduction of rodents and crop-damaging insect populations.

Depending on the plant or tree species you choose, living fences can provide food and medicine, or fodder for your livestock. Your animals will also enjoy the shade of a dense hedge. The foliage of some hedge plants, such as elder and Chinese chestnut, contains more protein than the quintessential protein forage crop, alfalfa. Willow and honey locust also make good fodder. I’ve been experimenting with Siberian pea shrub recently, as the peas can be harvested to feed poultry.

Leguminous species included in the fence, such as black locust and pea shrub,fix nitrogen in the soil throughout the root zone, and you can harvest some of that nitrogen for garden mulches and compost in the form of leafy prunings. A living fence increases soil humus as its leaf litter and root hairs (which the plants shed to balance loss of top growth to pruning or browsing) break down...

Living fences can last far longer than manufactured ones — for as long as the natural life span of the species used, which may be hundreds of years. Many species can be “coppiced,” meaning they will send up abundant new shoots after the main trunk has been cut. A living fence of a coppiced species readily renews itself following selective cutting for wood fuel and other uses.

Finally, a living fence, unlike a static manufactured fence, brings an ever-changing beauty to your landscape: flowers in spring, colorful fruit in summer, brilliant colors in fall and a complex, geometric structure in winter."

This is the kind of investing for the future that I can really get into and while at the moment I'm landless, growing and caring for my own hedgerow is definitely on my list of things to do someday, somewhere! Hmmm...guerrilla hedge laying anyone?

Image source: Trish Steel and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

I Heart Novella Carpenter

I got the book Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter out of the library a couple of weeks ago and inhaled most of it during a 7 hour rideshare and bus trip to visit family and celebrate my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary recently.

The book was an enjoyable and delightful read, not to mention very inspiring. As much as I tend to fantasize about retreating into the solitude and quiet of some small holding in the country, it's still pretty rocking to learn about what's possible in an urban environment. As long as I remain a city girl you can bet that I'll take my cues from the likes of Ms. Carpenter!

You can also read about her adventures in urban farming on her blog.

Incidentally, Novella is the sister of the author of These Days In French Life, who no longer blogs publicly, but maintains a gorgeous and equally inspiring Flickr photostream. I heart her too!

Desire

Image Source

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean

"One can never forget the sadness and solemnity of that morning. Chief John Ross led in prayer and when the bugle sounded and the wagons started rolling many of the children rose to their feet and waved their little hands good-by to their mountain homes, knowing they were leaving them forever." ~John Burnett's Story of the Trail of Tears


In 1838 the Cherokee were driven out of their homelands in the state of Georgia by the US government to make room for more European settlers , a forced march known as the 'Trail of Tears'. This bean is one of their heirlooms they managed to keep with them and has been passed on from generation to generation ever since.

I heart Nikki McClure

I can't tear my eyes away from Nikki McClure's beautiful artwork.

I love the way she elevates the everyday into something sublime and celebratory. Like this, and and this, and oh my this.

So beautiful. I want them all.

Wordless Wednesday

Solidago canadensis

Goldenrod: "The oil or liniment makes a fabulous and very effective topical treatment for any sort of hurt, strained or damaged muscles."

This is the oil and liniment together. Yep, it works a treat.

Populus balsamifera

"Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?" ~Jeremiah 8:22

Two days in a row of heavy wind and intense thunder storms this week caused a bit of damage across the city including power outages, flooding and fallen trees. Luckily I only suffered minor flooding in my humble basement apartment and the trees in the park next to my house held up well. We did lose quite a few balsam poplar (also known as Balm of Gilead) branches.

Cutting through the park after work yesterday I noticed poplar buds all over the downed branches. The branches, buds and all came home with me and I spent a bit of time in the backyard this afternoon popping the buds off for tincturing.

At this time of year they're not nearly as deliciously sticky and aromatic as the buds I gathered in late winter and the medicine from them will be correspondingly milder. Still, they smell oh so heavenly and I can't wait to see how the tincture turns out!

The 6 to 8ft tall branches I was left with will eventually get used as plant supports in the garden.

Herbalist Ryan Drum has this great post on the harvesting, preparing and uses of poplar buds.

The Pickle Crock

"Fermentation generally requires only a little preparation or work. Most of the time that elapses is spent waiting...Many ferments get better the longer you leave them. Use this time to observe and ponder the magical actions of invisible allies." ~Wild Fermentation, Sandor Ellix Katz



Tending the pickle crock takes a calm and watchful eye, a sense for transformation, patience and a little faith.

Tending the pickle crock requires testing and experimentation, but this is not hard science, nor is it conducted in a sterile environment.

The pickle crock is a living breathing thing. To care for it is to enter into a relationship with microorganisms and become responsible for their well-being.

The tender of the pickle crock is an alchemist, nurturing the miracle of transubstantiation.

The pickle crock is as mundane and dull as skimming surface mold, yet sacred and eternal as primordial, salty brine.

Friday Night Low Light

Wordless Wednesday

Friday Night in the Garden

After the work is done,
after the tending, the weeding and harvesting,
after the work is done,
but before the mosquitoes come out,
there is time enough for this:
Time enough to light a candle or few,
sit back on a bale
and listen to the birds, the wind
and survey the garden
with a satisfied eye
in the falling light,
before gathering up the baskets,
packing up the bike
and cycling home
under a crescent moon.

Wordless Wednesday

Gold Bouillon Securities

I invest in gold.

It only cost pennies per ounce.

I keep it safe, in my freezer.

I make it myself.

This gold came from the water I blanched my spinach in. Then I threw in the spinach stalks and the stalks of kale I had saved from an earlier kale chip making venture.

This is the best kind of alchemy. The kind I can eat.

A To Do List

Harvest:
Lettuce
Spinach from meadow plot- blanch and freeze
Peas
Heartsease- tincture
Yarrow
Feverfew- make liniment
Grape leaves- preserve in brine
Roses- make elixir
Currants- make cassis