Tag Archives: water

Field Tree Seeding (Hazels and Hickories) – April 06, 2020

The surplus of my Winter 2020 seed stratification is going toward the seed bank of this back field as it rewilds. I had planted around 80 shagbark hickories and 800 hybrid hazelnuts in air prune beds earlier this Spring. The field section being planted was mowed Summer 2019 and most of the field has been hayed for years in the past.

These seeds serve as a subtle bump toward hazels and hickories in the decades to come for this forest. The potential of these seeds will be supported by my attention and selective-removal or support for certain species as ecosystem succession brings this field through the stages of life. In adjacent sections I’ve broadcasted and planted some black walnut seeds [and later on planted acorns], and I’ll continuing building the seed bank of useful ‘provision’ trees as this area reforests. In this area, I’m aiming for low-input food forest restoration.

Photos and a video from this workday field planting trees from seed are shown below. As I work out a system for sharing photos and videos, I appreciate feedback on viewing options!

  • Full moon over meadow
    Planting set sun set
  • Hickories and hazels for field planting
    Hickories and hazels for field planting
  • Sprouting hazels
    Sprouting hazels
  • Red hawk soaring on tree line
    Red hawk soaring on tree line

Hand-Dug Earth Works at Edible Acres, Guided by Time & Observation

In this video, hand-tool powered earth works is used to make ponds throughout a landscape. Rather than use an A-frame and topo maps to lay out the excavations, time and careful observation guides engagement in the process, as Sean describes shortly into the video embedded above. Water and topography go hand-in-hand to describe and guide each other.

Taking a slow and deeply observant approach to interacting with Nature harmoniously is reminiscent of the TEK practiced by indigenous peoples, such as in tropical Mayan agroforestry. The human-scale care full engagement with land lends itself to the momentum of the forest. There are not a lot of examples left of this close-to-Earth approach, but thankfully life begets life and every lifeboat, ladder and lamp helps.

Watershed Restoration Agriculture

Everyone is connected to the land by some degree. And how does each being at each degree feel along the way, how is each life enriched or degraded? Best yet, living in mutual benefit.

Nice to see Stroud Water Research Center continue their great work implementing agricultural Best Management Practices with trees and water management, to regenerate rather than degrade ecosystem services.

Watershed restoration highlighted in Stroud Water Research 2018 Annual Report

Watershed restoration on a Pennsylvania farm highlighted in Stroud Water Research 2018 Annual Report

(Those pruning clippers serve well as a few things, including a paper weight!)

cr0 – A Group (Lyrics & Instrumental, Rendition Not Recorded)


A group of musicians merges
Making the most of what each of them brings to the coast,
To float, to coast, to roast yet also to regenerate
1&1 fate come together
I & I makin moves with the weather
Of the crowd, of the loud, of the soft, of the
…
Group of musicians coming together
Makin the best of what each of them got to get off of their chest
Empty one cup just to fill another
Keepin’ the water cyclin’
Fixin’ Nitrogen like lightenin’
And so the music moves, to the grooves of the
…
Group of soils come together
Aggregated action as ecological agriculture gains traction
1 & 1 fate come together
I & I makin moves with the weather
Of the crowd, of the loud, of the soft, of the
…
Group of farmers come together
Trailin’ trees for the Golden Tether
Making the most of what each of them brings to the coast,
To float, to coast, to roast yet also to regenerate
…
A group of people emerges

Shiitake Emerging On Their Own: 1st Harvest from 1st Inoculation, and Next Steps

A year and a half later, mushrooms are popping out of logs here and there 😀
 
I’ve just begun ‘shocking’ a few logs in cold water overnight, which will lead to a lot more shiitakes soon. Something unique about shiitakes is their ability to have fruiting forced out of them with sudden changes in temperature, such as an ice bath. Over the next week, I expect they’ll produce all the mushrooms they can for now, and then they’ll go dormant for another couple of months (or over winter) before they can fruit again. After I see how this first batch of shocked logs goes, I’ll shock the rest of them (we did a couple dozen though I think some in one of the test locations got too dry to fruit).

For more on harvesting the first flush, check out the post “First Shocked Shiitakes, First Flushed Fruits!“
Thanks 2
Forest to fruit
with a chipmunk to boot!
Trees for the birds nd flowers for the bees
Many a Wonder for you and for me
Wood, Wildlife, Water, Wange (Rangeland, as in land for livestock to live on symbiotically), Wecreation (Recreation)
Flourishing five Ecosystem $ervices like
Food, Fiber, Fuel, Fodder (Animal Feed), and Fun
I&I on the up&up, One Love growing under the Sun
Suited to succession, let inspiration teach a lesson in direction
On & on to the next section (LVX)

What is the way? (Thanks to water; aquatic revelations)

Somewhere in between hating privatization & profit based bottled water,

and mistrusting bureaucratic and antiquated public water works,

it is too easy to forget that

If there is anything sacred in this world, it is water.

We are incredibly fortunate, privileged per se, to be in a place where water is readily available for drinking which will not cause you any immediate or even probable-future dis-ease.

~

News alerts got 1 riled, isolation distracted

Co-existing with the facts [shift] tactics like magic

Try the middle way