propagation types & site planning

The Art & Science of Fruit Culture, Day 8
March 29, 2011
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The first half of class today, we talked about different types of propagation. Stem-cutting, leaf-cutting, root cuttings, auxiliary buds, how to grow rootstock on a stool-bed. I feel like a toddler who has just uploaded the entire dictionary into her brain and who know has to go and try to use all the words. I am excited about what all we are learning, but I wish I had an extra lifetime handy to take a minute to learn and experiment with all this knowledge I have been exposed to for these one and a half weeks. I look forward to 4 week classes again. I wish this class was for weeks. And I wish it was warm right now. Like a little green shoot, I am feeling confused with the weather. Last week it warmed enough to allow me to walk barefoot around town, and now it is back to the cold, biting, go right through all your clothes wind, to snow again! every other day, freezing your face, temperatures in the 20s. I am the little shoot that sprouts at spring and then freezes over, thaws, then freezes over again. My energy is sluggish, and motivation low. This is one reason why some growers opt for greenhouses to grow their crops, to provide more optimal conditions, so that developing little plants don't get confused.

The second half of class we devoted to working on our final project in our small groups. We divided up and my group went to a table, Natasha rolling paper in front of us. Last night after our site-assessment of the entire Library/Sustainable Living building (SL Building, for short), I logged onto Google and pulled up a satellite aerial view of the SL building, blew it up, printed it and brought it to class. We started talking about our ideas while I sketched out the building and surrounding areas. What would grow better in the North side of the building? We didn't really know. Should we keep the current student plots in front of the entrance to the SL portion of the building? What should we put in the two huge circular beds in front of the wall of windows that is the hallway between the Library and the SL department? What is the role of a green wall? What do we do with the dirt if we terrace a slope? What is the best conditions for berries?...

The New SL Building, view from the current SL Building, Today

So many questions, these are just a few. After class I took myself on a second walk-around the SL building. It was interesting to have in my mind what we saw on the first site-assessment, and then to spend time in class today talking about some ideas for our plans and then to actually take another look at the site. I took a bunch of pictures. I saw some of our plans as working and perhaps some alterations on our preliminary plans. I definitely feel like to do a full comprehensive re-design of the landscape surrounding the SL building would take at least a few months--minimum; I can see how little a few days really is. I want to get to know the whole building, the total use of the building, and how much the use will change once the new SL Building opens across the way. I want to know how much car and bike parking is needed. What is the human foot-traffic like? How are the season changes like? Does the wind mostly blow from one direction? Can we just decide to drop a living roof on top of this building, or does the building need to be designed for the extra weight on top?

Another question that I thought of today: Is there really a formula for figuring out how much maintenance labor might go into maintaining a forest garden? Say one scalable unit of a forest garden equals one central element plus its proportioned amount of supporting plant guild... How much initial labor is involved in constructing one unit? How much continued labor? It seems like initial training of the fruit tree, making sure it grows properly for a year or two.. And then how much attention after that? Pruning once a year? If the idea is for the plant guild to provide the fertilizer and nutrition for the tree, wound this count for always? or would some plant nutrients and fertilizer be needed eventually?

All of these things are very interesting. I am interested in the social aspect of these designs--obviously how the initial labor and continued labor could be maintained... Typing this blog, I wonder if the forest garden constructed at the SL Building could attract some sort of summer internship program for high school kids who might be interested in learning about Sustainable Living.

So many questions and inspiring thoughts! How to make the most of what we have and how do we work with what we have? What new things can we create with what we have (food, energy, programs..)