Monthly Archives: August 2015

Permaculture in Leipzig 1

PERIPATETIC, PERMACULTURE, PERTINENT

scything in Germany

Permaculture in Leipzig I

On a recent trip to Germany, my wife, Carol, and I decided to forgo the usual hotel/Gasthaus travel routine and test the alternative economy. In that economy people tend to live simply and earn their livings via multiple income streams—maybe, for example, raising most of their own vegetables, selling goat cheese, and holding a part-time job in the mainstream economy.  For us the question boiled down to:  What permaculturist will rent us shelter? 

The answer turned out to be Rainer Kühn, a charismatic and innovative leader in Leipzig’s very dynamic alternative economy milieu. Rainer has built an active web presence, both via Facebook and his own site, under the name of Rainer Blütenreich (which translates as “Realm of Blossoms” http://bluetenreich.jimdo.com/).  Like many on left in the former East Germany, he feels no nostalgia for the former dictatorship and its spy network (the much hated “Stasi”), but also has a deep skepticism of Western capitalism.  He has helped start Leipzig’s alternative currency, the Lindentaler, and is laying the groundwork for a future intentional community. Continue reading Permaculture in Leipzig 1 →

Tree Lawn Conversation

PERTINENT, POLLINATION, PRACTICE

I like to think of my tree lawn as chatting in a neighborly fashion with Jane’s, across the street.  Hers is wild and wooly, grown from seed, self-seeding. a haven for pollinators.  Mine is a bit more conventional, with plants native and otherwise, flowering and edible–aiming for eye-candy in all seasons. We are both a bit rebellious, the only ones on our block to have  transformed our tree lawns, so really we are more alike than different; different enough, though, to have a lively dialogue (see below for Eutrochium purpureum (Joe-Pye Weed)/Asclepias Incarnata  and Rudbeckia Maxima/Echinacea Paradoxa color correspondences)

jane and catherine pink jane and catherine yellow 2 

Did you know that it is only in Cleveland that the term “tree lawn” is used? In other cities  they may be called “hell strips,” or “devil strips.”  I like our term because it evokes some pleasant possibilities for greater greenery, bloomery, and a kind of reckless cheerfulness. Continue reading Tree Lawn Conversation →

Tree Lawn Conversation-Ann McCulloh Responds

PERTINENT, PRACTICE
GRASSY TREE LAWN
I see my treelawn as neighbor space. It doesn’t enhance the wildlife ecology or aesthetics of the street in ways that please me. (I try hard to accomplish that in the rest of my landscape.) But I live in a neighborhood where people love their dogs, walk their dogs, and, bless them, pick up after them. An important part of that happens on that little strip of grass under the shade tree in the tree lawn.
I have dozens of wonderful neighbors whom I’ve only met because they walk their dogs on my street and stop to say hello, or comment on my garden. I meet others because they need on-street parking, and appreciate a shaded, mowed area when they get out of their cars. Do I love the look of my conventional treelawn? Not really. But it’s a little sacrifice I offer in the name of community and sociability. And that’s a kind of ecology too.

High Summer

POETRY, Uncategorized

High Summer

It is not the noise of cicadas but that

other underlying sound    drone    that hum

as of the energy of many bees at work

in an unseen hive  …almost resonance   almost

vibration   almost palpable as it seeps through

the pores    into every living and non-living

core   In the thick heat the red daylilies turn

greasy…  sunflowers wilt…  the yet-to-bloom

phlox and actea weigh down from sound   Dirt

cracks   Dry meadow grasses tassel to seed   

Milkweed turns blossom to pod   One blood red

leaf from the black gum tree falls to ground

Overnight some peak   it seems   has come then

gone   …even as it arrives it’s leaving