permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Lawrence,
I sincerely beg your pardon. I didn't stop to think that you might 
feel implicated. I didn't mean that at all and I apologize for any 
confusion.
The prospective "censor" I had in mind wasn't you but rather someone 
like my server 'Concast'.
Keith

On 11/15/2010 2:46 AM, Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
> On 11/14/2010 10:37 PM, Keith Johnson wrote:
> > Send failed. Trying again. This has happened MANY times in the last 
> > few months. Is anyone else having this problem?
>
> Let's see now...you appear to be subscribed to this list as:
> keithdj@mindspring.com with normal mail delivery options set
> ... which means that if you address an email to:
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> ...it will be received by the list host and posted to all subscribers
> ...so, did you follow that procedure?
> Are you spam filtering out mail from this list?
> Is your ISP spam filtering out email from this list?
> Do you operate your own computer or does someone else do it for you?
> Is there any reason you can't find out if the problem is on your end
> before spamming the list with accusations of censorship? Putting 
> "Censorship"
> at the beginning of your subject line would usually be considered 
> provocative
> and likely to generate a separate and useless thread all its own.
>
> There is no censorship going on in this list now and there will 
> never be unless someone starts
> another flamewar.
>
> The entire list is mirrored in two other locations which I have set 
> up, so I am concerned
> about the integrity of conversations that develop here.
>
> > The first 4 times I sent this to the list it never made it. Maybe 
> > it was because it had the word "guerilla" in the
> > subject line.
>
> There's no content filtration of messages based on words or phrases. 
> No point in that.
>
> Keep in mind that everything posted to this forum goes into the 
> message archives to remain there permanently. There
> is no provision to remove unwanted posts.
>
> > I never heard back from anyone about their own local "volunteer" 
> > crops, though I'm curious to compare notes.
>
> I think I remember seeing your post a while back and noting that it 
> should get good feedback.
> In fact, here it is:
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [permaculture] Encouraging "volunteer" crops in urban 
> landscapes
> Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2010 22:26:58 -0400
> From: Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>
> Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> To: Permaculture ibiblio <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>,    Plants 
> for a future list <pfaf@yahoogroups.com>
>
> In Bloomington, IN, there are lots of community gardens, a new 
> community
> orchard, urban farmers, farmers markets, university gardeners, local
> seed growers / sellers cooperation, increasing levels of garden / 
> farmer
> training and support.
>
> We don't have any "official" guerrilla gardening groups locally (that I
> know of) but as a seed saver I find myself thinking about all the 
> things
> in my garden that could grow on their own, or with little support, in
> wilder urban niches. I have in mind a diversity of plants with multiple
> yields and the creation of mixed seed / cutting collections of locally
> adapted, low maintenance, often self-sowing, occasionally high
> nutritional value, beneficial insect / bee / butterfly attracting,
> colorful, fragrant, sometimes perennial, economically valuable,
> nitrogen-fixing, wildlife food / habitat, and mineral-accumulating 
> types
> of plants that could also partially self-employ those who establish /
> manage / harvest them.
>
> Maybe a tall order but doable, I think..
>
> A few of the plants that would lend themselves to some neglect under
> less-cared-for conditions in  my local (going on zone 7 [was zone 5  25
> years ago]) list include (in no particular order)
>
> amaranth,
> magenta lamb's quarters,
> cilantro,
> dill,
> carrot (especially the cosmic red and purples which bloom in rosy pinks
> and are swarmed by beneficials),
> walking or Egyptian onion,
> leek,
> chard,
> lettuce,
> radish,
> ground cherry (Physalis spp.), tomatillo,
> broom corn (Sorghum),
> wheat,
> long beans,
> lablab beans (hyacinth bean),
> sunflowers,
> balsam impatiens (I grew them as understory in the asparagus and
> scattered through the garden and they shaded out weedy competition
> beautifully, butterflies and pollinators love them, simple and
> effortless to weed),
> cup plant (Sylphium),
> indigo (Indigofera tinctoria [polygonaceae], I have white- and
> pink-flowered types of this beautiful blue-dye plant that self-sow in
> the greenhouse and outdoors);
> the moschata branch of the cucurbits (solid stem, borer resistant) and
> includes tromboncino, butternut and others;
> orach (Chenopodium),
> motherwort (careful, succeeds easily in poor soil),
> celosias (very elegant, colorful and beneficial hosts),
> garlic (plant cloves or bulbils),
> field / winter / Austrian peas,
> kale,
> collards,
> senna (short woody, N-fix, bee forage, yellow flowers for 1-2 months),
> baptisia (blue, yellow and white varieties, perennial, N-fix),
> Amorpha fruticosa ("false indigo", bee forage, fodder, mulch, N - 
> highly
> recommended),
> cherry tomatoes,
> buckwheat,
> liatris,
> hollyhocks,
> zinnias,
> marigolds,
> hibiscus,
> sweet potatoes,
> stonefruit,
> paw paws,
> service berry (from seed and side shoots),
> currant / gooseberry (from cuttings),
> thornless blackberries and
> che fruit (melon berry / Chinese mulberry, fig / mulberry family, 
> can be
> grafted onto wild Osage orange [Maclura]).
> Apples could be grafted onto crab apples and hawthornes, pears on to
> ornamental pears.
>
> What would your local lists look like?
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
>
>
> Any groups like these (below) happening in your regions?
> (Snip) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_gardening
> Greenaid
>
> Greenaid is a Los Angeles based organization founded in 2010 by Daniel
> Phillips and Kim Karlsrud of Common Studio. The organization converts
> vintage gumball machines to dispense seedbombs, a combination of clay,
> compost and region-specific seeds. Once dispensed, seedbombs are tossed
> or planted in any area that may benefit from wildflowers. Greenaid
> partners with business owners, educators and citizens to distribute
> seedbomb vending machines in various communities worldwide. With
> region-specific seedbomb mixes, Greenaid aims to integrate and beautify
> rather than disrupt traditionally bland urban areas such as sidewalks
> and highway medians. In July 2010, Greenaid received $10,398 in funding
> from the Kickstarter community. This funding will be used to spread the
> initiative to new locations and support current operations.
> Utah
>
> In Northern Utah, apple trees commonly grow along the banks of canals.
> Asparagus grows along the smaller ditch banks. Many of these plants 
> were
> seeded 150 years ago by the workers who dug the canals, by burying 
> their
> lunch apple core in the freshly dug soil or by surreptitiously 
> spreading
> seeds along a new ditchbank. Guerrilla gardening continues today, as
> individuals secretly plant fruit trees, edible perennials, and flowers
> in parks, along bike trails, etc. Some guerrilla gardeners do so for 
> the
> purpose of providing food. For example, the Tacamiche banana plantation
> workers in Honduras illegally grew vegetables on the abandoned
> plantation land, rather than leave with the plantation's closure in 
> 1995.
> Pure Genius!!
>
> One high-profile example of guerrilla gardening took place in May 1996,
> when about 500 activists affiliated with The Land is Ours, including 
> the
> journalist George Monbiot, occupied 13 acres (53,000 m2) of derelict
> land belonging to the Guinness company on the banks of the River Thames
> in Wandsworth, South London. Their action aimed to highlight what they
> described as "the appalling misuse of urban land, the lack of provision
> of affordable housing and the deterioration of the urban environment."
> A community grew up on the site called "Pure Genius!!" (named after the
> Guinness advertising slogan). They lived there for five and a half
> months before being evicted.
> Have på en nat
>
> Later, on 1 July 1996, Have på en nat ("Garden in a night") was made by
> the Danish Økologiske Igangsættere ("Organic starters").
>
> An empty piece of land in the middle of the city at Guldbergsgade in
> Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark, was transformed into a garden in a 
> single
> night. About 1000 people took part in the project.
> May Day 2000
>
> On May Day 2000, Reclaim the Streets organised a mass guerrilla
> gardening action in Parliament Square, London. After a carnivalesque
> procession with a samba band and a Critical Mass bike ride from Hyde
> Park, thousands of guerrilla gardeners occupied the square and planted
> vegetables and flowers. A maypole was erected, around which many of the
> gardeners danced. Banners hung in the square reading "Resistance is
> Fertile" (a pun on futile), "Let London Sprout", "Capitalism is Pants",
> and "The Earth is a Common Treasury for All", the latter being a quote
> from the seventeenth-century Digger Gerrard Winstanley. An Indymedia
> public access terminal was set up in the new allotment, and the statue
> of Winston Churchill was given a green turf mohican. The perpetrator 
> (an
> ex-British soldier) was fined for his vandalism of the Churchill 
> statue.
> International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day 1 May
>
> In 2007 guerrilla gardeners in Brussels, known as The Brussels Farmers
> [2], declared 1 May International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day.
> This is a day in which guerrilla gardeners around the world plant
> sunflower seeds in public places within their neighborhood (in practice
> this event is limited to regions of the northern hemisphere where the
> climate and season are most appropriate). Participants in that first
> year included Brussels, London and Bordeaux. Every year since then the
> occasion has gained momentum and been promoted through the
> GuerrillaGardening.org network and in 2010 more than 5000 signed up to
> take part.
> Leaf Street Community Garden
>
> Leaf Street is an acre of land in Hulme, Manchester, England, that was
> once an urban street until turfed over by Manchester City Council. 
> Local
> people, facilitated by Manchester Permaculture Group, took direct 
> action
> in turning the site into a thriving community garden.
>
> Abahlali baseMjondolo
> The South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo has
> planted gardens in a number of their affiliated settlements[8], such as
> the Kennedy Road settlement.
>
> GuerrillaGardening.org
> GuerrillaGardening.org was created in October 2004 by Richard Reynolds
> as a blog of his solo guerrilla gardening outside Perronet House, a
> neglected council block in London's Elephant and Castle district. At 
> the
> time, his motivations were simply those of a frustrated gardener 
> looking
> to beautify the neighborhood, but his website attracted the interest of
> fellow guerrilla gardeners in London and beyond, as well as the world's
> media. Reynolds's guerrilla gardening has now reached many pockets of
> South London, and news of his activity has inspired people around the
> world to get involved. He also works alongside other troops, some local
> and some who travel to participate. He has also guerrilla-gardened in
> Libya, Berlin and Montreal. Today, GuerrillaGardening.org is still his
> blog but also includes tips, links and thriving community boards where
> guerrilla gardeners from around the world are finding supportive 
> locals.
> His book, On Guerrilla Gardening, which describes and discusses 
> activity
> in 30 different countries, was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 
> the
> UK and USA in May 2008."Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto" by David
> Tracey has accounts of community garden leaders and public officials.
> "Guerrilla Gardening: How to Create Gorgeous Gardens for Free" by
> Barbara Pallenberg is a how-to on gardening that was "everything you
> wanted to know about gardening but were afraid to ask"
>
> Early on Saturday, April 26, a team of volunteers installed forty-nine
> small birdhouses along the entire length of Hanover Avenue in the Fan
> District of Richmond, Virginia. They were built from untreated lumber
> and were specifically sized to provide a safe haven for some of
> Richmond's local songbirds, including wrens, blue birds, and finches,
> from the unwelcome non-native species such as the Starling and the
> European Barn Swallow.
>
> Additionally, the guerrilla gardening movement has been catching on in
> Richmond, Virginia. In 2006, Style Weekly reported an act of guerrilla
> gardening in an alley off Hanover Avenue adjacent to the new 
> birdhouses.
> Also, a group called Tricycle Gardens has begun the reclamation of
> blighted urban spaces in some of Richmond's poorest neighborhoods. 
> Their
> efforts are bringing locally grown food and a better understanding of
> the interconnectedness humans have with nature to the city.
>
> The volunteers who installed the birdhouses have asked members of the
> community to tend the houses in the fall once the breeding season is
> complete. The houses have been designed with a hinged right panel for
> easy cleaning.
>
> Kew Bridge Eco Village, London, England
> In July 2009 land rights activists moved on to a derelict piece of land
> near Kew Gardens in West London. Kew Bridge Eco Village is a small
> community of squatters who have grown vegetables and built basic wooden
> dwellings on the land.
> Guerrilla gardening in Australia
>
> Guerrilla gardening is prominent in Melbourne where most of the inner
> northern suburbs have community vegetable gardens; land adjoining rail
> lines has undergone regeneration of the native vegetation, including
> nature strips. There are a few minor disputes between guerrilla
> gardeners in Melbourne, with most falling into one of two groups: those
> concerned most with native planting and those concerned most with
> communal food growing. However, people with differing opinions still
> work together without dispute.[14]
>
> There is a small community group in Melbourne called "Permablitz" who
> gather regularly to design and construct suburban vegetable gardens for
> free, in an effort to educate residents in Melbourne on how to grow
> their own food and better prepare them if/when food prices become too
> expensive.
>
> Australian Network 10's show Guerrilla Gardeners featured a team of
> gardeners who make over areas of council owned property without them
> knowing.

--

Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
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