College Experience, Human Experience, Broad Experience

         I hope my college experience will blend smoothly with my life experience and my life experience will be better if it bleeds into my experience as a tiny, connected part of the universe. If I roll out of college and feel as purposeful, fulfilled, and complete as I do now, then I will have a great college experience. Although I have witnessed and experienced many impractical, ineffective models of education, I have had amazing experiences in my educational process. Experiential learning is a model of education that works for me. Rather than sitting in lecture halls while the sun shines outside, or interacting with a computer interface, I prefer to learn with active hands. For me, the mind and heart engage significantly more when I actively experience something than when it is told to me. For this reason, my college experience would be better if I had more hands on experience.

         I feel so fortunate to have the resources available to me at the University. This weekend I was able to go to the KSL radio recording studio to be on the "Greenhouse" show. Georgie Corkery, a fellow garden steward and I were able to daylight our mission and projects as "farmtrepreneuers". Feeling ownership of something enough to be able to speak publicly about it, to me, signifies something truly exemplary in education.

My college experience should feel like a hike in the mountains - invigorating, refreshing, exhausting, and fulfilling. And, much like reaching the trailhead at the end of the day, it should be a reward in and of itself- to be drawn on in days, weeks, months and years to follow. 

Synopsis: Sipping the Season Slowly

I sit, sipping clove green tea from a smooth black mug. I like drinking tea to reflect. There is something inherently comforting about the sensation, but also probing, pensive and exploratory. As I let a sip of the spicy, energizing substance slip down my throat, I think about self-discovery. How have I come to this point in my little existence and how has this class sculpted my experience?

"What am I doing?" I sometimes think to myself. "Why am I spending so much time working on this problem?" At times, I feel a deep inner turmoil, a feeling of inadequacy that lingers like eating fresh raspberries and biting into a Hemiptera bug. Or being aware that a friend is in need of help. Or sweltering in anomalously high temperatures that you know will only increase from here. 

What I have realized in this class however, is that turmoil is a good thing. It shows that there is something that needs to be solved. As the problems of the world rage, we cannot continue to blindly work under the systems that are already in place. If there is inner turmoil, there is a reason to change, because that intuition is a reflection of an external reality. This class gives structure to recognize where internal conflict exists and provides the tools to make external adjustments. I have realized that my work needs to go deeper. When I feel those lingering feelings of dissatisfaction, I need a way to innovate something new. There is a fine balance to be struck between intuition and innovation. As we navigate the structures in place, we can patiently find solace in a cup of green tea and work out the inconsistencies one inch at a time. 

More biking, more food forests, more edible landscaping and more rabbits!

I am relaxing after a bike ride to the top of City Creek Canyon this morning. The sun streams through the window and the smell of burnt artichoke permeates the air around me. I forgot about the artichokes because I was on the phone with Ray Wheeler, a city planner interested in greening the Jordan River Parkway corridor. Almost 200 acres of golf courses in the Glendale area are slated to transform into something else this year. It is up to us, up to now, to determine what happens to them. Ray got in touch with me through Ashley Patterson of Wasatch Community Gardens and my landlord, Hans Ehrbar. Ray is interested in food forestry and rewilding river systems. I do not blame him. Getting involved in a project this large (25 acres of restored wetland, community gardens, and food forests all accessible along the Jordan River Parkway) is an incredible opportunity. There is little that excites me more than the prospect of Salt Lake City developing its own public food forest, much like Seattle's Beacon Food Forest. There are small precedents throughout the city, such as the Day-Riverside Library eco-garden and the Green Urban Lunchbox, but nothing on the scale of what Ray is proposing. 

When I think about this project, it makes me feel excited. I want to get the message out and get plants in the ground. I think that starting out by filling the garden planters with edibles at the Sustainability Resource Center will allow a degree of familiarity that will be followed by the installation of a planter box. For the time being, I think that I will apply for just enough funding to buy a few bags of compost and the appropriate species for the space. 

In other news, Cumin the mama rabbit had her first litter of baby bunnies! Born this afternoon while we were on the mountain. For now, they are pink nubs buried in Cumin's plucked fur. But in the weeks to come, they will develop into furry cuddlers!

Passover with a lunar eclipse Easter Sunday

No matter the season, gardens are always ripe with life lessons and philosophical food for thought. As Spring pops out of every crevice and sprouts in the sunshine, amazing things happen. Greens thrive, garlic matures, and seeds germinate. Reseeded parsley sprouts from the garden paths, having escaped from the confines of the box beds. With Passover upon us, parsley hearkens to the bitter herb dipped in salt water - the bitterness of slavery and the tears shed thereafter. But it's not the parsley that brings tears to my eyes. Bindweed is a noxious weed. Roots dormant throughout winter are coming back to life and faster than you can shake a digging tool, the delicate green leaves consume pathways and garden beds. Keeping on top of bindweed is a Sisyphean task.  

 Sometimes I need help pulling bindweed. I often have to remind myself that I am not responsible for pulling all the bindweed, for bringing an end to war, climate change, homophobia, and indigenous degradation. Projects are supported by communities and everybody carries the burden of bitterness and feelings of powerlessness. But it is through that knowledge of adversity that we are inspired to make change, to pull bindweed together, to eat saltwater-drenched parsley in communion, and to know that we can ask for help when we need it.  

                                          

Growing Spring Thoughts

I would love to extract the clarity of my thought processes and ideas and put them in a format that people could understand, use, and participate in. Skills are simply methods of expressing these ideas and mastering skills means expert, succinct expression of these ideas. I aspire to manifest my ideals of self-sufficiency and environmental and social justice through this project, applicable even on the small scale. 

I strive for a basic sense of connectedness, justice, and satisfaction that comes from being close to the food source. I believe that understanding nature creates a deep sense of ingenuity, and proactivity. If you can remember that food comes from soil, water and sunshine, you have limitless power to transform. If it means breaking up asphalt to access the soils underneath or rerouting rain gutters to nourish an herb garden, then so be it. No matter the neighborhood you grew up in or education you received, there is hope in garlic sprouting out of the straw mulch and peach blossoms in the sunshine. Having the power to change systems and make them grow food would

here is hope in garlic sprouting out of the straw mulch and peach blossoms in the sunshine.

Refreshed Perspective

            I feel a flood of tingly gratitude for the wealth of adventures I was showered with last week. I feel rejuvenated with fresh perspective and brightly alive with realized potential. I traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest, staying with old friends and making new ones. I found myself constantly in awe of the emotions conjured by being in old places seen with new eyes. I found myself beyond delighted to be with companions, and even more tickled at the luxury of alone time to assess, sift, and explore myself. I will share a few snapshots and let your imagination take the rest:



         Beacon Food Forest is located on Beacon Hill in South Seattle. It is a public park managed by the people of Seattle. All of the plants in the park are edible public domain. There are monthly Saturday work parties which usually host upwards of 150 volunteers. Fruit trees, berry bushes, perennial edible greens and herbs, and even edible fungi are cultivated in this urban city park for anybody to indulge! I found myself spreading bark mulch, pruning, and turning compost in exchange for aromatic bunches of sorrel, oregano, kale, spinach, mint, and collard greens. If that's not an inspiration for the edible landscaping at the University of Utah, then I don't know what is!

      Plants are a source of light. Even though a thick layer of cloud cover usually graces the Olympic Peninsula, there is a sense of light everywhere where the moss can sprout and the trees can send down roots. It seems to me that the light that emanates from plants creates a subtly healing environment, whether you are aware of it or not. I had the opportunity to stay in our family's shared beach cabin on the Quinalt Reservation close to the Hoh Rainforest. The smell of ocean salt, fir tree bark, rich soils, and sweet green vegetation fill the air. The steady breath of the ocean creates a whispering undertone to all things said, thought, and witnessed here.

    As I progress into my next steps for the edible landscaping project, I feel ready. I feel animated and inspired to integrate the urban environment with the healing properties of nature. And that is the very essence of this project. I met with facilities yesterday. They agreed to take on the irrigation for the edible landscaping plot because it melds nicely with another of their projects. Facilities is highly efficient, controlled and precise. Grounds folks get things done. Working with them has given me huge insight into how these systems function. It makes the vision of a perennial edible landscape shimmer into perspective in a way that I do not necessarily see at the level of my normal academic projects. Compost, a few dozen plants, and a steel planter box, all tucked in with irrigation becomes a simple process, achievable and exciting. 

Sustaining though Design

is a film about good design and how it can manifest change.
As I was designing the edible landscaping plot outside of the Sustainability Resource Center, I was thinking about design. Gardens are inherently mutable. They are growing, alive. They need attention. In this way, there is something to be said for designing a water-wise garden with few inputs such as fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, and heavy water use. However, even the most hands-off design needs maintenance. Such is the nature of domestication. As I was setting up meetings with staff at the Sustainability Resource Center, I was thinking about it as product designing. A garden is a highly social product, just as malleable as it is physical form. Gardens need attention and care. Even if  that care is minimal: in this case, harvest and pruning.

This is what the landscape would look like without human intervention: sagebrush and sand. I have boiled it down to this: in order to have an aesthetic, intentional landscape used by the campus community, I am trying to design the smallest amount of necessary input in order to achieve the highest and best outcome. Like a native ecosystem, this plot should exemplify self-sufficiency and low water use. However, in order to make the best use of an important, currently unused, public space, implementing some maintenance is acceptable in return for exemplary food security.

Landscape of Dreams, Harnessed, Implemented, Maintained

The Landscape is dry, gray, and wintry, although the season has been unpredictably warm and Springy. My thoughts wander to garden planning, crops to plant now so that we will be able to harvest them in months to come. The herbaceous shrubs and crocuses are greening up in landscaping areas across the city. I dream of those landscaping plots converted to low-maintenance, colorful, edible enhanced ecosystem-mimickers! These are places where people can come together to share common abundance of resources. As I dream, I plan. I measure. I discuss and design. The meeting last week provided a boost of information and access to amazing resources.

This week I hope to pull together design iterations, compile resources and calculate costs. Soon enough, the soils will support roots and vertical structures will provide lab space for the curious and creative minds in this place.

Progress Report

Today I met with three women experienced in the field of landscaping and groundskeeping. Sue Pope, Director of Grounds at the University, Marcene Younker, expert of the University's outdoor garden plan, and Michelle Cook, Red Butte Garden Specialist.

When we had planned this meeting, we had agreed to host it at the "visitor center". I assumed it was the campus visitor center in the Union Building, but after waiting for 8 minutes with no landscapers to be seen, I called Sue and learned that they had all gathered at the Red Butte Gardens visitors center. It took about 20 minutes to bike the circuitous route to the garden center, a brutal reminder of the severe lack of clear paths through campus and Fort Douglas. When I finally arrived, it was to a spacious, well-ventilated roomful of thriving plants. The three women stood in front of a tapestry-like living wall, observing it like a Georgie O'Keefe masterpiece. Sue gave me a reassuring side-hug as I convened with the group. I felt 30 minutes of anxiety dissipate as everybody introduced themselves and we started in talking about the edible landscaping project.

Three main items came to light.

1. Pocket-style vertical garden planters are extremely expensive and high maintenance, especially outdoors. They are also not very edible-friendly. Although they make aesthetic gardens and are a great demonstration, I am tentative to jump into a commitment like this so soon.

The alternative that came out of today's discussion was the agreement that a grape arbor would make a great alternative. Grapes take about 3 years to establish and start producing. Iconic examples of thriving grapevines grace neighborhoods across Salt Lake City.  Planting two grape plants with a climbing structure on the entryway to the Sustainability Resource Center, I think, would create a kind of Secret Garden appeal.

2. Plants: My initial list of plants was seriously assessed and advised by the trio of landscapers. The lowest-maintenance, water-wisest, highest producing, and most beautiful plants came out in a list looking like this:

Fruiting Shrubs:

Serviceberry

Grape

Herbaceous/Other Shrubs:

Rhubarb

Lavender

Sage

Small Herbs:

Thyme

Oregano

Flowers:

Echinacea

Daylilies

Yellow Sego Lily

Dwarf Rose (hips)

3. A contingency plan is imperative. I am in touch with Jen Colby, the Edible Campus Gardens Coordinator. Her reluctance to commit to a new project is almost as strong as Sue's. My temporary presence on this campus is important to the initiation of this plot, but after I leave, it needs to remain and sustain. I am designing for low-maintenance: watering once a week and public grazing to control harvest overflow. But to put Jen's mind at ease, I think that Grounds needs to stay involved as well. Right now, there are a few tall native grasses and Oregon Grape shrubs on site. These are pruned yearly. If Grounds can continue to prune the bushes and shrubs once a year, I think it will provide a continued connection with sustainability for them and be highly beneficial. 

This Black Soil, A Model of Resiliency in the Face of Adversity

The Bayview community existed in isolation from the rest of the developing world in a depressed state socially, environmentally and economically. Its transformation over the course of time was a radical change in all three of these interdependent spheres. The threat of something specific caused the uprising and empowerment of the community, which, in turn, changed the mentality of the community as a whole. The people became more socially empowered. The physical environment was much more amenable to comfortable living. The economy was bolstered by activity and the three spheres of sustainability were intact and progressing.

To begin, the community of Bayview is socially isolated. The community was established as a whole and it became a social expectation to live in poverty, without running water and many basic amenities. The social bubble effect was stifling to progress and impeded sustainable actions to enhance the community. When the community was threatened by the installment of a federal prison, they knew it would be a socially destructive force. Thus there was a move towards preserving the good in the community which created an awareness and a motion towards environmental improvement.

This leads to the next sphere of sustainability. Environmental events in the community of Bayview are especially impacting because, again, it is isolated. If a resource is over-harvested, then alternatives are scarce on an island. The nature of Bayview is its lack of accessibility and overall control. One natural tendency in a desperately isolated system is to exploit resources until they disappear. It appeared that this was the sad fate of Bayview’s natural resources until social action caused an influx of outside resources which boosted Bayview into a more steady state. With more infrastructure, and no prison to absorb all of the region’s resources, the community can now more effectively steward the land and its resources.

Finally, the economic sphere of Bayview was radically transformed as a result of (and along with) the enhancement of the social and the environmental spheres. Without the implementation of the federal prison, the community realized its own potential to create local revenue that would much more effectively support the community.

Environmental Justice is defined roughly as “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies”. Many communities are marginalized and exploited socially because their natural resources are sought after and cheap. This is exemplified specifically in Bayview. The title of the documentary, “The Black Soil” implies fertility and potential for growth, as well as exploitation. The film clearly portrayed the intended abuse of the community. This Black Soil is a perfect example of environmental justice in action.

Imagine each department with their own flowerbed...

The Sustainability Resource Center moved! Its last location in the oldest building on campus did not provide much awareness or accessibility. Now, the center is located on Commonwealth Avenue, across from Architecture and Planning. The location is close to the library and the main plaza. At the moment, this is what it looks like:

The landscaping is wearing its winter coat. The concrete is plain, and the space is unremarkable to say the least. However, as I stated in my last post, there is great opportunity for thriving edible landscape and creation of place here. At most, this whole landscaped area could be converted. The pre-existing bunching grasses and landscape trees could accompany berry bushes, herbal medicinals, flowering pollinators, and perennial vegetables. And at the very least, hanging vertical structures could liven up the entrance and provide aesthetic, healthy snacks for passers by. 

Hanging gardens could easily attach to these concrete poles and soak up all the floodwater that saturates in precipitation. 

These boxes have historically drained poorly and lead to flooding in the lower entrance area. Additional organic matter and living plants could eliminate these problems and utilize Utah's precious water with the respect it deserves. Redirecting rainwater is a large component of edible landscaping. Making a beautiful, artistic water catchment system piping into this garden could be a really great way to demonstrate the applied ethos of the SRC.

This Monday, I will be meeting with Myron Willson, the director of the SRC and Sue Pope, director of University of Utah grounds crew. Sue experiences pressure from all sides to make the campus look one way or another. An image of homogeneity and clinical cleanliness is the expectation for most large universities. But with principles of urban ecology and permaculture, the campus can be much more purposeful, attractive and sustainably interactive. 

The Flu

Last week, I got the stomach flu. Nothing will humble a body, weaken a mind, and desocialize a creature like the stomach flu. So unfortunately I missed one blog entry.

However, this week's recovery has resulted in revitalization. After much hydration, rest, and loving support, I'm back in the (bicycle) saddle again. The University of Utah campus is at a low hum. The city is enveloped in dense fog, and the House of Representatives passed the Keystone pipeline bill. There is much to be done.

Small-scale, grassroots projects are the life blood of Urban Ecology. But there are thousands of those and there is a threshold of overwhelm that people reach. Any given person trying to make a difference will ask themselves "Should I help out to the Urban Gardens Society? The Bike for Better Air Club? What about the Holistic Homeless Support Program?" Etc etc. There are so many organizations and projects doing wonderful things, but they often lack the platform to get the message out at all! Providing a space on the University of Utah campus for everybody and anybody to express their creativity, personality, and hard work is feeding a clear need. The idea of creating a kiosk for social engagement is one that fills me brimming with excitement. the potential is tremendous. It will mean a lot of coordination, communication, and skill, but I am confident that the result of such a project will be incredibly impactful.

I discovered a precedent for this kind of platform in Montreal that was tied closely to my own interests and passions. At McGill University, students were awarded for a design in edible landscaping. The edible crops planted in repurposed materials serve as a platform for teaching about progressive urban development and greening the system. The project has expanded to several areas on campus. They have served as a place to teach, learn, and relax.

At the entrance of the Sustainability Resource Center, there are large, underused planters and plenty of space to spruce up with thriving, low maintenance edible landscaping. It seems to me that this could be the ideal setting for a socially engaging kiosk.

Freeways in the USA

In a blog about Urban Ecology, it makes sense to start with Highways. Highways, in many ways, have defined the architecture and planning of the United States. Seeing cities of the 1950s artistically contrasted with the same cities post-highway development was a shock, insofar as to connect people with the impacts of highway expansion that we all face. The displacement of people from their homes in order to create a mega-fast freeway is obvious when considering the patterns and rates of industry in this country. As incentives to keep people moving faster have increased, community fabrics have been replaced by sprawling urban food deserts and industrial deserts. This phenomenon was displayed very clearly in the photo sliders.

We live in a country obsessed with Freedom. Freedom to drive where you want. The image of a freeway etched into a barren landscape is a quintessential emblem of "Freedom". The advertisements we see for cars (bigger, faster, stronger) are ubiquitous. Freedom is communicated via large chunks of steel zipping down asphalt strips in deserts. What is not shown in these commercials are the same freeways ripping apart communities and forcing families out of homes.

wonderfulengineering.com

There are ways to alleviate the detrimental effects of freeways on communities. In many urban areas where there are pre-existing underpasses, communities have made areas for commerce or recreation where zoning for housing is impossible. In addition, developers can put freeways in areas that are neither socially nor ecologically vulnerable using GIS mapping and modern census technology.