I had a great time at the "Your Natural Garden" Symposium this past Saturday. Thanks to all who came out to hear the presentations. My talk about "Natural Community Gardening" is now available on the web by clicking on this link. For some reason, when I uploaded the presentation it put the last slide first- just scroll to the bottom and go up to see the presentation in order. If you have any questions about the presentation, or anything I might have mentioned during my talk or during the workshop conducted by myself and Doug Tallamy, please feel free to post comments on this blog or send an e-mail to sbloodwo@duke.edu.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
A word about this past weekend...
We had a great lecture/seminar series this past weekend with Toby Hemenway from Portland, Oregon. As you will have read if you've been following the blog lately, Toby is a permaculture designer/teacher/writer who travels a good bit spreading the gospel of this great discipline of sustainable agriculture. I mentioned his book Gaia's Garden in the earlier post, and wanted to take the opportunity to name a few other volumes of interest on Permaculture:
Edible Forest Gardens by David Jacke
Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison et. al.
more rain today... I think I have moss growing on me.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Hey!
I forgot to mention a book that I like in my next-to-last post. Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon is an intersting read for those who never took botany, or if you did, you've since forgotten alot of what you knew. I don't know anyone like that, no way....
Anyway..., it has a great chapter relating to our last "Walk on the Wild Side" on seeds and germination that then leads right into a discussion of how plant tissues grow into mature plants and so on and so forth.... Check it out!
It's snowing again! It's 7:00 a.m. as I write this, and I can imagine my boys at home looking out the window and praying to the gods of school closings while repeating the mantra "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...."
A note about the blog..
In the coming weeks you may notice a change. I'd like to go beyond simply reporting the news, as it were, and create an ongoing narrative of my opinions and observations about the experience of working so closely with these miracles we call native plants. Things I will avoid are
1) Observations that are overtly partisan in relation to things like politics/religion/Duke vs. UNC, 2) critical comments directed at other human beings, and 3)whining/complaining/moaning/groaning of any sort (unless I haven't had my coffee yet, in which case all bets are off).
I really enjoy writing, and I hope if you enjoy something you read here (or do not) you'll let me know. I can't thank you, my two readers, enough for your support to this point. Keep reading! I promise I'll say something interesting one of these days!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Holy frozen precipitation Batman! When will it melt?!
We had a great walk in the Blomquist Garden today. Twelve or so intrepid attendees braved the cold and the paths of half-frozen slush to listen to a discussion about what it is that brings plants out of their winter dormancy and makes them push up through the cold soil to reach the sun. If you attended and want to recap, or if you are simply interested, here are a number of links to articles covering topics similar to those we discussed today. Enjoy!
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