our daily antidote to tipping-point anxiety –

our daily antidote to tipping-point anxiety here on appleturnover farm is a dose of gardening for resilience. middling winter is ideal for the sort of garden work that is particularly future-facing: propogating plants, plenty of them, to grow a food forest worthy of countering our collective dependence on fossil fuels and increase our food security. it is an act of profound creativity, not only in preparing material to plant more trees, but to feed ourselves in a manner that sidesteps industrial agriculture. we do this best within a community-minded culture, a sharing economy. the little nursery would like to demonstrate.

in the dormant season, as we potter about pruning, we cut young branches to create new plants. our dear sweet friend moe invited our permaculture group to collect plantlife from his farm, an act of generousity that’s really needed now. eager gardeners piled into one van, rendering it the most efficient vehicle on the road that day. with secateurs, paper tape, pencil for labeling sticks, a repurposed spray bottle of alcohol, liberally spritzed on pruning tools to prevent spreading disease, all one needs is a bit of self-control, not to propogate more plants than we can care for! propogation is as giddy a form of reproduction as any.

my mother first taught me to propogate cuttings, but i may have been distracted at the time. my own children are passionate gardeners. the younger scribed labels first on paper, then with grease pencil on reused pots filled with our local compost. moe showed us how to cut a length of branch at an angle above a bud, rub off the lower buds, scrape the base of the cutting to reveal lively green cambium, then push the stick to the bottom of the pot. we cut up branch of willow into a watering can and left cuttings to soak, then watered the pots with it too. willow water is excellent rooting hormone. we need more of these local solutions.

we’ll draw mulch around these pots to keep moisture in, and water them daily til the autumn rains return and they’re ready to be planted out. our nurseries are popping with goumi, black locust, sea buckthorn, elder, red and black currant, aronia, gooseberry, blueberry, hazels, honeysuckle, lilac, flowering currant, rose. we have mulberry and an almond to graft, and soon we must sort through the seed library, but that is the work of another day. the propagations of winter fill us with hope for an abundant future.

here’s a tiny film i made that demonstrates the process.

and if you missed it, the short documentary made by a team of filmmakers at appleturnover, on neighbourliness and the necessary shift i am making toward a sharing economy based on community-supported action, is out. i love the comments coming in! thank you!

‘small work,’ a short documentary

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Jan 21

at last, here is the short documentary that a team of filmmakers made one day last spring about my work here at appleturnover farm.

with so much gratitude for the support this community provides for my writing and image-making! your comments, your shares, they matter so much, and your paid subscriptions truly go the distance. i’m so excited to be able to sustain new projects in-the-works. thank you ♡彡