Use the Edges & Value the Marginal

I had the pleasure of teaching Permaculture this semester for the first time. While I have always known a little about the philosophy, I had never fully researched its methods and theory. I think, going in, if you had asked my (very unformed) opinion about it, I would have said that permaculture was all about individual ‘things;’ things like hugelklultur, and food forests, and fruit tree guilds, and buildings made of straw or cob, and perennial plantings. And permaculture does incorporate all of those things, but I have discovered that it’s really so much bigger than any one ‘thing.’

Permaculture is actually a way of seeing the world. It uses systems thinking to solve practical problems. It works with nature, rather than against it. It observes, and enters in to the flow rather than manipulating. It values a set of ethics and principles which can be used in gardening but also in general life. Permaculture asks that we put the ideas of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share front and center; everything else we do leads from those. Once we do that, it’s easy to see what the next steps are.

All permaculturists agree with those three ethics, but they tend to waver a bit when it comes to the principles. This is natural. We each have our own principles when it comes to gardening, they are very personal. But when you’re the teacher, you’ve got to teach the originals. The founders of the method (Bill Mollison and David Holmgren) had a list that looked something like this:

The one that has intrigued me all semester is #11, Use Edges & Value the Marginal. This principle reminds me of the scientific word ‘ecotone,’ which I’ve written about before. An ecotone is simply an area of transition between two biological communities. For example, in California this might mean the edge between Grassland and Oak Woodland. These ecotones are biologically rich, having aspects of both communities in one place. I’ve said before that I consider my suburbs an ecotone, straddling both the city and the open space that surrounds it. These ecotones should not go to waste. They should be used.

But it’s not just the edges, it’s also the marginal. We often ignore the marginal in our society, whether it’s people and communities, or bugs and weeds. The most ‘seen’ things are often attractive, but don’t have the depth that the marginalized do. Of course, the marginal things are integral to the whole.

When I think about urban areas, I often think about edges. Hard edges. Walls, fences, sidewalks, streets, buildings, driveways. These edges have their challenges. But they also have a lot of promise and possibility; especially the areas between the hard and soft places. It’s useful to notice what survives there. What thrives there. Some plants actually prefer living on the edge.

For some reason (maybe it’s too close to dinnertime), I’m thinking about lasagna. Sure, the center is all soft and oozy, but the edges, where the heat of the pan meets the melty cheese and the doughy pasta, and crisps them up, is where all the flavors reside. It’s a tricky place and requires balance, but the interface between things is where the most interesting things happen.

You can also think of these edges as ‘liminal space.’ A threshold. A place neither in one world or another. A place where magical things can happen. It’s uncertain. Maybe even a little bit unsettling. It makes you stop and take notice instead of just skimming on past.

Zooming out into the big picture, these edges and margins can massively increase the biological health of our planet. Aesthetically and closer to home, they can soften the urban landscape and make for a more pleasant place to live.

Relevance

I took a trip this past weekend, on my own, to see some high school friends in my old hometown of Gaithersburg, Maryland. It was a whirlwind of activity - wonderful dinners, driving around the old neighborhood and trying to figure out where I was and where everything happened (this is where my dad guerrilla gardened under the power lines! this is the pool where I spent my entire summer! this is the place where I wrecked my bike and split my head open!).

One of my childhood homes

It was raining pretty much the entire weekend, and I was struck by all the water everywhere. Lakes, streams, creeks, ditches, all filled with water. Green lawns (many homeowners don’t even have irrigation systems), green pastures, leafy leafy leafy highway trees. Trees of all kinds we don’t see in California, or if we do, only as specimens in botanic gardens.

During the day, I was pretty much on my own, so naturally I went on a lot of hikes. One day, I went to a local park that I had visited many times as a child with my parents, and then as a teenager with my friends, Sugarloaf Mountain. It’s a rocky hill, not terribly high in elevation (Maryland has a lot of rolling hills - it’s not flat, but it isn’t ‘peaky,’ either), and when you’re young, big rocks are fun to scramble on. I had never hiked around the mountain, though, so I did that as well as go to the peak.

On another day, I went to Harper’s Ferry, which is just over the MD and VA borders in West Virginia, where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet. You might remember that this was the place of abolitionist John Brown’s raid on the national armory in 1859, which helped catapult the nation into Civil War. It was interesting to read all about that history, see the old buildings, walk a defunct railroad track, and hike up and down the rivers. The Appalachian and American Discovery trails both go through this area, so I did see some thru-hikers which was naturally a highlight for nerdy hiker me.

On yet another day, I went to the Maryland side of the Great Falls of the Potomac River, to walk along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O Canal), and this is where the title of this post comes in. The falls were spectacular, the amount of water astounding, the wildlife abundant, and my hike was great. The canal locks are fascinating as is the history of the canal itself, which runs for 185 miles and was constructed in the early 1800s as a way to move goods throughout the east.

I spent a good deal of time in the Great Falls Tavern visitor’s center. There were lots of exhibits featuring the history of the canal and honoring the people who envisioned it and built it. But one thing was conspicuously missing. There was no mention of the native peoples of this land, the indigenous communities that were removed in order for this land to be used for the expansion of capitalism and profit.

So I went to the ranger manning the center (he was probably in his early 30s) and said, “Maybe I’ve missed it somehow, but is there any information about the native peoples who lived, and presumably still live, in this area, and how they were affected by the canal?” The ranger paused a minute, then responded, “You can probably find that information online. We don’t keep it here because it is not relevant to the history of the canal.”

This came on the heels of a conversation I had with my friends the evening before. I’m not sure how it came up, but I asked them, do you know the native tribes who lived on the land you live on now? My friends are smart, worldly, learned. But they did not know. Do you know?

You may be asking at this point, IS this information relevant? I encourage you to think deeply about this. While you’re at it, think about why it might be especially relevant to have this information available in our country’s national parks, which host thousands of visitors every year, many of them children.

I do not claim to speak for Indigenous peoples, as I am not one of them; I come from European settlers who arrived in the late 1800s. But this issue is relevant to me personally because I am trying to understand how I can help right the wrongs of our history.

To that end, today I have spent some time contacting the Secretary of the Interior, the Director of the National Park Service, the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the C&O Operations Manager. I am doubtful if they will listen to my messages, read my emails, or even open the letter that I’ve just put in the mail. However, doing nothing is not an option.

New Honeybees

You might remember that we opened the hive a couple of months ago and found our large colony of bees had disappeared, except for a small cluster (and a queen) huddled near the front of the hive. We weren’t convinced they would survive, and they didn’t; I suppose it’s possible that they flew away in search of a better location, but mostly they perished. It’s been a wild spring, with a whiplash of temperatures, and neither the plants nor the insects seems to know how to behave these days.

Luckily, I had ordered a new colony from Mann Lake in Davis, and this past Saturday we took a long and rainy drive out to pick them up. Mann Lake is a huge, national operation, but we had never visited one of their stores before - it was a wonderland for beekeepers, with every possible piece of equipment on display. We picked up a few useful items like a new brush (used to brush the bees around softly when you’re elbow-deep in the hive) and some hop pellets for the smoker, but mostly we were there for the bees. We picked up a regular package of Italians, three pounds or so (which is about 3000 bees), with a queen and a can of sugar syrup to keep everyone satisfied while traveling.

It was raining when we got back home, and it’s ideal to install the bees late in the afternoon or just before dark anyway, so we put them aside while we did other chores. (It’s ideal to install a colony just before dark, so they aren’t tempted to fly away.) Earlier in the day I had spent some quality time cleaning out of the hive, scraping away a lot of the old wax and propolis, extracting some ants and washing away their tracks with mild, unscented, eco dish soap, and using some penafin on the hive legs, both to protect the wood and deter any ants who tried to climb up.

Finally, the raindrops slowed enough that Tom was able to install the colony. It always kills me that I can’t help with the bees anymore, but at least I can take pictures.

You can see that we’ve provided them with a jar of sugar syrup (1-to-1 ratio) since they don’t have any stored honey to eat and it’ll be a while before they can store anything they collect. There’s plenty of nectar and pollen available now that it’s getting warmer, but until they have some comb built, it won’t help them much.

Tom hung the queen in her cage between the bars; the opening to the cage is stuffed with a marshmallow-type candy, which the worker bees will eat. By the time they free her, they will be attuned to her pheromones and will not be tempted to slaughter her. Instead, a ‘hive mind’ will form, where all the bees are working as one. Honeybees are one of the few insects to do this; ants, wasps, and termites are the others. This is called ‘eusociality.’ It’s pretty fascinating.

I’ve been checking on the hive regularly and everyone seems to be doing exactly what they’re supposed to be doing; that is, drinking the syrup, orienting themselves to the hive entrance, and hopefully (inside where I can’t see it) building comb. This coming weekend, Tom will go in the hive again to remove the empty queen cage and check that everything is going according to plan. Meanwhile, it’s great to have a buzzing hive back at Poppy Corners. I love native bees, but it just doesn’t seem like a real garden without the honeybees.

Collecting nectar from our mock-orange tree

Beer Workshop

Tom’s teaching this workshop! Please RSVP if you’d like to attend.

Tomato Talk at Annie's Annuals in Richmond

From Annie’s website:

Tomatoes! From Garden To Table. A FREE talk with Elizabeth Boegel

Follow the tomato through its entire story arc from garden to table! Elizabeth will start with some history and botany of the tomato, then move into the different kinds of tomatoes and which ones are best for different microclimates and growing conditions. Elizabeth will also go through the process of prepping the soil and planting, how and when to trellis and prune, possible problems, the process of pollination and how to attract native pollinators, common myths of tomato growing, harvesting and preserving!

Elizabeth Boegel has been a suburban farmer in Walnut Creek for 20 years (Poppy Corners Farm), growing and preserving the harvest for her family, keeping bees and chickens, and regenerating the landscape to support the ecological health of the soil and the surrounding insects and animals. Elizabeth teaches classes in Urban Agroecology, Edible Landscaping, and Permaculture at Merritt College in Oakland, and has (along with her students) revitalized an abandoned urban farm on the far reaches of Merritt’s campus, growing enough surplus to provide all of the students with food for their families. Elizabeth is also an avid hiker and naturalist, and loves to spot snakes and tarantulas in her local open spaces.

ADMISSION: FREE

WHEN: Saturday, April 6th from 10:00am-11:00pm

WHERE: Annie’s Annuals, 740 Market Ave, Richmond, CA

Hope to see you there!