In the BookShed: Eco-yards

Posted on January 27, 2011 by

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Eco Yards: Simple steps to an earth-friendly landscape
Laureen Rama
New Society Publishers
March 2011

It was some kind of perfect timing that this book ended up in my mailbox when it did – particularly given the Urban Crow plan to strip our front yard this spring and re-landscape in a more “natural” kind of way. Laureen Rama’s book Eco-yards is full of practical information, tips and design advice for just our situation – people looking to get rid of non-productive, non-ecological lawn space and turn it into something ecologically and aesthetically greater.

According to Rama, “An eco-yard is a landscape — usually the grounds around a home or a building — with a full, rich ecosystem that is healthy and alive. At the very least, an eco-yard causes no harm in its presence or by its care, to the environment. At best, an eco-yard enhances and restores the natural environment.” This stands in contrast to the current North American yard paradigm involving lawns (the larger the better) which are expensive to maintain and of only limited “use” to the humans and animals who inhabit our neighbourhoods.

In Eco-yards, Rama outlines the principles behind pesticide/herbicide-free gardening, restoring healthy soil through encouraging microbes, the recipe for good compost, water-wise practices, and techniques for building yard features with natural materials. With colour pictures, a functional index and a resource section in the back – this book can either be read end-to-end, or used as a reference to ecologically-friendly yard practices. Specifically, I really appreciated the tips about turning dug-up turf into bed-edging or berms, as well as the compost-tea brewing info – two things I know I’m going to bring into my yard this year.

Beyond the nuts and bolts – whichRama includes a lot of – this is a book with an exciting premise – which is that yards and neighbourhoods in even the most urban settings can be turned into lush and healthy ecosystems. Can you imagine what our city would look like if everyone did just that?

Work identity

Posted on January 26, 2011 by

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Considering who you wanted to be Firefighter, logger, archeologist, mad scientist, doctor, model, nurse, actor, fisherman, prime minister, teacher. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" The encouragement of grade one ambitions most likely thwarted by bad luck or practical considerations once coddling questions disappeared. The confidence of direction that allowed you at the age of three to proudly tell everyone you would be a singer in a restaurant when you grew up, because the sagging dinner act during a trip to San Francisco was the most glamorous thing you had ever seen and no one could shake the stars from your eyes. If you really can be whatever you want, why not a diner's companion in a smoky pasta bar? Seemed as good as anything, until you saw Dennis Lee reading from Alligator Pie at the public library and came home believing you could easily fill scribblers full of rhymes like his (He's never locked in the zoo. He lives in a warm igloo.) and attempted to do just that. Which lasted until the time mother took a university course, came home talking about the pygmy tribes of Africa with her copy of The Forest People in hand, and anthropology entered your vocabulary. Study other people in far away places. Like archeology without the bones and dirt? Tried it on for awhile if only because it sounded impressive. (Every kid wants to dig up dinosaurs, few want to study cultures.) But then they always said you were a good arguer ! and People's Court was your favourite show so you started watching every television court drama in preparation for becoming a lawyer. Perry Mason was dated, but everyone listened to him. Your parents let you watch tv because it was career research. Which carried you through to your first job, the drive-through window of the local A&W. Getting stoned before or after work and wondering if what you wanted ended here. And was it enough?

Easy Virtue.

Posted on January 25, 2011 by

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I haven’t donated blood in twenty years – which gave me the status of first-time blood donor today at the Canadian Blood Donor Clinic around the corner from my office (extra cookies and juice for me!). Gotta admit, I’m feeling virtuous at the moment, even as I note that my spelling/typing is a bit off – and it’s obvious from the way other donors in the clinic carry themselves that they feel pretty good about donating too. Funny that, of all things  – blood donation is pretty simple way to get to a selfless act and doesn’t take more than an hour every couple of months. If you want to get really serious, you can go for stem cell and marrow donation too – which are a lot more invasive and require time off work for recovery.

Things I found out at the clinic today included:

  • Apparently I pump blood up to three minutes faster than the average for women. 10 minutes is the average, and I pumped a litre in 7 minutes which they promised me would be even quicker next time.
  • Federal government workers are *big* donators – which I am guessing is linked to some notion of civic responsibility and public service.
  • Lots of things can screen you out from donating (having had cancer or malaria, having lived in England during the Mad Cow years, being gay after 1977, having been born in Africa after 1977, etc. etc. etc.),  – which means that only a certain percentage of society is allowed to donate.
  • The reason we don’t see mobile blood clinics in our workplaces and campuses anymore is due to funding cuts.
  • The majority of donated blood is actually used in patient treatment – and there is a shortage of blood in the donor system to treat to the level of need.

Interesting stuff, yes? So I’m a newly-converted donor and thinking this is something I could do every 56 days or so. The clinic is just right around the corner and it feels good to be in a room full of people feeling they are there to do the right thing. It’s some easy virtue and it doesn’t cost a thing.

On J. S. Bach

Posted on January 25, 2011 by

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The best proof we have that life is good, and therefore that there may perhaps be a God after all, who has our welfare at heart, is that to each of us, on the day we are born, comes the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. It comes as a gift, unearned, unmerited, for free.

J.M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year

To wit: validation of the above statement can be found in the Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor among other amazing works.

My Sunday thought.

Posted on January 23, 2011 by

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I have long thought that the story of the Garden of Eden and the fall of Adam and Eve as an allegory for the advent of civilization – and specifically the transition from hunter/gatherer existence to agricultural toil. The timelines don’t quite match up (7000 years since the fall of man, 10,000 years since the establishment of agriculture in the fertile crescent), but even so, the journey of Adam and Eve describes perfectly the loss of cohesion with the natural world and the separation of humans from the animal world.

Thinking about it this morning – I’ve discovered an interesting argument for that line of thought here.

I find it curious that upon the transition to agriculture, cities and so forth – humans have felt such a great need to pretend superiority from the natural world even as we devise whole core mythologies that lament our losses.

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