up at 5

I'm up early this morning, and I wish I could go back to bed.

We had a lazy Saturday yesterday. Went to Present Moment to pick up some healing herbs, then checked out Urban Earth Coop to see what they were all about. I can envision them growing bigger and giving classes, as they are in a great spot in south Minneapolis.

THen we stopped by my friend Heidi's house to check out some windows that she had dumpster dived. They were sweet and now a couple are in our car, and I hope to make some cold frames today for the upcoming growing season. While we were there, were we given beers, and the afternoon stretched outward.

As we settled in the comfortable clubhouse, we sipped beers and watched birds twitter and squirrels act indifferent. Overall it was a lovely afternoon, and then Heidi's neighbor came over to invite us to eat BBQed venison, which we did, along with some baked potatoes, organic butter and sourcream, baba ganoush and eggplant thai dip, and I tried to cut up three tasty mangoes, all provided by H and R. It was great food and we had a good time. It was a lot of beers and sun so we came home and went to bed somewhat early.

Today I hope to clean up the place a little and make the cold frames, and get our seed orders in finally. We have some seedlings poking their cotyledons up out of the potting soil, and I can't wait to see everything growing.

native flora and fauna

Last Saturday I went to a conference on native flora and fauna called Through the Eyes of Nature:The Birds' View of Landscaping

It was pretty interesting. I could sum it up in a few sentences. Basically it's all about providing the basics of food and shelter in as many ways as possible to attract the most species of fauna as possible.

1. Native plants don't need as much maintenance as exotics. They are genetically programmed to thrive on tough conditions.
2. Native fauna enjoy living and eating in pockets of native plantings.
3. Birds in particular like a variety of native plants, from the tall oaks, to the medium birch, to the low juneberry, to the small bearberry. Most birds like trees under 15 feet tall or so.
4. You can attract twice as much species of bird if you add a water feature to your landscaping, twice more then that if your water feature flows or drips in some ways.
5. Dead trees and brush (snags) provide sanctuary and food to birds.

A lot of this repeats many of the lessons I've learned form Forest Gardening and Permaculture principles.

Landscape architecture is extremely important for overyielding polycultures. Perennial polyculture patches of native species of various heights and structure fill various niches that are necessary to provide food and shelter for the most amount of fauna species as possible.