Earlier this year, my brother Alex decided to bring back the tradition of gardening at our house. (My nonno, an Italian immigrant used to have a garden here, too).  This project got me interested in what exactly went into tending a garden, so I decided to find & help out.

Because of this garden, we have been able to harvest: carrots, cherry tomatoes, onions, zucchini, green beans, snow peas, spinach, lettuce, kale, radish and cucumbers!! ***I am planning on making kale chips for the class at some point**

He taught me about pruning — a vital part of maintaining a healthy garden so that the plant can “focus its energy on fruiting” instead of excess leaves.

The garden itself is a square foot garden, meaning it does not allow room to step in between rows of plants. Instead, he built trellises in order to let plants grow upward. This apparently can triple the amount of garden space!

Unfortunately, the big beef tomatoes did not turn out well. We’re not sure why.

Animals can pose a threat to your garden as well. That’s why catnip is a good way to draw your cat to the garden (leaving its scent, urine and fur around) to ward off unwanted visitors like rabbits.

Soon, we are going to gather dried/brown matter (leaves, and some of our ornamental long grass) and mix it with grass clippings. This mixture will be kept for a few months to a year (with regular checking) and become compost!

Growing your own garden has many benefits, from the economical to the spiritual, as it provides the satisfaction of eating food you put your own work into. I had no idea so many variables went into creating a garden and can now say I have a better understanding & appreciation for this type of work.

On Monday, Emma and I visited the Hagen Aqualab with Areanna Balbar, one of the execs of the Marine and Freshwater Biology Society.

the first stop on our adventure was checking out the Skates – a creature that looks like a sting ray but is more closely related to a shark. The females lay eggs in a thing called a mermaid purse!

we met many animals. This creature is a green crab, they have the ability to REGENERATE arms and like to fight each other.

these are seastars! They eat mussels – their stomach comes out of their body and they liquify their prey, changing its chemical composition so they can slurp it up! They can also regenerate arms.

this seastar has 10 arms instead of 5.

this large sea star is beginning to go limp. This is because it is losing water, and this is its natural reaction as a way to retain water.

Many students research and perform experiments in the Aqualab. There are a variety of freshwater and saltwater creatures.

The Marine and Freshwater Biology

This club meets once a week and talk about related courses, hold study sessions, and sometimes host events such as Movie in the Pool.

Tree climbing is a great means of exercise. It utilizes total body strength training. In the next few images I will describe you the correct technique to climb young straight trees with no branches.

1. A dead tree is an unsure tree. When approaching a tree it is important to make sure that it is alive all the way through. A dead tree is unsure, by that I mean its structural integrity is questionable.

2. Size does matter. The ideal tree size is a tree that you can comfortable wrap your hands around the diameter of the tree with your fingers intertwined, and your thumbs almost touching. If the tree is too thick you will be unable to create this grasp and will be unable to create the leverage needed to support your body weight leaving you unable to propel yourself up the tree. If if the tree is too thin it will simply break. The images above depict a tree that is too thin [left], a tree that is too thick [middle], and a demonstration of the hand grasp around a tree of the correct size [right].

3. Lose the shoes. This form of tree climbing requires the participant to be barefoot. The removal of shoes, allows for the ball of the individuals foot to be used in the climb. The benefit of being barefoot allows you to create friction between your foot and the tree bark. Therefore when you are selecting a tree it is also import to ensure that the tree bark is ruff to further aid you in the creation of this friction.

4. Ball planting. Notches on the tree are used as your theoretical latter. The balls of your feet are planted on top of these notches. These notches help support your weight and utilize lower body strength to assist you with the climb. Trees without notches are very difficult to climb.

5. Mounting. Before ascending the tree it is essential to test your strength. This safety strength test is performed by recreating the pose in the image above and holding it for 1O seconds. Your body will sway to gravitational forces. This sway will occur throughout your climb. You must be able to counteract this sway through the manipulation of your body.

6. Foot-hand-foot-hand.  Now that you are mounted, tree asention can occur. It is important to make your way up the tree using the formula: right foot-right hand-left foot-left hand. This formula puts your body in proper alignment, lowering your center of gravity and as a result enhances your balance, decreasing  strain on your back and upper shoulders.

The above image shows students of outdoor school participating in my very educational tree climbing tutorial using the steps described above.

2006-present
“Fallen Fruit invites the public to bring homegrown or street-picked fruit and collaborate with us in making a collective fruit jams.  Working without recipes, we ask people to sit with others they do not already know and negotiate what kind of jam to make: if I have lemons and you have figs, we’d make lemon fig jam (with lavender).  Each jam is a social experiment.  Usually held in a gallery or museum, this event forefronts the social and public nature of Fallen Fruit’s work, and we consider it a collaboration with the public as well as each other.”

See more from Fallen Fruit here.

“Futurefarmers is a group of artists and designers working together since 1995. We are artists, researchers, designers, farmers, scientists, engineers, illustrators, people who know how to sew, cooks and bus drivers with a common interest in creating work that challenges current social, political and economic systems. Our design studio serves as a platform to support art projects, an artist in residency program and our research interests.
Futurefarmers works across many media. This studio has evolved as a means to support Futurefarmers art practice and fellow protagonists in the road to positive change. We enjoy creating platforms for collective learning and engagement. We are a dynamic group of practitioners who provide services for cultural institutions, activist groups and organizations rooted in the transformative power of knowledge sharing and transmission. Our collective body forms a diverse knowledge and skill base that includes graphic design, architecture, urbanism, philosophy, ecology, industrial design, computer programming, information visualization, food practices, research, educational programing. We are aligned by shared interest and dreams.”

See works at Futurefarmers

(From Studio Orta) “The Antarctic Village is an ephemeral encampment that references the plight of those struggling to transverse borders and to gain the freedom of movement necessary to escape conflict or natural disasters. The village is composed of Dome Dwellings, hand-made tents assembled with sections of flags from countries around the world, along with extensions of clothes and gloves symbolising the multiplicity and diversity of people. The flags and fragments of clothes are silkscreen printed with motifs referencing the UN Declaration for Human Rights and an article the artists propose to amend: Art. 13.3

Through the symbolic act of founding the Anatrctic Village, the artists reflect on the ideology that embodies Antarctica in particular the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty, which now counts 50 signatory nations, has preserved Antarctica as an area for scientific research with common pacific aims to protect the environment and to encourage international cooperation.
Antarctica embodies utopia: a continent whose extreme climate imposes mutual aid and solidarity, freedom of research, of sharing, and collaboration for the good of the planet. It is a place where the immaculate whiteness contains all the wishes of humanity to spread a message of hope for future generations.”

For more projects see Studio Orta.