We're social animals - sense of community

Last weekend, we visited a couple of friends, Thom and Torie Foote at Footehill Farm, near Spokane, Washington. Well, people we only recently met in person and we'd be honored to call them friends. We became Facebook friends a few months ago, over our shared interest in permaculture (and smartassery), but have not met until now. Summary of said weekend: this was one of the best weekends I've ever had. The feeling of meeting welcoming, similar-minded, intelligent people (try not to get too smug, Thom!) was just therapeutic.

Thom secretly enjoying my inability to operate a non-power-steering machine

People's needs for social interaction vary from pure hermit-ism to 100% party animals. We're somewhere in the lower third or maybe up to halfway on the scale. That means that while we appreciate our alone and quiet time, we also cherish positive social interactions, appreciate constructive feedback, and enjoy feeling that we're not alone in this world. At Thom's and Torie's, we learned a pile of new things, talked and argued about garden and orchard design, experienced driving a tractor (weeeee!), had dog therapy provided by Chena, and joined a permaculture group site visit to learn about revitalizing soil.

Personally, over the past few years, I have shifted from the "I don't really need anyone" to my current state of mind. I feel that as we change our focus from consumerism to sustainability, our attitude also changes from "the cult of individualism"  to an interconnected community. I feel that it's important to have people close by that you feel connected with, share interests with, can teach and learn from them, and can help them or rely on them in a case of need. This feeling of community, which was fairly common in smaller villages and towns (think Anne of Green Gables), has weathered out as (I think) cities grew, consumerism thrived, and each millenial bought into the "I'm the best" set of mind.

Our move to NB is going to bring lots of changes. One of those, I hope, will be a creation of a tight(ish) group of friends, neighbours, and over-the-internet-supporters. I would like to believe that there will be potlucks, "barn raising days", evening chats over tea or wine, and a general sense of being part of a positive group of people. I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with the friends I left in NB, and getting to know other people with values similar to ours.

Gardening, version 2.0, part 1 of ?

This will be my second gardening year. I'm still the first to admit I know nothing about it, and this will be the case for many, many more years, I'm sure. However, last year I knew even less, and it still worked better than anyone could have expected (left to right: tomatoes, peppers, mustard greens)...

Gardening seems like a never ending learning curve. You never "know everything", and that's great. From my first year of gardening, I learnt that you can plant a lot of the things you buy in a grocery store (like pepper seeds and dill, cilantro, and mustard seeds from the spice aisle). A lot Most of the things I learnt were from making mistakes - the tomato cages were too short, plants needed more water than I realized, carrots take a long time to mature (so don't pull them out when the radishes are ready, Sima), the spaces between rows were too narrow (some of us, cough, Josh, cough, have size 13 shoes), and so on, and so forth...

This second year of my gardening experience has already seen its first errors. I used the rolls from toilet paper rolls as seed starting containers. The idea is actually really good - it lets you replant the starter into the garden without disturbing its roots. In my case, two things happened - 1) I overcrowded the rolls and they got very fungus-y, and 2) I made no bottoms to the rolls I was using (as opposed to this), and the roots simply went on a little tour of their immediate environment. So while the pea starter was about 2 inches tall and the toilet paper roll was about 3 inches tall, the trailing roots hanging outside of the roll were about 8'' long. That's why the peas got kicked outside and are now in the garden, in a makeshift greenhouse...

What did I learn from this? That if you use paper-based starting containers, you don't overcrowd them, and that starting containers need bottoms. Will I use rolls again next year? You bet. I like that it's reusing basically garbage, I much prefer cardboard to the plastic (or peat) seed pots, and I do like the idea of not disturbing the roots.

Another thing that I learnt this year (already, and it's only April!) is that given 10 mins of Internet research, some imagination, and a bit of luck, we're actually pretty good and making stuff ourselves and for free. It may not be a thing of beauty, but there's a chance that it'll actually work... Here's our makeshift tepee for things like peas and cucumbers. Made with sticks (picked up for free) and leftovers of crocheting twine I bought 3 years ago for a macrame project.

And it already has its first inhabitants (cue the extra-rooty peas from 2 paragraphs ago). Look at the cute little things!