Gordon's Garden Diary

26 Apr '08 7:24 pm

Wow, Gordon, You're getting ready for a big change. I wonder how many pots of plants you'll be taking to your new place?
It's great to have you back, and to hear your news. Cheers.

27 Apr '08 4:05 pm

Hi, Moosey!

To answer your question, I'm beginning to think that I'll have to rent a truck just for the plants that I want to move with me! I'm going to have to investigate very carefully to figure out which ones have the best chance of survival up there, as here I'm gardening in zone 7/8, while there it's considered to be zone 3!! Much colder! I've gardened in zone 3 before, however, and my friend in the Valley assures me that with shelter, many zone 4 and 5 plants can be induced to grow well up there, provided that one has enough water - it's considered to be "high desert" there. For example, rattlesnakes live further down the hills, nearer to the Thompson River, but it's too cold for them up in the valley, at the 2500-foot elevation. I noticed rugosa roses, the hardier kinds of hydrangeas, shasta daisies and echinaceas growing there. The native forest cover there is composed mostly of fir and pine, but near creeks I saw maples of some sort (small ones) as well as lots of others that weren't far enough advanced for me to recognize them - most trees hadn't leafed out when I was there.

Unfortunately, I seem to have accidentally erased most of my pictures of the valley from both the computer and from my camers, but here are a few that I did manage to save properly. I'll be going there again in 3 weeks, so I'll take some more and this time, I'll be more careful about saving them!!

All the best!

gordonf

27 Apr '08 4:39 pm

I have been following your posts and find myself intrigued. I would love to hear more about these earth ship houses, how do they work? It sounds so exciting, this new life you are planning, you must have an adventurous soul. Are there alot of artist types in this community or is it more of a spiritual kind of thing? Hope you don't mind, I know I am asking alot of questions, but you really have me interested.
On another note, reading your last post I noticed you said you garden in zone 7/8, I am in a zone 7b or 8a, according to who decides. I always pictured your garden to be in a much colder zone. Probably because you are in Canada and I am in Texas, I thought the zones would be much different.

27 Apr '08 6:07 pm

Hi, Faerisweet - it's great to hear from you!

First, about the zones: I'm in one of the warmest zones in Canada - on the west coast, surrounded by salt water, which accounts for the warm zone. Our zones have recently been upgraded a bit, with a few criteria that are different from the American ones, leading to a change to many zones here from cooler to warmer ones. Probably climate change has a bit to do with it (although you'd never know it this year - record cold weather all winter!).

Second, the community I'm hoping (planning) to move to is a spiritual community, formed by the Kare Krishnas about 25 years ago to "preserve the integrity" of their religion here. They have these rural communities in many countries around the world. It's a fairly involved, but sensible, process to be accepted to live in these communities, but I think I'll fit quite well. It's sort of a culmination of various trends over many years of my life for me to join with them. Wanting to go there has finally pushed me into vegetarianism, as that's a requirement for acceptance there. Since a child, I've felt somewhat uneasy about eating meat (although I like the taste of it), but I have found it really hard to switch since I have always lived among hunters and farmers, most of whom just don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to eat meat. I figured that living among other vegetarians would make it much easier, so I've been switching slowly since January and it has not really been all that hard. I have noticed, though, that i don't get invited to dinner as often as before! Also, at my last medical check-up, my doctor was very pleased with my cholesterol level for the first time in years!

Next, the Earthship house. These houses began being built in the southwest U.S. back in the late sixties as a response to energy shortages and pollution concerns there. Most folks then thought of them as rather eccentric, hippie houses, but they're getting a new popularity with current conditions. Basically, they are passive, solar-heated buildings with used car tires filled with earth and sunken into hillsides. The tires act as heat sinks which radiate warmth into the building when needed. All of the windows face south, of course, and they usually have solar panels for electricity production. They also use water (gathered from rain, etc.) up to 4 times before it is discarded. Greywater from sinks and baths circulates through a huge planter located just inside the enormous windows where it irrigates tropical fruit trees and salad crops. The plants and soil filter the water so it can be collected for toilet flushing. I don't, offhand, remember what the last use for the water is. If you want to do an online search for info, about them, with pictures, do a search for "earthship+house" or for "rocky mountain institute". The Institute's headquarters, in Colorado, is shown there. It uses only 125 watts of electricity for everything!! It's also entirely solar heated, except for a bit of supplemental wood heat in extremely cold weather. It is really worth a look!!

Well, I hope I haven't rambled on for too long, but I'm very interested in this subject, and although I'm 62 and retired, I feel as if a whole new life may be opening for me and I think we all need a passionate interest to help to keep us functioning as we age! I hope to make it to 100! There's just too much to do!

All the best!

gordonf

27 Apr '08 6:53 pm

Wow, but its good to have you back among us with your fascinating ramblings, Gordon! I'm going to check on earthships as well. Mainly due to 3rd world inefficiency we are having a power crisis in SA, currently 'solved' with what is called load-shedding: outages for 2-3 hours at set times. The net result is that everyone is rethinking power and efficiency in a most constructive way. A neighbour, considered a wacky greeny 20 years ago when he refused a blanket offer to join the national power grid cheaply, is today everyone's hero, besides being a successful organic farmer and cheese maker! He has cool teenage children with all the computer things coolkids have - run off solar power...

28 Apr '08 4:01 am

Good to hear from you again! So many interesting topics here.

The earth house sounds facinating. I wondered at the many windows. To think of mangos growing on just the other side of those windows with snow blowing on the other side is quite a mind blowing image. I didn't realize they used earth filled tires to retain heat but what a great example of reuse.

No meat, hey? Well it'll be healthier both for you and the planet. (Thanks.) You're a better man than I on that score. I've always felt that all of life eats other life -be it from the animal or plant kingdoms. We're all in the great soup of life though we've managed to extricate ourselves from the menu in all but a few unfortunate run-ins with sharks and such. If there just weren't so many of us demanding so much from the earth I would feel better about my carnivorous tendencies. But I shall probably go on eating meat ladened with guilt until my character improves. On a lighter note, Jeff, my best friend in high school, used to argue that if god didn't want us to eat animals why would he have made them out of meat?

I know what you mean about the usual zone break down being an inadequate basis for comparison. In addition to the average monthly low, climates also vary in terms of how hot it gets. I suspect like me, being near the coast your usual summer day is not all that hot or only rarely so. Then there are patterns and degrees of precipitation that can vary so much. My "Sunset Western Gardens Book" has its own climate zones, more than 20 of them. In general the lower the zone number the colder it gets but not always. Each zone comes with a description that breaks the climate down in more detail. It only directly covers the US but mentions some places in Canada too. By their system I think you would be in Zone 4, Gordon. They describe this as covering a long, narrow region ranging from higher altitude, coastal mountains of Northern California all the way to Southern portions of coastal Alaska that are surrounded by salt water. In all these areas the climate is determined in large part by the nearness to the ocean. There is a map that shows Bellingham, Vancouver, Nanaimo, Comox and Powell River as all lying in this zone. Average winter lows are said to range between 34 F to 28 F (1 to -2 C). The growing season varies between 150 to 200 days, and I think the range of lattitudes would have something to do with that. Because of the marine influence summer highs average in the 60's and 70's F.

Okay, got to go check on my soup! Good luck on the move. I think you are very brave, energetic and adventurous to take on this relocation. I hope you will find time to keep us posted. Best of luck always,
-Mark

28 Apr '08 9:40 am

Hi again, Jack and Mark - It's good to hear from you both!

I DO tend to ramble a bit, don't I? Oh, well . . . if I can keep the ramblings fairly interesting, perhaps folks will forgive me!!

Today it feels almost like a damp summer day outside, so I took Joey for a walk at the nearby power station to search among the ruins of the old townsite for a peony plant that I spotted blooming there amid the overgrowth last spring. A friend wants me to help her rescue it as there are plans for a new power plant on that spot to replace the old, outmoded one. We didn't locate it today (probably it's just beginning to push through the ground there), but we DID find bunches of daffodils left from the former gardens. We'll return in a few days to look again.

In the garden, I discovered that my Bartlet pear tree is covered with buds for the first time. This is one of the ones that was poisoned a couple of years ago by a vandal, but it seems to have recovered. Since the ornamental pear is also full of buds, perhaps they'll pollinate each other and I might get some pears before I move!!

Well, that's it for today!

Cheers, all!

gordonf

28 Apr '08 1:18 pm

It all sounds fascinating to me, and with the shortages and changes our world is facing these days, perhaps a step in the right direction. It seems to me communities like these could work for other spiritual beliefs also. Religion aside, the basic goals of a community like this seem sensible and would hold appeal for many, including myself. Please keep us informed of your progress, it should be quite an adventure.

28 Apr '08 1:36 pm

I absolutely agree. I read your explanation of earthhouses out loud to Stephen - I wonder now if he's worried now that I want one. I just thought that using the old tyres was incredible - what a good idea!

Your ramblings are so refreshing, anyway! Please keep on rambling and scrambling as you prepare to resite yourself. I think it's a grand move. And it's reinspired me to be more frugal as a consumer, and to start looking more at what I can do for the environment. So there! Ramble on!

28 Apr '08 6:24 pm

Hi, Moosey and Faerisweet!

Thanks for the encouragement! And, yes, many different religious groups have set up communities like this one, especially in the States and in Europe - even in Russia!! There are also many others without the religious aspect to them; for example, there's one here on Vancouver island called, "OUR Ecovillage" (website: http://www.ourecovillage.org/, which was formed to be a demonstration and educational place where ecofriendly building and permaculture principles can be demonstrated with the intent of getting them accepted by the authorities for wider use. Many of these ideas have been held up by local health and building codes which haven't caught up with new realities.

Earthship homes are VERY labour-intensive, which makes them extremely expensive to construct unless one has a pool of free labour. That's why I'm so interested in the incomplete one that I discovered. Here are a couple more pictures of it.

Cheers! Oh, yes, my Auricula primulas are beginning to bloom. They're in their third year from seed this spring, and I've learned to keep them in pots so they don't become overrun by other, more aggressive plants. Tomorrow I'll try to get a good picture of the first of them for you.

-gordonf

Gordon's Garden Diary

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Gordon

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Fascinating ramblings

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Intentional Communities