The last week has brought a ridiculous amount of political uncertainty for the US of A, but down here in the garden things are as peaceful and serene as ever. The soil is hard and cold, but a few inches down trillions of little creatures are busy doing their thing, moving water and nutrients around from root to root, preparing for a spring that will surely come no matter what happens in Washington.
We too are preparing. Planning out the spring perennials, taking stock of all the mistakes we made last year (hello planting those tomatoes too late), and plotting how we'll make this the Best. Year. Ever!
So, what are you planning on growing this year? What lessons have you learned since this time last year? And how do you plan on leaving your community better than you found it? As always, drop us some knowledge in the comments, and have a brilliant, peaceful weekend.
Onto the links!
* "Leading scientists and conservationists are proposing that up to 50 percent of the earth’s land and oceans be protected in the coming decades. While some view the goal as unrealistic, proponents say it is essential for preserving the natural systems on which life itself depends." Salvation or Pipe Dream? A Movement Grows to Protect Up to Half the Planet.
* "One day in 2017, Peter pulled up to an injection well in Cambridge, Ohio. A worker walked around his truck with a hand-held radiation detector, he says, and told him he was carrying one of the “hottest loads” he’d ever seen. It was the first time Peter had heard any mention of the brine being radioactive." America’s Radioactive Secret via Rolling Stone.
* "As the left and the right battled for control over growth’s levers and spoils, Schumacher pointed out how both had become blind to the rise of growth as its own self-justifying, pan-ideological religion; its patterns of production and consumption, he observed, required 'a degree of violence' that did not 'fit into the laws of the universe.'” The Urgent Case for Shrinking the Economy.
* The new energy giants are renewable companies via Bloomberg.
* “'I have no idea how old it is or when our ancestors first began gardening here,' says 45-year-old Abdelmajid Ziyani, a construction worker and member of a local argan and olive oil cooperative. 'But I know it has been here for centuries.'
'It is really old,' adds 28-year-old Brahim Jidi, with a laugh. He works as a waiter in a local hotel and gardens in the forest as a hobby. He says he grew up hearing stories about his 'grand- grand-grandfather' helping tend the forest." The Moroccan Food Forest That Inspired an Agricultural Revolution via Atlas Obscura.