American Beauty?

Wow all that sounds great. Let's go to their website and learn how YOU CAN'T BUY ONLINE. No, instead you add to your list of plants, print that out, and show up at one of their locations where they supply plants. Sound a little pointless to you too?

The benefit going to the nursery over ordering online is you'll likely be buying larger plants. The issue is you won't be buying as many because a plant in a 1 gallon bucket costs about $15. Ordering online you'll get a few tiny tubes or bare root plants that can cost as little as $3, but usually around $5. So then why does American Beauty bother with the list function on their site? I don't understand this for a minute.

What's worse is they're promoting you to certify your yard with the National Wildlife Federation. There is not wrong with doing this but all it means is you paid $20 to buy a sign. There is not check or balance with this. I could buy a sign off their site right now and put it out front of a Nuclear Power Plant for all they know. The City Dump, sure why not? It meets all their criteria to buy a sign.

All you need to do is provide elements from each of the following areas:

• Food Sources - For example: Native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries, nectar
• Water Sources - For example: Birdbath, pond, water garden, stream
• Places for Cover - For example: Thicket, rockpile, birdhouse
• Places to Raise Young - For example: Dense shrubs, vegetation, nesting box, pond
• Sustainable Gardening - For example: Mulch, compost, rain garden, chemical-free fertilizer

• 
  

Food: People throw that away constantly.
Water: Loaded with chemicals but all around.
Cover: Loads of it.
Place to Raise Young: Raccoons, Rats, and Seagulls seem to love it.
Sustainable Gardening: It's a landfill, a lot of it degrades over time.

The last dot to check off should be Did you pay us money?

Permaculture in China and the third world

China of all places is practicing Permaculture. Yes, the country that gases their crops with insecticide to the point where Beekeepers refuse to put their hives near certain regions of the country. When people offering your pollination services won't get you to pay for their hives making honey, you have a problem. Farms in these areas have actually resorted to paying people to hand pollinate their crops.

This was an inspiring video to watch. It's not about those industrious farms that maintain the fertility of their crops with the aid of chemicals. It's about the poorer areas. Not just in China but Ethiopia and Ruanda. China is the prettiest example of results but it's great to see this practice could work just about anywhere.

Permaculture in Australia

Permaculture in Australia.

Video: French Permaculture

I've found a short series I like. The narrator's first language is French but she speaks in English for the video. It's really neat to see even the French are embracing Permaculture. Grape Vines, Cheese Caves, and World Class Cuisine are all staples of France. It makes sense that they'd be one of the hardest hit when we run out of oil.





I believe everything this women is doing could easily be done with someone's backyard. I'm inspired by all her ideas, and gardening design. Not using wood planks to make raised beds, simply placing polls all over the mounds to let beans grow, these are really great ideas. I don't think people in suburbia are allowed to keep ducks though. Oh well, maybe someday.

Are! It be the White Squirrel!

Are! It be the White Squirrel!

"Moby Dick" reference... anyone anyone? No? okay then.


A few days ago my mom and I looked out at the feeder and we found a white squirrel. We thought at first it had to be a ferret but Not with that tail. It's not a true albino though because the eyes are black, instead of pink.


And it's body is more like a pale gray than white. Not sure what to make of this. There are white squirrels in the world and even some populations in the US. It seems to just be a color pattern going around. Makes sense I guess, we have black and white rabbits after all.