BETH'S SUSTAINABLE GARDEN

A RUSTIC, FRONT YARD VEGETABLE GARDEN

SUSTAINABLE GARDENS MIX VEGETABLES AND COMPANION PLANTS

A "KEYHOLE " GARDEN

YOUNG HAZLENUTS

THE" SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPE"

Friday, 8:00 AM.  35 degrees F, wind W, light with moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly clear, the humidity is 80% and the barometer is trending higher at 30.32", promising nice weather.  Maybe I'll be able to get some leaves mulched and other fall yard and garden work done after things dry out.
   At the lakefront in Ashland the other day we saw something we had not seen before; a majestic bald eagle, soaring high, being mobbed by a gang of crows.  How humiliating!  Like Rodney Dangerfield, he didn't "get no respect."  That's just the way it goes sometimes, no matter how high one flies.
   A few weeks ago I wrote about Martha's Fantastic Garden, and that has been a very popular post.  I said at the time that there are as many kinds of gardens as there are gardeners, and Beth's "sustainable garden," just up the street on the corner of 11th and Old Military, is at sort of the opposite end of the spectrum.
   I have been watching the progress of the garden up the block since it was started by the previous owner of the home about five years ago and never knew quite what to make of it, as it is very rustic and didn't seem to have any particular stylistic qualities.  Which didn't much disturb my sensibilities, since that could be said of my own landscape.
   When Beth and her family moved in a year ago, it was obvious that more effort was being put into the garden and landscape, but all in the same vein.  Since then I have gotten to know Beth, who practices sustainable gardening, which is an aspect of the sustainability movement, the goal of which is to integrate environmental, social and economic factors in an attempt to create a more sustainable future (that's a succinct and probably grossly incomplete definition).
   Beth practices companion planting to reduce the need for pesticides and fertilizer, plants perennial food crops (berry bushes, nut crops) as well as annual vegetables, does a lot of recycling, saves rain water, and is experimenting with plant "guilds" (what I would call plant associations), the companion planting of trees and shrubs that naturally grow together.  I sure can't argue with any of what she is doing, and do much of the same myself.
  I have to admit that I haven't been enamored by the whole "sustainability"movement, as I don't know why anyone would wish any garden or landscape effort to be "unsustainable."  I am also very suspicious, by nature I guess, of social movements of any kind, and the usual jargon and attempts at social control that go along with them.  And I definitely part ways with those who worship the earth goddess Gaia,  as some in these parts do.
   But I like what Beth is doing, and promise to learn more.