Venice Community Gardens Urban Permaculture Talk

Last sunday I was lucky enough to be invited to speak

at the Venice Community Garden. I spoke about why food forests

are the key to bringing health back to the cities and its inhabitants.

This photo makes me so happy!

This community garden isnt even a year old yet.

Trying to summon the garden spirits to bless all of us lol :)

I think I was actually talking about kiwi vines climbing up trees hahaha

We were soaking up the vitamin D that day...no weird white lines in the sky either!

Bobby Is-Real gave a great talk on ways for us to co-create and share

our resources to help the cities become paradise again.

Im really excited to be teaming up with both him and Norma.

Speaking of Norma...she is the organizer of the Venice Community Garden.

She brought this community garden to 55 families who are now

growing their own food! How cool is that???

And this garden isnt even a year old!

Just think of the power that one person can hold!!!!

I covered the basics of permaculture,

my experiences in Northern and Southern growing zones,

and working with the birds and the bees!

So much to share...I couldve kept going on and on but

Brother Sun was telling us to wrap it up!

I am collaborating with both Norma and Bobby to help

bring this idea of urban food forests to the LA area.

Together we are creating a wonderful synergy and

the time is absolutely perfect for the changes to occur.

And they already are! We are planting a food forest tmrw in Mar Vista

and will continue obviously spreading ideas and inspiration.

Even if one person showed up...that is one person that will hopefully

get turned onto an idea so powerful that it can affect the lives of

people living hundreds of years from now.

One guy in the crowd came up to me after the talk and told me

that of all the talks he has heard about the topic mine was by far

the most informative and entertaining! Ha! That felt great.

I wore the tie to prove a point.

Some of us in the green-living community can be judgmental towards

the "9 to 5" crowd...thinking that we might know more or are more "advanced".

That kind of thinking feeds NOTHING positive.

Our brothers and sisters who work all day in the office

are the ones that can have the biggest affect on this movement.

Imagine if a business executive gets turned onto replanting paradise?

Think of the resources she could put towards that idea.

Would she create more change than an angry Karl Marx fan living in

his parent's basement? Do you see my point?

We are all on this rock flying thru space...lets make it fun

and turn it into a paradise planet now that we have the heart and

mind to do so! I think this is the perfect time and I welcome all

of those who seek a better world for their children to give this idea a try.

We filmed a very good chunk of this talk, as did some people in the

audience so this talk will be up on youtube soon!!!

Thank you Norma, Bobby, Ria, and all the members of the garden.

I hope to be a regular contributor if I indeed move back to LA soon!

You have such a magical place there and I am SOOO happy and SOOO

impressed by what you are all creating! MUCH LOVE + RESPECT!!!!!

WE.ARE.WINNING.

-Anthony

Why a tipi?

If anyone has been following the story of this garden

they might be surprised at the sight of this tipi.

I had yurt fever for a few years..I really liked the space

and it seemed easy enough to move if needs be.

I drifted from that after realizing just how much I could save if

i built my own octagon-shaped cabin instead.

It wouldnt be portable but it would be warm and cozy

and really just more sound and sturdy I felt.

The tipi came into play when I started to think about the bigger

picture. Would it be smart for me to spend 10K on a cabin or a

yurt when I could use that money for something else?

If things REALLY got crazy with civilization collapsing,

we would all just be in my parent's place anyways across the road.

Why get crazy so early about a permanent structure?

Maybe in a few years but now...it was time for something a little more...

simple?

The tipi fit the bill..I could have bought a good tent and it would probably

be more waterproof than, but the tipi grabs eyes for sure.

Aesthetics come into play - they really do! We have to feed our eyes too!

I think its such a good fit in this garden, plus, since its basically a tent,

its not considered a permanent structure so no increase in property taxes.

Thats really something to think about...adding more living space

without adding to your property taxes.

I can eventually take the tipi off of the deck and place it in the

western meadow when the time comes for a more permanent replacement.

Im quite sure it would be an octagon shaped cabin with

*possibly* a dome greenhouse on top for some raised beds and

container plantings...the dome would warm up the house so well

in the winter time (if anyone even wanted to be there in the winter!! lol)

I always planned to make this a seasonal thing.

April to October mostly...then head south.

Now that everything is planted I just have to stay on top of

mulching around the trees and making sure the grass doesnt

compete with them too much. Im happy to be into that phase now

- its mostly mulching and harvesting.

My ideal is to have a tropical food forest.

Either in SE Asia or Hawaii..

Maybe Latin America...

To be in a year round food forest...to never have to worry about the

bees freezing to death...always lush...always things to harvest.

I could keep coming to the MN food forest in the growing season...

but afterwards it just hibernates - even the greenhouse up here goes to sleep.

Thats why the tipi made so much sense right now.

For $2,000, I have a living space that is bigger than many studio

apartments Ive seen in NYC. Its paid for and done - no housing bills

for now...nice to have it *kind of* taken care of.

Dont get me wrong - earlier this spring it was COLD in there.

Waking up in the tipi to see 35F on the thermometer

DOES NOT make you want to get out of bed.

Sleeping with wool socks and thermal underwear

makes it more than bearable, but for how many people? Not many.

Most folks are WAY too far down the path of domestication to

actually want to sleep in that kind of weather, but I assure you

that once you start doing it - it becomes addictive.

I know people that have gone year round in MN in a tipi

with just the woodstove and warm clothes...obviously

the Native Americans of the Great Plains had worse weather than

my springtime 35F with rain.

luke doing a BD stir in front of the tipi..we just set it up in this photo.

The tipi is the happy medium.

Maybe thats what will be there for a long time.

If I were to actually start a family here, of course there

would have to be an upgrade, but for now with me here by

myself its really perfect. I have a kitchenette, a bed, a place

to hang my stuff and put my stored food...its fine.

And who wants to be inside anyways?

Design more living space OUTSIDE. Fresh air!

White Clover - ALL OVER

My biggest regret is not knowing the true difference between

red clover and white...I have lots of both growing around,

but the red is so tall and makes it hard to walk around.

On the other side, the white clover stays low, puts out flowers

that the bees just go crazy for, and can really take a landscape

that looks like the surface of the moon and change it into

a lush paradise vibrating with the eager work of honeybees.

This is the pathway leading to the greenhouse and then

the "driveway" which is now car-free.

Raspberries on the left, and fading into red clover

on the right...I just love walking through this everyday.

You have to watch out for the bees though!

I would cover an entire food forest with this.

Fukuoka knew that white clover was the key to fertility.

Whenever there is time to plant a new shrub or tree,

I just pull back the white clover until the space is adequate,

and then just pop in the new plant.

By pulling away some clover, I release lots of

nitrogen into the soil that the clover has fixed from the

the atmosphere into its roots. When you prune the top,

the plant "self-prunes" its own roots...thus feeding its neighbors.

It can handle some shade, and it can take the sun.

It stays low, feeds the bees, feeds the other plants,

and you can eat the flowers and the leaves!

This is a crucial addition to any food forest that has enough

moisture to support it...clover DOES need water.

Plant more and more - you wont regret it!!

June 17 2011

Live your life like you mean it.

Moon Landing ponderings again

I go back and forth with this.

Honestly, now I believe at the time in 1969,

it had morphed into such a propaganda machine

that they simply had to produce a successful

landing and the 100% sure-fire way to do it was to fake it.

Why send humans there the first time?

Why the trickery seen in this video???

I recently heard an interview on Ondionetwork.com

with Jay Weidner, and he recently produced a film

claiming that Stanley Kubrick was involved in this as well,

and that 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" was the prep for that.

WTF? Seriously listen to that interview and do some situps and push ups.

Watch that vid and do some boxing torso twists. Why not?

Multi-task if at all possible.

At least stretch a bit ;)

So where does this leave us?

If this has really been a massive lie for the past 40 years,

what else are these people capable of?

Im sure you can imagine.

if by chance anyone of dark intent is spying

(as if this is really THAT important?)

I would just like to send love to you and ask you

to plant a forest garden for your family and others you care about.

This can truly be a paradise planet and we can all have a really

great time without all the fuss and disappointment.

Sending love to you and yours...

I can't blame the LBJ/Nixon crew for getting this all set up.

Look at the political situation-Russia, Vietnam, China and really

the rest of Asia...definitely an acidic environment that they were

spreading all over the place...people HATED these guys!

One can only wonder what the diets were like...Im sure someone

out there has a good idea...truly the best could have been had them.

Were they ultra-mineralized?

Shining pillars of health due to their financial resources?

Im thinking probably not. No way.

The food-health connection wasn't common until pretty recently.

But to really fake the moon landing? Really?

I get a bad feeling of truth when I watch that vid.

Like when I saw the grassy knoll vids with "badgeman"...

it really makes me feel scared because I just FEEL that

cold spot of evil somehow...yeeeeks!

Sending love to everyone on fb too...it really does fill a person up right?

Damn...I dont blame anyone for forgetting birthdays,

im horrible at it myself to the point of trying to convince others

how trivial it all is lol...ANYWAYS...facebook really gives us that gentle

nudge that can really turn someone's otherwise mundane bday -

(like mine for example...very mellow with parents but PERFECT

for the timing really...truly the perfect thing for me)-

into something that leaves them feeling REALLY good

when they are laying in bed later on that evening.

Sending love!

How do we go from faked moon landings to this? :)