To get a good yield from a crop you need to sow the seeds quite thickly at first and thin them out later. If you only sow a very few seeds here and there about the garden, chances are they will be eaten by birds or bugs well before they ever get to maturity.
The same could be said about creative efforts. Sometimes its necessary to really concentrate on a few areas of intense activity rather than spread your creative seeds all over the garden in the hope that something will sprout.
Right now my creative energies are going into my artwork and my Dialog Visual blog and I am not able to put the time I would like to into my garden or this blog. Consequently I have had to reduce my garden maintenance to the minimum to keep it alive and I will not be posting on What We Grow in the immediate future.
As the days get longer and the weather warmer, I will resume my gardening tasks once again and I hope to bring What We Grow out of hibernation once again even if not in its present form.
In the meantime, I want to thank my fellow creative gardeners for their support on this journey so far and wish you all fruitful planting! Hope to see you on Dialog Visual soon :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
16 Jan 2011
Seeds Scattered Too Thinly
10 Oct 2010
No Waste in the Creative Garden
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We've just harvested a good number of large buckets of compost from our rickety makeshift compost heap. There is nothing quite like the joy of reaping such riches from a process that takes almost no effort at all - just a stroll down to the garden with the kitchen scraps and the leaf fall from the patio, an occasional desultory stir and a bit of water in the summer and, voila, free topsoil full of nutrients!
Contrast this with the constantly irritating process of collecting all the waste supermarket packaging that we seem to collect despite our efforts to the contrary followed by the reward-less trip to the nearest recycling point with bulky and unwieldy parcels (no kerb-side recycling here!) of a product that probably should never have been invented in the first place and that will be with us for millennia to come (i.e. plastic in all its myriad shapes and forms).
A major benefit of an organic garden is that it is a closed-loop system that has no waste products, everything sooner or later rotting down and returning to whence it came. Its useful to think of our creative lives in the same way.
All to often we feel we have 'wasted our time' when we make something that doesn't fulfil the criteria or expectations we had in mind for it but this is erroneous thinking because, as in the garden, everything we do in our creative lives contributes to the whole: A tiny corner of a painting we don't like sparks an idea for another work; a misplaced brushstroke sets us to wondering how it would be to paint a large canvas with broad, dripping brushstrokes; An unfinished novel that has lain in the drawer untouched for years, is recycled into a series of short stories which get published; A week spent blocked with a work in progress eventually leads to the realization that we are bored with our process and we need to experiment with new techniques...
Our minds and psyches will function very effectively as virtual compost bins for recycling creative ideas if only we will stop inhibiting the process by our negative thinking and dismissing out of hand every aspect of our creative lives that doesn't seem to fit nicely into the 'product' category. Like the making of compost in the garden, this process requires no great effort on our part; We only need a little diligence and patience and in a short time we will be rewarded with buckets of rich ideas with which to dress our creative gardens and help them grow. Read More......
19 Sept 2010
Lemons
Original image by André Karwath aka Aka via WikiMedia Commons
"When life gives you lemons, you’re allowed to feel sad, frustrated and annoyed before you decide to squeeze them on your salad, plant the seeds in your yard, or ask your friend’s mother for her iced tea recipe."
I'm a sucker for a garden analogy as you know and especially when it's a humourous one, so I couldn't resist this one from Havi Brooks Read More......
12 Sept 2010
A Time for Everything
In the garden, there is a specific time for everything: for planting, for harvesting, for pruning, for fertilizing...And if you follow the biodynamic system and adjust your practices according to the moon, then these times are further subdivided into planting times for root vegetables as opposed to those that grow above ground, for trees that fruit as opposed to those that don't, etc etc.
An awareness of these natural cycles is something that we have grown further and further away from as we have changed to living in cities with 24 hour a day electric light and artificial heating and cooling systems and yet we continue to be governed by these ancient patterns although we are not always consciously aware of it.
Read More......
15 Aug 2010
The Ecology of Creativity
"The creative process is an ecology that depends upon the full spectrum of our resources"
Shaun McNiff, Trust The Process — an artist's guide to letting go (Shambala, 1998)
There's been some really lively and interesting discussions going on of late on my favourite creativity forum my favourite creativity forum. One like-minded soul started talking about how she felt that her different interests and projects fed into each other — allowing her to find enthusiasm for one when another flagged and that way she could keep moving. This made me think that our creative life is really like a mini ecosystem — such as we might strive to build in a permaculture garden — where each element (be it plant or structure) ideally has forum multiple functions: The principle function i.e. the reason we are growing it (or have sited in a particular place if it is a structure) plus at least one secondary function such as to promote or help with another aspect if the garden. This might be by deterring insects from damaging another plant, providing shade etc.
If we look at our creative ecology in the same way, we can see that the same might be true: A blog can serve not only to showcase our work but to connect with people by showcasing theirs; It may even be that we write our blog when we have reached a lull in another creative activity and the writing serves to clarify where we need to go next in the other project. Similarly, we can use a technique that comes relatively easily to us to create a piece that acts as a psychological counterbalance to the struggle we might be having with a more challenging piece; the first acting like a fertilizer for our confidence, keeping it boosted when the second one is threatening it.
All this stands directly opposed to the modern urban myth that dedicating yourself exclusively to just one discipline is the only way to be 'serious' about your creative work and yet you don't have to look far to find incredibly successful artists who are also musicians. Or poets. Or novelists.
Of course, there are only so many hours in a day and if we are blogging we are not painting and if we are painting then we cannot simultaneously be composing...and yet what the one robs of the other in terms of time, it so often gives back in the form of enthusiasm or inspiration.
If our creativity is an ecology, then having more than one type of plant in the garden means our landscape will always be varied, challenging and stimulating and the produce we yield will feed us a healthier, more balanced diet!
What does your creative ecosystem look like? Click on 'Comments' below the post and share your thoughts!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Read More......
5 Jul 2010
Too Many Plan(t)s
"I'd rather have just a few plants and them all be well," a friend of mine said to me recently, as she looked round our patio overflowing with plants, some of which are in better health than others.
This friend is known for unselfconsciously saying exactly what she thinks and I find this candour rather refreshing. I know she intends no malice so I didn't take offence – although I might have had it been anyone else. However, it did get me thinking because I'm definitely a girl with too many plants – or should I say plans?
In the Art Career Blast Off class that I did recently with coach Alyson Stanfield of artbizcoach.com(read more about it on my Dialog Visual blog) the class was frequently admonished, "Remember, Alyson says you can't do it all!" But of course I wanted to. I always do. My 'To Do' lists are always overflowing with ideas and projects – some of which, like the plants in the patio, are in better shape than others.
Although I start all my projects with equal enthusiasm, also like the plants, there are simply too many of them and it feels like time for a purge. I need to:
and finally, with those that are left:
Interestingly – given I live in Spain – the Spanish word for 'suggest' or propose is 'plantear' and 'dejar plantado a alguien' is to stand someone up! As with all 'false friends' (as these linguistic mis-directions are known), its time I was able to differentiate between when to initiate a project and when to simply note it in my ideas folder and carry on with the task in hand. Its time to get my patio plants in order...and my plans.
21 Jun 2010
Continuing Strange Synchronicity between Cherry and the Plum Tree
My life and that of the plum tree continue to be linked in some sort of mystical dance.
This last week it has been the turn of our 'arms'. I have experienced a severe bout of my latent RSI (repetitive strain injury) and the plum, in strange, parallel-universe-style synchronicity, lost two of its branches.
The cause of my ills are easy to diagnose – too much time spent on electronic devices – whereas the cause of the fallen branches can only be guessed at. Too much fruit for such slender branches? Too strong a wind? Or some sort of insect gnawing through from the inside?
Whatever the causes of the problems with our extremities, we have tried to turn the outcomes into something positive: I have been spending quality time in the studio (with only my ears tuned to an electronic device i.e. listening to podcasts) and my other half has turned the fallen plums into jam.
If you ask me nicely I will post the recipe ;)
8 Jun 2010
What do Agriculture and Education have in Common?
Seems I'm not the only one who likes their green analogies and has seemingly unconnected subjects swimming around in their head at the same time!
Listening to a fascinating talk on new strategies for education with Ken Robinson the other day on TED (http://www.ted.com/) he not only began the talk with a reference to climate change but summed up by saying that we need an 'agricultural model' of education to replace the industrial one we have inherited from the 19th century.
Well worth a watch: http://tinyurl.com/3xc7o2o
Read More......
28 May 2010
The Plum and the Cherry
Both the plum tree and I are being attacked by a bug. We're neither of us looking so good but still valiantly fruiting ;)
The plum should be looking more like this:
And as for me....
31 Mar 2010
If you want to grow beans, its no use planting potatoes
Sounds obvious doesn't it? If you want to grow beans you don't set about planting spuds. You dig over your ground, buy your bean seeds and make some nice little holes for them, pop them in, watch the rain water them and wait for them to grow. A couple of months later you have some lovely little bean plants coming along nicely, fixing nitrogen in your soil and promising a bean feast.
So if all that is so obvious, how come we don't apply that to other areas of our lives?
How come we are perfectly capable of convincing ourselves that in order to paint a painting, write a novel or compose a sonata, we first need to check our email, reorganise our desktop, sort our books by spine colour, do the weekly shop, spring clean the bedroom and shower the dog?
Of course, we are procrastinating and that's easy to spot when its a case of having spent the entire morning in gmail. However, its another thing entirely when it comes to doing the weekly shop because the weekly shop NEEDS DOING. There's no getting round it. We'll go hungry if we don't (unless we can live only on the bounty of our veg plot – which in my case, at least, is unlikely) and so its perfectly justifiable and reasonable. Or so it seems. What isn't justified and reasonable is doing it WHEN we had promised ourselves to work on the painting, the novel or the sonata. Just as it wouldn't be reasonable to go down to prepare the bean bed and come back up to the house having cleaned out the shed, planted some potatoes and weeded around the plum tree (unless that's where we were planning on planting the beans).
So next time you find yourself cleaning out the fridge or grooming the cat at 10am, stop yourself in your tracks and ask yourself whether that was really the appointment you had with yourself this morning? Or were you supposed to be planting beans?
23 Mar 2010
The Compost Heap
The compost heap is the heart of the process of our creative recycling. For creative work, we need to be constantly taking in information in order to later tap into it later as a source of inspiration and material. But in order for the information and stimulation that we take in to be transformed into our final product or artwork, an almost alchemical process needs to take place. In 'Drawing on the Artist Within', Betty Edwards calls this process the period of 'incubation'.
8 Mar 2010
An Urban Farmer
There is a certain bar not far from where I live where the owner is always smiling. Lets call him Manolo. People have been heard to mumble that Manolo has every reason to smile because he is making so much money. But the truth is his attitude contrasts sharply with that of some of his customers.
I saw Paco in there the other day. "No work," he mumbled looking downcast and unshaven at his shoes. "Perhaps I'll get some leaflets printed to advertise the business...It's the only thing I can think of, you know?"
Meanwhile various workers in blue overalls, non of whom were Paco, busied around the bar putting up new light fittings, installing new signeage and giving the outside a lick of paint. How could the owner afford all this? Surely takings must be down in the current economic climate? With half his regulars suddenly unemployed even Manolo must be feeling the pinch?
"Will you be taking part in the Fería de la Tapa this year?" I asked him.
(The 'Feria de la Tapa' is local fiesta that involves going from bar to bar sampling free delicacies with your drinks in which the bars strive to outdo each other in culinary expertise.)
"Of course! We've got some great new dishes lined up to tempt the clients," Manolo enthused, "And we'll be doing a bit of extra advertising to make sure people don't miss us out."
"Leaflets?" I asked.
"Maybe," he mused, "but I was thinking of something with a bit more impact!" He winked conspiratorially.
Now Manolo is not, as far as I know, a man who spends much time with his hands plunged in the earth - though he does conspicuously support the use of local produce - but he's clearly someone with his feet firmly planted.
Manolo recognises that to eat tomorrow, he has to be up very early sowing today. He also realises that if this year's excessive and uncharacteristic rainfall means its too wet to plant a certain crop, he'd better waste no time in thinking what to plant instead. And if that crop requires a bit of extra investment, then Manolo will find a way to gather that cash somehow.
Manolo, it seems, is a man who knows that We Are What We Grow. It's about time a few more Paco's out there realised it as well.
Photos:
10/10: Headline Collage by MyEyeSees
Happy Tapas by Mat Hampson
21 Feb 2010
26 Jan 2010
CLEARED SPACE - Why Emptiness Allows Growth
"If all space were filled with matter, nothing could move… A type of space can also be filled with all the assumptions you have made in your life. If you go back and remember how your structure of understanding (of what is going on in this world) was built, and how those assumptions have affected your life, you see that a different set of assumptions would have led to a very different life. The ability to understand that you can change your life by changing your assumptions is a kind of “movement.” Allowing for possibility that alternate assumptions may also be useful … emptiness allows for personal growth."
From p67 of Movements of Power by Bob Klein
I did clear various beds in the autumn ready for February planting but as a consequence of my temporary abandonment, those beds – that at other times of the year are overflowing with luscious veggies – have been gradually squatted by nettles.
Read More......
16 Dec 2009
26 Sept 2009
Preparing the ground
29 May 2009
WEATHER - part 2: Aloe Vera in the Snow
PLANNING FOR THE DOWN TIMES IN OUR CREATIVE CYCLES
Snow is highly unusual where we live but the winter was already proving very cold and with a bit of foresight it wasn't that difficult to see that snow was a strong possibility. With some advance planning we might have been able to save more of the aloe vera plants - either digging them right up and over-wintering them in pots inside or looking for some way to create protective coverings over them to stop the jelly inside the leaves freezing and stacking up mulch round the base to keep the roots warm.
Likewise with our own creative cycles, we have to know that there WILL be times when our confidence is at a low ebb or our productivity slows almost to a standstill and be ready with strategies to protect our fragile creative egos so that they survive the winter ready to bloom again when better weather comes. These strategies are very similar to those we use for our delicate plants - protection, feeding and sometimes a gentle pruning.
Protection means a controlled environment where we feel safe. For some that means the privacy of our journal or our studio where we can doodle and play; for others it is the supportive environment of a group of fellow creatives (on-line or round the corner) or even a combination of both.
Feeding
There are many ways to feed and fertilize our creative souls which vary hugely from person to person. For some it is time spent out in nature, for others it is out on the town. For some, immersing ourselves in other people's creative work does the trick, for others the exact opposite is true and what we need is to just be still and listen to our own creative voice. A rest or a holiday when we don't expect anything of ourselves creatively may produce the desired result or it may be frenetic activity or a tight deadline that gets our creative juices flowing again. Only we can know the answer to what cures and heals us and fills us up and its up to us to determine the correct recipe and feed it to ourselves.
Pruning
When the health of a plant is threatened sometimes it is best to prune it back so the small amount of energy it does have isn't dissipated in trying to repair dying branches. Likewise when our creative energy is at a low ebb, it is often beneficial to cut back on our expectations and responsibilities, identifying the projects that we could stop working on right away with no serious consequences and so freeing ourselves to concentrate more consistently on just a few things.
Watching our own creative cycles we can learn to recognize the danger points and plan for lapses in our creative confidence and productivity in the way we plan for extreme weather conditions in our garden. Its no use just hoping for the best and leaving vulnerable plants out in the snow!
Next week: Transplanting to a bigger pot - but only by a waning moon!
20 Apr 2009
HOW TO VISUALISE YOUR CREATIVE BLOOMS: Or what GTD and the picture on your seed packet have in common
Have you ever planted some seeds straight into the garden without really being sure you will be able to identify the plants when they are grown? Then, a few months later, you go out to look to see whether the seed is coming up only to find the whole patch covered with weeds. Or are they weeds? Could it be that some of those unrecognisable sprouts are actually the plants you are waiting for?
This scenario has a lot in common with David Allen's GTD concept of "What does DONE look like?" Its not that we need to know literally exactly what our creative projects will look like when they are finished but we do need to define their genus by setting goals and maybe parameters for the project.
One of the biggest reasons creative people get blocked is because we start out every piece with the wish that it turn out a 'masterpiece' and as soon as it begins to look like this might not be the case, we block.
Its not too difficult to recognise what's happened: We've set ourselves unreasonable expectations because we have no easy way to recognise when our project is completed, not that unlike planting those unfamiliar seeds in the middle of that patch of weedy soil. Fundamentally this has the same effect as not setting any parameters or goals at all.
How much better then, when we set off to plant those seeds, to diligently weed the soil first and then to carefully put aside the seed packet with the photograph of the fully-grown plant on the front so that when the seeds start to mature, we've got a photo to help us tell them apart from any stray weeds that still come up in the same patch.
Likewise, if we set ourselves specific goals within our creative projects - e.g. I am going to paint a picture in colours I don't normally use - and resist the temptation to clarify these goals with unrealistic expectations - such as that it will be a 'brilliant' picture - then its a lot easier to see when our particular plant has matured and bloomed. We know when we have finished our project and can enjoy a sense of success at accomplishing our aims.
16 Jan 2009
THE ONE EQUALS THE MANY - Same work, more benefits!
One of the principles of Permaculture - according to its founding father, Bill Mollison - is that in a sustainable garden system, all elements should fulfill at least two, if not three, different functions. One example would be a fruit-bearing tree that gives fruit to eat, rinds for compost, leaves for mulch, twigs for kindling, and shade for humans, animals and other plants; Or chickens which provide eggs, meat (if you eat it), manure, feathers, carbon dioxide, methane and heat for other nearby life forms. (They also promote vegetation by dispersing seeds, pollinating plants and eating insects so probably time to get some chickens!)
I started to wonder what else this could be applied to in life and to
analyse some of my daily activities in the light of whether they fulfill more than just their one, primary function. To my surprise, the three activities I picked off the top of my head all had a lot of hidden value: Creative pursuits - such as art-making in my case - provides not only a product to enjoy, share or sell, but also gives me spiritual fulfillment and relief from stress. Likewise, going to a fitness class - as well as the obvious health benefits you would expect - also provides me with social interaction (which counterbalances a lot of time working alone) and also a degree of learning. Then, of course, there is gardening which, as well as providing an aesthetically pleasant place for myself and my partner and our friends/family and pets to enjoy, gives me multiple health benefits as not only do I get to eat more tasty, home-grown, organic food but I also get exercise and relaxation into the bargain!
The perceived value of our regular activities can really go up when we analyse them in light of the varied benefits they give us and - in these days of overflowing inboxes and hectic schedules - this might help us in our daily lives to sort out where our energies are most usefully spent...Just as it does when we come to planning what to grow!
For more insight into Bill Mollison and Permaculture watch: In Grave Danger of Falling Food
With thanks for additional information for this article, to:
Permaculture-Sustainable Farming/Ranching/Living
About Permaculture
23 Nov 2008
Washing Pots
As I go about the garden, I see empty posts scattered here and there unwashed and abandoned after the plants they contained have long since been transplanted to new homes or have left the land of plant life to go to the great compost heap in the corner. I know that what I need to do is to gather up the pots and take them to the sink to be scrubbed; then to leave them to dry in the sun and tidy them away in an easily accessible place ready for use when something next needs potting up. But while I am rushing around, busy with the myriad of gardening tasks that must be done, I find no time for washing pots.
One day, however, a hiatus comes: The seeds are all planted, the weeds have been hoed, the bushes and trees pruned and its not yet time for the next season's work. Or, perhaps, it is simply that I feel tired or lethargic...I sit on the front step and feel the warm sunlight gladden my face and my soul. I should do something, I think...I decide to wash pots.
While I wash, I daydream about what I will plant next year, the new path I'm going to make, the pergola my partner is building...I wash and enjoy the sun and soon all the pots are washed and drying. Soon after they are stacked and put away ready for use.
Washing pots is what we do when we don't really feel like doing anything and, in not really doing anything, we find that after all, we have done something very important.
Image adapted from photo courtesy of stock.xchng free stock images
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