Water-wise

My focus of study this month is water, and becoming wise about it. Water-wisdom is concerned with planting to conserve water, but also with awareness of the water all around and within; we are water! 

Agenda:
1. Ongo journal

2. Love Meditation
3. Water-wise plans
4. Next steps for my wildlife garden
5. Days of Passion

1. Ongo Journal:

I'm taking a 12-week non-violent communication class. Week three is about Self-Empathy, something I've always felt ambiguous about. During the group practice we got to choose a situation and name our thoughts, feelings, needs, and a request for action.

My Journal: 

Thought: When I tell myself I will never be wise enough...

Feeling: I feel frustrated and urgent

Needs: because I need self-respect, patience, and acknowledgement that I am enough.

Action: Name how I am growing in wisdom.

The first solo practice for this week is a "To-Be List". The practice is to look at each item on my list of things to do, and consider how I want to be, what energy I want to bring, and what needs I want to express through my actions and words.

My To-Be list today:

• Research .... curious, expansive
• Shopping with PBB ... appreciative, attentive
• Gardening ... renewal, exercise, giving and receiving
• Grandson time ... peaceful, playful, loving
• Art-making ... clarity, inspirational
• Buddy time ... authentic and open

2. Love meditation:

Every month after the full moon, in the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon, I practice a love meditation that progresses from receptivity, to gratitude, to generosity:

Day 2: Practice a love meditation, and end by feeling and expressing gratitude - send a prayer to the universe of thanksgiving for all I have in my life. 

When I remember to feel grateful for my blessings, my days take on a different tone: I have more vigor, optimism, compassion, and peace. By noticing how I am blessed, my impatience decreases and I realize how satisfied and fulfilled I really am.

3. Water-wise plans:

My valley has a Mediterranean-type climate with mild, wet winters and dry, warm summers. Our dry period typically lasts 3 months (July-September), when daytime temperatures often exceed 90˚ F, and sometimes exceed 100º.  This combination of dry days and summer heat causes stress to many landscape plants if they are not irrigated regularly.  

As a result, municipal water use in my Valley frequently doubles or triples during the summer months due to outdoor watering. As our population grows, this becomes a stress on our water supply, which will only get worse as climate change effects increase.  

The solution is for more of us to use some water-wisdom with our plant choices! Many native plants have a natural tolerance for our summer dry periods. These are some I want to add, and some I want more of:

Douglas aster (Aster subspicatus).
Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum).
Camas (Camassia sp.).
Western red columbine (Aquilegia formosa).
Goldenrod (Solidago sp.).
Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana).
Oregon iris (Iris tenax).
Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum).
Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea).
Cascade penstemon (Penstemon serrulatus).
Broadleaf stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium).
Sword fern (Polystichum munitum).
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium).
California poppy (Eschscholzia californica).
Farewell-to-spring (Clarkia amoena).
Globe gilia (Gilia capitata).

4. Next steps for my Wildlife Garden:

I've been converting the font yard to a habitat for wildlife, with advise from Habitat Haven, and today I'll set some goals for this fall:

Continue to remove invasive and nuisance weeds: Italian arum, bindweed, English ivy, and creeping buttercup. 

Plan new naturescaping: I'm working on three main areas:

Street Planting Strip (9’ x 36’ = 324 sq. ft.) 

1. Remove ornamental iris and most daylily
2. Transplant shade-tolerant sword fern (Polystichum munitum) and yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
3. Start Oregon Iris (Iris tenax): Warm-moist stratification 2-4 weeks, followed by 60-90 days cold-moist stratification, then sow outside.
4. Buy and plant native violets (Viola unduko), and Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)

New hugelkulture

1. Finish moving dirt, compost, leaves, sow a cover crop of clover.
2. Buy and plant native violets (Viola unduko), Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), wood sorrel, red columbine, corral bells, goat's beard

Front patio bed

1. Loosen soil, remove invasives, mulch and compost
2. Transplant in Oregon sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum), yarrow, Douglas aster, and bleeding heart
3. Sow showy fleabane (Erigeron speciosus), Oregon iris, and blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum and idahoense)
4. Buy and add Douglas wallflower, sneezeweed, monkey lower, blanket flower

Stormwater management: Think about a Rain garden to manage stormwater onsite.

Education & Volunteerism: I've got some plans already for this objective:

1. Make a Habitat Haven flyer with photos of my plants to share with neighbors.
2. Work on pesticide legislation, specifically Oregon House Bill 2679, to make neonics a restricted-use pesticide to protect bees and other pollinators.

5. Days of Passion:

On Fridays I make a plan for Nature-Culture flow and writing through the next week. My Nature-Culture theme this month is water, drought, plastic and pollution, and rain gardens, and I'm also working on the idea of the intersection of Nature and Culture: Is there a balance point, like a Yin yang, between the two? How can I better incorporate a sense of my wild animal instinctual being into my days, and thinking like an earth dweller rather than a person from mars?

• F: Transplant sword fern to front; warm-moist stratification  of iris seeds
• Draw a trout for new stamp
• Sat: Write about stormwater rain gardens and water-wise planting.
  
• Think about and paint a moon landscape painting in the studio.
• Sun: Write about an Autumn awareness walk.
• Transplant yarrow
• Go to a migratory bird event with family
• M: Write about water wisdom indoors, prepare your garden beds for winter
• Remove more English ivy in hedge and prepare holes for thimbleberry 
• Paint butterflies in the bathroom
• T: Write about pumpkin awareness
• Cut jack-o-lanterns
• Build hugelkulture, plant clover
• W: Write trout-friendly education and craftivism 
• Make pumpkin paintings, cookies?
• Th: Plan for teaching Nature-Culture to kids- life and death
• Write words for new craftivism fish tag