APS wk10 wrap up
WIP. Pickles to come. Uned.
Free plants to all that actually read this to th end, 😂 she got wordy, emo, and personal! *this is a joke, no free plants*I mean unless...*
Train lines open again! Woohoo, got my slow train back = less motion sickness, + its empty for th most part, until we get closer to th city, and even then it's not at capacity = less anxeity, === more spoons for th rest of th day 🥄🥄🥄.. aaand Chilly Mornings 💋💨 feeling th chill slowly creepin in = actually being able to wear some of my favourite clothes, rather than just wearing shorts and singlet, feeling like I'm heading out into th wide world in my yard clothes.
I'm sure we all do that right? Have a set of clothes we wear around th yard, doesn't matter if they get messed up. My go to are my black denim shorts and singlet. Feb / March are literally th hottest part of th yr here, and it's like my body doesn't regulate temp. If I wore pants and a shirt on warm days, I would be sick af! Equivalent to if someone else was wearing trackydacks, hoody, and beany, while working in th sun.
We begin and th first thing we talk about is our 25min talk that we will be presenting tomorrow,..and some how I had completely forgotten about it 😭 vanished from brain until mentioned right then. I died!
Fucking epic fail on my behalf. We spoke about it last week, and th wk before when we presented our 15min talk. Working on it was part of our home work, but did I write it down? NOPE! it's so major, I've been absolutely shitting myself about any thing to do with public speaking, why would I write it down 😬 I am here, on this course, to learn how to present talks to teach ppl,.. an I just completely drop th fucking ball on this?? WTAF brain. I even spoke with friends about it last week, I spoke with family about it. But over th weekend I'm like OK homework time, looks at set homework that I did write down - 45min talk decide subject & Title, + watch Inkscape instruction yt made by facilitator, + set up Inskape, have a play. As I've been using it for yrs, I watched th vid, and then focused on th 45min talk that's due in a few weeks. Part of me is like OK, th thing I was very worried about completely blanks from brain, this is a clear ND + hectic family full plate moment, and th rest if me is just full self deprecating yoooou stooopid bish.
I shared I dropped th ball, acknowledging my fuk up, and stated I would be more on top of writing down home work, EVEN THO I've actively been writing down almost word for word of what is said, journaling, blogging here/FB, plus taking a thousand photos, just so I can recall, and stay on track. I really thought I was on top of this.
Throughout th course I have openly shared my struggles with undiagnosed autism/adhd, and cptsd. basically I'm fukd. I've shared my struggles with a hectic family life, ND family members that need support, and my inability to manage all this. I myself need support. These are th reasons why I only step into inclusive safe spaces. Spaces that are gentle and forgiving of fukups,.with open clear communication. And this is another driving force as to why I want to teach. To help ppl like me. To create more safe spaces, even if it's just online.
Soooo, moving on..... Morning started with dipping back into Teaching Tools. We recapped on where we had left off last time, touching on different teaching tools/styles - Vocal, Visual, Peer, Activities, and how they can work together.
Our Facilitator brought along their teaching resources kit. AAAND it's a Ryobi modular 3 toolbox stack trolley thing! Th utilitarian lesbian in me is extremely pleased. ✔️Practical ✔️Strong ✔️Portable. Yes. love it.
They open up th first caddy - one of those shallow divided caddy's for like screws n shit, ✨ALL STATIONARY✨ All th Colours. All th things. felts, pencils, sticky notes, rulers, stencils, a biig ass ball of string, even some Lego. Yes. Yes. Love it.
Next cady - deeper undivided tub ✨ALL PERMACULTURE CARD DECKS AND VISUAL AIDS ✨ *intensifying happiness meme plays out real time* Yes. Yes. Yes. I've only seen these online window shopping, dreaming, and wishing I could buy them. We had a look through th different resources and how each one can be used in different ways, and spoke about some specific strategies we can use when standing in front of ppl to break ice, lighten th air, or even buy time if you need to regroup. Lil bites of info like this are so valuable.
➡️ One resource that stood out were pages hand written with markers, then laminated. Simple. Effective. REPLICATEABLE. Low cost resources.
Highlights for me were seeing two of Robin Clayfeids decks. Social Permaculture, and Open Communication is a special interest of mine, that I am yet to really dive into. I'm very much a noob at all of this, but I definitely want to deep dive on it. I'd love to do a wk long Course with Robin up at Crystal Waters. I see them online, drool, swoon, but at th minute it's just not doable with family/financial restrictions. During my PDC with PermaQueer, we camped out at Crystal Waters, and Robin gave us a Permaculture Garden Tour at their home. Absolute Privilege. I wish I could have filmed th day, or even had a hand held audio recorder! So soo much info and inspo.
The final one is a bigger tub - Th Tech Tub. Spare connection/adapter cords for different devices, extension cord, power board, etc - every one can relate to a presentation day were someone forgets their cord. There's also a projector in there for th 25min talk tomorrow.
While packing away we touched on selecting th right tools/resources to pair with your planning, tying into knowing your audience, and your strengths.
We then were given time to work on our 25min talks, which I just kinda sat there ND frozen for th most part. Just absolute crickets upstairs. Staring at th garden trying to think of what to do my talk on, I realised I needed to get up and physically move to get my mental process to move past th paralysis of my fuk up. Walked out to th backyard garden, saw th butterfly garden, perfect! Wait no, I don't know shit about any of these plants or butterflys for that matter. Kept pacing, saw th sad herb spiral, perfect, easy, I kinda know it, but so does evey one. Then saw th sad frog pond! Perfect buuut I'll put th budget friendly renter twist on it - th Frog Hotel! So after wasting more than half of my work time, I had a subject, I brain dumped, and researched that. At th end of this sesh I shared that I would be able to present tomorrow but it will be dog shit, read out of notes as I'd have limited time that evening to work on it, due to ✨life✨ again, my bad.
After Lunch we were sent out into th backyard to play 😂 aaaand by play I mean measure up and get more done on our base maps. Homedidilyome. 2hr commute yay 🤗
Wednesday.ooof. A day was had.
Got there feeling shit house. Emo af after having a less than stella moment with an offspring while saying goodbye, walking out th door at 620, th 2hr travel in, stressing about money, and family members, still pissed at myself for dropping th ball on th talk, and all th things flooding my head as I walked down to th Farm from th train. I was so glad I got there early to have a snack and compose myself before we start at 9.
Lessons learned. Do not approach th communal space until I'm whole, until all of me is ready to mask, and be communal.
Asked how I was, I immediately tear up, and shared my shit show, then gathered myself as th convo moved on to other things. And then there was a communication breakdown between th facilitator and I. So I was already emotionally ruptured, my emotional resilience was low. I bit my tongue a few times, stopping mid sentence because I was spoken over. But I then I escalated to raising my voice as I continued talking while being spoken over again. This is not ok.
This is a red flag. I am not being listened to, or respected.
Subject matter aside. And I get it when ppl get excited and they jump in, in positive ways, that's different. I catch myself doing this all time, and I am genuinely trying to work on it.
But if a conversation if not positive, if it's micro confrontational, condescending, closed, and invalidating, aaaand then they talk over you... 😳😬 i will be that bitch. I will yell th fuck over you while you talk over me. This is NOT poor behaviour on my behalf. It's knee jerk reaction, It's basic. Sometimes you can repeatedly ask someone not to talk over you, and they don't hear you until you step out of politeness, but then your in th wrong?. I struggle with being assertive. I can come across as quite aggressive. I can be very aggressive. I've had to learn how to navigate situations where ppl in a position of power/authority over me or th situation, need to reminded/guided, or even held accountable. I don't fucking like it. It's work, and I'm not getting paid. So that happened.
We officially started th morning with brief chats on how we felt about our prep for th talks, and we begun. First up was a talk about th law of war, and history of th Red Cross. Amazing. Heart breaking. Th person doing this talk has worked for many yrs internationally for th Red Cross doing aid work. It is such a privilege to hear their stories and have them on this course. the peer learn from them is such a gift! So much respect for them.
I was second up. Frog Hotels. It was not great. And that's completely on me. I did not put time into creating this. I don't know how to write a talk. 15, 25, or 45 min. Yes, I know you have th intro, th core, and then wrap it up, hold space for qs. But I am commited to learning,.. through failure it seems 😂 I stood up in front of th group of three, read from my notes that were all over th place like a pick a path adventure, flick back and forward between pages. Went off script a bit here n there. But I did it and it was a solid 20min. I trailed off towards th end, skipped a part, and just general spooned out. It's a. lot. yo.
Third talk was about Bullet Journaling. I had no idea it was an actual formally formatted thing from some dude, and there's a specific way of doing it. This does not mesh with th kaos that is my brain, but it looks like it's got quite a following and works wonders for them. Really informative.
After each talk we ask each other: What was th best part, What was challenging, What would you change. For me th best part is when I talk off script, straight from experience and personal knowledge, not just repeating newly researched knowledge. Challenging part was reading my notes - messy much. Do better - actually fucking do it maybe. These qs are great. They point out my strengths, and directly link to where to work on.
After a quick debrief, we had a short break to get coffee, stretch. Then we moved on to Food Forestry, recapping on th layers: Canopy, mid, and ground. And how much each layer takes up: 20% canopy, 40% mid, and 80% ground layer. Nearly ever time I hear/see this mentioned it's drawn from a side view, and someone comments but thats over 100%, or they don't understand. It's so much clearer when its a birds eye view showing th canopy layer taking only 20% of th total space. Then show in a separate picture th birds eye view of Mid Layer taking up only 40% of th space. And then again with th ground layer covering 80% of th entire space. And then have a aerial view of all three layered over each other, so you can see th Canopy and Mid layers shouldn't really over lap too much, but they can, while th ground layer pretty much grows where ever it can, adding that most ground are in some ways shade tolerant.
We walked over to a garden along Victoria St on th east side of th farm, to observe a Food Forest Style Garden. Th garden has recently been managed, having some pruning done, and th grounds looks scrapped in many places, assuming that's th bush turkeys tho, but also looks like it's had a heap of under growth, probably weeds, removed. It kinda looks clean, but more just bare.
We talk about th different layers in front of us, and it become clear that it's th opposite of what we talk about with ideal layers. This canopy is close to 90%. Th canopy trees are close together, encouraging them to fight for light, pushing each other up. Benefits are it's a great sound barrier, air filter, wind barrier, and privacy screen. Also close by is th area children play and bush crafts are done. This garden as a whole wraps around th Victoria St / Edgar St corner, framing this side of th Farm, and this children's corner. Theres a really calm nostalgic feel to it.
Th Mid Layer is 2 plants. That's it. It's like 2% at best. And th ground layer again, is just few plants here and there. 5% tops. There's no light getting through th canopy, creating a understory suppression. All th growth is relatively th same age, planted out at th same time.
This leads us to talking about succession, heirloom/old cultivars, and Hybridised fruit trees. Most common store purchased fruit trees these days are pretty shit in th grand scheme of things, (context to longevity in food forest systems). Their bred to fruit heavily early on in their life, leaving their yield to slowly decrease and die off at th 7ish yr mark. Where as older cultivars have been selectively bred to be resilient, won't fruit untill th 5-8 yr mark but then live for potentially 30-40+ yrs or so, like my fave th BUSH LEMON, they just keep going 🍋
In this we see how th two can be married together within succession. Plant both! Harvest th abundant hybrid, as its dying off, th older cutivar is just getting warmed up ready to party, plant a new old cultivar where th hybrids were. Th only real problem is tracking down good old cultivars.
Well that and actually being able to own land in th first place to able to do any of this. Which lead us to talking about th changing culture of land ownership. And honestly it's a huge topic, that usually boils down to th growing wealth divide, privilege, and ✊TAKING BACK TH COMMONS. One participant said that in urban areas most ppl only stay in one house for 7yr average. Most renters dream of being able to stay in one place that long.
In a context of design we're learning that success of a tree system can rely on asking/knowing how much energy and time, th custodians are willing to give to it, or money to hire you to manage it, how committed to it they are, and designing around that. Some may want ten thousand elements in one acer, we will need to educate them on what is actually possible. There's also th reality of th people planting th trees probably won't be there in 10-15yrs, and it may get ripped out by th next owners. There's no way to design aesthetically to avoid this, aesthetics change person to person, decade to decade. Designing low or self managing systems that are highly productive, may have th new owners choosing to buy this earth, or at least considering keeping th tree system in place.
Back to our learning zone under th office, and on to Support Plants. Recap on what they are, th benefits, etc. Ratios for Production Plants, as a general rule. In full sun - For an exotic production tree, Eg Citrus, we needs at least one exotic support plant around th same size, or at least two native support plants. For a Native Production tree, need one exotic support plant, or two native support plants. I think I have this right, I failed to right down th native ratio, or we didn't cover it. If th Support plants are in th shade, you double it, their growth will be slower so u need more, and th production plants should still be in full sun as most production plant require full sun. Th flip on it, too many support plants, may be an issue if it is too much bio mass, or too much nitrogen can lead to weak, sappy growth, which in turn results in bug infestations, particularly Aphids. Too many flowers never hurt no one 💐😂🐛
With all this in mind, tying back into our layers, it means theres less room for production plants, but with creative design, you can get what you want, and have th system designed to manage itself.
Some better times to plant and prune are March and September. These milder times of year make it easy for th plant and th worker, and doing it a these times of yr then set th pattern of intensive physical working bursts, with maintenance done in th in between times through th year.
After lunch . We then used a 'food forestry' type deck - a deck of all different edibles, trees, shrubs, vines, ground covers, etc,..and each card is jam packed with info, similar to th Savour Soils Veg Deck. They have an image of th plant, height/width it can potentially how to, root depth, soil requirements, feeding needs, sun requirements, and a few other things I can't quite remember.
We each went through a deck selecting a combination of plants that would work together in a food forest. AMAZING! Seeing all th info clearly, then thinking about th compatibility, th relationships between them, really clicked in my brain. Loved this activity.
Homework was set as working on our 45min talk. Mines on th 7th of June at 1pm. Subject is potted viney plants - Basic of Potted Vining Aroids. Title not cement. Feel free to come along and watch me shit my trunks 😜 I'll bring a few totemed philos, go through basic potting mix, repot a very sad boi, and generally just act like a deer in headlight 🤙oh and I'll probably unashamedly pimp DBP