April 2–22, 2022, Mount Washington
“(The Indian) must be imbued with the exalting egotism of American civilization so that he will say “I” instead of “We,” and “This is mine” instead of “This is ours.” —J.D.C. Atkins, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1886. The Dawes Act of 1887 sought to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream American values and culture. One strategy involved trying to change Native Americans’ traditional sense of communally held land to a belief in individually held plots.
“In 2007 in a small English town called Todmorden, a woman dug up her prize rose garden, planted vegetables, and put up a sign: Help Yourself! This was the beginning of a group called the Incredible Edible Network, of which there are now 100 branches across the UK.
When landscape designer Edwina von Gal asked her Berkshire Botanical Garden audience last month, “Why don’t you share?” she was calling on us to keep in mind the survival of wild nature while planning our landscapes. Whether a lawn, vegetable garden or flower border, dedicate a proportional area to native grasses, broadleaf flowering plants and shrubs that will feed and provide nurseries for butterflies, bees, birds, moths, and micro-organisms: all the known and unknown life forms that contribute to the support of a dynamic, healthy Earth.
When we see our individually held plots in relationship to neighboring lands, we create a greenway for resident and migrating minibeasts and other landscape helpers. Ownership responsibilities evolve. Around the world, “Reinventing the Commons” initiatives are on the rise. In the Berkshires, the Schumacher Society [now the Schumacher Center for a New Economics], founded in 1980, has a history of opportunities to reinvent the commons. “The commons paradigm is a versatile social form that is reviving ancient forms of shared stewardship for resources and community, often with modern twists…”
Let’s eat! Informed by the food on my table from the 2021 growing season – superb keeper crops – these are my recommended storage vegetable varieties for spring planting. The following are seeds provided by nearby Turtle Tree Seed: Rodynda red cabbages, medium-sized heads, wrapped in paper bags and stored in the refrigerator (in the absence of a root cellar). Two heads remain for soup and salad. Beets, in perforated, reused plastic bags are also in cold storage in the crisper drawer. I have delighted in growing most of Turtle Tree’s beet varieties and carrots Rolanka and Milan Nantes. The Hong Vit Radish, not credited for its extremely long storage potential, is widely available.
Colorful, organic seed potatoes will soon arrive at Ward’s Nursery and Garden Center in Great Barrington. Explore Turtle Tree Seed on their website, watch a short film, order all organic and biodynamic seeds and inquire about visiting them in Copake, New York.
Frost will be out within days in my polyculture garden. I will be quick to dig overwintered parsnips and sow Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce.
New Season / Earth Day Colloquia and other Events
April 18–22: Boston Globe Sustainability Week
April 22: Earth Day worldwide
April 22–24: Northeast Natural History Conference (NENHC), a forum for current research, at Albany Capital Center, Albany, New York
April 22–30: International Dark Sky Week and Dark Nights Every Night
