Neil Evansan

Chris Kott wrote:I like the approach that suggests the best hiding spot is in plain sight. Namely, what about choosing your planting sites beforehand, and figuring out a way to prep the site so that it looks like a municipal project? I can see this working better with seedlings of any size, where you could run up with a potted seedling, rip up a circle of sod, drop it in, plant it, water it, and perhaps mulch heavily with something that looks close enough to beauty bark, something like ramial wood chips or chipped bark. While I don't like interfering more than necessary, I'd add to this a trunk cage (to be removed soonest) and maybe a flag or any type of support structure common on authorized municipal plantings. The most effective guerillas are those that look like they're supposed to be there. I even like the idea of cheaper commemorative plaques mounted on small rocks or something (especially if you can arrange rocks decoratively for the purpose of the plaque and have them also regulate temperature and sieve moisture from the air) that resemble those purchased for donors of trees or park benches or the like. You could do up a fake commemoration, or you could be completely blunt about the unauthorized nature of the tree.

Having said that, you could take all these steps and use seed balls, but that would increase your time in the spot over just chucking a seed disc.

-CK

We've all seen the many "Memorial Crosses" on Highways and Roads. Many times, those are allowed to stay for months and even years. When you see one, add a Seed Ball.

When my Brother died in 1988, we gave out Seedlings at his funeral, and 25 years later, I know there are many hundreds of tall majestic Spruce Trees in many locations in the Willamette Valley and Portland. Because my Dad bought several couple bags of seedlings, we had waaay many seedlings left after the services. My Wife and I took a bag (I think it was 100) and spent several weekends planting trees around Portland, usually in groups of 3, to symbolize 3 Brothers, and because not all seedlings will make it past the early years. In one field we asked to plant a ring of 25 trees. 15 years later, that field was turned into a sub-division, and still had 18 growing thriving trees that were incorporated into the design.

Adrien Lapointe mentioned an Apple Tree Guild Seed Ball. I'd think that and other anchor trees would make wonderful remembrances at funerals or Weddings or other significant receptions / events.

I saw this today and wonder how we can invite (and even facilitate) more Cities and Towns across America and Canada (and the rest of the World) to be open to accepting and providing these kinds of "Open Spaces."

Congratulations Seattle, for taking steps to make awareness a part of the Neighborhood.

Who's Next?

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/02/21/its-not-fairytale-seattle-build-nations-first-food-forest

paul wheaton wrote:(about to head home from sepp event)

This would be very cool. I would even do the plane trip!

Paul, if you are interested in doing these kinds of interviews, put together a short "Paul Reel" for Producers to look at. For the most part, they don't really care about your instructional stuff, but they DO want to have a great sense of what kind of an Interview you'd give, and how you'd interact with Colbert.

If you've never watched the show, go watch several so you have an idea of what the show is like.

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-april-1-2013-sigourney-weaver

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/thu-march-7-2013-john-sexton

but no matter the outcome of this one show, if you want to do interviews on main-stream TV, make it easy for Producers to see you do your stuff. Create a 4 minute video showing You, and why You'd be a Great guest.

Good Luck!

You're Welcome Leila!

While FaceBook works for over a Billion people worldwide, Humans still DO like to have personal interaction.

An interesting thing about the "reach out and touch someone" generations ..... Studies continue to show that it's the rare individual who actually takes the time to make a personalized contact, so most of the media-savvy peeps will give more weight to those contacts. When I did SportsTalk Radio in the 90s, it was determined that each phone call was representing the feelings of 50 individual listeners who would never call in themselves. We could use that rough guesstimate as almost instant feedback on what topics we'd focus on that day, what Promotions we'd do, who we would contact for quotes, etc. The same thing was true on another Station I worked with Political Talk.

While it's efficient to make your thoughts seen on Social and other Electronic Media, that efficiency can be easily lost amongst the noise of all the other online traffic. That's one of the reasons contact by Phone is still assigned more influential.

Seems to be a number of Luddite-leaning-types here. You can always use other methods of contact .....

~ (212) 586-2477

~ 513 W. 54th St. in New York City, 10019

~ Use the "Contact" section of the official Comedy Central website. http://www.comedycentral.com/help/website-feedback

~ Email the Colbert Nation webmaster at colbertweb@gmail.com.

I agree with Pierre and Roxanne, dig DEEP below the trees you plant. If you can swing it, you might want to use a power auger and poke several post-holes in a 4' to 6' diameter. Trees like deeps roots for stability, but they also need wide roots to spread out past the canopy. For the other areas, I'd at least turn the soil before adding layers. For big-space areas, I've aerated hard-compacted soil with a 3/4"x24" woodworking auger bit (on a cordless drill) before putting down organic layers. and worms. (poking holes 8"-12" apart) In just a couple years, these yards were revived and healthy again. If you did this, I'd aerate before turning or double-digging.

We once tractor-tilled an old overgrown weeded backyard orchard (10 minutes south of Portland Oregon, 1/2 clay, 1/2 thick clumpy loam on a mild-sloping hillside) to turn & loosen the soil and allow it to breath. The first year was 'eh', but it allowed me to build planting mounds for Garden Food and Bonsai starters. The next year, 1/2 of the orchard trees revived (we thought several were absolutely dead). After that, the ground was awesome and the trees flourished (4 Apple, 2 Cherry, 1 Apricot, 2 Pear, 3 Holly) That was mid-80s. My former wife still lives there and grows about 1/2 of the food she eats, still all organic. The neighbors get boatloads of Fruit.

Good Luck with your land!

It doesn't need to be really heavy, but shake-absorbing weight is one of the by-products of extra mass. The real idea of a below-can stabilizer is to add a longer axis as well as a counter-balancing weight to spread any movements, which are what causes the 'shakiness' you are experiencing.

Here's a real cheap homemade stabilizer for a full-size video camera, claimed to be built for only $14, that does what $600+ units do. http://14dollarstabilizer.org/. For other ideas, Google "Video Cam Stabilizer" and you can see several different designs from which you can model.

Here's a (funded) Kickstarter showing what an iPhone/Pocket Cam stabilizer would look like. This looks like it could be built for about $30. If I were to build this version, I'd make a provision to mount it to a tripod. (I'm talking about a REAL full-size tripod, not a 4' or 5' flimsy-assed assembly of adjustable legs. The Manfrotto I used would extend to over 7' tall, well above peoples heads, and collapse to 44". Again think quality and versatility and end-product, not just price)

about visiting Farms and Fields ...... one of my favorite Bonsai Mentors taught us "the True Master Always Learns from EVERY Source." He encouraged us to have a camera at hand to photo trees in Gardens and in Nature. (this was in the 80s, long before inexpensive digital cams)

My guess is that you see yourself as a Master (or at least a Duke), willing to gain knowledge and application, and pass that along to willing and eager ears and eyes and hands. In that regard, you probably film more than you think you do (or, maybe not enough!). You might as well film with a tool that equals your knowledge and ability, your Students anticipation, and the subject matter at hand. (Change the World, and all that jazz)

Besides ..... I'm not buying into your claim that you can't have a palm-sized video camera (smaller than a 20oz water bottle) with you when you go a'visitin', especially if you're wearing Farmer Bib Overalls most of the time. I'd be winning to bet that you have lots of room in one of those pockets.

Aloha Rae!

Looks like you did hit the Motherlode! The links I've clicked on in this thread are looking good already! (especially the "Harvesting Rainwater" link!)

I don't know how far South you are, but if you're near Patagonia, you might want to look at what Gabriel Cousens has done at his little Tree of Life ranch/retreat. His focus is natural health/healing, and grows plants for some of his 'remedies.'

I just did a rather highly-unscientific test, refreshing a page 22 times, and got (not in any kind of order):

Above-Header Banners
2 Geoff Lawton FoodForest DVD
2 Appropedia
1 "Articles"
1 PantryParatus

Lower Banner Bar
1 Weston Banner
1 link to the "pee standing up for women" link

I should mention here ..... how the Appropedia banner caught my eye was it's placement in the lower banner bar, right after I posted a comment in another thread. Once in a great while, I've seen links to other threads, but never a Banner, so I thought it was a new feature in that lower brown bar.

Being a highly-unscientific test on a single compooter screen ..... your results will most-likely vary.

I do have ad-blocker, but, I see banners on lots of other threads, but clicking through about 10 random threads, I see banners of some and not others. Some banners at the top of the page, some top and bottom, some bottom of page only, and some nothing at all. Are all pages linked to show banners? From what I'm seeing (on FireFox) not all pages are set to support for banners. For instance, right now on this reply page, there is no upper banner above the "permies" header & links.