Judith Browning

If in our daily life we can smile,
if we can be peaceful and happy,
not only we, but everyone
will profit from it.
This is the most basic kind
of peace work.

Thich Nhat Hanh
(1926 to 2022, Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Monk)

“People have always been good at imagining the end of the world,
which is much easier to picture than the strange sidelong paths of change
in a world without end.”

Rebecca Solnit

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to every one that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young
and with the mothers of families, read these leaves
in the open air every season of every year of your life,
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem
and have the richest fluency not only in its words
but in the silent lines of its lips and face
and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

Walt Whitman
Preface to ‘Leaves of Grass, 1850.

I've had this one saved for awhile and no place to post it until now!
Somewhat distantly related to permaculture in my mind.....

"Do you think it's possible for an entire nation to be insane?"
Terry Pratchett,
Monstrous Regiment
(Discworld, #31; Industrial Revolution, #3)

I wonder about elderflower?
They might stand up to mowing once established...ours is always sending up new plants.

and comfrey for pollinaters although it's not tall it will tolerate mowing.

There's always roses...what I call 'ditch roses' here...smallish pink blooms...will climb a little if there's anything near by...mowing occasionally wouldn't hurt them but twice a year might be too much?

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

Judith demonstrated how to weave the canes together across a garden bed so that no fasteners were needed to keep it upright. It'll serve as a trellis for a wide variety of plants. I'll be sure to use this same technique back in Montana with our junk-pole trellises.

How deep does the trellis need to be in the ground to stay upright? And I thought bamboo might root if buried?

We push the canes in as deeply as possible...8-10 inches at least and preferably a foot....It depends on soil moisture.  I go back and push them deeper after a rain sometimes.

The trellis pictured above was green, freshly cut bamboo but normally we cut it over the winter, clean it up and cure it up in the garden shed loft a year or so before using.

I'll check today and see if the green stuff is sprouting....

“What are we, anyway, at our best,
but one small, persistent cluster
in a greater ferment of human activity — still and
forever turning toward, tuned for, the possible,”

Adrienne Rich
Arts of the Possible

To work in the world lovingly
means that we are defining
what we will be for,
rather than reacting to
what we are against.

Christina Baldwin
(Writer, spiritual teacher)

We've always lived where a pry bar was a necessity for breaking new ground...for removing rocks at least.  I think a good one might hold up to your strength?

I'm confused as to whether you are trying to dig rocks, tree roots or rhubarb roots as you mention in your last post? maybe all of them?

I think that once the tines bend the first time the metal becomes more pliable and bends easier and easier.

re reading your first post I see you are talking about digging up plant roots.
This is in the forest?

thank you all so much for all of the great suggestions!

I needed that laugh today Tereza!

Jay, those would work and I'm imagining nicely painted in some eye catching colors and just happens my artist cousin is coming to visit in a few weeks.....

nice one Ben!