Trees with multipurposes - landscaping and biofuel

^-My buddy in my tree pot
While visiting one of my other Prepper friend Nets, I was inspired to talk about my experience with volunteering locally to help learn more about our trees and green space. How important it is as drinking water, and how to not only better appreciate it, but identify some possible problems with my own landscaping plans, and benefits.

Here in NY I was a volunteer with our cooperative agency. They had us plant a bunch of "bio fuel" willows. Many places along highways as windbreaks and in some park lanes. The great thing about these (and they are being studied) is that they grow relatively fast, you can start them by just taking a one ft cutting and jabbing it into some dirt. (I put my cutting in dirt in a pot so I could keep my eye on it! I'm not easily convinced..lol) and when we had to go late fall, in the snow to prune them, I was offered some to take home for baskets or whatever else. So I helped prune and then started making two bunches of the thinner branches and some thick ones to store in my attic like local basket weavers used to do. (It used to be a trade industry here before Chinese baskets and then plastic baskets took over)

In fact I bent and cured a few to make basket handles and just now taking them from the attic. Though I did plan on this as a traditional winter project, my husband got ill so it had to be detained. (thankful he is feeling much more human, but not cured)
I feel its important for you to know about, because they grow so well, and are great for making fuel to run vehicles, as well as warming a stove, maybe you should look into planting a hedge row. They can be very useful windbreaks for other plant protection and typically get about as tall as two persons. You can shape them bushier or more single stem with longer branches. They tend to grow mostly upward instead of weeping. They are a light tan to yellow bark on younger wood to a deeper tan for the central or older bark. If you need sticks of any shape or size for a project, this is the way to get them cheaper and more convenient. Twigs..yes..Twig furniture, baskets, frames, poles for tomato plants (last seasons cut wood) or bean poles..You know how cheap these used to be, but not anymore! or you might want to build a living trellis by trimming the trees (topiary) and then you can twine or graft sections together into an arch..leaving the central part high enough to walk through. In the Spring time while awaiting for the walk through to truely mature, you could plant beans or even morning glories along the outer edge to give a color of blooms or useful food space by going up instead of out. If you like to learn more information, I included some links for you to check out.

http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/middlebury-college-plants-willow-trees-for-biofuel-1020/

Wikipedia has a good explanation also and the plant name identifier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_Biomass_Project

Last but not least. What we are doing here in NY state and Central Ny to learn about biomass and supporting local development as well as greener alternatives.
http://cnyrcd.org/
Then I was a volunteer working in contingent with CommuniTree Stewards to help get the willows planted.
http://www.esf.edu/energycenter/salix/willowbrochure.pdf

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Making Changes

Simple Living: A Cool Lifestyle for a Hot Planet

Duane Elgin, who introduced Americans to Voluntary Simplicity in the 1970s, believes conscious living can save the world. And the time is now.

This article is a reprint with permission to share if credits are in place. I felt that it stated many important factors. To continue reading the whole article, you will end up going to their site, but its a good read. Please take time to leave comment here and also share any lifestyle changes you made voluntarily or felt you needed to do because of changes in the world. Cher

November/December 2009

By Duane Elgin

Simplicity is not an alternative lifestyle for a marginal few; it is a choice for the mainstream majority, particularly developed nations. Photo By Povy Kendal Atchison Global trends indicate that a rapidly developing “world storm”—a planetary systems crisis—will push the human family to make deep and lasting changes in our approach to living. We confront many simultaneous challenges: climate disruption; an enormous increase in human populations living in gigantic cities; the depletion of vital resources such as fresh water and cheap oil; the massive and rapid extinction of animal and plant species around the world; growing disparities between the rich and the poor; and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. We are being pushed to wake up and learn to live far more sustainably by making profound changes in our manner of living, consuming, working and relating. Simplicity is not an alternative lifestyle for a marginal few; it is a choice for the mainstream majority, particularly in developed nations. Even with major technological innovations in energy and transportation, it will be crucial that people embrace simplicity as a foundation for sustainability and change our overall levels and patterns of living and consuming. Fortunately, we can introduce simplicity into our lives in several ways. A garden of simplicity For more than 30 years, I’ve explored the simple life, and I’ve found that the most useful and accurate way of describing this approach to living is with the metaphor of a garden. I see seven ways to grow in the “garden of simplicity.” As with other ecosystems, the diversity of expressions fosters flexibility, adaptability and resilience. Because there are so many pathways into the garden of simplicity, this cultural movement has enormous potential to grow. Consider the seven steps below and how they could help you simplify various aspects of your life. The multiple meanings of simplicity Compassionate Simplicity (Humanity) Simplicity means to feel such a strong sense of kinship with others that we “choose to live simply so that others may simply live.” Compassionate simplicity is a path of cooperation and fairness that seeks a future of mutually assured development for all. Uncluttered Simplicity (Physical Space and Time) Simplicity means taking charge of lives that are too busy, too stressed and too fragmented. Cut back on clutter, complexity and trivial distractions, both material and nonmaterial, and focus on the essentials—whatever those may be for your unique life. As Thoreau said, “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” Civic Simplicity (Community) Simplicity means a new approach to governing ourselves, recognizing that to live more lightly and sustainably will require changes in every area of public life—from transportation and education to the design of our cities, public buildings and workplaces. Frugal Simplicity (Personal Finances) By cutting back on spending that is not truly serving our lives and by practicing skillful management of our personal finances, we can achieve greater financial independence. Frugality and careful financial management bring increased financial freedom and the opportunity to more consciously choose our path through life. Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >>

Growing Roses in your Garden

(My rose bush this season just before blooming, tipped over it was so tall; but covered with bloom buds!
After blooming, I removed the tall canes as I have to dig it up and move it away from the Spruce tree.)

I was working in the garden today and wondering what I could do with those long
canes that needed to be trimmed off my rose bushes. It seemed like such a waste of
nature just to toss them to the compost pile.

A couple of very long ones I tried weaving into the open part of one of my garden
arches to fill a large gap for my morning glories to climb on and it worked out! So
I kept the four longest ones and wove them into the top to give the vines more of
a support to attach itself to.

I know from experience that the best trick I ever came up for making my rose s
happy was to tuck banana skins in the soil near the plant. This worked so well that
my rose bush shot up past the 6ft spruce that is growing near it. I didn't have the
heart to cut off the branch just because I wanted to see what it would do!



So finally it bent over in an arch over the garden and produced several dozen red
roses along its length! It was just so pretty! I fear though that this red climber is
the root stock to my original pink rose which the top had died in a winter freeze,
but the hearty stock, even though its red, I feel I can live with this older style and
somewhat wilder rose.

Roses are a little more work at times but are well worth the beauty and color they produce.


The New York State flower is the wild rose. My mom used to have one in our back yard with dozens of delicate yellow blooms all over it each season. She never had to do any extra care to it, and even though there were a few Japanese beetles, there didn't seem as many as there are now. My family used the method of a jar with water and taking them off the branches with the lid and checking once or even twice a day during their peak time of visiting your plant. They have learned they emit a hormone for mating that attracts other beetles to your plant. If you remove them early, you might get away with not having to use a poison. I only use the systemic when needed as I wont spray my flowers. This helps break the cycle without harming bees passing through and which do not chew on the leaves.

National Public Lands - Get involved and Care

Perpetuating Our Forest Legacy

From the time of Teddy Roosevelt, America's hunters have been strong advocates for protecting our country's unique natural landscapes and resources. In the spirit of this hunter-conservationist legacy, the NFF is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Remington Outdoor Foundation (ROF).

Over the next three years, the Remington Outdoor Foundation will provide $300,000 for restoration projects in areas of vital wildlife habitat within the NFF's conservation campaign sites. This year, the ROF also served as title sponsor of the NFF's annual Sporting Clays fundraising event in New York, which attracts shooters and outdoors enthusiasts who value our National Forests—a sponsorship they hope to continue over the next couple of years.

The generous contribution of the ROF gives the NFF leverage for raising additional funds for on-the-ground conservation work—enhancing and protecting the wild places and public lands so many of us treasure for sport and solace.

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National Public Lands Day

Saturday, Sept. 26, marks the 16th annual National Public Lands Day. Events across the country will encourage citizen stewardship and visitation to our National Forests and Grasslands, as well as other public lands. All day-use fees will be waived that day. Launched in 1994, National Public Lands Day began with three federal agencies and 700 volunteers. Last year, more than 120,000 volunteers worked in 1,800 locations in every state, and eight federal agencies now participate. To find out about events taking place near you, visit the National Public Lands Day site.

Seed Savers - Why do they do it?

I wanted people to learn more about the various aspects of Seed Saving. There are individuals and families that have grown the same tomato seeds for generations. To some of us this seems a bit redundant if not amazing with all the choices we have today; but , are they informed choices?
It used to be that we referred to genetic manipulation just by simple methods such as cross pollination or selective seed gathering. Now its a whole different ball game in a world where they can splice genes under a microscope and cause them to create different chemicals. In fact as much as we know, we still don't know what happens exactly each time genes are "spliced" as you get a slightly different result. The idea of an exact method or perfect clone doesn't really exist, but it makes for good movies, or bad depending on what your view point is.

In the meantime, some people of wisdom decided that maybe its a good idea to carry on this method of saving naturally grown seeds. Just in case those others do not quite work out. We learned that with the monoculture that created the potato famine in Ireland. So I feel it is an important skill for many to know and understand seed saving and not leave it to just some organization or company, but rather a people skill. As important as knowing how to bandage a cut; we need to think about heirloom seeds as being just as important as the antique table in the dining room or the old clock.

I start my presentation with a NY Seed saving project on Long Island. They wish to educate more people about the need for saving seed. Just so you can get an idea of what its all about.
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ABOUT THE LONG ISLAND SEED PROJECT

Long Island Seed Project's mission is to educate and inform the public about seed production issues and learn about how you can help in decentralizing seed production by creating your own garden and farm adapted varieties.

We are grateful to the Public Seed Initiative funded by USDA for it's leadership and inspiration and to the follow-up Organic Seed Partnership, locally administered by New York NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association). In a world with increasing restrictions to access of germplasm because of what we believe are unfounded regulations both in the United States and abroad, plant patenting laws and "white lists", the OSP is a refreshing program that has breeders working with small farmers to produce better farm adapted varieties. Flanders Bay Farm which is host to the Long Island Seed Project is pleased to be a participant farm in that partnership.

We applaud the public and private sector plant breeders and seed savers all around the world who continue to allow access to their seeds so that sustainable varieties can continue to be grown and developed to benefit and serve the needs of the small farmer and gardener.

Long Island Seed Project was formed primarily as an outgrowth of the participation of our Flanders Bay Farm in the Organic Seed Partnership sponsored by NOFA-NY which promoted farm-based plant breeding to develop varieties bred especially suited to organic culture and ecological agriculture systems. NOFA-NY organized two breeding workshops (2006 and 2007) at Flanders Bay Farm which brought together vegetable breeders Michael Glos and George Moriarty from Cornell University, Jim Myers from Oregon State University and Brian Connelly from the University of Connecticut to help teach breeding techniques and inspire Long Island farmers.



Long Island Seed Project focuses on the issues involving seed breeding and the access to sustainable varieties that growers can maintain by traditional seed saving. The project helps to distribute potentially useful "unfinished" vegetable varieties and "gene pools" from the Project's Seed Bank to farmer breeders and hobby breeders sometimes referred to as "back-yard breeders".

Long Island Seed assists backyard breeders in developing their own regionally adapted varieties by sharing seed saving experiences and providing information through the internet site: www.liseed.org.

Through this web site, the distribution of seeds of potentially valuable genetic material to it's members and the local projects we are involved in, it is our hope that we can help make your "growing" experience more rewarding, enjoyable and sustainable.

Last updated: Dec. 2008

Bryan Connelly, Michael Glos and Ken Ettlinger demonstrate hand pollination techniques at the 2006 Organic Seed Partnership Workshop at Flanders Bay Farm sponsered by NOFA-NY. 2006 Workshop Photos 2007 Workshop Photos

Welcome to the Long Island Seed Project!

Long Island Seed Project is a volunteer organization working to produce farm-bred seed ecologically on Eastern Long Island as part of a network of breeders, farmers and gardeners. Our focus is on seeds of interest to the organic gardener, small farmer, seed saver and "backyard breeder".

Through this web site and the various local projects that we participate in, it is our hope that we can keep you informed and help to make your "growing" experience more rewarding, enjoyable and sustainable. Our web site; we hope, will provide you with seeds as well as useful information on vegetable breeding and seed saving and allow us to share with you some of the on-going projects that we are involved in. Although the focus of our work is developing and propagating suitable varieties for Long Island, we invite others to make inquiries.

Ken Ettlinger
Long Island Seed Project
Flanders' Bay Farm, NY

http://www.liseed.org/