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The blog was down recently due to weak security by Bluehost which resulted in my website being compromised. It looks like they have tightened up their security, but in the meantime, I have to build the site back up. So it is going to be bare bones for a bit until I can work to get everything back up to speed. The pictures are all out of order for now, I’ll be sorting that out over time. For folks linking directly to posts from out there in the void, confusion will abound! Unfortunately I have not had much time to keep current on the blog. Working full time in Cubicle Central has really reduced the energy I have available to read and write about the things I love. What time and daylight that I have available to me I have been devoting to my own garden projects as well as designs I am working on with others. I might be able to figure a way to be more habitual about blog writing, but forming new habits out of limited resources is one thing that I have found to be very difficult. It is a skill I would dearly like to learn, the skill of adding little by little to a goal. A few minutes of habitual work each day, building on the efforts of the past and over time and hopefully yielding an incredible return. But right now I am stuck in the paradox where the small efforts seem futile and puny, and I do not yet have the satisfaction of a project that successfully came to completion as a multitude of tiny efforts. I lack that ant-like determination, so I want dreams to be reality…..NOW. It doesn’t help that as your typical creative specialized generalist I also have lots of potential projects that I could be working towards….ooooh how to prioritize….that is the gazillion dollar question. And honestly, I haven’t had much material to share on the blog these days. I try to offer either my own direct experience with ecological/edible landscaping, or a unique perspective on things that I feel isn’t getting much play in the landscaping and permaculture infospheres. Since I haven’t had the time to be more active in these realms, the available writing material has been sparse. So here’s to me figuring out how to work blog writing back into my schedule in a sustainable way. I’ll be puzzling this one over, and if I succeed….well, then you’ll be hearing more regularly from me going forward.  It’s that time of year again. Starting last Friday, my yearly throat cold came a-haunting as it normally does with the shift from summer to fall. Usually I make small adjustments to my diet to eliminate “troublemakers” like dairy, but this year I went more on the offensive. I made my medicine. And it sure was good. First I created a nutrient rich chicken broth with lots of garlic, I used that to make a quinoa soup with all sorts of little amendments from the garden, garnished with a selection of greens and topped with some violets, just because. Throughout the day I made a point to make various herbal teas from fresh herbs around the garden: mint, sage, thyme. Occasionally I would throw small amounts of greens, like kale into these teas. Added some honey, and took my medicine. Needless to say, it was a pleasure to do so. I would love to say that I was cured immediately by the bounty of my garden and my amazing skills of food preparation. But sadly, the symptoms reached their usual level of discomfort and I did get sicker through the weekend. Sunday night I was kept awake by an intense cough. But. Now, it could just be coincidence, a one-off event….but….my recovery was much quicker. By late Monday, the cough had pretty much disappeared. In the past, my yearly affliction would usually develop into a lingering cough and sore throat sometimes lasting as long as two weeks. So sure, it’s purely anecdotal. But this whole year I have been making and taking my medicine and creating a diverse nutrient foundation for my body to draw on in order to operate fluidly and abundantly. Just like creating nutrient-rich living soil is the foundation for garden health, creating a nutrient-rich diet is a foundation for health in the body. And it is so much fun! Processed food has been dropping steadily out of my diet. Not because I am being disciplined, but simply because I don’t find flavored cardboard to be all that appealing anymore. My body has learned (remembered, really) that there is much more to be easily gained from munching on some leaves, than can be scavenged from the wasteland of processed food. In fact, grocery stores are starting to feel like fields of desolation and desperation: a circus of brightly lit packages hell bent on selling salt, sugar, cheap fat, and denuded carbohydrates to the bedazzled shoppers. Ok, so I wax dramatic. I used to have a curious attraction to grocery stores. There was something meditative about going through the aisles, in looking at the organized arrangements of brightly colored produce, the vast array of foodstuffs. But lately I’ve started to feel like a monkey in a cage when I walk into the glaring arena of food consumerism. I can only eat what’s offered, and most of it is worthless, or at best marginally useful to my body. I still don’t have a solution to the meat dilemma, but at least I can rely on the bustle of the farmer’s market and the chaos of my own garden to provide me with the fresh produce I need. The interaction with people, the touch of living plants and the smell of rich, healthy soil: these are good healing medicines as well. It is delightful, joyful medicine that I wish more people could experience. Hopefully I can begin to share it more with others, and they can get a glimmer of what they might be missing out on. 
An experiment in quickly creating patches of deep, abundant, living soil and long term fertility in the organic garden. I had a serendipitous moment this morning. It was still pitch dark outside, but I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, my mind was churning away at all sorts of stuff, some important, some annoyingly trivial (WHY am I awake again?). But ultimately my roving brain pulled together a few puzzles out of the nether and tied them together: there were some buckets of food scraps that needed to be dealt with, some seedlings in soil blocks that probably wanted to get started in real soil, and a bunch of information on soil, fertility, nutrient cycles that I wanted to put to use. All of that suddenly synergized into a darn good little idea. Fertility pockets. First some background. A while back my mom and I were talking about how we dealt with compost. At the time I was all pumped on aerated compost and how it was possible to create a real rich compost in less than three weeks (which involves almost daily turning). She thought it sounded interesting, but said she was going to stick to her method which was to simply throw her food scraps in a hole in the ground for a while then cover it up with soil when the hole was full. She said that it broke down remarkably fast without much effort on her part. I tried the aerobic compost route and did in fact achieve a nice rich compost within a month. But the process always felt….off. It was awesome to create soil so quickly, but I knew that with each pile turn I was exposing all these microbes to the air which were then going on a feeding frenzy and drying out, dying, and releasing who knows what into kind of carbon into the air. Then what happens with this compost? It usually gets top dressed onto soil of lesser quality. They call this feeding the soil…and to some extent it is, but what a waste! Here is this unbelievably rich soil that has been created, and it gets thrown on top? The most precious part of that soil is the amazing amount life that is now living in it. By throwing it on top, the moisture and rich life will die off, killed by sun and eroded by wind. So in the back of my mind the aerobic, compost turning method seemed to have it’s own set of issues, on top of being time/energy intensive. Without adequate moisture and mulching, that effort of creating such beautiful thriving soil simply goes to waste. To go a little further into the moisture story, I want to pass on one of the most fascinating stories that I heard recently. I heard it at my advanced permaculture design course in July with Robyn Francis. I THINK this was work that Robyn Francis was part of. In India recently they did a special planting method for a forest plantation of various trees. The method was to dig the hole for the tree, fill the hole with water, let the water soak in, fill the hole with water a second time, let it soak in again then plant the tree and (if I remember correctly) water it in. I’m not sure how heavily the trees were mulched with organic matter, but I do remember the area around the tree was mulched with rocks which would capture moisture from the air. That region was hit by a pretty severe drought that year and the trees were not watered at all beyond the initial planting. However, they only lost a handful (literally) of trees from among thousands. Between the mulch and the moisture already embedded in the soil from the double deep watering, the trees had enough to survive. So, right, back to these buckets of goopy, stinky food scraps that I had collected from a downtown vegan restaurant. The scraps were intended for worm bins at Veggielution, but for a while now the worm bins have been overloaded and pretty foul smelling. So I needed to figure out a way that I could use these food scraps while Veggielution volunteers built a couple more worm bins. So this morning I realized that I could use all of that concentrated, nutritious goodness to create little areas of abundant fertility within my garden, which I am calling Fertility Pockets. They are nothing complex, nor really anything new, but when I see how they fit into the grand (hah) scheme of the garden, I think it is an elegant solution that requires a one time soil disturbance with long lasting rewards. The basic method is to dig a reasonably deep hole, take a nutrient soup, (like the buckets of food scraps, or anaerobic buckets of compost that have been fermenting in their own juice, yum!, or possibly the weeds that you have submerged under water to kill off), and fill the hole with layers of soup, carbonaceous material and soil (a layered compost basically) and cover the hole with the remaining soil. This will form a small mound which should be planted into immediately with something that would enjoy a rich bacteria-dominated soil (I used kale and broccoli). This Fertility Pocket method is an experiment and might have some unexpected results, but based on a lot of reading and observation of soil in my own garden here is what I expect to happen. By filling a hole with organic matter high in moisture content and nutrient rich water, in most soils this moisture will very slowly leach out over time. This water that drains into the surrounding area will be high in nutrients and organic matter. The organic matter in the hole will slowly decompose over the following months, functioning as a time release fertilizer and creating an abundant, deep, moist, living soil. The layering of organic matter and soil distributes soil microbes evenly throughout the hole and creates aeration so the soil can breath. As long as this soil is not disturbed and is well shaded by plants and/or mulch, the nutrients will continue to cycle between the soil and the plants who will eagerly send their roots into the newly created treasure trove. By doing just a modest hole, rather than say a double-dug swath or a rototilled patch, this allows everything around the hole to remain undisturbed. Mycelia, microbes, worms and plant roots can all start to move in as moisture radiates out and as nutrients are broken down and made available. Here was the process I followed this morning:  I dug about a foot down and hit a firm layer of rocky sub-soil. 
I widened the hole from there until it formed a rough bowl that would hold two buckets worth of soup plus some layers of soil. 
I threw some weeds in down at the bottom to decompose. The bottom of the hole is probably going to be pretty anaerobic for a week or so (just a guess) and it is deep enough so that even if the seeds do not rot away, they are too deep to surface. 
I poured some food scraps on top of the weeds and added a layer of soil. The soupier the better for this part I think. 
Added dried out corn stalks and dried grass and other carbon rich stuff. 
The remaining soil should form a mound. I planted garlic chives, Egyptian walking onions, broccoli, and kale into the mound. The annual brassicas are for immediate capture of whatever nutrients are readily available, the chives and onions will stick around to anchor the soil while I decide what other perennials to add to the mix. I am not too concerned about nutrient lost though, because there is a neighboring maturing broccoli and fruit trees that will probably send their roots over to check out the moisture and the nutrient cocktail. 
As a final touch I threw small handfuls of Azomite down to add additional nutrients and trace minerals. Since this is not a renewable source of fertility, I put it at the top to be watered in over time. My hope is that as the plants and the soil organisms kick into gear they will trap most of these trace nutrients and prevent them from leaching beyond the pocket. 
Overall the process took me less than 45 minutes and it could have a positive payout for years, especially if the soil remains undisturbed (no tilling!), mulch is added as a top dressing and perennials are planted into the pocket after the broccoli harvest. If I plant a perennial polyculture around the pocket, the nutrients could cycle within that small ecosystem indefinitely. I’ll be doing a few more of these in the garden and will report back on the results after the pockets have had the chance to break down and the plant patches mature over the following year. 
Botanical Name: Chenopodium quinoa This was one of my experiments this year that was quite successful. I have been working towards a lower maintenance, more self-sustaining garden design, and as a low-fuss, high value annual, quinoa has definitely earned a place as one of my preferred edible plants. Since it has been so successful, I frequently mention it if someone asks what I have in my garden. A common response is “Quin..what?”. My wife and I had our first quinoa dish (a delicious soup) prepared for us by our host family in Ecuador, and we wondered what that little curly grain-looking stuff was. We were told it was quinoa, and after we returned to the US and I learned more about it I wondered if I shouldn’t try my hand at growing it. The seed (it’s not technically a grain) produced by the quinoa plant is highly nutritious and has the rare distinction of being a complete protein. It was a highly valued, sacred crop of the Incas. The leaves are also edible and have a flavor and consistency similar to spinach. For more general information about quinoa check out this Wikipedia article, you can read growing/harvest/preparation information, or you can learn more about specific nutritional benefits.  Lemon Thyme (Thymus citriodorus variegata)
Growth Habit: Quinoa has a very narrow, upright growth habit with somewhat sparse foliage, growing up to eight feet tall depending on variety and soil fertility and water. For the small amount of space it takes up, a healthy quinoa plant can produce a significant amount of seed. I was growing amaranth, quinoa and corn in a small 2’ x 3’ patch and even with all the competition the 3 quinoa plants I grew produced about 1/4 – 1/2 pound of seed per plant, with the plants themselves growing between six and eight feet high. Growing Quinoa: This is the primary reason why I am so excited about quinoa. It was by far my most maintenance free annual this year. I got some seed from the Bioneers seed swap, and in May, I threw the seed on some moist ground and it quickly germinated, took a little while to get established then started growing vigorously. My quinoa received fairly consistent water, but it is a drought resistant crop and if established well initially will produce a healthy harvest even in dry conditions. This suits our Mediterranean climate perfectly, and I will be experimenting more with drought tolerance in the future. In addition to these benefits, the seed heads are covered by saponins, ensuring that your harvest is protected from most pests. It also means that quinoa requires soaking and rinsing before cooking to remove the toxic saponin, but the extra cooking preparation is a small price to pay for how easy it is to grow, harvest and process. Since quinoa is not widely grown in the US, it is hard to say which climates would be difficult to grow quinoa in. It prefers warm days and cool nights in order to set seed, and like spinach may not germinate if conditions get too warm. Its original habitat is the Andean highlands of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, which tend to have fairly moderate climates. If the seed heads get top heavy like they did with the variety I grew, some wind protection or support may be necessary if planting in a windy area.  Quinoa in the Edible Landscape or Food Forest: The primary benefits that quinoa bring to the garden are its low maintenance, drought resistance and minimal space requirements. On top of that it brings two sources of highly nutritious food, greens from the young plants and seeds in the late summer/fall. It will also readily reseed itself, which is a blessing if you site the plant with that in mind, a curse if it was not your plan to grow quinoa every year. The plant stalks, like corn stalks, make great dry carbonaceous material for the compost pile or mulch…just be sure you don’t mulch or compost with the seed heads or you’ll probably have quinoa popping up everywhere! Aesthetically, the plant itself is not much to write home about. It resembles lambs quarters when it is young, with pleasant green leaves that have a faint silver shimmer to them. As it matures and starts to put more energy into seed production it tends to grow leggy and may start to lean under the heavy seed burden. So if aesthetics are a concern, either some support might be needed, or choose a sunny out-of-sight corner since the plants may start to flop around and look unsightly. As they matured in early August, the seed heads on my quinoa went through a wonderful color change from green to gold, red, pink, very much like how a sugar maple changes in the fall. So, while the plant itself can get a bit gangly and awkward as it matures, it can exit with a bang. This might be dependant on variety, and I’m not sure what variety I’m currently growing. It sure was beautiful though! I will be experimenting a lot with quinoa in the future, there are so many benefits to this plant that I am very surprised it is not more commonly grown here in Northern America. It may be that varieties have not yet been developed for our various climates, but hopefully more work will be done in this direction in the future. It’s delicious, and it is a very valuable crop to have, especially for vegans. 
Title: Edible Forest Gardens – Volume One: Vision and Theory My Experience: I am a pretty voracious and quick reader, but it took me several months to work my way through Volume I. The writing style of the authors is very readable, and the content is fascinating and information rich, but as the title indicates it is a book on food forest THEORY, which means diving deeply into ecological theory and forest structure. While reading Volume I, I found myself often distracted by other, more “hands-on” literature, so I would read a few chapters of Volume I and then dive off for a brief affair with another book, only to return to Forest Gardens a few weeks later to take on another chapter. It took me a while to get through it but I am deeply, deeply grateful to the authors for putting together such an incredible resource. I think they wove a good balance between discussing the broader theory on forest dynamics, while zooming in to particular topics, such as vegetation layers, soil, roots, etc. I would highly recommend this book to those that are really serious about designing their landscapes, farms, or acreage as an ecosystem. It is a wealth of information and the authors have done an excellent job of providing the theoretical framework behind edible food forest design. For those of you that have a more casual approach to gardening and landscaping, or for those that just want some practical examples up front, Volume I might be more than you want to take on. I am just starting to delve into Volume II, which puts theory into practice and might be more geared towards folks that just want to read some instructions and dive in. I’ll be sure to report back when I have completed Volume II. What I enjoyed: Chapter 5 “Structures of the Underground Economy”: This chapter is by far the best thing I have read about soil, roots, nutrient cycles and fertility. It provides a broad scale view of the whole “underground economy”, yet also packs in an incredible amount of specific information on the different “engines” of the economy (microbes, roots, fungi, etc). It condenses much of the information that I have read over several books, articles, etc into one integrated framework without watering down or excluding vital information. It is truly a remarkable source of information on the world beneath our feet. Analysis of Existing Food Forests: The authors take three existing food forests (one of which is Robert Hart’s forest garden) and they offer respectful critiques on what is working in the system, and where things could be better. It was nice to have the concrete examples to reference and anchor the theoretical and conceptual information that they were laying out. Rethinking invasive species. There were two large sidebars devoted to the analysis and discussion of “invasion biology” that broadened my perspective on the contentious issues surrounding invasive species. They criticize the tendency to blame the individual “invader” and instead encourage a deeper analysis of what root causes allowed the “invasion” in the first place (human disruption might be a good first start!). Everything Else! There is so much information in this book, and even though it gets pretty deep into theory and concepts, it is written at a level that is accessible to your average (but determined) reader. One of the principles in Permaculture is to seek the least change for greatest effect. Imagination, visualization and planning are excellent ways to put this principle into practice. Exploring, discovering and defining our intentions helps form the foundation for everything that follows in our design. The primary cost in doing this is taking the time to think about it, time to let our minds wander freely and time to probe deeper into what is driving and inspiring us as we develop our design. Knowing and focusing our intentions yields clarity, energy and context that will help inform the entire process going forward, within planning stages and throughout implementation. Rather than diving right into creating your dream garden, I recommend making the small change of mentally mapping out your ideas and intentions before hand as part of your design process. I believe this has the potential to make a huge positive effect over the lifetime of the design on many levels, including more efficient use of time and resources, and improvements in quality and beauty. For those of you that have gone through a Permaculture Design Course or similar design instruction, many of these methods will be familiar. I follow this process for my own personal projects, and it can also apply when designing for a client if we can understand and internalize their intentions as much as possible (something any designer should be striving for!). One last thing to note is that this is an iterative and non-linear process. These “steps” should be revisited, even if just briefly, throughout the design and installation process to further refine, enrich and adjust your intentions and your garden design.
So I hope you can explore and get to know deeply the intentions that are most important to you as continue on in your garden and life designs. Hold them before you, and may you find deep satisfaction, meaning, joy and purpose in whatever you do. 
Lets step back and look at the main intention that guides us and our fellow citizens here in the US. I think it is safe to say, that money (cha-ching) and greed rule the day. And the results are, to quote Annie Leonard, that we are trashing the planet, trashing each other, and not even having any fun doing it. By flailing around in the hamster wheel system of money and stuff, at the end of the day, we have very little time, very little energy, very little community, very little beauty. In short, many of us are deeply impoverished. I think it is safe to say, that for the average citizen, our lives and our landscapes often do not bring us the deep joy and satisfaction that we crave in life. In focusing purely on the finite, superficial ‘material’ rewards or outcomes, we often neglect to listen and follow the infinite possibilities of our deeper passions, our yearnings and our dreams To go back the discussion on vision and intention that I mentioned in Part I James Stark spoke about the importance of focus and clarity. To paraphrase what he said: “The Universe does not work with ambiguity. If you have ambiguity in your vision the Universe cannot give you what you want”. Now I don’t buy completely into some of these “mind over matter” ideologies, but they do bring our attention to the importance of focused vision. There are some very practical and very powerful truths that we bring forth when we define our intentions. 1) Clarity of vision will fire up that massively creative and powerful brain of yours and turn it towards finding the possible ways to achieve that vision. Choice can be psychologically overwhelming and even downright depressing (as is demonstrated in this episode of Radiolab). So by really getting down to the core of your vision and defining what it is you are seeking to achieve (in your garden design, life, whatever!) you are allowing your mind to discard oodles of irrelevant information and process new and old information in the defined context of your vision. Our brain is quite adept when it comes to analyzing, sifting and contextualizing data, so give it something to chew on and put it to work! 2) By giving our dreams more shape and definition, the steps we need to take become much clearer and leave less space for aimless wandering. Again, ambiguity may leave us with too many choices. If I go beyond “gardening with native plants” in my garden design and instead decide to try and revive plants that were native to the San Jose area AND highly valued by the Muwekma tribe for food, medicine or materials (of course these will overlap considerably, if not completely), my path becomes a lot clearer. I will need to get in contact with ecologists specializing in this region, I will need to talk with people within the Muwekma tribe to see if they are willing to share their lore and management practices, and I can explore books like Kat Anderson’s “Tending the Wild” (which I HIGHLY recommend). If there are gaps in the aesthetic or conceptual design of the garden, I can then readjust my vision and pull in choices that are not in that narrow focus, but are still compatible with the overarching vision of the garden. 3) When we focus and strengthen our vision, we will naturally gravitate towards the resources and communities that we need and they will naturally gravitate towards us. Others will share a a common vision or intersecting interests and will bring wonderful and surprising contributions. There is no real magic in this, it is simply the benefit that clarity brings. When your dreams are more clearly pronounced, it allows others to be inspired and find their own ways of helping you succeed. Often these beautiful intersections will be of mutual benefit to you and those who have come along side you. 4) We shape the world according to what we believe. Ghandi saw the possibility of a just world, Hitler saw the opportunity for supreme domination. Both of them believed so strongly in their vision that they brought mind-boggling changes to their world. It is important to acknowledge that the power of intention, cuts both ways. But it is also important to realize that within each of us lies the power to be the Ghandi of our generation (or another Hitler), but are we brave enough to use that power? Even in the context of landscape and garden design…..can we be bold enough to let our yards and our lives be everything we want them to be? My hope is that we find the gumption to just do it, and that we take the time to deeply contemplate our motives and focus our intentions on bringing in rejuvenation, joy and abundance to ourselves, our communities and our earth. But that’s enough philosophy….next post (I promise) will be about bringing these lofty ideas down to earth and I’ll talk about some ways of letting the creative juices flow and internalizing our intentions so that we start to achieve our dreams even in our sleep…(yes, really!) Stay tuned. 
Finally, I can sit down at home, take a breath and look around me. It has been a really intense couple of weeks. I feel it in the tightness and weight of my body which is slowly unwinding as I rest and tend to my neglected household. Over the past two weeks so much has happened: my grandmother passed away after a long battle with Parkinsons, I began full time work at my old job, shot up to Grass Valley for Grandma’s funeral, spent a sad yet wonderful July 4th weekend with family and friends, and then that Sunday my wife and I had to get up at 5:00am and hit the road so I could make it to the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) in time to start a four day intensive course on Advanced Permaculture Design with Robyn Francis. So yes, things have been tumultuous and amazing all at once. Fairly symptomatic of this whole year when I think about it: full of a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability not only in my own life, but in the entire world as we face huge shifts and changes all over the planet. Since I’m just returning from four days of intense immersion in Permaculture study, I’ve got patterns on the brain. One of the beautiful things about Permaculture design is that so much of the broader discipline is a discussion of general patterns in the world around us. Through thoughtful observation and wise application of these patterns, we can start to bring harmony and abundance into our lives whether it be in our relationships, in our career or….(dun, dun, dun!)…. in our garden. On the last day of my design course, James Stark (co-founder of RDI) and Robyn Francis held a wonderful discussion on the realization of dreams and the power of intention. There were many threads in the discussion that connected with insights that I have been discovering in my own life as I make preparations to start my landscaping business. I have found these ideas very helpful and inspiring, so I would like to use this post to continue teasing out these ideas in the context of garden design. The best place to start is by acknowledging the importance of imagination and creativity. Let’s sidestep the obvious, cliche discussions about tinkering with aesthetics, or artistry, or layouts, or structures, or whatever because I think I lot of people tie ‘creativity’ to intelligence, cleverness, artistic talent and who knows what else. Instead how about we go straight to the core. At the heart of things creativity is both fearless and dangerous because it has very little respect for what currently exists in the world. What the creative mind does then, is imagine and bring into consciousness concepts that have never existed in the material world before. Now that might sound a little crazy and far out, but the beautiful thing is, everyone single one of us is creative. If you have the slightest doubt, just ask the most unimaginative person you know to tell you what they dreamed last night. Our brains are WILDLY creative, so much so that our dreams can range from absolute absurd abstraction, to terrifying or sublime realism. Unfortunately, upon waking our culture, habits, relationships and our own internal monologue start to box that wildness in, contain it, strap it down with a list of do’s, don’ts, can’ts, shouldn’ts and so on. The most creative people I know are those who simply allow their imagination to roam free and have the courage to follow some of the outlandish ideas that result. The courage to follow an unusual or novel idea is the hardest part, yet it is a skill that can be learned. For some of us, it might just start with something very small like a flower arrangement, and from there we can work ourselves up towards the more ambitious creative thought and large scale creative action whether it be in garden design or in our career choices, it doesn’t matter. It just requires the resolve to start allowing our imagination to play a greater role in our lives. Our imagination is powerful and incredibly versatile, and our brain can be very creative with pretty much anything that we hand it. As dreamweavers, we have amazing potential to bring wonderful designs into the world. Yet within our creative brains also exists the potential for utter chaos and lack of direction if we don’t focus on something. That is where intention and clarity of purpose start to play a crucial role in the design process. Without clarity, our imagination and our actions tend to meander and may not yield what we really want to accomplish. In our designs, whether they are for ourselves or others, it is crucial that we clarify the intentions surrounding the design so we can harness and guide the powerful forces of our imagination. In the next blog post I will take these ideas a little further, touch on some practical ways to focus and tap into our imagination, and on top of it I’ll throw in a little neurology and theory to spice it up! …continue on to Part II -> 
On Saturday, June 20th Veggielution celebrated the groundbreaking of our new acre. Amie Frisch, Mark Mederos and Lisa Benavides have done an amazing job of showing what sheer determination, passion and enthusiasm can accomplish in a short amount of time. With the help of an incredible number of volunteers, many generous organizations, the Prusch Foundation and the City of San Jose, they have grown Veggielution from a backyard farming project into a full blown 1.5 acre community farm at Emma Prusch Park in South San Jose. I have been with the organization since January and it gives me great hope as I look towards what the future holds for the Bay Area. The whole organization has been run from the start by volunteers, who are dedicated to getting back to the land, reinvesting in community and seeking out just and beneficial ways to grow and provide food for ourselves and the San Jose communities. For me, seeing the large number of volunteers of all ages that show up for the work days shows a shift in consciousness within our community, especially amongst college and high school students. Their are a lot of young faces, which I hope means that the planet will be in better hands in the years to come. In the continual effort of every supporter and every member of the organization I see the desire for an alternative way of providing sustenance for ourselves. In the helping hands that turn the soil, plant the seeds, and harvest the fruits are simple actions that show that life does not need to be all about nickels and dimes. It can be about people, about life, about food, about community and it can be about hope. So viva la Veggielution! May we continue to grow and prosper as we work our way towards sustainable, regenerative and joyful living. Here are a few more pictures of the event:
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