Body:

 

Weekly Reflections #8: 

Sweet Breathing of Plants (231-246)

 Sweet Breathing of Plants has completely served as my weekly cup of tea.  It has nourished my brain and body.  It has been bitter at times, making me cringe but giving me appetite for more.  It has been sweet at times, making me smile and exciting my soul.

The chapter Orchid Fever introduced me to flower I’ve never taken any notice of.  For the first time ever I considered a flower as having a sexual influence and addiction driving qualities on a human being.  At times this chapter made me cringe, at times it made me blush out of embarrassment, but it continued to call me to finish reading regardless.  The same is true of Smelling like a Rose.

We want to smell like a rose.  We want to smell like a butterfly.  We want to smell like an insect pheromone.

 

Rain Forest made me imagine the forest as a sexual creature, being selective in its mates.

But in the rain forest…it has depth, texture, variety.  Yet the members of each species are spaced far apart.  There is not much breeze to carry seeds about.  It’s hard to have a sex life when you can’t move, so jungle plants have become incredible tricksters and manipulators, conning other into performing sex acts with them…Plants are willing to dress up in animal disguises.  Some plants are carnivores.  They are not mile-mannered, even if they aren’t quick-footed.  They are promiscuous, and they will stoop to every low-down trick. 

 

My thoughts have been forever altered, my view has been forever changed as I look upon the trees in the forest and the plants even in my backyard. 

Ode to Mold made me laugh!  I’ve never thought of my smelly, rotten casserole that got buried in the back of the fridge as poetic as Claudia Lewis.

Exquisitely soft, dove-gray pads of mold float like velvet lilies on a calm pond of yogurt in the back of my refrigerator, silently expanding across the thick liquid.

Most of all, I was inspired and connected by Plantswomen.  I’ve never thought of myself as a Plantswoman until this year.  A hike in nature’s forest draws me, yet scares me in her silence and towering trees.  Within my own backyard, my garden contained only grass and weeds – me never knowing how to care for it.  Every plant I would grow – even cactus – died.  This last summer I ripped up a portion of the weedy grass and tried my hand at my first flower garden.  I planted bulbs and some discounted and neglected flowers from my local nursery.  To my surprise, those plants are now budding and blooming, they have become my children in the outdoors. This chapter inspired me to find something special that I share with each one of my children and plant a tree or a shrub along with that item.  Allowing the roots to wrap around the item and showing its flowers each year. I must now be a budding Plantswoman.

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Weekly Reflections #7:

Keeping It Living (Part III: Conclusions), Sweet Breathing of Plants (211-230)

For my individual presentation I will weave together the three elements of identity, quarterly meanings, and personal garden vision reflections. My identity is found in cooking for my family, providing them nourishment in good and nutritious food. It is found in being a medicine woman, the family nurse. Mending wounds with Band-Aids and healing stomachaches with peppermint tea. My identity is found in teaching others about science and nature.

The meanings made this quarter are found in pruning, medicine making, organic plants, and reflection. Within my garden these things are found in pruning and caring for my garden and teaching others about how to care for nature, using plants such as passionflower and lavender to heal my family, using organic vegetables and plants to nourish my family, and having a moment of reflection in the pond.

These will be incorporated into my presentation through pictures, sound, and words.

As for a response to Keeping It Living, it was interesting to find that plant management had strong socioeconomic motives in that they were “valued items of trade and exchange” serving as wealth. Plant management had ceremonial motives for both medicinal and ceremonial purposes, each plant’s power affected human lives and human well-being. This would explain why Native American’s plants didn’t grow in rows but rather as nature intended it, with the natives assisting the plants growth.

Notes on Keeping It Living, Part III: Conclusions

pg.332 -Cultivation defined broadly - "modifying plants or plant communities in some manner in order to promote the growth and productivity of culturally important plants, thus providing humans with easier access to, or larger quantities of, foods and other plant resources. Arguable, peoples would begin to cultivate, plants in these ways, not to 'revolutionize' their production of dietary staples, initially, but simply to increase the availability, accessibility, and predictability of culturally preferred plant species."

-Natives participated in weeding, tending, pruning, tiling, transplanting, sowing, and burning = their tools in cultivation

p.333 -Viewed as an intermediate state between hunter-gathers and agriculturalists

Plants Provided...

p.334 -dietary diversity, essential vitamins and minerals, some carbohydrates, and dietary fiber

-maintained health and well-being

-provided necessities of life (ie. procurement, processing, storage of animal food resources

-strong socioeconomic motives - plants are valued items of trade and exchange. A value of currency.

p.335 -ceremonial or "religious" motives - a spirit within all nature's creations, power of plants to affect human lives and human well-being, "keeping it living" has a moral and ethical basis that translates into a practical one.

Why such poor and inaccurate records...

p.336 -embodied cultural biases of the time, as well as territorial, military, economic, and political ambitions of colonial elite

-attempts to sever ties between native peoples and their resource base

-resulted in dispossession of lands, displacement of Native peoples, and loss of many traditional practices and knowledge

-"provided a representational facade that served the extractive ambitions of colonial and frontier economies and the expansionist territorial agendas of colonial governments and the nation-state."

-natives land ownership and land-management techniques were regarded as alien and illegitimate. only recognized large, permanent settlements and crop plants as land ownership

What we need to do to recover...

p.339 -promote understanding of restoration ecology, cultural restoration, and biological conservation

-recognize cultural landscapes (include traditional)

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Weekly Reflections #6:

Sweet Breathing of Plants (p. 139-180)

This week’s reading from The Sweet Breathing of Plants titled “Earth’s Green Mantle” by Rachel Carson, gives great insight to the expanding industry of chemical weed control. I was shocked to hear about the chemical industry spraying entire roads and fields without first considering why those plants are there to begin with. I understand that the farmers had one idea in mind, the lobbyists had another, and the environmentalist had a completely different idea. But I don’t understand why there were not more considerations given to why nature wanted the sagebrush there and not green grass from Europe. It was especially appalling to read about the Forest Service getting involved in the spraying of weeds when they are supposed to be the agency that is trying to save the forest and the wildlife. This whole perspective of vegetation control is skewed!

As I begin my exploration into my own garden site and how I’m going to conquer the difficult task of removing the sod and controlling the unwanted vegetation, this chapter has provided information about what to consider to aid in my efforts. Just recently I spent about 2 hours in my newly planted flower garden, hand weeding the new growth that has appeared there over the last 6 months. This process was tedious and difficult but I knew that the chemicals would not only make my cats sick but kill my plants as well. It wasn’t even worth the thought. This garden is right next to my Personal Garden Site and I know that I’m going to encounter similar issues again next winter in that new site.

This chapter has encouraged me to find alternative methods to weeding my garden and keeping it weed free. I began exploring in Ann Lovejoy’s books and discovered that you can get rid of blackberry bushes by mulching them out. An extra thick layer of mulch and cutting back any new growth as soon as it appears will rid my hillside of blackberry bushes. Sounds better then Round-up if you ask me! I discovered on my own that mulching the soil over the winter helps control the weeds as well. I had some cedar bark that was given to me, which I spread over my Hostas Garden, and the difference was unbelievable. The Hostas Garden had a handful of weeds, whereas the Flower Garden was nearly covered. I now understand how important it is to work with the land in a natural way, rather then against the land in an artificial way.

 

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Weekly Reflections #5:

Keeping It Living (Ch. 3), Sweet Breathing of Plants (p. 86-102)

Chapter three of Keeping It Living, titled “Intensification of Food Production on the Northwest Coast and Elsewhere”, focused primarily on the definition of food intensification and if Hunters-Gathers of the Northwest Coast did in fact participate in intensification practices. Ames argues existing definitions that are outdated and don’t recognize Northwest Coastal peoples efforts toward food intensification. Natives participated in social complexity of intensification and food storage, sedentism, yet lacked a significant subsistence history. He begins with a classical definition of intensification which yields to include Northwest Coastal peoples:

“the processes by which one or more elements of production (e.g. labor, land, technology, skill, knowledge, organization) are increased relative to other elements in order to maintain or increase food production.” (p. 70)

This definition is relative to either modern agriculture or social complexity among Hunter-Gatherers. The problem is that it ties intensification to production. Ames points out that production requires assembling and allocating resources, which in turns creates value of any item produced. All of these definitions are clearly linked to modern agriculture and modern European farming techniques.

Through the use of models, Ames can “develop predictions about the way economic changes, such as intensification, may appear in the archaeological record. Models rely on basic assumptions and the rigor with which predictions are derived.” (p. 78) These models have some “risk” involved for example the models don’t include variation between hunting trips, the cost of failure, and dangers such as starvation. Several models and outcomes are presented to give an in-depth perspective of the usefulness of models.

The models and archaeological data convince the reader that these once believed Hunter-Gatherer populations of the Northwest Coast are truly agriculturalists. The data includes the constructions and use of large freight canoes, tools and skills to transform large cedar trees into canoes, the development of wooden storage boxes and baskets to store foods, and large wooden houses that were used as large food processing and storage facilities. These storage practices are similar to farming for it lengthens the production interval between the time that food is acquired and when it is consumed. Therefore, the data and models point to evidence of food intensification and agriculture among Northwest Coastal peoples.

My response to Ames’ argument is that it seems clear that Natives participated in agriculture through the use of food intensification. Although it was obvious that their definition of intensification didn’t include plowed rows of similar crops, tractors, and modern fertilizer, they had to participate in intensification so that they could endure the long hard winters present in the Northwest and have new “crops” appear in the spring. This chapter directly relates to conversations in class over the last five weeks, and it is easier to read when approaching the material with previous knowledge of the subject matter. The models were a little tedious to read about, and would be easier to understand if more diagrams, charts, and media were used to describe each situation. Also, the bias of the models was clearly demonstrated so the only accurate model would seem to be a combination of all the ones presented. However, this chapter reinforces my current opinion of Northwest Coastal peoples as agriculturalists.

The connection between this chapter and the Longhouse Garden was clearly through the prairies. Ames uses camas and balsamroot as a clear example of food intensification, but also focuses on salmon production which is an example outside of the focus of the prairie. How does all this information relate back to my specific site, Mixed Forest? Through the importance of the cedar tree, and other trees, for woodworking. The cedar was used for the canoes to transport large amounts of goods, or even entire villages. It was used to create boxes and baskets to neatly store goods. And it was used to create the large wooden houses for industrial-like food processing. Without the forests, without the cedar, and most importantly without the knowledge Natives had in preserving the life of these trees for each generation, the lives of Northwest coastal people would have been significantly changed.

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Weekly Reflections #4:

Nature Journaling (Ch. 9), Keeping It Living (Half of Ch.3),

Sweet Breathing of Plants (p. 57-70)

Winter is always an inward season for me. My moods change just as the sun appears then disappears behind the clouds again. They change as quickly as the daylight hours change. My excitement of spring grows deeper and deeper, to the point where it seems to take longer each year to arrive. Then once it arrives it amazes me of how quickly it passes. This excitement of spring is like the buds on each branch. Then once spring arrives it bursts out to greet the sun. Winter also has encouraged my body to cleanse itself through it’s cravings of salad greens, herbal tea, and plenty of water. The sweet cravings have subsided and my body craves the goodness of nature.

As for the relationship with my journal, I’m having a difficult time focusing on it. I go in spurts where it’s the only assignment that I want to work on, and then I have to force myself to work on it during other times. I’ve used photography to capture the moment, and have intentions of incorporating these into my journal as appropriate. I think what creates the difficulty is the cold, wet weather as well as an inward, thought provoking season. The sunlight doesn’t capture the beauty of the plants the way it does in the spring. Everything appears dormant or dead – it’s depressing.

What is medicine? What is a garden? These two questions could be answered a number of ways. Medicine is to me whatever attempt made to fix an ailment. This doesn’t have to be a pill or a prescription. It could be a daily walk for the winter blues, a plate of soul food to cheer you up, or good conversation with friends over coffee. But medicine can also be a pill or lotion to make direct contact with my body to relieve a direct ailment. Western society’s medicine can make me feel better at times, and at other times I posses the best medicine within me.

A garden is wherever things grow, change, and die. Obviously a garden is the small patch of plants I’ve intentionally planted outside my doorstep, or a garden is the herbs that I’ve planted to make each batch of soup taste fantastic. But I’ve found that a garden is within me. I grow, change, and will eventually die. My thoughts and memories grow, change, and die. My inner garden has plants that extend as high as the old Western Redcedar, and as small as the Herb Robert with a small daisy-like flower atop. A garden is everywhere.

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Weekly Reflections #3:

The Secret Life of Water (Ch. 2), Botany Excerpts, Sweet Breathing of Plants (p. 49-56)

This weeks reflections is to connect together all that I’ve been learning and experiencing together, and begin the weaving process of a Healing Gardens basket. My work in the Longhouse Garden site has been more contemplation and connection. Contemplation about what I can do to improve the site so that all the plants can thrive easier and so that I can better educate others about each plant within the forest. Connection with each plant and the forest as a whole. Discovering why the Red Elderberry is having a difficult time surviving, trying to figure out what to plant in the bald spots, and listening to each plant’s story about why it is content planted where it is.

My new discovery about the nervous system, and choosing one plant from this system to study deeply, has been exciting. I now understand how important it is to calm the nervous system and get it working correctly so that all the other systems can function correctly. I am very excited about working with Passion flower, not only because it’s amazingly beautiful, but also because it will aid with my anxiety ridden body. I’m looking foreword to using the tincture and seeing what connections Passion flower and I can make.

My readings from The Natural History of Puget Sound Country made a strong point of how important it is for the forest to work together as a complete system. The trees depend on the undergrowth, and the undergrowth depends on the shade of the trees. This chapter directly related to better understanding the dependent relationship in my LGH site. Also, the chapter presented a clearer understanding about what makes each of these plants special in the forest and as an individual.

The twig and stem identification in winter connects directly with my journal work. I now have a better understanding of what is important in accurately drawing each twig so that a better reference can be made when looking back. My journal has a more scientific approach, so I intend on using the drawings within it as a future reference. These sketches of twigs will be a huge influence on my future with plants.

Review of all these aspects of the program to this point, tells me that my basket is a forest weave. Each one of these tools and resources depends on the other for continuation of knowledge. Just as each plant in the forest depends on the other for continuation of it’s life. As my basket continues to weave I will gain more knowledge and perspective on the plants around me and develop a better understanding of the role we play in each other’s lives. This will shape my identity as a plantswoman, this will shape my identity as a human being. My basket is the forest.

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Weekly Reflections #2:

Keeping It Living (17-34), The Natural History of Puget Sound Country (160-193), Sweet Breathing of Plants (p. 103-131)

In last weeks assignment, I noted that “Turner links together how the natural system (the land and the living things on the land) supports the cultural system (where people live and how they sustain their culture) and vice versa”. Turner mentions that “diversity and distribution of ecological opportunities had tremendous implication for the peoples of this region, and influenced the ways that they chose to use, modify, and mange the land.” (Turner, 9) When Turner’s perspective of human/cultural influences on nature are mixed with Kruckeberg’s brief history and attributes of individual plants within Northwest Coastal forest, and new understanding develops of the relationship we (all people) play in working with our natural landscape. Kruckeberg points out that Skunk Cabbage was very important to Native Costal people not only as wrappings or underlinings in the kitchen, but also as medicine. Skunk Cabbage was used as “an infusion for internal disorders, a poultice for skin afflictions, and abortifacient, and an aid to childbirth.” (Kruckeberg, 171) This is only one example of many that illustrates a clear relationship between the natural system and the cultural system.

In my personal relationship with the natural world around me, this leads me both to patience and curiosity of each plant as I come into contact with it. Rather then simply hacking down and digging up the “weed” in my urban garden, I now wonder of it’s useful properties to all animals and insects, what medicine it may provide, and how did it manage to grow in such harsh conditions. These questions allow me to exercise more caution and patience with each plant.

The following list is a list of plants discussed in both texts that I can identify:

Keeping it Living	The Natural History of Puget Sound Country
(No new plants recognized)	Salal (Gaultheria shallon)
	Rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum)
	Himalayan blackberry (Rubus procerus)
	Scot’s broom (Cytisus scoparius)
	Vine Maple (Acer circinatum)
	Oregon grape (Berberis aquifolium)
	Prickly-pear cactus (Opuntia fragilis)
	Red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium)
	Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridum)
	Blueberry (Vaccinium alaskense)
	Snowberry(Symphoricarpus albus)
	Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum)
	Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
	Wild ginger (Asarum caudatum)
	Cattail (Typha latifolia)
	Ocean-spray (Holodiscus discolor)
	Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
	Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
	Indian plum (Osmaronia cerasiformis)
	Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
	Skunk cabbage (Lysichitum americanum)
	Camas (Camassia quamash)
	Deer Fern (Blechnum spicant)
	Cat’s Ear (Hypochaeris radicata) Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

As for ideas I’ve gained through the readings that I can apply to work on my habitat area in the Longhouse Garden, Kruckeberg once again provided more ideas of plants that need to be added to Mixed Forest A so that it truly is an example of a northwest forest. There is so much more that needs to be added to the understory so that it is full of life. My thinking leads me to believe this is for two reasons: (1) there simply in not enough water that saturates that area since it is at such an incline (compared to the direct access to the stream that Mixed Forest B has), (2) there is too much ivy in that area such that it suffocates out all plant life in that area. Another idea that occurred to me during this week’s readings is from the selection Plantswomen by Trish Maharam in The Sweet Breathing of Plants. She mentions that she planted a tree atop her baby’s placenta in which it grew as a symbol of “the tree of life”. Although it would me most inappropriate to do that within the Longhouse garden, it would be interesting to bury a time capsule or something of importance to this class to make the garden a symbol of our time spent within it. This could be buried beneath a tree where the tree would grow and weave it’s roots around the capsule, embracing the time and dedication we’ve provided to the site.

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Weekly Reflections #1:

Keeping It Living (Intro, p. 1-16), The Natural History of Puget Sound Country (Ch. 5),

Sweet Breathing of Plants (p. 21-33)

Both Nancy Turner and Arthur R. Kruckeberg carry a similar perspective/theory on pre-European settlement Pacific Northwest history and biodiversity of northwest land. However, just as most texts do, they have subtle differences within each theory. Both texts describe in detail the diverse ecosystems or zones within northwest territory. Kruckeberg defines a zone as “clusters of species often dominated by one or a few coniferous evergreens” due to climate and elevation differences. “These clusters, highlighted by their dominate trees, constitute the zone.” (Kruckeberg, 122) Turner seems to agree with his vague definition through her observation of plant diversity on each zone. She clearly indicates that the northwest contains four zones based on the vegetation, topography, climate within each zone:

1. Costal Douglas-fir Zone

Warm climate, dominated by douglas-fir, grand fir, pacific madrone, broad-leaf maple, western redcedar, with occasionally an encounter with a garry oak and blue camas

2. Costal Western Hemlock Zone

Dominated by western hemlock, pacific silver fir, western red-cedar, sitka spruce

3. Mountain Hemlock Zone

Dominated by mountain hemlock, yellow-cedar, subalpine fir

4. Alpine Tundra Biogeoclimatic Zone

Low perennial plants with several heath species (Turner, 9-10)

Kruckeberg defines only two zones within the northwest region:

1. Western Hemlock Zone

Mild and moist climate, dominated by the western hemlock, western red cedar, sword fern, cascade oregon grape, douglas fir, and salal

2. Old-Growth Forest

Conifer forests with vegetation in it’s prime at 350 to 750 years old, contains the orchid and heather families of plants, vertebrate animals, large amounts of lichens, western hemlocks, western red cedar and Douglas fir.

Turner also devotes a section of chapter one to understanding the relationship between natural systems and cultural systems in the northwest. In this section she links together how the natural system (the land and the living things on the land) supports the cultural system (where people live and how they sustain their culture) and vice versa. The “diversity and distribution of ecological opportunities had tremendous implication for the peoples of this region, and influenced the ways that they chose to use, modify, and mange the land.” (Turner, 9) Due to the similarities of the land in the northwest coastal region many cultures share similarities in wood working technology, marine-oriented economic life, use of plant foods and plant resources. Many cultures also had large consistent villages during the winter season, then moved to a variety of pre-determined temporary villages depending on availability of resources provided by the land. (Turner, 10) It was native peoples healthy relationship with the natural systems that their culture system was sustainable.

The following list is a list of plants discussed in both texts that I can identify:

Keeping it Living	The Natural History of Puget Sound Country
Douglas-fir	Sitka spruce
Grand fir	Douglas-fir
Pacific madrone	Red alder
Brad-leaf maple	Western hemlock
Western Redcedar	Sword Fern
Western Hemlock	Oregon grape
Sika spruce	Western redcedar
Salal	Red huckleberry
Cattail	Trailing blackberry
Stinging nettle	Vine maple
	Black cottonwood
	Devil’s club
	Deer fern
	Wild ginger
	Madrone
	Ocean-spray
	Salmonberry
	Thimbleberry
	Indian plum
	Snowberry
	Skunk cabbage

As for ideas I’ve gained through the reading and Saturday’s activities that I can apply to work on my habitat area in the Longhouse Garden, Kruckeberg provides many ideas of plants that need to be added to Mixed Forest A so that it truly is an example of a northwest forest. In addition, he gives important plant relationships within this type of forest that is important to support the currently thriving species. The teaching on Saturday of how to transect the area will provide a vital reference to what is currently growing and how to integrate additional plants into the forest habitat so that it is more aesthetically pleasing and better for the current plants.