Behold: a golden spiral

Dietrich and my friend Dan put together this lovely bed based on the golden ratio one afternoon.



Stemming from and idea to create a garden bed for my medicinal herb garden based on the ratio of the golden mean/fibonacci sequence( 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13) which manifests in a 'golden spiral'.



The golden spiral is apparent in plants that grow in spiral fashions. It appears in the patterning and placement of seeds, leaves, branches, roots, and petals. Roses, large trees, cacti, sunflowers, pine cones, onions, snail shells and more... Yet another fascinating thing to pay attention to. :)


Once filled with soil, the bed will be home to my medicinal herbs. I have ideas of learning to organize the plants into designs and shapes (I suppose much like landscape design). Using materials like chicken wire, bamboo, and string to create interesting shapes and forms out of living plants. Living sculptures.

Solaire

5 of my friends and I have started a performance troupe named Solaire. Working with fire and flow, UV and glow, we're performing around the Chicago area to get our feet into the performance scene. We've been creating performances with blacklight reactive costumes and weighted flags & veils. The effect is quite beautiful.



So far we've performed at the Burlesque Bake Sale, Resonate 5.0, Synergism, and Loyola's Earth Day Event. With more to come!

Full Moon Fire Jam

Here's a video of the full moon fire jam that The Chicago Fire Tribe hosts monthly. Check it out!

http://vimeo.com/11516034

Garden Workdays: Spring edition

Thank you! Thank you......

to everyone who threw down and made the most recent garden workdays amazing! There was so much great energy and excitement. Around 15 people showed up this past Sunday to work, get dirty, have fun, be outside, eat food, and meet new people.

Rich, the construction master!

D and Jonathan reinforcing walls

Thinning radishes and weeding

Sunning in the sun, after digging a lot of dirt, and hauling a lot of rocks.

Lots of digging, hauling rocks, weeding, cutting wood, constructing beds, seeding, labeling, cooking, and eating. Basically, a blast.

The ladies working on seedling tomatoes, peppers, basil, herbs, fennel, and eggplants.

Detail of the last of the eastern beds.

The western beds, all built!

The rooftop, as of Sunday evening, center beds started by Madelon and her 2 young chaps.

So, big love and thanks to:

Dietrich
Tom Clever
Jonathan the great
Allison
Rich
Rachel
Month of Mae
Debra
Kathy
Glenn
Alyssa
Casey
Madelon
Josh
Dante
Joe
Dan

and... for our materials:
The Rebuilding Exchange
Gethsemane Gardens
Brew & Grow
Windy City Harvest
Grand Street Gardens

and and.... all those who worked on the rooftop previously, laying a great foundation for what we are doing now.


:) The garden is flourishing already, with community love and dedication. Look forward to more workdays, some workshops in the future, and general hanging out in a lovely garden!

Spring sprung sproing!

The days are getting longer, and the plants are responding with rapid growth! Zoom!



The dew covered carrot seedlings. Radishes are coming along, some even starting to bulge slightly.


A forest of Red Russian Kale.

the season is upon us.

The plants are growing. Tiny leaves on the trees! Spring storms and winds that make your bike scoot sideways. We have workdays in the garden this week, in between wildly busy and delicious Edible Alchemy pick-ups.

I've been spinning fire again, as the cold does not make my hands numb when I hold my fans!
We're in the toddler stages of creating a performance troupe, something that I've been itching to do for years, but have never found the right time, place, or people. But now!

fire photos: credit to Lera Gershevich, 2010

Over wintered greens

Dietrich and I went out to check on the plants in their hoop houses today, half expecting everything to be dead. And, there's life! According to our friends:

"Yay! Life reigns!"
"babies babies everywhere"
"SPRING!"


The purple kale, shown above, was the hardiest over-winterer. It still is chugging along, looking awesomely tasty. The frosts brought out the deep purple even more in the leaves.



Spinach also looked great, showing more growth even. Spinach is super hardy, growing (slowly) in very cold conditions. You can see our yellow onions sprouting behind them.

Here, our hard-neck garlic is sending up shoots. They're all super happy and ready to get photosynthesizing after the dormancy of bulb life.

We also planted our lettuce bed, some carrots (yellowstone and 2 nantes varieties), radishes (pink and purple!), and a row of arugula. Let the spring spring soon.

Garden workdays to be announced later! I can't wait to get dirty.