Mom, one of my permaculture friends was describing an apple fence the other day, made from weaving together living apple whips. You get food and a fence a the same time- how cool is that? Grandpa would approve I think.

Victor: that’s my hunch too. Glad to have found your blog!

Comments are the lifeblood of the blogger, a fact that I always knew but I had to get over my sense of being an amateur at everything before I got up the courage to comment occasionally to the people I read most regularly. I’m loving having a place to express my thinking and feeling but it’s the potential for conversation with people I learn from that is really fueling me in this space.

Dan- we’ve had more conversations since you moved to Victoria than we did when you were in the city! Crazy. But lovely.

You’re right- Harry would love to get in on some grape vine action. Which makes me think that perhaps after our perennial garden learning party on the 9th and before we eat and head into the DIY, hack carpentry approach to the web learning party with Brian maybe you’d show me how to prune them a bit.

Is that going to be too late in the year? Robin has some very simple instruction in “Gardening for the Faint of Heart” (reprinted by New Society this spring) but I don’t have it handy.

Grapes are Givers: could be a weblog title!

Thanks so much!

I found it fascinating and indulged a long phase of “non-pruning” and weaving. Then I read about a famous japanese gardener who, when asked how he maintained such fabulous gardens, replied by holding up the pincer fingers of his hands, indicating his hardened calluses on thumb and forefinger. The other extreme. Diligent regular pinching “nipping in the bud” that prevents the plant from expending energy into growth where the GARDENER doesn’t want it. Quick, deliberate, persistent coaching. Patience and acute observation. Concern and care. Love. And the plant will achieve the shape that best supports it’s health, beauty and structure.

When I look at the garry oaks in Victoria, or the beech trees lining Beach Ave in English Bay in Vancouver, or the blvd trees on Cambie St, Mother Nature, in connection with the plants, prunes without pruning. Leaving an energy field around the plants large enough for the plant to reach into at full extension is one way to do it in your own garden.

With some plants… not grapes though! They are givers. They produce leaf, flower fruit and vine: food and air, cool shade, for so many creatures – giving ALL of themselves to that end. They need a lot of support in their giving. A structure to climb on, lean on, and drip from. And they need regular, timely reduction. And these prunings are by no means waste. They are a harvest. What children could do with the twisting malluable ropes of spent grape vineage and some adult support and encouragement: my imagination is creating all sorts of magical garden creations at the thought of it!

I love what you say about how experience with nature bridges the casm between mathematical, scientific and social concepts and youthful, natural, abstract thought. Afterall, all science and maths were born of nature – nature is their essence. If we can understand nature, we understand the essence of EVERYTHING. Math and science become easy extensions on problems you watch unfold in nature every waking connected moment.

Plant medicines, uses in general. Properties: rigidity, pliability, edibility, weight, shape, size, density… how have they been used? what creative new forms could they present to us? Interaction and observation definitely supply most of those answers – . The more space we make for nature in our lives, the more space it has in our lives, right?

I love your school – the school of your dreams. What I love most is you are making it a reality. In fact you make it seem like a piece of cake. That tells me you’re tapped in.

Keep sharing your story and living your personal legend, Keira, it’s really awesome.

Peace/ Dan