Yesterday our wonderful friend Rin held the first of a series of three workshops on how to build a 10 x 10 ft permaculture garden at our house. We already grow some food, so the workshop transformed an area on the side of the garden that wasn’t being used (part of it was still grass) into a lovely new self-contained vegetable garden.

I learned about sheet mulching, no-dig gardening, crop rotations, and much much more. If you want to start growing food, or if you’ve been growing for years and want some new ideas, I can’t recommend Erin’s courses enough if you get a chance - she’s an amazing farmer, growing food for 5 families in a typical front and back-yard house in East Van.

From start to finish (raw materials to planted garden): The 10 x 10 permaculture garden in photos.

(Actually the space we had was 8 x 12, so we adapted the design a little!)

Happy growing…

Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I hadn’t really thought of that quote in the context of electoral politics before watching Christy Clark in the eloquent video below, but it applies well in this context. If we continue with a broken, divisive electoral system, why would we expect anything better than broken, divisive politics?

I’m not a Canadian citizen, so I don’t get to vote in the provincial election and referendum on electoral reform next week. In some ways I’m glad I don’t have to choose between the current dichotomy - neither option would be particularly palatable. For those who are eligible to vote, please watch this video, get informed, then vote for BC-STV in the referendum. We deserve better from politics in BC, and BC-STV is the tool we need to help achieve that.

It’s interesting to see how Harper’s suspension of democracy in Canada is being perceived to the south…

…and take climate action:

As the UN climate talks continue in Bali, and many countries continue trying to make progress on international agreements on dealing with climate change, Canada’s conservative government seems to have a different plan - do the bidding of big oil and sabotage all progress at the climate talks, contrary to the wishes of most Canadians. So far has Canada slipped, under the current government, from its former position as bastion of international diplomacy at the Montreal negotiations two years ago, that at the weekend Canada won the “fossil of the day” award, for doing the most to block progress at the negotiations.

It’s time to make some noise, Canada: head on over to avaaz.org and tell Harper to stop blocking the UN climate talks. It only takes a minute.

Once you’ve done that, read on for more contact details. A phone call is worth a thousand emails…

read on