Radical Gardening

I have been doing some research the past few days on what I am calling radical gardening, which (for me) is a combination of permaculture (which is the only way I will roll), small space gardening, and all things gardening alternative.

After all this research my brain was kinda tied up in a knot with how to make this happen when we move into our RV in a few days. I have decided to take this one step at a time and adjust to living in the RV (and what kind of space we are looking at) before building a garden, but all this delicious information is going to percolate in my brain and grow in our lives :)) I'm very excited to share some of the cool information that I found! Enjoy the following delicious radical gardening buffet :)))

In January of this year, my friend, Kimra, first got me to thinking about alternative gardening spaces when she posted this blog post.

This is another fellow self-identified radical gardener, and so is she.

I am going to post a few links/pics to the stuff I want to combine somehow for us :))

I have GOT to find a way to make this happen in the RV. 

using shoe holders! (my friend, Kimra, adds her own suggestion for this in her blog post above)

This really has me thinking, too! 

gardening in reclaimed gutters

And another cool vertical option

I can see this one on almost any wall

Talk about alternative spaces!!!! Site and video

This has me thinking about towing a trailer garden

This Living Kitchen has me drooling

Okay, on the original site, they call it a flow kitchen -- I <3 both terms!

So those are radical gardening porn (heehee, I love that analogy LOL).

Here are a few links (brain pron?) that REALLY feed my soul:

Creating the Permaculture Balcony Garden

Gardening as a Site of Liberation

Proof that gardening can be cool: Anarchy in the Garden: keeping it punk by growing your own

Garden Girl: Home & Garden: Organic living tips, ideas, & inspiration

I feel very blessed to have personal access to fellow gardeners, like my mom (who has been gardening my entire life) and my friend, MB, who is my biggest source of permaculture inspiration ♥ She has taught me that permaculture is much bigger than just growing plants -- it's a lifestyle. Her blog is a testament to permaculture gardening and permaculture lifestyle ♥ Like her life, her blog is embedded with gardening, but I managed to find a good "Permaculture 101, as told in the context of MB" blog post, called earth as schooner ~ a permaculture analogy.

**EEK! Jumping on to edit to add a few links I totally forgot about other alternative gardening ways:

Container Gardening: this is uber-helpful (what and when to plant), practically a one-shop-stop for planning to container garden, another AMAZING container garden link

Square-foot Gardening

Carrying the Torch

I come from a long line of wild women on my mom's side of the family. For those who understand the significance of this, Kassidy is the 7th generation first-born daughter. Women roll powerfully in our maternal legacy. Let me tell you a bit about this legacy, as I was told...

My great great grandmother defied the traditional woman's role of homemaker and did something outside the home that she was passionate about (politics? business? I can't remember, but it was definitely viewed as a man's world). She didn't, however, pass on the baby-maker aspect, and had 8 children, who my great grandmother (who was the oldest) raised and cared for until they were old enough to care for themselves.

My great grandmother took the love of her life and her life on the road. She traveled for years with a man called Red (red hair), and they painted the sides of trucks for their next meals and their next destinations. It was said the family never knew when she was in town because she valued her freedom so fiercely. She, however, left her daughter (not from Red) at home to be raised by her siblings who she had dedicated her earlier life to raising.

My grandmother, it was told, would take off into the land behind their home with the dog (who was very protective of her), even as young as 2 years old. She grew up a wild child on wild land in Texas. Tragically she drowned in a river when she was only 18 years old (my mom was 6 months old, on the embankment when it happened). (I believe Najaia may be her reincarnation -- Najaia is as free as I imagine my grandmother having been, even at such a young age)

***Edit -- I found out that my grandmother travelled with my great grandmother for many years, until the family felt it was a problem that she wasn't getting consistency, and so she went to live with the siblings when she was older.**

My mother is the only generation I actually got to experience first-hand. She was a wild woman through and through. She was a total hippie, a definite gypsy (even before we lived on the road in my teens for 3 years, we moved at least once a year across 3 different states), an empowered and empowering woman, an attached mama only following her heart with little-to-no support from family. I was raised Pagan by a single mom before it was cool or common :)) Still, my mom reminds me daily that there is nothing to fear with growing older -- she has her own Harley (sometimes riding topless LOL), she goes on travels and adventures with her newest love by land and by sea, has a zen garden and an impressive vegetable garden, and she is not afraid to question traditional styles of thinking or living. My mom just ROCKS!

Insert me. I feel like I pale in comparison LOL Granted, I have a few years and at least a couple crazy decisions to live through before it would be fair to compare :))) I am not really creating a legacy. I'm just carrying the torch.

I am proud to live so authentically for my children, to pass the torch on to them :)) I already, definitely, see my kids continuing this legacy. We are definitely a wild tribe :)

I feel like I am cutting this post short, but my oldest has been waiting patiently for my computer, and, really, this blog is kinda the testament to the newest chapters of this family legacy. Living on the road is going to be just amazing, on so many levels. My friend, Cindy Leapley (who is passing their RV on to us), keeps telling me that I was made for this life. I really really was.

The Art of Falling on One's Face Gracefully

I wrote this earlier in the week but Blogger is not letting me upload pics right now so I was going to wait until that was fixed -- however, it still isn't fixed, so here it is :)  Just to clarify, I am not talking about the actual philosophy of this guy, of which I know nothing about.

I have had just as much fun playing with this rapture prediction over the past week as some. I've laughed at funny Facebook statuses and some YouTube videos, and celebrated vicariously through the "end of the world" gatherings that have resulted.

Now that the dust has cleared, I am hearing some more perspectives. Some were amused at the craziness of the prediction, and some are very angry that the guy "wanted" rapture to happen and that believers gave up so much for the cause he started. Some think he owes those folks compensation since his prediction that they believed and invested in didn't come to fruition.

I seem to have a minority opinion on the matter (no surprise to me in life anymore).

I want to applaud this man for believing in something so radical, for trusting his insides, and standing up for it regardless of public ridicule. And I want to hug him in the aftermath and assure him that it is okay to believe in things, to invest completely in something, even if you end up looking like you fell on your face.

In this society, we are really big on being safe -- even if you take a risk, make sure it's a safe one! And in this society, we are really big on "right"ness. We are so deeply invested in the importance of being right that we cut adventure and exploration and thinking short if it's "inaccurate".

How many parents will allow their child to believe something they don't see as true? How many people can sit in a car and allow the driver to accdently go the opposite direction of the intended destination? How many people think falling on one's face is a horrible tragedy?

This is all very common in our society (and maybe even bigger than just the US).

I'm the mom who just pauses when my son sings the A,B,C's in some crazy order that often leaves out entire chunks of the alphabet :) I'm the mom who is learning to sit back and enjoy the journey my kids' learning takes, instead of focusing on the destination. I'm the person who is loving taking risks, knowing that I have NO clue how some things may turn out, but the only real "end" is death, so I have my whole life to keep going. I'm the person who is learning to be gentle with my own learning and living, so as not to avoid falling on my face, but to leap up and laugh "I'm okay!" as I skip off to find another adventure.

The problem isn't falling on one's face (to me, that's a noble quality and proof that one is trying to live life to it's fullest -- maybe even that they are leaping toward things even further than they think they are). The problem may be in laying there stuck, or jumping up in shame and embarrassment and deciding to not chance something like that again. The art of falling on one's face gracefully entails expecting that it could happen when we are walking (or dancing or skipping, as the case may be), light-heartedly getting back up to one's feet, and relishing in the possible scrapes and bruises that are battle wounds of the fun of living.

I have literally fallen on my face (about a year ago). I was walking my friend's dog, and I felt inspired to run. It was a glorious feeling -- a rush of excitement and lightness and freedom. So, as I had done in my childhood, I took off down a hill. Well, my spirit seemed to be a bit faster than my physical body, and I tumbled down the hill face first (to the horror of 2 girls from our parkday group LOL). I leapt up laughing, feeling the aches and precarious numbness in areas of my body. And for the week or so that it took my bruises and scrapes to heal, I was reminded of that feeling of lightness and hilarity of how I must have looked. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, even if I fell flat on my face again :)) Falling wasn't "proof" that I shouldn't have tried sprinting down that hill. Just because I fell doesn't mean I did anything "wrong" or that I need to get better before doing it again. Sure, I learned from the experience, but the goal wasn't to learn how to do it "right" next time.

I feel more light and forgiving about the whole experience.

This is flavoring my plans for this new road-living chapter of my life, too, or any plans I make for my life. I am learning to not only take the steps that ensure I will not fall on my face. It's okay to take the steps that may leave me face down and scratched up. It's okay to take risks, and the ability to jump up afterward is more important to me than the ability to plan everything to a "t" and ensure that every step is sure-footed.

Another part of the "rapture theory" analogy is the folks who believed his message and invested in it. Some people are really upset that they sold their homes and now have "nothing" to show for it. It seems that people feel these folks were forced or duped or deceived. I think they, too, fell on their face. They had faith, they took risks, and it didn't come to fruition (thankfully, for some of us). Is it really the guy's fault that they did what they did? Is he really to be held accountable for their choices?

It seems that he is kinda like an investment banker who invested in something that didn't work out afterall (assuming the folks who invested feel disappointment that the rapture didn't come -- in one of my psychology classes, we learned how folks who believe strongly in something like this can actually feel stronger afterward, even if the rapture didn't happen). As long as he spent the money the way it was intended to be spent, I don't think it is fair to hold him accountable in the end. He seems pretty genuine and authentic.

I will sit with these folks in their disappointment and validate them. I just don't see it as the tragedy that some are seeing it as. No one drank cyanid. They gave up stuff -- something folks all over the world/historically (my current self included) do for something they believe in. Even if they feel disapppinted right now, I feel they are better off for having had faith in something, took risks, and invested in something, even if it didn't pan out the way they originally planned. Life kinda works like that often, doesn't it? Who KNOWS what life journey those folks are on, what their life lessons are destined to be?

I'm assuming positive intent. I'm vicariously practicing the art of falling on one's face gracefully.