I think it’s written by a she, who’s interested in permaculture, sustainable living and gardening.  In her most recent post she mentions she has a PhD in land reclamation:

…which involved studying the re-creation of vegetation systems on restored open cast coal sites. I am fascinated by looking at natural relationships and seeing how these can be applied to physical and social systems created by people. For me, the easiest way to think about this sort of design is in my garden, because I understand the value and function of things like soil structure, micro-organisms, micro-climate, water, pollinators, decomposers and vegetation. But I am increasingly intrigued about how I can apply systems-level thinking to other aspects of my life: starting a new business, working with other people, designing a course for adult learners…

Her blog is already bringing back memories of the first few years of this blog, and I think it’s going to be very interesting to follow as she goes along.

I’ve known Ramon as Mr. Brown Thumb for a number of years now.  He was one of the original garden bloggers, probably the first well known one from the Chicago area, and now very active with the preservation of heirloom varieties. Even though we’ve known each other, our paths strangely rarely cross, almost never commenting on each others blogs or participating elsewhere in the same discussions.

One of the things he said in the article linked to above is:

Unfortunately, the search engine results can be gamed and the best gardening websites aren’t always at the top of search results.

This is getting to be incredibly true by now.  Not just search engines, but site statistics and even supposedly private website log files, are all being gamed these days.  It’s getting to the point where such a huge percentage of the Internet traffic is manipulated by a few large companies, or people that pay these companies, that no one can tell anymore which sites exist because of commercial interests or the quality of their content, what’s popular and what’s not.  The only reliable thing we have left is word of mouth.

Not only does this list of garden websites include some of my favorites, but I also think Ramon himself is worth keeping an eye on.

Yesterday an EU Advocate-General sided with French seed organization Kokopelli on the provision in EU law prohibiting the sale of unregistered varieties.

In reference to EU seed laws and related French regulations, the Advocate-General said they

“violate the principle of proportionality, free enterprise, free movement of goods, and the principle of non discrimination.”

The Advocate-General said the official seed catalog has

“nothing to do with plant health”

and

“it is up to farmers to decide which varieties they grow”

the Advocate-General added

“the fact that farmers are confined to the listed varieties greatly reduces genetic diversity in European fields.”

Unfortunately the original opinion was written in German, and as of the time of this post had not yet been translated into English.  You can read the opinion in a variety of non-English languages here.

Almost all of Kokopelli’s arguments were upheld, and most of the opposition’s arguments were not.

For those of you who filled in or are interested in the online questionnaire concerning the review of EU seed legislation I posted about here, you can read everyone’s answers here.

I think it makes quite interesting reading, and it shows how your voice can really be heard if you take the time to participate in something like this.

He recently left formal employment, and is pursuing a more self-reliant lifestyle on a property north of Atlanta, Georgia.  This includes bees, chickens, organic gardening and composting, rainwater collection, bread baking and more!  His blog looks really good so far!

I’ve recently come across her website where you can find links to her books for sale on Amazon, and download some excerpts.  You can also find her contact information if you want to ask her questions about her books and inquire about seeds for sale.

You can find the original Dutch language version here.

Here is a reply from the scientists who opposed the demonstration.

The original Dutch language version is here.

Here’s a quote from the second letter:

Sleep comfortable
Just think: what carries the least risk to humans and the environment? A potato with well-characterized resistance genes (the GM version) or a potato with the same genes in it and also a lot of other genes that we all know nothing (and bionica and toluca example)? If you do not see dangers in the use of bionica and toluca varieties, sleep on both ears in terms of the GM potato.

Part of the strange language here is the translation from Dutch, and I’ve fixed it a little by hand, but the point is clear.  From a scientist’s point of view — fewer genetics are better.  The traditionally bred blight resistant varieties Bionica and Toluca are dangerous to plant, because they have too many unknown and not useful genes in them!  Really?

The only way forward is monocultures, and as little biodiversity as possible?  Otherwise humans and the environment are at risk?  If you don’t agree, sleep comfortably on both ears?  This is like president Bush telling the world they were either with him or against him in Iraq.  I don’t think this is the basis for common ground.

For those of you who know him, be sure to update your blogroll and bookmarks.

If you don’t know him, be sure to have a look!  His new blog is here, but he hasn’t migrated his content yet.  You might also want to have a look at his old blog so you can see what he’s written in the past.

In their published documents they offer a number of scenarios, and while some are worse than others, none are completely acceptable.

There’s honestly little hope they’ll actually take public opinion into account, but it’s still very important to give them a run for their money.  Maybe, if they get a large response, and they can see people are very upset about their plans, it may have some impact.  Please try to submit a response if you can.  If you’re unable to read through all of their documents and submit a response using their form, please just send them an email stating your objections to seed laws in general and the registration of varieties.

I’ll try to put together as much information as I can together with arguments, before the deadline for submission.  If you have any ideas or suggestions, please give them here!  I’ll also post my response, so if nothing else, please consider replacing my name with your own and submitting it yourself.

The European seed laws affect everyone everywhere on the planet, and everyone everywhere should respond to this public consultation.  The EU is the largest economy in the world, and rules that become established here will be pushed onto other countries as well.  Above all else it’s vital to protect our rights to save and regrow our own seeds, no matter where in the world we live.

Check out the view from his community garden! It looks out on the San Francisco Mission neighborhood, Twin Peaks and the Sutro Tower, parts of the Civic Center with a glimpse of the upper parts of the of the Golden Gate Bridge towers.

One of the nice things about his blog is he makes the connection between gardening and food, which of course some other blogs do too, but it’s still nice to see.  He and his partner eat mostly vegetarian, so this is emphasized in the blog too.

Mike of Subsistence Pattern has been a reader and commenter here for a long time.  One of the things that really stands out about his blog are the discussions he cultivates among his readers.  If you want to chat with him and other well known veggie bloggers, it’s a great place to go.

Laura of Mas du Diablo in France has for many years been an active participant in the Blogger Seed Network here, as well as actively blogging about her garden and cooking.  I recently exchanged some emails with here, and got some links to new blogs she working on, showing off her paintings, more paintings and cooking.  Imagine 4 blogs!  I have a hard enough time keeping up with this one.

Leigh of The Extreme Gardener recently posts about her experiences growing TPS (True Potato Seeds). Great post!

A fried of mine here in Holland, Anita, has a expat blog.  It’s called Greetings from Holland.  I keep meaning to mention it.  I don’t often write about Holland, and in fact Anita and I were recently talking about that.  She thinks I should write more about Amsterdam and the Netherlands, instead of all the difficult subjects I address here, and she’s probably right.  Anita on the other hand writes a lot about Holland, including things about really interesting places she visits.  She has a lot of great pictures.  If you want to learn something about living in the Netherlands, hers is the blog to visit.

Finally, Randy who lives in North Carolina has a blog called Randy and Meg’s Garden Paradise.  He also has an associated blog about his carpentry projects called the Liberal Handyman’s Blog.  He has some really amazing photographs on his blogs, and his carpentry projects look really interesting.