The Snail of Happiness
I came across this site a few days ago, and thought I’d mention it here.
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.
Speaker Finalist TEDxWageningen
I’ve applied as a speaker at TEDxWageningen later this year, 30 May. I’ve been short-listed as a finalist but not yet selected. As part of the application process they’ve asked us all to submit a 1-2 minute video promoting ourselves, and giving a glimpse into what we might talk about. You can view my competition on their YouTube channel, and my submission is embedded below.
Wageningen is the main agricultural university in the Netherlands.
10 Great Gardening Websites
Ramon Gonzales, a writer for Treehugger.com, recently published a list of his current 10 favorite gardening websites, and I’m pleased to be included in his list.
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.
More Amsterdam Seed Exchange Videos
The first is a photo montage of the seed exchange put together by the same person who did the video in my last post. This is a great example of ‘citizen journalism’ — thanks for whoever made these videos!
The second video here is of the day following the seed exchange, where some people got together and started a garden on an empty construction site in Amsterdam.
Score at the Amsterdam Seed Exchange!
Someone came home with a nice haul
