When I was working on the Spirit in the Grass book with photographer Chris Harris, one of the ecologists on the project told me that the effects of sun and shadow at […]
In the Grasslands, Tiny Effects Aren’t Tiny at All
Gardening is Not Real
In an image-driven culture, gardening is symbolic. It fills the social role of display. Like clothing or a tan or a tattoo. The key is to fill the social role while protecting […]
Midsummer Autumn
Celebrate the season! It’s a colour palette for rejoicing. Art without four seasons. Life without four seasons. Life with dozens, often two at the same time, passing through each other like clouds! […]
The Private Landscapes of the Okanagan Valley
Here’s a healthy stand of bunchgrass, which I showed you a couple days ago. As I mentioned, the Okanagan Valley of the North Eastern Pacific Rim probably looked like this 200 years […]
Green Fire
Cheatgrass burns off a whole season’s water at once … in early March. By May, this will be a desert, and this fire will be red. This sagebrush-cheatgrass culture takes the place […]
Saving the Grasslands One Garden at a Time
In forest fire season, even the grassland hills are suffering in the smoke.Note how the golf course road zig-zagging back and forth here manages to take all the water away. Note as […]
The Trail to Nowhere
It started as a trail to the promised land. Here at the Whitman Mission in Walla Walla, in Oregon Territory (now in the State of Washington), it has led to a hill of […]
Snow? No Problem!
Cheatgrass shows us the way to the future: harvest snow. Cheatgrass at the Edge of Winter There is no need to wait for the rains or to finance high pressure water systems […]
For the Love of Weeds
There is a group of plants that produce food, require little or no irrigation, little care, and are open to be shared by human and animal grazers. They are called weeds. They […]
The Red Shift 2
Palettes of colour can provide lenses with which to enter into the landscape. That was the story last week. To put on those glasses, click here. The earth may be an art […]
