I think yesterday was the last day of craziness, I'm not sure if the madness was internal, external, local,or global. For at least the last month everything has been extreme,not only in the garden, but with work and socially, every one and everything at the limit, and strangely people are coping and adapting with good humour and an attitude that ,we can't do anything else, but deal with it. Not the everything is bad, a large number of things are going well, it's just unusual and unexpected. My intuition is telling me, today there's a change in the air, and hopefully a return to normal events, with the promise of the beginning of new routine. Maybe it's me, and the 15th of August passing by has sent a subliminal massage. (In France this is the date the marks the beginning of autumn/winter planting, and the decline of summer.) Am I the only person who has seen this madness or is it a local, or personal phenomena?

When two plants grow beside each other, whether they work well together depends on how they use the same resources. Plants may overlap in their need for light, water, rooting space, nutrients, physical support, and growing time. The more those needs overlap, the greater the potential for competition. A tall plant may shade a shorter one. Roots may compete for the same water and nutrients, or occupy different soil zones. A vine may use another plant for support without causing trouble, or eventually overwhelm it. Timing matters too. An annual may use resources early and disappear before a perennial reaches peak growth. Plants that grow well together during a wet spring may compete much more strongly during a dry summer. Plant compatibility emerges from how plants use resources across space and time. When we look at two neighboring plants, we can ask: - How much do their canopies overlap? - Are they drawing from the same soil space? - Do they need the same resources at the same time? - Is one plant physically affecting the other? We do not have to rely only on lists of “good” and “bad” companions. We can learn to read the relationship. This week, look at two plants growing beside each other and ask: Where are their needs overlapping, and where are they using the space differently? When two plants begin competing, what do you usually notice first?

Last week we looked at choosing a compost method that fits our household, space, materials, and time. The next step is making sure that method has the conditions it needs to work. Before we build a pile, fill a bin, or start adding scraps, it helps to look at seven things: - Site: Is it accessible, well drained, and suited to the method? - Feedstocks: What materials do we actually have available? - Moisture: Will the materials stay moist enough for decomposition without becoming waterlogged? - Structure: Are there enough coarse materials to keep the mass from collapsing and compacting? - Airflow: Can oxygen move through the material? - Space: Is there enough room for the system and the way we will manage it? - Management: How much checking, watering, turning, or handling can we realistically maintain? These conditions work together. A pile made mostly from wet, dense materials may have plenty of moisture but very little airflow. A loose pile in full summer sun may have good structure but dry out quickly. A method may work perfectly on paper but still be the wrong system if we cannot give it the attention it requires. Weather changes the balance too. Hot, dry conditions may make moisture the limiting factor. Long periods of rain can shift the problem toward saturation and compaction. Cold conditions may simply slow decomposition. So rather than following one calendar recipe, we learn to observe what the system is telling us. Compost performance emerges from the relationship among materials, moisture, air, structure, site, and management. Before you start a compost system, which condition do you think is easiest to overlook?

As technology advances our hand eye coordination and dexterity get better and perhaps our upper body strength and stamina reduce , does it matter ? No. Working the land simply with basic tools is almost a thing of the past , petrol equipment is being replaced by battery tools, even larger energy demanding equipment, like tractors can be electric, quite, clean and less emissions. All this help we have to do work ,comes at a price, not only to purchase, but with embodied energy in the manufacturing and delivery. Our practical skills and physical strength is more sustainable, and we should do our best to improve and maintain them, then as we age recount the knowledge and experience that we invested in when we were younger, and pass it on. Our abilities to the new crafter's and grafters. One big problem is that pushing buttons is easier than learning a trade and all the hours of practice, the blisters, cuts and bruises, that it takes to become an expert in a manual skill . Electric secateurs what next?

In an earlier post I said I couldn't work out how the drought problem was going to lead to a permaculture advantage.(the problem is a solution). Because I had to rethink my watering system, move the pump to a more stable position and add extra hose to a new take off point, it means that I can pump pond water to the top of the farm, not with any great pressure, although it is a steady flow that's not over working the pump. Pond water is biologically active and a liquid plant food, if the pond is healthy the water in it is going to be perfect to promote healthy plant growth. Adding a few strategicly placed barrels on the hillside with drain tap hose connectors, is going to make adding fertility really simple in the future and short term , watering in new plants will be quicker with less water to carry .