http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/senior-abbott-mp-concedes-australians-ready-to-leave-the-grid-38525
http://www.gogreensolar.com/products/4000w-complete-solar-panel-kit-enphase-microinverter?gclid=Cj0KEQiAl7KmBRDW6s-Xi_uT9OgBEiQAZdbbSSjToVbVSI774b6Np85S-RVCQ_RYH5N8J9zy1AELe7IaAuVK8P8HAQ
Saturday, January 31, 2015
The Solar Food Dryer: How to Make and Use Your Own Low-Cost, High Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865715440/ref=nosim/cryptogoncom-20
Greek leaders divorced from reality, says Berlin after Tsipras asks for debts to be written off
Germany and Greece drew battle lines last night in a spiralling row over the repayment of massive bailout loans.
Berlin said the demands of Alexis Tsipras's new far-Left Greek government for some of its debts to be written off were 'divorced from reality'.
But Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis replied that the government would no longer engage with officials representing the country's despised 'troika' of lenders – the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2933991/Greek-leaders-divorced-reality-says-Berlin-Tsipras-asks-debts-written-off.html#ixzz3QP92Adio Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
We will not co-operate with the troika, says Greek finance minister
Yanis Varoufakis calls Greece's troika of international lenders - the EU, IMF and ECB - 'a rottenly constructed committee'
Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Syriza, became Greece’s prime minister last Sunday, winning over voters weary of austerity with his promise not to bow to the Troika of European creditors - the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11381168/We-will-not-co-operate-with-the-troika-says-Greek-finance-minister.html
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Spanish Conquest of Mexico and Flemish Bankers
The primary beneficiary of an unjust society is the one who ends up with the money in the end.
From Ferhrenbach, Lone Star, Updated Edition, 20-21, 23:
"Cortes and others were disappointed to find that Mexico did not possess extensive gold deposits. But the chagrin was soon ameliorated by the discovery of virtually inexhaustible silver lodes, at Potosi and elsewhere. A stream of metal eventually amounting to billions of dollars was begun to Europe."
***
"Spaniards quickly reduced the agricultural civilizations of the Middle American plateaus. The reduction was characterized by brutalities that with the passage of time historians tend to ignore, but in the end it was complete, and final.... Millions of Mexican Indians continued to live in various stages of Spanish servitude.... Both Charles V and his son, Philip II of Spain, were increasingly desperate for money to finance their enormous European wars.
It was not really possible to bring crippling pressures against the encomenderos, who operated the mines and plantations with the sword and lash but who also fed millions of silver pesos into the treasury of the Crown. The Indians would not have performed these services without the severest repression...."
***
"Two events called forth the Coronado expedition in 1540.... No one believed the possibility of conquerable empires was exhausted. Further, the Crown was insatiable in its demand for specie, which poured through Madrid without lasting benefit, to enrich the Flemish and German bankers who financed German wars. The viceregal government of New Spain not only believed in the existence of more golden cities, but was prepared to implement the belief."
So, in reality, the Indian was the slave of a slave (encomendero) of a slave (King). And the true master was ....
Note: "I am rich by God's grace without injury to any man" (Jacob Fugger, in Men of Wealth).
"When Fugger writes to Charles V for payment of his loan he asks plainly that "the money which I have paid out, together with the interest upon it, shall be reckoned up and paid, without further delay."
https://archive.org/stream/MenOfWealth/menofwealth#page/n31/mode/2up
Continuous warfare and other expenses of state are a constant drain on
Charles's treasury. Like any ruler of the time, his costs outrun his
sources of revenue. Loans from bankers fill the gap, and they are often
repaid by leases on sources of royal income.
Thus the Fuggers are granted in 1525 the revenues from the Spanish orders of knighthood, together with the profits from mercury and silver mines. The bankers therefore become, in a sense, both revenue collectors and managers of state assets. But their high rates of interest can quickly cripple a kingdom engaged in too many unprofitable wars."
From Ferhrenbach, Lone Star, Updated Edition, 20-21, 23:
"Cortes and others were disappointed to find that Mexico did not possess extensive gold deposits. But the chagrin was soon ameliorated by the discovery of virtually inexhaustible silver lodes, at Potosi and elsewhere. A stream of metal eventually amounting to billions of dollars was begun to Europe."
***
"Spaniards quickly reduced the agricultural civilizations of the Middle American plateaus. The reduction was characterized by brutalities that with the passage of time historians tend to ignore, but in the end it was complete, and final.... Millions of Mexican Indians continued to live in various stages of Spanish servitude.... Both Charles V and his son, Philip II of Spain, were increasingly desperate for money to finance their enormous European wars.
It was not really possible to bring crippling pressures against the encomenderos, who operated the mines and plantations with the sword and lash but who also fed millions of silver pesos into the treasury of the Crown. The Indians would not have performed these services without the severest repression...."
***
"Two events called forth the Coronado expedition in 1540.... No one believed the possibility of conquerable empires was exhausted. Further, the Crown was insatiable in its demand for specie, which poured through Madrid without lasting benefit, to enrich the Flemish and German bankers who financed German wars. The viceregal government of New Spain not only believed in the existence of more golden cities, but was prepared to implement the belief."
So, in reality, the Indian was the slave of a slave (encomendero) of a slave (King). And the true master was ....
Note: "I am rich by God's grace without injury to any man" (Jacob Fugger, in Men of Wealth).
"When Fugger writes to Charles V for payment of his loan he asks plainly that "the money which I have paid out, together with the interest upon it, shall be reckoned up and paid, without further delay."
https://archive.org/stream/MenOfWealth/menofwealth#page/n31/mode/2up
| *** | ||
Thus the Fuggers are granted in 1525 the revenues from the Spanish orders of knighthood, together with the profits from mercury and silver mines. The bankers therefore become, in a sense, both revenue collectors and managers of state assets. But their high rates of interest can quickly cripple a kingdom engaged in too many unprofitable wars."
The Flemish Origins of Italian Renaissance Painting Explored in a Luminous International Loan Exhibition
Flanders was a wealthy region encompassing parts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, and it was ruled by the dukes of Burgundy, whose magnificent court attracted leading artists. These factors led to the flourishing of art and culture in this region. It was in Flanders, argues Nuttall, that in the first decades of the 15th century “a new pictorial language based on the observation of reality” was developed, notably by Jan van Eyck (ca. 1380/90–1441) and Van der Weyden.
Florence also had a prosperous mercantile economy and was an important cultural and artistic center in the 15th century. And since the late Middle Ages, a colony of Florentine merchants and bankers had settled in Flanders to facilitate banking and trade.
***
A particularly striking example of the impact of Flemish work on a Florentine artist is Hans Memling’s (ca. 1430–1494) Man of Sorrows Blessing, an intensely moving Flemish devotional painting that promoted private prayer and the contemplation of Christ’s humanity rather than his divinity. The painting was owned by a Florentine and must have arrived in Florence soon after it was painted, generating a host of copies. Outstanding among these is the copy by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494) that is so faithful to its model that it was long thought to be by Memling himself. Both works are on view in “Face to Face” for visitors to compare.
http://huntington.org/WebAssets/Templates/content.aspx?id=14531
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Pietro Lombardo et al.
"With usura seeth no man Gonzaga"
"Pietro Lombardo came not by usura."
"Duccio came not by usura."
"Nor Pier della Francesca"
"Zuan Bellin' not by usura"
"Nor was 'La Calunnia' painted"
"Came not by usura Angelico"
"Came no church of cut stone signed: Adamo me fecit."
"Not by usura St Trophime"
"Not by usura Saint Hilaire"
"... emerald findeth no Memling"
"Pietro Lombardo came not by usura."
"Duccio came not by usura."
"Nor Pier della Francesca"
"Zuan Bellin' not by usura"
"Nor was 'La Calunnia' painted"
"Came not by usura Angelico"
"Came not Ambrogio Praedis"
"Not by usura St Trophime"
"Not by usura Saint Hilaire"
"... emerald findeth no Memling"
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Madison: the fundamental right to labor the earth
To James Madison Fontainebleau, Oct. 28, 1785
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl41.php
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
LOOKING BACK: THE IDEAL COMMUNIST CITY
"Some of this took the form of rapid urbanization of rural areas....
The rural life was exactly what communist leaders hoped their country would get away from, therefore Soviet planners housed residents near industrial sites so they could contribute to their country through state-sponsored work."
http://www.newgeography.com/content/004830-looking-back-the-ideal-communist-city
Self-reliant, self-supporting families/communities are not compatible with totalitarian government.
The rural life was exactly what communist leaders hoped their country would get away from, therefore Soviet planners housed residents near industrial sites so they could contribute to their country through state-sponsored work."
http://www.newgeography.com/content/004830-looking-back-the-ideal-communist-city
Self-reliant, self-supporting families/communities are not compatible with totalitarian government.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Slavery is Having to Buy, Rent, or Borrow (and Repay with Interest) Everything You Need to Live
Gustavus Myers in History of the Great American Fortunes:
"Clanking chains are no longer necessary to keep slaves
in subjection. Far more effective than chains and balls and iron collars
are the ownership of the means whereby men must live. Whoever controls
them in large degree, is a potentate by whatever name he be called, and those
who depend upon the owner of them for their sustenance are slaves by
whatever flattering name they choose to go."
The more people are able to provide themselves with food,
water, shelter, and clothing ... without purchasing them from someone else
... and definitely without going into debt and paying interest on them ...
the more free they are.
The less people have to rely on an employer to pay them the wage they will use to purchase food, water, shelter, clothing, the more free they are.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
How much does the average N.J. resident pay in interest in a lifetime?
from nj.com
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2015/01/how_much_does_the_average_nj_resident_pay_in_inter.html
An average person who lives in the Garden State can expect to pay $309,500 on various forms of interest, according to a report on MarketWatch.com.
Only people who live in Washington, D.C., ($451,890) California, ($368,745) and Hawaii ($312,747) spend more on interest payments, the report said.
The national average is $279,002.
Friday, January 16, 2015
From Washington Post:
The paper contends that we have already crossed four “planetary boundaries.” They include the extinction rate; deforestation; the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; and the flow of nitrogen and phosphorous (used on land as fertilizer) into the ocean.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
What is Fascism?
It took me more than 50 years to figure out what kind of political/economic system we have in the U.S.:
"It is a fact, as we have seen, that minister after minister over many years used the policies — spending and borrowing, militarism and imperialism, and that business control was attempted by private business organizations — but the use of these devices never succeeded, first because they were never tried on a sufficiently large and persistent scale and second because within the framework of the constitutional representative system it was not possible to carry them to their full and logical lengths."
***
"Revolution through the barricades or by mass proletarian attack upon a regime is no longer thought to be a practical art. Revolution by procedures within the framework of the existing constitutional system has been for many years the accepted technique. There is a considerable literature on this subject which Americans, little concerned with revolution, have ignored."
***
"Fascism is a system of social organization that recognizes and proposes to protect the capitalist system and uses the device of public spending and debt as a means of creating national income to increase employment."
***
"Fascism is (1) a capitalist type of economic organization, (2) in which the government accepts responsibility to make the economic system work at full energy, (3) using the device of state-created purchasing power effected by means of government borrowing and spending, and (4) which organizes the economic life of the people into industrial and professional groups to subject the system to control under the supervision of the state."
***
Mussolini, having incorporated the principle of state-created purchasing power into his system, turned naturally to the old reliable project of militarism as the easiest means of spending money.... Money was spent on highways, schools, public projects of various kinds, and on the draining of the Pontine Marshes, which became in Italy the great exhibition project not unlike our TVA in America. But this was not enough, and so he turned more and more to military expenditures.... The militarization of Italy became an outstanding feature of the new regime. And the economic value of this institution in relieving unemployment while inducing the population to submit compliantly to the enormous cost became a boast of Fascist commentators.
***
To sum up, we may say, then, that Fascism in Italy was and is a form of organized society (1) capitalist in character, (2) designed to make the capitalist system function at top capacity, (3) using the device of state-created purchasing power through government debt, (4) and the direct planning and control of the economic society through corporativism, (5) with militarism and imperialism imbedded in the system as an inextricable device for employing a great mass of the employables.
***
but the use of these devices never succeeded, first because they were never tried on a sufficiently large and persistent scale and second because within the framework of the constitutional representative system it was not possible to carry them to their full and logical lengths.
***
Thus Rome got into its hands jurisdiction over every part of the political and economic system and undertook to manage that through a bureaucratic state dominated by a premier who held his power through the incomparable power of a philanthropic treasury which kept public funds flowing everywhere.
***
Revolution through the barricades or by mass proletarian attack upon a regime is no longer thought to be a practical art. Revolution by procedures within the framework of the existing constitutional system has been for many years the accepted technique. There is a considerable literature on this subject which Americans, little concerned with revolution, have ignored.
***
The popular mind must be subjected to intense conditioning, and this calls for the positive and aggressive forms of propaganda with which we are becoming familiar in this country. The chief instruments of this are the radio and the movies. In the hands of a dictator or a dictatorial government or a government bent on power the results that can be achieved are terrifying. Along with this, of course, goes the attack upon the mind of youth. The mind is taken young and molded in the desired forms. It is at this point the dictatorships develop their attitude toward religious organizations, which cannot be permitted to continue their influence over young minds.
***
Our own government is almost unique in its proclamation of the idea that the government shall not possess complete power over all human conduct and organization. The only powers possessed by our government are those granted by the Constitution. And that Constitution grants it very limited powers. The powers not granted to the central government are reserved to the states or to the people. Totalitarian government is the opposite of this. It defines a state whose powers are unlimited.
***
As we survey the whole scene in Italy, therefore, we may now name all the essential ingredients of fascism. It is a form of social organization
(John T. Flynn)
"It is a fact, as we have seen, that minister after minister over many years used the policies — spending and borrowing, militarism and imperialism, and that business control was attempted by private business organizations — but the use of these devices never succeeded, first because they were never tried on a sufficiently large and persistent scale and second because within the framework of the constitutional representative system it was not possible to carry them to their full and logical lengths."
***
"Revolution through the barricades or by mass proletarian attack upon a regime is no longer thought to be a practical art. Revolution by procedures within the framework of the existing constitutional system has been for many years the accepted technique. There is a considerable literature on this subject which Americans, little concerned with revolution, have ignored."
***
"Fascism is a system of social organization that recognizes and proposes to protect the capitalist system and uses the device of public spending and debt as a means of creating national income to increase employment."
***
"Fascism is (1) a capitalist type of economic organization, (2) in which the government accepts responsibility to make the economic system work at full energy, (3) using the device of state-created purchasing power effected by means of government borrowing and spending, and (4) which organizes the economic life of the people into industrial and professional groups to subject the system to control under the supervision of the state."
***
Mussolini, having incorporated the principle of state-created purchasing power into his system, turned naturally to the old reliable project of militarism as the easiest means of spending money.... Money was spent on highways, schools, public projects of various kinds, and on the draining of the Pontine Marshes, which became in Italy the great exhibition project not unlike our TVA in America. But this was not enough, and so he turned more and more to military expenditures.... The militarization of Italy became an outstanding feature of the new regime. And the economic value of this institution in relieving unemployment while inducing the population to submit compliantly to the enormous cost became a boast of Fascist commentators.
***
To sum up, we may say, then, that Fascism in Italy was and is a form of organized society (1) capitalist in character, (2) designed to make the capitalist system function at top capacity, (3) using the device of state-created purchasing power through government debt, (4) and the direct planning and control of the economic society through corporativism, (5) with militarism and imperialism imbedded in the system as an inextricable device for employing a great mass of the employables.
***
but the use of these devices never succeeded, first because they were never tried on a sufficiently large and persistent scale and second because within the framework of the constitutional representative system it was not possible to carry them to their full and logical lengths.
***
Thus Rome got into its hands jurisdiction over every part of the political and economic system and undertook to manage that through a bureaucratic state dominated by a premier who held his power through the incomparable power of a philanthropic treasury which kept public funds flowing everywhere.
***
Revolution through the barricades or by mass proletarian attack upon a regime is no longer thought to be a practical art. Revolution by procedures within the framework of the existing constitutional system has been for many years the accepted technique. There is a considerable literature on this subject which Americans, little concerned with revolution, have ignored.
***
The popular mind must be subjected to intense conditioning, and this calls for the positive and aggressive forms of propaganda with which we are becoming familiar in this country. The chief instruments of this are the radio and the movies. In the hands of a dictator or a dictatorial government or a government bent on power the results that can be achieved are terrifying. Along with this, of course, goes the attack upon the mind of youth. The mind is taken young and molded in the desired forms. It is at this point the dictatorships develop their attitude toward religious organizations, which cannot be permitted to continue their influence over young minds.
***
Our own government is almost unique in its proclamation of the idea that the government shall not possess complete power over all human conduct and organization. The only powers possessed by our government are those granted by the Constitution. And that Constitution grants it very limited powers. The powers not granted to the central government are reserved to the states or to the people. Totalitarian government is the opposite of this. It defines a state whose powers are unlimited.
***
As we survey the whole scene in Italy, therefore, we may now name all the essential ingredients of fascism. It is a form of social organization
- In which the government acknowledges no restraint upon its powers — totalitarianism
- In which this unrestrained government is managed by a dictator — the leadership principle
- In which the government is organized to operate the capitalist system and enable it to function — under an immense bureaucracy
- In which the economic society is organized on the syndicalist model, that is by producing groups formed into craft and professional categories [me: such as the National Association of Homebuilders or the National Association of Realtors] under supervision of the state
- In which the government and the syndicalist organizations operate the capitalist society on the planned, autarchical principle
- In which the government holds itself responsible to provide the nation with adequate purchasing power by public spending and borrowing
- In which militarism is used as a conscious mechanism of government spending, and
- In which imperialism is included as a policy inevitably flowing from militarism as well as other elements of fascism.
(John T. Flynn)
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Wendell Berry with Bill Moyers
I am watching this interview right now, but I wanted to stop and make a point. Berry is a hero of mine for various reasons, but I've noticed that when he gets asked a political question, he is unable to answer;
Moyers (paraphrased): The concentration of wealth into a few hands, a plutocracy has reached fulfillment. How can that be reversed?
Berry: I don't know.
It's a good quality to say I don't know, when one doesn't. But someone needs to be able to supply the political answers, if this movement is going to succeed, and not work against its own success.
The answer to the political side of the question is decentralization of political power. The plutocracy came into permanent existence when political power was centralized in Washington, starting in the progressive era (read among other sources Kolko's Triumph of Conservatism). So it can only be reversed by transferring that power back to the states. Which is the goal of genuine political conservatives (not Republicans, I must hasten to add!)
And of course it is sad that Moyer and liberals in general don't understand that their politics of centralizing all power in Washington is itself the cause of the problem they wish to solve. Notice that Moyers at the outset demonizes the only people in Washington that are actually trying to limit the power of the federal government ("the people who refuse to let democracy work"!!!). Note to Moyers: democracy = having input into the laws we live under ... which can only really happen when politics are local, and is non-existent when all politics are nationalized, especially when that power is increasingly transferred from the legislature to the executive and judicial branches.
Plus: if what Berry means by capitalism is the economic system characterized by the unlimited creation of currency, created and lent out by bankers and received back with interest, then he is right to describe it negatively. But what is the right word to describe a system in which the right to acquire and possess property is regarded as a sacred right that must not be violated by governments or other people, but without the unlimited creation of currency loaned out at interest? The problem is that people use the word capitalism to describe that as well. Does Berry and his audience recognize the distinction, or do they lump them both into the same object of condemnation?I would guess that Berry wants to be able to keep what he earns, the fruit of his labor, rather than have it confiscated by the government; and wants to be able to hold onto his farm, rather than have it be confiscated by government ... as they do in any country in which an elite few want to establish unlimited government.
And: Moyer and Berry talk about land policy as being responsible for the unsettling of the country of farmers leaving the land. I'm just hoping that they don't believe that the settling of the America will be the result of a different land policy, as opposed to no land policy. By which I mean that making land a matter of public policy, as opposed to being a government free zone (except to protect it) was historically (the New Deal and its aftermath, for example) and is now itself the cause of the problems Moyers and Berry wish to solve. And instead of proposing a new Farm Bill, how about keeping the federal government out of agriculture altogether (and limited to its I.8 powers).
Moyers (paraphrased): The concentration of wealth into a few hands, a plutocracy has reached fulfillment. How can that be reversed?
Berry: I don't know.
It's a good quality to say I don't know, when one doesn't. But someone needs to be able to supply the political answers, if this movement is going to succeed, and not work against its own success.
The answer to the political side of the question is decentralization of political power. The plutocracy came into permanent existence when political power was centralized in Washington, starting in the progressive era (read among other sources Kolko's Triumph of Conservatism). So it can only be reversed by transferring that power back to the states. Which is the goal of genuine political conservatives (not Republicans, I must hasten to add!)
And of course it is sad that Moyer and liberals in general don't understand that their politics of centralizing all power in Washington is itself the cause of the problem they wish to solve. Notice that Moyers at the outset demonizes the only people in Washington that are actually trying to limit the power of the federal government ("the people who refuse to let democracy work"!!!). Note to Moyers: democracy = having input into the laws we live under ... which can only really happen when politics are local, and is non-existent when all politics are nationalized, especially when that power is increasingly transferred from the legislature to the executive and judicial branches.
Plus: if what Berry means by capitalism is the economic system characterized by the unlimited creation of currency, created and lent out by bankers and received back with interest, then he is right to describe it negatively. But what is the right word to describe a system in which the right to acquire and possess property is regarded as a sacred right that must not be violated by governments or other people, but without the unlimited creation of currency loaned out at interest? The problem is that people use the word capitalism to describe that as well. Does Berry and his audience recognize the distinction, or do they lump them both into the same object of condemnation?I would guess that Berry wants to be able to keep what he earns, the fruit of his labor, rather than have it confiscated by the government; and wants to be able to hold onto his farm, rather than have it be confiscated by government ... as they do in any country in which an elite few want to establish unlimited government.
And: Moyer and Berry talk about land policy as being responsible for the unsettling of the country of farmers leaving the land. I'm just hoping that they don't believe that the settling of the America will be the result of a different land policy, as opposed to no land policy. By which I mean that making land a matter of public policy, as opposed to being a government free zone (except to protect it) was historically (the New Deal and its aftermath, for example) and is now itself the cause of the problems Moyers and Berry wish to solve. And instead of proposing a new Farm Bill, how about keeping the federal government out of agriculture altogether (and limited to its I.8 powers).
No More Raised Beds
I decided to get rid of most of my raised beds. All the manuals I read said to use them, but I'm starting to reconsider that. I don't think they make sense in Texas, where the heat gets so brutal, and the soil just dries out more quickly in raised beds. Which then requires lots of water, which we lack especially in these times of drought. It would make more sense to grow directly in the ground, but the soil is hard black clay. Which is why people recommend raised beds in the first place.
So what is the solution? That is where Back to Eden comes in, which I'll write more about some other time. But the main idea is to put wood chips on top of the soil, which somehow changes the texture beneath the chips into loose, arable soil. (For one thing, it keeps the soil moist and cool, and for another, as I am told, microbes eat the wood, so the soil comes to life.)
So my backyard is starting to look more and more like this. (I bought a small wood chipper to chip branches, plants, etc. on property, but most of the chips come from local tree service companies that let people come and get it for free.)
Notice that much of the area is shaded. That's the case on this south side of the property from late October to early March, but the sun hits it fully for the main growing part of the year.
But even though I am moving in the direction of wood chips and planting directly in the soil, I am keeping a few raised beds for root vegetables. This past week I decided to build one next to my driveway. It will be outside of my fence, but I've noticed that critters leave it alone, so long as I am growing potatoes (the part of the plant that is above ground is poisonous).
I took one of the beds from the backyard and set it out by the driveway, patching it up where the wood had worn away. This is what it looked like at first (some of the area had been used for growing before, some was just grass).
Then, after some scratching and digging, and carting away the clay soil to a temporary location, it looked like this:
So what is the solution? That is where Back to Eden comes in, which I'll write more about some other time. But the main idea is to put wood chips on top of the soil, which somehow changes the texture beneath the chips into loose, arable soil. (For one thing, it keeps the soil moist and cool, and for another, as I am told, microbes eat the wood, so the soil comes to life.)
So my backyard is starting to look more and more like this. (I bought a small wood chipper to chip branches, plants, etc. on property, but most of the chips come from local tree service companies that let people come and get it for free.)
Notice that much of the area is shaded. That's the case on this south side of the property from late October to early March, but the sun hits it fully for the main growing part of the year.
But even though I am moving in the direction of wood chips and planting directly in the soil, I am keeping a few raised beds for root vegetables. This past week I decided to build one next to my driveway. It will be outside of my fence, but I've noticed that critters leave it alone, so long as I am growing potatoes (the part of the plant that is above ground is poisonous).
I took one of the beds from the backyard and set it out by the driveway, patching it up where the wood had worn away. This is what it looked like at first (some of the area had been used for growing before, some was just grass).
Then, after some scratching and digging, and carting away the clay soil to a temporary location, it looked like this:
But then I decided to go down deeper, because I wanted to have some room to put lots of mulch on top. As you will see, I uncovered a wire of some sort, which I just left there in case it did something.
I then proceeded to start filling it up with a combination of the removed clay mixed together with horse manure/wood shavings I get for free from a local stable. The texture of the soil becomes just right for root vegetables, and I'll show an example of that from the backyard:
(Actually, this is not exactly right. The bed in which I grew the carrots had soil from a variety of sources around the yard, including black clay, mixed with the manure/shavings. It is not exactly the same as the soil next to the driveway ... black clay mixed with broken up white rocks ... that I am mixing together with the manure/shavings.)
Once I finish filling up the bed with this mixture and covering it with wood chips, it will be ready for planting potatoes in late January.
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