Figure, Ground

The last time I posted here it was summer and things were muscular and bright in the garden. Now it's full on winter and the garden is full of dried stalks and wilted stems. The lake freezes and thaws. In terms of Land Scouting, it can be harder to get outside; the days are shorter and you've got to dress for the weather to be comfortable for longer than a short walk. While it can be uncomfortable to be cold, I think we tend to speak ill of winter too often. We focus on the lack of light, warmth, and movement, rather than reveling in what the dark, cold, and stillness do.

What they do is create negative space in the cycle of the seasons. Biologically many plants in our area need a period of winter to go into dormancy or to germinate seeds for the spring.  In design class we talk about negative space and how a "positive" figure is set off by a "negative" ground. You can think of negative space as the area around something or that which is not filled. Often successful design work had negative space that does as much as, if not more than, the positive figures like text or images. One of my teaching mentors talked about the importance of negative space in one's life: time unscheduled and unscripted. Too much of one and not the other creates a loud imbalance. This time resets the world, physically and mentally, and grounds the coming buds and blossoms. We need the rest and stillness of winter to appreciate the abundance and movement of summer.

So rather than curse the cold, short, dark days (or maybe you don't do this...) let's sit comfortably and patiently in winter, cultivating hygge as needed, as our half of the planet tilts back toward the sun.

Plant Garlic

About three weeks ago we welcomed our son into the world. He was due around the time first frost was predicted for our area. In the days before his birth we got a small cold snap that crippled tomatoes in the garden. We picked all the basil the night before and made double batches of pesto. After his birth, and with the support of my parents and husband, I was able to spend a couple precious minutes in the garden planting garlic.

I love growing garlic. You plant it in the fall, right around first frost, giving it just enough time to grow roots but not so much time that it will put up a lot of growth that would be killed by the cold winter temperatures. Most of the fall chores for the garden involve pulling out spent plants and preparing beds for winter-- tucking garlic bulbs into the soil is a forward-looking exception. 

The early rooting helps keep the bulb from being heaved out of the ground by freezing. Then the garlic waits under several inches of mulch through the winter. In the spring it will be one of the earliest things to come poking through the soil, green and hopeful. You can clip and use the slender curling scapes the hardneck garlic puts out in early summer. Harvest the garlic late in the summer when the stalks and fronds have begun to yellow. Let the heads of garlic dry in a cool dark place. 

Go Forth

Bright chickweed springs up in early spring and winter.

As Urban Land Scouts, we build on a foundation of profound and active observation. All scouts must begin with this practice and we are wise if we return to it seasonally. The shift in temperature and daylight sends most plants into winter dormancy and allows for a new group of plants to appear. If you have not already earned your first Urban Land Scout badge, this is your call to do so. If you have, consider this a timely refresher.

Here in East Tennessee, and in the urban heat sink of Knoxville, it's not yet bitter cold winter, but all the leaves have fallen. The absence of canopy shade combined with our the semi-mild temperatures of this area has allowed for a winter flush of low-lying annuals, like chickweed and dead nettle, to spring up. Or to be revealed. At left is a photo of some chickweed, a staple of edible foraging, at Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville. You can recognize it by it's bright green color and pointed heart-shaped leaves. Chickweed will also produce small white flowers although I anticipate these might not make it that far. The toothed leaf in the top half of the picture also grows in abundance at Ijams, but I don't know it. Anyone familiar with this plant?

Here's another pleasant surprise with the absence of deciduous foliage: the punky pink and purple arch of wild raspberry canes.  They are more strikingly colored than this photo represents. Keep an eye for them at the edges of fields and forests and make plans to return to them in the mid to late summer.

If you haven't already, commit to using this season to earning your Observation badge. Wherever you are-- bundle up, take a pen and paper or notebook and walk somewhere you've never been before. Go slowly and take notes. Draw pictures (or take photos to draw pictures from in the warmth of your home) and reflect on your observations. Send in your notes, drawings, or other observations to passage (at) urbanlandscouts (dot) com and earn your first (of many) Urban Land Scout badges.