Category Archives: Hyperobject

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1/11/11 – Allotment Plot 326- another perfect day to dig. An amount of soil was dug over; all plant residues were removed from dug area to the compost pile. Darkness fell early and ended the activity.

03 November 2011 – At Allotment Plot at MERL, Ella Montt found the Squash plant that had tried so hard in recent weeks to produce fruit, had succumbed to the time of year and died. Ella Montt removed the dead plant from the soil and placed it with respect in to the Brick Composter. The day was warm and Ella Montt was able to harvest Climbing Beans.

In the last few days, Seven Billion humans had notched up their existence on Plant Earth; a fact that was recognised and then forgotten about quickly as more humans started to arrive through the reproductive system. Humans pulled in their stomach muscles because space was in the process of becoming increasingly restricted. The humans continued to work the Earth’s surface, many of them constantly complained that that production was slowing and there was not enough economic growth. Ants and worms, which are also in the process of working the Earth’s surface, could not account to the humans their numerical existence on the Planet. The worms had sent out a warning that fracking for gas had probably caused an earthquake in a northern region of the Island, but the humans needed more energy to drive its machines so would probably forget that detail also sooner or later. The Island’s solar dream suddenly cracked and fell in to pieces on the ground. The worms mumbled at the stupidity of the humans who had shattered the solar dream before its speculative reality could become established and a prominent form of energy across the land.

At Allotment Plot at MERL Autumn was becoming more and more visible in its process. Ella Montt had spent time considering the relationship between the Mint plants and the Sweet Potato plants. The idea that the Mint should be allowed to extend its rhizomes across the Plot was a fascination, but it had now become more interesting to Ella Montt to dig up an amount of the Mint plant and save it as an object in a continuation elsewhere, not to be replanted, but as a dried preserve or as an extracted living mass separated from yet still joined to this particular aspect of the Plot.

The Mint as a plant was in the process of seeking to dominate the Plot. Allowing the Mint plant to grow to an unrestricted size would be appealing, because of its ability to send out runners that created new plant nodes, but the Mint would hinder any attempts in vegetable productivity. It also seemed to equate to a responsibility to the Earth’s surface, if Mint was allowed to overcrowd the Planet would that sustain the ever-increasing human population? Or would the Mint become a plant tyranny? Soon humans may not be able to sit down and might have to just stand if they are all to be accommodated. The crushing of Mint under foot would at least provide a pleasant aroma.

Ella Montt carefully dug up Mint roots and runners exposing herself to the awe of the Plant’s industry. The Plant was embedded in the soil in true complexity. A tinge of regret was experienced as the roots were removed, but by necessity its Plot domination had to be thwarted, and more space was reclaimed for vegetable production. However, a few shoots of broken Mint rhizome may have been left to grow once more so that the Plant will have a chance to regenerate, because it is also a valuable participant in the Plot if not left untamed.

The Sweet Potato plants were removed from the soil and relocated to a central area of the Plot.

Harvest: Beans (French Climbing) Blauhide = 4.5oz = 130g. Mint Root = 9lb 13.5oz = 4.4Kg; Mint foliage, an equal amount (approximately) was placed in the Brick Composter to decompose (although it may root itself and grow).

04 November 2011 – Allotment Plot 326 – Harvest: Oriental Tai Sai = 5oz = 140g; Kale Red Russian Curled = 2oz = 40g; Perpetual Spinach = 4oz = 110g; Rainbow Chard = 4.5oz = 120g.

10 November 2011 – Allotment Plot at MERL – As Ella Montt stepped through the glass door in to the garden a black pheasant was disturbed and it ran from the Mulberry Tree to the cover of the trees across the garden where the foxes have their den. This was the second time Ella Montt had seen the pheasant in the garden. Perhaps the bird was a shape shifter? William Morris had not been seen lately, (because he was busy with the exhibition of his work in London), Ella Montt wondered if the bird was William Morris in disguise?

The Climbing Beans from a distance looked like they needed to be cut down, but on close inspection some of the Plants had started to grow again, as a result of the weather remaining warm. Another Squash plant was attempting to grow. The warmth of November was prolonging the life of some of the plants. Ella Montt tidied up some of the companion planting, which was beginning to fade, whilst the tree leaves grew golden and fell to the ground. Harvest would be minimal.

Ella Montt fetched a fork from the Shed. It was no ordinary day, a pulsating excitement vibrated across the Plot as Ella Montt reached in to a brown paper bag to extract garlic cloves to be planted for over wintering. The Garlic cloves were pushed in the soil in the space that the Mint had occupied. The planting of Onion sets followed this action.

Planted: Elephant Garlic = 2 cloves; Garlic Thermidrome = 9 cloves; Garlic Vallelado = 10 cloves; Onion Radar = 40 sets.

Harvest: a pinch of Coriander Filtro; Leeks Blue Green Winter = 2oz = 60g; Parsnip Halblange White = 15.5oz = 440g; Rocket Wild and Esmee = 1oz = 30g.

14 November 2011 – Allotment Plot 326 – Visibility had been subdued all day. The Sun was like a light bulb with a dimmer switch that had barely been turned on. A mouse seemed to be living in the Plot’s Shed. Ella Montt took the fork from the Shed, and dug more soil. Some hidden potatoes were discovered. Garlic cloves were planted. Ella Montt hoped that next years Garlic harvest would be bountiful and not rot as most of this years Garlic had done after harvesting for no apparent reason apart from the hottest drought inflicted April on record. The soil vibrated with excitement as the over winter planting took place in anticipation of the next calender year’s growing season.

The darkness descended early plunging the allotment in to a blanket of shadow that had a slow grip across the earth’s surface. A bio dome of Plant Life lit by artificial light was floating off in to deep space on the other side of Saturn, tended to by the droid Dewey (Silent Running). The Allotment Plot is firmly rooted to Earth’s human Allotment system, classified as a hegemonic from of Leisure. Ella Montt knew the Practical Planting Practice that she was learning through working on the Plot can be transformed in to methods of survival as eco systems close down though disruptions to synchronicity or if humans experience sudden loss of Planet control through demise of their species from pestilent disease or climate meltdown brought on by their own making. Cultivation of vegetable matter for food consumption will be a necessary skill.

Planted: Elephant Garlic = 3 cloves; Garlic Thermidrome = 24 cloves; Garlic Vallelado = 30 cloves.

Harvest: Oriental Tai Sai = 1.5oz = 40g; Perpetual Spinach = 1.5oz = 40g; Shallots Red Sun = 1.5oz and 40g; Carrots Autumn King = 2oz = 60g; Potatoes Madeline = 1lb 1oz = 480g.

17 November 2011 – Allotment Plot at MERL – Early in the morning it was misty, a light, brisk rain shower started to break up the clouds. Later, when Ella Montt arrived at the Plot the sun emerged for a while. A wheelbarrow, a fork and fairtrade gardening gloves were fetched from the Shed. Next to the Shed was a Sycamore Tree. The trees leaves were mostly fallen to the ground and slowly starting to decompose. Ella Montt filled the wheelbarrow with leaves several times, each time wheeling it across the garden to empty the leaves on to the Plot, then collected more leaves from under the Mulberry Tree. Piles of leaves now covered the Plot, not in a decorative arrangement, but in a deliberate attempt to add mulch to the soil and promote its fertility.


The Sweet Potato plants looked like they were suffering from the cold, yet it was not cold. A weatherman had announced that the temperature of the Island had been throughout November 3 degrees warmer than normal. The temperature was still pleasant for humans, but generally speaking this could assist the decease in synchronicity, elements of life outside of the humans’ windows were becoming further out of alignment and was another indication of global warming, the hyperbobject that surrounds the planet and permeates inside the window.

Ella Montt had observed from a far the disruption to the Occupy protests. Human droids who were also part of the 99% were employed to deter the 99% away from their campsites. Captain Swing had called an emergency meeting at the wood table close to the Plot. William Morris appeared stepping out of his role of wall paper. EB climbed out of the Reading Room window. The four sat around the table and discussed the direction of democracy. The conversation turned to extreme weather, then back to the 99% versus the 1% and then to the problematic desire for economic growth that contributes to the hyperobject. EB reached in to the library to pull out a borrowed image of a crop rotation plan that if used in every garden (dig up the lawn) and allotment of land could reduce dependence on the supermarket. Plant life needed to be depended upon more than authoritarian humans. The conversation returned to extreme weather, the four were concerned about the famine in Afghanistan, extreme drought will be followed by winter snow, many humans in remote areas do not have food to see them through the winter.

Ella Montt was very conscious that the harvest from the Plots that she was working with had dropped back. There was still a store on onions and potatoes. Next year Allotment Plot 326 would need to engage in enhanced vegetable productivity, this productivity is not the same as world economic growth, it is to do with ordinary survival dependent on plant cultivation.

Harvest: mix of Beans (French Climbing) 1oz = 35g; Rocket Wild and Esmee = 0.5oz = 18g; Leeks Blue Green Winter = 3oz = 80g; Celery Tall Utah = 2oz = 60g.

Fat Slug, Frost, Sweet Potato, Frog

7th October 2011 – At Allotment Plot at MERL, there was an overload of sound at the Plot. The sounds penetrated and reverberated across the garden. Magpies were conspiring in the trees, planes moving along flight paths, teenagers screaming and shouting involved in the action of sport in a field beyond the hedge, sirens wailing, one after the other, the sounds repeated and echoed again and again. The Brick Composter had collapsed in on itself; the top layer of bricks had fallen in to the compost. Ella Montt adjusted the bricks back in to position. A tan coloured fat slug was at rest in amongst the compost. The second yellow squash was in the process of dying, the first had already died, it was partially eaten and the rest in a state of decomposition. A third squash fruit seemed okay for the time being, the fourth seemed strong and had a robust flower, a fifth was trying to emerge, but none, because of the time of year, would last long enough to become substantial. The day was breezy with an Autumnal nip in the air, after a dark morning, some blue sky had emerged and the clouds, blocked and then unblocked the sunshine.

The human discontent was progressing with more protest through the occupation of space (New York City 99%). The space is not cultivated just occupied. Perhaps all city space in general needs to be squatted and become cultivated through the growing of vegetables and fruit to disconnect the merchandise from the power of commodity and the obsession with economic growth. Land needs to be shared along with wealth, but at the same time the commodity needs to deconstruct itself so that resources are not wantonly depleted. It is time to plant over the concrete; every city needs to be a garden of vegetation. A city can function with more sustainability than a rural dwelling, because of the shared utilities of the human activity, yet the increase in heat generated by the human activity amassed in the cities is increasing the hyperobject of global warming. The winter of discontent is looming and its harsh reality will be felt in the streets when the temperature drops, yet first the Autumnal Fall needs to be completed before the Winter cycle. The discontent is unlikely to dissolve, the fat slug sits untouched in the compost, and all the while the extremes of drought and starvation are felt in Afghanistan and Africa.

Harvest: Tomatoes = 3.5oz = 90g; Companion Planting Seeds, Calendula Pot Marigold, Cosmos Cosmea, Cosmos Orange Cosmea, Chamomile, Sunflower and Mint; Celery Tall Utah = 5oz = 140g; Chard = 1oz = 30g; Beans (Runner) Enorma = 14oz = 400g; Beans (French Climbing) Neckarqueen and Blue Lake = 2oz = 60g, Blauhide = 1.5oz = 40g, Barlotta Di Fuoco = 10.5oz = 300g.

On the 10th October 2011 the size of this years Squash and Pumpkins was a news item on a radio program. The conversation focused on the fact that the cold nights in June delayed the growth of the plants leaves so that they were not nearly developed enough by July. The temperatures then did not contribute enough to allow the plants growth to catch up, resulting in many of the Squash and Pumpkins being lighter than they would be normally at harvest time, (that is if they grew at all). Ella Montt had found some of the Squash plants at Plot 326 started to grow in September only to be thwarted once again as soon as the temperature dropped. The Sweetcorn plants had also barely grown. Harvest was minimal.

13th October 2011 – Allotment Plot at MERL, the day after the Moon was waxing gibbous, Ella Montt attached curtains of newsprint paper to the Bamboo Frame around the Plot. Ella Montt gazed through the camera lens at the partially covered Plot, there was no sense of Jeanne-Claude and Christo, but a more Fluxist act of temporality as the paper hung in the air. The Plot as an object was explored. Ella Montt knew that in an augenblick the paper curtains could be removed and placed in the Brick Composter to become compost material, overtime the deconstruction of the paper would leave no visual trace or relic, and would become soil. The newsprint, a seemingly low tech product, had once been part of a plant tree that had originally grown out of the soil, the tree had been deconstructed and reconstructed in to the newsprint through a process involving high technology. The manufacturing of paper can be constructed by human hand, but it is more normal for machines to make paper from trees. The string that attached the paper curtain to the Bamboo frame was also originally a product from a plant, reconstructed for human needs.

The weather that day in October was pleasantly warm in temperature, with a slight breeze. It was neither hot nor cold. Small clouds drifted by in a blue Autumnal sky. The third yellow Squash fruit was in the process of dying. The fourth had not yet reached that stage and at this point still had life potential, but it was too late in the season and the inevitable premature death of the Squash fruit loomed. The harvest today would be minimal. When darkness falls Ella Montt will be gazing beyond the blueness of the sky towards far distant star configurations, wondering when the time will be right to plant next years Garlic.

Harvest: Companion Plantings Seeds = 1oz = 20g; Beans (French Climbing) Barlotta Di Fuoco = 6oz = 180g; Celery Tall Utah = 7oz = 195g; Tomatoes = 3.5oz = 95g; a mix of the other Beans including Enorma and Blauhide = 7.5oz = 240g and Sweetcorn True Gold = 5oz = 140g.

14th October 2011 – Allotment Plot 326 – As if by magic a new carpet had appeared and covered an expanse of soil that had grown the potatoes this year. Ella Montt cut more vegetation and added it to the compost pile that is accumulating.

Harvest: Squash 1 x Sweet Dumpling 6oz = 175g, 1 x Sweet Dumpling = 5oz = 140g, 1 x Blue Kuri = 2lb 5oz = 1.05Kg, 1 x Green Hokkaido = 2oz = 50g, 1 x Green Hokkaido = 12oz = 345g, 1 x Acorn = 1lb 8oz = 690g; Sweetcorn True Gold = 6oz = 175g; a mix of Beans = 1lb = 440g; Oriental Tai Sai = 11.5oz = 330g; Courgettes = 3 x Cocozelle = 9oz = 250g, 2 x Patriot F1 = 10oz = 280g; Perpetual Spinach = 7oz = 200g; Rainbow Chard = 7oz = 200g; Kale Red Russian Curled = 3.5oz =90g.

19th October 2011, Ella Montt went first to Allotment Plot at MERL and then to Allotment Plot 326, Frost was forecasted for that night and fear of plant loss was projecting itself across the land. At Allotment Plot at MERL the sky was dark, tiny Blauhide Beans were forming after the recent warm weather. The most recent Squash was still intact, but the previous one that had been growing, was rotting next to it on the vine. Ella Montt gathered Companion Planting flowers to save them from Frost destruction. The flowers would be pressed secretly and then attached to tree product thin card. Harvest: Celery Tall Utah = 6oz = 165g.

On arrival at Allotment Plot 326 Ella Montt found that she was already too late. The temperature must have plummeted on a previous night, already the leaves of the Courgette and Squash plants had turned from green to black and were curled in on themselves in an alien configuration. The Globe Artichoke plants were so far unaffected by the drop in temperature, Ella Montt had no previous experience in growing this type of plant, so uncertainty hung over their longevity. If the plants could keep growing and do not perish, next year they may produce artichokes. A Frog hopped by. If the Frog wanted to survive the Winter it would need to hide itself somewhere to avoid being frosted. Harvest: Celery Tall Utah = 7oz = 195g; Squash 1 x Sweet Dumpling = 12oz = 345g, 1 x Green Hokkaido = 6oz = 165g, 1 x Green Hokkaido = 3.5oz = 75g; Rainbow Chard = 1.5oz = 40g; Oriental Tai Sai = 2oz = 60g.

The next day, on the 20th October 2011, at Allotment Plot at MERL, Frost had not appeared in white frozen form. The tiny Blauhide Beans remained unharmed attached to purple flowers. The Cosmos Cosmea and Sunflowers still bloomed. There was no sign of a zero temperature, it had been close, yet luckily, for the time being, the Plot was sufficiently sheltered from the elemental forces.

27th October 2011 – Allotment Plot at MERL – Ella Montt dug up the Sweet Potato. The tuber vine plant had not spread in all directions as anticipated for, but instead was becoming trapped by the rhizome growing Mint plant that is extending itself in the form of horizontal runners punctuated by vertical shoots of new foliage structure. The Sweet Potato was surprisingly still in one piece. The Slips had tiny tubers growing from them. Ella Montt divided the Sweet Potato Slips and replanted them close to the original tuber. It would be an ecological miracle if the Sweet Potato will survive a harsh winter, but perhaps the Slips would establish themselves and extend roots beyond the Mint invasion.

It was a dark dull Autumnal day, the grey clouds were heavy, but moving fairly rapidly considering their weight, the threat of rain held off, but not in Thailand or Dublin where it was flooded. Sweet Pea seeds were embedded in the soil next to the Bamboo Wigwam. A Heavy Metal CD had broken. The Squash plant that in recent weeks had tried so hard to produce was slowly meeting the end of its life expectancy. Celery and Parsnips were dug out of the ground, Mint and Rocket gathered. Phacelia Tanacetifolia was broadcasted across the Plot. The first rows of Broad Bean Aquadulce Supersimonia were planted about 8-10 inches from the Brick Composter, this was followed by planting rows of Broad Bean Superaquadulce and then Pea Meteor. The over wintering planting had begun.

Harvest: mix of Beans = 5.5oz = 160g; Mint = 3oz = 80g; Rocket Esmee and Wild = 1.5oz = 40g; Parsnip Halblange White = 7oz = 200g; Celery Tall Utah = 7oz and 200g.

28th October 2011 – Allotment Plot 326 – The potted Oak Tree seedlings found on the Plot were experiencing their own Autumn. Ella Montt cleared the dead Beans, Sweetcorn, Courgette and Squash plants to the Compost Pile that had been expanding gradually since it was uncovered a month or so ago. It was anticipated that some of next years Squash plants would be planted on the compost.

A Frog was seen amongst the Tai Sai. Perhaps a small pond needs to be dug for the Frog? (This idea is under consideration, but needs to be in a bramble root free area). Ella Montt fetched the fork from the shed, not to dig the pond, but to work over an area of soil that had been cleared of vegetation. It was a perfect day to dig; the temperature was just right, not to cold or hot. When the area had been worked over it was covered with layers of tree products, newspaper and cardboard and weighted down with pieces of wood. This soil will now be left until early spring. The layers of tree products covering the soil would assist in weed suppression and encourage worms to break down the matter underneath the covering so that it would be ready to plant without much work in the Spring. The cardboard will also offer space for the Frog to shelter under if needed.

Harvest: Perpetual Spinach = 3oz = 80g; Kale Red Russian Curled = 1.5oz = 40g; Oriental Tai Sai = 6oz = 160g; Rainbow Chard = 2oz = 65g; Carrots Autumn King = 8oz = 230g.