Category Archives: Planting

Performance Planting

Planting Performance (3) 22/04/2010 took place on a bright, warm, sunny day, with not an April shower in sight. Tiny companion-planting seedlings were delicately transplanted from their pots in the fixed up greenhouse to the Allotment Plot at MERL. Pot Marigold, Cosmos and Sweetpea arrived at their outdoor growing location. Small holes were dug and each plant was placed there in, their roots covered with soil and the soil lightly pressed. A bell was rung to signify the connection of each plant to the earth-growing site, announcing the rooting.

Sticks were sought in the wooded area up the slope at the back of the garden. An attempt was made for the sticks to be stuck in to the hard ground. The ground resisted stick penetration. A watering can was brought from the shed, filled and then emptied over the Allotment Plot. The watering can again was filled and again emptied onto the Plot. The earth absorbed the water. The hard ground softened under the effect of the water absorption, allowing enough stick to enter the earth and to accommodate the sticks into an upright position that will assist in the Sweetpeas and the Peas growth. The tendrils of these plants will reach out and search for supporting objects that they can grip to as they grow.

Pea Sticks

Next the action of weeding the Plot was performed. Weeds can be the unwanted cohabiters of an Allotment Plot, but they also can be desirable depending what they are (for more information about weeds and organic growing see here). As the seeds that have been planted germinate and grow so also do the weeds. Weeding or the removal of weeds is an ongoing maintenance pursuit. When the desired germinated vegetable seeds are in their tender early stages of seedling growth, weed removal can be a delicate operation and needs to avoid the disturbance of the planted seedlings.

Pea and bean weevils (Sitonia Lineatus) have been eating curved portions from the edge of the legumes leaves scalloping their edges. Bees in the process of nectar gathering and pollination are visiting the Broadbean flowers.

Broadbean Flowers & Bee

Germination at the Plot

Some seeds have germinated at the Allotment Plot. Weeds also have appeared. Removal of weeds needs to be activated. This will be an on going process now that the Spring has arrived. Spring, like any other time of year, possesses a diverse spectrum of elemental weather conditions. Warmth from sunlight can be followed by fog and cloud. Sudden outbursts of thunder and lightening can be followed by torrential rainfall or sharp bursts of solid precipitation, hail. The temperature of both day and night time is inconsistent, frost is still a danger and snow also, this danger will last for the month of April and can extend to the month of May. Strong wind can rip tiny fruits and nuts from trees. Damage to fruits and vegetables could happen at anytime.There is no knowing what the harvest will be. Meanwhile, the hours of daylight are extending, which accelerates germination and growth.Brussel Sprout Seedlings

Twenty-five Red Baron Onion Sets were planted. The plot may now be overloaded with potential. The overwintered peas look like they are failing, weather damage has taken its toll, harvest amounts therefore may be very low unless replanted. Replanting may not be an option. If human survival is dependent on the harvest, it is yet to be proven.

March Vegetables

Another Planting Performance

The Allotment Plot thickens with another Planting Performance in the Garden at MERL (18/03/2010). The weather conditions were good for planting again. The day was pleasantly warm with the Spring equinox approaching. Rain was in the forecast and needed, but that did not occur until the evening when darkness fell.

Ella Montt selected seed packets, some tools, gardening gloves, a small bell, a thermos and a measuring stick and placed the objects next to Allotment Plot. Then with a hoe and small hand fork proceeded to remove some grass plants growing on the Plot. Shallow drills were constructed with the hoe, these were ground incisions for seed accumulation in the planting process. The first seeds were delivered to their destinations. The bell was rung along the line of seeds to awaken them from dormancy to germination state. The hoe was then utilized to cover the seeds with the soil to complete the planting process. More seeds were chosen and the process of planting began again.

Allotment Performance Again

As the Allotment Plot thickens, Ella Montt pauses to observe the notes written about the seeds that had previously been planted. Ella Montt drinks a cup of tea from the thermos, a normal activity for a person or persons working on their allotments and part of the Performance. Pondering on the size of the Plot, and the space limitation, Ella Montt decides that an optimum number of seeds should be planted. This would maximize the Plot and may retain more water through ground coverage rather than water evaporation process taking place in a drought situation. Irrigation would be ideal and a water butt close to hand, but this is not a current option. Ella Montt is conscious that intensive farming can destroy the fertility of the soil.

The notion of what to grow and how to grow it, can be calculated and assisted. Ella Montt chooses to grow organically without the assistance of animal by products, but with the assistance of biodiversity present within the Garden, a veganic method.  A ladybird (ladybug) arrives on the scene at the Allotment Plot, a very welcome guest, who will assist in pest control. One perhaps could wonder if a vegan (who eats plant based foods), should choose the biodiversity of wildlife as a form of natural pest control in the growing method of plant based food products. A genetically modified seed could grow without the use of natural wildlife pest control, no insects or animals would be harmed in the growth of the food product. However, genetically modified food production results in the loss of biodiversity, it breaks the food chain for insects and animals, resulting in the loss of species on the whole planet. Using the immediate gratification of growing genetically modified crops as an answer to world need for food production becomes its own fictional myth and as a consequence produces its own catastrophe not just through the loss of species, but also through crop failure and the ingestion of genetics that are in themselves harmful to the being that eat them. Veganic growing uses no animal by products to fertilise the soil, it instead relies on green manures and composting to make the soil fertile and it encourages biodiversity of insects and animals to act as agents in pest control, and the use of companion planting which is also very important in the growing process.

Ladybug

Seeds that were planted during the Planting Performance were as follows:

Leek Almera, Kale Red Russian Curled, Spinach Matador (Atlanta), Leaf Beat Rainbow Chard, Beetroot Bolivar, Cabbage Savoy (Vertus), Rocket Wild, Lettuce Lollo Rosso, Spring Onion White Lisbon, and Lettuce Marvel of Four Seasons. What will germinate and grow for now remains a mystery, but hope for a good harvest will be constant.

The coldest winter in thirty years awaits the coming of warmer weather. Later that day, a bee was seen, a frog hopped by in search of a pond and a snail arrived to eat the vegetable crop. The growing cycle continues.

Planting Performance at MERL

Planting Performance at MERL happened on 5 March 2010 11am-1pm. Weather conditions for the Planting were good; frost overnight, sun bright and warm, slight breeze, last rainfall a few days before, specifics for planting were appropriate.

allotment52

Grounds men had recently deposited a large pile of compost that was available for usage. The compost was derived from recycled green waste at the University. Some of the compost was shoveled into three wheelbarrow loads and delivered to the Allotment Plot, then shoveled out and spread with the use of an historic rake. The rake was purchased at a car boot sale four years ago and handed to the artist, (who is now known as the subject Ella Montt).

Perform Raking

Seed planting began including conversation. Ella Montt as a subject is not a gardener, but Ella Montt as an artist is performing planting and gardening. Ella Montt is planting performance within the arena of MERL, the museum’s garden. The Allotment Plot is a performance area. Performance and growing is Ella Montt’s medium, for Ella Montt this is the same as painting or sculpture.  Ella Montt’s intention is to encourage critical debate with persons that may come into direct or indirect contact with Ella Montt. The aesthetic surrounds ethics and political motivation or material. The viewer may or may not wonder what other impulses are hidden within or behind the Allotment Plot.

Perform Writing

Organic vegetable seeds planted were as follows: 2 rows of Brussels Sprouts Darkmar 21, 1 row of Cauliflower Snowball, 2 rows of Parsnip Halblange White, 1 row of Carrots Amsterdam Forcing, 1 row of Kale Pentland Brig. Other organic herb and flower seeds were also planted; Dill, Coriander Santos, Flat Leaved Parsley, Borage, Nasturium, Pot Marigold Calendula Officinalis and Cosmos Cosmea.

Perform Seed Planting

What seeds germinate and what will survive to grow to maturity is a hidden mystery, unpredictable from the start. Harvest is the intention. Weather acts as an agent. Wild life that is present in the garden can harvest at will unless blocked by human interference. Biodiversity acts out its role as assistant in promotion and deterrent in the organic state, with no need for chemical warfare.

Allotment Planting Performance

Studio Re-potting

The first seedlings were re-potted in the studio allotment on the 4th February.  The tiny seedlings were tentatively dug out of their plug trays with a spoon, then delicately transplanted into the waiting earth in their new (recycled) pots. Their radicles (embryonic roots) were carefully covered. Their hypocotyls (embryonic shoots) uncertainly sitting weakly in the soil, bowed under the weight of their new cotyledons (seed leaves). Quantities of germinated seedlings were recorded.

Seedling Re-potting

Seedlings germinated and re-potted: 13 Tomato Zuckertraube, 12 Tomato Gardeners Delight, 6 Tomato Chadwick, 4 Nastirum, 5 Cosmos, 2 Carnations, 5 Pot Marigold, 4 Flat Parsley, 5 Sweetpeas, 2 Sage.

Not all the seedlings had sprouted. Only one onion had sent a slender green spike out of the soil. No Aubergine or peppers had appeared, their radical transformation from dormant seeds to photomorphogenesis would seem to be delayed in transmission by an undetermined set of reasons that can only be speculated but would seem rooted in probability.

Re-potted

Seed Planting

Seeds were planted in the studio for the MERL allotment plot. The studio will act as a propagator for the photosynthetic organisms to generate. Old plug trays were used as initial receptacles for seed germination. Seeds are from Tamar Organics. Compost originated from recycled green waste matter collected by RBC processed into compost and then sold back to the community.

January seed plantings:

Tomato – Gardeners Delight (x 18)

Tomato – Chadwick (x 12)

Tomato – Zuckertraube (x 12)

Onion – Red Baron (x 18)

Sage – Salvia Officinalio (x 12)

Flat Leaved Parsley (x 14)

Companion Planting seeds (very important in the organic growing process):

Cosmos – Cosmea (x 20)

Pot Marigold – Calendula Officinalis (x 19)

Sweet Pea – Tamar Mix (x 13)

Nasturium – Organic Mix (x 5)

Dahlia (x 7)

Carnation – (Giant Chabaud Mixed (x 7)

Seed Planting

Allotment Installation

A garden shed, although not essential, is an important part of an allotment holders working space. The shed acts as a container for contemplation, thought patterns, rumination over tasks to be actioned or fulfilled, a place for rest from elemental phenomenon over a cup of tea and sandwich, a storage area for tools, seeds and any other random useful piece of gardening equipment, a radio, a thermos.

Allotment Intallation

‘Growing your own’ can be a defining moment for a community or an individual in establishing a link to independent food production, in food deserts this is essential where there are no shops that sell fresh fruit and vegetables in urban or rural areas. Dependency on consumerism from supermarkets has meant the loss of many local greengrocers and the ability for many to grow food. The history of having access to land on which to grow has evolved over time, according to what part of the world one lives in. The term “Allotment” can mean different things to different people. The “Allotment Acts” of the UK refer to providing plots of land for gardening type food production, however in America the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887 sought to divide up the Reservation land for Native American Indians and failed in what it set out to do. To establish one’s own access to growing fresh fruit and vegetables, you do not need to have your own allotment, or garden space, imaginative use of containers and window boxes can give good yields.

The consumerism from growing and gardening is enormous in the UK. A packet of seeds can be so tiny and seem so simple, but the products on sale that are out there waiting for financial exchange are infinite. Seed saving is something that many people do as part of their automatic growing process, seed exchanges are not uncommon, recently as part of Art staged in protest at Cop 15 one of the activities was a soup kitchen where the artists involved, dealing with the real, grow and collect their own vegetable seeds some of these seeds are allegedly becoming illegal under EU law. Save seeds from organic fruits and vegetables, you never know when we might need them.

Allotment Installation (2)

‘Farmville’ Perception of Virtual Food Growing

Arts and Ecology posted a link to the doors of perception today on twitter about “Farmville” the largest game application used on Facebook, 62 million people have signed up to the application since June 2009, 22 million people on average are logging on everyday to see how their crops are growing. The idea behind “Farmville” is that one has one’s own virtual growing space, one can plant seeds, harvest the crops before they die (the plants growth times are all time controlled), and one is able to give fruit trees and other gifts to friends and neighbours. Given the amount of individuals using the application, what does this say about human activity and growing space? It is a virtual reality, but is a major clue to social reinvention.

Allotment Undug Method

Guerrilla Gardening

Yesterday I went Guerrilla Gardening. The location was at the end of Cumberland Road just below School Terrace in Reading. The project was to weed a big neglected concrete tub, then to plant bulbs and other garden vegetation in it. Whilst I worked on the tub, various people spoke to me, most of them thanked me for what I was doing, a couple of kids ask me whether what I was doing was legal and I told them that I was the “Community Gardener”, (I think I should get a jacket of some sort with that name/ title printed on it). The soil was pretty good, I may take some extra peatfree compost down there at some point. I planted a selection of bulbs, including daffodils, tulips, and irises. I may add some other plants in the next week or so for more immediate interest.

Garlic

GarlicThere has been rain over the last few days and some sunshine. The soil at the allotment has softened with the moisture. Today I planted two rows of garlic, each clove approximately 15-20cms apart. I used two types of garlic. The first type was Thermidrome,  one bulb that contained 14 cloves and the other type was Sprint, at one and a half bulbs, which was a total of 15 cloves. I covered the vegetable organisms with the soil. The garlic should be ready to harvest next summer.

Garlic Planting

Garlic Planting Rows