Tag Archives: Art

Planting and Weeding

Planting Performance (4) occurred on 13/05/2010. The weather conditions were warm and sunny. For several days prior to the Planting event, it had looked like it may rain, the previous evening dark storm clouds had gathered, but no rain fell. Temperatures were dipping down at night causing frost damage to some plants, but luckily not on the Allotment Plot.

The state of the Plot reports as follows; the Broadbeans had almost finished flowering, the dying flowers that have turned black, will form their bean pods over the next few weeks. The Peas, now very much recovered from the cold winter, are flowering so the first Pea pods will arrive soon. The garlic continues to grow as does the onion sets, although the Garlic has always seemed to be growing far more rapidly than the Onions. The over wintered Spinach that was supposed to provide food through out the winter, is now going to seed and the leaves are still small.

The Brassicas have been attacked and eaten by predators, possibly pigeons, leaving the skeletal frames of the seedlings. Will the Brassicas recover or are they doomed to crop failure? Is this high or low drama on the Plot? What may seem comparatively insignificant in the scheme of the Plot, could in months to come, when the greens are most needed for nutritional requirements, mean that there is a substantial deficit in food production, producing a hungry gap that should not be there at that time. Covering the Brassicas may assist in their recovery, but it may not, because the damage could be too great. The situation will be carefully monitored.

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Planted at the Plot on that day in honour of Guerrilla Gardeners everywhere was a sunflower seeding and sunflower seeds. Weeding then prevailed. Using a hoe and also by hand many weeds were removed from the plot. Weeding will be an on going activity on the Plot.

Is the viewer aware that this Allotment Plot is a live Art situation? It is an on going event that can be visited in Museum opening times. The Plot is growing its own aesthetic. Ella Montt will not always be there, but the Allotment Plot is. Does this particular Plot differ from the two other vegetable plots in the garden and what makes it Art? Weeding 1

Weeding 2

Tolhurst Stockfree Organic Vegetables – March 2007 to February 2008

Kate Corder’s film Tolhurst Stockfree Organic Vegetables – March 2007 to February 2008 is currently on view at the Museum of English Rural Life until July 16th 2010. The film documents the growing seasons and biodiversity of the Tolhurst vegetable business over a twelve month period. Running time 124mins. MERL’s opening hours are:

9am to 5pm, Tuesday to Friday
2pm to 4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday

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

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.

The Fixed-Up Greenhouse

The seedlings were transported from the studio to a new growing location. The location or place being The Fixed-Up Greenhouse, which has become an extension of the studio, a working area for art practice and a home for the seedlings until they are ready to be planted out at the Allotment Plot at MERL

The studio location was also moved, further down the corridor to a different space. A blank white wall appeared in order to negotiate art practice. What is the relationship of art practice in the studio to seedlings growing as art practice in The Fixed-Up Greenhouse, the Allotment Plot at MERL and the research for art practice? Theory, fact and fiction may surround the groundwork. Seedlings in Greenhouse Greenhouse Seedlings

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

Studio Allotment

The Allotment in the studio is in its early stages. Within the first week that the seeds were planted, tiny seedlings started to emerge, somewhat prematurely. “January – March” was the suggested planting window on the seed packets, but if the plants develop too soon there is a danger that they will die and be lost, composting themselves back to the earth. Careful management and monitoring of the seedlings will need to take place. Although growing and germinating conditions are obviously good as a consequence of enough heat and light, life support may not be that easy. The seedlings will need re-potting fairly soon. The process of growing and food production begins rooted in the studio prior to the outdoor growing destination at the Allotment at MERL.

Seedlings

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 Aesthetics

After a week when the allotment plot at MERL was covered in snow, the vegetable plants are still surviving, but some are suffering frost and snow damage. It would seem frost burn is the condition, a few of the Broadbeans are slightly effected, as is the Garlic and the Peas more so, but there are no outright casualties. The Sprint Garlic is growing (sprinting), much more quickly than the Thermidrome Garlic, which is only just appearing out of the soil. The Onion sets growths are very slow. Can the aesthetic condition of a vegetable reflect the state of the world through political consensus? Or is the political to blind to see the aesthetic? allotment32 Broadbeans Frost Burn Peas Frost Burn

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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)