Do you wanna hear my voice more? Do you wanna get updates about the stuff I’m growing? Do you wanna actually get updates about the stuff I’m growing because I’m oh so bad about posting about it here?
CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL!
It’s called VBBud!
You can find the channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHFvWwKJ1gbpZGbRhnHxGdg and if you Subscribe to it then you won’t have to wait around for me to MAYBE tell you here that there’s a new video there! It’s a great thing!
I have posted two recent videos about my 2023 Spring Food Forest, and you definitely ought to watch them both like they’re not the only things on there right now.
This past fall I collected and stratified numerous species of plants native to my region. I sowed them all 6 days ago and I’m so excited to see that they are germinating!
TWO MONTHS since an update? I’m lucky any of you have stuck around. You have stuck around, right? RIGHT?!!!
Well. Well, well. It’s a new year, and all that. I HAVE been writing, just a smidgen in 900 Leagues, mostly in this nature journaling/almanac project I’m working on mostly for myself but also for future publication because I want to share it with you all. Fuck the money. The money is great, but my dayjob of being an horticulturist (you’re welcome for the archaic ‘an’ before an ‘h’ word) is doing the bulk of that and I LOVE IT.
Speaking of the money: the Williamsburg Book Festival is coming up! Feb 4! Come see me in the Stryker Center like old times. https://williamsburgbookfestival.org/
December 3 and 4 is approaching faster than you think! Come experience a really unique festival that combines Viking- and Victorian-era winter festivities – plus gentlemanly duels, kids in shield walls, and VENDORS LIKE ME!
I’ll be there signing and selling my books!
Here are the schedules for each day. I’ll see you next weekend at my booth!
Due to Hurricane Ian, the Williamsburg Book Festival has been postponed to February 4, 2023! Save the date and come see me there! More info: https://williamsburgbookfestival.org/
AND NOW for something completely different!
Actually, no, it’s more of the same!!!
I will also be appearing at the Newport News Local Author Showcase on November 5, 2022! Come make this a memorable event and help out a great public library system by purchasing my books.
AND THEEEEEEN There’s SAVGR’s Yule! I’ll be vending my books there. December 4 & 5, 2022, in Yorktown, VA! Come get a copy of First Watch, which has both Viking stuff AND Yule stuff in it! And read Civil Dusk and First Watch so that you’re ready for the upcoming release of Nine Hundred Leagues, the next book in the series, which is in draft NOW!!
Come see me at the Williamsburg Book Festival in Williamsburg, VA on October 1! I’ll have an outdoor booth and, depending on the weather forecast, maybe a DOG WITH ME!!! Come see a dog! If I can have a dog with me, weather permitting, it will likely be Aggie The Fierce Rottweiler, the cover dog of First Watch! Maybe she’ll even paw-tograph your copy of First Watch that you buy at the Williamsburg Book Festival!?!!
No promises. Many possibilities. You’ll have to attend to find out!
So, in case you haven’t guessed already by the several book reviews I’ve posted recently in this blog, I am tackling a new writing project. In the past years I’ve really become quite practiced – and, according to my friends and some Internet strangers, quite skilled – at gardening. I’ve made some posts here and there about random strategies and tips for gardeners, but these have all been teasers really. Today – YES, TODAY! – I will start lending my voice to the first real work of nonfiction that I’ve ever written. I’m going to write a ghardening book.s
I’ve left the typos in the last bit up there because, honestly, it’s how I feel about it right now. I’m headbutting a thick wall of Imposter Syndrome. I’m, what, 35?! I’ve been gardening for….well, thanks to my mother it’s honestly been a lifelong interest, but solid actual WORK IN THE DIRT it’s been…..maybe…I want to be generous to myself and say 21 years? On my own in my own space, 8 years. And here I am, about to write a tome that will seek to not only introduce new folks to the joys of gardening and all the different things it entails, but to also change the minds of The Older Folks about certain things they Think are right and actually aren’t. Who the hell am I to do that? What the hell gives me the authority?
Short answer: the dying world and my passion for preserving it not only for future human generations but for future wild generations. There’s a saying my mother shared with me recently: “We are only borrowing this world from the next generation.” But that’s not true. We are the Stewards of this world for the next generation(s) – parenthesis because if we don’t start trying to heal the world then science says there aren’t going to be a lot more generations – AND for the other animals, insects, single- and multi-cellular organisms, plants, bacterium, etc! with which we share this ridiculous marble. We aren’t the only ones here! And we need to stop pretending that we can exist without the other ones that are here.
So I’m gonna write a gardening book. This means Nine Hundred Leagues (my third book in the Civil Dusk series) might be on hold for a little bit, but don’t worry, I am absolutely NOT dropping it forever. I’ve just got something to do first.
“Nature’s Best Hope” delves more into the conservation topics raised by “Bringing Nature Home”, Tallamy’s other book that I reviewed previously in this blog. This book has a more scientific voice than the conversational one held in “Bringing Nature Home,” but it is the opposite of a dry read. Tallamy lays out strategic steps for how the regular homeowner (yes, that’s right, boring people like you and me!) can – and SHOULD – assist in the reversal of the demise of our world. Where “Bringing Nature Home” is more the story of WHY, “Nature’s Best Hope” is the straight-forward HOW of our changing role in backyard stewardship.
Are you a person that likes wild things? Things like flowers and songbirds? Things with sweet scents and sweet tastes? How about the burning orange of a maple tree in autumn and the brilliant beryl of new leafy growth in spring?
If you said yes, great! If you said no, then honestly what the actual fuck is wrong with you. I bet you know somebody that would say yes. Pretend it’s you.
Well the best way to help the wild things survive in our fast-changing world is to plant native species in your yard, garden, balcony container, window pot, whatever, ANYWHERE. In Douglas Tallamy’s book “Bringing Nature Home” he lays out why we should plant native species, who can plant them (spoiler: it’s everyone, including you), where to plant them, and what to plant in your area. I learned so many fascinating things about insects from this book that I now want to experience in real time. This book has truly opened my eyes to the necessity of restoring native species to our individual lots. Tallamy presents his information in an easy-to-read guide to this process, making what otherwise seems like a doomed or insurmountable task completely approachable. Read this book. You will not regret it. All you’ll regret is that you didn’t read it sooner.
Have you ever wanted to grow vegetables in your own backyard? Have you ever wanted to roam a food forest, the surrounding branches loaded with fruit? Have you ever lost an entire crop of lettuce to rabbits, or berries to birds? Do you have a swath of land that isn’t doing anything for anybody? Are your knees and back aching from hours of pulling weeds? Are you a farmer who’s tired of fertilizing and weary of all the damn costs?
PERMACULTURE IS THE ANSWER!!
And hands down THE BEST book to learn about it is “The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture,” by Christopher Shein. Shein makes the lofty principles of permaculture attainable for anyone, from the large-scale farmer to the home grower. Whatever your goal, this book has the tools you need to achieve it. He even shares strategies for off-grid gardeners, because the whole point of permaculture is to grow with the Earth, not against her. If you’re looking for a better way to garden, this is absolutely where you need to start, and likely also where you will finish. And if you’re not looking for a better way to garden, well, you should be! Permaculture cuts down on the work of the gardener by revealing low-maintenance secrets that nature is already using all around us.
I got this book from Amazon.com, and you can order your own copy by following this link.
nicolerordway 