Dustin Jacobus - Illustrations of a SolarPunk future

The thoughts continue to pile up as I prepare for a new education endeavour. Let’s Get Dis.

Community I’m writing this text for Community. I’m writing this text for the Earth System. I’m writing this text for the gardeners, market growers, forest fillers, regen rangers, loggers, land clearers, guerillas and grand scale permaculturalist of our planet. Without community, we have nothing in common. In this tale of forest thoughts, we have relished in the joy and wonder of abundance that be by-products of our carbon gardens. In learning to create from scratch, we have created a garden to which others are no match. The gardener as archetype has been discovered. For no longer do you mine country. You cultivate country for community using the tools of nature. It is common to bring produce produced in pounds to market places and areas of gathering. The foods and abundance we create in our carbon gardens fills our soils with the beautiful gases necessary for life on our earth, in exchange for our breath. Not only do we share our carbon gardens with one another, we share this earth system with one another. Whether you like it or not, you can't help but share your carbon garden with those who you love and care for. The clean air they create, the rain they draw in. Their soils that physically fill our souls. For those who are happiest in times upon biophilic berms. When your toes meet the trophic networks working tirelessly beneath us trying to keep us all connected. Remember: Keep calm and start a carbon garden. Do it for all of us. Do it now. -------- @mr.betteridge

Preservation “All that yield. ALL OF THAT FOOOD! So much produce and beauty to preserve.” - I think to myself. There are no preservatives in the aisle of your syntropic agroforest. Not the store-bought shelf types anyway. This is good! We like it this way. A system in syntropy is a system of self-sorting. More or less preserving its own beauty over time, a carbon garden doesn't need much upkeep in the department of pretty. Gaia sure knows how to put on a show. But food on the other hand can last a long time if you know how to preserve it in a form most valuable. The fridge will only work for a while. Beyond a few weeks, give or take months, depending on how cold you can get a self-contained box. Looking for other methods of storage will be in order. In a carbon garden, one of the best ways to preserve the abundance of yields is to preserve it back into your soil reserve. Food for your face is also food for the forest. Whether it's a half-sunk parsnip feeding the rhizosphere or a fried lettuce leaf from too much star time. The best way to preserve any life is by providing a source of nutrients back to the earth to which it grew. This is regenerative agriculture. Hold on… didn't you just say food and edibles? I thought you were going to tell me to place my chopped radish in a jar of vinegar? Yes - you can do that. But remember. This is a carbon garden. Our focus throughout this gardening adventure has been on carbon construction and sequestration. Ultimately, life creates more life in a carbon garden. By focussing more on how the system functions we ensure a continual cycle of exponential growth. Get this right first and you can chow down on sauerkraut for centuries to come. --------- @mr.betteridge

Edible Carbon Gardens Ever since your run-in with the forest mage, you've been racking your brain tryna remember seeing any limes in the forest. After a few days, the thought gradually catches up with you - *There aren't usually that many edible species in a natural growth forest system. Not many you know of with limes anyway. In our day and age, fruits, along with nuts and timbers and fibres and edible foods and medicines, are usually grown in orchards or greenhouses, or in properly managed, straight-line farms. And often this is for logical reasons. Growing edible foods for populations of humans that eat a couple of times a day on average is no easy feat. You want to be organised so you can keep up to date with the latest growth patterns, nutrient holding capacities and an array of other water and sunlight-related data points. But these food factories. And I mean quite literally, factories. Are often designed to function like the robot arms on C-Deck. Incredible feats of engineering as they are, they're rarely running on truly regenerative software. The fact is. We can model our carbon gardens the way our forests do naturally. Which also means we can leverage the Gaian algorithm to produce an abundant edible carbon garden... If the hangover from your mojito had any silver linings, it's the pounding memory of brollies in the bushes. If the genie's blue aura still bedazzles your subconscious with his loud proclamations of soil protection. If that crazy little nymph hadn't knocked your knees into nursery mode. Then I guess you wouldn’t know what to do by now. But because you've been collecting observational data over many moons, you're probably beginning to realise you’ve got yourself a pretty valuable and practical tool kit to start your own edible carbon garden. The type that can and will feed you and your community for good. -------- @mr.betteridge

Stratification Picture me this. - A garden full of umbrellas. Umbrellas are exactly how the forest mage wants you to think of trees. When you first stumble upon his buttress root, he looks at you with such an intensity, you wonder if he is of this time. His intensity also lets you know his forest observations are legit. The old guy brings forth a wisdom that you only get from watching how the rain falls w/ the sun over spans of time unmeasured. …And this is his general message. *Seedlings. Shaded they must be. Treat da trees lyk be dem brollies. Must stack shuzoku thru space w/ time. Treat da trees lyk be dem brollies. Elders bring cover 2 youngies at our feet. Treat da trees lyk be dem brollies. Muvah Gaia casts her eye on all and every1. Treat da trees lyk be dem brollies.* Your mind-meld breaks free and you hear the sound of a fax machine nearby. You look at the printout now in your hands. Translation: Stratification 101. Make sure plant species are stacked in space and time. Use the fast-growing upper strata to nurse the young slower-growing lower strata. Integrate your nursery into the carbon system. “Are you Vulcan, bro?” You ask, panting and out of breath. He shakes his head and offers you a small mojito, the one with those little umbrellas in it. --------- @mr.betteridge

Nursery Nursery work is plant work. If you're working or playing w/ plants, you're in the nursery game. Now the genie is off your back and you've begun pushing solar panels into the sky via billions of little green blades. You look around at the iridescent green magic carpet beyond your toes. Seems bare, right. Seems like you need some plants to grow. Make it a little more… bushy. I’ll tell you a tale that got me thinking about growing plants and setting up nurseries to do so.  I was in the forest one day thinking to myself... “*Dude, it takes a loooonnng time for a forest system to build and produce its own topsoil. It's also taking a looooong time to build that compost in my 440L bays.” “Carbon production in terms of time is slower than the forever spiral of our galactic expanse.” I hear, murmuring faintly at my feet. “WTF!?” I exclaimed with a stiffened stare in the midline of my mind. *BONK* - I wince and grab my knee! “Ooft! What the hell are you doing?” She looked up to me and said; “Here, use these.” - Dropping a small timber on my toes. “If you've only got a bit of compost going and a bunch of twigs, you can make a hugelkultur!” - She exclaimed in her strange raspy accent. Hey!? Hugel Vulture? - I reply. A hugelkultur! You idiot. Just collect a bunch of twigs and off-cuttings from pruned trees. You can even throw in some weeds ya pulled from the front path ya dummy. - She grumbled. “Righto mate, calm down. I hear ya.” “And when you're done, stack that stuff on the floor and drop ya half-arsed compost on top, followed by some of that cardboard ya pulled out the bin ya filthy animal!” - She ordered. “Is it just me or are you getting progressively more angry as this conversation continues.” “Just shut-up and hugelkultur wouldya maaan!” - she blasted with an erratic edge. “Ok. sure. Will do. Aaahh... Can I ask one more question?” “I haven't got all day.” “Should I have something to cover the cardboard? Will that help sweat and break the cardboard down for the worms in the compost?” “Ya grew all this grass didn't yeh?” --------- @mr.betteridge

Seeds Seeds are like eggs. Hard outer shell with a proto-life form, armoured at its core. If the character traits for seeds were not realised in the manner that they are today, who knows what sort of genetic response the embryonic stage of plants would have evolved to protect itself. Either way… I’m stoked we have seeds as they are. Super interesting little spheres, oblongs, brain-resembling embossed geometries. They are all good in my book. In fact, in every book that recounts our horticultural histories, you can be sure that seeds were as much a part of the story as plants themselves. Of course, using the egg analogy in this instance draws upon the obvious question. “What came first, the seed or the plant?” Well, I argue it's too far back to know anyway. So I tend not to bother with finding out, for sure. But, a better question I ask myself is… how do I raise my own seeds and be regenerative in the practice of doing so? Well… … The first seed a carbon gardener may want to embrace is that of grass. A simple mixed-species box can be purchased at many garden centres. They’re as cheap as chips and are easily spread recklessly across a patch of dirt. You - “Grass seeds!? Are you sure?” Me - “Yes.” I’m thinking about ground covers that want to be on-tha-grow, go, go, go, quick smart. Yes, you did just create all of this lovely soil, composted and complete with complex chains of nutrients and biodiversity you want to brag about. But, all of the grass you're about to grow wants to become soil again anyway. Ironically, you're only worried about it going to seed… The very thought of letting grass go to seed in a productive muti-stratified forest ecosystem may make some ppl implode, but if managed bio-intensively, a well-sized grass system can be the kickstart for your backyard bio-engine. Good bang for your buck too! Remember - Biomass is key in soil production. A heavy seeding of a mixed-grass crop will do 2 important things in your carbon garden. It will please the Genie who still pesters you about not having your soil covered… … annnnd it will create biomass for more soil production. This will happen relatively fast, too! ------- @mr.betteridge

Groundcover The term ground cover is a funny one. When I first heard it I went straight to the idea of a carpet on the ground… not the natural type either. When you first meet the ground cover genie, he asks you, “What are you looking for?” Stunned and unsure about this blue cloud of vapor that has appeared in your yard, you and he eventually get to yarning about the various functionalities a specific species of grass blade can wield over the great waterways in time. You relay thoughts as to how some plants can be grown strategically and fruitfully, found on the margins of fields that fluctuate w/ fire, coaxing the fauna found nearby into system beneficiaries. !*Biodiversity blossoms. - You visualise. You speak about the trees as they fall upon the land at scales larger than life itself… The unidentified and seemingly real cerulean spectre ultimately wants you to remember just one thing… …“Soil on which you stand must be covered. Shaded. Protected from the great light in the sky.” - Bellows the… Genie? “MATTER NOT DOES SPECIES!” The psycho continues to leer. *Righto mate, calm down. I hear ya “Seems legit.” You say. And in an instant. Your eyes open to the possibility of the soil and its needs for support. You rub your dome and hold that thought. It is now with you. For good. … And it ought. -------- @mr.betteridge

Soil There is a good reason to start with the soil. Apart from it being the interface between seed and plant - The part you're most interested in if you're into plants. It's literally the engine of the garden. This is why you have to create good soil before anything else will happen. No soil, no seed germination. No soil, no nutrient or substrate for seeds to grow in. No soil, No good. Now you could go to the local garden centre and buy a bag… a plastic bag… a petroleum-based polymer bag that holds soil created offsite. You could decompose yourself a bunch of food scraps. You could even go and collect a bunch of leaves from the local park. These 2 options centralise around the concept of building soil from scratch. Which is literally what a forest does. A forest does not do debit cards or car rides to crop swaps (which I actually think is a good idea). It grows everything it needs… including soil. But notice that nothing requires you to actually grow anything. Like a forest, your garden can tap into what some would consider “waste” streams. Scraps and leaves are free. People (and maybe even yourself up until now) are literally throwing that stuff out. Like it was yesterday's news. I’m telling you… it's hot off the press. Tomorrow's sensational scoop. There are 2 common methods of building soil from scratch. Composting and Worm Farming. Both are stupid easy to do. With a little practice, you can be shoveling soil into your desired ditch in no time at all. With a little bit of expertise, you can be harvesting nutrient-dense seed substrate at hyperspeeds. --------- @mr.betteridge

Introduction What if I told you that your green waste bin was a waste of time? What If I told you that all the fertiliser you spent money on was unnecessary. What If told you that most people who call themselves gardeners are possibly better described as miners. Really!? You might say. Surely not miners… It's sadly true. Most of the methods used in conventional gardens are either backwards or completely void of anything remotely natural. You see, plants don't belong in bins or want to be shipped off to a site other than the soil in which they grow. Plants do just fine without being sprayed or doused with different synthetic soups. Annnd unfortunately most gardeners are taking away a lot more precious minerals than they put into their plots. Fortunately, none of this is necessary. The garden you tend to is much closer to a forest than you think. You know Forests? Those giant guilds of great trees and swathes of understory shrubs and vines that sprawl vast distances that make any vineyard look laughable. Yeh. Forests are what your garden wants to be like. What else do we know about forests? Forests are touted as being carbon sinks, right? Giant vacuums of potent VOCs and greenhouse gases like methane and CO2. If you treat it right, your garden can become a highly valuable carbon sink as well. In this book, I'll show you how. I’ll also show how to grow regeneratively. How to start an engine that produces all it needs and creates more fuel for your garden and face than you’ll ever know what to do with. Then, I’ll show you what to do with the abundance. Let's create a carbon garden. ----------- @mr.betteridge