I’m starting an apocalypse garden.
Here I will keep track of things I do in the garden, as record and encouragement. 

Yard conditions as of April 17, 2025.

• The majority of the yard (about 1 acre) is south of the house, and includes lots of mature trees, so there is a lot of shade.  Seven years ago, it was only trees and lawn. Now, there are “nature” areas with thick mulched beds and naive plants growing around the yard. Several trees have died and are being left to fall on their own, so there are naturally very sunny and shady areas all over the yard. 
• Six years ago (2019), we started getting tons of morel mushrooms. The last two years (and so far, also this year), we have seen 0-3 per year. It has been dry when its warm and cold when it’s wet, and I think they prefer warm and wet.
          – What can I do to improve the chances of the morels returning?
                – Fertilizer? Wood chips? Mowing? Heat? Watering?
• In 2023, we built a 3’ x 6’ raised bed lined with limestone (that still needs to be caulked together). S put several large stumps in the bottom to feed the soil. Mushrooms growing on the wood often appeared through the soil, and it was difficult to dig to place sprouted plants. It wasn’t much easier last year.
• North of the raised bed, I built a 3’x3’ bed (same caulking problem) we used as compost. It didn’t do very well, since trash could blow into it, and for a kitchen compost, it was inconvenient to the house. 
  
• South of the raised bed is a 3’x3’ bed with a 6’ metal tower, grown over with vining trumpet flower.
• Last weekend, I moved a bunch of rotting logs and sticks into an L shaped mounded rows (with an opening at the corner) on the south part of the fire-pit area.

Activity on April 18

• Found termites in the soil (more bugs then soil) in the raised bed. I covered it with all the compost from the raised bed compost pile, then layered 4 inches of leaves on it. Rain expected, so didn’t water. 
• Seed Starts: Planted 7 or 8 seed types in plastic jug green houses. They are in the window of my office. Lettuce, geranium, tomato, basil, rosemary, cilantro, parsley. Maybe a summer squash?

Activity on April 19

• This morning, it rained about 2 inches. By afternoon, I didn’t find any termites in the raised bed.
  
• Started Kitchen Compost bucket. 5 gallon bucket with “peat” (crushed coconut shells rehydrated to about 2.5 gallon volume), some weeds (jewelweed and dandelion), some brown leaves, and the kitchen scraps from a week. Mixed it all up. Set it on the fake grass by the catio door. I weighted a rectangular tub lid over the 5 gal bucket until I can expand. 
• – Hopefully this will help us use it. 

Plans:

• Pile cardboard and wood chips around raised beds to create path and limit weeds.
• Jug green houses– Move outside when sprouted to harden in place before transplanting to ground 
• —- Future tip:  use gallon jugs with handles so they can be “strung” on a stick to move 5 at a time. 
• Kitchen compost 
• – make 2 or 3 “buckets” to rotate; use trash cans or plastic storage totes with secure lids.
• —- “active”, “curing”, “ready”, can be labeled “feed me,” “mix me,” “use me” with cheeky permanent signs that can be moved from container to container.
  
• – Holes in the bottom (large) and sides (small) for worms and air, respectively. 
• – The lid should fit tightly to prevent raccoon or other critter interventions. 

• Asparagus seeds (plant before next week!!!)
• —- Shovel fire pit ash into compost garden for asparagus
• —- Plant seeds in close rows  
• —- Cover raised bed with screening (for breathability) or clear plastic across it, to protect from digging squirrels; pests who light new sproutlings
  
• Gates: 
• —- Driveway gate: Repair so it opens in, is lined up, and swings shut automatically. 
  
• ——- Diagonal brace from top hinge to bottom of latch-side to pull into alignment.
• ——- Switch hinges from opening out, to opening in (on same side)
• ——- Change latch to spring latch
• ——- Add closing spring?
• —- Fire pit gates: Redesign and rebuild . 
  
• —- New patio gate: Create by the house from the concrete (to go into greenhouse). (use Driveway gate specs)
  Purchase / soil Health
• – compost (paths, mound gardens) (Lowes)
• – straw (paths, mound gardens) (Lowes)
• – Fertilizer for fruit trees/veggies. (Lowes)
  

• Add compost and straw to fire pit log piles to build soil. 
• Wine cap mushrooms (North Spore) to garden and wood chip paths, for food and to improve soil/speed the breakdown of the logs in raised bed and mound beds. 
  
  

• Follow up on steel building for garage replacement. (Move storage unit stuff to this. Move catio stuff to this. Some office stuff?)
• – Change catio storage area into plant growing area with lights?
  
  
• Follow up on new gutters with guards (and easy to connect to rain barrel project).
• Figure out what I want to grow on the mounds. Probably squash and marigolds. 

Rain Barrels

• Create Rain Barrel System to collect downspout water (and dehumidifier water?): multiple around the house? more than one for green house? Use as heat sink? 

Later (fallish) 

• Green house 
• - carport cover, with 3 of the 4 of the sections to make 13’x13’ structure. 
• – Move bathtub fountain in there. 
• – Make “potting tables”. 
• – Use studio garage doors/insulation around edges to hold in heat.  
• – (Long term goal: Solar panel for grow lights on timers and fountain running)

Later later

• Buffalo clover to infiltrate lawn (native, endangered, picky); or other N2 fixing, easy to walk on plants. 
• What about Alice? Sell off for parts? Make into yard art? Make into yard bathroom and shower? Sink into the ground like a hobbit hut and rebuild the room with other materials?
• Estimate for putting door in master bedroom? 
• Estimate for stone “patio” outside bedrooms. 
• Estimate for sun room build with stone and dirt floor. 

Fun Plans

• Little free art gallery/library/community board
• Yard art installation (bubble things)
• Drive by art things, like painting golf balls, typing a poem, etc. 

Sunday Plans

• Lowes
• Coffee at Inkpot
• Seed library to get pumpkin, zucchini, and dill (for pests) 
  

I have been writing essays about my research into vernacular photography, personal photos, and archival Indiana photographers, particularly Nellie Coutant (1872-1956). I started these essays as rough drafts for something longer, trying to put her into the photo historical and social contexts of her times. I once lamented a critique’s quote that Nellie was “so famous, we need not discuss her further” (paraphrase) as being the only mention of her in a critical article. I have since discovered dozens of references to her works. I have been researching her for ten years, and believe I have the most extensive collection of information available. Slowly, I am arranging it on this blog, which includes examples from my personal photo archive (for example, i collect images of women teaching, working, or in college), and samples of historical news items related to women, education, and photography (particularly in Indiana/the Midwest in the late 19th, early 20th centuries).

https://inphotohistory.blogspot.com/ 

Japanese Stiltgrass

Asianic Dayflower, process image of the plant on the paper in the exposing frame

Asianic Dayflower, after fixing

Asianic Dayflower

Japanese Stiltgrass

Last summer, I began a body of work on invasive species that are found in the yard. We have been working to eradicate them and introduce native species, but on an acre plot, it is slow going. The invasives have their aesthetic values too, so I combined weed-pulling with the studio experience by creating  a series of lumen-photograms. Most of these images are 5” x 7”, which I found more intimate and detailed than the 11”x14” set. (Lumens are photographic images made on silver-gelatin photographic paper, exposed for a long enough length of time as to cause the image to appear without the use of a developer. The image is then “fixed” in the darkroom, which can cause fading. I experiment with dilutions of fix, and incomplete fixing processes to retain as much of the original color as I can. 

This summer, I wanted to focus my research on one plant in particular, and experiment in the ways of making the weed-pulling of this plant visually interesting with a “diy photography” approach, that is, without using a more environmentally collaborative process, with less toxic byproducts (the silver-heavy fixative can be recycled; my process makes so little, I allow it to evaporate, then discard the silver-crystaled container). 

These images were made using an “eco-printing” process, that relies on a chemical reaction between an iron acid and the tannins found in the plants. I added some other contaminants to the process, like the iron-oak-gall ink I made a few years ago, a tea-ink that never cured right, and a fermented cabbage leaf dye, which added some nice dark grey and blue tones, and some pink highlights. Then all of it was steamed for hours with the fresh-pulled weeds, which was very stinky. These prints are between 3”x4” and 5”x7”.

Plantago major, the broadleaf plantain can be found across the United States, and was one of the earliest invasive plant species brought by the colonists to establish itself in North America.

This herb is edible as a salad, as a steamed veggie, as a tea, and as a poultice to relieve pain and promote healing for stings, burns, cuts, inflammation, and eye injuries.

It is so effective and prevalent, many native groups of the Americas began incorporating it into their medicines soon after it was introduced.

They named it White Man’s Footprint, as it grew wherever the Europeans had settled.

Plantago major, the broadleaf plantain can be found across the United States, and was one of the earliest invasive plant species brought by the colonists to establish itself in North America. This herb is edible as a salad, as a steamed veggie, as a tea, and as a poultice to relieve pain and promote healing for stings, burns, cuts, inflammation, and eye injuries.  It is so effective and prevalent, many native groups of the Americas began incorporating it into their medicines soon after it was introduced. They named it White Man’s Footprint, as it grew wherever the Europeans had settled.

Stars of Bethlehem

Stars of Bethlehem

Ornithogalum umbellatum, the Star of Bethlehem, a garlic-like bulb with an attractive grass tuft formation, and pretty 6-petaled white blooms, is an invasive species that escaped the gardens it was originally planted to decorate. In Indiana, it can be found in lawns, forests, or pastures. It is toxic, though some folk medicines use it to treat life-threatening heart conditions, and some cultures include it in cuisine.