1645 Folsom St.

Transforming the dilapidated courtyard of a 100 year old building into a permaculture garden.

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Today, JB Construction (JB Destruction) came without warning to destroy the garden, at the behest of the owner, Rebekah Krell.

Control

I was told to leave the area and that the police would be called if I tried to stop the destruction of the garden. I found out about the garden's destruction by seeing it first hand, out my window, and I was given no time to give any of the plants away to a school or community garden.

The garden destruction came as a revenge to a rent board complaint filed by me. I filed the complaint because the shower was not working and Rebekah and her rent collector refused to fix the shower. We had no shower for two months. After the rent board mediation (Rebekah had her rent collector go, and did not attend herself), they agreed to fix the shower. Shortly after that, they destroyed the garden.

What Was Destroyed?

An entire permaculture garden, designed to take advantage of the light and space.

Environment

Hummingbirds are not on the lease! Too bad, because it was pretty cool seeing them there. As well as the playground for the boisterous finches, and the pollinators: Bees, butterflies, and moths.

Hope, Personal Empowerment

Apparently, growing food is bad. People getting together and building a garden is bad. Getting friendly with the neighbors is bad. And apparently, all of the following are bad:

A Serene Place for Relaxation, Exercise, and Meditation

Destroyed Food Plants

Garlic

Shallots

Yellow onion

Kale

Chard

Collard Greens

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Fingerling, white, and red potatoes

Tomatoes

Most of a great plum tree

Amaranth

Italian parsley

Curly parsley

Squash

Corn

Peppers

Endive

Oregano

Savory

Sunflower

Nettles

Non-edible Complimentary Plants

Clover

Russian comfrey (essential for nutrient mining)

Yarrow, indigenous, medicinal plant use to attract predators to pests

Amaranth

A large, beautiful, fragrant lilac

Geranium

Nasturtium

Calendula

The bougainvillea was left and pruned into a square box.

Why?!

Control

The history of the the backyard area of 1645 Folsom St. shows maintenance misuse and pollution, tenant detritus, and massive weed overgrowth.

Even after the "cleanup" there is still a massive amount of crap left behind by uncaring tenants and JB Destruction. These things include broken furniture, clothing, cat scratchers, cardboard boxes, litter boxes, pipes and so on. So the cleanup wasn't about cleaning anything up, but about removing the garden.

Clearly, she does not care about the garden; it is control that matters to Rebekah. She wanted to win by not fixing the shower, then when that failed, destroy the garden. A "flag for removal" system, for example, could be used to remove miscellaneous stuff. Or simply talking about it.

The building is not inhabited by tenants who care; the few of us who've started gardening (three, so far) had our efforts quashed.

Mixed Success

Thanks and recognition to Simone and Kurt who got down and dirty and put their effort into making the backyard a better place, adding soil and planting corn, sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, and squash. More of this is what is needed to stop the violent destruction.

Comments from Rebekah Krell

As soon as I saw the actions by JB Destruction, I immediately called Rebekah, who did not answer but instead replied curtly (her typical fashion) via email:

I received your vm this morning. Steven will call you to discuss your concerns.

An Alternative Solution

Communication, volunutaryism, and Consensus decision-making are what I've advocated on this blog, and for which I created a special page: 1645 Folsom: Space Usage.

As an unelected government appointee Rebekah, does, among other things, produce an environmental sustainability report for environment for SFArts, which handles $10.3 million dollars annually.

From the report: DEPARTMENTAL CLIMATE ACTION PLAN SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSION

Community Wide Impact

The Arts Commission encourages programming that is though provoking, current, and socially responsible. Environmental concerns are inherent in the discourse of art and permeate the work we foster. While we occupied Real Estate owned properties and can not make large scale changes to our own facilities, our committees and programs encourage environmental awareness for the projects that we present, review and manage.All of our many programs are aware of the importance and timeliness of sustainability and work with artists, students and communities who explore, educate, and make work that looks to sustainable materials, messages and practices.

(emphasis mine)

That poorly-written spiel reeks of the typical government quality and sustainability greenwashing lingo. And coming from a government appointee, a former financial adviser to the Mayor's Office, shows just how and how much they really care about the environment, community, and social justice.

As a trained musician, I can assure you, the SF Arts commission has done nothing to work with me on "environmental concerns," "environmental awareness," or "timeliness of sustainability". Nope. And months prior, I'd asked Rebekah about getting a rainwater system to catch water from the storm drain to use to water the garden (these water saving systems are very cheap to install). Rebekah just forwarded the email to Steven, our property manager, who told me once again to not garden.

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When the bougainvillea gets out of hand...

And when doesn't it!

Closed-cycle Agricultural System

There are good uses for these branches in a closed-cycle agricultural system. We can use them for mulch, which can be mixed with the compost under the plum tree, for dividers in the beds, and even as poles for the scarlet runner beans (pictured above) to climb and grow on.

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Mom and Dad Finches Happily Preening the Kale

The male finch with the read head and female finch, plain grey, have created a nest in the towering, flowering bougainvillea. Today I noticed them both doing what looked like carefully preening the kale. Awesome! Here I'd gone to dusting those plants with diatomaceous earth, wiping off aphids, and planting tons of garlic and shallots (bee-friendly but repels most pests). But apparently, those aphids make a tasty snack for mom & dad finch. Nice.

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Tasty, young potatoes, harvested from near the bougainvillea. Come pick some! They're ready and they're good. While these were planted without much safe dirt, the plants were then covered with mulch, yard waste (weeds), and dirt and the new potatoes are growing in those.

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Via @SonnyBeez.

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Walter Haefeker, President of the Professional European Beekeeper’s Association explains to June Stoyer and Tom Theobald why neonicotinoids are too big to ban.

My personal thoughts are that the problems caused by big agriculture can be avoided by not supporting big agriculture financially in any way. Instead, create local food systems. Or to quote a USENET mantra: "don't do that then."

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Improved Property Value

Hector, the owner of the neighboring buliding complimented work that had been done, mentioning the health of the plum tree which he'd recently taken notice of. Nice to hear it!

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After seeing a lot of large, black flies, I noticed the piles of poop among the food. Again and after many complaints to the landlord about this problem.

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Thanks to Catherine for the four raspberry plants, one pictured here between the chard and tomato.

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Rats? Not any more!

My neighbor from the next-door building complimented the massive improvements done. "I used to hear rodents scurrying around down there."

Yeah. I'd forgotten all about it but the planter beds were full of rodent holes. I'd repeatedly plugged those up until they stopped appearing. And since the weeds and garbage are gone, the rats have no place to hide.

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Your Plants Here!

About 80lbs of fresh eucalyptus mulch has been spread along the northwest wall (faces southeast). There's nasturtium, onion, radish, clover.

There is much room for food to be grown. Tomatoes will go here. Fava beans would be nice.

The budding potato patch, shown here, is behind a jade plant and a red cactus. To its left, along the southeast wall, is the burgeoning bougainvillea, which should probably be pruned back more.

Compared to the pictures from last year, the bougainvillea has nearly doubled in size and is more upright. This is because it is now propped up with a pipe and thinned out by pruning. Whereas before, it was just hanging, having pulled sideways the tiny trellis it overgrew long ago.

Chop 'n Drop

Trimmings from the bougainvillea's branches were chopped up and used for the potato patch and also to the left of the bougainvillea, which now has kale, collard greens, chard, and yarrow. Chop 'n drop is a cheap and easy way to put nutrients back into the soil.

What do you want to grow?ollard

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Sunlight amplification system.

This cracked car windshield works as a coldframe. Nestled in the corner, it protects against wind, slightly refracts sunlight, and acts as a heat sink. Shiny stuff (mirrors, foil, used chips bag, etc) help to reflect sunlight back. This enables tomato seedlings to grow in an otherwise cold dark, corner, in January.

Inside are strawberry (albion), several young tomato plants, kale, chard, collard greens, onion, yarrow, and jade. I also have mulberry rose seeds started in the egg crate. For an unknown reason, the strawberry plant is not blossoming.

While a punctured windshield is potentially dangerous, this cracked windshield is stable and safe for use in the garden. This is because car windshields are specifically designed to spider and not shatter.

Since this was yanked from a local auto glass shop's trash, we're reducing local waste production.

UV Filter Glass?

Stratospheric ozone depletion allows more UVB rays to reach earth. These rays burn humans and plants (we didn't evolve that way).

Most modern windshields use ultraviolet filter glass to filter UVB and some UVA rays to help protect people from getting sunburned.

Likewise, greenhouses are also built with UV filter glass. And, similarly, this is done to protect plants from UV, particularly from the shorter, more damaging UVB rays.

Ozone depletion allows more harmful UVA and UVB rays to reach earth. But we can reduce some garbage by helping our food grow with broken car windshields.

Source: Effects of Ultraviolet Light on Plant Growth

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Lead Free Paint?

This planter box is attractive, but is it OK for food? Or does the paint contain lead?

I trust nobody will be eating the jade or cactus (it's red, look closely to the left of the jade). The fern came through the crack and worked its way into the planter box all by itself. Smart fern! Room for more succulents, flowers, or other inedible plants.

Incidentally, these plants hold water well, and because of their proximity to the neighboring building, they will probably receive enough water supply from spray when the 2nd floor neighbors water their plants.

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Nasturtium

Nasturtium leaves and flowers are edible and have a spicy flower.

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Before Pics

Well, nearly. After I'd put in about 30 hours of work, my wife suggested that I take photos to document what I had done. Here are the photos that I took at that time.

I pulled a lot of weeds, scraped a segment of the sidewalk crack, and collected several 5 gallon buckets worth of garbage, most of it toxic maintenance waste.

The garbage I pulled out of the planter beds included razor blades, teddy bears, caulking cartridges, party balloons, widely-dispersed foam sealant, paint chips, and broken glass. Clearly, the courtyard had been used as a dumping ground by maintenance workers and tenants.

One or more tenants had apparently been using planter boxes of their own, as shown in the photos. I also found a few plastic plant tags for oregano, organic kale, and other edibles in the planter beds that had apparently long ago been overcome by the now massive weeds and garbage, and died from neglect.

I'm not sure if I have any earlier photos but I'll try to get what I can off my computer.