Clay to clay

There are certain spots, along Bay Area beaches, where you come upon wet clay outcroppings. They've always seemed like special spots, and worthy of showing to friends.



Of all the creative uses of clay by artists, my favorite has to be the legendary British clay animation movies with the characters of Wallace and Gromit. If you've not seen them, please do.



Gardeners hereabouts often inherit yards rich in clay but lacking in other fundamentals. What to do?

If you think about it, what we call soil is a lovely mixture of weather-beaten rock, minerals, decayed plant materials and other organic ingredients. To be healthy and productive, it requires a balance of air, water, nutrients, and organic matter.

Adding organic matter is important. When I built my clay-rich garden in Mill Valley 20 years ago, I carefully worked in horse manure from a nearby farm. This helped the soil to hold nutrients, hold water, and improve its drainage.



Thereafter, our small garden plot out by the street became a rich black soil capable of growing any manner of crops, which we proceeded to do.



Alas, all such things must come to an end. As my marriage crumbled, and I had to find another place to live, that garden became overgrown with native plants like blackberries, and the wild garlic and onions that gave the great city of Chicago its name, courtesy of the indigenous people who lived there before the arrival of the White Man.



If you drive down Northern Avenue, past our family house, even today, at the right season you will smell the garlic and onion and you can pick the blackberries.



Alas, my other crops have been lost to time, no doubt enriching the soils for some future farmer, should one arrive. Meanwhile, here in my apartment, we create clay figures, representatives of our physical forms.

Dust to dust.

Clay to clay?

Such is the nature of art, in a modest place, without pretention, just living the best we can.

(clay art and photo courtesy of JuJu and Junko)

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