Ultima

Ultima

By Stephen Baxter

The Academy of Saint Jonbar  had been established on the edge of Eboraki, away from the crowded ancient core of the city, in what Penny might have called an outer suburb. The refectory where they would eat, though attached to the Academy, was a short walk out of the campus and toward town.

The main schoolhouse was one of a cluster of such buildings, all brand new roundhouses, which included a gymnasium, a library, an arts center, a small clinic, a workshop for pottery, metalwork and other crafts, and a Christian chapel. The building were arranged in neat rows, like the city itself aligned not north-south but on a northeast to southwest axis, the direction of the solstice sunrise and sunset, following Brikanti tradition. There was a grassy playing field, and a kind of parade ground where some of the students, cadets of the armed forces of the Brikanti, could practice marching, and wage mock battles with swords and even blank-loaded firearms. But all this was set in an oak grove, one of a number studded around the city, the three a symbol of ancient druidh wisdom.

Penny and Marie had together designed this complex, with device from Ari and other locals, and all paid for  by money Ari had managed to extract from Navy contingency funds – the military-college aspect had been part of the price they'd had to pay for that. To Penny, even now, it looked like a museum piece, like a reconstruction of some Iron Age village rather than a brand-new, living, breathing facility for young people.

Ultima. Picture by Elena.

Of course those few students who went on to become full druidh wouldn't be so young when they finished. Ari, for instance, had gone through a few years of general education, including history, geography and philosophy, followed by twenty years of specialist study in law, politics, and mathematics and astronomy. Nowadays this was a literate culture, but Ari had told Penny that the old preliteracy tradition of memory training, the recall of long passages, was still used to develop the mind. Mathematics was particularly strong here. Penny herself had supervised classes of young children learning to reproduce the outlines of mistletoe seeds using the arcs of circles, carefully drawn with compasses and pens. It was easy to see, given such beginnings, how the Brikanti grew up to be such fine astronomers and interstellar navigators: from the geometry of a mistletoe seed to the trajectory of a starship.

The principal town of Eboraki was evidently a more ancient community that the Roman-planted towns in Gaul and Germania, and the older traditions of Celtic architecture and town planning lingered on, not obliterated by later Roman developments as in Penny's timeline. A grid pattern of roads of gravel and crushed rock separated houses of wattle and daub with thatched roofs, all surrounded by a monumental wall,outside which lay cemeteries and funeral pyres. The higher ground in the center of the city – in Penny's world dominated by a cathedral that had stood on the site of a demolished principia, headquarters of a Roman legion – did bear the remains of a two-thousand-year-old fort, but here it had been a Brikanti-built bastion, a relic of the days when continental invasions had been feared and experienced. This Britain, for better or worse, had never been severed from its own past by a Roman sword.

Gardener's Bookshelf

A Garderner's Bookshelf

Even the greenest of green thumbs appreciate the advice of great garden reference books. Experts from Botanical gardens and horticultural specialists nominate their favorites:

General reference

American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Garden plants: A comprehensive volume of information on most of the trees, shrubs, flowers, and foliage plants grown in American Gardens. 

Reader's Digest illustrated Guide to Gardening:  If you had access to no other source, you could develop some terrific skills with this book alone. It explains techniques in easily understood terms and provides excellent illustrations.

Trees and Shrubs

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: An unsurpassed resource on the characteristics, culture and habits of most of the trees, shrubs, and vines grown in the United States.

Gardening.

Annuals and Perennials

Burpee American Garden Series: The annuals and perennials editions are excellent for beginning gardeners. Basic, reliable information, on how to start seeds, plant, transplant, and maintain annuals and perennials with tips on creative garden and container designs.

Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants: This does for perennials what Manual of Woody Landscape Plants does for woody plants. Concise and complete.

Houseplants and Wildflowers

The New House Plant Expert: Most gardening books of British origin have limited value to American gardeners. This is the exception. Houseplants are houseplants the world over.

Organic Gardening

The Chemical-free Lawn: The best book on growing healthy lawns without major chemical dumping. Recommends regionally specific types of grass and grass cultivars.

The Organic Gardener's Home Reference: All about growing fruits, vegetables, nuts, and herbs to peak quality, using organic techniques.

Miscellaneous

The Complete Shade Gardener: Creative garden design tips for shady sites and lists of plants that will grow in light to full shade. Also, complete information on how to grow each recommended plant.

Gardening by Mail: The ultimate source book for seeds, plants equipment and books.

Lawns Fit for a President

Lawns Fit for a President

A backyard briefing from the White House Groundskeepers

You may not have to worry about helicopters leaving holes in your lawn or hundreds of reporters trampling through your rose garden, but White House horticulturists have some tips for starting and maintaining a lawn that will work anywhere.

What steps should be followed in starting a healthy lawn?

The first thing is preparing the soil. Depending on your soil, you may have to add some nitrogen-rich fertilizer, but not too rich – say 8 to 12 percent -otherwise you'll promote top growth at the expense of root growth. Then you rototill it out and grade it following the contours of the yard. The next step is to seed and fertilize, generally about 1 pound of fertilizer and 6 pounds of grass seed per 1,000 square feet. After that, the most important thing is to keep the seed wet until germination, which takes two weeks in most cases.

When grass appears, what should be done?

Once it gets to be about 3 inches tall, cut it to 2 inches and after that start mowing it to about 3 inches. Don't spray for weeds until you've mowed it three or four times, otherwise you might damage the grass before it's established itself.

Once your lawn is established, what is the best maintenance schedule?

Mow once or twice a week after that. Also water once or twice a week.

Drought Resistors: According to the Lawn Institute, the following grasses do well in dry climates – Excellent: Buffalograss, Blue gama, Bermudagrss. Good: Fairway wheatgrass, Smooth brome, Western wheatgrass, fine fescue. Picture by Elena.

What about fertilizer?

Fertilizer is important. Even in the heat of the summer, keep putting it down at a half-rate so you establish more root growth than top growth – especially if you're watering, because constant watering leaches nutrients from the soil.

You've got to be careful when you're watering in the summer, particularly at night. That's when you run into your fungus problems caused by standing water and high humidity. Conditions are just right for a fungus to drop in.

Is it harmful to water your grass during extreme heat?

We've heard that, too. But it's better to cool it down during the heat of the day. It takes stress off the grass and keeps the roots from coming up to the top instead of driving down.

Come fall, how should a lawn be prepared for winter?

In late August and early September of the lawn's first year, and every four or five years after that, you might want to rent a thatching machine to remove the lower layer of thatch (dead grass) and put down some more fertilizer and seed. That should get you ready for winter and a healthy lawn for next spring. Once your program is going, things should fall in place.

Hand Mower

The Comeback of the Hand Mower

The old push mowers have been transformed by new technology

Lawnmowers have come a long way since the time when you needed real muscle power to push a gasoline-powered backyard model around your back-forty. Today, few of the 5 million power mowers sold annually require anything more than a gentle guiding hand to get them around a lawn, and at $250 and up, the pricier models can even “mulch” their own cuttings so you can leave shorn blades on the ground and skip the raking. But who has an acre of Kentucky blue-grass to worry about anymore? And aren't you getting a little tired of finding your mower out of gas or in need of a tuneup?

A hand-powered push mower may be just what you need. Today's version of the old wood and cast-iron models that were around back when the Model T was in vogue cost as little as $200, and they weigh less than half what their predecessors did. What's more, the new heat-treated alloy steel edge that's used to make the blades gives these mowers a scissor-like edge that seldom requires sharpening. So fine is the new push mowers' cut, in fact, that the clippings can be left to decompose on the lawn, cutting back on the need for chemical fertilizers. And since the new mowers don't pollute the air, they will be exempt from federal clean-air rules for gas.

Top manufactures of these high-tech push mowers include American Lawn Mower/Great States Corporations and Agrifab Inc., which specializes in the top-of-the-line models that are especially favored by groundskeepers and other lawn-maintenance perfectionists.

The Grass is Always Greener

To pick the best grass seed for your lawn, take into account the growing region (defined by humidity level and mean temperature), micro-climate (how much sun the lawn gets throughout the day), mainteannce time, expected foot traffic:

Gulf Coast

Bahiagrass (Paspalum) – This wide, coarse-bladed grass is not particularly attractive, but its raggedness and deep root system make it good for erosion control. Micro-climate – sunny to partly shady/foot trafic high/maintenance – low.

Northern

Bengrass (Agrostis) – Often used on putting greens, this high-maintenance grass should be used only on low-traffic areas or where soft-soled shores are worn. - Sunny to partly shady/Low traffic/High maintenance.

Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa) – The most popular of cool-season grasses for its beauty and ruggedness and flexibility. It will excel with minimum maintenance almost anywhere. Sunny to partly shady/Medium to heavy/ Low to high.

Perennial Ryegrass (Festuca) – This quick-growing and reasonably hardy grass is used in seed mixes to provide cover and erosion control while the other seeds take root. Sunny to partly shady/Medium/Medium to high.

Tall Fescues (Festuca) – Though it is a cool-season grass, this though wide-bladed turf has good heat tolerance and grows well in areas with a steep range of weather. It is often used on playgrounds because of its extreme ruggedness. Sunny to partly shady/Heavy/Medium.

Flowers, just flowers. Photo by Elena.

Southern

Bermudagrass (cynodon) – Fast-growing, this wide-bladed grass requires frequent-edge-trimming, but will tolerate high traffic. Popular in the South for its vigor and density. - Sunny/High/Medium to high.

Zoysua (Zoysia) – Takes root very quickly and crowds out other grasses and weeds. It turns a not entirely unattractive straw yellow in cold weather and requires little maintenance in general. Sunny to partly shady/high/low to medium.

West Central

Buffalograss (Buchloe) – Like wheatgrass, a native turf that is thick and rugged, requires low maintenance and will not grow over 4 or 5 inches if left unmowed. - Sunny/Medium/Low.

Southern

Carpetgrass (Axonopus) – Coarse but sensitive to wear, used primarily on hard-to-mow places because of its low maintenance and slow growth rate. Sunny/Low/Low.

Centipedegrass (Eremochloa) – a Good middle-of-the-road grass-easy to care for, will tolerate some shade, and is vigorous and attractive. It requires two seasons to grow. Sunny to partly shady/Low/los.

South Atlantic

St.Augustine Grass (Stenotaphrum) – Dense and spongy, it is prized for its high shade tolerance. Not available in seed form, but usually sold as fairly inexpensive sod. Sunny to shady/medium/medium to high.

High Plain

Wheatgrass (Agrropyron) – Thick and tough, this native grass grows on the high plains of the Northwest. It will withstand weather extremes and heavy traffic and requires mowing about once a mouth.

Schools of Clay

Schools of Clay

By Derek Künsken

Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015, edited by Rich Horton, Prime Books, 2015.

The hive vanished behind him. The minuteness of their former home was spiritually humbling. Stippled stars on black night, close companions since birth, now wrapped him in their vastness. His struggle for the workers, all his words to free his brothers, seemed hollow here. And the migration might still die stillborn, like a drone without a soul. No future. Not even a present.

His soul was silent, perhaps hoping that Diviya had resolved himself to his duty. He fell behind the thrusting princes, still so far that they were just tinypoints of hot breath. Perspective placed them near the unknowable voice of the pulsar. The thought of approaching the Hero terrified him.

Diviha’s soul began, in staccato radio crackles, the liturgy of migration: vectors ad star sightings, landmarks, and flight speeds drawn from the sagas. The souls had done this before. They adjusted the liturgy each migration, to account for the drift of the asteroids, but the mythic arc of the Hero and the Maw was unchanging.

Diviya knew the migration route. He’d studied it, perhaps in a way unseemly for a country doctor. He eased his thrust, contrary to the liturgy. His soul repeated the timingf of the thrusts, and their strengths. Diviya ignored his soul. He needed to be trailing the pricnces and princesses for what he wanted to try. And he needed his thrust later.

Schools of clay. Photo by Elena.

The pulsar became a fat dot. Its gravity drew him onward and its voice had become a deafening, constant shout. Diviya unfurled his radio sail. It bloomed outward, bound to him by many fine steel wires. He angled his sail so that the microwaves pushed him off a collision with the collapsed star. The force would grow as he approached, compensating for the rising gravity.

The pulsar had bloated into a fat disk. The Hero’s Voice was too pure and loud to be audible. Microwaves seared tiny arcs of electricity across Diviya twice each second, filling him with life for what must come. He was sick with overcharging. His soul recited the prayer of brushing against divinity. When that finished, his sol told the parable of the prince fleeing before waves of the shaghal. The Hero made Diviya large and small. Diviya could not turn to look how close the shaghal might be, nor even if his fellow revolutionaries had kept pace with him. One approached divinity alone.