Now, I’ve learned over the years that it’s worth it to feed a little change to the meters in this town, and as a father I’ve changed my share of diapers, but I’m not one to believe most promises of change that I hear from politicians. So while I feel change is important and unavoidable in life, I recognize that I have the ability to create more change in my own life then any of the talking heads of the world could ever offer. My garden at home this year is a shining example of that notion.
My family and I moved into our new home in February of this year, and by springtime I was itching to start ripping out the sod from the blank slate that was the back yard. I’ll often joke with friends that my gardens are like the cobblers shoeless children. I spend so much time gardening for other folks that I sometimes neglect my own yard. Even with my limited time and energy for gardening at home, I was able to get a huge jumpstart on home food and herb production, bird and butterfly habitat creation, and soil invigoration.This season alone I planted and harvested potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon, chives, thyme, mint, rosemary, kale, spinach, four kinds of lettuce, rhubarb,strawberries, choke cherries, and hops for use in my home made ales. The only plant other then sod grass that I found growing when I started in the yard this spring was a well-established patch of raspberries. The raspberries decided this year that they would produce two times, once in June and once in September! The raspberry ales I brewed each time were among the tastiest libations I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Apart from these edible beauties I planted butterfly attracting perennials, shrubs for the birds to eat from and hide in, and annuals that produced enough seed for me to continue planting for decades into the future.The pretty pictures, tasty ales, and yummy food that I pulled from the garden represent some wonderful changes over the way I lived when I rented a place I couldn’t garden at. The health and vitality of the foods I eat at home make me feel and function better then most store bought foods. My life has butterflies, bees, and birds in it year round, and when I sit down with a mug of home brewed ale made with homegrown ingredients I truly feel the bounty and plenty that life can be. These easily sensed rewards of the gardener’s life are but the cherry on top of the pie of blessings that come from growing gardens at home. Every ounce of food that I produce at home is also one less ounce of food that has traveled by petroleum driven vehicles to arrive at my home. Think of the travel savvy store bought tomato. The journey for store bought produce starts at the seed-producing farm, from there it moves to the food production farmer, after that the wholesaler, then to the retailer, then to our homes. What an adventure for a little tomato! No wonder they look a bit beat up on the store shelves. Just examining at the tomatoes journey isn’t enough though as it doesn’t account for all of the petroleum-based chemicals that are dumped on the plants while they grow on large farms. If I were gardener in chief, I’d demand an end to chemical based farming. I’d insist that everything grown was grown organically and as close to locally as possible, and I'd start national composting programs! I’m not gardener in chief or even brew-master general though, so I’ll just have to stow the demands for now and move forward with my humble dirt gardener’s advice to America.America, it may behoove all earthlings if we can start to grow food and native plants in our own yards, parks, ditches, rooftops, and vacant lots. We’re using too much oil for our food production right now! We could use a lot less oil, and have much tastier food if we’d just be willing to get our hands dirty and let go of our love affair with lawn grass. Let’s all pitch in and grow together, because the more we do for ourselves, the less we ask of our environment, and the more we offer our economy! What better place to start changing the economy and repairing the environment then at our homes. Along those lines, I learned two very useful new gardening habits this year. The first method is called double digging. Double digging is where you prepare a garden bed by digging out the soil and improve it by blending it with compost a full three feet under the surface. Utilizing this method allows roots to easily penetrate the soil and grow strong without fighting for space to grow. I’ve heard fellow urban food growers state that double digging allows them to produce twice as much food in any given area as they would by only improving the top foot of soil. The next great gardening habit I learned and practiced invokes an old farmers saying that I once was told. “Sand into clay is money thrown away, but clay into sand is money in the hand.” I put this well worded wisdom to use in my sandy South Minneapolis yard this season when I planted seeds and baby plants wrapped in softball sized chunks of compost and clay mixed together. The clay acted to hold moisture near the plants all season while the compost fed the young plants and made the clay soil easier to grow through for the young roots. The combination of these two methods of gardening can mean a lot for the urban gardener. I astounded fellow brewing enthusiasts by producing hops in my garden during the first growing season. Most folks say that it took two or three years to get hops from their vines. By now I’m used to the excellent growth rates that are achieved when using compost, but I was not ready for the amazing, magic beanstalk like growth of the gardens where I used the simple notions of composting, double digging, and “seed-balling” with clay. We don’t need new technologies that will rescue us from our own bad behaviors! Instead we could do ourselves a favor and rediscover some of these ancient methods of living well with our surroundings.
My favorite tomatoes this year were some grape tomatoes that volunteered themselves out of the compost pile. I imagine the gallons of gasoline that I didn’t burn because I ate food from home. Sure I didn’t slow the demand for oil in this world, but my actions didn’t increase that demand either. This is what change should look like; small, simple steps in the right direction, with tasty rewards along the way. “The key to change... is to let go of fear.”
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
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The Seed Vol. 21 Nov. 20, 2008 A Giving Tree Gardens Newsletter
Photos by Russ Henry ©2008 ,Text by Russ Henry ©2008 by Giving Tree Gardens, all rights reserved.
Plant Profile: Cannabis sativa subsp. indica.
Stunning in it's capacity to please, ganja, as this plant is known in India, has everything humans desire in their foliated friends. Intoxicating, easy to grow, beautiful, fragrant, medicinal, edible, a source of fiber, paper, oil, fuel, and bio-degradable plastic. Just one drawback, to this green giver though. The government won't allow us to grow, use, or have any of it!
Well maybe if we all worked for cotton, tobacco, alcohol, or oil companies then I'd be able to understand how we'd be risking our livelihoods to let any old gardener grow his own replacement for our products. I don't work for any of these companies though and the way I see it, the people of this country are being punished just so some rich folks can continue making an easy buck on us. Looking on the bright side though, there's a change slowly coming to America in regards to marijuana and hemp laws. In our recent election 9 out of 10 marijuana law reform measures passed throughout America, including decriminalization in Massachusetts and medical use in Michigan. Now a full one quarter of the US population lives in a state where marijuana can legally be used medicinally. Minnesota is still arresting her citizens for possessing or growing hemp, and cannabis! This is a ridiculous situation that calls for change from the bottom up! If we all work together we can truly overgrow the government! Several organizations of citizens are currently working on reforming marijuana and hemp laws. Foremost among these organizations is NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Giving Tree Gardens in the Co-op news!!!!!
Change Begins At Home
Let’s begin this month’s newsletter with a riddle:
What does a parking meter hold, a baby need to have, and a politician always promise?
You guessed it, Change!
Recently there’s been a lot said in this country about the subject of change. It seems to me as though many of my fellow countrywomen and countrymen have had their hopes for America renewed by the symbolic election of Barack Obama, a man who promised in his victory speech that, “Change has come to America”. Well this humble gardener couldn’t be more ready for some changes in America! The changes I’m most excited about however, will require much more then symbolism and politician’s patriotic promises. Real change is as inevitable as the snow that will soon blanket our yards, and once real change has taken hold, it will effect every part of what we see and do just as the snow changes the landscape. One big question many Americans are forming for themselves right now is "How do we stay ahead of the learning curve of change?" Many of us have a sense that there are going to be adjustments that need to be made to the way we live our daily lives if we are going to keep ourselves and our communities livable and economically viable, but what will these changes look and feel like?
Change is what makes a gardeners life exciting. We watch for the seasonal changes in our yards, we rearrange garden beds to give us a different sense or feeling in our landscape, we happily observe trees growing taller and perennials spreading out. Change comes as natural to a gardener as the sunset or the moonrise, so this gardener has a few suggestions for how Americans could change the way they live with their landscapes, while positively impacting their own lives, and the way the entire community functions. This month’s newsletter is dedicated to long needed change, and the capacity we each have to make this world a healthier, happier, and easier place to live.
LOCAL LINKS
Click here for the coolest local resources
We can help get your wagon moving on down the trail! Giving Tree Gardens is now pleased to offer high quality snow removal services! Click here for more info, or to schedule a free snow removal estimate!
Did the snow slow you down
last winter?
Ending homelessness, one person at a time
REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEERS!!!
Project Homeless Connect is a one-stop shop model for delivering services to people experiencing homelessness. Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis are partnering with service providers, businesses, citizens, and faith communities to bring multiple resources to one location where people can come to find the services they need. These services include: housing providers, employment specialists, medical care, mental health care, benefits specialists, eye care, haircuts, transportation assistance, food and clothing. YOU can help! At least 1,000 citizen volunteers are needed at the next event on December 8th, 2008. The Convention Center space will be set up with many tables, rooms, and areas for the various services available and volunteers will assist the guests in connecting with the services they need or request.
Be The Change!
Volunteer!! December 8Th
These vining hops flowers are almost ready for harvest. I purchased and planted these intoxicating beauties in bare root form early in the spring. Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies in St. Louis Park had a large selection of my favorite varieties available as root cuttings.
Just a little preparation and we had fresh salads out of the garden all season long. The kale grew 4 feet tall in our "double dug" beds.
The back yard in our new house was a blank slate this spring. As soon as the ground thawed I set to work putting in posts to hold up my hops trellis.
Where once sod grass grew, this summer I had 5 foot tall red spinach. I let it go to seed, so I can share this wonderous plant with all my friends.
Almost all of the plants I put in the yard this spring and summer were gifts or trades from friends. Gardening is a hobby that seems to encourage generosity.
I tend to let the weeds grow in my yard. Plantains like these the cat was resting in can be used as medicine on skin rashes. We also had daisies and dandylions pop up where they chose in the yard. Since I think of the sod grass as a temporary ground cover I feel it's a good thing to let some weeds roots grow in the soil and help fix nutrients much deeper then sod roots could.
Try growing salad greens in a container, you can move the container out of the strong sun when the weather gets hot, and keep your greens growing fresh for longer. Many folks are rediscovering the benefits of raising chickens at home. I've seen chickens running around back yards in a few neighborhoods in Minneapolis.
