Ogden Botanical Gardens, Utah

Yes, manicured botanical gardens are not exactly community food projects but I am visiting my daughter in Utah near Hill AFB. My son-in-law is in S. Korea and we like to give her a helping hand when we get to come visit but we also get kinda garden starved too. Ogden is on the north end of Salt Lake and the yards are mostly well manicured - sprinkler systems go off in most neighborhoods according to the whims of the owners. Grey clay lays just under those sodded yards - yucky stuff.

Last year we were told that burmuda grass is not grown here - smartest thing I've ever heard anyone do. But it is on the dryer side here also. Some owners opt for zeroscaping - I think that's usually spelled with an x but you get my drift.

We did take a couple of hours yesterday to walk the Ogden Botanical Gardens - Utah Dept of Ag run - open from one hour before daylight to one hour after sunset - long hours. This runs along 12th Street that turns into Canyon Road as it starts out of Ogden and up the valley and there's a river - don't ask the name, I didn't catch that. But it's roaring cold water off the mountains - semi clear. Irises, poppies, staghord sumac, roses, that new black elderberry and lots of assorted plantings of brand new flowers in berms along with yarrow, columbine, hedges and trees line this first area and there's a bike trail/walking path along the river's edge. People were out with dogs, babies, buddies and bikes.

I planted a wisteria for my daughter that I brought from home - Oh, thank goodness my soil is so much deeper and richer and lusher - she has a toupee of grass on grey dirt lined with grey clay - no perk to it. I poured water into the hole - and stared - it stared back. I told my daughter according to my perk test her soil needed about 6000 feet of lateral line. Now the lawn looks good but some toupee's do if you don't know it's a toupee.

So despite the lovely gardens in Ogden, I'll take Okie dirt over Utah dirt anyday. Be back Monday - but it has been a great trip - watching grandson, taking in the end of year second grade class trip to the local aviary - etc. It's been fun.

Sourdough for baking.

As part of food security, I have been using sourdough starter to bake bread with. I thought I would share with you how to get a good starter going. The recipe for bread is very basic you mix flour, starter, salt, and water.

To start a sourdough starter. Mix one half cup of all purpose flour and one half cup of room temperature chlorine free water in a bowl. Using non chlorinated water is very important. The chlorine in tap water will slow your starter and cause it not to leaven properly. I use water left over in my tea pot. After you heat tap water in a tea pot it removes the chlorine. Let the bowl of flour and water sit uncovered on the kitchen counter. Before you go to bed feed the starter with another half cup of flour and water. Continue feeding twice a day for several days till you have about 3 cups of starter. Then put your starter in the refrigerator.

Your starter should be nice and bubbly and about as thick as pancake batter. It should not have a strong sour smell.

Sourdough starter has two cycles that it goes through after feeding. First is a yeast bloom, then a lactose bacillus bloom that eats the waste product of the yeast. It is the lactose bacillus that gives the starter it's sour characteristics. The lactose bacillus will make your sourdough starter acidic which slows yeast growth. So you have to practice archiving a balance in the ph of the starter. If you let the starter get too acidic then it will not leaven bread properly.

I will post the bread recipe in a few days. You will need a dutch oven and active starter.

It is hard to imagine living through something like this.

I seem to be on a Urban Agriculture roll this morning. I have posted about Detroit before. It is hard to think about a city losing 75 percent of the jobs, but that has happened here in Tulsa too when the oil companies moved to Houston. We need to remember that our local economy is ours to build and keep more of our food dollar here in Tulsa.

A real change in thinking.

I think Tulsa is in the process of a change in thinking. Well at least I would hope so after the community garden uproar. A city is now more than it's residents, and some politicians seem to think that a city is an entity of its own and the citizens are just fleas on the dog so to speak. I think about this everyday as I drive through my area of Tulsa and see the vast open grass lots created by the so called "Urban Renewal". As citizens of Tulsa we own this land. Why do we need to buy the land from ourselves? Is food more important than development? I also see a need to teach food preservation. I just happen to grow up in a family that grew and preserved most of our food. When it came time to can food everyone in the family helped out so I learned to preserve food as part of my life education. Owen Park Recreational Center has a kitchen we should get some canning classes organized there. Food security equals secure families.

More urban gardening news.

I like this quote. "40 percent of the produce consumed in the United States in 1943 was grown at home." Speaking of produce, I got to get my cucumbers planted today.

Agriburbia

This seems to be catching on here in Tulsa too. At least with some of my neighbors. Here is the full story with links.

Another Snake

David yelled, come and see this - I come running out of the greenhouse - and he's trying to get rake and hoe to the inside corner of the goose pen - another black snake only this one has Princess upset as she cannot get to her nesting corner. He's swallowed one of her eggs - she's not happy. He pens the snakes head - the bright red around the bulge of the egg threw him - black snakes don't have red on them - well, yeah, they do. Those scales were a bit fer apart with all the goose egg.

As he held on and lifted this 5 foot dude or dudette, he decided we had to carry this one off too. Box is in the top of the garage. He says as he stands near the door, come hold this. I grin and we both laugh - ah, no way and then I stroked the body - the huge bulge showing more color than you normally see. David spies the 5 gallon bucket, I run for a large pot that I figure will set right down and David throws the snake to the ground and immediately the snake has upchucked the egg. I could feel him upchucking, David explains. I guess he knows he cannot fight or run with that kind of load and he's not in the mood for lunch now - just plain scared. David drops him quickly into the bucket, I put the black pot down over the top - good tight fit. Off we jump into the car for a trip to the bottom of the hill. The snake in bucket is in my lap - I am not even shivering.

David had grabbed Princess's egg and returned it gently to her - funny how this hairy, wirey old man has such heart - I love him more every day for his gentleness. I've seen him twist a bad can opener into a knot when it would not work but with living things, he's pretty awesome most of the time.

Snake delivered to bottom of hill, David lifted the pot off and the snake was curled defensively - he leaned the bucket forward and out slithered our dude/dudette to chase mice and other snakes and probably the occasional egg - but not at our house - he'll find other sources and I keep hoping that the railroad tracks vibrate too much for his taste.

We both go back to our efforts of pulling plants out of a too hot greenhouse - so that they can survive our Oklahoma summer setttling them under shade on plastic with hopes that they survive our absence for a few days vacation. I just had to include the post from Tulsa Community Gardening as this built on the story of the fish eating snake - two is enough - for now.

Honor in the Garden

I am slowing down - age is taking over but I am also listening more. We sat eating out the other day and teachers were talking beside us - they had been to some event and were all headed home - appearently they were from different schools.

One man was very loud and talked about how he would not drive thru Cushing because the cops would issue tickets for speeding. He even related a story about how stupid a cop was for issuing a ticket to a man's daughter who this same man had formerly given this police officer sporting tickets. I guess the police officer caught this man's daughter speeding, gave her a ticket and now the father would not give this officer anymore sporting tickets - and the teacher called this police officer stupid for doing his job.

I thought, would this teacher allow a student to cheat if he was the superintendent's child - or do his job?

Gardening has been a part of our life forever - David had to have a garden when we first married - 36 years ago. I didn't love it right off the bat - he had to coax me into enjoying the outdoors and for a long time I was afraid of the spiders and snakes and such. Wolf spiders in the green beans basically meant I was not picking. Now I can pluck the web of the golden orb and let her netting fall aside as I continue picking tomatoes and the black snake that had one of our goldfish by the head was the same one that was hiding in my columbine. The goldfish was removed (and lives) - much too big for the snake who was about 4 feet long and the snake was placed into a box for transport to the bottom of the hill for release - these are very good snakes. Before David took him down the hill, I had to look into his mouth - so with a 2 inch shard of cedar, I could see there were no fangs, his round eyes and pointed tail more indication of his being one of the snakes who does much more good than harm.

Fear kept me from enjoying my garden early, then I learned to know the good that spiders and snakes do.

I am just trying recently to use a new term - Honor. And in the same light that the teacher did not honor the act of the police officer, I hear a lot of statements that lack honor in them. I fail to honor myself - beleive me I am preaching to myself. But I like the word - better than being selfish or taking care of myself first. Those terms seem so interchangeable and negative and Honor sounds good in my mouth. Klingon's spoke of honor, Native American's speak of it - even the Bible exhorts us to honor.

I hope each of you honor your gardens with care and enjoyment and I hope your gardens honor you with tons of produce and joy. I needed this break because I was not honoring myself - I was letting the world invade my peace and I needed to change myself - thank you all for a moment of your time.

I promise I will post picture of my working girls this weekend.

I got a second Hive body from Carl Harrison yesterday, so I have to open the hive to put it on top. I will post the pictures. George reminded me that I am not the only one in Brady Heights with working girls so I guess I need to take pictures of his girls too before he gets his gate up. Anyone interested in starting up beekeeping needs to go to the NEOBA link and plan on attending their meeting. There are plenty of people willing to help you get started.

Welcome new contributor.

I have been hoping to get more contributors and I have invited okiedragon to post on this blog. Welcome okiedragon. Anyone else who would like to contribute let us know.

The girls are coming home tonight.

The time has finally arrived. I get my Bee Hive tonight. Will post pictures later. Now I need to go finish the Apiary.

I am starting to get caught up again.

Sorry for the long absence. I actually feel like I am getting caught up again. My "Urban Ag Display" at OPCG is a disaster. It has just been too wet to work on it. I hope to have something in place for the garden tour on June 14th.

Local Beekeeper

For those of you like me who don't have a Television. Here's Greg and Sue's interview on Sunup.

New Link Below

I added a link to the Oklahoma Food Cooperative . You order from local producers online then you pick up your order at St. Paul's Church on 15th Street. They offer home delivery as well. I am joining up this month. Check out the site.

When the weather clears up.

I plan on visiting these new gardens and posting pictures. It has been too wet to finish my Urban Agriculture display at OPCG. I hope to have it ready for the tour on June 14? I believe. More about the tour later.

Just what I like to see...

Community Gardens everywhere. Did you read todays Tulsa World. I am so happy about this garden I have been trying to establish a garden for Iron Gateseveral years now but I could never find the land to place it on. I glad to see their vision become real.

See the rain is still coming down.

I guess I shouldn't complain come July I will be wishing for rain.

Too much of a good thing.

Rain, rain go away. I need to work in my garden today.

Wadding Pool Garden

Pictures of the Wadding Pool planter at the Urban Agriculture Display in OPCG. The pool cost $18.00, and the soil to fill it cost around $30.00. This is a 60" pool the 45" pool would be cheaper to install.

Picture 1.
Picture 2.

Playing Ketchup.

I finally uploaded some pictures that have been in my camera for a long time. Brady Heights Work Party a couple of weeks ago, and installing drainage at Owen Park Community Garden..