Garden Rant

http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2009/10/urban-gardening.html

I made some comments on this page - it is about community gardening - what it means - figured it would lead you to all sorts of information since she plans to include what the author finds of interest here.

This is a pretty active blog site - I love the manifesto - bet you all do to.

Make change happen. Plant a garden.

Even a small one will help. Here is why.

The right to grow your own food.

I was watching a documentary the other night about how the average Roman lived. In one of the segments Terry Jones talks about what an average Roman would eat. It seems that in Rome only the very wealthy would have a place to grow their own food. Towards the end of the Empire only a few people controlled all the land that was used to grow food. The average citizen would have to earn the money to eat or starve.

I am seeing this same trend here in Oklahoma. Where my family is from out in "wheat country", there is a movement to eliminate the family farm and get people off the land. The corporate aggrow business wants vast amounts of land with no houses or barns to get in the way of the automatic harvesters. The plan is to deliver the equipment to the field then use a satellite to steer the tractor or combine across the field to plant or harvest the crops. Since you eliminate the people from the process, the small towns that supported the family farms are vacated too. Terry Jones mentions the same thing happened in the Roman empire. As fewer people gained control of all the land, the farming communities disappeared.

But what about us folks here in the city. Do we have the right to take over vacant land and plant food on it? Or should we demand our government provide a place to grow our food. I have been observing a vacant lot for a few years now. I think I am going to start planting it. The lot has been vacant for over twenty years now and the owner lives in California and doesn't maintain it. I was thinking a few pepper and tomato plants and if they get mowed over than it will be no big deal.

But when you garden on no man's land things can go terribly wrong. One of our local community gardens is under the threat of the bulldozer everyday. The plot I helped secure for the garden is owned by a lady who died ten years ago, and there are numerous parties battling to get title to the land including the gardeners. Even when the city gives you permission to cultivate a garden on unused land things can change over night.

Here is a link to the documentary "The Garden". Part One. and Part Two. You have to click through some ads but the documentary is well worth it. For those of you who have slower Internet connections. Press play then pause the video and it will buffer so you can watch it without interruptions.

Sorry for such a long post. There are a lot of issues when it comes to food security. I personally think The City of Tulsa should provide Allotments to people to grow their own food. But at least we have gotten past the point of the city thinking community gardens are a bad thing.

Your agriculture weather forecast for last week of October.

Your Mesonet forecast for last week of October.

October Honey Report

The USDA Honey Report for October. I think this year was hit and miss for local Beekeepers. I didn't get any honey from my hives. I did get stung 3 times when I was moving the hives to my new location. I am seeing lots of pollen coming in so the Bees have adjusted to the move and seem to be foraging.

Welcome new contributor.

I have invited urbanfarmersorg to contribute to Secure Food. I hope they accept.

Sometimes life just does not cooperate.

I tend to think big sometimes, and it works out to be more than I can handle. I moved from my big house to my smaller house. Which meant moving my office too. My office doesn't close so it can be tricky keeping it open in the old place while you get it setup in the new place. I got the bright idea that I wouldn't move the old phone I would setup a new phone system. Anyway you get the idea. Think never go as planned. But the worst seem to be behind me.

Bonsai - Ya can't eat it

Twice a year I trim a bonsai I purchased for my husband - I have no idea why he doesn't do it except he just doesn't. I probably spend between 2-3 hours a year trimming it. It is the only Bonsai we have - its a juniper - and it came from a real Japanese grower - or at least Japanese seller - who was on the side of the road - I bet he's been in Tulsa at least a few times with a van and he just sets up his plants on the side of the road and sells here in Sapulpa.

I like the plant - but ya can't eat it. That doesn't mean that plants you cannot eat have no value - obviously I love plants whether they are edible or deadly poisonous - since I grow both basils and castor beans. Oh, that reminds me - I need to cut the gourds down - one has fallen and busted. Arrghh!

I am also wondering if it will ever stop raining - I've heard sunshine will occur on Friday - I'll believe it when I see it. I feel sorry for the bees - they are so confined when it is rainy - makes me wonder if they get bored, sleep or eat the entire time.

Its amazing how I worked in the greenhouse from 4-6 cleaning plants and when I stepped outside a bit ago the geese had put themselves to bed - they went into their pen for the evening - birds are definately creatures of habit. I am not sure if I have ever mentioned the parrot - the quaker parrot who is about 1/2 an ounce bigger and maybe a whole inch longer than a cockatiel and is green - we call him Moe. He/she likes routine and being very close to human contact. David's spoiling him - with breakfast. David will get a sausage, egg bisquit and as soon as he gets it unwrapped, the parrot begins to eat off the edge of the egg. And he/she eats its share too. I bet the bird consumes at least 2 teaspoons of egg with bisquit each morning - seems a bit cannibalistic. This morning Moe didn't even wait to be offered food - he simply walked over to the bisquit and began eating before David had his first bite. Since quakers will eat any food human's do with very few limitations, he seems to be thriving and looks pretty good.

I hope Mr. Tulsonian gets moved soon enough - I know that moving has got to be the last thing on my mind - I'd sell my soul for more room - but not if it means moving.

More Politically Correct Community Gardens

http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2009/10/baltimores-city-hall-garden.html

Greenhouses and all that mess

Earlier this summer I planted all my lemongrass into the lower garden - Friday and Saturday we dug it all up out of the swampiness we call the lower garden. Plopping all the plants into pots just large enough to hold the tangle of roots, we wheelbarrowed them from the lower garden into the greenhouse. They are still too big for my gallon pots - so I'll create the 3 gallon potted plants I had for sale last year - plants big enough to begin using before you even plant them.

You cannot see much of the floor of the greenhouse - we cleaned and swept along the right side - picking up and moving pallets from the floor and sweeping all the webs and pulling all the weeds that insist on living in the hottest greenhouse in Oklahoma - no cooling system at all except the overhead exhaust fans. We have things in the greenhouse that should not be in the greenhouse - a bicycle that belonged to my sister - a sink I bought for my building - it needs to be sanded and painted and put into the building - but then there's the walls and the painting and all that goes with that work. So I sweep around things - clean up plants and man what I reaction I had to an Agave Americana - dang.

My arms got so itchy and my hands were driving me nuts - appearently I've developed an allergy to them - and I am not allergic to anything in the garden - not even poison ivy. I came in and washed my arms off and loaded them with cortizone cream - seems to have helped and the tiny whelps are going down.

I still have my knee pads on - so out I am going again - got the radio to keep me company and I'll plow thru part of the cleaning - but I am done with Agave duty for the year.

Putting gardens to bed

Outside my bedroom/office window is my tomato cages still lined up and full of tired plants - plants that have no leaves or life from the ground up to about 3 feet then there is the tangle of living greenery with tomatoes in all form of green, pink, ripe and rotten - until we get that hard freeze they will suffer into the fall putting on hard green tomatoes. I've even picked some fairly large tomatoes for this time of year - I keep thinking it has to be the bees pollination that is keeping the production size up.

The truck is still gone, the insurance company hasn't settled yet and the customers have been as sparce as hen's teeth. I'm picking and taking to the Presbyterian church in town on Mondays - shoot, that's today isn't it.

We are looking for a truck - David insists it has to be a diesel and a dodge and I found one I think would be a good purchase but it would cost me 6,000 lbs of tomatoes. David's got a job for a while - as long as there are fossil fuels to be burned for airplanes to fly that is.

I am not good with winter - years ago we owned a dump truck service and we did well in the summer but in the winter, we struggled and winter became the enemy. Farming is good in the summer and costly in the winter - heating a greenhouse is no small potatoes. We have dug up over 60 blackberry plants - ready to make the extension of 4 rows but we need a truck - to haul the trailer to bring home a hole digging rental. And then there's the cement that will need to be purchased and the time it takes to plant the 4 X 4 posts. Buying the truck is scaring me - not buying the truck is scaring me. Without a vehicle, we don't have any means of getting our plants to festivals in the spring. We can't bring home mounds of manure. We can't pick up wood chips or mulch unless it is bagged and that's always more expensive.

It is hard to know exactly how to push ahead and what to buy - and what item needs to be finished and what doesn't.

So putting the gardens to bed will be higher on the list as the weather becomes colder. Lemon grass must be dug up before a freeze - all 60 plants and divided to make more. The basil was pulled out on Saturday to make room for the pansies and 5 chrysanthemums in the front flower bed. Then the entire wall of plants on the end of the house were removed - castor beans yanked out, the entire area double dug to remove as much of the grass that had invaded and all the bulbs and corms and rhisomes in the greenhouse walkway were pulled and needed the new location. I had daylilies, iris, daffodils and oriental lilies, sages still in pots were planted, a rose of sharon and a small shrub, and a few canna's were centered a little off center. For mulch I went cheap - a bale of straw and a lawnmower mulched it into finer cuttings and a bit of cardboard cut in long swaths became the weed barrier. A bit of old ground cover was used under the blocks to creat a stepping stone path in the center as the bed is almost 5 feet deep - and 24 feet long. The leftover bale became mulch for the pansies too.

I bought 3 kinds of blueberries - one plant each - just enough for us to enjoy and will plant them in the lavender row - between plants of lavender will be blueberry bushes - I need to dig the holes and add a bale of peat, some bonemeal and bunny poop, part of the existing soil and then maybe in two or three years I will be enjoying my own blueberries without depending on others for this treat. I have a small bucket of raspberries too - now where the heck will those go. I also purchased two pawpaw trees this spring and I am under the impression those need a bit of shade for a few years before they are capable of handling full sun. I have no idea if a pawpaw is good or not but I do want to try growing them as I call David papa much of the time. Those will go into larger pots and be well mulched thru this winter half dug into the ground to prevent the pot from freezing.

There are other beds that need dug up, grasses pulled out and bulbs replaced this fall - and here I sit on a Monday morning writing instead of doing. But it is cloudy out there - and a bit cool and there's a few other things - some review of market taxes, picking for the church, and the fact my husband's shift changed again this month and that means instead of a 3 day weekend, he only got one day off as the shift changes at the beginning of the month and then will get caught back up in 4 weeks - it feels so unfair - but then, he has a job, and I know deep down inside how very lucky we are even when it feels unfair.

Oh, and David cleaned up the scary berries - the blackberries are in wonderful shape this fall - the choice to put them higher on the agenda is paying off.