Gardening is ultra complex

It's Halloween and it's garden clean up day. I love Saturdays. This is the one day that I save for taking care of my home and garden. I don't actually "work" on Saturdays. We have a light drizzle here in Enumclaw today and its warm. It's nice and I'm just in from cleaning up my garden. Tomato plants and Shasta Daisies are out and composting. Sunflowers are cut for the chickens and I'm making a dent in that pile of junk that I pulled out of the shed when we made the stall for Abby.

A master gardener from our local Garden Club clued us all in this week about how to prepare our gardens for Winter. We are all tres attentive to all of her advice. I learned a lot of things I didn't know and I didn't even know I didn't know them. I am eating it up because the improvisational approach I take to art doesn't work so well for gardening and I've suffered the consequences of this approach this year. I learned how to garden and to paint by watching and helping my mom and then by reading and trying things out over the years. The garden club is really great because there is so much gardening knowledge in the room; now I have a whole lot of moms I can learn from.

I think gardening is ultra complex. It's at least as complex as designing software; maybe not quite as complex as theater. Oregon, where I learned to garden is different than California is different than MA is different than Washington. The light and soil conditions are different every few feet. The seasons come and go and are different every year. We learn new things about growing plants all the time, aesthetic goals change. MAN.

So here are my personal take-aways from Maureen's garden clean-up advice:

1. Dahlias rot in the ground over the winter because rain water drains down to the root through the stem. If your soil drains and you cut the stems and protect them from the rain you have a good chance your Dahlia's survive under our gardening conditions. Sword Ferns and Fir limbs make good winter cover for Dahlias. My first year of growing a lot of Dahlias I left them in the ground and they rotted. The second year I planted a new crop not quite so big, I dug them up and stored them just like they said in the book and lost those. If you dig your Dahlia tubers; don't wash them before you store them in a cool dry place for the winter.

2. Don't put shavings from the horse barn directly onto your garden; compost it first, then spread it in the Spring. Sawdust draws the nitrogen out of the soil. Who knew? In MA I grew my pumpkins right on top of the horse manure pile, lots of shaving there, they grew great. I learned that from my farmer friend.

3. Maureen recommended cutting Raspberry canes to the ground. In MA, I cut them about a foot high and had bumper crops.

4. Clean out all your weeds; these keep growing over the Winter in in WA they look ugly and they are really bad by Spring; not so in MA where we usually had a foot or two of snow or ice for months.

We've got a lot of dairy farms here and I'm longing for a truck load of manure; gotta get out there and mingle with the neighbors to find that. What I don't know is if I should spread it over the grass that is covering the garden area now or if I should till the whole thing so that I can flatten it out and then spread the manure. I've got to do something or I won't have more than a a few jars of current jam and a bowl of tomato soup from my garden again next year. I'll shoot Maureen a note and ask her.

Small Tomatillo and Tomato Crop This Year

This was my first year to grow tomatillos. I had three plants develop out of the 60 I was hoping for.  Prolonged rains this Spring and then a heat wave didn't help and as I've mentioned before, the dirt at my new home needed amending (so I learned.)  Truth is though, I thought I knew what I was doing and could wing it through so so (no cost) seed starting conditions but nope.  I didn't do a good job at all of  starting my seeds and a lot of things went wrong.

I harvested just before the impending freeze last week and ended up with 5 cups of chopped fruit, some of the darn things no bigger than a quarter.  I had a friend in CA that grew a row of Tomatillo plants up to her neck and 15 yards long one year; my vines grew a couple of feet along the ground.  The fruit turned out to be tastey nevertheless.  Last night I made these jars of salsa and a pot of fresh tomato soup from my tiny (but delicious) tomato crop (same issues.)

All in all I figure my harvest dinner and 5 little jars of salsa only took me 6 months to prepare. Go ahead and laugh; I'm laughing too.  Next year, I'll (try again) to grow a real crop of tomatoes and tomatillos and, cilantro, dill and onions to go with them.

Deep down I know I'm not a farmer; I'm not even much of a kitchen gardener this year.  But I just can't stop trying; I don't know why. I've always thought it was some kind of ancestral thing; my grandpa always grew a good garden and my mom and her twin sister were both driven flower gardener.  I spent a lot of time in the garden with mom; she used to let me dig the holes for the bedding plants and I used to love to water.  Where I grew up in Marion County Oregon, I spent a lot of time on farms picking strawberries and beans when I was a kid and one of my first memories was of my mom taking me to her friend's farm where I got to collect eggs from the chicken coup.  I still so love that.  Prior to my grandpa though, I don't know much about my ancestors or if they were farmers from way back.  Could have been royalty for all I know.  For whatever reason the sights and sounds and smells of farming and farming lifestyle have inspired me and gardening (if not farming) is in my blood. 

And this brings me to something I'm thinking deeply about.  I've joined a social networking group called Farmers for the Future.  What a great thing it is.  In one of my conversations there some of my new friends said they were angry about farmer stereotypes; I bet you know what I am talking about.  Uneducated dirt farmers, driving 50 year old cars because they have to, one dollar in their pocket. That's the movies.  That's TV and novels.  It certainly doesn't describe Farmers for the Future. 

And to all of you out there who read my blog, be aware that stereotyping is hurtful, just like all stereotyping is and those of us who know better well, we ought to help others know better too.  I'm smart and I have a killer education but there is no way I'm smart enough or even tempered enough or strong enough to run a farm that can feed my family, let alone the world.  

I'm less romantic about farming than I was at the beginning of this ethnography and I'm far far more respectful. I wish I had  known when I was young what I know now.  If you are young and you want to farm, be really smart and learn from elders and go to an agricultural college.   We don't pull knowledge from thin air and take it from me, trial and error farming isn't going to feed your family. 


Cynthia
The Wanna Be Farmer

PS: Is there such a thing as premature celery? I had one plant with stocks that were as tiny as they could be and still be celery.  

Hidden dangers: A call for small farm and yard toxic waste awareness and reclaimation programs

After a year and a half of working on the Small Farm Life Along the Cascades Range ethnography project I have clarity about one very important problem in need of a set of education, advocacy and entrepreneurial solutions.

We need small farm and suburban yard clean-up and toxic waste awareness and reclaimation programs.  It really hasn't been all that long in a cultural historical sense that we have had garbage service let alone the knowledge that we need about properly disposing of toxic waste. 

Yesterday I found dead old oil cans in our shed and dampened spilled slug bait and weed killer that filled the drawers of an old cabinet.  I was able to clean up a good part of the spilled oil but not all of it but guess what, now it's in a equine senior feed bag and I haven't a clue what to do with it.  Last year I lived on a farm that had an old and unused underground gas tank only 50 feet from the well we used for household cooking and bathing, old car batteries sitting outside in the rain, insulation from an old trailer strewn around the property after a wind storm and reams of plastic sheeting decomposing under a thin layer of top soil, a legacy from a short-lived attempt at flower farming. 

This is just two farm properties among thousands that have been polluted and now pose hidden dangers.  What else is out there?  How do we find it?  What do we do about it?

As beginning farmers take over  older farms that are changing hands and reclaim abandoned farms to create new ones and as farm land is turned over to suburban dwellers who grow kitchen gardens, these new farmers need to protect themselves, their animals and customers from from these unseen and forgotton poisons.

We need research, advocacy, education and entrepreneurial solutions to address the hidden dangers caused by forgotten and unseen toxic waste in our farm and garden soils.

I received a survey from Waste Management in my e-mail yesterday, now I know what to tell them about their service and how to improve it.  Rural communities need education and affordable, consistent and dependable toxic waste testing, removal and disposal services.  These once or twice a year collection activities just aren't enough to meet the need.  

Cynthia

The Wanna Be Farmer
Pacific Ethnographic Research Center

Wanna be farmer suffers from Trash Trauma and Toxic Waste

Oh my god.  The wannabe farmer had quite a disgusting day cleaning out the shed that was supposed to be cleaned out before we moved in to our place last year.  YUCK.  I swear that I will not leave toxic waste behind in my shed when I die.  I'm on a quest to get rid of every toxic chemical that was left behind here and I'm telling you, there is a lot.  5 gallon buckets of oil, lots of them.  Some of the oil spilled and was smelling so bad I was sick and almost lost it yesterday.  If it makes me sick it can't be good for my little old pony gal so today, with rain clouds thick and winter coming, I had to clean the shed.  What kind of mom would I be to build my horse a stall and maker her breath toxic waste?  Ten dollars and 99 cents later I'm home from the Ace Hardware with some environmentally friendly oil spill clean up powder.

I dump the white powder out to sop the oil up and yeah it works.  I was able to sweep the oil up but now what do I do with the soggy crud?  Toxic waste anyone?  Sell it on Craig's list?  E-bay?  Save it for that once a year toxic waste day we have around these parts?  What do I do with it until then?  AH yuck.  I find more spilled oily stuff on the shelf of an ratty old cabinet.  I open the drawers and what do I find?  Drawers full of spilled slug poison and weed killer.  OH MY GOD.  I couldn't face it.  I'm afraid of it.  I'm taking a break but I know I have to get it out of there.  Am I going to die of poison dust or of disgust or of the combination?  I'm swearing.

The wannabe farmer (moi) meant well.  John and I are building a stall in the shed for Abby, my old horse, to keep her out of the rain this winter.  I foraged for wood from the old barn that lies rotting under the blackberry bushes out back.  Found some good pieces.  John removed all the nails and then had a heck of a time sawing the old wood.  He muscled his way through the circular saw cuts with motor burning and smoking (I was screaming but he couldn't hear me) with moi sitting on the fur side trying to hold the board still as it rocked forward on the wheels of the ancient edger it was sitting on.   Not the safest of situations.  Got the wood cut without a mishap (thank you for that huge favor)  only to find out that the nails we had wouldn't go through the wood.   HUH?

I really have to laugh as I fight the urge to jump in bed for the night and rid myself of the look of disgust that has taken over my face.  The good news is that Abby will soon have a place to protect her from the the rain and the "rattling devil winds" that come whipping off of Mount Rainier.  We will have succeeded once again in making do for our animals using our meager talents, tools, materials and finances to get the job done.  We are big on fortitude.

Meanwhile, piles of toxic waste and garbage are now sitting in our back yard and I'm praying that it doesn't rain tonight and that John brings home a tarp from ACE.  $10.99?  You think?  He did.

Thank you Johnny boy for all you do when you would rather be doing something else.

Did you know that cement nails and finish nails don't work when you are framing but framing nails work great?  Now I know that too.

Drawers in the old shed were full of snail bait and weed killer spilled out of old bags

Miscellanious junk spending the night in my yard

Disgusting

This is where the stall will be

This is junk I set aside for a local sculptor who makes fabulous art out of this kind of thing

Old milk cans; we'll keep these

My Abby girl with the neighboring cow girls.  Tonight about 40 of these beasts surrounded Abby's corral and wanted in to share her hay.  Oh my god.  80 eyes in the flash light scares us all.  

M