Sparks in the Soil

The Rocks Upon Which I Will Build My Garden

This weekend was a blissfully busy one in our garden.  One of the most fun activities was cutting in a new bed by our porch.  In the bed, we transplanted two bleeding heart plants that were languishing in the front of the house, a haphazard row of annual flower mix seeds, and....ta da!  Our 4 cloned New Dawn roses that, it seems, have survived the winter and are starting to put forth leaves and generally show signs of life.

The New Dawn triumph aside, my favorite part of this bed is its border--beautiful stones that we collected from the seashore on Cape Cod a number of years ago.  Those rocks used to border our front garden at our condo, and when we put the place on the market last spring, our real estate agent was almost successful in suppressing an eye-roll when I told him that we needed to list the rocks as an exclusion.  In other words, those rocks, they were coming with us.

Now, they line that bed plus two others in our backyard, and they make me happy every time I see them.  The colors that change and come to life when the rocks get wet.  The different shapes that somehow just fit together into a perfect lawn/garden boundary.  And the fact that they came from the sea to us, from us to our home, and from our old home to our new home.  They sit securely against the earth, and they're not going anywhere--unless we decide to move them again, because they are part of what makes our house a home--our home.

This photo was taken before a fresh layer of good dirt was added on top of the bed.  But a thing of beauty is a joy forever, no?

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The Latest on Honeybees

Fascinating op-ed in today's New York Times about the future of domestic bees and other pollinators in our agricultural landscapes.  The good news seems to be that worldwide, the population of domesticated honeybees is growing.  But the bad news is that it's not growing fast enough, plus domesticated bees are primarily honey producers, not crop pollinators.  Unsustainable farming practices, further, are destroying the habitats of wild bees and others who are full-time pollinators Worrisome for our apples and other yummy (and expensive) crops.  An excerpt:

Overall, about one-third of our worldwide agricultural production depends to some extent on bee pollination, but less than 10 percent of the 100 most productive crop species depend entirely on it. If pollinators were to vanish, it would reduce total food production by only about 6 percent.

This wouldn’t mean the end of human existence, but if we want to continue eating foods like apples and avocados, we need to understand that bees and other pollinators can’t keep up with the current growth in production of these foods.

The reason is that fruit and seed crops that are most dependent on pollinators yield relatively little food per acre, and therefore take up an inordinate, and increasing, amount of land. The fraction of agriculture dependent on pollination has increased by 300 percent in half a century.

The paradox is that our demand for these foods endangers the wild bees that help make their cultivation possible.  (Click here to read the whole article.)

Are you involved with the honeybee issue in any way?  Do you have a hive at home or support pollinators in some other way?  Looking forward to your thoughts!

(image via: http://library.thinkquest.org/)

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To-Do List #2: Have Soil Tested

Because we're new to this house...

And because the previous owners put in a quick sod lawn with unknown treatment history just before listing the property,

And because our house was built in 1939 and is likely loaded with lead paint,

And because we want to give our plants the best balance of nutrition....

High on our to-do list is to have our soil tested for pH, heavy metals, and nutrient balance.  It was pretty easy.  First, we identified 3 distinct areas to test--the "orchard" area on the side of the house, the prospective veggie garden in back, and a spot behind the porch just for the heck of it.

We dug 12 small divots into each of the 3 areas, removing soil from various depths - near-surface down to about 6 inches.  The number of spots plus the different depths will get us the best overall picture of each area.

In each zone, we mixed the 12 samples in a paper bag, then ripped open the bag to let the dirt dry in the sun.

Once dry, it was into a labeled zip-top baggie with one cup of each sample. The baggies were then packed into a box with a completed form and check ($9 per test), and mailed out to the UMass Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Laboratory.

If you aren't sure where to send soil samples in your area, take note--you can send samples to UMass' lab from anywhere in the country!

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Worried About Lead

I'm starting to put together my new garden to-do list, and the more I think about next steps, the more worried I'm getting that my soil is completely contaminated by lead.

Our house was built in 1939, long before lead paint was outlawed in 1978.  And even though the soil in this neighborhood is said to be great because of its proximity to a silty, nutrient-rich pond, the land was a farm until it was developed in the late '30s.  Lead was used in pesticides in those days, and it survives in the environment a long time.

The latter issue is probably not legit, because 70 years of erosion and lawn and garden maintenance make it unlikely that I would be digging in pre-WWII soil.

But lead paint likely still lives under the current outer layer of housepaint, and flecks of it might easily have leached their way through my yard.

I'll be reading more about lead in the coming weeks until my soil thaws enough for me to send it out for testing (speaking of reading, start here for a great NY Times overview of how lead is a dark cloud over the healthy trend of edible home gardens).  But meantime, here are 3 reasons I'm not completely panicked about the prospect of lead in the soil:

1. I can grow my vegetable garden in elevated beds with landscape fabric on the bottom and fresh, clean soil on top.

2. Fruit trees, which I fall asleep each night dreaming of, do not significantly absorb lead.  It's your root vegetables and leafy greens that are easily contaminated. 

3. There are ways to leach out lead by adding lime and compost or growing a leafy green that will suck up the lead (and then become toxic waste).  The former, reported the Times, is what the White House garden did to battle their lead problem.  Because that house, too, was built before 1978.

Any success stories out there?  Have you successfully battled back heavy metals from your garden?

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Do You Buy from Catalogs?

The only thing that sustains a gardener in the deep winter is the flight of seed and plant catalogs that float through the mail slot, riotous with colors, and rich with promises of a lush, full, tasty, prolific spring and summer. 

I love these catalogs.  I mark their corners, pore over them, and dream of reproducing their landscapes in my backyard.

But I've almost never ordered from them.

I always think, isn't it better to get your plants locally?  Not just the environmental impact of transporting plants over long distances--which might be reason enough--but for the reason that plants that start close to home are more likely to thrive in your home.  Not to mention the pleasure of wheeling a full cart around the garden center, picking out the best specimens to take home and get into your little piece of Earth.

My mom has told me story after story of things she's ordered from catalogs that have gone bust in her garden.  And yet I'm always drawn in--this year, especially by these luscious Vanilla-Strawberry Hydrangeas that my friend Lisa pointed out to me in the Jung catalog.  I can just see a vase-full of these on my kitchen table....

So I put the question to you--have you had luck with plants you've ordered from catalogs--especially companies that are located outside your living/growing region?  If so, which ones (companies and plants)?

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Worm Composting: Green AND Funny!

I loved this fun countertop composting video from Grist.  Not only did I learn from it that 13 percent of American garbage is food--and that said food emits dangerous methane gas when confined in plastic garbage bags--but I giggled at comedian David Cross' riff on worm composting.  Poor little underpaid wormies....

Composting Pumpkins: Note to Self

My next-door neighbor maintains a gloriously wild, riotously colorful garden that is obviously fed with lots of love...and excellent compost.  Yesterday, as families around the 'hood began to watch their porches for signs of Jack-o-Lantern collapse, she sent around an email asking that instead of tossing their gourds, they donate them to the cause of her compost heap.

What an excellent idea, and what a beautiful thought to imagine the leftovers from a community's celebration of Halloween finding new life in the glory of next year's garden.  If I weren't going to give our front-porch pumpkin to my own worms, I'd gladly donate it to the cause.

But note to self for any Halloween pumpkin composters out there:  Remove all seeds from your pumpkin before you heave it onto the compost heap!  If you need explanation as to why, read this cautionary tale of a garden gone to pumpkin in the course of one season....

So oh, darn - you'll just have to save your seeds and roast them!  My new favorite way?  Sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, and a little sea salt.  Crunch!

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Health Culture: Enough with the Antioxidants?

This summer, I went to my favorite bakery, maybe my favorite in the world, in Orleans on Cape Cod.  In the case amidst the cookies, brownies, pasta salads, and sandwiches was a tray of nut-and-flax-type bars that looked delicious and like they wouldn't set your body back much.  The sign in front of them cheerfully listed their name and price.  The price I can't remember, but the name I sure can--Anti-Inflammatory Bars.

Yum....?

Around the same time, Season 5 of The Next Food Network Star was airing.  Katie Cavuto, a personal chef and dietitian was a contestant proposing a healthy eating show for the network.  Only problem was, every time she made a dish, all she could talk about was "antioxidants" and "fiber," and the judges kept saying that those things just don't sound delicious.  They were right.  She went home.

This weekend, I was in Brattleboro, Vermont.  Strolling the town, I noticed an organic cotton and hemp clothing store.  The name of it made me keep on walking--Save the Corporations from Themselves.  Now to be fair, I later learned online that upstairs from the shop is an "Activist Attic" that houses literature and resources about sustainable living.  But still, I doubt I would have gone in.  It's just too....too....un-fun-sounding.

Perhaps this is just a phase in the consciousness-raising process, when we put aside the need to talk about why the good things about healthy living are good--we still need to work to convince people that healthy choices are necessary alternatives to the bad stuff that bombards us every day.  Free radicals are trying to attack your body!  Eat foods that are high in antioxidants.  Synthetic fabrics are filled with toxic chemicals!  Wear organic cotton clothing.  My joints ache!  Have an Anti-Inflammatory Bar.    

But though all of the above are true, healthy living should ultimately be about the joy of high-quality, mindful, authentic experiences, from exercise in the fresh outdoor air to food that's lovingly grown by a real person (or yourself) or otherwise made with real, pure ingredients to a home that's furnished with materials that are both easy on the eyes and kind to the planet.

Shouldn't it?  What do you think - do you find the healthy living culture to be more cranky than inspiring?  Or have I just been in the wrong places at the wrong times lately?

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How to Grow Fresh Air

Incredible concept, isn't it?  But when you think about fresh air as being an absence of CO2 and other toxic chemicals, and the presence of clean, new oxygen, it suddenly does sound like something you can "grow your own."  This video from New Delhi scientist Kamal Meattle shares the 3 indoor plants that literally saved his life--his lung capacity had been reduced to 70% by his city's thick, poor air quality.

Granted, you need several of each of these (4-6 per person in a household) for it to make a difference.  But it might just be the best decorating decision you'll ever make. 

Have you noticed a change in your home's air quality because of house plants? 

Video: Inspiring Front Yard Gardeners

From CBS News, a perfect Earth Day video about Dervaes family in Pasadena, California - one of the many who have turned their front lawns into teeming vegetable gardens.  They produce so much on their 1/10-acre lawn that they subsist entirely on it (oh, to live in California!), only purchasing flour and rice.

Thanks go out to the North City Community Garden in Lynden, Washington for the blogroll link!  Be sure to check out their website (which is where I found the video), they're really walking the talk about urban and community gardening.