Gardening

One of the mailing lists I'm on has seen a flurry of mentions for free fruit from trees that no one wants or have too much of. In addition,while walking the dogs in the around the neighborhood I've noticed a lot of fruit trees with rotting fruit on the ground. I'm wondering how difficult it would be to map the locations of the various trees and talk with the owners about harvesting the unwanted fruit and either giving it directly to a food bank or preserving it via caning, freezing, ... then give it to the food bank.

This weekend was mostly used for a winter gardening workshop with Oregon Tilth and picking another 33 pounds of blueberries from a u-pick farm outside of Sandy, OR (.75 miles east of Shorty's corner) with my sister's kids.

This will be my first time for winter gardening and I need to figure out if I'm going to use all the glass (in the form of sliding glass doors and several large windows) as cold boxes, a greenhouse or maybe both. Not to imply that all winter gardening needs to be in some type season extender, there are several crops that will grow through the winter without issue or they will over winter and start up as soon as the weather warms up.

As for the blueberries, I'm not quite sure what we are going to do with 25 pounds of blueberries. It is likely we will make (and learn out) to make blueberry jam, freeze a bunch and eat blueberries every morning for the next two weeks.

I was beginning to wonder if I had a soil problem in my garden as a lot of plants were not growning much or even sprouting. Granted my garden soil is still being developed after being treated like dirt for the last thirty years, but I still expected more productivity. It finally occurred to me to cover a batch of seedlings with a variety of covers to see what happened, and sure enough the plants that were covered with nets, spinach plants that went to seed, ... actually grew. Given these covers wouldn't stop mice or slugs it had to be birds. Also given that I have to change the water in the bird bath almost daily points to that I have a lot of bird activity. I don't mind having birds, especially native birds eating in garden but my entire planting of a few crops was eaten by birds.

Because I'm planning on going year round with this garden I going to draw up some plans on ways to keep birds away from the seedlings just using the scrap wood I have around the house.

In an effort to keep the garden from dying from this heat I was experimenting with ways to water the garden more effectively. While walking around the garden I noticed that the plants that were doing better had depressions nearby that apparently capture water. Taking this one step further I dug small holes near (but not too close as to damage the roots) in many spots throughout the garden and filled all of them with water. Then after the water drained out, I repeated the process several times with quite noticeable results. The cucumbers, squash, pumpkin, and pepper plants look better and the beans have been growing quite a bit faster. This way I'm forcing water into the ground, getting the water into the roots and getting it way from the the zone where it can just evaporate off.

Another upside to the small watering holes is during the 102 degree heat I was able to go out with a watering can and pour water into these holes to provide water for the plants without getting water on the leaves which would burn and scar the leaves in this heat. I made a point to have the water be lukewarm, but no where near as hot as the water hose, a.k.a solar oven because I forgot to shutoff at the water faucet the night before, as to not shock the plants.

GOD: St. Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the World is going on down there in the USA? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honeybees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers weeds and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD: Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it, sometimes twice a week.

GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS: No, sir -- just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS: Yes, sir.

GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back On the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the gro wth and saves Them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a Sheer stoke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life.

ST. FRANCIS: You'd better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the Winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy Something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD: And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD: Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE: Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It's a real stupid movie about.............

GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.