tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51384597295319449982024-03-12T22:20:38.432-05:00Living Low in the LouIn which I discuss our practice of living simply in the greater St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area.SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-80836955122080810822023-12-30T20:35:00.001-06:002023-12-30T20:35:53.557-06:00Ending the blog<p> </p><p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Twelve years ago, in January of 2012, I began
this blog. When it began, I was growing a vegetable garden and experimenting
with some of the traditional gardening practices that Steve Solomon describes
and recommends in his book <i>Gardening When It Counts</i>. I had been
gardening and keeping data on planting methods and yields obtained for over a
decade, comparing them to the data in John Jeavons’ book <i>How to Grow More
Vegetables</i>. While I knew that yields were generally decreasing, I did not
know how I could effectively address that issue.</span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">It was the publication of Solomon’s next book, <i>The
Intelligent Gardener</i>, in 2013 that provided the information on how to
increase soil fertility through re-mineralization that helped me understand why
yields were decreasing and how to address the issue. Describing what I learned
from applying that information to my gardening practice became the primary
project of this blog. Over the years I have chronicled the questions I have
asked the garden about the effects of the ongoing project to re-mineralize my
garden soil and how that project has affected yields, taste, and pest and
disease pressures on each of the crops that I grow. I’ve posted the results and
my observations after the end of each growing season, sharing this data freely
as my gift to my readers and their gardens and as a contribution to garden
science.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m very pleased that my published data answers some
gardening questions that I haven’t seen answered elsewhere. The yield data in
pounds per square foot for each of the vegetable varieties I have grown for the
past decade or so is something I would have liked to know when I first began
gardening. To my knowledge, no other gardener is reporting the yields they
obtain for each of their crops on the internet for all to see. I’ve also
included data on when I start seeds and transplant or direct-sow each plant and
the spacing I use for it in my garden, which is helpful to beginning gardeners
and/or those who garden in a similar climate to mine. With that data other
people with similar climates can plan how much to plant of these varieties and
use the data as a first guess at potential yields for other varieties of the
same crop. I’ve been able to use the data I have collected to give what I
believe is the first data-driven answer to the question of how much land is
needed to grow a complete vegan diet for one person in my climate and publish a
plan for such a garden. I’ve also shown how the mineral content of my garden
soil has increased over the years as a result of the soil re-mineralization
project. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While I’ve been documenting the garden project, I’ve also
described some of the systems by which Mike and I live well on less money and
energy. These include our <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/09/fun-with-rain-collection.html">rainwater
collection system</a>, how we stay <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2012/07/keeping-your-cool-in-summer.html">cool
in summer</a> and <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2015/09/dressing-for-comfort-in-minimally.html">warm
in winter</a>, our low tech <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/09/dehydrating-food-with-solar-food-dryer.html">solar
food dehydrator</a>, our front porch doing double duty as a <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/11/opening-door-to-spring.html">solar
greenhouse</a>, how we coped with a few days of loss of electricity (<a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/07/lessons-learned-when-lights-went-out.html">here</a>
and <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-47-hour-learning-experience.html">here</a>),
and how we managed for a week without central <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2019/07/not-in-hot-water-short-term.html">water
heating</a>, among others. In 2016 I documented the <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2016/08/how-we-went-on-energy-diet-and-what-we.html">reduction
in electricity and natural gas usage</a> over several years through changes to
the house and changes in our expectations. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of all the posts I’ve published over the years, I will pull
out two different series of two posts, one an outgrowth of my gardening work,
the other on the implications of decline in energy infrastructure, as my
personal favorites. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first of these was a pair of posts (<a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-decline-may-not-be-permacultured.html">part
1</a> and <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-decline-may-not-be-permacultured.html">part
2</a>) on aspects of the permaculture movement that I believe reduce its
ability to make the positive contributions to decline that many of its
advocates claim for it. While I think some permaculture practices have a role
to play, I advocate learning them from books rather than from permaculture
design courses, for reasons I discuss in these two posts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The other is a pair of posts on the near-collapse of the
Texas power grid in February 2021. I thought then, and still think, that too
few people understand how very close we came to a crisis that would have
extended far beyond Texas’ borders. I wrote <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2021/02/when-lights-went-out-in-texas.html">part
1</a> and <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2021/04/peak-infrastructure-peak-oil.html">part
2</a> to describe what nearly occurred and what its implications would have
been had it occurred. The low tech, low cost strategies that I’ve included in
my blog are among the better ways to withstand not only such a low probability
but high impact event, but also the continuing drops down the energy and
civilizational decline staircase that eat away at our wallets and our psyches.
I also pointed out in part 2 that the “green” energy that the climate-emergency
crowd is pushing will only create more infrastructure that we won’t have the
cheap energy, economic growth, and political will to maintain.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you’ve been reading blogs for some time, you know that
blogs develop personalities. Just as people change, so do their blogs. And just
as people start projects, work on them, complete them, and let them go in order
to begin new projects, so blogs begin, develop, accomplish their purpose, and
come to an end.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Regular readers of this blog expect it to maintain its
personality. However, my interests and projects have shifted to the point where the things I would like to write about don’t fit the personality of the blog. I
have already said everything I have to say that does fit its personality. Thus
it is time for me and this blog to cordially part ways.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To all of you who have read or commented on this blog over
the years, thank you! I hope that some of you have been able to apply something
you’ve learned from at least one of my posts to improving your garden, or
saving some money, or in some other way that has had a positive effect on your
life.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I also extend a big thank-you to fellow bloggers and
organizations who have included a link to my blog on their blog sites or who
have featured my garden in posts on their blog. Please know that I deeply
appreciate your confidence in the value of my blog and of my garden project!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, I gratefully acknowledge two people whose writings
have been of particular benefit to the projects of this blog: Steve Solomon for
his two books that taught me how to garden well, and <a href="https://www.ecosophia.net/">John Michael Greer</a> for his
books and blog posts and for reviving the <a href="http://aoda.org/">Ancient Order of Druids in America</a>,
the Druid order that I belong to.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Because the data I’ve made available through this blog is of
use to other gardeners, and because more people are likely to become interested
in our low-energy-use lifeways as decline continues, I will leave the blog up
even though I will no longer make posts or respond to comments. I have removed
the subscription block and will not email any more newsletters after this one
to those of you who have subscribed to this blog. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m signing out with thanks to each one of you for joining
this blog’s journey during its 12 years of life. Wishing each of you the best!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-38477371912187131062023-12-08T17:10:00.001-06:002023-12-08T17:10:49.868-06:00Achieving a mineral-balanced garden soil<p> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the claims Steve Solomon made in his book <i>The
Intelligent Gardener</i> is that after several years of
re-mineralizing garden soil in the way that he describes, the phosphorus
content of the soil tends to come up to the appropriate level for that soil and
remain that way for several more years, even without adding any more phosphorus-containing
amendments to the soil (see pp. 139-144). Since phosphorus was deficient in my
garden for the first few years that I practiced Solomon’s method of soil re-mineralization,
I had to add a few pounds of phosphate rock to each bed in my garden each year.
None of the organic sources of phosphorus contain more than 10% phosphorus by
weight, and phosphate rock sources are finite and heavily exploited already. If
re-mineralization can substantially reduce the need to add sources of phosphate
over time, this would be good for gardens, the gardener’s wallet, and the
earth. Now that I’ve been re-mineralizing my soil for almost a decade, let’s
see if Solomon’s claim applies to my garden’s soil.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style><br /><p class="MsoNormal">Below you’ll find a spreadsheet with the results from Logan
Lab’s soil testing for total cation exchange capacity (TCEC), pH, and percent
organic matter and the calculated deficiency or excess of several minerals from
fall 2014 through spring 2023. For calculating the excess or deficiency of each
mineral I used the 2014 revision of Solomon’s acid soil worksheet and the
reported values for each mineral from Logan Lab’s soil test.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEyxcpp_NGVOle6JWWCKZVJawkSLAcxsE33g5xGKRSwZUMEc1fxVT1GS2NK79GbFgNdUiKe8jwuxKMlfJzNJf7wAd8buSVCOhQZp2Y6IIGieS93Jr5GJjrIbOrDMvWR5f-dWbXVvSoTZXa2OuFPfBfihg1CYYGhGCr-T1aK4JRFS3FeMvlUaRjbxdQCew/s1478/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-08%20at%204.24.13%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="1478" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEyxcpp_NGVOle6JWWCKZVJawkSLAcxsE33g5xGKRSwZUMEc1fxVT1GS2NK79GbFgNdUiKe8jwuxKMlfJzNJf7wAd8buSVCOhQZp2Y6IIGieS93Jr5GJjrIbOrDMvWR5f-dWbXVvSoTZXa2OuFPfBfihg1CYYGhGCr-T1aK4JRFS3FeMvlUaRjbxdQCew/w491-h222/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-08%20at%204.24.13%20PM.png" width="491" /></a></div><br />
<p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Notice that starting with spring 2019, the deficiency of
phosphorus has decreased to a small fraction of that reported through fall of
2017. In fact, phosphorus was in excess in spring 2019, and the past year’s
deficiency was only about 10% of the deficiency prior to 2019. I can remedy
this slight deficiency with more readily available soil amendments, such as the
wood ashes from burning wood in our wood stove. Wood ashes also supply a goodly
amount of calcium and some potassium, two other minerals that can be deficient
in my soil but less so since 2019. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Given that I have a light silt loam soil (low clay content,
as shown by the TCEC being less than 10) and a hot, long summer that reduces
the organic matter percentage that my soil can attain, I think that my
garden soil is now almost as good as it can get. It would be ideal to add some
more compost to it than the minimum that I have been adding, which would help to
keep all the minerals available during the full growing season. Next year I’ll
try adding four 5 gallon buckets of compost to each 100 square foot bed instead
of the three buckets I have been adding. With the smaller number of beds I’m
now planting, I should have enough compost to go around. I will continue
getting the soil tested each spring and re-mineralizing as needed to address
whatever small deficiencies remain in the soil. I’ll add either cottonseed meal
or urine for nitrogen; last year I added cottonseed meal and I expect I’ll do
so again in 2024 because it’s easier to handle than urine is. However, if
cottonseed meal ever becomes difficult to obtain, I’ll collect and apply my
urine for nitrogen as I have done in some past years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
take-home message is that Solomon’s method has done what he said it would do:
it has created a balanced garden soil that grows delicious vegetables in a
small space. Those of you who are interested in improving your garden soil and are
willing to deal with some chemistry and math would do well to read his book,
and try his method if it appeals to you.</span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-31676408697531831502023-10-11T14:10:00.002-05:002023-10-11T14:10:58.879-05:00Fruitful abundance: update on the 2023 garden<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjduaRpgZjVm4-J2kL4jG2Upu9Ga1PjMCEmhJeQjkWzzLMh545NwIyDEzOcPwRDED7htGa192e2cwoxpmCnTc14edTsspzWCObpBwY2VSH_zf5-w4T_ovdqL6QCulLKcSsKFrwfLkSmHa010ojYgW-6DlXcS4WrEDxmK9XTGKp_oYH4WQ90sFHnWGCla1k/s5184/2023-08-15%2017.52.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjduaRpgZjVm4-J2kL4jG2Upu9Ga1PjMCEmhJeQjkWzzLMh545NwIyDEzOcPwRDED7htGa192e2cwoxpmCnTc14edTsspzWCObpBwY2VSH_zf5-w4T_ovdqL6QCulLKcSsKFrwfLkSmHa010ojYgW-6DlXcS4WrEDxmK9XTGKp_oYH4WQ90sFHnWGCla1k/s320/2023-08-15%2017.52.32.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">The photo above shows a few of the many apples that we
harvested this summer. On behalf of our fruit trees, tomatoes, and peppers, I
hereby proclaim 2023 as the Year of Fruit. Here is a look at the 2023 garden
harvest so far.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of the spring crops did well enough. I planted the
carrot and beet seeds too thinly and so I didn’t get a lot of roots, but the
roots I got sized up well. The cabbages suffered from more caterpillar damage
than in past years, but none of the cabbages rotted before harvest. Fortunately
the bok choy matured before the caterpillars had time to eat it. I got good lettuces,
until a rabbit figured out how to get into the garden to eat the rest of them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The real disappointment was the potato crop. I planted the
usual 25 pieces, from which I have gotten 20 to 25 plants most years. But this
year I only got 6 plants. We’ll miss potato-leek soup made from our own leeks
and potatoes, as we’ve already eaten the potatoes that those 6 plants produced.
We still have leeks to harvest, but we’ll have to buy potatoes to make soup
with them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In my February 2023 post, I discussed my experiment on
waiting to plant all the potato onions until early March. As it turned out, the
yield was no better from March planting versus the usual early November
planting, even though more plants survived. This year I’m going to plant the
onions a little earlier, in the middle of this month, to see if that helps them
to survive the winter better.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I planted the summer crops a little earlier than usual,
especially the pole beans. We enjoyed many weeks of bean dishes during the
summer and just ate the last of the beans! </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx6CoIUtJ0axSihWo6piE6y2HaedpFjrbqNWzbODA3QpEw67GDN6dy1YrpUQKyE2u-UBWaZ_VzAj-UlHkxxisnn7lFtrzPDi7VMZF-b7Ewho64xWgeywUVSjm7kG6brHa-5LhhJGn70Vh2qnplVjjTkaJ3P2BnGGyIMbhspsRSzIlsLregMi2WYnz229Q/s5184/2023-08-24%2009.42.35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3888" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx6CoIUtJ0axSihWo6piE6y2HaedpFjrbqNWzbODA3QpEw67GDN6dy1YrpUQKyE2u-UBWaZ_VzAj-UlHkxxisnn7lFtrzPDi7VMZF-b7Ewho64xWgeywUVSjm7kG6brHa-5LhhJGn70Vh2qnplVjjTkaJ3P2BnGGyIMbhspsRSzIlsLregMi2WYnz229Q/s320/2023-08-24%2009.42.35.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">A tree frog found a home in and near our garden shed this summer<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The tomatoes and the ‘Italian Frying’ peppers were very
productive. Then the warmer than normal September weather and late rain led to
a new crop of peppers that I just harvested, over 4 pounds! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Whatever else failed in the garden, the apples, pawpaws, and
persimmons have more than made up for them. The apple trees out-produced the
squirrels this year. Especially the ‘Eddie April’ tree, whose apples, shown above, are yellow
with a red wash. I harvested about 45 pounds of them! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Pawpaws were as productive as last year. I harvested about
60 pounds, until the freezer was full. Our ‘Early Golden’ persimmon tree had
its best year ever, about 16 pounds so far (that’s a lot of persimmons!), with
most of them in the freezer to keep us eating our own fruit until well into
2024.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For once I actually thinned the autumn root crops, and it
shows. I’ve already harvested some large turnips, with more of them to come.
There will be daikon radishes as well. But some critter ate what little kale
germinated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s it for now. Next time I plan on sharing the latest
info on the soil re-mineralization effort. Till then, the best to all of you!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> <br /></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-91561792421194348612023-08-15T20:31:00.000-05:002023-08-15T20:31:04.729-05:00The 47 hour learning experience<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdDWH4YAni1Qs52wTar53dit---pryDmXQ-oSCwJ5iRoP1jHIZp_S0n3ogqnSeULo5Bjks5sbZ0YPkDjo631dvE3hnyGj_7BynjLHqeCaQ1HAgoFEquZa4447HqRNxdwrZEVIgNHQi0WCIoVeT-SLaXl-kxv8rWxkBPQHLYkxK5f2okneSYNwzeR6wpY/s5184/2023-07-15%2011.14.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="5184" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAdDWH4YAni1Qs52wTar53dit---pryDmXQ-oSCwJ5iRoP1jHIZp_S0n3ogqnSeULo5Bjks5sbZ0YPkDjo631dvE3hnyGj_7BynjLHqeCaQ1HAgoFEquZa4447HqRNxdwrZEVIgNHQi0WCIoVeT-SLaXl-kxv8rWxkBPQHLYkxK5f2okneSYNwzeR6wpY/s320/2023-07-15%2011.14.10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The weather headlines this summer have been about heat,
heat, and more heat. But it hasn’t been hot everywhere, and one of the places
where it hasn’t been particularly hot is where I live. Which is not to say that
summer weather has been uneventful.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We often found ourselves on the northern periphery of the
heat bubble that affected the southern tier of states during most of the summer.
At times the mixing of hot and moist air with cooler, drier air resulted in
outbreaks of severe thunderstorms along portions of the periphery. We’ve
experienced four of them so far, on June 1, July 1, July 14, and July 29. Each
time we lost electrical service as a result of downed electrical lines. Living
in an area with overhead lines and many large old trees, any episode of high
winds brings down limbs and sometimes entire trees onto the lines, cutting off
electrical service for some people. We’ve become accustomed to losing
electrical service during severe thunderstorms. Usually it remain off for a few
hours, and we have a routine established for such short-term outages. But the
damages in our area from the July 14<sup>th</sup> storm were so severe that it
took our electrical utility 47 hours to restore our electrical service. We were
without electricity from about 7:30pm on the 14<sup>th</sup> to about 6:30pm on
the 16<sup>th</sup>. The photo above shows one reason for our loss of electricity: two houses up the street to the west, a trunk of a silver maple tree fell on the overhead electrical lines and across the full width of our narrow, two lane, low traffic street.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The last time our electricity had been out for so long was
in 2006, following two severe thunderstorms about 36 hours apart. We had no
electricity for 6 days after the second storm. What we learned then had already
been incorporated into our power-out routine. To make things easier, our
nearest grocery store and some of the local gas stations installed generators
as a result of the 2006 storms, so we could readily obtain ice and groceries
after this storm. But I hadn’t fully accounted for another change since 2006,
which came to the forefront during this 47 hour outage. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In this post I’ll discuss how we fared during the recent
outage and what we learned for the next one – because there will be a next one,
and another, and another. That’s what decline looks like. I hope you can learn
something from our experience that helps you the next time an electrical outage
happens to you.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Air conditioning</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of the people we told about our 47 hour outage
expressed the most discomfort about not having air conditioning during that
time. For us, that was the least of our concerns.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Granted, the few days before and including the day of the
storm featured some of the hottest and most humid weather we’ve had this
summer. We had our air conditioning on, set at 80F as we prefer, when the storm
hit. Along with the high winds, we received about 2.3 inches of rain. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Rain cools the air. Immediately following the thunderstorm,
the temperature dropped from the upper 80sF to the low 70sF. We responded by
opening the windows to let in the cooler air. It was more humid air than
the air in the house, but by living our lives in the house, we
raise the humidity just by breathing. With all of the windows open wide, we
cooled the house enough to sleep comfortably that night.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As we always do in the summer to minimize air conditioner
usage, we left the windows open the next two mornings until the temperature rose
outside to above the interior temperature, then closed them. In the evenings,
after the outside temperature dropped below the inside temperature, we opened
the windows again. Two other improvements to the house that we’ve made over the
years, sealing against air leaks and adding insulation in 2005 and new windows
last year, combined with the strategic opening and closing of the windows, kept
the temperature inside the house at 76 to 78F. It helped that the weather
cooled off as well, with highs of 89F and 92F on the 15<sup>th</sup> and the 16<sup>th</sup>.
Even if we hadn’t lost electricity, we would not have run the air conditioner
after the rain cooled the air, nor did we turn it back on after our electrical
service was restored. We spent most of the two days of the outage, as we do
during the warmer months of the year, on the roomy and breezy back porch rather
than in the house.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Lighting</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We have collected quite a few sources of off the grid
lighting over the years, which we employed during the hour or so we were awake
in the evenings after the sun went down. Among these are two oil lamps that sit
on the low shelf separating the two largest rooms in the house; multiple
flashlights, including the one on a headband that I use for reading and seeing
my way around the house during outages; and a candle for light in the bathroom.
We have two battery-powered lanterns as well (we keep their batteries sitting
next to them so they don’t corrode and install the batteries only when we put
them to use), but with it being summer the days were long enough that we didn’t
need to employ them. We ate meals on the back porch instead of in the kitchen
as we usually do, because it was brighter on the porch.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Refrigeration</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With scattered severe thunderstorms predicted for the
evening of the 14<sup>th</sup>, we chose to eat dinner earlier than usual so
that any leftovers would be in the refrigerator and cooling down if not already
cooled before a storm hit. After the storm, we implemented our
don’t-open-the-fridge rule to keep the contents cool enough that we wouldn’t
need to worry about them until the next morning. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I know that “experts” claim that the food in
refrigerators only stays cool enough for safety for 4 hours. Let me unpack what
I think are the factors that go into that advice.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">First, it seems likely that the “experts” expect someone in
the house to open the refrigerator door at least once, if not more than once,
during that four hours. Opening the door lets some of the cold air out,
replacing it with room-temperature air. If no one opens the door, this exchange
of air takes place much more slowly, allowing the contents to stay safely cool
for a longer period, especially if the contents are all at refrigerator
temperature at the time the electricity goes out. That’s why we keep aware of
our local weather and the local NWS weather radar when severe weather is
predicted, and why we always eat any meal that we would normally eat around the
time of expected severe weather well before that time, so that we can keep the
refrigerator closed for several hours in case of an electrical outage.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Second, the “experts” most likely have lawyers advising
them. Lawyers are paid to be risk-averse and advise their clients accordingly.
I am NOT advising you to do what we do! We are willing to take some risks as
long as careful thought suggests that for us the risk is minimal. All readers
need to assess their own situations carefully and act accordingly.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The next morning, the electricity was still off. I checked
for news about the outage on the emergency radio because we don’t have internet
service when the electricity is out and neither Mike nor I have a data plan on
our cell phones (more on this in the communications section). The brief local
news report on the major local FM station didn’t mention the outage, suggesting
it was restricted to a relatively small area, but a look at our street showed
that nothing had changed since the night before. We began to suspect that we
might not have electricity for at least several more hours and that it was time
to get some ice and transfer the contents of the fridge to coolers. After visiting a local donut store for donuts and hot coffee and tea, allowing us to add some charge to
our cell phones (see the communications section), we bought ice and
transferred all the food that needed continued cooling into coolers with ice.
We left cheese, butter, and the garden vegetables in the fridge since they
didn’t require being cooled to stay safe. We transferred the food in the
freezer compartment to the chest freezer along with another bag of ice to keep the food in
it from thawing. Having done this, we could eat from the foods in the cooler as well
as the various canned foods and the pretzels and crackers that we keep for
eating during shorter-term outages when we aren’t opening the refrigerator.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the 16<sup>th</sup>, when electrical service still hadn’t
been restored, we emptied the bag of ice in the chest freezer into the coolers
and bought two more bags of ice, which we put in the freezer unopened to
keep it cool. If the electricity hadn’t been restored by the morning of the 17<sup>th</sup>,
we would have considered getting dry ice for the freezer, but we hoped that
wouldn’t be necessary. We would have then used the ice in the freezer for the
coolers. After the electricity came on in the evening of the 16<sup>th</sup>,
the bags of ice in the freezer became available for future electrical outages –
and we used one of them during the outage on the 29<sup>th</sup>, because the
electricity had already been out for about 5 hours before we went to bed. The
second bag is still in the chest freezer, ready for whenever we next need ice.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Cooking</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We have an electric stove so we couldn’t use it during the
outage, but we also have several means to cook food without electricity. Had
the weather been sunny I would have employed the sun oven to heat water for tea
and coffee and to heat foods from the cooler as desired, but conditions were
too cloudy for its use. We could have heated water or leftovers or cooked on
the propane grill or the charcoal grill, but as it turned out, we didn’t do
this. Instead, we got tea and coffee from the donut store and a local gas
station, ate out the evening of the 15<sup>th</sup>, and got a rotisserie
chicken the late afternoon of the 16<sup>th</sup> from the local grocery store
because I wanted to eat hot rather than cold food for dinner. Otherwise we ate leftovers
out of the coolers. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Next time, we’ll do more to
employ non-electric sources of heat for cooking, as I am not fond of a
continued diet of cold foods, and meals out are increasingly expensive.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Communications</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This was our biggest challenge during this outage. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2006, while we lost internet service once the battery
backup lost charge, we retained landline service because the phone was hard-wired
into the phone network. Neither of us had cell phones then. Not having internet
service wasn’t a big issue, as our service was slow and used primarily for
email, which we could check on the computers at the library.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For several years our battery backup module for internet
service has been inoperable, probably due to failure of the battery inside. We knew where we could take our unit to get the battery
replaced. We just hadn’t done it and accepted the loss of internet during
electrical outages, knowing that if we really want or need service, we can take
our computers to the library to read and respond to email and to read some of
the websites we frequent. I’m a reader rather than a video watcher and I always
have multiple projects in progress that don’t depend on the internet, so I’m
never bored. Mike likes to watch short videos on the net but he likes to read as well, and
we play our own music rather than listen to others play music. In short, we
enjoy internet but don’t require it to make our lives bearable, and we have
more than enough to do when it isn’t available.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On the other hand, since most of our electrical outages are
for less than 8 hours, and because our electrical utility forces us to stay
abreast with information on outages through its website, it would be good to
have the battery backup module working again. I’ll take our old module in for
battery replacement soon.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We still have the landline phone but now it’s connected to
the fiberoptic system and we supply the electricity to run it, so it is
inoperative during electrical outages. Our cell phones work during outages – as
long as they are charged. Our standard procedure when severe weather threatens
is to charge up our cell phones well before severe weather hits. But I neglected to charge my phone before this storm. That was a mistake, as I had less than two days’
worth of charge on my phone when the electricity went out.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mike wasn’t as affected by the lack of electricity for
charging his phone, because he could take advantage of one of our alternative
means to charge the phones, via an adapter to charge it from the car battery.
He had two events at the Zen center he belongs to, and it’s far enough from us
that he could get a good charge on his phone by driving to and from the Zen
center. However, the only riding in the car that I did was on much shorter
drives that did little to charge my phone. My only alternative was to limit
phone time. Even then, my phone dropped to near zero charge before the
electricity came back on.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our other alternative means to charge the phone is from our
emergency radio, which has three different ways to power its internal
rechargeable batteries: solar cells, a hand-cranking system, and an AC adapter
to charge it from our electrical service. It has an adapter with a USB port on
one end and a jack into the radio on the other for charging cell phones. It
also accepts three AA batteries, so it doesn’t need to use the rechargeable batteries for radio service. We got the radio in 2016, when we were
still relying more on the landline phone than our cell phones, primarily for
its function as a receiver of FM, AM, and weather broadcasts when we don’t have
electricity. While I knew it could be used to charge our cell phones, I hadn’t
tried to do so.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When I realized that my cell phone didn’t have enough reserve
charge to remain usable through the expected length of this outage, I remembered
that in theory I could charge it from the radio. But I didn’t remember where I
had stored the adapter for that purpose, and I began to fear I’d lost it. Even if I had found it, the rechargeable batteries would not have had enough charge to add much charge to my cell phone.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Earlier this month, I consulted the website for the radio’s
manufacturer and discovered, much to my relief, that the cell phone charging adapter was offered
for sale as a replacement part. I promptly ordered one. Then, before it
arrived, I got it in mind to look again for the adapter and discovered it in the tray
of a desk drawer, hidden under a pile of rubber bands. So now we have two
adapters. In the meantime, I found the manual for the radio and read it more
closely, learning that the AC adapter would charge the rechargeable batteries
more quickly than either the solar cells or the hand crank. The AC adapter
doesn’t come with the radio but it can be purchased from the same website.
After checking our collection of spare AC adapters and not finding a suitable
version, I ordered the AC adapter from the website. It’s arrived and I’ve
charged the internal battery with it. I also found a small cloth bag to keep
the cell phone adapters and the AC adapter in and put the bag next to the radio,
so we can find them the next time we want them. When the cell phone next needs
charging, I’ll try charging it from the radio. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The other issue I may address is the lack of a data plan on
both of our cell phones. Mike has an Android smartphone but doesn’t have a data
plan with it, so he can only talk or text during electrical outages. I have a
flip phone that doesn’t have a data plan option, so I can also only talk or
text in that situation. I’m considering upgrading to the smartphone and data
plan that my provider offers, because it would be helpful to have the ability
to access our electrical utility’s website during electrical outages.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I hope you all enjoy the rest of summer (or winter if you
are reading from the southern hemisphere)! I expect the next post to be a quick
update on this year’s garden.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-76101523652959929072023-02-22T17:30:00.003-06:002023-02-22T17:30:25.206-06:00Results from the 2022 garden and plans for 2023<p class="MsoNormal">Every year at about this time I write posts on what I
learned from the previous garden and what I want to learn from the new garden. This
year I’m combining them into a single post.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the tables below you’ll find the yields for each crop I
harvested in 2022.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCxrkoe70-VMJXmpHBO-GqvcbUc9vZNxze4x2oxX_KRiUrsizPxc2cW_5whi75WJm89RbE1sKBjrnx6WgJEYWlpN3ESt_yiBR3Ro9-nuCl85w4aWkK_dw2Gb1LJg08MEeISkftnu0BGx_bJDCwqTkqoFIkCkpQoQOzMnvbvJGo-zQQug0oHIs4qFN/s1111/2022%20results%20p1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1111" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCxrkoe70-VMJXmpHBO-GqvcbUc9vZNxze4x2oxX_KRiUrsizPxc2cW_5whi75WJm89RbE1sKBjrnx6WgJEYWlpN3ESt_yiBR3Ro9-nuCl85w4aWkK_dw2Gb1LJg08MEeISkftnu0BGx_bJDCwqTkqoFIkCkpQoQOzMnvbvJGo-zQQug0oHIs4qFN/s320/2022%20results%20p1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCXvLbXNrgaVKUp4IVi4SFFc5zR6RuLi-0fOairWB7Loq9vPX7aJpV4iKd2GaV7-0_FR5bzkbY-vKOS0MbyPODh0grFyE8crlanll3w9a7_Jwgt20t3kMA0CppKLkPaRbI4l1IdF7DP0ReeGxapeUCeGnzUrl8kDqeMXo9aCbYd8qW7ffi1KRQqutC/s1111/2022%20results%20p2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1111" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCXvLbXNrgaVKUp4IVi4SFFc5zR6RuLi-0fOairWB7Loq9vPX7aJpV4iKd2GaV7-0_FR5bzkbY-vKOS0MbyPODh0grFyE8crlanll3w9a7_Jwgt20t3kMA0CppKLkPaRbI4l1IdF7DP0ReeGxapeUCeGnzUrl8kDqeMXo9aCbYd8qW7ffi1KRQqutC/s320/2022%20results%20p2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBNJ2xdwB-wPzOUSHvVFFMZBiveJgSHZwNN5hLDdTfAKK6XDfguWeFWaVKzorBm7Ns7gnKOSQew09m8XrDcV6wroq8yTUKgENWfzgYqgGWBaXQR7Zvd_O8nFSM8jNyqLk7eCUcWi2XjUvfW-4g2rEwFgjH56iTTC5CMgolPb6YP94eK8qVlIBay8VA/s1111/2022%20results%20p3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1111" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBNJ2xdwB-wPzOUSHvVFFMZBiveJgSHZwNN5hLDdTfAKK6XDfguWeFWaVKzorBm7Ns7gnKOSQew09m8XrDcV6wroq8yTUKgENWfzgYqgGWBaXQR7Zvd_O8nFSM8jNyqLk7eCUcWi2XjUvfW-4g2rEwFgjH56iTTC5CMgolPb6YP94eK8qVlIBay8VA/s320/2022%20results%20p3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><br /><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggnXi7I_kzMctHM65WyLlBh7sQjgMacEorWP1vrASASXdgUbXDDIkEo2Ssh3hqZrtKh5rH_52ybccKT3oWR4GhqOseqMcVkVo4YGjXlntVJNz0WVUUSpwwZvhUzhcPPvPu50lxsrRdq7j1oiXPopa5Tdw5-NLnEotcugqqzPhMDr4u-26mvYPUrrTF/s1111/2022%20results%20p4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="832" data-original-width="1111" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggnXi7I_kzMctHM65WyLlBh7sQjgMacEorWP1vrASASXdgUbXDDIkEo2Ssh3hqZrtKh5rH_52ybccKT3oWR4GhqOseqMcVkVo4YGjXlntVJNz0WVUUSpwwZvhUzhcPPvPu50lxsrRdq7j1oiXPopa5Tdw5-NLnEotcugqqzPhMDr4u-26mvYPUrrTF/s320/2022%20results%20p4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><style>@font-face
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</p><p class="MsoNormal">Our last spring frost date (low of 32F or less) was April 19<sup>th</sup>,
with a low of 34F on April 26<sup>th</sup>. Despite the late cold snap, the
average temperature for the month was about normal. Precipitation was less than
normal but adequate. May was warm and wet, while June was hotter and drier than
normal. This weather pattern favors the spring crops like lettuce, cabbage, and
bok choy. A look at the data shows that while none of these crops broke yield
records, each of them did well.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> </p><p class="MsoNormal">The hotter and drier pattern in June continued through July,
with one exception: record-breaking rainfall on July 25-26. August was about average
in temperature and rainfall, while September was about average temperature but
very dry. October was very dry till the last week, with the first autumn frost occurring
on October 18<sup>th</sup>, with a low of 29F (the low was 25F on the 19<sup>th</sup>).
The dry conditions combined with hot weather in June and July led to pepper
flowers not pollinating well, reducing their yields considerably. The bell
pepper plants didn’t set any peppers until well into August, and the plants suffered
more from disease than did the ‘Italian Frying’ variety. Tomatoes withstood
conditions better and the muskmelon yield would have been higher but for one
fruit that a critter found before we did. The vining beans had decent yields
and the bush lima bean yielded better than the pole lima beans that I have
tried, but the squash and cucumber plants died early and produced poorly. The
combination of dry autumn conditions and lack of thinning led to poor yields of
autumn crops – and the critter(s) that ate the lettuce and kale didn’t help
matters any. I did a better job of thinning the beets, and they, carrots, and
leeks produced a decent yield.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the fruits, the strawberry plants would have yielded
more, but I was unable to pick them for a week during the height of their
ripening. The plants did not come back after I mowed them in June, following
the end of fruiting. Apparently the combination of age and inadequate watering on
top of the stress of being mowed led to their deaths. Because the raspberries
were newly planted in the spring, they did not yield, and critters ate all the
apples on all three apple trees. I don’t know why the persimmon yield was low.
On the other hand, the pawpaw trees yielded magnificently! We’re still eating
pawpaws that I froze from last summer!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the questions I wanted the 2022 garden to answer is
how well a six-bed vegetable garden fits in with the other interests and commitments
of my life. As it turned out, the answer isn’t yet clear. On the one hand, it
was less work than the nine-bed garden, and we had a good variety of fresh
produce from the vegetable garden from late May through early December. In
fact, we still have daikon radishes in storage, waiting to be eaten. On the
other hand, the garden work still got ahead of me, especially in summer and autumn.
Certainly the heat didn’t help, but it seemed to be more than that. It may be
that I need to re-think the amount of time I give the various activities of my
life if I am to keep up with the weeding and thinning of a six-bed garden. Or
it may be that I need to consider a further reduction in the space devoted to
vegetable gardening. I’ll consider that as I work in the six-bed garden this
year.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another question I asked was how the bush lima bean variety
I trialed in 2022 would yield and if it would be a good garden citizen and not
overgrow the space allotted to it. On both counts I’m very pleased with it. We
haven’t eaten any of the crop yet, but I will grow it again this year and hope
that we like the taste of the beans when we get around to cooking them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2022 I asked the potato onions if planting the 1 to 1.5
inch diameter bulbs in early March would lead to better survival and yield than
planting them in early November. Those were the onions planted in 62 square
feet in the data tables. The answer: yes, planting them in early March resulted
in greater survival and higher yield. In fact, they out-yielded the 1.5 to 2
inch diameter onions that I planted in early November (the onions planted in 27
square feet). </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This year’s question for the potato onions is if I can hold
the larger onions in storage until early March (larger potato onions don’t
survive as long in storage as smaller ones do) and plant them out then to
obtain a higher yield with them as well. In order to minimize rotting I laid them out in a single
layer on a wire shelf suspended from the basement ceiling. As of today, only a few of the smaller onions have sprouted, but
close to half of the larger onions have sprouted. I’ll plant all of the
un-sprouted larger onions and as many of the sprouted larger onions as seem to
be firm enough to catch on and grow. I’ll keep the harvest from each part of
the bed separate so I can compare the yields from the area planted to larger
onions from the yield planted to smaller onions. I’ll also observe the plants
as they grow and take notes of any differences between the areas.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What about last year’s experiment with seeds from Lisa Brunette’s
potato onions? Well, they produced seedlings that I planted out, and the
seedlings grew well. The plants went dormant in June, at the same time as the
potato onion bulbs go dormant and I harvest them. Unlike the case with the
onions in the documentation I read, the seed-grown onions did not grow larger
than the bulb-grown onions. Rather, the seed-grown onions were smaller. So I
left them all in the ground. In retrospect, I should have harvested half of
them then and left the rest in the ground, because most of them rotted over the
summer. But six of them revived in early autumn. Rather than leave them to the
ravages of winter, I potted each of them up and moved them to the front porch.
All have survived the winter on the front porch. I’ll share half of them with
Lisa and plant the other half in my garden (making sure to harvest them in June
along with the crop from bulbs!). Meanwhile, I stored the rest of Lisa’s seeds
in the freezer and planted some of them in a flat for this year’s bed. I stored
the seeds in the freezer rather than in the basement where I store the rest of
the seeds because onion and leek seeds are not supposed to be long-lived,
perhaps only a year or so. The colder and drier they are stored, the longer
they live.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the three beds that I used to plant in corn, my current
plan is to move some plants from elsewhere in the yard that need more sun or
need dividing into that space. This will include daylilies, purple coneflowers,
and peonies. I am also considering other perennial herbs for any space remaining.
I will mulch as much of these beds with autumn leaves as I have available to
reduce the weeding needed. Thanks to someone who dumped 20 or 30 plastic bags
full of leaves into the creek down the street that Mike and I salvaged, I
already have some of the mulch in place. As I continue with garden clean-up I’ll
rake more leaves for these beds.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This year I’m planting a new strawberry bed with new plants
of the same variety, ‘Earliglo’. If I have enough autumn leaves I will mulch
this bed as well and do the best I can to keep competing plants out of it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While I plan to continue the blog for the time being, expect
posting to be occasional and at irregular intervals. In the meantime, enjoy
life!<br /></p>
<p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p><br />SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-48165433624253281442023-01-05T17:07:00.001-06:002023-01-05T17:07:35.617-06:00Citrus for cold climates and warm homes<p class="MsoNormal"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1x3RKhwNGgco1b-yNwcK8rwUwM6xuNMGbb2rUZz5iPBd4VVdhr5lFz5u4VrXK6jgVVfevFIskX5M8ioY3QhxgfCtxZnTNoxbOWE0jskEricAulwoXRWcptHnrljmQG2r1hBBKIltiAKHl3-yhm5PN0J9FkCs1uWh10D1gQkEoemmamJAqwZR-IlF3/s2576/2022-12-19%2012.59.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2576" data-original-width="1932" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1x3RKhwNGgco1b-yNwcK8rwUwM6xuNMGbb2rUZz5iPBd4VVdhr5lFz5u4VrXK6jgVVfevFIskX5M8ioY3QhxgfCtxZnTNoxbOWE0jskEricAulwoXRWcptHnrljmQG2r1hBBKIltiAKHl3-yhm5PN0J9FkCs1uWh10D1gQkEoemmamJAqwZR-IlF3/s320/2022-12-19%2012.59.40.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>I’ve described our glassed-in front porch aka solar
greenhouse in <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/11/opening-door-to-spring.html">a previous post</a>, but I haven’t talked about the citrus trees that
I keep on it during the winter, aside from the time that the weather outside became so cold that
some of them died. Here’s what I have learned about the varieties of citrus
that I can grow successfully in containers on our front porch, for those of you
in cold-winter climates who may wish to add home-grown citrus to your diet.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2014/01/learning-from-mistakes.html">2014 cold spell</a> was much harder on the citrus plants
than I had realized when I wrote that post. It turned out that the only citrus
tree on the porch that survived was the ‘Meyer Improved’ lemon, and not without
damage. Because the satsuma tangerine was
small enough to move into the house, it survived as well. I replaced the dead
trees with a ‘Lisbon’ lemon, a ‘Bearss’ lime, and a ‘Meiwa’ kumquat. This set
of trees grew well. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">By early 2019, the tangerine had fruited a couple of times,
though not profusely. The ‘Lisbon’ lemon sported its first crop of 8 large
lemons and we were looking forward to their ripening! But then an ominous
weather forecast prompted me to move the kumquat, lime, and Meyer lemon into the
basement to avoid potential sub-freezing temperatures. The Lisbon lemon and the
tangerine were bigger, enough so that it made it difficult to move them into
the house. I chose to leave them on the porch. Both froze to death. (We did
juice the frozen lemons … the juice was delicious.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With this many years of experience I feel confident that I
can now provide recommendations on the best citrus to grow in containers for
those of us who are forced by cold winter conditions to move them inside our
homes for part or all of our winters. These trees are easy to care for, are
attractive especially when in bloom or when covered with ripe fruits, and
provide excellent fruits that ripen in winter to add some freshness to winter
meals. They are small enough to be placed in a basement or in front of a
good-sized window inside the house, if you don’t have a greenhouse or a space
like our front porch that can be made into one.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTzPwA0bjj-IWrbY1pskmjWCKOHpPjgQShkvNlVDWXJDwh0EReuou9q5XRXwA-7ykEfnbnmsSAxnefP6emnKXtaieG0r-HCiA7M75E7PzSTqBWqe8E0bOLrevoNCQg-8kHmjhcHlbrFpvRni7mDRq4R36fyP58F5zTOXRR70sz2PK684axk-QD-Ur9/s2576/2022-12-19%2012.59.40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2576" data-original-width="1932" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTzPwA0bjj-IWrbY1pskmjWCKOHpPjgQShkvNlVDWXJDwh0EReuou9q5XRXwA-7ykEfnbnmsSAxnefP6emnKXtaieG0r-HCiA7M75E7PzSTqBWqe8E0bOLrevoNCQg-8kHmjhcHlbrFpvRni7mDRq4R36fyP58F5zTOXRR70sz2PK684axk-QD-Ur9/s320/2022-12-19%2012.59.40.jpg" width="240" /></a></div> <br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My ‘Meiwa’ kumquat tree, shown above, is covered with small
fruits that pack a much larger taste than their size suggests. In my opinion, kumquats
are the best choice for anyone with limited space that allows for only one
plant (my 9 year old plant is about 3 feet wide and tall). Because you eat the
whole kumquat except for the seeds – in fact, the peel is the sweetest part of
a kumquat! – there is little waste. Like other citrus, the flowers have a
strong floral odor. It blooms later than the lemon and lime trees, in the
summer rather than in the spring. I just harvested the first four kumquats and
should be harvesting fruit for the next few weeks as each one ripens. A kumquat
tree may live through a very light frost but should be moved out of the cold
when temperatures drop below 30F.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ZX8auoSunPmCpvOAw30wYQiHAYctGgrA5h27CZGTy5IAG7HB-A74GYF-8n9dqD1U5W5Y5vmowJewiZ1pgmSty4ypMeiKOdVYwcvyywg_hJDADc8gYOz4rwAqizsdQJVR5i8Oizt75l16y46GEdMe9Uam-STFgb5uyYvKb5zU9rZB_45RNDhWG9jx/s2576/2022-12-17%2015.15.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ZX8auoSunPmCpvOAw30wYQiHAYctGgrA5h27CZGTy5IAG7HB-A74GYF-8n9dqD1U5W5Y5vmowJewiZ1pgmSty4ypMeiKOdVYwcvyywg_hJDADc8gYOz4rwAqizsdQJVR5i8Oizt75l16y46GEdMe9Uam-STFgb5uyYvKb5zU9rZB_45RNDhWG9jx/s320/2022-12-17%2015.15.48.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">For those of you who like limes and have room for a somewhat
larger plant, I suggest the ‘Bearss’ lime. My lime tree (above, with the yellowish fruits) is about 4 feet
wide and about 4 ½ feet tall at 9 years old. The juice from a ‘Bearss’ lime has
the classic lime flavor. My current tree has withstood temperatures a degree or
two below freezing, but I bring it into the house when the porch gets any
colder than that. I’ve picked 8 limes so far this winter, with another 5 to
pick later on. They are ripe when the skin turns light yellow. Each lime weighs
2 to 3 ounces.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9y5BQZMId1DRJTYGI7KVHexHPNT_hXAGm3hnEUO5dVutcr10hlpKvSvlH2HL-8u8HbvfrVQk7U9TzFr3IJxTLUpdTRRbUXCo7-f4NmXTxMa9A05xML9tdgZqNiHaz2D2dmx746SMrHFnkfyuhcnnfPP9WBGbMCrTEayPtnBc4rKwPQJK1YILI2hK/s1600/IMG_20230105_152746_burst_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="912" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN9y5BQZMId1DRJTYGI7KVHexHPNT_hXAGm3hnEUO5dVutcr10hlpKvSvlH2HL-8u8HbvfrVQk7U9TzFr3IJxTLUpdTRRbUXCo7-f4NmXTxMa9A05xML9tdgZqNiHaz2D2dmx746SMrHFnkfyuhcnnfPP9WBGbMCrTEayPtnBc4rKwPQJK1YILI2hK/s320/IMG_20230105_152746_burst_01.jpg" width="182" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">‘Meyer Improved’ lemons can weigh up to a half-pound each
and have a good lemon flavor, though not quite as good as the Lisbon lemons. My
‘Meyer Improved’ lemon, above, is going on 20 years old and is about 4 feet
wide and 5 feet tall. It only bore 5 lemons this year but each lemon weighed 6
to 8 ounces! It can stand a much colder temperature than the lime or kumquat
trees, down to 20F or even colder, though temperatures that cold can damage it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfWpZ0yadxZGQzWMbJxOPHUvQz-2PpBwOW9F8GGZA6sByM5IUqYIFDV8mWtPGtAZApjWXoBA4NSys_6n-WrRIs3JsPKgdKoJF90IHVb4qTQ4kDsGh9J8FWSYW6I4mntn5euzc_xvE6lXhCdDNPDA5kzk-mueRHXT7U573ogpjAmb-vjLyTQdqpV8Hu/s1600/IMG_20230105_152828_burst_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="912" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfWpZ0yadxZGQzWMbJxOPHUvQz-2PpBwOW9F8GGZA6sByM5IUqYIFDV8mWtPGtAZApjWXoBA4NSys_6n-WrRIs3JsPKgdKoJF90IHVb4qTQ4kDsGh9J8FWSYW6I4mntn5euzc_xvE6lXhCdDNPDA5kzk-mueRHXT7U573ogpjAmb-vjLyTQdqpV8Hu/s320/IMG_20230105_152828_burst_01.jpg" width="182" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">The photo above shows the trunk damage that my lemon tree
sustained in the 2014 cold snap. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In my experience, navel orange, satsuma tangerine, and
Lisbon lemon trees all eventually grew so large that I could no longer move
them from the porch to the house when we experienced a cold snap. This doesn’t
mean that they might not work for you, but if you choose them I suggest that you have a good
pair of pruners on hand and learn how to prune them to keep their size small
enough that you can move them into and out of the house when you need to.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Caring for these trees is similar to any houseplant. In
between your last spring frost and first fall frost, they enjoy living outdoors
in a sunny spot. Keep the soil moist but not wet and fertilize them on occasion
so that they will have enough nutrition to fruit. I like to pot mine in a mix
of garden soil, compost, and earthworm castings and fertilize them with diluted
urine once every week or two when they are outside. When they are on a porch or
inside the house, they grow so slowly that they don’t need any extra fertilizer.
The soil can be drier when they are inside, but not completely dry. If you
start to notice drooping leaves and stems and the soil is dry, they need water.
They do not seem to be especially attractive to insect pests except for scale,
and the scale that is on the lime tree doesn’t seem to bother it that much. A
good time for potting them on and for pruning is when you
move them outside in the spring, so that they will have time to regrow their
roots and branch framework before they go dormant. Lime and lemon fruits often
drop off the plant when they ripen, but picking them first will ensure that
they don’t bruise where they hit the floor. The fruits keep for weeks in the
refrigerator and can be used in the same ways you use lemons and limes from the
grocery store. We also candy the lemon and lime peels and coat them with melted
chocolate for a homegrown treat!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I wish all of you a happy 2023! When next we meet, I’ll
report on the 2022 garden.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-30732512695896327472022-08-28T17:17:00.001-05:002022-08-28T17:18:41.484-05:00Updates<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnrQ_HNq7F6NbQ26QOxJ73knWcPrrbnqLS7gep6--7MaL7QoEH2KGaHuUXLvsUT1FbWtLouwn_8jkHQkCqJAO4e6k1G4jr6Qo7YebwdK8V5sDRpgWQIVTkaHu60XWIJcXA3iGXWwlDSYNYJiXeS40RGv5-1AKxehwgjSizMlz_9v2HZwGA0A_p3AJ/s2576/2022-06-21%2009.22.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2576" data-original-width="1932" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnrQ_HNq7F6NbQ26QOxJ73knWcPrrbnqLS7gep6--7MaL7QoEH2KGaHuUXLvsUT1FbWtLouwn_8jkHQkCqJAO4e6k1G4jr6Qo7YebwdK8V5sDRpgWQIVTkaHu60XWIJcXA3iGXWwlDSYNYJiXeS40RGv5-1AKxehwgjSizMlz_9v2HZwGA0A_p3AJ/s320/2022-06-21%2009.22.19.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Orchids flowering<br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Hi readers,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To those of you who are new to the blog, welcome!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s been a busy few months, as spring and summer tend to be
at Living Low Acre. I plan to have a new post up by the end of September. In
the meantime, I’m picking pawpaws from the pawpaw patch, gathering the black
walnuts that fall onto our yard from the neighbor’s tree, and taking a bit of a
break after harvesting the potatoes and planting that bed with greens and roots
for harvest in autumn. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While you’re waiting for a new post, please check out <a href="https://thedruidsgarden.com/2022/08/21/living-low-acre-20-year-urban-permaculture-site/">the post my friend and fellow archdruid Dana O’Driscoll put up on her blog about my garden.</a> She visited while on her way home from Dancing Rabbit, an ecovillage in
northern Missouri. While she was here, she interviewed me on my garden and the ecological
art of living low that is reflected in the blog’s name. Please enjoy the beautiful
pictures she took while you learn more about the garden design and how it’s
worked out, and why we live low.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you to everyone for reading, and meet you here again
sometime in September!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p></div>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-3040730056346152432022-04-07T17:04:00.001-05:002022-08-28T16:54:18.072-05:00Learning from potato onions<div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQ3FVhslcBwo9qFKIIRoPYZsYpX8ACLz0_BAzeFLMvRA09QTLfyJ-EeFqnukHGbGJQ79dytqZsRMwOw3EPkmgF2Nyaz7-ZI27iDfiah3KdVHXIE0LYgx8Nl7XiG02Mh6jN6GXtUChfMcKyBdGj17muBpmjBSMsRtJxQsi9C5RjcDDJC5AgfeHvRov/s2576/2022-04-07%2014.17.10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQ3FVhslcBwo9qFKIIRoPYZsYpX8ACLz0_BAzeFLMvRA09QTLfyJ-EeFqnukHGbGJQ79dytqZsRMwOw3EPkmgF2Nyaz7-ZI27iDfiah3KdVHXIE0LYgx8Nl7XiG02Mh6jN6GXtUChfMcKyBdGj17muBpmjBSMsRtJxQsi9C5RjcDDJC5AgfeHvRov/s320/2022-04-07%2014.17.10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">Daffodils in peak bloom<br /></div><div> </div><div><p class="MsoNormal">In the last post, I discussed the two different conversations
I’m having with potato onions during this growing season. In one of the
conversations I’ve asked the onions to compare survival from spring planting
versus autumn planting. I’ve hypothesized that spring planting will result in a
higher percentage of plants surviving to harvest and for that reason a higher
yield. In the other conversation I’m asking potato onion seeds that Lisa Brunette’s
plants produced last year to teach me how to grow them. Both the onions and the
seeds have made a first response to my questions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On November 10 of last year I planted seven rows of 1.5 to 2
inch diameter potato onion and four rows of three different varieties of
garlic, mulching all of them with fallen maple leaves. In early March I removed
most of the mulch, because I have found from previous experience that if I do
not remove most of the mulch then, most of the onions die. As best as I can
tell, death results either from rotting before sprouting, or from the leaves of
sprouted onions failing to grow above the mulch layer before the energy of the bulb is spent. If I do not mulch after planting in autumn, most of the onions die
over the winter from frost-heaving (being pushed above the surface of the soil). Frost-heaving is the bane of lower Midwest
winters. Highly variable temperatures during winter cause the soil to freeze
and then thaw multiple times before the final thaw in early spring. The mulch
keeps the onions from frost-heaving, but it can also cause them to rot through
excessive moisture or prevent the leaves from emerging before the energy of the
bulbs is spent.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuNPjsm0ExGPhb6Xa4PDE-0RrC_vDZrZMZQx4ZL3m4vtZAenxMQoL686r77j_8wshin1xEzeml-D6u38-JQL6Tyuihk_1D_1C8rVafV4312kTcU4zkIhgVxr4scBhp-Df2ecvc3EytfDRY-CpwQOoBhE-qw9uJcybeg23ClcSIlz8_ieDk3DffxTUr/s2576/2022-04-05%2015.55.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuNPjsm0ExGPhb6Xa4PDE-0RrC_vDZrZMZQx4ZL3m4vtZAenxMQoL686r77j_8wshin1xEzeml-D6u38-JQL6Tyuihk_1D_1C8rVafV4312kTcU4zkIhgVxr4scBhp-Df2ecvc3EytfDRY-CpwQOoBhE-qw9uJcybeg23ClcSIlz8_ieDk3DffxTUr/s320/2022-04-05%2015.55.34.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The photo above is the potato onion bed on April 5. The
onions I planted on March 6 are closest to the camera and are not mulched.
Farther back, in the mulched area, are the potato onions and garlic that I
planted last November. While it is not obvious in the photo due to the camera
angle, it is clear from looking at the bed that almost every onion I planted in
spring is growing well. However, a substantial number of the autumn-planted
onions have failed to produce any leaves as of today. Because I know how many
rows I planted in autumn and in spring, and I know I planted 8 onions in each
row, I know how many onions have so far failed to produce leaves. In the area
planted in November, 14 out of 56 onions planted have failed to produce leaves
(25%), while in the area planted in March, 4 out of 128 onions planted have
failed to produce leaves (3%). </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMk0Rw3ss88nxEMIRDzVvBq56UdN2C79Lnse8wCHOjJUmgHXSY2RqJGZwcpxf3dRt669mhBdNeIAwlk7oStxa0oKWSDie4X3OW774BzdGlnZvHwQS9mTdWo-WtHDPE5QbixwzgljESfS3IP3gm84UZeWyQ1sQ6xDvQz-uwI_cpE4tJ88ZXbI31rz2A/s2576/2022-04-05%2015.47.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMk0Rw3ss88nxEMIRDzVvBq56UdN2C79Lnse8wCHOjJUmgHXSY2RqJGZwcpxf3dRt669mhBdNeIAwlk7oStxa0oKWSDie4X3OW774BzdGlnZvHwQS9mTdWo-WtHDPE5QbixwzgljESfS3IP3gm84UZeWyQ1sQ6xDvQz-uwI_cpE4tJ88ZXbI31rz2A/s320/2022-04-05%2015.47.18.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, on March 3 I planted the potato onion seeds that
<a href="https://www.brunettegardens.com/">Lisa Brunette</a> gave me. You can see the seedlings that have resulted in the
photo above. They are the long thin leaves on the left side of the flat. Later
this month I will transplant them into one of the garden beds so they can grow
on. I didn’t plant all of the seeds in case something went wrong; the remainder
are being kept in the freezer for planting next spring.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAp7UV0VbUC5S0gULtZx3PhXEq9N1TGjCA6IEbMN4Xi2JetiL6JpLjNENalNorFi-5ypZXpN7PuISNPx4stYMRy-OCT7Ab7PFsyOsyC9nPJG1ZNeCryH240KL1jFZbX7f4dv0OUQYAB6TRys1y7Zmay3hKgpV48rjgcVOrpt8XA3l38lIrmKu8Cwlb/s2576/2022-04-05%2015.48.02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2576" data-original-width="1932" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAp7UV0VbUC5S0gULtZx3PhXEq9N1TGjCA6IEbMN4Xi2JetiL6JpLjNENalNorFi-5ypZXpN7PuISNPx4stYMRy-OCT7Ab7PFsyOsyC9nPJG1ZNeCryH240KL1jFZbX7f4dv0OUQYAB6TRys1y7Zmay3hKgpV48rjgcVOrpt8XA3l38lIrmKu8Cwlb/s320/2022-04-05%2015.48.02.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Lastly, the photo above shows the flats of seedlings that I
will plant in the garden over the next several weeks.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Until next time, enjoy life!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style><p></p></div>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-23476934629677734412022-03-07T19:51:00.000-06:002022-03-07T19:51:15.482-06:00The 2022 garden conversations<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBNVlvZ7596A5vFm_-aVLgKnXAdjcV7WwyjqSAIukTbzYvRhcgTlXX4CSFYlWp2x49f_tkkR9lu488G2H-Eo-1O3B5UhXA8ljEl8jhGzKj4VdG2ZldAhm6RUk5NsSIkkhB4YsuNkJ8LuP6M5xW0_ZdMH67EGX8D68vr1UX4r2Zd9DkuTJnOJZHJQLP=s2576" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2576" data-original-width="1932" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBNVlvZ7596A5vFm_-aVLgKnXAdjcV7WwyjqSAIukTbzYvRhcgTlXX4CSFYlWp2x49f_tkkR9lu488G2H-Eo-1O3B5UhXA8ljEl8jhGzKj4VdG2ZldAhm6RUk5NsSIkkhB4YsuNkJ8LuP6M5xW0_ZdMH67EGX8D68vr1UX4r2Zd9DkuTJnOJZHJQLP=s320" width="240" /></a></div>One of our largest snowfalls of the winter, on February 4<br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Each year, as I reflect on how the garden answered the
questions I asked of it the previous season, I consider what I would like to
learn from the garden during the upcoming growing season and how to design the
garden accordingly. Here’s what I am asking the 2022 garden to teach me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Back in early 2021, when I was forming the garden design to
answer questions about using wood ashes to re-mineralize garden soil, I did not
realize that the garden would also ask and answer an entirely different
question: what does it really make sense for me to grow in a backyard garden at
this time of my life? Each year the garden asks at least one question of its
own, and in fact I expect it to do so because it is a living system embedded in
a nested series of larger living systems, just as I am. I didn’t expect it to
be that particular question, however, even though each of the last few Augusts
I have had it arise. But this past August the squirrels hit me over the head
with it when they ate every kernel of every popcorn cob. The series of four
posts on backyard garden reality was my way to understand and answer that
question. I took those answers to heart when I designed this year’s garden.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To be specific, I realized that having now answered to my
satisfaction the approximate size that a garden would need to be to provide
marginally enough food for one vegan adult for one year in this climate, I can
let go of that work and have a sensible backyard garden that leaves me more
time for my other interests while providing Mike and I with a wide variety of
fresh vegetables and fruits during late spring, summer, and autumn along with
some stored and preserved foods in winter and spring. That means I will no
longer grow corn or pumpkins in my backyard garden. By not growing corn I have
only six beds that need to be dug and re-mineralized before planting
and that need some level of weed control during the growing season. It may
still be that six beds is more than I want to grow, so one of the questions
that I am asking this year is how the six bed garden design fits in with the
rest of my life. If the past few years are any indication, August will answer
that question for me.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This also means that I will have three beds that were
formerly set aside for corn that I can plant to something else or let revert to
a mix of mowed plants. I’m still mulling over possibilities and not yet ready
to commit to a particular design. I would like to have more flowers and more
herbs in this part of the garden, but I need to do some more thinking and
research before I make any decisions on what to plant. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I do know that I will remove the current raspberry plants,
and I have already planted a different variety in one of the three beds that held popcorn last
year. The current raspberry plants show evidence of plant disease in lowered
yield and poorer quality berries than in past years. The old raspberry bed will become one
of the beds with herbs or flowers or whatever else I decide to do with the
three beds no longer growing corn. The strawberry bed still is producing a good
yield of high quality berries, so it will remain in place for 2022.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, the six vegetable beds will be mostly the same as
in past years, but I am posing a few questions for the garden to answer. One of
them concerns replacing the bush cowpeas with a bush lima bean variety. For the
past couple of years I have grown a pole lima bean, but it flowers late enough
that most of the beans do not mature before frost. Meanwhile, the bush cowpea
plants are too tall and flop over onto the neighboring beds. This year I am
trialing a bush lima bean that is supposed to grow to only 18 inches tall and
may mature more quickly than the pole lima bean as the dry bean crop. I’ll grow a
yard-long bean that I have grown before and liked as one of the two pole bean
varieties. Yard-long beans are the same genus and species as cowpeas. This
means I will grow four different kinds of legumes, all different species that
don’t cross: snap (green) and yard-long pole beans, bush lima beans, and an
edamame variety of soybeans. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m asking two questions of the potato onions, a type of
multiplier onion. I plant them as bulbs, with smaller bulbs growing to a larger
size and larger bulbs dividing into several smaller ones. As the summer
solstice approaches the bulbs go dormant. When that happens I dig them up and
let the bulbs dry. After they dry I split up the clusters of bulbs and sort all
the bulbs into 4 size classes. We eat the largest ones (2 inches or more in
diameter) at that time, reserving the remainder. I plant the 1.5 to 2 inch
diameter onions in one-third of the bed I have allotted for them in late
October or early November and the 1 to 1.5 inch diameter onions in the
remaining two-thirds of the bed, mulching them with autumn leaves to prevent
them from frost-heaving. We then eat all of the remaining onions, which have
been mostly the smallest ones, less than 1 inch in diameter. In early March I
remove the mulch from the potato onion bed and allow them to grow until they go
dormant and the process repeats. This is the procedure I learned from the
company I bought starter bulbs from, which claims that autumn planting leads to
larger bulbs than spring planting.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I enjoy growing these onions; as plants I find them
appealing, I plant them at a time when they do not conflict with other garden
duties, the bulbs have the strong onion taste characteristic of yellow onions
that both my husband and I like, and in theory I could grow enough of them to
provide a significant fraction of our onions. However, many to most of the 1 to
1.5 inch diameter onions rot and die before harvesting. If we are to have
enough onions to make a noticeable dent in our onion purchases, I need to
figure out how to plant them so most of them will grow and be harvested.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Last year I read Kelly Winterton’s publications on potato
onions. He practices spring planting in his Utah location and says they do
better planted in spring than in autumn where he lives. He also soaks the
onions in bleach before he plants them, which he claims leads to better survival
and larger bulbs. As a result I decided that this year I would plant the 1.5 to
2 inch diameter bulbs in autumn and mulch them as in the past, using them as a
control, but I would hold the 1 to 1.5 inch onion bulbs in storage in the
basement until the soil thaws in March and then plant them. The first question
was if they would survive that long without sprouting; I’m pleased to say that
the answer is yes. On March 6 I planted the open space in the bed with 1 to 1.5
inch diameter onions using the same in-row and between-row spacing as I have in
the past. The next question will be how well they yield with spring planting.
My hypothesis is that even if individual bulbs don’t grow as large, the overall
yield will be larger because a smaller percentage will rot before harvest.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even though Winterton recommends soaking in a weak bleach
solution prior to planting, I won’t try that this year. If I change two things
– planting date and presoaking – I won’t know which one, or both together,
might have caused any changes that I may observe. If the garden tells me that
spring planting leads to a higher yield, I’ll consider an experiment with
presoaking in 2023.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the 20 years that I have grown potato onions, none of
them have ever gone to seed. I didn’t know that they could produce seeds until
my friend Lisa Brunette at <a href="https://www.brunettegardens.com/">Brunette Gardens</a> shared a link to Winterton’s
publications with me. Winterton has had potato onions produce flowers and
seeds, so he has learned how to grow them from seed and developed new potato
onion varieties from some of those plants. Last year some of the potato onions
that Lisa grew produced flowers and seeds, and she has very generously shared
the seed with me. I’ve started seeds for both of us so that they may teach me
how to grow them, sharing the plants that result with Lisa. I’m sure the seeds
will be happy to receive your well-wishes for good germination and growth! I’ll
share what the seeds teach me with all of you in turn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If I have enough wood ashes to use to re-mineralize the
squash-family and bean-family beds, I’ll use them and urine to provide nitrogen,
to test how that combination works for those two plant families. Mike and I did
not use the wood stove much this winter, so I will not have as much wood ashes
for re-mineralization as last year.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s all for now. I wish everyone a happy spring!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-17742261691186733712022-01-19T17:50:00.000-06:002022-01-19T17:50:03.693-06:00What the 2021 garden told me<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjP8gHc99y61qT0YLT2t0yOxTqOwW2ka_o9cj_2dNs977qjUiPNf4m5Uey_5v3kymrk_IEOZW9Xw6tEiKz0gPcq_rapVcmbLhceRkeKl_OHKGsKrhn90UrxkPfUnQkeY5xx8Vf8vqQ7dhIwUsU2cCopURmH8wv5E70nPlpuqDIKmyUfyyox6W7wRSC-=s2576" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjP8gHc99y61qT0YLT2t0yOxTqOwW2ka_o9cj_2dNs977qjUiPNf4m5Uey_5v3kymrk_IEOZW9Xw6tEiKz0gPcq_rapVcmbLhceRkeKl_OHKGsKrhn90UrxkPfUnQkeY5xx8Vf8vqQ7dhIwUsU2cCopURmH8wv5E70nPlpuqDIKmyUfyyox6W7wRSC-=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Almost a gallon of strawberries - and there were more after this picking<br />
<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now that I have all the data for the
2021 garden, it’s time to learn how the garden answered the questions I asked
it last year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s start with comparing the soil
test results from the soil sample I took in March 2021, before the growing
season began, with the samples I took when I began re-mineralizing the garden
soil in 2013 and with the samples taken in 2019 and 2020.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBJeI_1VKovwKJpmg0TaHrsrDfj2rORO2lzPJ0sXr0ZmeoM6xYy7vrrLdNTqJbjy33ZI_ODs4gyFLT2vKzkVD2PRaj7EKcOUXqQeq4GPuFJ4Q1C7jaWi-Hdf3Zt38ftn_zzq0OQEbE07OFcgSGytjoGxtx8RtivMdm8Ne0Wvw1CTwDcIotJLFf2gMv=s944" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="944" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBJeI_1VKovwKJpmg0TaHrsrDfj2rORO2lzPJ0sXr0ZmeoM6xYy7vrrLdNTqJbjy33ZI_ODs4gyFLT2vKzkVD2PRaj7EKcOUXqQeq4GPuFJ4Q1C7jaWi-Hdf3Zt38ftn_zzq0OQEbE07OFcgSGytjoGxtx8RtivMdm8Ne0Wvw1CTwDcIotJLFf2gMv=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Notice that the soil re-mineralization
program has greatly reduced the deficiencies in sulfur, phosphorus, and calcium
since 2013, as <a href="https://newsociety.com/books/i/the-intelligent-gardener">Steve Solomon</a> indicated that it would do. This is very
encouraging indeed, as it suggests that a few years of attention to
re-mineralization produces a balanced soil that grows plants with balanced
nutrition. The phosphorus deficit in 2021 was low enough that I could meet it
by applying about two and a half pounds of wood ashes to each bed, well under
the maximum of five to ten pounds recommended by the Missouri Extension
Service, and I had enough wood ashes on hand for the entire garden. Calcium and
potassium were already present in more than sufficient quantity, and magnesium
was slightly deficient; the wood ashes contain more than enough magnesium to
remove that deficiency. I still needed to add a little gypsum to address the
sulfur deficiency. Although it seems to me that wood ashes might contain some
sulfur, I haven’t found an analysis of wood ashes that includes sulfur. Unless and until I
can answer that question, I’ll continue to add gypsum. The amount needed is
small, four ounces per bed, and gypsum is widely available and cheap.</span>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Based on that information from the soil
I asked the garden to answer the following questions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the spring greens/roots beds, I
used cottonseed meal to provide all of the nitrogen and only enough wood ashes
to meet the magnesium deficiency (about 2 ½ ounces of wood ashes for a 100
square foot bed). By doing so the crops would have sufficient nitrogen to meet
their needs and not risk an excessive amount of magnesium. I used the phosphate
rock that I have used in past years to provide the rest of the phosphorus for
remineralization. This bed would tell me something about the overall growing
conditions for spring, so that I could compare the rest of the beds to it.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the autumn greens/roots bed I used
cottonseed meal to provide all of the nitrogen and about 3 pounds of wood ashes
to supply both magnesium and phosphorus. This allowed me to ask about the
effect of using wood ashes to supply all of the phosphorus to some of the same
crops as in the spring roots/greens bed, albeit under different weather and
daylight conditions. By using cottonseed meal rather than urine in this bed I
hypothesized that the yield of roots would be higher than it was in 2020, since
cottonseed meal does not seem to stimulate production of leaves to as large an
extent as urine does.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the bean-family, squash-family, and
popcorn beds I used cottonseed meal and about 2 ½ pounds of wood ashes. By
doing this I could compare the results to 2020, when I used urine but not wood
ashes, and to earlier years when I had not used either.</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the nightshade-family bed I used
urine to supply all of the nitrogen and about 2 ½ pounds of wood ashes to
supply all of the phosphorus. The plants in this bed responded very well to
urine in 2020, so I chose this to be the one bed in which I used the full
amount of both urine and wood ashes, asking the garden what the effect of using
both of these in the same growing season would be. If there were unforeseen
issues with using both in their full amounts I could minimize the damage by
limiting the beds to which I applied the combined treatment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Below is the yield data for all of the
crops I grew in 2021.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhatuqTALoX1hRk5aLFqKqVaHIkK5uP64VwxSMBecrMyJWzV-ElQDrrBME5YU-hAiIDNRLsGOzyrHBPM-m4psbNhgL90PAGDPMeEGSWiiF5a79TFfak12NG7ipH2NWu3GRiZY9GaK9evibuLXn8_lxc5L-h6BX7WHQKhRZnwafi9Fm2hfFvsxP-AtBK=s748" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="748" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhatuqTALoX1hRk5aLFqKqVaHIkK5uP64VwxSMBecrMyJWzV-ElQDrrBME5YU-hAiIDNRLsGOzyrHBPM-m4psbNhgL90PAGDPMeEGSWiiF5a79TFfak12NG7ipH2NWu3GRiZY9GaK9evibuLXn8_lxc5L-h6BX7WHQKhRZnwafi9Fm2hfFvsxP-AtBK=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4zP42xFc3qUSMCfQrp3FR4rtdxPIrilkpCY0VtKilPnOX4R5FHUZZJOFWl8k1g6qjf7SRcuVzZ3HWlIV4YKYNjCnzIk0RaeyBsZ01ZMUJnhg3hC162fQVOWAlXAxwGLuR-H3d4gzfbjfEc0n3Z3h2cOqYZbeBI9TR1S6a7BuznbbCM2aIEYjUGFfv=s758" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="758" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4zP42xFc3qUSMCfQrp3FR4rtdxPIrilkpCY0VtKilPnOX4R5FHUZZJOFWl8k1g6qjf7SRcuVzZ3HWlIV4YKYNjCnzIk0RaeyBsZ01ZMUJnhg3hC162fQVOWAlXAxwGLuR-H3d4gzfbjfEc0n3Z3h2cOqYZbeBI9TR1S6a7BuznbbCM2aIEYjUGFfv=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxShg2101PNOSySEILAdEyxf27fANkt3dYf_OXDUNMibUGPkf7vQI5qwhYvbLq3Pc5W7v2VL75CdmufyFypJav4_n2TI4y5s855gtLN81FMINuS2Fd_qSR_vCALTWjZndPP1sIwIZbHhvYAWN7A49jSNQyeEffq93n9_1juO8lPJOPEh_xljhuhG14=s758" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="758" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxShg2101PNOSySEILAdEyxf27fANkt3dYf_OXDUNMibUGPkf7vQI5qwhYvbLq3Pc5W7v2VL75CdmufyFypJav4_n2TI4y5s855gtLN81FMINuS2Fd_qSR_vCALTWjZndPP1sIwIZbHhvYAWN7A49jSNQyeEffq93n9_1juO8lPJOPEh_xljhuhG14=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgfrOh2QFHNojTv5_0wbBf1nt1EhZ23nu9UqwXzSwC-MbcYXzrL9gypFUdXX2m9YrVPTMDgd8mUSdI6593-XjfIJewvgGK8L7kv7TOE5po_ZzR6PF4cagxniE8lbwLy_7bPIzQW8i0exYmUMkaa7WLbLHx6i5mIGICEQAoJfcUy4enioXKD_ccKpDWD=s774" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="232" data-original-width="774" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgfrOh2QFHNojTv5_0wbBf1nt1EhZ23nu9UqwXzSwC-MbcYXzrL9gypFUdXX2m9YrVPTMDgd8mUSdI6593-XjfIJewvgGK8L7kv7TOE5po_ZzR6PF4cagxniE8lbwLy_7bPIzQW8i0exYmUMkaa7WLbLHx6i5mIGICEQAoJfcUy4enioXKD_ccKpDWD=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /> <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let’s start with the spring
greens/roots beds. Note that yields were generally lower than the best
previous, but not out of line with some previous years. I think that weather
issues contributed to the lower yields. While April skewed cool and wet, we
experienced cool and dry weather in May. June was warmer than normal and quite
dry until the last week of the month. Since the majority of the time these
crops were actively growing was dry, I suspect that I under-watered the garden,
leading to lower yields than I might otherwise have observed. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The autumn greens/roots bed
under-performed compared to the best previous year. Again I think that weather
issues contributed to the lower yields. Excessively hot weather began after I
direct-sowed the crops, resulting in spotty germination, and continued through
October. In addition, we received lower than average precipitation in
September, October, and November; in fact, it was the third driest November on
record for St. Louis, Missouri where I live. I have noted before that during
hot, dry growing conditions autumn greens and roots yield consistently lower
than when temperature and precipitation are closer to average, and 2021
followed that pattern. Importantly, yields were at least as good as during
other hot, dry autumns, suggesting that adding enough wood ashes to supply all
the phosphorus did not negatively affect the yields.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the popcorn beds, squirrels ate
every kernel of every ear long before they were ripe, thus I cannot compare
yields with wood ashes to yields without them. Mike took advantage of his
hunting license to harvest several squirrels once the season began, so at least
we did eat a little of what they ate. The damage had already been done by that
time, so the most I can hope for is that the squirrels we have already eaten, and any
more we eat before hunting season closes, reduce the population enough to
reduce their feeding in 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Among the crops in the bean bed, the
‘Super Marconi’ green pole beans under-performed compared to 2020, most likely
because I failed to provide them with enough vertical poles and horizontal
strings to allow them to climb properly. Some of the bean plants sprawled on
the ground as a result, allowing beans to rot and be eaten by other critters before I could harvest them. I believe that had I set up the tower properly, the
plants would have yielded about as well as the 2020 plants did. On the other
hand, the cowpeas yielded much better in 2021 than in 2020, although not as
well as a different variety planted closer together yielded in 2017. This
suggests that the wood ashes did not have a negative effect on bean-family
plants.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yields in the squash beds were less in
2021 than in 2020, when this bed received a steady supply of nitrogen via
urine, but not out of line with previous years. The cucumbers, zucchini, and
summer squash plants all died early compared with 2020. Winter squash, on the
other hand, yielded better in 2021 than in 2020. I took more care to pick the
winter squash as it ripened in 2021 than I did in 2020, which may explain some
of the yield increase. The results suggest that the wood ash application did
not negatively affect the yield compared to most years prior to 2020, while
urine applied steadily over the growing season as in 2020 appears to increase
yields compared to a one-time application of cottonseed meal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yields were excellent, on par with the
best previous yields, for all the eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes
(nightshade-family crops) except for the ‘Old German’ tomatoes. This suggests
that urine to supply nitrogen and wood ashes to supply phosphorus can be
applied together, and that this combination works as well, at least for
nightshade-family crops, as does the combination of cottonseed meal for
nitrogen and phosphate rock for phosphorus. I’m very encouraged by this result!
It means I might be able to supply almost all of the nitrogen and minerals that
the garden soil needs to produce nutritious food with urine and wood ashes, two
materials we produce here at home and that would otherwise be lost to the
biogeochemical cycles that sustain life here on Earth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Looking at the fruits, the only fruit
that yielded well in 2021 was strawberries. Dry weather during harvest kept the
berries from rotting and gave me no excuses to avoid the labor of harvest. Unlike
the pawpaw and persimmon flowers, the strawberry flowers survived the late
April freeze. So did the young apples. I was really looking forward to a good
crop of all three apple varieties … but well before they were ripe, the
squirrels showed up and decided all of the apples, and what few persimmons
formed, belonged to them. And they made good on their decision. They deigned to
leave us a handful, or maybe they didn’t notice them. As for the raspberries,
the plants seem to have weakened; they didn’t form as many berries as usual.
Raspberries are prone to diseases that reduce yields, so I think the garden is
telling me that if I want to keep eating raspberries, I need to provide it with
some new plants.<br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That’s it for now. The next post will
be what I’ll ask the 2022 garden. See you then!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-37107190100741263742022-01-04T16:59:00.001-06:002022-01-04T16:59:08.050-06:00Backyard garden reality revisited, part 4: sensible backyard gardens for temperate climates<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">In the <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2021/11/backyard-gardening-reality-revisited.html">previous post</a> I concluded that because of constraints
on land, time, and storage space, and because of the eating problems that can
develop from a monotonous diet, my complete diet design for a vegan diet in my
climate isn’t practical. Let’s take a look at the various factors feeding
into its impracticality and on that basis decide what kind of a backyard garden
better fits reality for most people in temperate climates.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the reasons the complete diet garden meme has gotten
as much traction as it has is because the organization that first developed and
promoted it, Ecology Action, is located in Willits, California. The USDA has
developed zone maps to show the average minimum temperature of any part of the
US. The coldest USDA zone found in Ecology Action’s zip code, 95490, is 8b,
with an average annual minimum temperature of 15 to 20F / minus 9 to minus 7C.
Much of it is in zone 9a, with an average annual minimum temperature of 20 to 25F
/ minus 7 to minus 4C. For comparison, I live in zone 6b, with an average
annual minimum temperature of minus 5 to 0F / minus 21 to minus 18C. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">December 2021 was St. Louis’ third warmest December on
record, with a minimum temperature matching zone 9a portions of Willits’ zip
code. For the entire month I harvested greens from my outdoor garden because it
didn’t get cold enough to kill them. If it had dropped to zone 8b conditions I
still could have harvested the hardier greens like kale and arugula during the
entire month. If I could leave many plants in the garden until they begin
bolting in spring as Ecology Action can in Willits, that would save the time
otherwise required to harvest and process them for storage as well as the space
and cost requirements of storing them. Those of you who live in climates where
you can garden year round in open gardens can grow a larger fraction of the
foods that you eat with a lower investment of time than required where I live.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The choice of a vegan diet was a bigger factor in making the
garden design impractical, however. Cultures in cold-winter areas include
animal foods for calories, protein, and fats because animals can be processed,
stored, and eaten during cold weather when plants are mostly dead or dormant. Most
cultures in temperate climates raise and/or hunt animals for meat along with
practicing gardening and agriculture for plant foods. Cultures with very short
growing seasons rely heavily on animal foods. Animals convert plant foods that we
cannot eat, like grasses, into animal flesh that we can eat. Because Mike and I
eat animal foods for protein, I do not need to grow a high fraction of
protein-dense crops in my garden. Not over-eating animal foods and buying them
as often as possible direct from area ranchers, or from a grocer who buys them
direct from area ranchers, keeps the cost reasonable and supports the local
economy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Including large areas of dry corn and dry beans, plants that
don’t produce a lot of weight per unit of garden area, in the complete diet
design increases the size of the garden and the work associated with it. In a
complete diet garden corn and dry beans are included because even though their
harvested weight per unit area is low, their calories and protein per unit area
are high. Vegans and vegetarians include large quantities of grains and dry
beans in their diet to provide them with enough calories and protein, and
omnivores also eat grains and dry beans. But there is another option for
growing grains and dry beans other than in small backyard gardens.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Grains, especially corn, and dry beans don’t need the daily
attention that a garden with lots of different kinds of vegetables does. In my
hot-summer climate, as long as corn is planted when the soil temperature suits
it (late April and throughout May), it germinates and grows tall rapidly. It
can outgrow shorter weeds and still be productive. The ears dry down at about
the same time so it only needs to be harvested once. If it’s grown at the right
spacing it can be grown on the water that rain provides. Dry beans need a
little more attention but not that much more. This is why, when you drive
through the US Midwest, you’ll see vast fields of corn and soybeans between
towns and cities but no fields of, say, lettuce or tomatoes, except in very
small farms at the edges of cities. The same holds true for cultures with much
less fossil fuel energy-dependent farming methods such as the Amish. Drive
through the <a href="https://ohiosamishcountry.com/">Amish areas of Ohio</a>, for instance, and you’ll see a patchwork of
fields of grains or beans and pastures for large animals extending between the
houses. Near the houses you’ll see gardens of mixed vegetables and perhaps some
fruit trees, and you might also see a chicken coop or beehives or other small
animal housing. The large fields are worked with horse-drawn implements, while the mixed gardens near the house are grown and maintained with
human labor and their products go straight to the kitchen for eating or
preserving. This mix of field agriculture, small home gardens, and animal
husbandry is common within cultures in temperate climates. It allows for a
combination of human and animal labor to grow vegetables, fruits, grains, and
animal foods with little if any contribution from fossil fueled tools. The
Amish enjoy a wide variety of plant foods over the growing season and beyond
because their home gardens and fruit trees include a wide variety of plants
that reward time and attention. They can also provide most of the calories,
protein, and fats that they need from their fields and animals. Anyone who
lives in a temperate climate and is interested in growing a large fraction of
their food is well advised to study their example – and to remember that the
Amish live with fewer material goods than most of us and swap time spent at
corporate jobs, the daily commute, and the internet and tv for time spent in
fields and gardens and on housework, on child and elder care, and on small
home-based businesses.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another consideration that favors fields of grains and beans
away from trees and greenbelts is reducing losses to mammal pests. My entire
2021 crop of popcorn was eaten by squirrels long before any of the ears were
ready for harvest because my yard and the nearby yards have many large trees
that provide squirrels with shelter and food. The squirrels probably considered the popcorn
a source of variety in their diet. I don’t have enough clear space around the
garden to discourage squirrels from entering it for fear their predators will
find and eat them first. But a farm can be set up with such a clear space
surrounding the fields. The bigger the field is, the less likely that any
mammal predator will cause significant yield losses. My vegetable and potato
crops, on the other hand, have little trouble with predators – other than me,
of course.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For those of us like Mike and me who live on urban and
suburban lots, it doesn’t make sense to grow enough grains or dry beans to make
a big dent in our calorie or protein needs. Even if we have enough land for it
– and most of us don’t – the nature of our lives doesn’t reward the time and
effort required. Grains and dry beans are easy to find at a reasonable cost at
grocery stores. The Asian grocers in the St. Louis region always have 25 and 50
pound bags of rice and 4 pound bags or boxes of dry beans and peas on hand. Other ethnic grocers carry different kinds of bulk grains and dry beans. Online
sources of bulk grains and dry beans are also available. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Putting all of this together, it suggests that the best way
to garden in a back yard is the way that people have gardened in them all
along: growing high value vegetable and fruit crops for fresh use and/or
preservation in small plots that offer the gardener a chance to work in harmony
in nature while allowing time for the rest of the gardener’s life. Depending on
the gardener’s time and interest and the conditions of the available space, a
backyard garden might contain only a few crops that the gardener especially
enjoys growing and eating fresh, such as tomatoes. It might include specialty
crops or special varieties of more common crops that the gardener cannot obtain
at the grocery store or through farmers markets, such as those used in
particular cuisines. It might be sized for preserving certain crops by canning,
drying, fermenting, and/or juicing or wine-making. It might be something like
my own garden, which provides a wide variety of crops during most of the
growing season for primarily fresh use or low-tech storage. And so on. The
backyard garden isn’t a substitute for a farm but a supplement to it that can
give its practitioners high quality, high nutrition, delicious fresh vegetables
and fruits produced at home, where they can be lovingly cared for and enhance
the gardener’s life through working with nature as well as through the enjoyment
of eating what is grown and its positive
effects on health.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the next post I’ll share my 2021 gardening results and
what questions I’ll ask the garden in 2022.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-10744899260790583102021-11-28T17:43:00.000-06:002021-11-28T17:43:54.279-06:00Backyard gardening reality revisited, part 3: the complete-diet design collides with reality<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXirtTtBz4tVfVIuXNWefN5DZzX9j7CGwD2J_i-aLR_45ZY1aSN28e5V7exUS9-Cu8T-hvhgXElsfg9Bzs3ptoSHNIkoSMsAmFHuOIxY89OeweOeLHHynpxqEPccosRoo7d-ZVudbTpU/s2048/2021-11-17+13.44.22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXirtTtBz4tVfVIuXNWefN5DZzX9j7CGwD2J_i-aLR_45ZY1aSN28e5V7exUS9-Cu8T-hvhgXElsfg9Bzs3ptoSHNIkoSMsAmFHuOIxY89OeweOeLHHynpxqEPccosRoo7d-ZVudbTpU/s320/2021-11-17+13.44.22.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">The greens and roots bed on November 17<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The last post included a complete-diet design for a 2100
square foot garden (twenty-one 100 square foot beds), using crop varieties that
I grow and yields I have obtained for them, which can provide marginally enough
calories and sufficient protein and calcium for one vegan adult for one year in
a good growing year. Now I want to look more critically at the practicality of
that design, in garden terms and also in kitchen and eating terms. How would
your life change if you were to attempt to grow and eat from this garden, and
are those changes acceptable to you?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>How much of your backyard is needed for such a garden?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The space required for the garden will be more than 2100
square feet, because you’ll need paths around each of the beds in order to
reach all the space in each bed. I can reach a little more than two feet, so a
four foot bed width works for me. At 64 years old I am still limber enough that
I can leave a one foot wide space between the long side of each bed, but I
don’t know for how much longer this will be the case. For those of you who need
a smaller bed width or a wider path between beds than I use, you’ll need a
larger garden area to accommodate beds and the paths around them than I need.
Conversely, if you have a longer arm reach than I do, your beds can be wider
and you will need a smaller garden area for the same width paths as I use.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The 12 beds in my garden are arranged in two groups of six
beds, oriented with the long sides on an east-west axis. There is a six foot
wide path between the two groups of beds and a five foot wide path around the
edges of the twelve beds as a unit. You’ll need this much space to easily get a
garden cart or wheelbarrow to either short end of each bed – and you’ll need a
cart or wheelbarrow to transport compost and possibly other amendments to your
beds. Because I have to fence around the paths and beds to keep rabbits from
eating most of the garden, my current 1200 square feet of growing space
requires closer to 2000 square feet of fenced-off space in the backyard. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s hazard a guess that twenty-one 100 square foot beds will
require at least 3000 square feet total to include the paths between and around
the beds and at least another clear space of 1000 to 2000 square feet around that
to keep anything larger than small shrubs from shading the garden. That means
anywhere from 4000 to 5000 square feet is restricted to the actual garden beds,
the paths between and around them, and an area that cannot be planted to
anything bigger than small shrubs. In the US a typical suburban lot might be
about ¼ acre, or 10,000 square feet in size. That means the backyard is
probably no more than about 5000 square feet or so. In other words, my complete-diet
garden design will require the majority to nearly all of the backyard space
available in a typical suburban lot to be devoted to the garden. Most
city-dwellers have smaller lots, sometimes much smaller, than this. And even
people who have a large enough backyard may have various issues that prevent
devoting this much space to vegetables, such as steep slopes or existing large
trees on their own or neighboring lots. The complete-diet design, in other
words, requires more space than most homeowners in the US have available for
food gardening.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>How much time will you spend working in this garden?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My current garden of 1200 square feet requires on average 10
to 20 hours a week to prepare, plant, maintain, and harvest from. The garden
design I developed is not quite twice as large so a first estimate of the time
required for it will be on average 20 to 40 hours a week, or the equivalent of
a part to full time job. In case you think my estimate is too large, take a
look at <a href="https://www.peakprosperity.com/increasing-our-gardening-resilience/">this post</a> from an urban gardener with a very large property (2 acres,
about twice the size of my lot) who keeps about 2000 square feet of growing
space for vegetables. He reports that to keep up that garden plus the fruits,
berries, and grapes that he also grows requires the equivalent of about one
full time job for one person. Let’s say that you as the gardener are trying to
raise all of your food using my garden design and keep up a full time job … you
won’t be doing much else besides your job and gardening.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>What preservation methods will be needed, and when will
you need to plant, harvest, and preserve the crops?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My design is based on my living in zone 6,
where I cannot grow anything in open beds for three to four months of the year.
Not even kale will overwinter successfully here. Thus my design squeezes a
year’s worth of food into a little more than half a year’s growing time. A lot
of the food from the garden will need to be stored and preserved in various ways. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The only crops that provide fresh food before the potato
harvest in August are beets, garlic, and potato onions. I chose beets for the
design because they can be planted in April and mature in
July, the seedlings can be thinned for some food before the remainder mature,
and both the root and leaves can be eaten. Once they mature, they can be
harvested as needed and left in the bed until the temperature drops below the
mid 20sF in autumn. I know many people don’t like beets, me among them, but
Mike likes them so I grow them every year. I currently grow cabbage-family
crops for late spring into summer fresh food, but I already have as many of
them as I can fit into the design and still allow for crop rotation. Keeping
them growing over the summer inevitably draws destructive insect pests that
destroy the seedlings for autumn crops, when I include them in the design and when I also grow them for fresh food, as you can see from the photo above. If I could keep carrots alive in the garden
over the summer I would include them in the design rather than beets because
both Mike and I eat them, but many carrots rot or are eaten by small mammals during August and September,
while beets do not rot and are not eaten by other mammals. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From late winter or early spring until August, then, you’ll be
eating mostly stored food, plus some harvested beets, garlic, and onions. Once
the potato harvest begins it’ll be necessary to eat potatoes … lots of potatoes
… every day. That’s because you’ll have 400 or so pounds of potatoes to eat
before they sprout too much to be edible. Where will you store all of those
potatoes? If you have a good place to store potatoes they might last into
February, but I don’t; I’d have to start preserving them in November or
December as they begin to sprout. And you’ll mostly stop eating corn once you
harvest the potatoes, because corn will keep for years as seeds while the
potatoes will keep for only a few months as whole potatoes. You’ll eat corn later,
after you finish eating squash and potatoes and before the next potato crop matures.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sometime in August or September you’ll also gain fresh
soybeans (edamame) to eat. You’ll freeze or can a large proportion of the crop
soon after harvest because it won’t store for long, and it’ll rot otherwise. As
September goes on you’ll start eating thinned plants from the turnip and bok
choy beds, and the squashes will mature by then. You can keep the squash in
your living space and eat it over the next few months, but keep an eye on it
and be ready to cook and freeze or can it once the stored squash begin to show
a tendency to rot (and you also need enough space to store all that squash).
You can start eating the leeks now too; they will be full size, and you can
pull and eat them until the ground freezes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In October and November you’ll have the most fresh food
available: by now you’ll be eating, and also cooking and freezing or canning,
turnip greens and roots and bok choy. You’ll have lots of turnip roots to store
– do you have enough space for them? I find that turnips keep in my makeshift root
cellar through late February, so if you have enough space, you can keep and eat
from them until then and cook and freeze or can the rest. You’ll plant some of
the potato onions and all of the garlic for next year’s crop during this time
as well. These will keep for a long time as long as you have cool, dry storage
space for them.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfkld_PxU1m3ylxmKHADy2KVPdmTN2gWhmqQJ6-IyBPlZa4hcUij5519T28YFGa7r8rqWv9Pr4wwym8wvwPERKIGHIj08t1PMEICRHSf_WKlCBvMvlrDKuhyphenhyphencU0WQkvXPMC0Z4RUsdT0/s2048/2021-11-17+13.45.56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsfkld_PxU1m3ylxmKHADy2KVPdmTN2gWhmqQJ6-IyBPlZa4hcUij5519T28YFGa7r8rqWv9Pr4wwym8wvwPERKIGHIj08t1PMEICRHSf_WKlCBvMvlrDKuhyphenhyphencU0WQkvXPMC0Z4RUsdT0/s320/2021-11-17+13.45.56.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">A turnip, ready to pick and eat<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At some point in November to early December it will get so
cold that you’ll have to harvest everything remaining. Better make sure you
have plenty of time to process the leeks, turnip greens, and bok choy; none of
them store well in my makeshift root cellar.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In March, after the ground thaws completely, you’ll plant
the remainder of the potato onion beds. After that you’d better freeze all of
the remaining potato onions, because they’ll sprout very soon if they haven’t
already. Keep an eye on the garlic too; if it begins to sprout, you’ll need to
freeze it too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’ll also be starting
leek seeds at the beginning of the month so you have leeks to transplant in
April. Everything else is direct-seeded.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After March, the carbohydrate in your diet will be some
combination of preserved squash, preserved potatoes, and/or something you make
from ground corn. For vegetables you’ll be eating from your frozen or canned
stock of what you harvested from the previous year’s crops.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In early April you’ll start the bed of beets from seeds and
plant the leek seedlings as soon as they are large enough, and you’ll also
plant the potato beds. In late April and through May you’ll plant the corn and
squash beds. In June you’ll harvest the garlic and potato onions, then plant
the soybeans in those beds. In July you’ll begin harvesting beets. In August
you’ll harvest the potatoes and then start the beds of turnips and bok choy
from seeds. And that brings us back to where we started.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>What processing and kitchen tools will you need?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you expect to can some of the greens and roots, you’ll
need a pressure canner, the incidental tools needed for canning, and a large
number of canning lids, rings, and jars. You don’t need to buy the canning jars
new as long as standard canning lids and rings fit re-used jars. I’ve re-used
grocery store jars for water-bath canning without any issues. You may be able
to find used canning jars in thrift stores or at yard or estate sales. But
you’ll still need to buy new rings the first season – they can be re-used from
year to year as long as they have no rust – and you’ll need to buy new lids
every year according to current safety standards. Some people have had a hard
time finding new canning supplies to purchase the last two years. You’ll also
need a lot of sturdy shelf space in a cool and dry location to keep your canned
goods. Better start looking for shelving now, or figure out how to build the
sturdy shelves you’ll need or hire someone to build them for you. Do you have
enough space for those shelves? And can you afford to buy them or the lumber
used to make them?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You can also blanch and freeze the greens and roots for
later eating (onions and leeks don’t need to be blanched before freezing, but
you’ll want to coarsely chop them first). You’ll need a large stock pot or
steamer for blanching, and plastic freezer bags to hold the foods you’ll
freeze. If you plan to freeze a substantial fraction of the greens and roots,
you’ll need a chest freezer. Do you have the space for a chest freezer, and can
you afford one? Will you be willing to defrost it every month if you get a
cheap one? I don’t defrost ours as often as I should.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you intend to dehydrate any of the crops you’ll grow,
you’ll need a food dehydrator. Since you’ll be harvesting most of the greens
and roots in autumn or early winter when there isn’t enough sun for solar
dehydrating, you’ll have to use an electric dehydrator. That’ll cost you some
electricity, plus you’ll need room to store and use it, and you’ll have to put
up with noise from the fan while it operates.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You’ll need a <a href="https://www.lehmans.com/category/grain-mills#">grain mill</a> to grind the corn into meal or
flour. To grind dent corn with a hand mill, you’ll want one with a flywheel so
you can get enough power behind it to grind the corn to meal in two passes.
It’ll take time, say 20 minutes to a half hour to grind 2 cups of kernels to
about 3 cups of meal. Of course you’ll need space to store and use it. You’ll also need a <a href="https://www.lehmans.com/product/lehmans-cast-iron-corn-sheller/">hand-cranked sheller</a> to shell the 500 or so ears of corn you harvest. And you’ll need a
place to store the ears of corn before you shell them and containers to store
the shelled kernels in. You might be able to get some containers for free from
businesses who buy ingredients in 4 or 5 gallon plastic buckets, otherwise
you’ll need to buy them. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You’ll also need to cook all your meals from scratch, so
you’ll need all the standard kitchen appliances and tools and you’ll want
cookbooks that tell you how to cook the foods that you’ve grown. If you cook
large quantities at one time and can keep what you don’t eat in a refrigerator,
you might not need to cook meals every day. But you’ll cook a lot more than you
do now.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Are there sufficient fats in the design for good health?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One aspect of the complete-diet design that I did not investigate
is whether or not the fat content is sufficient. A range of fats are required
for good health. However, determining whether the diet has a sufficient amount
of fat is less straightforward than determining if it has enough calories,
protein, or calcium. For that reason I did not choose to calculate the fat
content, although I will hazard a guess that it is insufficient based on what
the design includes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Will you be able to eat a monotonous diet with little
fresh food for several months?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, I address the psychological issue of whether or not
you would be willing to eat this way even if you can make everything else work.
A complete-diet garden relies on a small number of crops that provide a lot of
nutrition for the garden space that they require. This is as true for the
designs in <i>One Circle</i> (10 crops in the northern version, 11 crops in the
southern version) as it is for my 2100 square foot design (10 crops). Even
people who eat vegan diets eat a much wider variety of crops than are in any of
the diet designs I’ve seen. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’ve heard many people say that if you are hungry enough,
you’ll eat anything. However, after eating boiled eggs every morning for the
past 5 years I’m no longer willing to eat boiled eggs, though I ate fried eggs
day in and day out for more years than that and never got tired of them. How
long would it take for you to start disliking any of the foods in the diet
enough that you’ll no longer be willing to eat them, even if you do have a wide
variety of ways to cook, flavor, and eat them? How long would it take before
the very low level of sugar and fats in the design bored you to the point where
you could no longer face eating the foods you have grown, even if you like them
in the quantities you now eat? I would not last long on such an austere diet,
even if I liked beets.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I conclude that for reasons of time (growing, harvesting,
processing, and cooking) and the psychological factors of food and eating, not
only could I not turn the complete-diet garden design into reality, but the
number of people who could is very tiny, if it’s not actually zero. But this
extensive criticism of my complete-diet design does provide some insights into
what makes sense for a backyard garden and the people who grow and eat from it
at this particular time. In the final post of this series I’ll discuss this.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-36061600613489961782021-10-14T19:59:00.000-05:002021-10-14T19:59:13.659-05:00Backyard garden reality revisited, part 2: fun with garden design<p><br />
</p><p class="MsoNormal">In the last post I estimated the amount of calories,
protein, and calcium that this year’s vegetable garden design can provide,
using a combination of yields obtained for crops already harvested and the best
yields I have obtained from previous years’ gardens for those crops still in
the ground or that failed. I want to emphasize once again that I used actual
yields that I have obtained for actual varieties in my actual garden in order
to do this nutritional analysis. All other attempts that I know of to analyze
the nutrition available from a small backyard garden have assumed Ecology
Action’s mid-range yields for a small number of crops that may or may not grow
in a particular region. Furthermore, the minimum-area designs in <a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/publications_main.html#OneCircle"><i>One Circle</i></a> do
not allow for easy crop rotation, so it might be difficult to sustain yields
over a period of years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My 2021 garden falls far short of providing enough nutrition
to sustain one adult human for a year because it does not grow a large enough
area of high-calorie crops such as grains, potatoes, leeks, and garlic.
Suppose, then, I design the garden in blocks that I can rotate such that no
plant family is repeated in the same bed more often than once in four years and
include higher percentages of the high-calorie crops in the design than I do in
my actual garden. Crop rotation reduces the buildup of pests and diseases that
can happen when crops of one plant family are grown repeatedly on the same land
area, and it also helps to avoid imbalances in soil minerals that can build up
under the same conditions. What is the minimum area of this type of design to
provide an adult with a full year’s worth of calories, protein, and calcium?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/">Ecology Action</a> suggests that a minimum-area garden should
have grain and fava bean crops planted in about 60% of the garden, potatoes or
other high-calorie root crops in about 30% of the garden, and the rest planted
to all the other crops. If we are to have a four year rotation between crop
families like the grass family (corn), the bean family (soybeans) and the
nightshade family (potatoes), then a garden plan allowing for that rotation
would include one block of corn; one block of soybeans; one block of potatoes;
and one block containing crops in plant families other than those three. This
last block should contain substantial amounts of Ecology Action’s other special
root crops, as given on page 40 of the 8<sup>th</sup> edition of <a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/publications_main.html"><i>How to Grow
More Vegetables</i></a> (HTGMV). </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let’s start with a 1600 square foot garden design containing
four blocks of 400 square feet each. Each 400 square foot block contains four
100 square foot beds. I’ll design the garden as follows.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 1: four 100 square foot beds of dent corn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 2: four 100 square foot beds of soybeans, harvested
green.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 3: four 100 square foot beds of potatoes. After the
potato harvest two of the beds are planted to turnips (cabbage family), with
both the greens and the roots being eaten, while the other two beds are planted
to bok choy (cabbage family).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The four beds in Block 4 will be planted as follows:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One 100
square foot bed to winter squash (cucurbit family)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One 100
square foot bed to beets (amaranth family)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One 100
square foot bed planted half to leeks and half to elephant garlic (allium
family)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One 100
square foot bed planted to potato onions (allium family)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Notice that the garden design allots about 25% of the garden
area to a grain (corn) and another 25% to soybeans (not fava beans as HTGMV
recommends, which don’t grow well in this climate). About 30% is planted to
potatoes, garlic, and leeks among the special root crops. The other beds are
planted to other crops that yield well in my garden and are good sources of
various nutrients but are not as efficient at producing either calories or
protein. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The spreadsheet below shows the calories, protein, and
calcium this garden design provides. The values for calories, protein,
and calcium per pound for each crop were obtained from the 8<sup>th</sup>
edition of HTGMV. The yields are the best I have obtained for that crop as
shown in the spreadsheet in my post on the 2020 garden results or, for crops
that have already been harvested, the yields I have obtained in 2021. As with
the previous post, I compared the result to the daily requirements for
calories, protein, and calcium as given in the book <i>One Circle</i>.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwGpPz8YwsGmxw0KKeDZbXTx_EvKrIrA9mkVM23EGc2uWZGAm62KZQhBfQqDY-cg5K-WRFKpkNMJl61pNP-RcC45LZ8nsFV1gWgiuM3V3g3E9cmlCsov67K1YOx7P5tiBwEa_b1wcmcA/s1612/1600+sq+ft+design.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="1612" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjwGpPz8YwsGmxw0KKeDZbXTx_EvKrIrA9mkVM23EGc2uWZGAm62KZQhBfQqDY-cg5K-WRFKpkNMJl61pNP-RcC45LZ8nsFV1gWgiuM3V3g3E9cmlCsov67K1YOx7P5tiBwEa_b1wcmcA/s320/1600+sq+ft+design.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is encouraging; the calories have more than doubled compared
to the 2021 garden design although still not up to the daily need, protein is
borderline, and there is more than enough calcium. Suppose I increase the
garden design to 2000 square feet, planted as follows:
</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 1: five 100 square foot beds of dent corn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 2: five 100 square foot beds of soybeans.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 3: five 100 square foot beds of potatoes followed by
three 100 square foot beds of turnips and two 100 square foot beds of bok choy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 4: one 100 square foot bed each of garlic, leeks,
beets, potato onions, and squash.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The spreadsheet below gives the calories, protein, and
calcium for this garden design. The values are higher, but still short of the
daily requirement for calories.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi600yKuX3mECk1IZ4WsEYW-CDTo0WnQCWhuPrzohSjCXhSu6p_qzgTlrocB8qK8TDxDA3UAQLq6j4V0DoxwK8wB24-Lw5cSQycgLnSc7ie2GxRSFOM2ugixDWjkJlHByaljGWA0zT7xGI/s1608/2000+sq+ft+design.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="1608" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi600yKuX3mECk1IZ4WsEYW-CDTo0WnQCWhuPrzohSjCXhSu6p_qzgTlrocB8qK8TDxDA3UAQLq6j4V0DoxwK8wB24-Lw5cSQycgLnSc7ie2GxRSFOM2ugixDWjkJlHByaljGWA0zT7xGI/s320/2000+sq+ft+design.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If I designed a garden with a higher percent of the area
devoted to corn and potatoes, a garden of about this size would provide an even
higher fraction of the daily requirement for calories and protein. To do this,
let’s consider a design with a three year rotation, as in my real-life
garden. Here’s a design for a 1500 square foot garden with a three year
rotation:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 1: five 100 square foot beds of dent corn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 2: five 100 square foot beds of potatoes, followed by
three 100 square foot beds of turnips and two 100 square foot beds of bok choy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 3: two 100 square foot beds of potato onions followed
by soybeans, harvested green; 50 square feet of garlic followed by soybeans; 50
square feet of leeks; one 100 square foot bed of beets; one 100 square foot bed
of winter squash.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37kWRnPuCg_MJeebDVgLzRfFtXHJcC8jp2Bf_9YsnRxyPFY9O93PLoM6Xf_wpyVUxi4Fys_Ee5NeXp_BY-6_zz87Kkp1jAcNCfmqKZBSTS9K2Vkn32tEx54SdNJpEkqXyKbePfFXTxpM/s1620/1500+sq+ft+design.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="1620" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg37kWRnPuCg_MJeebDVgLzRfFtXHJcC8jp2Bf_9YsnRxyPFY9O93PLoM6Xf_wpyVUxi4Fys_Ee5NeXp_BY-6_zz87Kkp1jAcNCfmqKZBSTS9K2Vkn32tEx54SdNJpEkqXyKbePfFXTxpM/s320/1500+sq+ft+design.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This design provides almost as many calories as the 2000
square foot design in a smaller space than the 1600 square foot design. My
three year rotation scheme has kept pests and disease at a low-enough level for
the past decade, so I think that a three year rotation plan is good enough.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Could a 2100 square foot garden with a three year crop
rotation provide enough calories for one vegan adult for a year? Let’s find
out. Here is the design:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 1: seven 100 square foot beds of dent corn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 2: seven 100 square foot beds of potatoes, followed by
six 100 square foot beds of turnips and one 100 square foot bed of bok choy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Block 3: two 100 square foot beds of beets; one 100 square
foot bed of winter squash; one 100 square foot bed of leeks; one 100 square
foot bed of garlic; two 100 square foot beds of potato onions. The garlic and
potato onion beds are followed by soybeans (three 100 square foot beds).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And here is the spreadsheet:</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1Y7E_qzNGGV_lRyBrG37GFan9vA7DajEM1M57U_VjPxL8TZUh0rRBAh-NGtwcIAckPi0vwPKvFn1lWDbEfWYPXmVEEwhyxySrPFcvRR2tbZpDZNoK3IY3Mmyk6OWlhkiLUKQOMNJZeM/s1626/2100+sq+ft+design.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="624" data-original-width="1626" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1Y7E_qzNGGV_lRyBrG37GFan9vA7DajEM1M57U_VjPxL8TZUh0rRBAh-NGtwcIAckPi0vwPKvFn1lWDbEfWYPXmVEEwhyxySrPFcvRR2tbZpDZNoK3IY3Mmyk6OWlhkiLUKQOMNJZeM/s320/2100+sq+ft+design.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, a design that provides marginally enough calories
and more than sufficient protein and calcium for one vegan adult for a year;
that allows for an easy three year crop rotation; and that uses crops I
actually grow, plants them as I do in my garden, and assumes yields I have
actually attained!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now let’s step back and look more closely at the design with
a gardener’s eye.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">First, remember that yields vary from year to year for many different reasons, such as unusual weather conditions,
spotty germination of seeds, pest or disease problems, and/or other issues.
Thus in any one year the actual amount of calories, protein, and calcium
obtained from the harvest may not be as high as the amount shown.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Could that be compensated for by increasing yields?
Possibly. For one, there are far more varieties of each of these crops than I
have tried. Maybe a different variety would yield more than the variety that I
grow.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Or I might be able to plant certain crops more closely
spaced than I have been. I think I could plant garlic, potato onions, and maybe
leeks the same distance apart within the row (6 inches) as I do now but with
rows 8 to 9 inches apart rather than 12 inches apart. It’s possible that corn
stations could be 18 inches apart within a row. Potatoes might be planted 8 or
9 inches apart rather than 12 inches. All of these would increase the number of
plants in a 100 square foot bed, which could increase the yield as long as the
plants still can access sufficient resources from the soil. I haven’t grown
soybeans enough years to know how to best plant them, so I might be able to
increase their yield as well.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Earlier this year I read <a href="https://permies.com/t/138977/perennial-vegetables/Potato-onions-easy-grow-perennial">Kelly Winterton’s publications on potato onions</a> (look toward the bottom for the links). He suggests doing two things to increase the yield of potato
onions: soak them in a weak bleach solution before planting them, and plant
them in early spring rather than in autumn (he spring plants in Utah). While
most of the larger bulbs that I plant in autumn survive the winter under mulch,
many to most of the smaller ones – which is most of what I plant – rot either
before the mulch is removed or in the first month or so afterward. Following Kelly’s
methods might lead to higher yields.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Taking all this together, I feel reasonably safe in saying
that a 2100 square foot garden in the St. Louis region, planted according to my
design, could potentially provide all of the calories, protein, and calcium for
one vegan adult for one year if year-to-year yield variability can be
compensated for by increasing the yields through good variety choice and closer
plant spacing.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">However, there is much more to the minimum-area garden than
a design on paper. As I have discussed before, there are a host of
other issues, from garden labor to preserving the harvest to meal planning to
psychological and cultural issues surrounding diet that I need to address with
the garden design that I have developed, just as I did with the minimum-area
designs in <i>One Circle</i>. In the next post I’ll tackle these.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-49357692986793752792021-08-25T20:03:00.000-05:002021-08-25T20:03:10.753-05:00Backyard garden reality revisited, part 1: can my current garden feed me for a year?<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLSB3PKjCgt4G4focQzZJXbTf-tRq7xTrDL-rKwQJwXOEOgpd2Wx378kfduSeL06Mg-Lr0Rlk3WmBBTCcVgNxvJY_PLTOsawf1fVquPXIklliB0Nuqx7PQz1LpUvC4y5RXBSI7mMwkS30/s2048/2021-08-25+17.34.57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLSB3PKjCgt4G4focQzZJXbTf-tRq7xTrDL-rKwQJwXOEOgpd2Wx378kfduSeL06Mg-Lr0Rlk3WmBBTCcVgNxvJY_PLTOsawf1fVquPXIklliB0Nuqx7PQz1LpUvC4y5RXBSI7mMwkS30/s320/2021-08-25+17.34.57.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">Late summer color provided by sweet coneflowers.<br />
</p><p class="MsoNormal">In 2013 I <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/10/can-you-really-grow-all-your-own-food.html">critiqued</a> a concept that has become embedded in
discussions about living sustainably: that it is possible to
grow all the required calories and nutrients needed to maintain health for a vegan diet for one adult in a
space of 1400 square feet or less. David Duhon designed gardens intended to do
just that using the medium yields for crops in John Jeavons’ book <a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/publications_main.html"><i>How to Grow More Vegetables</i></a> and published his results in the book <a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/publications_main.html"><i>One Circle</i></a>.
While I find the procedure Duhon used to be valuable in analyzing the
nutritional possibilities of a small garden space, a careful reading of that
book and subsequent garden design publications from Ecology Action shows that
these are thought experiments only. The most recent <a href="https://permies.com/t/151516/Plant-Grow-Percentage-Total-Calories">small garden diet design</a>
I’ve seen from a source outside of Ecology Action is also a thought experiment.
I wanted to know if a real gardener in a particular place could obtain high
enough yields to grow a complete diet for a vegan adult in 1400 square feet or less
while also practicing sustainable gardening principles such as crop rotation
and soil re-mineralization. I promptly volunteered myself for the role of that real
gardener and have spent the last 8 growing seasons seeking to answer the
question for my suburban St. Louis, Missouri garden. Now I have learned enough
to wrap up the project in this and the next few posts. I’ll begin with my
current garden design and ask what percentage of an adult vegan’s diet for a
year it can supply. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I garden in a fenced-off area of the backyard with full sun
exposure containing twelve 100 square foot beds separated by paths. <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-tale-of-two-gardening-methods.html">This post</a>
discusses the reasons for my adoption of the gardening techniques and soil
re-mineralization methods described by Steve Solomon rather than those promoted
by Ecology Action. Each report on the previous year’s garden such as <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2021/01/what-2020-garden-told-me.html">the most recent report</a> includes the spacing and timing for each crop I grew that year
and the yield I obtained. I have set up the garden so that the group of three
beds of corn rotates as a block through the nine beds planted to grains or
vegetables, so that any one bed in the garden is grown to corn one year, then
to something other than corn for the next two years. Each of the other beds is
rotated so that no bed is grown to crops of the same plant family two years in
a row. This feature addresses one of the major flaws in Duhon’s designs, the
inability to rotate crops properly. My garden design addresses the climate
limitations of my location, such as the inability to overwinter any crops other
than potato onions and garlic in an open garden. The very short springs and
autumns I experience restrict double-cropping, a feature of Duhon’s designs
that does not translate well to this climate. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The beds in the 2021 garden are planted as follows. Each bed
is 4 feet by 25 feet, for a total of 100 square feet of growing space in each
bed.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of annual and perennial flowers and
herbs, including sorrel, the only crop eaten as a vegetable from this bed</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of strawberries</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of raspberries</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Three beds of popcorn, two of which also include
naked-seeded pumpkin vines</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed consisting of peppers, tomatoes, eggplants,
and basil</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of squash-family plants (summer and
winter squash including zucchini, cucumbers, and muskmelons)</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of overwintering potato onions and
garlic. After June harvest, this bed was replanted to a mix of zinnia,
sunflowers, cucumbers, soybeans (for edamame), and zucchini</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of bean-family plants (green and lima
beans and cowpeas)</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of potatoes. After the potato harvest
this bed was planted to an autumn crop of greens and roots, mostly from the
cabbage family but also to include lettuce</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed of spring-planted greens and roots,
including lettuce, cabbage, bok choy, carrots, beets, and leeks</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The spreadsheet below includes the names of each variety of
each crop that I am growing this year; whether or not the crop is a grain (G),
dry bean (B) or special root crop (R) according to Ecology Action; a yield I
have obtained for that crop, in pounds per 100 square feet; and the number of
square feet of garden space I have allotted for that crop in the 2021 garden. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Because I am in the middle of the growing season, I only
have a yield for 2021 for the crops I have already removed from the garden. On
the spreadsheet, those crops are in <b>bold</b> type. Some of the varieties I’m
growing this year are new to me. Those crops are in <i>italic</i> type. For
these crops, I have reported the best yield I have obtained for a similar
variety that I have grown.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the rest of the crops, I have reported the best yield I
have so far obtained for that crop. Some of the crops may yield better than
that this year. Some may not yield as well. Thus the best I can do is
approximate the percentage of a complete diet for one vegan adult that I will
grow this year. You’ll soon see that this is good enough to answer the
question.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the case of popcorn, some animal – I suspect squirrels –
has already eaten every single ear on every plant. In its place, I have
substituted the dent corn variety that I have grown in previous years and the
best yield I obtained for it, which occurred in 2019. Thus the results given in
the spreadsheet are actually an overestimate of the nutrition that the 2021
garden will provide. However, including it gives an upper limit to how much
nutrition this garden design is capable of providing when everything goes
right.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>How To Grow More Vegetables</i> includes the calories,
protein (in grams), and calcium (in milligrams) for each crop listed in the
Master Charts. Using the total weight of each crop that I have already
harvested or that I can reasonably expect to harvest, I multiplied the
per-pound values given in HTGMV by the weight of each crop in pounds to obtain
the total calories, protein, and calcium provided by that crop. Summing up the
columns for each of those provides the total amount of calories, protein, and
calcium that I estimate I will harvest from the garden in 2021. Then I divided
that number by 365 to obtain the daily amount of each, to compare with the
dietary needs chart on pages 69-71 in <i>One Circle</i>. </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-ZTjwGlOTVdn44HhcBagqA_K0vwWa0tkdUqAZpmaXKxKQan6ww3Pl7LtVbVg6KefyjCBFOIhewY1U-k5HAHHpae-sfNxt2uwajmK7po3LL2E2YtExZ-v2pYm3ZFaDJTy17x5DSgMa2o/s2048/2021+nutrition+from+garden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1842" data-original-width="2048" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-ZTjwGlOTVdn44HhcBagqA_K0vwWa0tkdUqAZpmaXKxKQan6ww3Pl7LtVbVg6KefyjCBFOIhewY1U-k5HAHHpae-sfNxt2uwajmK7po3LL2E2YtExZ-v2pYm3ZFaDJTy17x5DSgMa2o/w370-h333/2021+nutrition+from+garden.jpg" width="370" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No, my current garden will not supply me with sufficient
calories, protein, or calcium to sustain me for a full year. In fact, it falls
quite far from that standard in both calories and protein, by a factor of three
to five. In terms of calcium it does somewhat better, supplying me with close
to half of what I need for a year. Since two adults are
eating from this garden, the garden falls even farther short of supplying us
with a complete diet.<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why does Ecology Action highlight grains, dry beans, and
certain root crops in their gardening method? A look at the spreadsheet gives
the answer. The corn crop provided by far the highest amount of calories
compared to any other crop – more than half of the total, in fact. Potatoes,
one of the special root crops, were also a significant source of calories, as
were soybeans even though they were eaten green rather than dry. If the cowpeas
had yielded better they also would have been a significant source of calories. The
corn, potatoes, and soybeans were also the most significant sources of protein.
Garlic and leeks provided good amounts of calories for the small amount
harvested. This is why Ecology Action recommends allotting about 60% of garden
space to grain crops (this category also includes dry beans), about 30% to high
yielding root crops such as potatoes, garlic, and leeks, and about 10% to
everything else. Such a design, however, has the disadvantage of not allowing
for crop rotation unless you include grain crops that are not in the grass
family, such as sorghum or quinoa, in the grain crop area in sufficient
quantity to avoid growing plants in the same crop family in any bed two or more
years in a row.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Using the current garden design, then, my garden would need
to be four times the size it now is, or 4400 square feet, to provide a
just-sufficient amount of calories and protein for my needs. Could a change in
design using the same crops that also allows for proper crop rotation reduce
the space needed to grow a complete diet? I’ll investigate that possibility in
the next post.</p>
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{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-47958952003024242192021-07-25T18:00:00.000-05:002021-07-25T18:00:42.436-05:00A slice of garden life: the harvest of July 22<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">I have received a request to post pictures of a recent
harvest to this blog. Since I’m still in the process of writing a post on the
nutritional content of this year’s garden and whether or not it would be sufficient
for a complete diet for a vegan adult for a year, this is a good time for a
quick post that’s heavy with pictures. The pictures below show the complete
harvest of July 22.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At this time of year I’m primarily harvesting squashes,
cucumbers, and tomatoes. Although I could have chosen to harvest some beets and
carrots as well, we have enough vegetables in the refrigerator to leave the
beets and carrots in the ground for now. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With that said, let’s begin with the cucumbers and zucchini
I harvested on the 22<sup>nd</sup>. You’ll see them below. The basket is 11.5
inches in diameter. Mike added the cucumbers to the pickling container for us
to eat as pickles later on. We use some of the zucchini raw, adding tomatoes,
onions, and carrots to make a salad. The rest of the zucchini is used in stir-fried
dishes.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2t8FATfw9xpYaIMsKgyuhaalff8t74mnPENhzSbXw6W_FDerWVCJ45O71aIdZ_Pqerm-92t9E7TGwZ6nFAHA4wQAPSa3u2uKm51JxlM04CVzAeMAwg3JL3gcp_XW_-PVlFiCKyaEwIec/s2048/2021-07-22+14.53.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2t8FATfw9xpYaIMsKgyuhaalff8t74mnPENhzSbXw6W_FDerWVCJ45O71aIdZ_Pqerm-92t9E7TGwZ6nFAHA4wQAPSa3u2uKm51JxlM04CVzAeMAwg3JL3gcp_XW_-PVlFiCKyaEwIec/s320/2021-07-22+14.53.34.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the next picture, the same basket holds six ‘Desi’ summer
squash. These will all find their way into stir-fries.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhygIjLJISQurKA5UPHPtsnObVbZQqnA1unQmDfvVxfj6LL_UOfRsExV4EvEMrjVCmWz640hHM1MGctkrXDoedyTRPoyj-twjVfMriNbET9AOOwluwywtkcHKHi-txc_oLxTINtxGnN0NA/s2048/2021-07-22+14.43.36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhygIjLJISQurKA5UPHPtsnObVbZQqnA1unQmDfvVxfj6LL_UOfRsExV4EvEMrjVCmWz640hHM1MGctkrXDoedyTRPoyj-twjVfMriNbET9AOOwluwywtkcHKHi-txc_oLxTINtxGnN0NA/s320/2021-07-22+14.43.36.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Below you’ll see two of the four heirloom tomato varieties I’m
growing in the same basket. The yellow tomato with red stripes is ‘Old German.’
It’s not as productive as the others, but we enjoy it for its flavor and
contrasting color in the summer salads I described. By itself the tomato weighs nearly one
pound! The surrounding tomatoes are ‘Arkansas Traveler,’ a workhorse of a
tomato in this climate. It combines great taste with no green shoulders, depriving
the compost pile of some material and leaving more tomato for us to eat.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-nR2h4iCcLwfd_0yqVbCI97tTBJU5PC23b-4-9-Ppz3UFCuoWm7HI18-grejCUamOeEjSygLiEx9QOkAAkoRn6vSZHgQ6STsC_kcXz5bm6LKquuef85bbGQZt7i11iBHBeomCiKMJ6XY/s2048/2021-07-22+15.05.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-nR2h4iCcLwfd_0yqVbCI97tTBJU5PC23b-4-9-Ppz3UFCuoWm7HI18-grejCUamOeEjSygLiEx9QOkAAkoRn6vSZHgQ6STsC_kcXz5bm6LKquuef85bbGQZt7i11iBHBeomCiKMJ6XY/s320/2021-07-22+15.05.03.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the next picture you’ll see ‘Cherokee Purple’ tomatoes in
the same basket. They are larger, more variable in shape and size, and darker
in color than the ‘Arkansas Traveler’ tomatoes. Like the ‘Old German’ tomatoes,
the ‘Cherokee Purple’ tomatoes sport green shoulders. By green shoulders, I
mean that when these tomatoes are fully ripe, the area around the blossom end
will retain some green color and unripe flavor. We cut the green shoulders off and
compost them. For both of these tomatoes, the taste is worth putting up with
the green shoulders.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCdSAPD0zqF5L-eBYf0GEcgP2cwjXxnpdlZWLnsZUGbnJLNLm8MCkbrIRK0OsrsOnMfU4TGVExLGaHtTQlt_98xu-NhwjEkSl1HAShORzYxIDStyMBWRIT0m4L4eYyQqfZasikMY0WOhU/s2048/2021-07-22+15.27.28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCdSAPD0zqF5L-eBYf0GEcgP2cwjXxnpdlZWLnsZUGbnJLNLm8MCkbrIRK0OsrsOnMfU4TGVExLGaHtTQlt_98xu-NhwjEkSl1HAShORzYxIDStyMBWRIT0m4L4eYyQqfZasikMY0WOhU/s320/2021-07-22+15.27.28.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Each of the three tomatoes already shown find their way into
salads, with excesses being turned into tomato sauce. The final tomato variety
shown below in the same basket, ‘Roma VF’ is a paste tomato that we use
exclusively for tomato sauce. It has less pronounced flavor than the others,
but it also has less water so it adds volume to the sauce.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgHcs1GmW3ECXfS-TRICHaSC_U2UI1N9S14QfbCsRVA4Uq2iRBbS5Ax1UeBuUeRFuBJ10M_M4CzFPGDftuxj7C-VNt45dTK2Q8t-lwaNeU64a9FSISKCnXuYL4j2csnqXjDYeRl7DBO0/s2048/2021-07-22+15.17.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgHcs1GmW3ECXfS-TRICHaSC_U2UI1N9S14QfbCsRVA4Uq2iRBbS5Ax1UeBuUeRFuBJ10M_M4CzFPGDftuxj7C-VNt45dTK2Q8t-lwaNeU64a9FSISKCnXuYL4j2csnqXjDYeRl7DBO0/s320/2021-07-22+15.17.32.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We are still waiting for some other summer crops to size up
(green beans, eggplants, potatoes) or ripen (sweet peppers, raspberries). Today,
the 25<sup>th</sup>, I harvested the first ripe red sweet pepper. Within the
next couple of weeks we should be harvesting the first crops of each of the rest
of these.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s all for now. Enjoy whatever is in season where you
live!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> <br /></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-60730496904695818292021-07-07T21:04:00.005-05:002021-07-11T17:17:54.723-05:00Miscellany<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglN-qpo-VwcS9QQvpKwjKIziC0hTYDS4VbO5eitadecW5sZ7Csb6VsRWiLUWkUw52rlMxoHVAE5pslmwXshSMEwQGyeDE6fQ7Pdf-iRPN7LobP8_scylGlG9ogT1XcZeJhorpcsxzndc4/s2048/2021-05-16+13.50.04.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglN-qpo-VwcS9QQvpKwjKIziC0hTYDS4VbO5eitadecW5sZ7Csb6VsRWiLUWkUw52rlMxoHVAE5pslmwXshSMEwQGyeDE6fQ7Pdf-iRPN7LobP8_scylGlG9ogT1XcZeJhorpcsxzndc4/w320-h240/2021-05-16+13.50.04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Strawberries!<br /></div><div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While you’re waiting for the next post, I have a couple of
announcements.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">First, the Sustainable Backyard Network is holding the
Sustainable Backyard Tour as a virtual event this year. Mike’s and my yard will
be included on the virtual tour, which takes place on Sunday, July 11<sup>th</sup>
on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/SustainableBackyardNetwork">the Network’s YouTube channel</a>. Once you’re there, click on Uploads to see the videos of each yard on the Tour. The one I’m in is called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmhICtbNzXg"><i>The Intelligent Gardener</i></a>. You won’t go wrong watching any of them, because they are full of good ideas for people with small spaces, large spaces, and anything in between. I’ll be watching all of them soon!<br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Second, as of this month Blogger is no longer supporting the
FeedBurner app that allowed you to follow this blog through email. I’m in the
process of moving to FeedBlitz for the follow-by-email function. Those of you
who receive email notice of new posts may find you receive two emails (or maybe
more) of the same post while the changeover occurs. I hope that you’ll be
patient with me as I become comfortable with the new app.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you for reading and for your comments! See you later
this month with the next post.</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p></div>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-43862118351553289312021-05-05T15:16:00.001-05:002021-05-05T15:22:07.218-05:00What I'm asking the garden in 2021<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih7D6pvl01vRfJTLoI00-vxTGUYEKnAQWMdcszLHp6f2JYEeGXAEXtoQODcd7X8zEL-2NRJYbBYknXeeiY3PXynj4akxXiFChR0ozFnjR8bidJjzCXfzc2V1KsdMctr5WRS4u4grPdSHo/s2048/2021-05-04+17.15.01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih7D6pvl01vRfJTLoI00-vxTGUYEKnAQWMdcszLHp6f2JYEeGXAEXtoQODcd7X8zEL-2NRJYbBYknXeeiY3PXynj4akxXiFChR0ozFnjR8bidJjzCXfzc2V1KsdMctr5WRS4u4grPdSHo/s320/2021-05-04+17.15.01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">The garden on May 4. The bed to the left has lettuce, mustard greens, beets, leeks, carrots, cabbage, and bok choy. The bed on the right has potatoes.</span><br />
<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2021/01/what-2020-garden-told-me.html">Since 2018</a> I have been asking my garden if some potential
soil amendments that I produce at home can replace some of the soil amendments
that I import into the garden. Worm castings, one of the potential soil
amendments for replacing nitrogen, turned out to be too difficult to apply and
too low potency for the small amount of it that I have available. I have also
trialed two other materials, urine as a source of nitrogen and wood ashes as a
source of calcium, phosphorus, and potassium.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the last two years the garden told me that urine is as
effective as cottonseed meal to provide nitrogen for some kinds of plants, such
as corn and tomatoes. In other cases, such as for root crops, it may be less
effective than cottonseed meal. It also told me that I can use as much as seven
pounds of wood ashes in a garden bed and not raise the pH too much, but that it
would be preferable to use that much on crops that will make good use of all the
potassium that it brings. However, having only used that large quantity of wood
ashes on one crop family, the alliums (garlic and potato onions) that did not
make the best use of the excess potassium, I did not know how it might affect
other crops. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first two beds I plant each spring are the potato bed
and the bed with greens and roots. I had some cottonseed meal left over from
2019. These crops seem to do better with cottonseed meal than urine. Rather
than take the time to look more closely at the soil test results, I used the
usual amount of cottonseed meal and just enough wood ashes to make up a
magnesium deficiency, using Tennessee brown rock to provide the rest of the phosphorus the beds needed. Then I got those plants into the ground while I gave the
whole issue more thought.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfzHXA6Qz-6qh8aPOJBz-0vsxkEZj9wotmWE7zBvADZM5GrbEhHFy6cL26u0k-rynQp-7_sJu_Q76FA7TYKHngMABwZ3iOkPVRfL9HRZwI8n6rVHb1RMssDFcJhrJaz9Qsz9kF-DPl60/s978/Screen+Shot+2021-05-05+at+2.37.01+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfzHXA6Qz-6qh8aPOJBz-0vsxkEZj9wotmWE7zBvADZM5GrbEhHFy6cL26u0k-rynQp-7_sJu_Q76FA7TYKHngMABwZ3iOkPVRfL9HRZwI8n6rVHb1RMssDFcJhrJaz9Qsz9kF-DPl60/s320/Screen+Shot+2021-05-05+at+2.37.01+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mineral deficits from soil testing. The results from this spring are in the rightmost column.<br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The garden is settling into a pattern of a few small
deficits each season after 8 years of re-mineralization. Organic matter is in the range of 3 to 4%, which is about the best that I can expect
for the amount of compost I add and the heat and length of the growing season.
The pH is in the right range for vegetables and the TCEC shows that the light
silt loam nature of the soil remains unchanged despite adding purchased
humates. On the other hand, sulfur and phosphorus deficits have dropped to low
levels. Part of the reason I am adding the humates is that they can adsorb and
hold sulfur and phosphorus anions; it may be working. The lower the phosphorus
deficit, the more likely it is that I can remedy it by adding sufficient wood
ashes without needing to add such a large amount as to increase the pH above 7.0. The
humates are stable so I should be able to stop adding them at some point.
Magnesium is a little deficient, but I can easily add enough wood ashes to remedy
it. The sulfur deficiency is easy to remedy with gypsum, the boron deficiency is easy to remedy with borax, and the zinc
deficiency is too small to worry about.
</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Having noticed all that, I decided there were two questions for this year’s garden.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Do I want to use cottonseed meal or urine to add
nitrogen to the garden beds this year? Cottonseed meal is easy to apply when I
prepare each bed, but I have to buy it. I make my own urine, but last year’s
results suggest that I don’t make enough of it to provide all the nitrogen that
the spring and summer crops need. I could ask Mike to contribute, but it’s
harder to control the amount I add in that case.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Do I want to use a rock source of phosphorus or
use wood ashes to make up the phosphorus deficiency? Both are easy to
apply when I prepare the bed. I have to buy the rock source. We have wood ashes from the wood stove to make use of,
and this year adding a little over 2 pounds to each bed is enough to remedy the
phosphorus and magnesium deficiency. Most likely I have enough wood ashes for
all of the beds. I will be adding more calcium to an already existing excess if I use wood ashes,
but we get rain during the growing season so it would be almost impossible to
add so much as to create an undesirable layer of caliche. It’s only a 10% or so
excess anyway.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Eventually I realized that I can ask the garden to answer
the following questions this year.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>In the bed in which I planted the tomatoes,
peppers, and eggplants, I added the full 2 plus pounds of wood ashes to remedy
the phosphorus and magnesium deficiencies. This bed produced good yields last
year with urine as the nitrogen source, so I will collect urine for it this
year as well. It will be easy to collect the 15 or so days’ worth of urine that it will need
between now and the beginning of October. This bed will answer the question of
the effect of adding both urine and wood ashes on yield, taste, and disease and
insect pressure.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>I will use the full 2 plus pounds of wood ashes
and cottonseed meal on all remaining beds as long as I have enough wood ashes
to do so. All of these beds will answer the question of the effect of using
wood ashes along with cottonseed meal on yield, taste, and disease and insect pressure.
Only on the bed with garlic and potato onions have I done that before and I
used about a factor of three more wood ashes that time.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That’s all for now. See you in another month or so!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-81611864690896570012021-04-28T14:03:00.000-05:002021-04-28T14:03:02.636-05:00Update and link to interview of me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5J2bimOJxlRjG9stkVeI-AMrabi4XC2WD6Bmx_Cj5wBS_YpFKi6YBBkhYNetvfPLlv6yqe_El4ueHG8Tf_Fz2SH5n3Xjv9wQvxKeUaFAgtqGcfOpdzmFSZkwg5_ho6B2S7QD6mVGhQDo/s2048/2021-04-20+16.27.49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5J2bimOJxlRjG9stkVeI-AMrabi4XC2WD6Bmx_Cj5wBS_YpFKi6YBBkhYNetvfPLlv6yqe_El4ueHG8Tf_Fz2SH5n3Xjv9wQvxKeUaFAgtqGcfOpdzmFSZkwg5_ho6B2S7QD6mVGhQDo/s320/2021-04-20+16.27.49.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">Accumulating snow on April 20. Note the redbuds and dogwood in bloom.</p><p>Last week Mike and I experienced accumulating snow. It's certainly not the first time it has snowed in April in St. Louis. In fact it's not that uncommon to receive snow in early April. However, in the 36 Aprils I have lived in St. Louis, none has included an accumulating snow after the middle of the month, until this one. </p><p>It was bad enough to receive snow, but worse that it was accompanied by two freezes, on the mornings of April 21 (30F) and April 22 (32F). All of the fruit trees except for the persimmons had flowered and leafed out. Only the pawpaw trees show damage to the leaves and flowers, so it could have been worse. I won't know how significantly this year's pawpaw crop has been affected for some time.</p><p>This isn't the post I promised you on what I'm asking the garden this year. After I complete another writing commitment I will write that post. But I do want to draw your attention to Lisa Brunette and her blog Cat In The Flock. Lisa and I met through a mutual interest in John Michael Greer's work and found out we share gardening and blogging interests and write about our gardens, among other topics, on our blogs. Lisa and her husband Anthony Valterra live in another of St. Louis' many suburbs. In the last year or so we've become friends, and I've become a fan of Lisa's blog (you'll see it over on the blogroll). If you enjoy my blog, you'll enjoy Lisa's as well. I really like her and Anthony's sense of style as well as the practical work that they do. They make living with LESS beautiful!</p><p>Recently, as Lisa explains on her blog, she interviewed me and will feature that interview on three posts. You'll find the first post <a href="https://www.catintheflock.com/2021/04/a-life-of-voluntary-simplicity-qa-with-living-low-in-the-lous-claire-schosser.html">here</a>. The next two go live on May 2 and May 5. I encourage you to read them and to enjoy the other posts on Lisa's blog as well. And thanks to Lisa for the interviews and for her work!</p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-72285699048142469072021-04-01T15:51:00.001-05:002021-04-01T15:51:52.379-05:00Peak infrastructure, peak oil<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">In the <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2021/02/when-lights-went-out-in-texas.html">previous post</a> I discussed the severe cold wave in
Texas that came close to crashing the electrical grid for almost the entire
state. The estimated insured loss from the deep freeze in Texas and surrounding
states <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/03/february-2021-was-the-16th-warmest-february-on-record-noaa-reports/">will exceed $10 billion</a>.
That doesn’t include the additional cost for the extreme rate hikes in
electricity and natural gas when many of the plants went offline; ratepayers
will be stuck paying for that for years. Nor does it include the estimated
costs for freeze-proofing any of these systems before the next deep freeze
occurs.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If the Texas electric grid were the only bit of aging
infrastructure that is in desperate need of upgrading, this wouldn’t be a
problem outside of Texas. But it isn’t, not by a long shot. <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/">The ASCE’s collective grade</a> for all US infrastructure is C-.
That’s an average; some of our infrastructure gets D+, D, and even D- grades.
Those of you who want to know the grades for the infrastructure in your own state
can find it on the linked page.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">True, it’s not as if the ASCE is a disinterested observer.
Their members stand to benefit financially from upgrading the country’s
infrastructure, so I expect them to take the most pessimistic view of the situation. But
that doesn’t mean that we aren’t already paying for the infrastructure
we’ve got and the upgrades already occurring. And it doesn’t mean that our
infrastructure doesn’t need any upgrading; just ask anyone who lost electrical
service to freezes, the risk of wildfire, severe storms, and the like, or
anyone who lives downstream of a dam that is at risk of failure, or anyone who
has to play dodge-a-pothole every time they drive.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From time to time, our politicians take notice of our infrastructure. <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biden-infrastructure-plan-details-113700242.html">President Biden has recently proposed a $2 trillion plan</a> that addresses
deficiencies in many of the areas highlighted in the ASCE report. (It also contains
some items that aren’t strictly infrastructure upgrades but are intended to appeal
to the Democratic party base.) <br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most politicians, and most people, probably favor improving
infrastructure, especially the infrastructure that is closest to them and most
obviously in need. But the work can’t be done for free. To pay for the plan, Biden
proposes to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, a proposal that the
Democratic party base will generally favor. However, the Business Roundtable,
made up of the CEOs of the nation’s biggest companies, and the US Chamber of Commerce
have already denounced the tax rate increase, proposing instead that user fees
such as highway and bridge tolls fund the improvements. I’m pretty certain that
most ordinary people, who are already paying for infrastructure maintenance and
improvement via drastic increases in utility bills (our sewer rates have
increased <i>fourfold</i> in the past 17 years and we are being asked to vote
on April 6 for yet another rate hike to pay for a bond issue to fund more work
on the sewer system), aren’t inclined to agree to higher taxes and user fees to
fund the improvements. If I were a betting woman, I’d bet that this proposal
isn’t going anywhere in its current form. No Republican will vote for it, and
enough Democrats won’t that it won’t make it out of the Senate, even if
it gets through the House, and I’m not sure it will get that far. Possibly a
smaller-scaled infrastructure bill will make it through, but such a bill won’t
be enough to do more than fund a few pet projects in a few districts whose
politicians have enough influence to direct dollars toward them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Having noted what should be reasonably obvious – that we aren’t
willing to pay to maintain all of the infrastructure that we already have –
let’s take a look at the entirely new infrastructure that will be required to
expand the use of so-called “green” electricity. “Green” electricity means
electricity that is supposed to release smaller amounts of greenhouse gases
like carbon dioxide and methane into the air than is produced from burning
fossil fuels. The technologies usually considered in this category are solar
and wind powered plants, hydropower (dams), and hydrogen produced from splitting
water by solar power and used to power fuel cells that produce electricity. Hydropower
is already using all of the best sites, and there are attempts to remove some
of those dams for environmental reasons, so I won’t consider it any further. Solar
and wind power not only require the solar and wind plants that don’t already
exist to be built, but they also require a major upgrade of the existing
electrical grid to accommodate the intermittent nature of these two sources,
which I have argued above is at best unlikely. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As for hydrogen, the hip new source of “green” electricity,
rather than my addressing all the reasons that this is just one more subsidy
dumpster, one more rathole for government money, I’ll just direct you over to
<a href="https://thehydrogenskeptics.blogspot.com/">this blog</a>.
Read it and then try to imagine all of the infrastructure that will be required
for hydrogen fuel cells to make enough electricity to run enough
cars to matter, at an efficiency that is <i>less</i> than that of a standard electric
vehicle. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And as if all that isn’t enough, every bit of current
infrastructure that must be at least maintained, if not upgraded, and all of the
bright shiny new “climate-saving” infrastructure that is being pushed as
absolutely necessary by the climate-emergency crowd, requires energy and
materials to do so. Specifically, diesel fuel, produced from oil, goes
directly or indirectly into maintaining or upgrading existing infrastructure,
not to mention producing and deploying and maintaining new infrastructure. I
understand why you may not have paid much attention considering what the past
year or so has brought to us, but it turns out that we may well have passed
peak oil more than two years back. Check out the graphic near the beginning of
<a href="https://energybulletin.org/the-energy-bulletin-weekly-28-december-2020/">this Energy Bulletin</a> of world liquid fuel (oil) production (the blue line on the
graph). Notice the slow rise to a production peak in the 4<sup>th</sup> quarter
of 2018. Notice that the highest production peak in 2019 didn’t quite match
that of the 4<sup>th</sup> quarter of 2018. Then comes the familiar rapid drop
of oil production and consumption in 2020 resulting from the measures put in
place in reaction to COVID-19 that were intended to bring us back to “normal.” You’ll
notice that the forecast for oil production in 2021 doesn’t make it up to
levels we last saw in 2017 until late in the year, and that was, in retrospect,
almost surely optimistic given the forecast was made last December when the
concern about vaccine-resistant variants of COVID-19 was less than it is now.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Meanwhile, the deep cuts to capital expenditures made by oil
companies during the past few years when oil prices dropped to levels that the
companies couldn’t profit from suggest, if not too little oil available for the
infrastructure upgrades that Biden and other politicians are promoting, at
least a rise in the price of oil due to increased demand meeting reduced supply
from the reduction in capital spending that would have funded the new sources
of oil that infrastructure upgrades and additions require. But oil prices can only rise so high before they
drive an economic downturn similar to 2008. I don’t expect us to be able to
afford to maintain all of our current infrastructure under these conditions,
much less upgrade it or add new infrastructure. Sure, some projects will get
funded by political influence and subsidy dumping. But most of us will do more
of what we are already doing: paying more money than we already are for services
that are no better than, and likely worse then, what we already have, or being
forced to drop services in favor of less resource-intensive ways of providing
for ourselves.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And that’s why I keep this blog. Why are so many people
gardening now? Among other things, it feeds us for less money and less
infrastructure than any other way I know of. Why do people need to know about
how to stay comfortable in a cooler residence in winter and a warmer residence
in summer? Because it’ll reduce the drain on your wallet as utility prices rise
to reflect deteriorating infrastructure and energy price spikes. At some point
I plan to pick up the human-powered tools theme that I began some years back,
because human-powered tools can do most of what fossil-fuel powered tools do without the infrastructure that fossil fuels require. I
will probably touch on other aspects of home economics as time goes by,
especially if the suspicions I’ve detailed above eventuate.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Next time I’ll write about this year’s garden project. Till
then, I wish you all a good April!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-80422652037991400782021-02-28T17:50:00.000-06:002021-02-28T17:50:44.351-06:00When the lights went out in Texas<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">It got cold here in February. Sometime during the day or
evening of the 5<sup>th</sup> the temperature dropped below 32F. It didn’t
reach 32F again until late afternoon on the 19<sup>th</sup>. In between, St.
Louis set new record low maximum temperatures of 8F on the 14<sup>th</sup> and
4F on the 15<sup>th</sup>. Belying the too-cold-to-snow theory, on the 15<sup>th</sup>,
the coldest day of the 2020-2021 winter season with that record low maximum
temperature of 4F, we also received the season’s largest snowfall event of 5.7
inches. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Outside of St. Louis, none of this mattered. Instead, our
attention fell on the much more serious problems that the same storm brought to
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and parts of the Deep South. The storm demonstrated
how weather events have disproportionate effects on areas where they rarely
occur. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">St. Louisans experience temperatures around 0F every winter
and around 100F every summer; building codes reflect this reality, as does the
prevalence of air-conditioning for summer heat waves. I think fewer people have
backup non-electric means of heating as have air-conditioning, but some people
have wood stoves and wood-burning fireplaces, and natural gas heating and
cooking are fairly common. Natural gas fireplaces are becoming more common as
well. If Mike and I lose electric service in winter, we’ll still have hot water
because we have a gas water heater, and we have a wood stove for heating and
some cooking. (We used the wood stove to provide more heat than we wanted to
pay for during the worst of the cold wave, which also served as one of our
contributions to our electric utility’s request to conserve electricity during
that time.) Beyond that, we have stored rainwater and a water filter to provide
clean water and a supply of canned and dry foods along with a manual can
opener. This meant we didn’t need to leave the house until the roads were cleared
of snow and ice and the temperature wasn’t as cold.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">South of us, on the other hand, storms of this magnitude
rarely occur. Texas last experienced a cold
wave like this in 2011 and before that in 1989. Most Texans don’t have enough
practice with severe cold to have developed the home infrastructure to manage
it. Wood stoves don’t make sense in a climate where the lowest average high is
56F (that’s for Dallas/Fort Worth). Even the cheaper forms of non-electric
heating like a kerosene heater would get little enough use that few people
probably have them. While many people have non-electric barbeque equipment, the
extreme cold, snow, and ice made it impractical to use them for heating water or
cooking. And heating water implies that you have water; the lack of electricity,
whether at home or in water utilities, led to a lack of water when the pipes
froze and broke and the water pumps shut off. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When heat waves strike locations which normally experience
relatively cool summers, the same lack of practice and home infrastructure
results in higher death rates than for places farther south where residents
contend with heat waves every summer. In the US, a good example is the
difference in deaths between Chicago and St. Louis in the heat wave of 1980. Something
like 100 people died of the heat in the St. Louis region. In Chicago, on the
other hand, at least 700 people died. The biggest single factor accounting for
the difference was the higher percentage of air-conditioned residences in St.
Louis as opposed to Chicago. Most Chicagoans didn’t have air conditioning
because they so rarely needed it, while most St. Louisans did. A similar lack
of air conditioning due to usually mild summers led to an estimated
30,000-50,000 people dying of heat-related causes during the European heat wave
of August 2003.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Infrastructure deficiencies cause problems on larger scales
than just that of a single residence. The cold wave of February amply
demonstrated how Texas’ electricity and water infrastructure failed in the face
of the extreme cold conditions. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the immediate aftermath, the usual fingers pointed at the
usual targets. Fossil fuel advocates pointed to wind turbines covered in ice
that had to be shut down. Renewable energy advocates countered with fossil fuel
plants that were forced offline because equipment essential to operating the
plants froze. Advocates for public utilities and regulation noted that under
Texas’ privatization and deregulation of electrical generation and distribution,
Texas’ electric utilities and electrical consumers alike have no incentive to
take on the high cost of, for instance, properly insulating electrical plants
and their equipment so that the plants can continue to supply electricity during
a cold wave of this magnitude. Since the vast majority of Texas had declared
energy independence from the rest of the US, almost all of
the Texas electrical grid stands alone. When the Texas grid couldn’t supply the amount of
electricity needed to match demand, it could not open a connection to either of the other two
large-scale grids in the US to mitigate the severity of the situation. Not that
those grids had a lot of spare capacity at the time, since the cold wave was as
severe and expansive as it was; their own customers were already taxing the grid
with their own demands. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It wasn’t till about a week after the worst of the event, as
I was mulling over what I wanted to say in this post, that I fully understood
the implications of the event. With considerable interest I read the stories
about what happened when it became apparent that the grid’s carefully balanced
condition was failing as plant after plant dropped offline while demand
continued to increase. One of the people on the scene was quoted as saying that
the entire Texas stand-alone grid was “seconds to minutes” away from catastrophic
failure. He and others realized that the only solution was to drop off huge
chunks of demand in order to buy time to stabilize the system to the remaining
demand and then to slowly add back other chunks of demand as plants could be made
operational again. It’s similar to how your local electrical utility manages outages
from a severe storm: if you’re lucky, the circuit you’re on is added back
quickly; otherwise you have to wait until the utility can safely add the demand
from your circuit into its distribution system. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The “catastrophic failure” potential he described, however, would have
been far more severe than anything the vast majority of us have ever
experienced. The closest equivalent would be the January 1998 ice storm in
Maine and in Quebec in Canada. Some communities had no electricity for two
weeks or longer. This being Maine and Canada, most people had non-electric means
to withstand winter conditions, so they managed well enough. The limited extent
of the storm meant that electric utilities could respond relatively quickly
and effectively. Even so, it would have been a long two weeks without
electricity for those who went through it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the case of Texas in mid-February, the person interviewed
described the potential failure as being very wide-ranging. Electrical equipment
relied on by most of the people in Texas would have failed past the point of quick
and easy repair, if it could be repaired at all, according to what I understood.
Texas has the second highest population of all states in the US, estimated at
29 million in 2019. Of its major cities, only El Paso, population roughly
700,000, is not on the Texas stand-alone grid; its electrical system is part of
the western grid. A very small area of extreme eastern Texas belongs to the
eastern grid, but there are no major cities in this area. Had the electrical grid
completely failed, as it was within seconds to minutes of doing, something like
27 to 28 million people would have lost electrical service for at least days, if
not weeks to months. Electric utilities, whether public or private, don’t keep
a lot of skilled grid repair people on staff, instead relying on compacts that
send those employees to other cities and states in the event of widespread
outages that the local utility cannot handle on its own. I suspect that an
effort to repair a catastrophic failure of Texas’ grid would have absorbed most
of the skilled electric utility workers in the entire US, leaving the rest of
the country at risk from the smaller-scale severe weather events that the US is
prone to. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I don’t think that all of those 27 to 28 million people would
have been willing to remain in their residences without food or water for very
long. Besides being the second most populous state, Texas is also the second
largest state in area. The logistics of getting relief to everyone in the state
who would have needed it is staggering to contemplate. Failing that, it’s
reasonable to suppose that most Texans with a car and enough gasoline to make
it to a place with electrical service would have set out for said place. Can
you say “refugee?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I bring this up because it’s a particular case of a
larger problem with infrastructure in the US. Those who rate the quality of the US infrastructure
– the transportation, electrical, fossil fuel, water, and other hardscape
systems that we all depend on to supply our daily needs – rate it quite poorly. Most of our infrastructure needs infusions of cash, material, and labor to bring it up to
a satisfactory level. However, the will to provide those things seems to be
lacking. We’d like to have an infrastructure in good repair, but we’re unwilling
to pay to repair the infrastructure we already have. So we have a patchy
network of shiny new infrastructure in places currently being built up, while
the already-existing infrastructure slowly, and sometimes not so slowly,
decays. What’s shiny and new now will need repair later on as it wears out, but
we don’t even keep up what we already have.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Can we in fact keep all of our current infrastructure in
good repair, much less the new infrastructure we insist on adding? You’ll have
to wait for next month’s blog post for my thoughts on that. It’ll probably be
the post after that before I return to gardening. In the meantime, I’ll be
starting seeds this week and watching for the first daffodil blooms. Happy March
to all of you!</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-82880675000623590892021-01-25T14:55:00.002-06:002021-01-25T14:55:53.512-06:00What the 2020 garden told me<p>
</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgMn6lyRiQXh-XPeWq5SIX8Bl_4g_Eed4DZMk_Dx6qVAw5Vs1vSH5tkkza9p2_naOTPdJ2EAxqhHSoAyhASJPMOzohKhrqseJ4VPwJvadiTfs-Kr9_F-XjEdMAQsurpZHy0hmgkerpFCA/s2048/2020-06-20+14.57.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgMn6lyRiQXh-XPeWq5SIX8Bl_4g_Eed4DZMk_Dx6qVAw5Vs1vSH5tkkza9p2_naOTPdJ2EAxqhHSoAyhASJPMOzohKhrqseJ4VPwJvadiTfs-Kr9_F-XjEdMAQsurpZHy0hmgkerpFCA/s320/2020-06-20+14.57.25.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">The garden on June 20, 2020<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-2020-garden-further-adventures-with.html">this post</a> from last year, I
discussed why I asked the 2020 garden what the effect would be of replacing my
previous source of garden nitrogen, cottonseed meal, with urine. I also
described a psychological issue associated with safely using urine and referenced
<a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2019/04/2019-garden-science-homegrown-nitrogen.html">this 2019 post</a> for information on potential environmental and health hazards,
and I described how I would collect and apply the urine. Now it’s time to let
you know how the garden answered my question.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When I wrote the post last February,
COVID-19 was in the US but not yet widespread. By the time the growing season
began, Mike and I, along with most people in the US, were under some form of
lock-down. COVID-19 can be carried in both urine and feces. If I knew I had COVID-19,
I would not used my urine on the garden, just as I would not have used it if I
had any of the other diseases whose infectious agents can be spread through
urine. As it happened, I have not experienced symptoms of COVID-19, nor has
anyone told me they exposed me to it, so I felt it was safe to fertilize with
urine throughout the growing season. As the 2019 post notes, there is as close
to no chance as I can imagine that any urine would find its way outside of our
property to be a health hazard to anyone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I decided to apply urine to all of the
vegetable and grain beds to replace all of the cottonseed meal I would have
otherwise used. Thus I did not have any control beds in which I used cottonseed
meal rather than urine. In order to have space for control beds I would have
needed to expand the garden into areas covered with grass and weeds and
unprotected from rabbits. This would have introduced variability in newly
gardened versus previously gardened soil, variability in rabbit pressure, and a
reduction in the time I spent on each garden bed compared to what I have done
in past years, which would have made it harder to compare this year’s yields to
those of previous years. Instead, I compared the yields I obtained in 2020 to
the best yield I obtained for each of the varieties over the past six years,
after I had settled on <a href="https://newsociety.ca/books/i/the-intelligent-gardener">Steve Solomon’s re-mineralization practice</a> and the
spacing for all the crops that I grow. The only exception was for soybeans,
because the last time I grew them before 2020 was in 2011. Hence I compared the
soybean yield with a different variety grown in 2011 using the same spacing
between stations but more seeds per station.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When I began collecting urine I used
the same system as I had used in 2019: I urinated into a urinal and then
transferred the contents of the urinal to a 2 gallon bucket. The next morning I
emptied the collected urine from the bucket into a sprinkling can, added water
to fill the sprinkling can, and applied the diluted urine directly to the bed,
on top of the plants in it. However, I soon grew weary of leakage around
the edges of the urinal. For those of you with flexible appendages to deliver
urine, many possible ways to collect urine without making a mess suggest
themselves. For those of us who, like me, lack such appendages, avoiding messes when using a urinal is more difficult. Fortunately we have a camp toilet, inherited from my father-in-law.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPWCzSMQmMx0zO3dMdSZ4GW3lBvQ7HgEhy3_MT-lEmaNhtCOaJ83cgfe4NqVE7WBkYvvHo-RbFkURCMVFvUOgw0n9HS-rY2G-noaTacNAI-TknziNz2tEK8AEg9XsiPr5PZ8PqN31ILU/s2048/2021-01-25+15.38.08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvPWCzSMQmMx0zO3dMdSZ4GW3lBvQ7HgEhy3_MT-lEmaNhtCOaJ83cgfe4NqVE7WBkYvvHo-RbFkURCMVFvUOgw0n9HS-rY2G-noaTacNAI-TknziNz2tEK8AEg9XsiPr5PZ8PqN31ILU/s320/2021-01-25+15.38.08.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The camp toilet, with the lid open to show its resemblance to a water-flush toilet. A sliding valve at the bottom allows the urine to drain by gravity into the bottom container and that container to be sealed off between uses. I collected and composted the toilet paper I used.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YPJMhK3W487bjF-XwgiWvJgMqoYySulYkpN8EVu6ZMdp3cUwzGM0xnytlIB7kMbemdbZFKelfkLXX2F5iqbjbtg6S6DbIgcASHnEczAFABenlO6LMXn3vrVa_Lu1i0pGFYBpDXYk7Zg/s2048/2021-01-25+15.38.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9YPJMhK3W487bjF-XwgiWvJgMqoYySulYkpN8EVu6ZMdp3cUwzGM0xnytlIB7kMbemdbZFKelfkLXX2F5iqbjbtg6S6DbIgcASHnEczAFABenlO6LMXn3vrVa_Lu1i0pGFYBpDXYk7Zg/s320/2021-01-25+15.38.27.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Side view of the camp toilet. The top chamber unbuckles from the bottom chamber so that the urine collected in the bottom container can be emptied into a sprinkling can.<br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Using the camp toilet to collect the
urine removed the mess factor from the collection experience. Each morning I
poured the urine collected the previous day into the sprinkling can, diluted
the urine with water to fill the can, and then sprinkled the urine onto the bed
and the plants it contained, following it with a sprinkling can of water to
wash the diluted urine off the plants and onto the soil. As in 2019, I
collected urine only when urinating was all I was doing, and I only collected
it during the day because the camp toilet was located in our basement and I had
no desire to descend the steps into the basement when I had to urinate
overnight. Thus I collected perhaps two-thirds to three-quarters of the total urine I produced in a 24
hour period, but I calculated how much urine to add to each bed as if I had collected all
of the urine I produced in a day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To calculate how much urine to apply to each bed, I
proceeded similarly to the calculation for the 2019 corn bed experiment. The daily urine production of the averages adult contains about 0.024
pounds of nitrogen. My growing season is about 180 to 200 days long. Using 180 days
for my growing season, if I collect urine every day and apply all of it over
the course of the growing season:
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">180 days * 0.024
pounds of nitrogen per day = 4.3 pounds of nitrogen</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to Solomon, cottonseed meal
is 6% nitrogen, and he recommends applying 6 pounds of nitrogen to a 100 square
foot bed (twice that for potatoes). Thus the amount of nitrogen applied via
cottonseed meal is:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6
pounds * 0.06 = 0.36 pounds of added nitrogen to a 100 square foot bed</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">12
pounds * 0.06 = 0.72 pounds of added nitrogen to a 100 square foot bed of
potatoes</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dividing the 4.3 pounds of nitrogen from all the urine I
produce in a 180 day growing season by 0.36 pounds of nitrogen needed per bed, that amount of urine will supply all the needed nitrogen for twelve
100 square foot beds. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I grow a total of nine beds of vegetables and grains, two
beds of small fruits, and one bed of herbs and flowers in the garden. The
latter three beds are not re-mineralized. Since the potato bed needs twice as
much nitrogen as the other beds, then I needed to apply urine to the equivalent
of 10 beds. I had 12 beds’ worth of urine to apply during the 180 day growing
season. Thus I began collecting urine on April 1 and applied the collected
urine to bed 1 the next day. That day’s collected urine was applied to bed 2
the following day, with this rotation continuing through bed 6. For bed 10,
which held the potatoes, I collected and applied urine two days in a row, then
treated beds 11 and 12 as I had treated beds 1 through 6. After applying urine
to bed 12, the next day’s urine was collected and applied to the
subtropical trees and shrubs I keep in containers. Then I began again with
collecting and applying urine to bed 1 and so forth. When the soil was
saturated, I did not apply urine, waiting until the soil drained to resume the
application sequence. Later in the season I altered the collection and
application sequence, as discussed below.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wood ashes are a potential source to
replace all of the calcium and some to all of the potassium required for
re-mineralizing garden soil. In 2020 I did not have enough wood ashes on hand
to remedy the full deficiency of potassium, and I had an excess of calcium.
However, the soil test indicated that magnesium was deficient. Wood ashes
contain about 3% magnesium. Therefore I added enough wood ashes to the
re-mineralization mix to supply 10% of the magnesium deficiency, as Solomon
suggests in the Acid Soil Worksheet. This avoids the risk of having too much
magnesium relative to calcium in the garden soil. I made up the remaining
potassium deficiency and the deficiencies in the other minerals in the usual
way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most years the weather has a strong effect
on the conversation between the garden and me. But unlike some other aspects of
2020, the weather gave me a break. The last spring frost was on April 18; the
first fall frost occurred on October 16, for a growing season of 181 days. April
and May were cooler and wetter than normal. June was warmer and drier than
normal, while July temperatures were close to normal but accompanied by
excessive rainfall. August was cooler and wetter than normal while September
was about average in temperature but drier than normal. October was near normal
in both temperature and rainfall, while November was warmer than normal with
about normal rainfall. Since there was nothing particularly unusual about 2020’s
weather (which is the only unusual thing about it), I do not need to take
weather into account when discussing what the 2020 garden taught me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The yields for all the vegetable and
grain crops I grew in 2020 are shown in the following figures.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfOePMbugJP5Btk5pvjJMXbBzg4mntN2UqxcJoUsXvMIrOuzBkAdcUbbf4-yLQss8oB8rQc2Ne9LSz6TbAoywF7J3ab-6t7BUP8A5XvIUjWBCB834VSqVapcgImnkonBaPZmWw4ZOhUs/s1093/2020+data+p+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1093" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfOePMbugJP5Btk5pvjJMXbBzg4mntN2UqxcJoUsXvMIrOuzBkAdcUbbf4-yLQss8oB8rQc2Ne9LSz6TbAoywF7J3ab-6t7BUP8A5XvIUjWBCB834VSqVapcgImnkonBaPZmWw4ZOhUs/s320/2020+data+p+1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy_I3AD5kWEGEkf-G5CguIcYK8lStzNDo3pUfoXQfHwDgWPVOfIsUs256jUq55UsKWKmGf7MbraBDzAIZnNBIiyuV2A3_8EZRDtcqalu9aOQoVb3V1llemvsYlwFArwrso2ETmBPdU86M/s1093/2020+data+p+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1093" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy_I3AD5kWEGEkf-G5CguIcYK8lStzNDo3pUfoXQfHwDgWPVOfIsUs256jUq55UsKWKmGf7MbraBDzAIZnNBIiyuV2A3_8EZRDtcqalu9aOQoVb3V1llemvsYlwFArwrso2ETmBPdU86M/s320/2020+data+p+2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEingmnHURHHcN50nBBFugyxE9Ycy50aNGdK32inO2txYzjuKHoXV5089Nu2pRE8RXzb7VRtkbCzZQ_oQhOcJyw3KaCVbgSK609uj4zpoR-GUavxipF1pEgJJTk9IDvkNos-zrwNLJwJeOE/s1093/2020+data+p+3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1093" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEingmnHURHHcN50nBBFugyxE9Ycy50aNGdK32inO2txYzjuKHoXV5089Nu2pRE8RXzb7VRtkbCzZQ_oQhOcJyw3KaCVbgSK609uj4zpoR-GUavxipF1pEgJJTk9IDvkNos-zrwNLJwJeOE/s320/2020+data+p+3.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjI6ir9v_qr1aQOTTBByCW6OyEUBS07mjG4N2zlV3g12jnEBbEUd-ZxzYaYAYC24yqI677bpBC3voV_G3HXG2HB4I1gdUm3TUrF9XG4a8wDRqaEk2JEt1cHrSmDPGFzE678YoUlty_Ayc/s1086/2020+data+p+4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="291" data-original-width="1086" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjI6ir9v_qr1aQOTTBByCW6OyEUBS07mjG4N2zlV3g12jnEBbEUd-ZxzYaYAYC24yqI677bpBC3voV_G3HXG2HB4I1gdUm3TUrF9XG4a8wDRqaEk2JEt1cHrSmDPGFzE678YoUlty_Ayc/s320/2020+data+p+4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A first glance reveals that the 2020
yields varied compared to the best previous years. To better understand the
variability, I considered together the crops grown at different times during
the growing season. These fall into the following groups.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Group 1:</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
planted in autumn 2019 for harvest in late spring 2020. This group includes
garlic and potato onions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Group 2:</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
planted in April 2020 for harvest later in spring or in summer. This includes
bok choy, cabbage, endive, spring lettuce, and potatoes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Group 3:</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
planted in April 2020 for harvest in summer and autumn. This includes beets,
carrots, and leeks.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Group 4:</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
planted in May and June 2020 for harvest in summer and autumn. This includes
pole snap beans, dent corn, cowpeas, cucumbers, eggplant, muskmelon, sweet peppers,
soybeans, various squashes, and tomatoes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Group 5:</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
planted in August 2020 for autumn harvest. This includes arugula, bok choy,
Chinese broccoli, Chinese cabbage, kale, fall lettuces, mustard greens, daikon
and winter radishes, and turnips.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within Group 1, yields were around 15%
to 25% below the best previous value.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within Group 2, I ignored endive since
it was first grown in 2020. Cabbage and bok choy yields were much below the
best previous, by a factor of 3 or more, and the romaine lettuce yield was
lower by a factor of about 8. The loose-leaf lettuce yield was about 25% lower
than the best previous yield, while the potato yield was about 40% lower than
the best previous.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within Group 3, yields were about 40%
less than the best previous for the beets and about 25% lower than the best
previous for leeks. For the carrots, compared to the same variety the 2020
yield was about 15% lower, but it was much lower than for the other variety
shown.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within Group 4, the 2020 yield of dent
corn was about half of the best previous, and the 2020 yield of cowpeas was
about 75% lower than the best yield (but of a different variety). On the other
hand, the pole snap bean yielded better in 2020 than in 2019, though not as
well as a different variety. The soybean yielded about half as much as a
different variety planted with more seeds per station in 2011.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The 2020 cucumber yield was higher than
the best previous for both the May and June plantings. The 2020 muskmelon and
winter squash yields were much lower than the best previous. One of the
zucchini varieties yielded poorly but the other one yielded about two-thirds of
the best previous (of a different variety). The ‘Desi’ summer squash yielded as
well as the better of the two zucchini varieties grown in 2020. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The three sweet pepper varieties
yielded 10-25% lower in 2020 compared to the best years, while two of the four
tomato varieties matched their best yields from previous years and the eggplant
variety yielded better than a different variety. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within Group 5, the bok choy variety
doubled its best previous yield, and a different variety of Chinese cabbage
yielded almost a factor of 4 more than in previous years. The kale variety also
outperformed the previous best yield of a different variety; the same held true
for the two mustard varieties grown in 2020. On the other hand, the 2020 yields
of arugula, daikon and winter radishes, and turnips were all below the best
previous yields.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What can we learn from this data? The
first thing to notice is that overall yields were comparable to, though
somewhat lower than, the best previous year. The total weight of the crops
harvested in 2020 was 560 pounds, bested only by 2015’s total of 687 pounds and
considerably exceeding 2016 and 2018 (about 390 pounds each). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Within the groups, only in Groups 4 and
5 did some, but not all, of the crops grown match or exceed the best previous
yields. All other crops yielded below the best previous, some by a large
factor.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By June of 2020, as I observed the slow
growth of the cabbages compared to previous years, I began to suspect that
rotating applications of urine across the entire garden meant that I had not
applied sufficient nitrogen to shorter-maturity crops like the spring greens. I also wondered
if applying urine before I planted a crop meant that the urine I applied before
planting did not contribute to growth of the crop. The following figure gives
the bed number, the crop(s) planted in that bed, when the crop(s) were planted,
the days on which urine was applied to that bed, the total amount of nitrogen
contained in the applied urine, and how much of the nitrogen was applied while
the crop was present in that bed. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7cpg8_73rdYXTP4__3a7qsahDokcuoVVn1jg4zaIvLo35wbR5bmZzRsAq2Ayp9iPn7pqrH3TNI2yjpLbl1R7KVLHhUxXZWdzz781rbSxMyW_3o3jBT87AbQ_FddWPOgY3cLGP8BfYbqs/s984/2020+days+N+applied.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="984" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7cpg8_73rdYXTP4__3a7qsahDokcuoVVn1jg4zaIvLo35wbR5bmZzRsAq2Ayp9iPn7pqrH3TNI2yjpLbl1R7KVLHhUxXZWdzz781rbSxMyW_3o3jBT87AbQ_FddWPOgY3cLGP8BfYbqs/s320/2020+days+N+applied.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With the results from the figure in
hand, let us look at our five groups of crops again. My hypothesis is that for
crops which received 0.36 pounds or more of N from urine while they were in the
ground (0.72 pounds for potatoes), the yield would be about the same as for
previous years. Crops which received significantly less than this while they were in the ground would yield
lower than in previous years.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Group 1</b> (bed 4): when I planted the
potato onions and garlic in early November of 2019, I added a quarter of the
usual amount of cottonseed meal, which contained about 0.09 pounds of nitrogen.
This was to give them a good start, as they begin to grow after planting and
pick up growing again in early spring, before I began applying the urine. Thus
the total nitrogen applied was 0.23 pounds, about 63% of the amount that I
intended to apply. As hypothesized, observed yield is lower than the best
previous yield.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Group 2</b> (beds 10 and 11): the potatoes
and the spring greens received significantly less nitrogen than intended (the
spring greens received only about half as much nitrogen), and the yields were
less than the best previous yields, as hypothesized.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Group 3</b> (bed 11): while these beds
received more nitrogen in urine than from cottonseed meal, they yielded less
well than the best previous. There were other gardening issues with these crops
that I believe contributed to the lower yields. I did not keep up with removing
weeds in this bed after I harvested the spring greens; thus I suspect that the
weeds used some of the nitrogen and minerals that I had meant for the crops.
The weeds also shaded the crops to an extent, reducing their productivity. I
did not thin the carrots or the beets, which caused overcrowding, another
factor that may have contributed to reduced yields. Finally, many of the
carrots in the carrot patch rotted over the summer, reducing the carrot
yield.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Group 4</b> (beds 1-3, the summer planting
of bed 4, beds 5 and 6, and bed 12): I will take a closer look at the various
beds and their crops below.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Beds 1, 2, and 3 all grew corn and
pumpkins. All were planted on the same date; all received some of the urine
before planting. As hypothesized, because the amount of nitrogen applied after
planting was about 52% of the amount I calculated would be required, the yield
was lower than that obtained the previous year. I also note that some of the
stalks lodged (fell over) in July after applying urine, and more lodged during
a windstorm. Ears of corn that lay on or near the ground were predated on,
presumably by small mammals. I suspect this accounted for some of the yield
loss, but I believe that the lower than intended amount of urine accounted for
a large part of the yield loss. This is bolstered by the 2019 results, when all
of the intended nitrogen was applied to the corn bed to which I applied urine, and
which yielded as much as the two beds to which cottonseed meal was applied for
nitrogen.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The summer planting of bed 4 did not
receive as much nitrogen from urine as intended. It was, however, sufficient to
grow a much higher yield of cucumbers than I obtained from the same variety
planted at about the same time in 2019, as well as about half the yield of
soybeans compared to a variety planted more densely (same spacing but more
seeds per station) in 2011. Possibly using the intended amount of urine would
result in higher yields for both of these crops. The zucchini variety planted
at this time yielded poorly, and did not perform well in the main crop planting
in 2019. I will not grow this variety again, as it seems poorly suited to my conditions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Beds 5 and 6 both received some urine
before planting, but the total amount received after planting was about 80% of
that intended. Compared to the same varieties grown in previous years, the
cucumbers yielded more, two of the tomatoes yielded about the same, the peppers
yielded somewhat less, and the melons and squash yielded much less. This
suggests that factors other than the amount of nitrogen applied affected some
of these crops. However, because some of them yielded as well or better than previously,
this suggests that urine can supply all the nitrogen these crops need when
enough of it is applied.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bed 12 contained legumes: lima beans,
cowpeas, and pole green beans. Only the last was the same variety as grown
previously. While it yielded more in 2020 than in 2019, other factors need to
be considered. In July 2019 a rabbit fed on some of the plants as they began to
vine, setting them behind in growth. Also, I had not added any
re-mineralization mix to the legume bed in 2019, because legumes can supply
their own nitrogen through rhizobacteria in root nodules, and to conserve on
the re-mineralization mix. I did not remember this until late July of 2020,
after which I ceased applying urine; the 2020 legume bed received the same
re-mineralization mix as the other beds. I cannot untangle the effect of the
urine from the other factors discussed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Group 5</b> (bed 10, planted 8/23/20): this
bed received more than the amount of nitrogen I had intended to give it. This
was in part due to a lessening need for urine on other beds as I finished harvesting from them, and in part because I made sure to apply at least as much as I had
calculated it needed. Notice that all of the leaf crops except for arugula
out-performed the previous best yield, but none of the root crops did so. One
possible explanation is that I did a better job of thinning the leaf crops than
the root crops. Because I left too many roots in each row for too long, they
competed with each other, so that I harvested too many small roots rather than the larger roots that are easier to use in the kitchen. Another possibility is that the ratio of
nitrogen to phosphorus and potassium became too large; the latter two are
needed for good root growth, so that the turnips and radishes may have grown
their leaves at the expense of their roots.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Overall, considering that I did not apply
enough urine to fully meet the needs of most of the crops, the 2020 yields are
high enough to justify continuing to use urine in place of cottonseed meal for
most of the crops that I grow. I will need to adjust the application schedule
to ensure that I apply enough urine to each crop I use it on to replace all of
the nitrogen that had been met by applying cottonseed meal in past years. The
details of that schedule are yet to be worked out; when it is available, I will
post it here, as well as anything else I want to share about what I’ll ask the
garden in 2021. Till then, enjoy life!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-54714840180396449822020-12-22T13:53:00.001-06:002020-12-22T13:53:55.109-06:00The garden balancing act<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Last time we met, I promised to write about how I have
balanced seasonality, size, and opportunity cost in my own garden, and how that
balance has changed over time. Now that harvest season is complete and the
winter lull has begun, I can live up to that promise.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Before we moved to the land where we have lived for the past
19 years, we lived on a much smaller plot of land, about 1/8 acre (roughly 5000
square feet). By the time I became interested in growing food plants, the only
part of the land that was not already planted to something else was the narrow
strip of lawn between the north side of the house and the neighboring driveway.
I squeezed two 40 square foot beds into this space. Small space and
correspondingly low opportunity cost made this a very good first garden, where
I learned fundamental lessons on growing and harvesting food to eat. However,
its small size also limited it to growing plants that produce well in small
spaces, primarily tomatoes, peppers, garlic, lettuce, and salad greens from the
cabbage family, plus some herbs and short flowers like nasturtium. Except for a
few winter squash grown vertically up a trellis on the north sides of the beds
and the leaves I could dry from some herb plants like sage, garden produce was
available for eating only from late spring through mid-autumn. I wanted more
food over a longer season. The only way to accomplish that goal was to have
more land to grow on. So we moved to our current place: a full acre with no
more than about 3000 square feet allotted to the house and back porch, patio
and sidewalk, driveway, garage, and garden shed. I could grow as big a garden
as I could maintain! But how big was that? What mix of crops could provide us
with a season-long harvest and some to store? How do I grow crops like corn,
cabbage, and autumn greens that I hadn’t had the space or proper conditions to
grow before? Answering those questions has taken up a considerable amount of my
time for the past 17 years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 1999, a few years before we moved here, I attended a
three day workshop on the methods in <a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/publications_main.html"><i>How to Grow More Vegetables</i> </a>(HTGMV),
a book describing <a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/">Ecology Action’s</a> work to make small gardens grow large amount
of food. Their famous claim is that it is possible to grow a spare but adequate
diet for an entire year for one person in less than 1000 square feet. Such a
garden must include a large percentage of calorie crops (primarily grains and
starchy tubers) and protein crops (primarily dry beans); only a small
percentage can be grown to the green vegetables and other salad crops like
tomatoes that most people grow in their gardens. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now that we had moved to a much larger lot I had the space
to grow such a garden. I also had the motivation, because growing some of our
food would save us money on our grocery bill, and HTGMV suggested that I could
do it in an ecological way, using human-powered tools to work it and my own
compost to provide for the plants’ nutrient needs. In 2003 I began to convert
some of our lawn area to an Ecology Action-style garden by digging and planting
one 100 square foot bed to a mix of corn, potatoes, collards, soybeans,
tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and autumn greens and roots. A smaller bed located
underneath an old swing set frame was planted to a variety of spring and summer
greens followed by pole beans and squash. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first thing I learned that year is that rabbits eat most
of these crops and that if I wanted to maximize the value of my time in the
garden, I needed to fence rabbits out of the garden. The second thing was that
I needed to improve my gardening skill level to make the effort worthwhile. The
third thing was that if I wanted to get enough food to matter, I needed more
garden space.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Over the next decade I continued to add (and fence in) 100
square foot beds that I grew by Ecology Action’s method, keeping track of the
yields of each crop I grew. In 2013, when it was apparent that yields of most
crops were declining, I changed to <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-tale-of-two-gardening-methods.html">Steve Solomon’s gardening methods</a> instead. By
then the vegetable garden totaled fifteen 100 square foot beds planted as
follows.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Three beds planted to flint corn.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Two beds planted to winter wheat, then squash
following the wheat harvest.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One and a half beds planted to potatoes, with
the remaining half bed planted to sweet potatoes.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed planted to dry bush beans, then to
potato onions in November.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed planted to shell and snow peas and
peanuts.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed planted to cowpeas and edamame soybeans.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed with overwintered potato onions and
garlic, with summer squash, melons, cucumbers, and gourds following.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed spring planted to onions and leeks,
followed by autumn greens and roots.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed planted to carrots, beets, parsley, and
cutting celery.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>One
bed planted to spring and fall lettuces and cabbage-family plants.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>One
bed planted to peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, basil, tomatillo, ground cherries,
and zinnias.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I intended this garden plan to demonstrate <a href="http://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/10/can-you-really-grow-all-your-own-food.html">a local versionof a southern complete-diet plan for one person</a>, with more crops for wider
eating interest at the cost of the larger garden area required. But when I
attempted to put it into practice, I ran square into opportunity-cost issues.
Simply put, the garden was too large, given my skill level and other
commitments, to keep all of it up. Some of the beds did not work as I had hoped
that they would. And the portion of it that I could care for did not provide a
well spread out yield; sometimes there wasn’t enough food, sometimes there was
more food than we could put to good use.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With two decades’ worth of gardening experience by this time,
I had learned that for vegetable and small fruit gardening to be enjoyable
enough for me to put in the time required for it, I need the following
conditions to hold.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>I have fresh fruits and/or vegetables available
to harvest as early as is consistent with gardening in open beds here in St.
Louis (April for sorrel, early May for strawberries, late May for annual crops);</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>I have something to harvest from then until it
becomes cold enough to kill any remaining garden crops (depending on the year,
November to December);</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>I have some harvested food available in short or
long term storage that we can eat after the crops die in the garden;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Each bed is planted with crops that grow under
the same conditions, and the entire bed is planted on a single day;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Crop rotation can be accomplished by rotating
the beds, with at least two full years between plantings of a particular crop
family in each of the beds;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>I can obtain a high enough yield of each crop to
make the time I spend on that crop worthwhile;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>We can eat most of what I grow before it rots,
and preserve what we can’t eat fresh in a manner appropriate to the time,
expertise, and facilities we have available;</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The garden as a whole is large enough to provide
a substantial fraction of the fruits and vegetables that we eat and some of the
grains and dry beans, and small enough that its upkeep fits within the time I
have available to care for it.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">With those points and three years of gardening experience
with Solomon’s methods in mind, in 2016 I reduced the number of beds growing
vegetables, roots, herbs, and grains to ten and added one bed each of
strawberries and raspberries. Since 2016 the 10 beds growing grains, roots,
herbs, and vegetables are planted as follows.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Three beds are planted in the second half of May
to early June to a dent corn or popcorn crop, with a hill of pumpkins in the
middle of each bed. </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed is planted in late October to early
November to garlic and potato onions. In early to mid-June these are harvested
and the bed planted to a mix of cucumbers, summer squash, sunflowers and/or
zinnias, and a variety of soybeans used for edamame.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed is planted in May to tomatoes, sweet
peppers, eggplants, and low growing edible flowers such as nasturtiums and/or
signet marigolds.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed is planted in May to a mix of summer and
winter squash and melons.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed is planted to a mix of culinary and
medicinal herbs; this is the only bed that is not all planted at the same time,
because some of the herbs I grow can tolerate frosts but others cannot. This
bed includes a short row of perennial sorrel and some perennial herbs as well
as annual herbs. I rotate plants within the bed while the bed itself remains in
the same location relative to the other beds.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed is planted to potatoes in early to
mid-April. The potatoes are harvested in July and the bed is then planted to a
mix of autumn greens and roots, most of which are in the cabbage family.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed is planted in April to a mix of leeks,
beets, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, and bok choy.</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>One bed is planted in May to a mix of crops in
the bean family. In 2020 this included pole green beans, pole lima beans, and
bush cowpeas.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I garden primarily for fresh eating and try to avoid growing
more of anything than we can eat right away or store short-term in the
refrigerator, aside from specific crops that I can store in our living space or
in the improvised root cellar and fruits that freeze well to store in the
freezer. Winter squash and pumpkins can be stored for a few months in the
living area, but they soften and rot before spring comes. Corn, potato onions,
garlic, and potatoes can all be stored in the basement, but the potatoes and
potato onions will only keep until the following March at best. I store the
root crops I harvest in late autumn (beets, turnips, carrots, and radishes) in
the root cellar; by March they begin to rot. The leeks do not last more than a
month or so in the root cellar, the greens less than that; if we had a larger
refrigerator I could keep them longer, but absent that, the best I can do is
limit the area I plant to them so that we can eat, freeze, or ferment them
before they rot. With only 20 tomato plants, I do not harvest enough tomatoes
to can them (not a problem as canning is not something I want to do in hot
summer weather); I cook down some tomatoes into tomato sauce and freeze that,
amounting to a few pints. Excess strawberries, raspberries, and elderberries
are frozen and later made into wine; persimmons, pawpaws, and chestnuts are
frozen, then thawed and eaten on demand. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For several of the years between 2003 and 2013 I tried
growing cold-tolerant greens inside cold frames or the front porch. Neither
effort proved to provide enough food to matter, and what little I grew suffered
from aphid attack, a problem I don’t experience in the open garden. As a result
I don’t try to grow any food crops over the winter except for the citrus, bay,
and rosemary plants that overwinter on the front porch, none of which are not
overly troubled by aphids. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To give you a real-life example of what we eat out of season, on December 21 our
breakfast included corn mush made from our dent corn and pawpaws that were
thawed in the refrigerator and eaten out of hand. Lunch and dinner included a
vegetable medley made from frozen peppers and summer squash, and leeks,
turnips, daikon radishes, and carrots from storage as well as raw ‘Red Meat’
winter radishes. Mike cooked some of the stored beets for himself (I don’t like
them). We ate the last of the stored greens a couple of days previous and the
last of the potatoes earlier this month. We still have dried herbs, butternut
squash, and pumpkins and their associated seeds in our living space; turnips,
leeks, beets, and daikon and winter radishes in the root cellar; tomato sauce,
summer squash, sweet and hot peppers, chestnuts, pawpaws, persimmons, and
elderberries (the latter four from elsewhere in the yard) in the freezer; and
fruit wines, potato onions, garlic, and dent corn and popcorn in the basement. By
March all we’ll have left are dried herbs, wines, garlic, dent corn, and popcorn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The current 1200 square foot garden doesn’t provide anywhere
close to what two omnivorous adults eat, though it does supply a substantial
amount of food. But how large a proportion of a vegan diet for one adult could
it supply? I plan to address that question now that I have several years of
yield data to draw on. But first, I have the results from the 2020 garden to
discuss, in my next post. Until then, I wish you all a happy 2021!</p>
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{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-56132074567737778372020-08-01T13:12:00.000-05:002020-08-01T13:12:24.558-05:00The six weeks' want: backyard garden reality
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two posts back, after a friend imagined Mike and me living
indefinitely off our backyard garden during the COVID-19 lockdown, I promised
to dig more deeply into why that idea is mistaken. Basically it comes down to
three interrelated issues: seasonality, space, and opportunity costs. In this
post I will examine how these three factors affect the possibilities and reflect the limitations of
backyard gardens.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before I begin, please do not get the idea that I am dismissing
backyard gardens! If I did not recognize the continuing value of my own garden
to Mike and me, I would not be gardening. At the same time, thinking that all
you need to have is a few packages of seed, a shovel, and a gardening book and
you will grow more than you can eat whenever you think you will need to is misguided
at best and dangerous at worst. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s start with seasonality, because the timing of the
COVID-19 pandemic brought that to the forefront of my mind when I read my
friend’s comment. In St. Louis County, MO, where Mike and I live, restrictions to
the size of gatherings began to be applied in early March, with the fullest
extent of the lockdown going into effect on March 23. The first stage of
re-opening began on May 18. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the time the first COVID-19 restrictions began, Mike and
I had no vegetables or fruits from the garden left to eat, except for some
garlic. Everything else had already been eaten, with about a month to go before
I could plant anything in the garden, and about two months before the first
significant harvest, of strawberries, would begin. It is only since mid-July
that we are eating garden vegetables at every meal, with enough extra to make
some pickles and tomato sauce for later (though we did have a few weeks of
salads and some bok choy and cabbage for stir-fries in June). For about three
weeks or so from mid-May through early June we ate strawberries every day and
made 2 gallons of strawberry wine and about a quart or so of strawberry cordial
from what we couldn’t eat, but except for a handful of apricots and a couple of
pounds of peaches we haven’t had any meaningful amount of
fruit from the garden since early June. That will change in August, but please
pay close attention to these long time lags during which we had no fresh fruits
or vegetables from the garden. Notice that we are talking not days, not even
weeks, but <i>months</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the problem of seasonality. In a climate with a
long, cold winter there will be months that go by when an open garden has
nothing to harvest in it. If a gardener can store some of their harvest then
the time when food starts running low is delayed somewhat, but there is a
reason that the phrase “six weeks’ want” is associated with the transition to
early spring, as this was traditionally about the time when the stored vegetables
and fruits ran out or spoiled in the warming weather. Because of the time lag
in the growing season between planting seeds or seedlings and harvesting, and
because harvest ends months before it can begin again, gardeners in cold-winter
climates will be eating mostly fruits and vegetables that farmers grew for at
least several weeks before their own gardens begin producing again. This is the inevitable result of the compromises I and all gardeners
must make between seasonality, garden size, and opportunity costs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Suppose you live in a cold-winter climate and are
determined to minimize the issue of seasonality. You could grow more food so
you can store some of it, for instance. How could you grow more food to store?
You could increase the size of the garden, but only if you have the space to do
so, and only if you have time, not just to tend to the increased garden size,
but also time to put up some of the foods that you grew (the opportunity costs
I mentioned, because you’ll have to not do something else in order to garden or
to put up pickles or tomato sauce). Or you might decide to
freeze some of the crop, but you’ll need to find the time to prepare and freeze
it, and if you don’t already have enough freezer space, you’ll need to get a freezer. That’s another kind of opportunity
cost, because you can’t spend the money on something else if you spend it on a
freezer, plus you’ll need to pay the cost of the electricity to run the freezer
(and what happens if the electricity shuts off?). Or you could store some fresh
produce in a root cellar or a smaller-scale version of a root cellar such as a
buried cooler, but again you’ll have to increase the size of the garden to grow
the extra produce, and you’ll have to improvise a storage system like our
<a href="https://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2012/09/winter-food-storage-living-low-way.html">anteroom</a>, or use space in a cool closet, a basement, or your living areas
(Carol Deppe stores squashes in her living areas, and I store them under a
table in our living room), or perhaps fashion your own root cellar. Even then,
when the ground begins to warm in early spring, in March here, I have found
that anything I still have stored deteriorates rapidly. Or you could cover part
or all of your outdoor garden so you can harvest something in the winter, but
again space and opportunity costs will limit what you can do in a backyard
situation. My experience with cold frames and <a href="https://livinglowinthelou.blogspot.com/2013/11/opening-door-to-spring.html">the front porch</a> suggests that to
get a substantial amount of food you will need a lot of covered space, and
you’ll have more pest problems in a covered space than you will in an open
garden. So these three interrelated factors will determine how much of your
vegetable and fruit harvest you can store, and it is almost certainly going to
be a lot less than you think if you have a standard-sized urban or suburban backyard
garden, nowhere near enough to get you into the following summer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can partially mitigate the six weeks’ want by adding
grain and dry bean crops to your garden. Even though Mike and I were out of
fresh garden food (except for garlic) by March, we had over 45 pounds of stored
flour corn and at least 10 pounds of stored popcorn to eat, representing harvests from the previous few years. I also grow blackeyed peas as a
dry bean crop most years, although I didn’t grow any in 2019. One of the best
ways to use these crops, since they can be stored for a few to several years,
is to hold them in reserve until the winter squash and root crops, like
potatoes and turnips, have been eaten. Then start eating the grains and beans,
supplementing them with whatever you may have frozen, canned, or dried, plus
the earliest leafy greens from the garden (sorrel, spinach, asparagus) or
foraged from the yard or elsewhere (dandelions), until you begin to get enough
of the salad and cabbage-family greens to eat a real salad. Still, to do this
you’ll need to devote a significant amount of garden space to grains and to the
dry beans, because they do not yield as heavily as most vegetables or fruits on
a square-foot basis. Besides that, you’ll also need to grow enough grain plants
for sufficient genetic diversity for seed-saving if you plan to do that, and
enough of both for replanting as well as eating. Plus there is an opportunity
cost not just for growing the plants but also for the time you’ll spend in
processing them to a state in which you can cook them and in the equipment
required to grind the grain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the next post I will describe how I have balanced these
three factors – seasonality, space, and opportunity cost – in my own garden,
and how that balance has changed over the years. By giving you a real-world
example I hope to make the general principles I’ve discussed here easier to
apply in your own gardening efforts. Till then, I wish you well.</div>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-31954544027419333222020-06-28T15:41:00.001-05:002020-06-28T15:41:23.412-05:00A Garden Tour
<p class="MsoNormal">I haven’t forgotten about the more detailed discussion on
how much food one can reasonably expect to produce from a backyard garden, but
it has occurred to me that a good start to that conversation might be to take you
on a virtual tour of my backyard garden. Sit back and relax as we travel in time to June 20th and in space to near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, where
you can meet my garden.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Let’s begin here at the southeastern corner, a good place to
get an overview of the garden as a whole.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-5EVhGh8UdKvb7Sh9d51jceyglgiL-1Ux7o1j4FFJuodS7hq71IXeQ9Nw7nGUNKK-59YrberWOyrZmxeGRJkePG7UI1vnpZDlarZklX1Y84PgQgeO7nuG1J9b-6fsflcGGfcLGfxoTP4/s2576/2020-06-20+14.57.25.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-5EVhGh8UdKvb7Sh9d51jceyglgiL-1Ux7o1j4FFJuodS7hq71IXeQ9Nw7nGUNKK-59YrberWOyrZmxeGRJkePG7UI1vnpZDlarZklX1Y84PgQgeO7nuG1J9b-6fsflcGGfcLGfxoTP4/s320/2020-06-20+14.57.25.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">The three corn beds are the closest to this corner. You may
notice that there are paths between every two rows. The paths are about 1 foot
wide. The beds are about 4 feet wide, with two evenly spaced rows of corn in each bed.
Each bed is 25 feet long. <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">The windmill-looking object toward the back? That is supposed to make a vibration when the windmill turns, which is transmitted down the copper rod on which the windmill sits and into the ground. Supposedly the underground noise makes it an unpleasant place for moles to live. While I haven’t noticed any mole hills in the garden since I put it up, it hasn’t made life uncomfortable enough to free the garden of other burrowing mammals. Too bad; I would have had more potato onions if the windmill worked on all burrowing mammals.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">There are three more beds of the same size behind the
corn beds and another six beds to the left of the corn beds for a total of twelve beds, all sized and spaced the same way. Around the
outside of all the beds, between the beds and the fence, is a 4 to 5 foot wide
path for easy walking and mowing and for bringing cartloads of materials
to and from the beds. There is a six foot wide path up the middle, between the
two groups of six beds, also for walking and transporting materials. Thus the
fenced-in area is about 65 feet by about 40 feet (about 2600 square feet) while
the total growing area of the beds is 1200 square feet. If we didn’t have wild
rabbits in the yard I would not need the fence, but since we do have rabbits
and they will eat most of the plants that I grow, the fence keeps out enough of
the rabbits enough of the time to allow us to eat most of the food grown within
the fenced area. That also means that the fenced area of the yard cannot be
used for any purpose other than gardening. The garden is far enough away from
trees to receive nearly full sun, allowing for excellent growth of vegetables
and small fruits.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpbJwKpuafqHwrKz11nYPmGzqebUoyGRG1vbwylQ06MO3nUt-tbho-rT9EfF7CYRijVX-srUAUdnQBrOC86DJOv5xAUTT_5iNPgSIUo2s1vOAQPJndCSEpwl8ORSlerjIUaWDR3_2pasM/s2576/2020-06-20+14.58.29.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpbJwKpuafqHwrKz11nYPmGzqebUoyGRG1vbwylQ06MO3nUt-tbho-rT9EfF7CYRijVX-srUAUdnQBrOC86DJOv5xAUTT_5iNPgSIUo2s1vOAQPJndCSEpwl8ORSlerjIUaWDR3_2pasM/s320/2020-06-20+14.58.29.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">The photo above shows the three corn beds looking towards the
neighboring yard to the east, plus an empty bed just north of the corn beds. Each
bed has about 75 corn plants in it, in groups of 2 to 3 plants about two feet
apart within a row. There are also some pumpkin plants growing in the middle of
each bed. These shade the
soil to some extent and seem to keep corn-eating critters frustrated. If they
make a few pumpkins that is a bonus, but they are present mostly to protect the
corn. I have tried growing beans up the corn stalks, but the bean plants grow
too tall for me to reach the beans.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">A few days prior to taking the picture, the empty bed north of the
corn beds contained potato onion and garlic plants along with plenty of weeds. The potato onions and some of the garlic plants are shown below.<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcmWuwgfljL9_y5Z1BGOJxABT1RVE8WhOET8ru3JPLOOZfGQcR0atE1KzDepVIz90i-ZbDA3XDt3a2hJ1ILwHzz1e2uLV5r_MaOigstFcyp3SantcAdz-68mwgxAfVYQYX6babZuRPtmE/s2576/2020-06-20+14.12.33.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2576" data-original-width="1932" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcmWuwgfljL9_y5Z1BGOJxABT1RVE8WhOET8ru3JPLOOZfGQcR0atE1KzDepVIz90i-ZbDA3XDt3a2hJ1ILwHzz1e2uLV5r_MaOigstFcyp3SantcAdz-68mwgxAfVYQYX6babZuRPtmE/s320/2020-06-20+14.12.33.jpg" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">They have been laid on screens on the
front porch so they can dry for a few weeks. The weeds are composting in one of
the compost bins, mixed with some of last autumn’s leaves.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since
the photos were taken I have planted seeds of cucumbers, zucchini, and edamame (a
kind of soybean eaten like green peas) into the empty bed for a late summer and
early autumn harvest, as well as sunflowers and zinnias for their beauty. This
is the last planting of seeds that I will do before late July or early August,
when I plant the salad crops for autumn harvests.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqf1LRX3LfajHFVSyaD4WXIz0sFzbA15ay66HAwAAKePhhfPsvIO_3mqBDcEdreyhyuoaB5Svuh_bbwTNvUxoKCA1HHWLi2CtpJOBtGBs2H6EeO2EE0Hwl7jeNH5giH5GrKq7ESyhzFU/s2576/2020-06-20+14.59.16.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqf1LRX3LfajHFVSyaD4WXIz0sFzbA15ay66HAwAAKePhhfPsvIO_3mqBDcEdreyhyuoaB5Svuh_bbwTNvUxoKCA1HHWLi2CtpJOBtGBs2H6EeO2EE0Hwl7jeNH5giH5GrKq7ESyhzFU/s320/2020-06-20+14.59.16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">
</span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><font size="3">These are the two beds north of the empty bed, on the same
side as the corn. The bed to the right includes peppers, tomatoes, and
eggplants, with nasturtiums in between. (Ever eaten a nasturtium blossom? They
add beauty and a mild radish-like flavor to salads.) Years of experience has
taught me that overcrowding the peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants reduces the
per-plant harvest. I used to plant basil between them, but basil gets too tall
and wide, overpowering the shorter peppers and eggplants. Nasturtiums, which
grow out but not tall, seem to work the best to cover most of the soil between
the larger plants while not stealing sun or nutrients from them. </font></p><font size="3">
</font><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></font></p><p style="text-align: left;"><font size="3"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></font></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><font size="3"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
bed to the left includes cucumbers, butternut squash, zucchini, and melons. The
squash and zucchini plants in the middle look small and far apart, but they are
beginning a rapid growth spurt and will have the bed almost covered in another
month of so. Meanwhile, training the cucumbers and melons up the A frame
trellises makes it easier to find the fruits before they go over-ripe and keeps them
safe from small ground-dwelling mammals. Two plants will fully cover each
trellis within another month or six weeks.</span></font></p></div><div><font size="3"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqhpLNXO1hQeB39ljccD07bSdaUbMaRduxNU-G0ascWgSd2bELI-oaQmzdWm-JI2QvmULKA7oGiVjTv0k2cTIjASpNtHQTR7mAZagcutD6TM5kFECvrOsJV_FnbCLP8r8kN80I7OBqdN4/s2576/2020-06-20+15.00.44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1932" data-original-width="2576" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqhpLNXO1hQeB39ljccD07bSdaUbMaRduxNU-G0ascWgSd2bELI-oaQmzdWm-JI2QvmULKA7oGiVjTv0k2cTIjASpNtHQTR7mAZagcutD6TM5kFECvrOsJV_FnbCLP8r8kN80I7OBqdN4/s320/2020-06-20+15.00.44.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">This photo shows the bed with herbs and flowers
in it, in the group of six beds left (west) of the beds already shown. The herbs include culinary herbs like cilantro (which is now flowering,
the white flowers in the middle of the photo), parsley, dill, spearmint, and
basil. It also includes traditional medicinal herbs like calendula (yellow
flowers next to the blue flowers at the right end of the bed), yarrow (white
flowers at the left end of the bed) and purple coneflower, which is not yet in
bloom. It also includes another spring flowering native plant, coreopsis
(yellow flowers farthest to the left) and the blue-purple flowers of batchelors
buttons toward the right end of the bed. Finally, a perennial salad plant,
sorrel, can be seen between the blue flowers and the edge of the bed. This
bed offers some ecological benefits to the garden as a whole as well as some
herbs and food for us.</span>
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</span></font><p class="MsoNormal">In the middle of this photo, to the north of the herb bed, is the strawberry bed. After they
finished production I mowed the plants. Mowing the plants forces the plants to
put their resources into re-growing their crowns rather than into sending out
runners to make more plants. Any more plants would overcrowd the bed, reducing
the yield of strawberries. Then I’d have to remove the old plants and re-plant
the bed with new plants from runners. I’ve done this before, when I moved the
strawberry bed to this location … it’s a lot of work, something I don’t care to
do often. An article by Helen and Scott Nearing from an old issue of <i>Organic
Gardening</i> magazine discusses their experience with mowing strawberries
following the end of production. Their original plants produced for 10 years
under this treatment! </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To the left of the strawberries are the raspberries. A few
years ago I decided to grow them up through tomato cages in an attempt to keep
the canes from drooping over plants in the beds to either side of them. It
makes the raspberries much easier to harvest, but the plants don’t seem to be
growing as thickly this year. Perhaps the soil has been depleted where the
roots are, since the plants aren’t allowed to spread out beyond the crown.
Adding more minerals to their bed next year may help.</p>
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other side of the raspberry bed. I pushed soil from the edges of the bed up
against the tops of the plants a couple of times as they were growing, which
gardeners call hilling up. Because potato plants don’t make any potatoes
underneath the pieces of potato that they grew from (the seed tubers), but they
will make potatoes from roots that grow from buried stems, hilling up is an
easy way to increase the yield of a potato bed. These plants have about another
month to grow before they die and the potatoes are ready to harvest.<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span>
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</span></font><p class="MsoNormal">This bed on the other side of the potato bed holds spring
and early summer salad crops and also carrots, beets, and leeks. All of these
plants are planted in rows parallel to the short dimension of the bed. In front
are four cabbage plants, with a cabbage harvested from one of them; behind the
cabbages are the beets, leeks, and carrots. Behind the carrots, but shorter
than them so out of sight, are lettuces and endives.</p>
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</span></font><p class="MsoNormal">The remaining bed, shown above, holds plants in the bean and
pea family. At the near end of the bed is a bean tower with a pole variety of
green beans growing up the strings. Another tower at the far end has a pole
variety of lima beans. Between them, I have set up pea fences to keep a bush
cowpea variety within bounds. Blackeyed peas, like the variety I am growing,
are a type of cowpea, but there are many other shapes and colors of cowpeas
available for gardeners with a long enough season. The cowpea, lima bean, and green
bean are all in different genuses so they won’t cross-pollinate, which allows
me to save seeds.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman \(Body CS\)"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now
that you have a better idea of the size of my garden and how it is laid out, we
can go on to a discussion of backyard gardens, including how much garden you
can grow in the time and space you have available, how much food you might
reasonably expect to grow from your garden, seasonal harvesting and eating, and so
forth. I expect that discussion to begin next month. Till then, may your own
garden be successful!</span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style>SLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-13062828780161061462020-04-30T14:06:00.000-05:002020-04-30T14:06:10.290-05:00Gardening in the spring of COVID-19
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_mVkt8QWbvesgKekfDYthoPFGPbDLLYjH7M-Qiw1g6feNzbz4CXT-3HDmApy3nFA55I_thv5TPQkaq2r-kam1wCupsRTplQhBmHq9ZqM-ovXPNs0pQ1V59JWdJ5OAsbVmZoKz8Ffq4D4/s1600/2020-04-21+10.09.17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_mVkt8QWbvesgKekfDYthoPFGPbDLLYjH7M-Qiw1g6feNzbz4CXT-3HDmApy3nFA55I_thv5TPQkaq2r-kam1wCupsRTplQhBmHq9ZqM-ovXPNs0pQ1V59JWdJ5OAsbVmZoKz8Ffq4D4/s320/2020-04-21+10.09.17.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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This redbud was in full bloom a week ago</div>
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Awhile back I made my first social media post in several
years, to the effect that Mike and I were doing fine in the midst of the
COVID-19 pandemic. A friend of mine responded that he was imagining Mike and I
living off our garden indefinitely. To be sure, our vegetable and small fruit
garden is larger than most backyard gardens, but like most people, including me
before I started gardening, my friend isn’t fully aware of how much he eats in
a year and how much land it takes to produce that amount of food. In a later
post I plan to dig more deeply into this topic, based on the 25 plus years of
experience I have in growing backyard gardens. In the meantime, I’d like to
take a look at the upsurge in gardening that the loss of jobs and social
distancing measures associated with COVID-19 has engendered and why I think
that it illustrates the biggest benefit of growing backyard gardens.</div>
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In the US the COVID-19 isolation measures came during March
for most of the population, near the beginning of the growing season or not
long before it begins for those of us east of the Rockies. Most US garden seed
retailers experience their heaviest seed sales during late winter and early
spring, after gardeners have received seed catalogs and decided what to grow
and how much seed they will need for their gardens. After many people lost
their jobs or began to work at home in response to the various measures enacted
to reduce the transmission rate of COVID-19, some of them realized that they
had the time to begin a garden and to cook and a need to reduce their grocery
expenditures. They promptly began ordering seeds and garden supplies, as did
the habitual gardeners who usually order seeds at this time of year. The
increased business combined with the need to implement social distancing
measures in the buildings in which the seed orders are pulled and prepared for
shipping has resulted in delays in processing and sending seed orders. A number
of seed retailers have been forced to stop accepting new orders for a period of
time while they caught up on pulling and mailing orders they had already
received. While this makes things more difficult for erstwhile gardeners who
must wait for their seed orders to arrive, I am grateful that my favorite seed
retailers will be among the businesses that do well despite the economic
disruptions caused by the isolation measures.</div>
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Recently some US meat processing plants have been forced to
close because of the rapid spread of COVID-19 among the workers in the plants. As
a result there has been some discussion of COVID-19 effects on future food
supplies in the media. This ties in with the increase in gardening in an
interesting way, which I will highlight in this post.</div>
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John Jeavons, in his <a href="http://www.growbiointensive.org/publications_main.html"><i>How to Grow More Vegetables</i></a>
book, states that many people grow backyard gardens for what he calls nutrition intervention.
In other words, they grow in their gardens mostly vegetables eaten fresh or minimally cooked. However, he feels that more people should focus their backyard
gardening efforts on sources of calories (grains, dry beans, and potatoes
primarily). If there were a shortage of grains, dry beans, or potatoes
in the US his position would have merit. However, to my mind he fails to
take into account the effect of automation on the production of these crops, compared to the needs for fruit and vegetable crops to be harvested, and
sometimes planted and tended as well, primarily by human labor.</div>
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Anyone who lives in the Midwest, as I do, has seen the
effect of cheap oil and mechanization on farmland. It is especially noticeable
during harvest season, when huge machinery operated by one person drives slowly
through the field, ingesting entire corn plants on one end and spitting out
clean corn seed on the other. Whatever you may think about eating oil (which is
essentially what we are doing in the large-scale agriculture of the US
Midwest), social distancing is built into it. These farms don’t need seasonal
farmhands to produce a crop. Moreover, the farmers planned their farms and
ordered their seeds before COVID-19 caused its havoc. That corn, wheat, rice,
and soybean seed, and those seed potatoes and dry bean seed, have been or will
be planted. If the livestock that would normally eat Midwestern-grown corn and
soybeans is significantly reduced in number due to knock-on effects from
COVID-19, humans can eat corn and soybeans too. We may not like it as much as
meat (as an omnivore myself, I do not look forward to less meat availability
and higher prices), but if that is what there is, we’ll eat it. If you aren’t
already eating a substantial amount of these crops, you may want to spend the next
few months finding cookbooks on how to make good use of them and starting to
experiment with the recipes.</div>
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What about vegetables and fruits? While planting and tending
of some of these have been automated to a greater or lesser degree, harvest is
often still a labor-intensive activity requiring human minds and bodies to
accomplish. It is these human minds and bodies that could be in short supply at
crucial points in the growing season. I have already read reports that
vegetable crops in Florida had to be plowed under because the social isolation
measures meant there were not enough workers to harvest the crop, and the
institutions that the vegetables were meant for had closed so that even if the
crops could be harvested, there were no buyers for them.</div>
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At the same time, it is exactly these crops – lettuce and
other salad greens and roots; tomatoes and peppers; green beans and sweet corn;
zucchini and cucumbers; root vegetables like carrots and onions – that are
easiest to grow well in a small backyard garden. Fruits like strawberries and
raspberries, if protected from birds and other predators, are also labor
intensive, vitamin-rich, and delicious crops that work well in a backyard garden setting.
If these were all the crops that I grew, my garden could be about half the size
it is now, meaning it would need half the labor that it currently does. And
these are exactly the seeds and plants that folks thrown into their backyards
are seeking to grow, and exactly the crops that are most likely to be in short
supply if social distancing and closed borders reduce the workforce of the
large vegetable-growing farms in Florida, California, and other places where
this kind of farming is prevalent in the landscape. Thus I take it as a good
sign that so many people are taking up backyard vegetable and fruit growing
this spring. We need more backyard and small scale vegetable and fruit growing
to provide the vitamins and minerals (and the tastes) that are missing in the
large-scale grain, dry bean, and potato crops. Combine the calories available
from the latter with the nutrition and taste of the former, and that will make
for better health and a more resilient food system overall. If my blog helps
you to grow a better backyard garden, I will have accomplished one of my goals
in writing it.</div>
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I hope to have the next post up sometime in May, but May is
also the busiest garden month of the year. Sometime in the next couple of
months I expect to return to the topic I brought up in the first paragraph.
Until then, I wish all of you good health and happiness!</div>
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