FREEDOM GARDENER OF THE MONTH: DECEMBER 2008
Featured Freedom Gardener of December 2008
Freedom Gardens: Hi SoCalDan congratulations! You have been selected to be the Freedom Gardener of December 2008! Tell us a little more about your garden.
SoCalDan: My garden was inspired by the Dervaes’s family garden. I first stumbled onto their website around two years ago while searching for edible landscaping ideas. When I saw the pictures of their garden and read accounts of what they had done, I was utterly amazed. I always assumed that a large vegetable garden would be look utilitarian and ugly. Their garden was just the opposite, it was a wonderful balance of beauty and practicality.
It was then that I decided to model my garden after theirs. Since 2005, the garden in our backyard has tripled in size to 1200 sq ft and should nearly double again by the end of next season. A number of fruit trees will go in mid January, the beginning or our bareroot season. After that, we’ll have a little more in the backyard to complete before we begin the front yard.
Currently, growing in the garden I have: carrots, beets, broccoli, chinese broccoli, swiss chard, turnips, peas, kohlrabi, kale, brussels sprouts, tomatoes, cabbage, nappa cabbage, spinach, lettuce, tatsoi, mizuna, daikon, burdock, garlic, zucchini and other chinese greens.
Our harvest so far this year is about 1300 lbs, much more than we were anticipating. Still, there were mistakes and some major disappointments, especially with our tomato harvest. We are hoping for 2000 lbs next year.
The harvest still takes big swings up and down transitioning between seasons. I still need to work on this to produce a more consistent harvest year round. I anticipate that once the kinks are worked out, our harvest will consistently out produce our needs. Initially, we considered selling the excess to supplement our income. We may do this someday, perhaps when we retire. But, we have found that sharing our harvest with others to be much more rewarding.
Freedom Gardens: Behind every garden, there must have been blood, sweat and tears. What have you felt was (is) the hardest thing you’ve faced (or are facing) in your gardening? Would you care to share a story?
SoCalDan: For most gardeners, late summer is best time of the season with harvests in full swing. For me, however, July and August are the most difficult months. It’s a time when the disease, weeds, insects and heat are at their worst, often devastating the garden. During the rest of the year, insects and disease are rarely a problem, any damage is usually minor and self limiting. It’s only during the heat that the insect numbers explode and infestation often becomes severe. This is also the time when powdery mildew is most malignant spreading through the garden.
It’s difficult at times when large swaths of the garden which has grown so healthy and strong all spring wither and die in 6 weeks. This combined with the heavier workload of the summer harvests, more frequent and longer watering and controlling the weeds that seem to accelerate in the heat makes July and August maintenance extremely trying. A few times the work and damage were so overwhelming that I just quit and left the garden to the weeds
Last year was especially rough. I missed the mites on the tomato plants. By the time I caught it, it was too late. The infestation severely damaged the tomato plants, prematurely terminating our best harvest ever in mid season. Powdery mildew – it’s especially brutal in So Cal - had swept through the garden for the second year in a row. Despite all my efforts I lost all the cucurbits (zucchini, melon, squash, cucumbers) – a fifth of the garden - in August.
This year is much better; I think we’ve finally turned the corner. We sailed pretty smoothly through the season. The damage from powdery mildew was mild. Perhaps some adjustments to the cucumbers and zucchini planting and spraying very, very early with Serenade did the trick. Summer maintenance is much easier now that we installed an automatic drip system and framed each bed (raised bed) with 2×6’s. These two changes have saved hours of work each week by eliminating watering (drip) and reducing weeding by 80% (drip and frames).
I’m optimistic, my wife, Kathy, is now involved. Before, although she relished the harvest, she was content to sit back and let the garden rest on my shoulders alone. Initially, she started out here and there to help me out. But, now the garden has gotten into her blood. Everyday, she enjoys stepping into the garden now. She’s become the chief harvester, gathering up all the vegetables and deciding what to make for that day’s meals.
Freedom Gardens: What do you feel is the most important thing in gardening?
SoCalDan: For me, it’s the soil. I guess it’s because I started with such poor soil and saw the difference soil improvement had on the quality and vigor of the plants. Our home was situated in a new development where the builder had stripped the topsoil in grading the hillside into a stair-step of quarter acre flat lots. The land was gritty and hard – rock hard. When dry, you needed a pickaxe to loosen the soil. When the ground was thoroughly soaked, you could dig, somewhat, down to about 12 inches. There you would hit the hardpan, dirt so hard and compacted like concrete, created from the weight of the earthmovers that carved the hillside.
The first garden was pretty sad. I didn’t know much about gardening and did minimal if any soil improvement before starting. My first tomato plant grew to a whopping 2 feet and looked a lot like a green stick with a few leaves; for those that remember, a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree” would be a pretty good analogy. My first fixes were with Miracle Grow and 15-15-15. The plants did grow bigger initially but looking back, they probably caused more problems than they solved.
I started reading garden books and began to realize the importance of soil. One book in particular “The Soul of Soil” by Grace Gershuny stood out. It explained not only why but also how soil is important. Soil fertility is more than providing N, P and K. It is about humus, tilth, aeration, CEC, pH, macro and micro nutrients, actinomycetes, bacteria and fungi. It’s about managing all of these as a living ecosystem; which when fully functional, is soil fertility. You don’t feed the plants rather you feed the soil which in turn feed the plants.
As I fed the soil, the soil changed; the tilth has increased, becoming softer and fluffier; it holds more water; it’s darker and smells richer. The plants grow very well now. This year the tomato plant hit the 8 ft mark.
Freedom Gardens: Have You Changed – emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually – since you’ve gardened?
SoCalDan: I was aware of environmental issues such as global warming, soil loss, peak oil, and peak resources but since they hadn’t directly impacted our lives the urgency was lost. Ambivalence has been great, it permitted us to live our mainstream American consumptive lifestyle guilt free.
I see the world differently now; Omnivores Dilemma, One Man One Cow One Planet, We Shall We Gather By The River and The World According to Monsanto have seen to that. Together, they paint a painful portrait of corporate exploitation of man, plant, animal and environmental destruction that is hard to ignore.
My garden, much larger this year, has also made it more personal. The volume of time, thought and energy that we spent in the garden and the daily harvest that we came to depend on for our meals, drew us me much closer to the process of growing food. The direct link to our food source increased the perception of vulnerability to threats from global warming, genetic loss and GMO seeds.
This has forced deep introspection; I’m no longer comfortable with the status quo. I am beginning to realize that as a society much of what we choose to purchase inflicts severe damage to our environment. I’d like to say that I am reformed, that my carbon footprint is minimal, but I can’t, fifty years of habits are hard to undo. I am changing however, making a number of small changes: cfls, powering down, organic and local when available, and simplifying. It’s a start – wish me luck.
Freedom Gardens: Has the website (freedomgardens.org) helped you with your garden?
SoCalDan: Gardening is all about experience; gathering more of it each season tending the garden then applying that wealth of knowledge to each successive garden.
Absolutely. I enjoy reading and participating in many of the discussions. It’s allowed me to tap into the experiences of many of the participants and introduced me gardening topics that I was unfamiliar with. Thanks to a thought provoking post by AgrarianLife on the tragic erosion of our genetic seed heritage and many encouraging post by GirlGroupGirl and others I have begun saving seeds this past season.
Friendships and sharing experiences is another reason why I enjoy it here. I’ve had some great discussion with many gardeners. One person in particular is FarmerAmber. It has been amazing, although we live half a continent apart, our paths in gardening has been almost identical over the past few years. From the start, to the inspiration, expansion, size, trials and successes the similarities have been uncanny.
Another great part of FreedomGardens that we have been able to form a nice network of local gardeners in the greater LA area. Many of us have been able to meet and get familiar with one another at local gatherings. StacyMckenna’s acorn flour at the last gathering was a standout. Her muffins and cookies were delicious. It’s turning out to be a great on and off line social network.
I anticipate the local network will be a greater asset come spring. It will so helpful to exchange observations effects of local conditions, diseases, resistance, insect outbreaks and remedies.
Freedom Gardens: Anything else you’d like to share with other freedom gardeners?
SoCalDan: I guess it would be my motto; it’s what my garden has taught me:
Patience Persistence and Humility
Patience – Growing a garden, everything takes time. I’ve learned not to try and rush things but to be patient, observe and enjoy process. It’s not only the plants that need a season to go from seed to harvest, but the soil – if yours is poor – that may take years to mature. It’s also the garden, which with proper care evolves from a bed for vegetables into a healthy, diverse ecosystem.
Persistence – Gardening has always been two steps forward and one step back. You must learn to take the setbacks in stride and push forward; it is part of the process. The value is what you learn overcoming these problems.
I, now, approach each setback/failure as an opportunity to learn. It’s a puzzle that I need to find the solution to. I try to analyze it; why, how did it happen, what contributed to it, how can I fix it. I try different fixes, sometimes it works many times it doesn’t, but I keep trying.
Humility – No matter how successful I have been or how good I think I get. Mother nature never fails to remind me who really is in charge. I always try to remember that I am just the caretaker and the harvest is a gift from God .
FG: Thanks for taking the time from your busy urban farm life to share with us your insight, SoCalDan We were thoroughly impressed with your harvest tally! Way to GROW! It's often said that when you garden you grow and you have shown us a shining example of that motto with your Patience, Persistence & Humility sentiments.
Be sure to visit SoCalDan's profile to make a connection with this homegrown revoluntionary in Corona California.
Freedom Gardeners of the Month receive a gift from the online store Peddler's Wagon - Green Goods for the Good of the Planet. (Please support Freedom Gardens and help us grow by purchasing from our store)
