playing n the dirt

The yard at the end of our block looks perfect.  Every blade of grass looks the exact height and color as the next.  The trees are evenly spaced, the english ivy stays in the beds and the flagstone is perfectly random.  Any block would be proud to have this yard.  I just have one problem with it, it isn’t natural.

There are lots of chemicals used on the lawn, it seems like almost every week they put more on.  English ivy is not native to Colorado and can be every intrusive if it does spread and while evenly spaced the trees will be to close when they get full grown.  I really am not the jealous neighbor.  I would just prefer a yard and garden that were a little more natural.

Nature isn’t perfect and I don’t think our yards and gardens should be either.  That does not mean I don’t think we should not take care of our yards.  However there is a difference between dumping tons of chemicals on our yards and living with a few weeds.  I think our plant options need to be native to the area and not something exotic.  There is something to be said for the surprises of nature and a cottage style yard versus the perfect yard.

For me, September is about the most perfect month of the year, especially in the garden.  The weather is cooling down and most days I can work in the middle of the afternoon.  It is getting darker a little sooner.  This is good, because I feel guilty when I come inside and there is still work to do and it is light outside.

I can pretty much kick back and just pick what is ready to be picked and not worry about the weeds because in a month the frost will kill them anyway.  There will still be about a million fall leaves to deal with and the extra hot day or two and I will still have to plant the green house when all the peppers and tomatos are done.

But for now, welcome sweet September. 

One group of plants that I have not been successful growing is herbs.  I have heard they are easy to grow and in fact will grow like weeds.  Not mine, and I am not sure what I have done wrong, other than all my attempts have been in containers.

So yes I was surprised this week to discover a mint growing in a container of petunia’s in one of the garden beds.  When I first spotted it I thought it was mint and rubbed the leaves to make sure.  Sure enough, it’s mint.  I have been keeping an eye on it and it seems to be doing fine.  In fact is growing like a weed.

I am not sure where it came from, but I do recycle my potting mix.  I probably recycled a container of mix that I had tried to grow mint in and used it when potting the petunias. 

My next text will be to see if I can keep it alive over this winter.  Wish me luck.

Every gardener needs a few good good tools.  I have a pitch fork and shovel, mostly for turning compost and for making new beds.  I use a small hand held pruiner clippers and trowel for keeping garden beds looking neat and trim. 

The other day I was clipping the grass at the edge of a bed when my clippers broke.  I played with them for a while and figured out what was wrong, but I couldn’t make the little hook stay in place.  I figured I’d be done for the day and try to fix them later.  Two days later I still couldn’t keep them working and the grass really needed to be clipped. 

I finally decided I had three choices.  I could keep trying with broken clippers, I could stop and go to the store and buy a new pair or I could try and find something else to do the job.  I decided to try the kitchen sissors.  They worked.  I was done clipping the grass in no time.  I even got my husband to go to the hardware store and buy me a new pair of clippers.

The soapy water is working on whatever type of lava got all over the leaves of my pepper plants.  The plants and leaves are looking much better.  The is some damage that can’t be repaired, but over all I think the peppers will be ok. 

I still don’t know what type of bug laid the lava, but I’m not to worried about that.  I think I did see one of them this afternoon.  It as an ugly red and black thing.  If I had tons of free time, I look up what kind of bug it is, but I have lots of other garden chores to do instead.

If I can’t be in the garden then I’d rather be reading than doing anything else.  I am the same way about reading as I am about gardening.  I don’t really care to much what I read as long as there is something to read.  It doesn’t matter to me what I grow as long as there is a garden. 

On one of my last trips to the library I deceided to wonder through the non-fiction side.  As always I wasn’t there long when a title caught my eye, “A Green History Of The World.”  After quickly checking out some of the chapter titles I decided this book would interest me, and boy has it ever.  The book is exactly what the title says a green history of the world.  The sub title is “The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations.”

In my opion this book should be required reading for every human on earth.  The good news is the last few generations didn’t “invent” bad environmental policies.  The bad news humans haven’t seemed to learn anything about the environment and how to treat it in thousands of years.

Before I decided to do this book review I went to www.Amazon.com this morning to see if they have the book available.  They do, both new and used, and not bad priced.  I may buy one myself.  If you only read one book this year, please make it this one.  Again the title is “A Green History Of The World” and the author is Clive Ponting.

I am an organic gardener with a pretty laid back approach to gardening.  I have never really had a pest problem in all my years of gardening and I think the organic approach is one reason why.  I have a “no kill” rule when it comes to critters and pests in the garden and the natural order and ecosystem has proven good for my gardens.

This year however on my peppers I have some type of flying insect lava.  Until recently a good blast with the sprayer nozzle has kept the problem in check and the plants don’t seem to be doing to badly.  Now the lava seems to be spreading and the peppers are not producing much.  I’m not sure if the two are related but I think there is a good chance they are.

So how does an organic gardener control the pests and keep being organic.  I’m going to try one of the oldest pest control tricks in the bag, soapy water.  I’ll mix a few drops of liquid organic soap in a spray bottle full of water and spray it directly on the leaves of the plants.  It should control the lava without harming the plants or any other surrounding plants.

So the new gardener want to know, why do you mulch?  There are many reasons, but I’ll give you my top three, in no particular order.

Mulching saves time.  When you have a good layer of mulch you can save time by not having to water as much as without mulch.  Most mulches will help retain water.  A good mulch will also save time because it will help control weeds.  No weeds, no weed pulling.

Mulching can help improve your soil.  You will need a good organic mulch, but what could be easier.  Just layer the mulch in the garden and let it do all the work.  While barks are organic they will take longer to breakdown and build up the soil verses grass, leaves or newspaper which will usually breakdown in a season.

Mulch can add to the overall beauty of the garden.  A freshly mulched garden is a beautiful site.  A more hardy mulch like bark in the sidewalk flower garden can also be enjoyed by all your neighbors.

There are many different types of mulch.  In my vegetable gardens I like to use to of the easiest and cheapest kinds.  I usually lay down four to six sheets of newspaper topped off with my grass clippings to keep them in place.  This is very effective and almost free.  In my sidewalk flower gardens I use non treated bark.

You can find many more mulching ideas in www.MotherEarthNews.com. 

It’s been a great gardening season and now the crops are getting ready to harvest.  The harvest starts out kind of slow with a few ripe beans and zuchinni.  The wait for the first ripe tomato is almost unbearalbe.  But then things start to speed up and the next thing you know, you have dozens of everything.

So what do you do with all the crops you have to harvest?  Even the most die hard producer lover can only take so much of a good thing.  Sharing with friends and family is a great idea, but unless you have a lot of each, your still going to have more produce than you know what to do with.

The best thing to do with all that extra produce is to save it for later.  There are several good ways to do just that. 

Canning is what most people think of when they think about preserving food.  This is my least favorite way of preserving food.  It takes a lot of time, it is a hot job and it can make a big mess especially if a jar busts.

Freezing food is easier and you can do it to almost any produce.  Some food can just be washed and then frozen others should be blanched first and maybe peeled first and then frozen.

Roasting works great on any type of pepper.  We roast ours outside on the bar-b-que grill.  Then just let them cool and freeze them.  You do NOT have to peel them before you freeze them.

Drying food is about the easiest way to preserve food.  You can buy a dehydrator or let the sun to it for you.  Store the food in a clean,dry,dark area until ready to use.

Certain foods like carrots don’t need anything done to them.  You can store them in a clean, dry, cool area for up to several months.

Growing a great garden is a wonderful experience.  Eating the fruits of your labor in the dead of winter is an even greater experience.  If you’re new to food preserving I’d suggest you get some expert advice.  My favorite place to get that advice is MotherEarthNews.  They have a great website, www.MotherEarthNews.com where you’ll find all types of ways of preserving food. 

Slowly but surly the vegetable garden is making a come back to the front yard.  As I think it should.  This year in Boulder, Colorado a gardener and business man leased front yards, tended the gardens and is selling organic produce at the local farmers market.  Good job.

In this time of high food prices and ever smaller water supplies why are we watering front lawns that nobody can eat? 

Thankfully I don’t have a home owners association to deal with, but I do need to make sure it’s not against any city code and then my front yard will be turned into a vegetable garden.  I plan on using raised beds with mulch in between the beds with a nice fence around it all.  I think it will look very beautiful.  It will certainly look as good as any lawn.

I don’t plan on selling my organic produce because then gardening would kind of be like work, but all my family, friends and neighbors will share in the bounty.