RAISING CAIN (AND BEDS)

            Disclaimer: I am a neophyte vegetable gardener. This year marks only my third year in the trenches (potatoes very much on my mind this morning).

Growing edibles is not my forte, for two reasons:

1) I hate to cook.Iif I can’t eat it raw, my interest-level wanes. I also harbor semi-repressed memories of Augusts spent sweltering over vats of boiling water in an air-conditionless kitchen, helping my mom put up the tons of tomatoes Daddy’s garden produced and produced and produced. Not to mention the gallons of cucumbers dilled, sweeted and piccalillied and, one unforgettable year, bushels of peaches. (I bet Mom still has a jar or two of those peaches. Seems to me a few of them exploded after a decade or so in the cupboard over the refrigerator, but I could be mistaken.)

2) Tim thinks vegetables, except for carrots and corn, are evil. And corn gives him the cripes. Sitting across the table from me as I type, he reminds me that that “evil vegetables” snark is not strictly true. By his reckoning, anything non-animal and non-mineral is by definition vegetable, including potatoes, cashews, chocolate, sugar, Doritos and all other grain and candy products.

Just so you know the extent of our oddness: we don’t own a microwave, don’t subscribe to cable TV, have no doorbell or one of those kitchen sink sprayers-on-a-hose that always end up leaking. It has been whispered about that the Fitzgeralds are a bit odd.

These little peculiarities of ours should not, however, deter you.

            Nonetheless, my spring enthusiasms infect my darling and handy husband to the extent that he offers to abet me in producing even more edibles that I won’t cook and he doesn’t like. On Friday and Saturday, we added 20 square feet of raised beds for me to plant.

            I’ve looked at the raised-bed “systems” offered for sale in the catalogs and at the home-improvement emporia. None meets my criteria for sturdiness, likely longevity and non-use of petroleum products. We Fitzes build our own.

            Materials are simple, and cheap. For our two two-by-six boxes, we stockpiled the following:

·         4 1x6”x8’ boards (We use pressure treated. It’s no longer infused with arsenic chromate, and is alleged to be safe. Because of a life-long habit of eating apple seeds, I’m immune to arsenic anyway. Besides, termites can digest an untreated frame in two years.)

·         8 18” lengths of 2x2” (that comes to two 8-footers, with four feet left over)

·         About 50 2½” deck screws

·        Saw, drill (doubles as screwdriver),
tape measure, T-square,
clamps, shovel, rubber mallet

From here, we’re going pictorial.

                                                                           1.      Assemble materials.

                                            

        

        

            2.   The most important tool of all,

                 who saws 2' off each board,

                 leaving 6' for the long side.

               

             

                                                3.      Clamp the frame into shape.

                                                   

       

               4.      Pre-drill holes, then drive 2 screws into each corner.

                                                          

                                                         

5.      Clamp each corner brace/anchor as shown, and

      secure with 2 screws on each leg of the angle.

      Repeat to assemble the second bed.

     

      6.      Have Bobo the Fat Lady

              help you clear the
           vegetation from the
           area the raised

               bed is to end up.

        

7.  Admire the cleared and sharply edged area.     
                                        

         

      

              8.  Place the frame in the cleared
                   area as shown.

                                                          

                                              
9.  Clear and edge the second bed area.

                               

    

     

      10.  Place the second frame in the

            second bed as shown.

                                                    

11.  Admire the effect for a minute…

                                                          

          12.  …tap the anchoring legs into the ground until the sides of the frame touch the ground. Aim for level, but don't obsess about it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The main advantage of planting in raised beds is that you control of the soil. Next time (if a paycheck arrives in timely fashion), we’ll do just that.

            Thanks for dropping by. Looking forward to your comments, questions and suggestions.

                                                                                    Kathy

QUICK TIPS

            Tim and I spent the last week or so doing a basic spring landscape clear-out—pruning, weeding, feeding. (It wasn’t awful as it sounds: an average Fitz workday runs about four hours, plus we get all inclement-weather days off. Oh, the joys of self-employment! But don’t try this at home, kids, unless you are mortgage- and debt-free, and can be happy with a simple, low-tech, anti-consumption lifestyle.) The lovely, appreciative couple whose yard we literally crawled all over marveled at the difference between before and after. And that’s without planting a thing except one 30” hayrack.

Southern crabapple blossom
(Malus angustifolius)

            It’s not really horrendously hard work, because Tim and I have a rhythm that plays to our individual strengths. It occurred to me that I could share some of our techniques, discovered during years of T always looking for the easiest, fastest and most efficient way to get things done and me poking along behind, humming to myself, avoiding tool-use as much as possible.          

I’ve also been having an online conversation with a reader named Julie about some of her gardening woes. She describes a problem, I respond with what I think the cause might be and suggest a solution. (See what making a comment can do for you?)  Between the two of us, we decided a post of early-spring tips might be generally helpful. So here are a dozen snippets of random advice, from the voice of experience.

           

TIP 1:  The optimal time to feed your plants is when active growth begins. I’ve covered the ins and outs of this topic ad nauseum in “Food for Thought, Parts 1 and 2” (see February 20^th and 24^th posts), so all I’ll add here is a factoid: at the job we just finished, it took five 40-pound bags of Holly-Tone to do the job right for an average-size suburban lot. Don’t scrimp.



Unlimbed-up hedge



TIP 2:  Prune before you feed, so you aren’t schlepping around underneath shrubs with your face in fertilizer. What do you mean, “underneath”? you say. I mean it’s critical that you limb up plants from below to enhance good air circulation, in turn enhancing pest resistance. (I recommend protective eyewear for this task if you don’t already need corrective lenses to see your shrubs.) Cool weather is best for this chore, especially for those of you who are reptile- and insect-phobic—get out there before hibernating creatures stir. Clear out dead leaves and twigs and old mulch while you’re down there: this also helps improve circulation and can remove overwintering pests.



Limbed-up hedge



TIP 3:  One other pruning hint—if you haul your cullings off yourself, cut them into straight pieces so they’ll compact better. Y- and L-jointed branches take up more space, meaning more runs to the dumping ground.     

TIP 4:  On to weeding. Drag a big tub (my favorite is a 25-gallon nursery pot) around with you for collection. It’s easier than making piles you have to go back and pick up later. Why do I have to weed? I hear you whining. Because weeds take water and nutrients away from the things you actually planted, that’s why. Don’t throw weed flowers or seeds into the compost pile. That’s just asking for trouble. (At T’s and my latest job, wild garlic grew rampantly. Its bulbs, and those of wild onions, are edible. The onions’ flavor is sharper, like green onions, and the garlic milder than cultivated versions. Just in case you were wondering.)



Summer snowflake
(Leucojum aestivum)



TIP 5:  While you’re down on the ground weeding, you might as well neaten up the edges of your beds. I pull the mulch away from the grass, removing any lawn incursions, and leave the edge open. Tim comes behind me with his sharp shovel and cuts a lovely English trench. (Sound like too much work? You may want to invest in hard edging, which is a topic for another day.)

TIP 6:  Getting ready to plant containers? Clean your pots after emptying them—recycle the soil to the compost pile or to low spots in your yard if last season’s plants stayed healthy. I don’t usually bother with the ten-to-one bleach-and-water scrub, but I do give my pots a brisk once-over, inside and out, with a nail brush, then wipe them down with a clean cloth (which is why I never throw away ratty dishtowels).



Sweetly fragrant monastery vine
(Akebia quinata 'Shiro Bana')



TIP 7:  How do you figure how much soil your pots will need? Cubic volume is height times width times depth, which gives you cubic inches: divide by 1728 to convert to cubic feet. But what about soil measured in quarts? A 32-quart bag fills two-and-a-quarter-ish 30-inch by 9-inch by 6-inch hayracks, so I’d guesstimate it to be a tad over two cubic feet of soil. Trial and error is the best teacher, of course. Always buy more than you think you’ll need: that way you won’t have to stop in the middle of planting to run back to Lowe’s.





Rain and wind-battered
Rosa chinensis 'Mutabilis'



TIP 8:  Mix a couple of 16-ounce cupfuls of composted matter (I use Black Kow) and a half-cup or so of kelp meal into that 30” hayrack’s soil. All commercial potting mixes are sterile by definition: the Kow helps with moisture retention and the kelp with trace minerals Osmocote and Miracle-Gro (good fertilizer choices for containers) lack.    

TIP 9:  If you have moss or coco-liners to change out, the old ones make good weed barrier fabric for around trees and shrubs. You’re not only recycling, you’re building your soil as the liners decompose over time.



Spanish bluebells
(Hyacinthiodes hispanica)



TIP 10:  Is your garden’s soil sandy? Azaleas, gardenias and Japanese camellias looking sad? Give them a boost by doing three things. 1) Make sure they are not too deep in the ground. In particular, shallow-rooted azaleas do best when their topmost rootlets are at soil level. Digging them up and resetting them higher will make a world of difference. 2) Take advantage of the replanting opportunity and amend the soil in the hole with composted matter and a healthy dollop of elemental sulfur (available at farmers supply stores if not at the local home improvement emporium). 3) Feed the buggers. In addition to appropriate amounts of Holly-Tone, topdress all your acid-lovers annually with composted matter and elemental sulfur if your native soil tends toward neutral or alkaline.

TIP 11:  Distressed by a black coating on your gardenias and-or crape myrtle foliage? It’s called sooty mold, and is mildewed whitefly and aphid poop, respectively. The good news? It’s a cosmetic problem, and, since neither pest is active right now (although they will be soon!), now’s a good time to clean the mess off. Mix a tablespoon of soap (not detergent) in a quart of water in a spray bottle. Coat the affected foliage to the dripping point, top and bottom, with the soapy water. Let it sit 10 or 15 minutes, then blast the plant with the hose to wash the stuff off.



American honeysuckle
(Lonicera sempervirens)



TIP 12:  To prevent recurrence, clear out and dispose of (but not in the compost) the mulch and any dead leaves at the base of the plants to remove any over-wintering eggs or larvae. Treat gardenias with horticultural oil at intervals all season, per package directions. Aphids on crapes (or anything else, for that matter) dislodge easily with a strong jet of water from the hose, or you can use an insecticidal-soap spray. Make sure all plants have good air circulation from all directions, including from underneath.

            Hope these tips help as you ready your property for the coming warm weather. Not that gardeners need an excuse to spend time outside in the spring.

            A note on the pictures: since the subject wasn’t particularly photogenic (except the limbing-up underneath bit), I supplemented with what’s blooming today chez Fitz.

            Thanks for dropping by. Next time—veggies!

                                                                        Kathy

ARE WE WHAT WE EAT?

            If it’s true that we are what we eat—and I believe it is—we are in BIG trouble.

            This topic came to mind as I chatted with the mother of a pair of young girls playing on the beach during the “Not-So-Super Moon” in March (see the “Let There Be Light” post of March 20^th). I remarked how sweet-natured the elder daughter, a tall and shapely young woman, must be to play with her eight-year-old sister. “Hmmph,” the mom snorted. “She may look 16, but she’s only 11.”



A good read



            Oh, dear.

            Because my somewhat eclectic regular reading list includes various Frankenfoods alerts, I’m aware that growth hormones routinely fed to livestock destined for our tables are accumulating in our children. Puberty kicks in significantly earlier now than a decade ago, a disturbing development that some scientists believe may have a negative impact on lifespan. Based on what he sees in his practice, Tim’s cardiologist believes the current machine-dependent generation will die at earlier ages than their parents. Furthermore, the level of pesticides deemed “safe” when measured in human fat cells is creeping ever upward. Don’t know about you, but I find these observations worrying, especially when I think about my kids, and their kids.

More good reads

            Let’s talk sweeteners, a topic near and dear to my heart. Following a lively discussion we’d had about individual responsibility and the American obesity epidemic, Tim emailed me an article summarizing a Princeton study performed on mice that concluded high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—a prominent ingredient in nearly every processed food—caused significant weight gain. To be precise, 48% more weight than mice fed other sugars. Plus HFCS contributes to abnormal deposits of abdominal fat and high triglyceride levels. (Check out the article at The Consumerist website: type “high fructose corn syrup” in the search bar.) Besides, if you’re a connoisseur, you know that goodies like soda and chocolate and ice cream sweetened with corn simply don’t taste as good as those made with cane sugar. Then there’s the “improved” sugar beet our agri-business-controlled USDA approved earlier this year that Monsanto genetically engineered for herbicide resistance, although no environmental safety tests were conducted. In case you didn’t know, 50% of table sugar consumed in the U.S. comes from beets.

from "Frankenfish Phobia"
by Timothy Egan
(click on this one to read the caption)

            Read about the genetically modified salmon? Its marketer, Aqua Bounties Technologies, spliced wild, slow-growing Chinook salmon genes to less-tasty, farmed-raised, sterile Atlantic salmon with a dollop of a third species’ DNA, the eel-like ocean pout, for fast growth. ABT swears their laboratory creation won’t escape to foul the gene pool of the wild salmon. I have my doubts. The USDA is on the cusp of approving this frankenfish for human consumption, although it was evaluated as a—get this!—veterinary drug and not as food.

            Wait, there’s more! The busy regulators at Agriculture also gave the green light to corn and alfalfa genetically engineered specifically for ethanol manufacture, despite the fact of likely cross-pollination because of inadequate prescribed buffer zones. So what? So a nearby field of sweet corn would be rendered unfit for human consumption if contaminated by wind-blown pollen from these wonders of modern science.

            Then there’re the ancillary issues of fossil fuel-use in transporting produce bred to travel thousands of miles from farm to table, and water-table depletion and degradation in developing countries that keep you supplied with asparagus all winter long.

            Well, what can you do? you query. You gotta eat.



Michael Pollan



            Not asparagus in winter, I counter.

            In 2008’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan distills the conscious consumer’s role in just seven words: “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

            To which I would add: “As locally grown as possible.”

            Easier said than done, of course, but it helps if you make an effort to educate yourself before you stick stuff in your mouth. Honest to Pete, I’m not being holier-than-thou here. I’m as ruled by taste buds and capricious appetites as anyone. A mass of contradictions, I read labels, but throw those Cashew Sandies in the cart anyway because I love Cashew Sandies with my fair trade, sustainably farmed green tea sweetened with Splenda.

            Fortunately, some organizations exist specifically to help you make sounder food choices, and to tell you where you can get them.

            The granddaddy of all the local, seasonal cuisine movements is Slow Food. Formed in Italy in 1986 as a grassroots response to plans to build a McDonalds at Rome’s Spanish Steps, it went international with the signing of the Slow Food Manifesto in Paris in 1989. Gustatorily, the movement promotes sustainable production methods and encourages small, local businesses to revive and celebrate local, seasonal food specialties. Politically, Slow Food opposes the usurpation and globalization of agriculture by multi-national business conglomerates.

            Interested? Learn more at the Slow Food USA website, linked here. I looked for chapters in my area and found seven in North Carolina, although the closest are at some distance, being in Fayetteville and Greenville. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming don’t have any state chapters, so if you live there, you’ve got an opportunity to be the founding member.



Local Harvest's logo



            Since finding food grown within a hundred miles of your home (kind of the working definition of “local”) can be problematic, next on the list for wannabe locavores: Local Harvest. This site directs you to family farms, farmers markets, co-ops, grocery stores and restaurants in your area that sell and/or use primarily sustainably produced, in-season, local vegetables and fruit; humanely raised, grass-fed meats; chemical-free dairy; and health-and-beauty products. It also pinpoints Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in your vicinity, where members get a percentage of the harvest all season in exchange for money or labor. For example, $250 buys members a half-bushel basket of produce for each of ten weeks, May to July, from the Jones Family Farm CSA in Burgaw, NC.

            In North Carolina, agriculture accounts for a hefty chunk of the economy. With that in mind, the Cooperative Extension program of NC State University and NC Agricultural and Technical State University, the Golden Leaf Foundation and the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) have formed the NC 10% Project. Participants pledge to spend ten percent of their weekly food budget on locally grown products. The project administrators email a few simple questions weekly to members to track who’s purchasing what where, and making the statewide results available online. The site includes a list of seasonally available fruits, veggies and nuts and provides a source locator for produce, meats, dairy and eggs. I plan to sign up. (Fellow southeastern North Carolinians may want to check out Feast Down East, too. When they finally get the site up and running.)

            All three sites provide recipes for those of you who actually cook, and don’t just eat the stuff raw.

            Americans seem mired in an endless paradoxical quest for convenience, speed, and the cheapest prices. Michael Pollan says that, in Western diets, “food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion—most of what we’re consuming today is no longer the product of nature but of food science.” Slow Food and the locavore movement strive to focus attention on mindful, as opposed to mindless, eating. As we grow fatter and fatter and become less and less healthy, maybe it’s time to join them.

*****



Go look for Leo between now
and next Monday



            As I promised back in “Taking Time” (the March 16^th post), here are the dates for the next Globe at Night citizen-science opportunity: March 22-April 4 (better late than never). This time the focal point is the constellation Leo, so I’m going to learn some new stars! The overall purpose is to map light-pollution. Those of us who live where it’s relatively dark get a spectacular show that’s easy to miss if you never take the time to go out and let your dark-adjusted eyes really see what’s up there. It’s easy to participate and to submit your results. Go to the website linked above for instructions, star maps, and fun projects for kids.

*****

            Hope I’ve given you some food for thought (haha) on things both terrestrial and celestial. Thanks for dropping by.

          

                                                                                    Kathy