Sustainable Living: Spring Garden 2010

Friday, April 2, 2010

Spring Garden 2010

Spring arrived in El Paso and the garden beckoned once again. We spent part of our Spring Break week getting everything into the ground. Albert broke up the plot by himself because of my crazy schedule and workload but we both got our hands dirty planting seeds and slips. I'm not at all sure that we saved any money on groceries last summer but I have to say there is something quite satisfying about stepping out the back door and picking your own tomatoes or spinach. No question that we are pesticide and noxious chemical free

We are letting a gorgeous bok choy flower and go to seed, hoping to salvage its seeds to replant. The parsley came back nicely as did some of the other herbs. Sage didn't make it through the winter nor did the basils. El Paso's harsh summer sun coupled with unpredictable winters sometimes just wipes out plants we thought would make it. Gardening in the Southwest is completely different from what I knew as a farm child. We don't bother with planting runner beans to climb up corn, my job when I was little. Corn is dirt cheap here and just not worth the water or the space. This year Albert had the idea to siphon water from the fish pond for a little extra fertilize emulsion. The pond gets fresh water and the garden stays moist. Daily we watch over our eggplant, lettuce, garlic, tomatoes and peppers. The beans and zucchini are just beginning to peek out of the starter pots. Every season becomes a new experiment.

Best of all, the mockingbird returned. The day after we planted everything, he was high in the tree singing every song he knew with such joyous abandon. It almost seemed that he was thrilled to see our garden and us digging and messing around in the yard. Come to think of it, having the garden probably does supply a few more bugs, grubs, worms and such for his family's snacks so maybe his joy was sincere. I stood in the backyard watching and listening and finally chirping back at him just to have something to contribute to the conversation.

Fannie the Wonder Dog does not understand our fascination with playing in the dirt but she happily keeps us company and enjoys the mockingbird who sings for all of us.

1 comment:

Melanie Dylan Fox said...: I am so inspired reading about other peoples' gardens. Perhaps one day I will move past living vicariously through them. One of the students this semester wrote a lovely series of final poems all about gardens. Zora has really been wanting to plant something, watch it grow. Last year we tried some sunflowers but even they were gobbled up by the invasive species jungle that is the backyard. She's enchanted by the idea of growing something edible - though she doesn't really eat anything that we could grow ourselves :-); April 20, 2010 at 1:03 PM

Post a Comment

Sustainable Living - Gentle Planet

Welcome to Sustainable Living! I'm glad you found this blog and I hope that the information and reflections you find here will be useful to you. I invite you to respond if you find something helpful or if you have discovered something worth sharing with others.

It is important to me to educate the public on sustainable living and how to make it a practical and possible part of our daily lives. My concern is for our children and their future. I fear that our rampant unrepentant consumerism in this country is on a unstoppable downhill slope. Our houses are too big. We buy things we don't need and soon will not not want. Our landfills are filling. Newer, bigger and better things are manufactured, marketed and purchased with what seems to be a planned obsolescence, with no thought of the ultimate destination of yet another thing. Our technology allows me to set in my home and type this but computers, cell phones and other electronic devices are changing so rapidly that they are becoming our biggest disposal problems with their use of heavy metals and complicated ingredients.

Yes, when we are finished with something, we can throw it in the trash can. Then what? Does the average American think at all about where it goes from there. According to the learner.org website (www.learner.org/interactives/garbage/solidwaste.html), the United States generates about 230 million tons of trash every day. That is between 4 and 5 pounds of garbage for each person each day. That is unacceptable and absolutely unsustainable. We cannot continue indefinitely doing this. Less than one fourth of all this refuse is actually recycled. According to the University of Colorado at Boulder (recycling.colorado.edu/education_and_outreach/recycling_facts.html), this leaves us with a legacy of 90,000 lbs. of trash per person over the course of the average American's lifetime. How much of this ends up in our streams, rivers and lakes? How much of it are we ultimately eating, drinking and breathing?

We have to stop thinking that when we throw something in a trash can, it magically disappears. Our ecological awareness is the equivalent of an infant thinking that when we play peek-a-boo, the person actually is gone! As responsible world citizens, we must begin to be aware of absolutely everything we consume. For each and every choice, we must consider where it came from, do we really need it, will we actually use it, and where will it go when we are finished with it.

EcoLiving has become one of the hot topics today, but what does ecology friendly living really mean? Most of realize that buying something that touts the word "green" does not necessarily mean that it is earth friendly. In fact, using words like "green", "natural", and, of course, "organic" are some of the most effective marketing tools today.

There are national standards for using the word "organic" but package designers and marketing moguls seem adept at fuzzing the rules. If it doesn't have the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Organic seal, it isn't. Plain and simple. But you will see on packaging "naturally grown" which may mean just grown, outside in nature. "Contains organic ingredients" may mean that less than 1o% of the ingredients may be organic. Many products that use these misleading labels may even contain genetically altered ingredients.

Most consumers are not going to take the time to educate themselves on this maze of meanings. If they see the words natural or organic, they believe it must be. American consumers have a long history of trusting that the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies will protect them. They have failed to see the erosion of consumer protection backed by lobbyists from mega-chemical companies (i.e. commercial fertilize and pesticide or herbicide products) and big agri-business.

So how do we educate ourselves as consumers? How do we educate our children so that they can make healthy informed choices? The National Organic Program of the United States Department of Agriculture (http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm) has strict standards on what is or isn't organic. Visit their website for detailed information on what the standards are and what they mean for you as a consumer.

So what can you do today that will make a real difference? As I write this I can see across the street what some of us have come to believe is the national flower for the 21st century - a tattered plastic bag flapping, caught on the branches of a tree. Many countries around the world have recognized how insidious these bags have become and are either banning them or heavily taxing them. Don't wait for it to become a government issue. Do you need a plastic bag for one or two items at the store? Will you re-use that bag for a purpose that would justify accepting it? Then refuse it. Take the item and your receipt and feel good about not throwing that gently used bag away when you get home.

Buy organic when possible.

Buy locally grown and seasonally appropriate fruits and vegetables.

Support farmers markets.

Walk or ride a bike instead of driving.

Use and re-use cloth bags or baskets when you shop--not just at the grocery store--every store.

Think before you buy.

Think before you throw away.

Quotes to Live

Sustainable Living

Friday, April 2, 2010

Spring Garden 2010

1 comment:

Sustainable Living - Gentle Planet

About Me

Quotes to Live

Labels

Blog Archive

Followers