This weekend, a friend and I went to a garden planning and seed saving class hosted jointly by the Olympia Food Co-op and GRuB. I didn’t know about GRuB before this weekend, but I think I’m in love. If you live in the Olympia area, I highly encourage you to check out their website and the great things they’re doing in the community. These are great people doing amazing work in urban gardening, community resilience, and youth education. If you’re somewhere else, you might see if there’s a group doing similar work in your area.
The class was held at the GRuB “farmhouse” in their beautiful main room. (Next to one of the coolest kitchens I have ever seen – I kicked myself for not bringing my camera!) Caitlyn Moore walked us through the basics of seed saving – fairly complicated, but absolutely crucial work – and basic garden planning.
Seed Savers Are Our Unsung Heroes
I came away from the class even more convinced that we owe what is left of our food security to a small band of intrepid individuals who have dedicated themselves to preserving varieties of food crops that would be driven to extinction in the face of corporate-driven market forces. Seed saving is an essential part of this, and I am grateful for all those skilled gardeners who have joined the effort to preserve heirloom crops and livestock. (Also, savings seeds helps you weather situations like this.)
Aside from all the wonderful information about seed saving, plant genetics, and calendar and grid garden planning, I learned two other interesting things.
1. I don’t know anything about gardening.
Houseplants love me, but I have never, ever gardened. I have definitely never grown food. This is all new to me. That means I ask stupid questions, such as “If my garden is mulched with wood chips, do I have to remove all the wood chips before I plant anything?” I still don’t know the answer to that question, but I know enough to know that it’s a stupid question. How do I store soil and compost and all the things they say you need? Where do I even get it? How long can it sit around before it gets weird? What’s the deal with thinning, and why wouldn’t I just plant them that far apart to begin with? More really basic, kind of stupid questions.
2. I know quite a bit about gardening.
I really do. I know about the leaf, root, flower, fruit rotation. I know about alleles and pollination and gene expression. I understand companion planting and feel fairly confident that I could create a garden plan that incorporates it. I know how to plant potatoes in a way that doesn’t require a ton of space and intensive labor. I know about nitrogen fixers and cover crops and till and no-till. I know that there’s a good chance that my greyhounds will eat my tomatoes.
Basically, I know weird things about gardening. I understand some of the more advanced concepts, but have massive holes in my basic, practical knowledge. And unfortunately, I don’t think knowing about gene expression is actually going to help me grow food. I suppose all of it will be useful in the long run, but right now, I just want someone who will answer my stupid questions without making fun of me too, too much.
Poor Google. It must have to put up with an awful lot of stupid questions.
Did you forget your kick ass friend Rich Ludwig that is a working on becoming a Master Gardener in Colorado?
1) If my garden is mulched with wood chips, do I have to remove all the wood chips before I plant anything?
Nope but you should clear a good area around the place you would like to plant to make sure the plant will have sunlight. However 80% of plant problems deal with the soil and in order to mix nutrients and aerate the soil you will have to remove the wood.
2) How do I store soil and compost and all the things they say you need?
Compost is just dirt so you can store it any where you would like (water can wash some of the nutrients away) other soil amendments tend to come in bags and a shed is a good spot.
3) Where do I even get it?
Most stores especially Home Depot and Lowe’s you can get soil amendments. Also grocery stores and nurseries have them.
4) How long can it sit around before it gets weird?
I doubt you will buy enough in bulk that you wont use it before it goes “bad”. This material will last a while. When you buy compost in bag form make sure it has perforated holes so the bacteria and organisms can breath.
5) What’s the deal with thinning, and why wouldn’t I just plant them that far apart to begin with?
When you buy seeds they should come with a germination rate, meaning the chance your seed with actually grow into a plant. For example you may buy a package of cucumber seeds that have a 90% germination rate. when you dig a small hole you should put more than one seed like 3-4 seeds in the hole to ensure you actually get a plant. If all 4 come up you can choose the healthiest better looking plant to keep growing. If you let all four grow they will be competing with each other and will probably reduce your yield.
Also Colorado State University just built a super kick ass national seed storage. http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=54-02-05-00
To add a little to Rich’s comments…
1.)If my garden is mulched with wood chips, do I have to remove all the wood chips before I plant anything?
If you are going to use wood mulch on a veggie garden you need to be aware that a) as mulch breaks down it ties up nitrogen in the soil and b) it is hard to know what is in mulch. Some people say you can deal with the first issue by spreading nitrogen on the soil before laying the mulch. The second issue… the problem can be either chemical residue that kills plants, or natural but toxic to plants fungus (I think it’s a fungus…looks like vomit.seriously.)
2.)How do I store soil and compost and all the things they say you need?
Anywhere covered will do, really. Shed, garage, laundry room, porch…whatever is available. Or you could go ghetto like me and leave piles of bagged soil on your driveway until the neighbors start giving you caustic looks. If you have soil (as in, yard you’re going to dig up, have a soil test done first. You might not need a bunch of stuff. The extension agency can hook you up with a soil test. Also, tsk tsk to Rich… Hopefully the MG program will drill into you that dirt is stuff that makes you unclean. Soil is what you grow plants in and is mostly a mix of sand, clay, and silt. And compost is decomposed plant matter (mostly)- animal too in nature, but don’t add meats or oils to a compost pile, and only the manure of herbivores is okay in the garden.
3.)Where do I even get it?
Ditto to Rich’s comments; but again, test the soil before adding anything. It’s the best way, and only way for a beginner, to know what- if anything- your particular soil needs.
4.) How long can it sit around before it gets weird?
For the most part, a long freakin’ time. Compost is or should be alive. But the other stuff you might add are either chemical or mineral. The minerals are stable. Chemicals need to be checked individually.
5.)What’s the deal with thinning, and why wouldn’t I just plant them that far apart to begin with?
What Rich said, plus… Some seeds you can start inside, while others need to go straight into the garden bed (like carrots). I rarely overplant seeds I start inside. But outside, you never know what’s going to happen. There’s germination rate, hungry birds, etc to worry about. Also, starting a dense bed of what you want to end up with helps shade out what you don’t want to end up with, reducing weeding and allowing you to keep the best of your chosen crop and harvest the rest as baby carrots or early greens or whatever.
In gardening there are no stupid questions. Really. And you are right about seed savers. The world is a lot scarier when you realize just how much control Monsanto and ilk have over seeds worldwide.
Also wanted to thank you for suggesting Cage Free Family and, by extension, This Ordinary Day. Both sites I needed right now. How did you know?
Thank you both so much for your answers – you guys are rock stars!!
Jess,
You are in good hands with your commenters. I can’t wait to hear more about your garden plans! Hope you win the seed giveaway too!
Thank you! And ooh, me too, me too. I’m so excited about your seed giveaway
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to Maggie: Soil is defined in several different ways depending on the use. so my statement of compost is just dirt is just fine for the storage purposes.
Also the broad idea that compost is plant matter is misleading. compost can be made from a wide variety of sources plants and animals. Manures in a garden probably isn’t the best idea with few exceptions.
We talked about Monsanto at pottery last night. So there are more people talking about it than you might think.
That is awesome! I think the more people can be made aware of that, the better off we will be.