Garden Girl

Mr. Garden Girl set up the vermicomposter, making it all snug & ready for when our wrigglers arrive in a few days, while I made zucchini coins from the huge zukes that were part of our haul from the farmers market today. Along with a gorgeous bouquet of basil, which alone was worth the long bike ride in 100+ heat.

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There are challenges to urban gardening on the cheap.
That’s an understatement.
The amazing Gayla Trail of http://www.yougrowgirl.com/ has written about those challenges in depth and I find her to be an inspiration. Like her, I too garden on land not my own & that can come with certain stresses.
Take this morning for example.
I’m happily tippy tapping away at my keyboard when I hear the park’s ground crew outside my window.
& I peek out just in time to see them “edging” my blackberry plants, which granted, have gotten leggy, as blackberries are wont to do & have strayed outside of their raised bed.
You’d think dingoes took my baby-the cry I let out.
So, Mr. Garden Girl (who was more presentable than I) went out & showed them where the boundary between the empty lot next door & our yard was.
It was an honest mistake. Fences aren’t allowed so it can be hard to tell where one plot ends & another begins. They promised it wouldn’t happen again & apologized, but it got me thinking.
About how feelings of possessiveness come so naturally when we’ve put time and energy into nurturing lives (be they people, animals or even plants).
Again & again, I remind myself that it’s not about ownership, it’s about stewardship.
It’s about creating bounty for all, where we can.
And I remind myself that part of what the Fig Tree Cottage experiment is about (through both design & necessity) is learning to find and foster beauty and sustenance in less than picture perfect urban neighborhoods (places like, say– a trailer park ), because– that’s where a lot of us will live, maybe especially in economically unsure times.
More than anything, I want to show than virtually *anyone* in *any situation* can grow some food.
It sounds simple, but to me it’s a profound idea.
An idea that plants a seed in peoples’ hearts to take more initiative and control of their lives, for themselves, for their families and for their neighbors.
Because, as Mr. Jalopy pointed out this morning, we increasingly don’t own what we think we own anyway.

Now, granted, my garden is more of a plan for a garden right now (still crossing my fingers than I can get some herbs & greens in the raised beds for Fall), but I’m in this for the long haul and I hope that by journaling here I can share what I learn about how a tight budget in less than ideal surroundings can still afford a more sustainable and fulfilling life.

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Ready to eat!
Nom, nom, nom.

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If you haven’t already started a tool pool in your neighborhood, there are some online sites to help you rent and share your stuff (think freecycling, but you get your stuff back ). I’m definitely putting a few things up on the loanables.com site, which has a good number of members in Austin. More info here:

Rent / borrow stuff from your neighbors and save money! - Loanables

& speaking of Austin & surrounding neighborhoods, Mr. Garden Girl and I just beat the rain when we were biking home from the Pflugerville Farmers Market this Tues., but it was well worth it to score some organic black bubble tea from the owner of the Formosa Tea House & to share a rose cupcake & a rootbeer cupcake from The Happy Vegan Baker under a tree while listening to live music.

Here’s just some of the vendors at the market:

http://www.pflugervillefarmersmarket.com/vendor_list.html

Blogged with the Flock Browser

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YouTube - WSJ clip: suburban farming, an idea whose time has come

a brief & smile worthy clip from the Wall Street Journal

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is just summer without its full set of teeth.
I’m already a little tan & sweaty just from going out after 6pm to finish treating my yard weed patches with nematodes. But there’s the first sun tea of the year… mmmm, apricot black tea (fair trade & organic, if not local) and I’m working on a new site that will be an online community resource– wiki & forums for those of us who want to share info. on living greener on the cheap
So a satisfactory day, overall.

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There’s a green social networking and product review site called Huddler that is in open beta right now. It looks like it could turn into a useful resource (forums, wiki, reviews, etc.):

http://greenhome.huddler.com/

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Well, why not?
I’ve been thinking about this for a few days before I even saw this wonderful post from Zanthan Gardens:

http://www.zanthan.com/gardens/gardenlog/?p=2340

My budget is very tight this year (buying a trailer & moving, contractors, and even a few fruit trees & a berry patch have wiped my spending money clean out).
And I’d like to concentrate what gardening budget I will have again in some months on food production in my not yet set up raised beds.
Even if that weren’t true, why not weeds?
A weed is more often than not just a useful plant that happens to be where we’d like to have some other kind of plant.
But with my scant knowledge of permaculture, I lean toward wanting native bio diversity built on disturbing the soil as little as possible. I’d rather take the slow route of building my soil up with good organic compost, nematodes & encouraging local fauna to utilize my plot.
I’m not opposed to native prairie grass & flowers and even dandelions in my back yard since they bring bees & other beneficial bugs that are good for my garden, ‘tho I’ll happily yank them out when they start intruding on my food producers.
Actually I’m more distressed by those non native invasives: Bermuda & St. Augustine grass.

So seriously: why not weeds?

& speaking of food gardening, Gristmill blog posted a critique of Bruce Sterling’s critical view of slow food as elitist. It’s well worth reading:

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/3/29/84737/8211

Far from being an elitist, I see myself as supporting my food producing neighbors and making it more possible for people to have access to healthy real food at an affordable price. The cost of tomatoes at your local farm market is probably less than you might think. The cost to you of tax subsidies to big Ag. and health care needs of a society poisoned by the bad nutrition that big Ag. fosters is enormous.

Having said that, there’s also the intangible benefits of slow food. It’s pleasing to all the senses, not just taste. It encourages us to meet and talk with our neighbors. I’m eagerly awaiting the opening of the Pflugerville Farmers Market in a month!

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(up tp 4) if you live within city limits. You may download the application here:

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/watercon/downloads/rbrebateapp.pdf

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Me:

Jeremy:

Mr. Garden Girl:

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