Garden Girl

Originally uploaded by TheHerbGirl

We have lift off on all the trees but the peach, who I’m hoping is just a slow starter.

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!

After all– even the most ethically committed of us is likely balancing some need of expediency with their efforts at sustainability (the computer I’m writing this on runs on wind generated energy, but its made of parts generated currently by mining & manufacturing in decidedly eco unfriendly ways. My veggies are local & seasonal, but my grains are not. Strictly speaking, I’m more of an ethicurean than a locavorian.)
Do what you can.
Don’t beat yourself up over what you aren’t doing yet.
Remember to enjoy what you have and to share it.
Look for ways to do more but don’t mistake asceticism for ethics or effort for moral superiority.

I read quite a few of the bloggers & journalists who write on issues of sustainability, climate destabilization and energy.
I’m happy to see a zeitgeist building as these issues are starting to permeate into the mass consciousness. A few years ago ( heck even a year ago), it was easier to dismiss these writers as fringe eco-maniacs with chicken little complexes, even when the body of scientific research had been supporting what they were saying for years.

As the number of people gathering & disseminating information online about the ecological challenges we’re facing grows, I’ve noted a trend in the writings that makes me very happy. That trend is one I think of as writing in a spirit of pragmatic optimism.
Some of the first bloggers I became aware of and started to read regularly had grim facts to report & an even grimmer forecast for human civilization. These folks certainly were not & are not talking out of their hats. Many of them have been gathering data & investigating issues like peak oil, arctic melting, soil depletion, and the problems of monoculture farming for years and I would imagine it’s beyond hard in the face of daily new reports of increasing peril and mis information spreading, apathy & greed on the part of governments and industries, not to take a pessimistic view.

But here’s what I strongly believe:

We don’t have the luxury of pessimism.
We have no time to spend energy in “I told you so” judgmental recriminations & a self righteous schadenfreude.
Nor is it going to help us to take a survivalist attitude of “the smart & strong who saw this coming & prepared will make it just fine”.
Even if that were true, which I doubt.
Those attitudes may feed the ego when times are tough, but they won’t feed our bodies.
To feed our bodies (and our spirits), we are going to need knowledge and skills and local networks sharing them.

If we preach gloom, doom and the elitism of those who have already started on creating greater self sufficiency, we may put people off the path of self empowerment that will not just serve them well, but help them serve others well too.

It can be scary to confront change, especially when we’ve been socialized into a very dangerous passivity that eats at our confidence.
I think what people may need most now is encouragement to take a few baby steps like going car free or joining a victory gardening community and growing just a little of their own food, because if they take these small steps successfully, they will feel empowered to take more steps and to help others take action.

Pragmatic optimism is about building a real momentum for change, which beats being smug while others end up feeling helpless all to heck.

The fig tree is pushing forth nubbins.

I have two kinds of blackberries in a raised bed. There’s 6-8 little spriglings in a good amount of mulch & well tilled soil underneath. I am not sure what this little guy is (it was untagged & I need to ask Bio-Gardener).
The other variety we have is Thornless Arapaho.

Thanks to Jose & the crew at Bio-gardener for the bed o’ berries!

Me:

Jeremy:

Mr. Garden Girl:

A kind person on flickr finally identified my front tree as a Bradford Pear and I’ve noticed my neighborhood is full of them. Texas Mountain Laurel is coming out strong too (ahhh, the Springtime smell of grape koolaid , *chuckle*.)
The Red Oaks are still asleep, ‘though.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen that other local favorite, the Texas Redbud around here.

In more very local tree news, Jeremy from  Bio-Gardener brought us fruit trees! He was a one man tree planting, information & education giving force of nature and he pointed me at even more resources for learning about my little plot of earth. He told me, for example, that the soil of the Blackland Prairie, where we are, is very different from the soil of the Hill Country next door.

Digging in to plant the fruit trees, I saw an earthworm or two, a good sign that the ground isn’t such dense clay that there’s no life going on down there.
My next post will be photos of Jeremy doing the hard labor & me just helping out getting the treelings in their new home.
Here’s hoping the baby plum, apricot, fig & peach trees that now gently stand watch at the four corners of my home thrive under my newbish care

I’m waiting on my fruit trees to arrive (today or tomorrow depending on the whims of weather). And while I wait, I’m thinking about berry bushes to be. I love blackberries and I’m jazzed at the idea of making blackberry preserves.
I’m excited & happy that we are finally at a place where I can start the garden experiment just a little, but I’m also a bit nervous. It’s been a long time since I even helped out in a big garden & I’ve never started a big garden from scratch like I am here.
And we’ve gone deeply into debt to fund this incredibly modest little dream.
Yes, we’ve gone into debt to give up our car, get a home smaller than some peoples’ bathroom and rent- not buy- a small plot of land to grow just a smidgen of food.
So, I’m nervous.
Some would say I’m being reactionary.
They’d say that technology and market demand will address the issues of climate change & oil crunches far more efficiently & effectively than just individuals making some lifestyle changes.

Maybe.

Maybe we need all the help we can get: grass roots initiatives, individual action, technological breakthroughs and changes in policy on the local and national levels.

But, I’m doing it anyway, because this I can do.
It’s empowering to be doing something positive, to take some personal responsibility, to work toward a better more sustainable way of life, to be more of a creator & less of a consumer, to slow my life down and become more thoughtful about the impact of my actions.
This I can do.

(& thanks to http://www.foodshedplanet.com for giving me that one sentence answer to “why?”. If you plan to grow a victory garden this year, you may wish to add your name to the FoodShed Planet Victory Drive found at the link just above.)

Mexican Plum3?

Originally uploaded by TheHerbGirl

If anyone *does* know what this tree is, please let me know (I’ve been in the south for a 15 years but I’m still not familiar with my flora down here. Every time I see a palm tree or a cactus I still think “Wow. Neat!” *chuckle*)