Foggy Perceptions

Here we are blanketed in fog. Low temps for May in the Midwest. Waking up to the forties puts a damper of thoughts of gardening and playing outside. I stood on the porch and listened to the dripping leaves. It is wet. First thought I want to fret about the plants which desperately need sunlight and warmth. There is nothing I can do about the weather. Next.

Coffee and pen

Last week I began the practice of mindful doodling. Initially it was really challenging. As I learned to slow down on focus on the movement of the pen, I let go of my expectations. There are no mistakes but an opportunity to shift the design. Doodling at the start of the day opens my perception and expands my horizon.

While I loved fermenting - yogurt and sauerkraut - last year I discovered natural sodas fermented with a ginger bug. Once I got it going we had fermented beverages daily. I mixed the bug with teas and juice for a second ferment. As it started to require more attention (constant kahm) I drained the solids and added the bug to whiskey. Talk about tasty. Last month I decided to try water keir.

Making water kefir requires water kefir grains. In the store they cost $16.99. Before I buy anything, I ask first. (That was the initial title of this post - Ask First.) I have very few "friends" on Facebook and even fewer connections in real life. However, I am connected with someone who is connected to hundreds of others. That means I am too.

I met the fellow who offered to share some of his water kefir grains with me at the local urban gardening center. I arrived in time to have dinner at the member potluck. I am a member but received no notice of the gathering. I am rarely social beyond my online connections and this was a fabulous opportunity to connect with others who garden, ferment, and live closer to the earth. Besides the water kefir grains (I offered a hat I knitted in exchange), I learned the gardening center delivered compost to gardens. Boom! I thought.

Their price was cost prohibited ($50), but the place where they get compost is very inexpensive. My son and I loaded his car with 10 trash bags of compost for $12.80.  It sells for about $4 for 2 cu ft in three stores in town. BOOM!

It is worth the savings to ask first. Check with connections on any and all social media. Connect with local free-cycle groups. Craigslist has a free section. Neighbors - they can help. Thrift stores, local interest groups, friends, and family. Whatever you need, it is probable that someone wants to share. Allow others to be a blessing to you.

That brings up to art. The three year old and I wandered over to the big thrift store. Last week we picked up a popcorn tin filled with crayons, pencils, markers, and color pencils - for free. It made a great sorting activity. Yesterday we made this creation.

Holding  the heat gun, JP proclaimed, "This is amazing!" Yes, it is. Not only melted crayons, but the time, space and attention to make it happen.

I'm here, living blessed.

Doddle away...

The Untended Garden

Every year I assess my garden program, decide what is working and what needs to change. This process begins in the spring and continues through the dark of winter. I start early so changes can be made before I get overly invested in a process I can't continue.

This year I planted potatoes in their dedicated spot. I also included five gallon buckets of potatoes to insure a crop. I planted fewer tomatoes as I realized that I really don't care for them. I planted them for my children. None of my hot peppers survived the caterpillars, drought, or neglect. The green peppers were slow to grow, but when the temps became unbearable they bloomed and are set with fruit.

I planted an entire garden outside the back door on the deck thinking there would be no excuse for neglect. Each plant was tended with daily care. The result for all my work was pitiful. However, the sage and rosemary look nice, well, alive and growing.

This was my traditional gardening spot. This year I decided to try bag gardening again. That didn't happen, so I moved in five gallon buckets. Life got busy and I just let it go...

The squash and cucumber plants I tended so carefully were all destroyed by cut worms, at the base, inside the pots. There are butternut squash amongst the leaves and weeds maturing even now. And those are the first tomatoes harvested this season. Of course temperatures are expected to be in the 70s - not tomato growing weather.

Gardening is a huge exercise in letting go. Even with all my planning, I haven't been able to replicate a single year. Last year I was all about fresh produce ferments. We had so many peppers and zucchinis. The year before pumpkins and tomatoes. Prior years with millions of tomatoes convinced me they were not my favorites.

It's cool and rainy, after weeks of dryness. In the evenings, after the grandchildren have gone home or to sleep, I work a different process with varying degrees of success to show for my work.

Dark blue hat for the baby. Slippers with spa socks for my father. Yellow hat for DA, or me. Bows for DA, of course. I make hair bows in lots of colors then add beads and a clip.

Here's DA's new hat. Quite perfect, if I say so myself. Made of Caron Soft yarn. Her school colors are blue and yellow. You'll see lots of projects in those colors.

Scrunchies and hair bows. I found glow in the dark beads. I almost returned the beads, but finally got them to glow after exposure directly on the light bulb and them absolute darkness. I thought the sun would be easier. Did not work. Back to the light...

It's harder to post these days. JP runs from one moment of excitement to the next spectacular discovery. Cookie Monster is interesting from my lap, in front of the keyboard. Less so from the bouncy seat or her chair. During young one awake hours, my attention is fully occupied - chasing, moving, feeding, playing, and redirecting. "Clap. Clap. Clap your hands."

Make today a great day!

Namaste

Golden Showers

It is hotter than all get out here and we are not expecting a break or rain anytime soon. The ground is dry. Absolutely parched. What's a gardener to do? We water. Morning and night. Depending on what we believe about watering, we beat the sun getting up early or wait until it goes westward.

To care for ourselves in excessive heat, we are drinking copious amounts of fluids. That means we are also producing vast amounts of urine. And you know what they say, waste not want not. Turns out urine is a great fertilizer for the garden. So, piss on it! 

The key to sustainable farming

Healthy human urine is rich in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate, which are all essential for healthy plants. If you look at the ingredients on a bag of chemical fertilizer, you’ll see the word “urea”, which is present in, you guessed it, urine.

Collection is fun and easy. Pee in a bucket or jar. This easily saves three gallons or more of water per flush. Use it fresh. Urine won't keep. It will go bad. If it starts to smell, that’s ammonia cast off from nitrogen breaking down. 

It needs to be applied rather immediately (they say five minutes) pour your donation into a gallon of water and head out to tend the garden. Urine contains salt, making it a bit powerful to apply directly to plants. You'll have to dilute the urine with grey water (any water that you have already used, like washing up) at a ratio of 8 to 1. (Some say 3:1; others, 10:1) Just like gold, spread the wealth around and just like a commercial fertilizer avoid applying every time you water.

Feed hungry plants. The ones with high nitrogen requirements  - leafy greens, beets, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli. Avoid pouring urine on leaves. Water at the roots. The urine needs to go into the soil around plants. If crops are growing on the ground, water early before fruit has set. If you use bottle-top funnels to save water, the urine fertilizer would be best applied that way. 

Our urine is full of useful chemicals like nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Urine is 18% nitrogen, 2% phosphorous, and 5% potassium, which is abbreviated as 18-2-5. These three numbers give the percentage of the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium by weight in the fertilizer. In other examples, fertilizer for roses is 18-24-16 and for vegetables is 18-18-21. The nutritive content of urine is similar.

The use of urine to fertilize crops has been practiced since ancient times, but is relatively rare today, “thanks to the ick factor” and the prevalence of chemical and mineral fertilizers. But really, what’s so icky about it. It’s not like I’m asking you to drink it. As farmers and home growers seek healthier ways to grow food, urine is a viable solution.

If we find we are making more water than we can use in the garden, urine also works as compost accelerator, weed killer, and is an excellent way to keep critters like rabbits, deer, and squirrels out of the garden.

I’ve got you thinking, haven’t I? Here are a few of the sources I found. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801028.html

http://emmacooper.org/files/podcasts/0/akg029.mp3

The definitive book on this subject is ‘Liquid Gold: The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants’ by Carol Steinfeld

How does your garden grow?