Month: July 2008

I can’t say I’m the most masterful of gardeners, but I do have some specific thoughts on the matter that have made life easier for me. The other day, my friend Jacob asked why I use raised beds, so I figure I can answer his question and more.Here’s our garden as it is today Why raised beds?

1. they warm up quicker in the spring. That are somewhat separated from the large heatsink that is the earth.
2. they discourage you stepping in them. If you have garden rows, it’s easy step where you’re not supposed to
3. guaranteed drainage.
4. easier to work. I sit on the edges.
5. easier to maintain a border between paths and growing area.
6. you have something to attach PVC pipe to for cold-frame plastic, bird netting, or shade cloth

Other thoughts

1. wood chips are your friend. (you can see a pile of them in front of my pickup.)
2. 1. a thick layer around your garden beds are great for preventing weeds. I have a 3 or 4 inche thick layer.
   2. get them for free from local tree trimming companies. They can pay the dump or a composting place to get rid of their chips, or they can dump them in your driveway. They don’t have to pay for disposal and you get free chips. We’re on our third load this year, each is about 5 yards.
3. Lime is your friend. I don’t know if this is specific to the northwest, but my friend Markus once suggested spreading lime on my lawn to green it up. He studied botany and gave me an explanation, most of which I don’t remember. What I do remember is that the rain that we get here leeches away much of the mineral content of the soil. Anyway, I dumped a bunch of the stuff on my lawn and I definitely see a difference. much greener.
4. recommended reading:
5. 1. Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long This book is about how to extend your growing season throug the use of cold frames and heartier plants. There are lots of bienniels that want to grow to the second year to go to seed. carrots, beets. Many greens do just fine in the cold. Lettuce won’t wilt if it’s still in the ground.
   2. This article If you have a piece of grass that you want to convert to flowers or garden, do you really need to dig up the grass? Just put down newspaper and dump compost on top of that. By the time the newspaper dissintegrates, the grass will be dead. Less work and better for the soil. digging damages a lot of the stupp that lives beneath the surface of the soil.
   3. I enjoyed Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture Permaculture should be renamed: Gardening for Lazy People. Don’t fight weeds, bugs and such. They will win. Setup the proper conditions for the plants you want and nature will maintain it for you.
   4. Not directly gardening, but food related is the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals I recommend this book to anyone above all other books. Most books that talk about where food comes from here in America are depressing to read. This covers the same topics and gives the same information but then goes on to offer practical alternatives and things to be aware of. If you take one recommendation from me, this is it. We all eat. We should all know more about where it comes from than we do.
   5. As a corralary to the Omnivore book, there’s the book Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front This one is a bit more depressing, but I enjoyed reading it.

That’s all I have to say about that.

I recently came across two interesting articles in The Atlantic magazine on gender role type stuff.I chose my choice! and Are we not men? Both are actually book reviews in an editorial like format. I chose my choice talks about the ways women have and have not benefitted by moving from the home to the workplace. Is sitting in a cubicle really more rewarding than staying at home with the kids and is mixing a martini for the husband and preparing a roast for dinner really that bad compared to sitting in traffic? Of course, it’s all more complicated than that, but Sandra Tsing Loh has some interesting thoughts on it all. The other article is a review of a couple Playboy anthology type releases but the author spends most of the article talking comparing the things he learned by reading Playboy as a kid, reading the advice column. Contrary to what you’d expect, he learned some of the things that are are part of being a “Man” not in the macho sense, but in the strong, enlightened way that real men fit into society. Maxim, on the other hand just encourages boys to oogle and buy more stuff. I recommend both as good reads.