- The rosemary we hit with the cloning gel continues to flourish in their little pots (a yogurt cup and peanut butter jar, respectively). When we last spoke of the cloning gel the thyme was doing nada beyond staying alive. Well, slowly but surely, it too is growing roots. This stuff probably cures baldness.
- The peas will be fine in the cold snap - the hay will do as insulation - but we planted some johnny-jump-ups that need a cover. A cloth shower curtain hopefully will do it.
- A member of our local neighborhood crew reported the city's rat abatement crew filled 29 rat holes in yards down the street. Ugh.
3/26/11
Misc.-a-go-go: Garden Clones Pt. II, cold, rats
Going old-school Peter Gammons "Diamond Notes" style this morning on a garden update.
3/21/11
Progress
It sounds nerdy and lame, but we're really getting into the simple physicality of these plants. They really do change overnight, and the biochemical things going on that allow a plant to add so much mass so quickly are really interesting to imagine -- imagine, because I really can't recall much of my high school biology any more. These beginnings of leaves seriously weren't there two days before I shot this.
The hay was something of an adventure. We bought a bale out in Merrifield, VA (coinciding with a bahn mi run) and it barely fit in the trunk of the car. We had more than enough to cover the boxes to keep them from leeching out nutrients and to deter weeds. It's also useful for killing grass/weeds that need to die.
One of our big questions going into this project was how our dog would react to the changes in his yard. We took away one of his favorite pee spots to plant bulbs and after being yelled at a few times he now just pees on its periphery. And if he pees on the hay, fine. But the organic fertilizer we're using is going to be an issue. The organic guides Christine read suggested a combination of blood meal and bone meal for nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization. They're pretty much what they sound like -- ground up bone, and ground up dried blood. Mac obviously can tell because he's started licking the dirt when we're not looking. This is not ok.
Fun fact - apparently there's a slight risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy being spread through bone meal. Yeah, Mad Cow Disease. But not as a fertilizer - just in feed. Still, don't lick the dirt yourself.
3/7/11
Composting for non-gardeners
While checking out the Field to Fork website I came across a service called Compost Cab. Feel bad about throwing out trash that's perfect for a compost bin because you don't have a garden? These guys give you a bin and come pick it up so a local nonprofit can use your organic waste for their composting. And they service anything from your house to restaurants to reception halls.
From my own very brief experience with composting I've learned that the process is not particularly efficient -- it takes a lot of volume to produce anything in a useful quantity. So batching a bunch of people's trash is a pretty clever idea.
From my own very brief experience with composting I've learned that the process is not particularly efficient -- it takes a lot of volume to produce anything in a useful quantity. So batching a bunch of people's trash is a pretty clever idea.
Blog Fail
Blogging is supposed to be about being in the loop, not out of it. In my typical lazy/incompetent style, though, I only today stumbled across news of the Rooting DC event of a few weeks ago. Of course, I'm not the worst culprit here -- I learned about it from a dcist link to the 2010 event, posted yesterday.
Anyway, Rooting DC kept some videos of the event up if you want to see some of what was offered. The event was organized by the DC Field to Fork Network, which, according to their website, represents "urban gardeners, farmers’ markets, distribution co-operatives, food banks, local government agencies, academic institutions, nutrition educators, community organizers, and cooks." The group also puts out a monthly e-newsletter via subscription and links to a google calendar that lists community activities.
From the perspective of someone very new to the gardening hobby and this kind of civic activity, there are a lot more urban gardening/food production efforts going on in the District than it would seem. I'll try to do my part to give these efforts some pub.
Anyway, Rooting DC kept some videos of the event up if you want to see some of what was offered. The event was organized by the DC Field to Fork Network, which, according to their website, represents "urban gardeners, farmers’ markets, distribution co-operatives, food banks, local government agencies, academic institutions, nutrition educators, community organizers, and cooks." The group also puts out a monthly e-newsletter via subscription and links to a google calendar that lists community activities.
From the perspective of someone very new to the gardening hobby and this kind of civic activity, there are a lot more urban gardening/food production efforts going on in the District than it would seem. I'll try to do my part to give these efforts some pub.
3/6/11
Trash, Space,Control
After months of good intentions, my wife and I finally joined a neighborhood clean-up crew in our little corner of Park View this Saturday. The group is one of those informal, facebook-and-email driven projects that I'm sure exist unseen all over cities everywhere. It grew up around concern for the incredible amount of crap people were dumping on a tiny little parcel of unused and unusable land (well, unusable unless you deal drugs) in the middle of a large alley. Battles over that spot with the city have been victorious, so now the crew picks up Irving, Warder, and Kenyon Streets for three or so blocks.
This kind of activity is a good thing for all kinds of reasons: meeting nice neighbors we wouldn't have otherwise; getting broken glass out of kids' ways; protecting my property value by ensuring my block doesn't look like crap, etc. Along the way, we talked about shared concerns like rats and tagging and derelict homes. Against all of these forces, of course, we are fighting a losing battle. The trash will be back, and so, too, the rats, graffiti, and drunks. I started thinking along the way how much chaos, how much filth am I willing to tolerate as part of the bargain for living in an urban setting. Or to put it another way, how much control over the appearance of the spaces around me am I willing to cede to others to sully as they want.
Having lived in urban areas for the last five years I'd have to say the answer now is I give up quite a lot of control, or let quite a bit slide. I guess I never wanted to feel like the one neat guy trying to live in a frat house (not that I'm neat or was in a fraternity). One of the appeals of gardening, though, is precisely this maintenance of some control on one's tiny little part of the city. My neighborhood might look like shit, but damnit, my back yard's not gonna.
There is an element of this desire to control space even in community gardening, even if it is expressed in a much more communitarian way. It is taking space that otherwise would be left to others to screw up and imposing a particular vision upon it. That vision could be anything -- makeshift monument, public art, playground, grassy field, parking lot -- but more and more we're choosing "garden" for it. I'm not questioning or criticizing the idea of seizing control of such spaces from those who would rather just chuck bottles and piss in them; but it is interesting how an inherently non-spontaneous, productive, and in some respects anti-urban activity has emerged among the alternatives.
This kind of activity is a good thing for all kinds of reasons: meeting nice neighbors we wouldn't have otherwise; getting broken glass out of kids' ways; protecting my property value by ensuring my block doesn't look like crap, etc. Along the way, we talked about shared concerns like rats and tagging and derelict homes. Against all of these forces, of course, we are fighting a losing battle. The trash will be back, and so, too, the rats, graffiti, and drunks. I started thinking along the way how much chaos, how much filth am I willing to tolerate as part of the bargain for living in an urban setting. Or to put it another way, how much control over the appearance of the spaces around me am I willing to cede to others to sully as they want.
Having lived in urban areas for the last five years I'd have to say the answer now is I give up quite a lot of control, or let quite a bit slide. I guess I never wanted to feel like the one neat guy trying to live in a frat house (not that I'm neat or was in a fraternity). One of the appeals of gardening, though, is precisely this maintenance of some control on one's tiny little part of the city. My neighborhood might look like shit, but damnit, my back yard's not gonna.
There is an element of this desire to control space even in community gardening, even if it is expressed in a much more communitarian way. It is taking space that otherwise would be left to others to screw up and imposing a particular vision upon it. That vision could be anything -- makeshift monument, public art, playground, grassy field, parking lot -- but more and more we're choosing "garden" for it. I'm not questioning or criticizing the idea of seizing control of such spaces from those who would rather just chuck bottles and piss in them; but it is interesting how an inherently non-spontaneous, productive, and in some respects anti-urban activity has emerged among the alternatives.
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