Naturalizing Living Food & Medicine

So back to "what did you mean "the tires were a bust?"- I meant my naturalizing efforts. For some time, I've been scouting out locations that seem to be largely undisturbed raw or abandoned land with good sunlight. In places that have good- or any!- soil, I've strewn poppies and native tobacco seeds and planted aloe vera pups. The aloes died already; too much sun, not enough water, I think- so I'm scouting new places, ideally not too inaccessible, especially needful for the seemingly universally useful, good-in-emergency, benevolent aloe.

As for the the poppies and tobacco, we'll see how it went this spring!

And as for the tires: I noticed that the railroad tracks here run mostly South to North, giving them really good sunlight potential where there aren't too many trees or cliff walls in the way. AND they're graded so water flows naturally into the rail bed, which is saved from annual flooding by the leveling and draining gravel spread under the tracks.

Of course, there's a marvelous tradition here, planting on the railroad bed: who doesn't remember the romatic story of old time engineers tossing poppy seeds along their routes, spreading golden California comfort and color? Now it's a bent gray-haired old woman leaning on a stick, stumbling along the tracks with multiple plastic bags and possibly some interesting pieces of wood or iron or purslane.......

Well, the tires. I saw a few scattered along the tracks during my usual course of busyness. They stayed there for almost one year before I made a move. I'd also scouted very easy access to the tracks, places where I could park and walk easily carrying a gallon of water, a little soil, and some straw. Places that already had tires lying around, or, in one place, could be easily rolled into position. I set up three tire planters in three locations along the tracks, using tires that were already sitting there and as much local dry brush and earth as I could find, supplemented with rich compost, hauled-in water and straw. Before planting, I came back a few times with a gallon of water, sometimes two, in plastic milk jugs; I packed the dry material tightly into the rim, more tightly each time, and poured more water in; the dry material takes some time to soak up the water, but eventually soaks up a LOT.... I wanted that water stored in the wet straw rim of the tire so the roots could suck it up later on, like the five-gallon bucket planting referenced here earlier (post 5/22/07), without the holes drilled in - I figured the rims would hold the excess water, with the rest running through the bottom- so the drilled holes were uneccessary. Every time I went back- at my whim & convenience, having stowed the water bottles, straw & soil in the trunk- I tested the wetness with a hand or a stick; when it'd stayed moist for a few days, I planted poppy seeds in the soil on top. I saw them all sprout! So why were they a bust? Like the song says, "the angels took him away, poor boy......" only in this case, I think it was The Man, who'd decided to clean up the tracks. So they were a bust.... the tires were gone one day, along with some rolls of heavy gauge wire and bark I'd been eyeing. Well, gone but not forgotten- I've yet to strew seeds on the tracks, or try the tire planting in corners of the city... maybe I'll try two or four inch plants this time, so they don't just look like old tires with dirt and a few weeds in. And strew a few poppy seeds, in memory of the old engineers. I hope you will too.

Tire Planting

Two people responded to my recent post mentioning tire planting.... specifically, "what did you mean 'the tire planting was a bust?'" I realized I'd never actually written about it- and I think it's so important!

First of all, discarded tires - a blight on the landscape, a nightmare when piles catch fire, a 1.5 million tons/year extra dumping in the US alone- are also a tremendously valuable natural urban resource.

Durable, accessible, easily moved around by rolling no matter how big- they're a perfect container for planting. The black rubber absorbs heat, which keeps roots warm, which in turn extends the planting season- both early and late season crops are possible in places too cold to plant in the ground.

Stacked tires make a lovely raised bed- minimal bending & stooping- and hold enough earth to accommodate even root vegetables quite well, making them a favorite for potatoes, which one report states yielded, in a single season, 25 lbs of potaoes from four stacked tires!

Fears of heavymetal contamination are groundless; washed tires contain heavy metals, but they're tightly bonded with the rubber... and not likely to be taken up by plants, with the exception of zinc- contained in tires, easily taken up by plants that like it, and an essential human nutrient.

As if that weren't elegant enough to satisfy the most fastidious tastes, tires are ALSO a perfect container for use on concrete or otherwise tough-to-plant surfaces. In fact, perfect for holding pockets of food and medicine plants in urban areas that are usually unplantable. And often have plenty of tires piled up somewhere, if not piled then dumped singly in alleys and ditches and parking lots. And no one seems to mind if you take them away, although it seems it must be against the law to pick up discards. In fact, in Mexico, Cuba, most of South America, parts of Africa and North America have pockets of tire gardens- it's a delight to reel through the references online, the pictures, the manymany people growing food in sometimes such difficult circumstances, the possibilities!

The photo above is J.A.R., a Mexico City Punk Collective that's reclaiming and greening the abandoned Commons; I couldn't find a photo, but they use tires regularly.

Unfortunately for them, some people seem to have a class and/or aesthetic problem with tires lying around, yielding beautiful greenery or not; one partner asked me to hide them, and a neighbor complained, with a sniffing nose, "but tires..... can't you use something else?" Well, no, actually, I can't...... and I'm delighted to have them around!

Guerilla Gardening

Yes, there's a movement! Search "guerilla gardening", and you might be as amazed and gratified as I am.... it seems that around the globe, city people are changing the barren landscape by installing planter boxes & plants in abandoned soils... from what I see online, we're looking at- obviously- connected computer users and gardeners with the wherewithal to buy bags of soil, etc, and it looks as if it's mostly flowers planted- but never mind that, I say. It's happening. Reclaiming the Commons- it's happening all over.
Here's the site with the flowers-in-a-grate picture: http://weburbanist.com/2007/08/21/urban-ecological-subversion-the-art-of-guerilla-gardening-in-public-spaces/.

Naturalizing a Community Pharmacy

Great success with naturalizing poppies! At least one hill where I strewed the seeds bloomed and seeded again; I've saved more seeds of poppy and native tobacco to throw out by the waterways where they'll presumably get what they need. The tires were a bust- I'd set up three tire planters by the railroad tracks, making them pretty and green-looking; I guess that caught some attention- at least, the tires'd just been sitting there for months before I planted in them.
I know this is a good time of year for poppy planting, but not so sure about the tobacco- I'm thinking that if the native is now setting seeds, it's the native time to strew them around, since that's what the plant's doing anyway. As for the Aloe Vera- probably the most immediately and universally useful of the three I'm concentrating on- I've got some pretty good pups going, but haven't found good, useful places to put them yet; maybe under public trees that're already regularly cared for. We'll see.

At Home In The Houses

It's so damn slow, this home building. Slower than I thought it'd be, anyway. Like the garden, it's a pain in the ass and immensely satisfying. I'm still stuffing the walls with insulation in the Middle House, still sawing and fitting in the old oak flooring we found in the basement; after moving furniture & books & boxes out of the way at least 102 times, I've realized that it actually WILL be easier if I move everything out first to make way for the infrastructure... and that involves help from the big guys who still have strong backs- which involves waiting for the big guys..... We did get an initial electrical hookup into the Middle House, sinking conduit pipe 2 feet down into the clay to run from the main box into a big new juncture. AND I've completely replaced the kitchen plumbing, with very few of the "right" tools and expert advice from friends who know how; now we'll see if I can fix the central heating before we freeze in here.
But I'll tell you, probably more than once: there is very little more satisfying, more empowering, than doing it with my own hands. I can do so much more than I ever thought!

AAARRRGGGGGHHHHH... Still Harvesting

However much I enjoy this- which is a LOT- this bountiful harvest can be a pain in the ass. The darling tiny cherry tomatoes are a darling endless chore, fruiting way high back in the vines where it's easy to see em- and hard to pick. Bringing loaded baskets into the house means having loaded baskets in the house to deal with- washing, freezing, cooking- the only ones that're easy are the olives, which I'm just covering with salt.
Gramma Mable, my Father's mother, set up a kitchen where they spent the summers camping out- and she'd can the wild fruits. While I long to just go to Safeway and pick up some potaoes & greens, I feel like a traitor to myself when I do it- the rhythm of the hands in the earth, the rising growth, is like midwifing our food, and, in turn, midwifing my independence from The Man, midwifing connection with a deeper reality than TV news and shiny supermarket sustenance. Pain in the ass is even a welcome facet of the process- and I have a lot more sympathy for the hard-working squirrels.

Fall/Winter Food Garden

Into November & I've just realized it's high time to plant the winter veg..... fall/winter planting is new to me, being so focussed on the spring planting and fall harvest; but now the summer corn beds are ready, at least, and the cucumbers and squash- they're the only crops that aren't still bearing for us; tomatoes are going pretty strong, and the potatoes are big eggs lying on the ground where I haven't hilled em up enough; now I'm beginning to understand the process of covering them with higher & higher piles of straw- where I've done that, we can actually just thrust our hands into the piles and come out with potatoes! The herbs are still fine, too- thyme & sage, chamomile & feverfew being the heartiest now, with the basil limping along enough for more flavor to the tomatoes, and I imagine the lemon grass & shiso will make a mighty comeback in their season.
SO. Peas follow the corn, delivering nitrogen and nitrogen-fixing bacteria back into the corn-depleted soil. Plenty good compost to dig in, too. I'll keep the tomatoes going until they drop out on their own- they MIGHT turn out to be perennials in this climate- we didn't put in any hybrids, so they ought to stay true to their sweet red/purple/yellow natures if they make it... and if they do, they might be a good candidate for naturalizing. Imagine wild tomatoes hot from the vine!
I'm digging new beds up front for lettuce, spinach, onions & garlic (in with the roses to keep off fungus- I hope) and cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, beets, carrots, kale, collards and more potatoes and peas. There's better winter light in front, so they should flourish. If I get em all in in time, we'll have a dark leafy green Christmas with red & gold winter root crops.
I'm loving this ever-bearing cycle of food crops. No, it's not enough to keep our bellies full all by itself, even with the addition of plentiful eggs (until the daylight gets too short for their laying cycle)- but it sure is plenty to keep my spirit- and my hands- rooted in the Miracle.

Won't Be Water But Fire Next Time

California burning... we've probly all watched that news; 300,000 people evacuated in the nick of time to a super dome, homes destroyed, insurance companies talking their talk; and that's about the end of the resemblance to Katrina & the Gulf Coast. The relieved, grateful, rescued people aren't characterized as "refugees". They were, for the most part, rescued in the nick of time. There are medical personnel roving around the superdome, distributing fresh water and particle masks. Many of them had private fire insurance- and their hired firefighters were on the scene before the public safety guys. They talk about just being patient while the insurers rebuild. I saw two people of color in the displaced crowd footage. As my Father said when I returned from a trip to Idaho with the news that I'd seen only two black people the whole time I'd been there, "Wow, you were lucky! there're only two black people living there!"

So much for the obvious dis-parrallels. We see that a co-ordinated rescue effort is really possible when we set our minds to it.

And so much for what we think we personally can or cannot do in the direct recovery efforts in SoCal & Gulf Coast- we can certainly work on our own reflexive actions, attitudes that made the hell of Katrina recovery possible in the first place. For one thing, we know that "pulling the race card" is deeply offensive to many white liberals- "how dare you call me predjudiced!", while our own attitudes towards poverty and class remain almost invisible to many of us. How often do we actually look at a "homeless" person's face? ,

Purple Harvest

Oh it's beautiful! The grapes flourished- wild native california grapes, tiny, veryvery sweet; I met a woman at work who grew up foraging for most of their family's food; she said it was a wonderful time, but probly a lot more fun in retrospect... at least she knows how to do it now. These days she makes jelly from wild grapes & blackberries- says no grape is as good as the wild ones. Next year we plan to harvest & put up some jellies. The olives are few, but ripening- I'm processing them by packing in rock salt; hopefully we'll have those delicious dry olives I've only been able to get from delis in the past.