I cried all the way home from watering the garden this morning. Not because there is any sort of huge problem with the garden today. It’s doing fine considering the heat. But because I understand what drives people to do things that are not in their best interests in the long run. And that makes me sad.

As many of you know I have been a different person since I decided to plant this garden and spread my thoughts on chemicals, food security, carbon foot print of food, etc…it’s a complicated mess our food system! The most easily understood issue Monsanto’s herbicide Round-up and its harmful effects to people, the earth, it’s control over farmers and our economy… Even still, most people look at me like I’m a crazy person when I start talking about Monsanto and its hold on farmers, which directly translates to control over what most average American consumers can buy to feed their families. Since watching the documentary The Future of Food, I’ve been changed, scared, motivated, desperate, enthusiastic, and in a completely coincidental turn of events – economically ‘challenged’. It’s those economic issues that bring the word desperation to the surface today.

I stood over my incredibly healthy looking but slow growing and non productive plants today watering and thinking about how incredibly lucky I am to be able to water those plants. The City of Norman has just instituted water restrictions and we are in the midst of a drought of epic proportions complicated by an a extremely hot summer so far. And I realized how totally economically wasteful this garden is. I’m watering with city treated water – It’s my only option. We have spent HUNDREDS of dollars on plants, compost, gasoline for tilling and driving to the garden, seeds, tools, and hoses…just off the top of my head. We have spent hundreds of hours on getting things ready to plant, watering by hand, picking grass out of the garden (to no avail), and just worrying about how it’s all going to end up. I want every single drop of water and every single blossom to produce something to eat (well, technically, every OTHER blossom…but you know what I mean!) I want every minute spent out in this heat to work towards a harvest that feeds my children and your children and the people who are fed by the charities that Vis Solis has decided to support. I resent those plants that are taking my time and that expensive water and not making food!!!

It was at the very moment I realized my resentment that I actually considered putting Miracle Gro (a Scott’s product that is in part owned by Monsanto) on the garden. Desperation! I wanted to force them to produce when nature was telling them it wasn’t a good time to. I wanted my own Butternut squash! And it totally hit me that that is how every farmer has felt at one time or another. They just want those plants to grow to feed their families, either directly by putting their crop on their dinner table or by harvesting and selling their crop to earn money to afford to buy food for their family. Watching those plants grow with no visible purpose is frustrating as all get out! When someone tells you that you can increase your yield despite nature it’s very reassuring, incredibly intoxicating, and desperately hard to resist. Damn you Monsanto…

 In my life I have had the luxury of not ever having to worry about food on the table. My children have always known this luxury as well. As a mother I cannot imagine the pain of wondering where my child’s next meal or the meal after that or even next week’s meals will come from. This past year, however, has not been so luxurious. I have lost over 75% of my income through budget cuts and other income reductions. Part of my motivation to work this garden was to feel secure in the knowledge that my family could eat fresh foods this summer when my income would be at its very lowest for the year. In all reality, these few veggies are costing me way more than I would have spent at the most expensive market in town! I get to pick and choose what expenses get covered and food is not where I sacrifice for my family…that is most certainly a luxury that not all families have. The garden has not sacrificed either…not sure how I feel about that realization right now. But I do still feel very lucky.

I think about the mothers who came to Oklahoma as pioneers without the luxury of markets or water hoses that always turn on. How did they feel the day they looked at a non productive vegetable plant? Did they sacrifice their drinking water for watering the gardens and animals? How did they feel the day they had to tell their children they had nothing to eat because of the drought? How on earth did they cope with that fear? Were they as desperate feeling as me? Why did they stay here??? I have no answers for these questions…I just cry even more thinking about it.

So, desperatly and with much frustration, I will not – and ONLY because I have the luxury to do so – not put artificial chemicals on the garden to try to force it to produce. I have a duty to my children and your children to not make things worse…the long run is what this garden is all about. I will not let the big chemical companies lull me into using their products because I feel desperate. But I will surely and compasionately understand the small farmer who does make that choice. I cannot blame them one bit for wanting the security it provides them. I cannot even imagine being faced with the choice of my children going hungry this year or possibly having health issues later in their lives. To me that sounds like a no-brainer…feeding my children would always come first! I will however keep telling others that those chemicals will eventually be the downfall of our food system and the overall health of the people who eat from it. And I will count my blessings that I have the luxury to make this choice.

For those of you that have the luxury of financial security and can use your consumer dollars to speak. Please do so…buy local, buy only organic, stop supporting Monsanto in any way you can. And let others know. And please, if you haven’t before now, watch The Future of Food. Do what you can to help keep farmers from having to make these terribly difficult choices.

 Now…for regular garden news!

The failure of my potato plants and the 500 bean seeds that never grew has forced me to look at the harvestable veggies in a new way as well. I look at the whole plant to see what can be eaten…last week I ate radish greens in my salad and put sliced up radishes in my stir fry…because they are the only plant that is producing like crazy in the garden. Why waste one bit of them? BTW…radish leaves sliced up very thin and added to a salad are delicious – very much like arugula taste wise and add a nice heft as well! And the spiciness of a radish in a stir fry adds a very nice depth to the flavors too.

Tomorrow at the garden we will have several eggplants, a very small container of yellow pear tomatoes, a couple of Serrano peppers, a cucumber that enjoyed the two cloudy days and is now the size of my forearm, and tons of herbs and radishes available for purchase. And our second week of egg delivery!!

 See you there from 9-12.

 XOXOSQF

It made me giggle to open my own blog and saw the picture of the garden in the last post and see how much everthing has grown in just a few weeks!! I’m terribly sorry…I have no pictures for today. sigh…I promise to take some later when I go out to tend to grass! The tomatoes have grown so large and some of them are covered with tons of little green tomatoes. Some not so much. The heat is brutal and prevents the plants from setting fruit. The plants that responded early and set blossom before this intense heat set in are doing ok. Now if they would just ripen up already!! But we are looking at triple digit weather for at least the next couple of weeks! So far this summer we have 25 days over 100. Though it’s not a record – yet. The record is 50 days over 100 in 1980. Looks like we might break that considering we still have August to go…ugh.

The vining veggies are growing well. Pumkins, 3 different kinds of squash, cucumbers and 2 different kinds of melons are growing and growing. A friend sent me a link to a research paper that talks about heat being an environmental factor contributing to the proliferation of male flowers. Well, I have a TON of male blossoms on my vining plants. And hardly a fruit on any of them…in fact only 1 zucchini, a handful of cucumbers and 3 cantaloupes. Discouraging.

In good garden news…We had our very first harvest of a dozen or so veggies and a whole bunch of herbs. And with those Vis Solis raised $45 to be split by Meals on Wheels and Sr. BJ’s Pantry!! That is a very real reward for all our hard work this spring.

I spent some time this spring trying to come up with a way to keep the garden going…money is tight and time was of the essence. Applying for grants is part of the long term plan for equipment and support but quick funding was something that was going to be immediately helpful…so what could I do that is in my skill set and a quick return? That’s right, an Egg CSA! What? You didn’t even guess that???

I got permissiong long ago to have chickens on the school grounds so it just seemed like a natural extension to get enough of them to make some money from their eggs! My friend Amanda whipped together a great information page about CSA’s and the way they work and we got an application together all during the last 2 weeks of school and it was a hit! Before the information went home from school in it’s final form we had a sponsor. Forest Lumber has agreed to provide all the supplies to build our great big coop and enclosed runs for the proposed 50 hens!!! Now that’s an incredibly generous offer and I admit it, I shed tears of joy. I also had about 5 families sign up right away. Enough to make it a viable option and fund the purchase of some of the chickens and feed. It will be a very regular input of money to the garden and GREAT teaching/learning experience for the students. Now I have a bunch of chickens in my backyard waiting on a coop though! Planning a Hen House raising for a month with triple digit temperatures is so not going to be fun.

I’m off to plan, write and water…always with the watering!!!

XOSQF

This bed of tomatoes was all covered with every blanket and beach towel I own during a crazy May night that got down into the low 40s!

It has been a busy busy time at the garden it’s about half planted and we have one school family gardening with us! I have a ton of seeds to still put in the ground this week – some mixed lettuces, green beans, popcorn, more pumpkin, squash, edamame, and cucumber. And there are tons of new seedlings to put in – chives, tomatillos, and roma tomatoes are a few of them. Radishes are popping up everywhere, pumpkins are sprouting, tomatoes are forming on the plants that have been in for a couple of weeks now, and the herbs are starting to show lots of growth. The butterfly bush is about to bloom too! And best of all some donations have started to come in that will allow me to put in some of the perennial food plants – blackberries, southern blueberries, artichoke plants (just for the whole dinasaur look of them!!) and in the fall rhubarb and asparagus.

Radishes are tasty and act as a companion plant in the garden. They are attractive to the flea beatle and help to keep it from eating the eggplant leaves.

There is also some really big news going public today. The Vis Solis Egg CSA is being introduced. 21 CSA memberships will be sold and a coop with 50 laying hens will be built! The goal of the hen house is to allow for future growth of the  community gardens and add things like an orchard, a pumpkin patch and bees to the farm. The mission of the hen house is to let the students of All Saints connect with their food sources, and learn more about how and what it takes to produce healthy natural foods. It is also a stepping stone to having someplace for the kids in 4-H to keep show chickens on sight. This is a super fun project for me and I am really really excited about the prospect of 50 laying hens and allllll those eggs to box up each week!

Two young pullets who will be future Vis Solis laying hens.

I’m also in the planning stages of a series of Farm to Table dinners and programs. Partnering with other local producers to serve a lovely al fresco meal overlooking the garden. I have some ideas for some informative programs, some entertainment, some special guests, and a super special guest chef for one of the dinners! My brother, Mike Henton, is a quintessential foodie and a fabulous chef and he has graciously agreed to come from his home in Denver to prepare a lovely dinner for us this fall. And I’ll be super proud to show off the garden too. These dinners will be great connections for the community to see what we are doing here at Vis Solis and for other small producers to show off their products too. Building community one dinner at a time! (lots more information about these to come soon…)

Next week is the last week of school so it’s the last week of gardening class. We will be harvesting a few of the potatoes we have planted in bags…I’m super excited to see what’s hiding in there.

Today will be a day of  staking tomatoes and planting peppers and hopefully the rain will hold off until Friday. So much to do.

I am working hard each day to get more and more planted and growing in the garden and each day I get more and more comments about how great it is. Those make me want to keep on working. I know I will have pitfalls and I know I will be dreading going to the garden when it’s 100 out…but right now I am still loving this whole project!  (and I will try to write more)

XOXOSQF

It’s been a long time since I posted, and I’m sorry about that. This past month has been a bit trying with the garden but things are rolling now! I almost abandoned the whole thing…2 reasons. One, we hadn’t had significant moisture from the sky in 6 months. We have had conditions drier than the Dust Bowl days! And, two, I was getting NO response from my school community for this project. I take that back, I had lots and lots of people tell me how cool they thought it was. But nobody was stepping out of the shadows to plant a plot for their family, nor were folks flooding my inbox offering to come out and help me. I was getting a little despondent, and feeling completely overwhelmed, and had decided that if we didn’t get rain by the end of April I’d put this on hold until fall or such time that the weather helped me out just a bit.

 

Then one of the PreK teachers, Mrs. Stout, came and found me to tell me how much she loved the idea of this garden and asked what could she do. So we decided that her class (and the other PreK class too) could plant seeds for the cutting garden! The kids were excited by that idea. And so was one of the dads – he has now offered to supply some butterfly bushes and other perennials for that garden! I am so incredibly grateful.

Then other grades asked what they could do! I cannot tell you how wide my smile was. So the 1st Grade is going to plant about 500 sq feet of popcorn. I hope to have a great crop so that they can each take home some next fall and we have some to sell! The Kindergarten classes are going to plant about 500 sq ft of green beans. For this help in planting I am truly grateful.

My friend (and ex husband) offered to sponsor some plantings. He donated enough money to put in about 400 sq feet of tomatoes and a really good start to the herb garden and buy some much needed tools. I planted all of that yesterday and it looks like a real live garden out there now!I’m grateful for my ex-husband.

THEN, as is all of this is not enough, I got a phone call from a school family wanting to take a plot!! YES!!! So now I have 2 families who want to grow healthy food at Vis Solis. I have many reasons to happily keep going now.

And now it’s raining. Raining a good long soft drizzly rain. My cheeks are wet…with tears of joy for the rain! 

Earth Day was a great one for me this year.

XOSQF

So, without further adieu -

Vis Solis Community Garden. (insert clapping and fanfare here) It’s latin for “the power of the sun” and after re-reading my post about naming the garden I think this name kind of covers it all. Most obviously its direct tie to the layout of the gardens. I also feel that it reflects a need to use what resources we have in abundance to provide for ourselves…and Oklahoma’s got plenty of sunshine!!  It’s biggest downfall is that there are no vowels in the acronym so it’s not ever going to be an easy to say shortened pretend word…sigh.

Now I can get on with making VSCG it’s own facebook page and our new website! I’ve got my son, Wil, working on a logo and hopefully before very long we can buy a banner and put up a sign.

XOSQF

Compost...it's what the crops crave!

The City of Norman’s compost facility was beginning it’s spring release of garden compost. The stuff that would bring our garden to life this year. The stuff that rejuvinates tired soil. An easy thing to recycle – taking all of Norman’s yard waste and decomposing it into rich fertile organic matter… For only $10 they would load my truck for me (or I could break my back and get premature blisters and load my own for free! Nah…)  Of course I was going to get all I could for the community garden. They have no limits on how much you can get – first come first served! I.was.so.excited!! I was there at 7:30am when they opened the gates. It was chilly still, maybe in the high 40′s. While sitting in line behind other pick up trucks just waiting my turn, I was dumbstruck, astounded, and found myself oddly lusty! The long rows of gorgeously finished rich black compost were incredibly beautiful. I stared and admired all 22 of them. I got a butterfly feeling in my tummy. I was about 5 trucks back in the line. The tractor driver, who I now know is James, moved the front end loader in expertly to scoop up a couple thousand pounds of that garden gold to drop it into the bed of the first truck in line. The compost pile started releasing steam…And I dont’ mean a little bit…literally, a  fog rose out of that compost! Amazing…

Now, I know how compost works. I understand aerobic energy. I’ve made compost in my own back yard. Yet, I was so incredibly in awe. IN AWE! I wanted to call someone. Anyone. Tell them about my newly discovered feelings about compost and all it’s biological glory. I didn’t even feel weird about it! Except that it was 7:30 on a Saturday morning and I couldn’t think of anyone to share this with that would be up already – or would appreciate my seemingly odd enthusiasm. I sat there more and more and more amazed at each and every scoop. I needed to learn more about this amazing thing…

So today I went to that compost facility to take a tour and meet the man that scoops that beautiful stuff! Lucky me, I met two…Louis and James. They run the city owned compost facility and, I have to say, they are the nicest guys ever!  James, the tractor driver stayed up in that cab scooping compost for other gardeners while Louis showed me around.

Behind all that sex appeal is an interesting operation. It’s not a money making facility!!  That shocked me. (They could totally sell the compost and make this a completely funded operation!) But I digress, right now it’s a cost avoidance facility. By recycling all the grass clippings and yard waste that they collect from our curbs each week they keep the city from having to buy more and more land for landfill. It’s a great service that was just continued by a small increase in our sanitation bill. (Yay for a vote by the people!!)

Am I right ladies??? This is James.

There are basically 3 pieces of equipment that make up the whole of the operation – aside from the regular trash trucks that bring in the organic material collected. Those trucks bring in as much as 250,000 pounds of yard waste each day during the mowing season! Starting in late April those loads are shredded by a HUGE chipper/shredder machine!

Now that's a big chipper!

After it’s shredded then it’s moved by the front end loader to form a windrow.

These are almost finished compost windrows. They have been in place for about 100 days.

These windrows are about 5 feet wide and around 250 feet long. There were 22 of them on site! Oh, my… I have to fan myself just thinking about it.

Once the windrows are in place and they have been watered by the giant sprinkler system in place, Louis and James begin the turning process.

these are some big ol' sprinklers! They can water 4 rows at a time if the wind is just right

It’s a way cool machine that runs along the rows turning them to incorporate the air and water with the shredded materials.

This is the turning machine. It stradles the windrow and is driven over it's entire length.

Here's the business end of the windrow turning machine! Yikes!

Louis says air and water are all you need to make this process work…keeping those piles wet is the key. In all that organic matter there are microbes that use aerobic energy which releases heat. That heat breaks down the grass and shredded leaves in the pile. It can get so hot that the pile can actually catch fire if it’s not wet enough!

And so it begins. Shred, pile, water and then turn. They go row to row and by the time they get done with the last one it’s time to start over again – all year long. When September rolls around there will be weekly releases of a new batch of compost. Just in time for composting over the summer garden and getting it ready for fall plantings. Then Louis and James begin all new windrows for the spring compost release…we mow way into November here so there is plenty of yard waste coming into the plant.

I secured two pick up truck loads of compost digging it out with a shovel and a metal rake and driving the 19 mile round trip from the garden twice. It was at that point that Louis and I had a conversation about a beautiful brand new dump truck that I had envied earlier…he gave me the number of a truck driver. It was at this point that Louis got his first hug from me.  Frank, the truck driver, will be delivering 2 dump truck loads to the garden this week!

These incredibly wonderful men that have come into my life will not be taken for granted!

XOSQF

P.S. I feel very lucky to have a service like this provided by the City of Norman. There are many more composting facilities popping up across Oklahoma and the country…hopefully you have one near you!

With that in mind, I know that picking a name for this garden is important, but I also know that whatever we call this garden it’s purpose and it’s spirit will not change. My dreams for this place are that will be a place of health, charity, family, and pride. A place of learning, teaching, victories and I’m sure plenty of humilty. It will also be a place that commands attention,  demands time, and (I hope) also offers respite.

The front runner right now for a name is Garden Party. What do you all think? There is also Garden of Plenty (I was shocked that the domain names for both are still available!) I’m wayyyy open for any suggestions…really, any and all.

I have some huge ideas for other parts of the property, there are about 20 acres that we could use. I have visions of a CSA in the future…there are things that must be done before that could happen. Irrigation would be necessary and expensive. I have visions of a huge chicken coop with a completely enclosed run. I hope to someday have a place where the students in our 4-H program could have show animals. So a fenced area for livestock would be necessary. What’s the best part of all these ideas?? Dan liked them too. Yay!!! He’s ready to start on some of that now!! I could not be a luckier dreamer.

Today I went to take some pictures and Dan had just finished his second plowing and tilling of the field that will become garden plots soon. So I’ll show you a sketch of the plan…

the rays of the sun grow our garden! I thought it fit the space nicely...

I got a bit scared when I started trying to put this on a scale drawing…some of these plots will be enormous at one end and narrow to barely anything at the other…I was ready to bail on this design (really it’s been the heart of my dream since the first day…so giving up on it was really something for me) but Dan was adamant that we are doing this sun ray design!! I was renewed by his enthusiasm.

This is where that sun will shine! This is after the second plowing but before the second tilling...it's much smoother now.

So, it’s Spring Break here and the weather is dry and windy. I’ll be working hard over the next few days to get the beds laid out, compost spread, pathways deliniated, and the composting station built. It’s a busy time…

What are you doing in your garden right now?

XOSQF

Beautiful isn’t it??? What? You can’t see the silk purse that I see in my mind? Ok…I’ll share the layout later in the week. I’ve got a sketch already but I’d rather not show you all until I have a nice scale drawing done.

And here is the site that I’m proposing as our orchard. There is this GREAT organization that grants entire orchards to selected applicants. They do everything, planning, planting, tree selection. Everything. All you have to do is have land and the commitment to care for the granted orchard. Wish us luck!!! I’ll be submitting my application very soon.

This is Dan (and two of his boys!). He is my hero. He listened to my crazy proposals for this garden (and more ginormous grandiose ideas too) and never once said, “I don’t think we can do that.”  He never once giggled under his breath. He never once got that deer-in-the-headlights-you-can’t-be-serious-lady look on his face. And I have to say, his wife Angela, is one lucky woman. If he were my husband he’d be plum wore out by now!!!

The plan is to break ground this week…however,the lovely 70 degree weather we’ve been having was only temporary. We are expecting winter for a couple of days this week!

These are the details we are still working on…A name for this wonderful place (I’m loving the stories of Hildegard of Bingan right now…), the community “rules”, and application processes. Plus we are still lookng for donations of hay, building materials, manure, plumbing help, and of course anyone that could possibly share a few hours of their time or a few of their dollars to help out the beginnings of this place that I hope will feed as many people as much as it is feeding my spirit right now!

XOXOSQF

So here’s where the whole project is to date. We have our very first community meeting about it next Tuesday, January 25th. I’m TERRIFIED that I’ll be the only one who is gung ho about it! I’m busy gathering up printables and website references that I want everyone to have. I’m finding grant opportunities and trying to get myself geared up to fill them all out.  And I’m generally feeling overwhelmed. Most other times in my life that I’ve gotten this far I’ve backed out of the implementation of my grandiose schemes…but I might just be in this thing too far now!

I cannot wait to get this thing off the ground…or in the ground I guess is what I really mean to say.

XOXOSuzy