Thursday, April 19, 2012

Busy, Lazy, and Neglectful

Several of my friends and family have asked what I'm growing in my plot in the community garden next door to my house, if I've harvested and eaten anything yet, and why my garden looks different from most.

Yes, I've eaten a bunch of strawberries already. A couple a day for several weeks now. I use myriad herbs, as needed in my cooking. However, I won't harvest some of my plants for quite some time, especially the asparagus. I have roughly 50 different species and 80 different plants growing in my little 4' X 12' plot that I started in January. 

What I'm Growing:

  • artichoke
  • asparagus
  • red onion
  • white onion
  • garlic
  • strawberries - two kinds
  • onion chives
  • melons - several different kinds, mostly crazy-looking exotics
  • cucumbers - several different kinds, mostly crazy-looking exotics
  • eggplants - several different kinds, mostly crazy-looking exotics
  • peppers - several different kinds ranging from sweet to hot to vegetable, including some varieties native to this area
  • tomato
  • Indian curry spinach
  • mint - four different kinds, including pineapple mint, which is friggin' delicious
  • thyme - three different kinds, including lemon thyme, which is also friggin' delicious
  • rosemary - three different kinds
  • sage - two different kinds
  • lavender
  • stevia - a delicious and powerful sweetener
  • cinnamon basil - friggin' delicious
  • chamomile - for tea
  • oregano - three different kinds
  • Barbados cherries
  • epazote - an herb used in Mexican dishes and traditional medicines to prevent gassiness and bloating from eating beans
  • a few unknown plants that I bought at a recent gardening sale at the Zilker Botantical Gardens, but I have since lost the labels - they'll be my garden surprise!
I've read a ton about gardening, sustainable agriculture, and Permaculture over the past couple years. This garden is my first foray into Texas Permaculture-esque gardening. As a result, though I may have little experience, I have many theories, a few of which are my own, but most came from people much smarter than me. 

My garden is my continually-evolving laboratory; I have many experiments running simultaneously, which are proving successful in surprising ways. For example, my plot survived several different pest invasions (caterpillars, aphids, beetles, and more) 100% unscathed, whereas nearby gardens lost many plants. I'm guessing the packed biodiversity of my plot contributed to this.

That said, some of my gardener friends think that my garden plot is doomed to failure and that I'm crazy, stupid, or both for my techniques or apparent lack thereof. They're right on all counts, of course. But I'm not letting that stop me.

How My Garden Is Different:

Perennial vs. Annual
  • I grow almost exclusively perennials. 
  • I don't weed (much), not even when planting.
  • I don't remove rocks. 
  • I don't fertilize. 
  • I don't till or aerate the soil. 
  • I don't use pesticides, natural or otherwise. 
  • I don't use mulch or other ground cover, other than the weeds and grasses that grow naturally. 
  • I only water every couple weeks, despite being in the middle of the 3-year drought and heatwave across Texas.
  • I use lots of buried ollas.
  • I don't plant in rows. 
  • I don't plant a species right next to its own kind. 
  • I plant stuff way too close together.

Why Revolutionary Experiments Instead of Evolutionary Experiments?

I didn't create a garden that flies in the face of conventional gardening wisdom just to be different. Rather, I have different goals than most gardeners and am not afraid of failing repeatedly and colossally, as long as I continue to refine my theories and techniques. In addition to growing delicious food, my goals for my garden are to:

1) Maximize hammock time - I maximize hammock time and minimize time spent on my hands and knees. I'm busy, lazy, and neglectful. Plus, I like hammocks.

2) Mimic nature - The closer a garden or farm mimics natural ecosystems, the healthier and more productive that garden or farm will be over the very long term, though this strategy takes extreme patience. Thank goodness for hammocks!

3) Create a method that scales easily - Neither conventional agriculture nor traditional gardening scales. Even modern megafarms only show profit due to massive subsidies.  I'm experimenting with ways to grow food that are economical at both small and large scales, so they can be replicated by anyone. Because everyone likes hammocks, right?

I'm hardly the first person with these ideas, but good information on how I can make it happen is few and far between, especially since growing food is, by definition, an extremely local endeavor. What works for me might not work for my Mom in Iowa. Heck, it might not even work for the next plot over from mine.

I am, however, honing my thinking. And I suspect good business opportunities will emerge from these experiments as well.

What's the Point of All This?

We need to completely rethink the way we grow, process, transport, and eat food. A garden or farm must be: 
  • economical
  • indefinitely sustainable
  • self-sufficient
  • part of a community
  • easy
  • fun
  • healthy
  • delicious
If it's not all of those things, why would anyone do it? Our food system is profoundly broken, and I'm helping to fix it.

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