Dream your Garden

One of my biggest pet peeves about our society today is how sterilized everything has become. We are not connected to the land anymore culturally, which is silly because we are living breathing organisms that come from the earth. We've severed our tie with the thing that actually keeps us alive- our food source. I find it ironic that most Americans are both obese AND malnurished. I also find it ironic that millions of people log on to Facebook every day to play that popular Farmville game, yet they fail to ever even attempt to grow something on their own. Clearly we want to grow. Clearly we want to produce. Clearly we want to be surrounded by life, yet somehow we are moving at the speed of a freight train in the opposite direction.

Well, something wonderful happened last night: Our stake somehow set things up with a gentleman by the name of E. Gordan Wells who happens to be one of the Western States leading experts on growing food. I thought it was ironic considering my previous post about gardening that I happened to get a call about this seminar last night. It is a 6 week course, 2 hours each Thursday night in which we will be covering all of the basics about edible gardening in Utah Valley. He has a Master's in Horticultural Science from UCSB (or something like that), and he's been living/working/gardening in Utah now for nearly 40 years. He's retired, so for fun he teaches this seminar to a few stakes every year to keep himself busy. He's really good. It's so hard to find information that is specific to growing in this region, so I'm very excited that I have this new resource to help me maximize my time and efforts in the garden.

Last night he talked about soil prep, pH, and fertilizing. It's like everything I always wanted to know about gardening but couldn't find anywhere. It's magnificent. He brought in some examples of his produce to share- unreal. The small carrots were the length of my forearm.
Here's the really amazing thing- this class was taught in our chapel because it was arranged by our stake. It was free. There were over 250 people in attendance, nearly all adults.
Can you imagine? That's hundreds of families now that are going to go home and plant a vegetable garden this year, and hopefully be successful at it. Hundreds of children who will no longer be eating the toxic-chemical laced excuse for produce that is sold in grocery stores. Hundreds of yards that will no longer be wasting hundreds of gallons a year just to keep pointless sod green. (FYI, a well-designed vegetable garden will use less than 1/10th the amount of water it takes to keep grass alive in the summer.)

Wow. What a blessing. I'm so grateful that this man is willing to take his time and share his expertise with so many people for free. It totally reinforced my belief that we do want to reconnect with the land and take a larger role in our food production, but as a society we've simply forgotten how.
I guess I am pretty passionate about this stuff. Which reminds me, even if you don't have a house, you can still grow food. Tomatoes and strawberries do especially well in containers. Surprisingly enough, so do potatoes, garlic, and peppers. You should grow a garden this year. Save an old laundry detergent bucket, drill some holes in the bottom, stick some rocks in the base, fill it up with soil, and go crazy. It's so, so, so cheap and easy.

And for your consideration, here are some of the gems that I took away last night: 1) don't over-fertilize or you'll end up with huge plants that don't produce fruit (a problem I often have).. 1 qt. dry granulated mix is enough to fertilize 180 sq. yards of soil for the entire year 2) mix in as much organic material as you can into your soil to improve aeration and drainage.
Next week we are going to talk about drip irrigation. I'm so excited.
Until then, go get yourself some buckets this week, or start mapping out a place for a vegetable garden at your house. You'll be so glad you did!