God Says Go Green

Ok, not exactly but a growing number of religious leaders are urging their flocks to lifestyles of more deliberate stewardship. Grist has the top 15. Nice to see a good number of Catholics representin'. Who says all that guilt cant be put to good use!

Family greening

SFgate has a great article (if brief) on transitioning to "the crunchy life" with the least amount of stress. Read it. Especially if you have kids. I have known for several years the direction I wanted my life to head, but I always considered the change to be a burden, after all who wants to be different. The addition of two children to the mix last year changed things a bit, I still have the desire, but do I have the ability? Can enough of a change come soon enough to to satisfy where I believe that I personally or we as a family should be? How do I best communicate these motives without seeming like a crazy person?

Advice is always welcome.

Ask and ye shall recieve

No sooner did I pose the same connundrum in Onestraw's blog post than I recieved a quick and helpful response from Mr. Straw himself (actually he shares his real name with a poet, which is really cool...but I digress)

I got the answers I needed, in the form of a link to Fedco seeds. How I missed these guys before is beyond me, for some reason they didn't show up in any searches, unless I actually looked for "Fedco Seed" Bottom line: fantastic selection, I was able to find everything on my list I still had remaining, like 70 and 90 day corn, potatoes, onion sets, early cabbage.

And as if that wasn't enough, last night I stumbled upon my wife thumbing through our new (well, new to us) copy of Gaia's Graden. She handed it to me with the section on keyhole gardens open and said, lets do this instead. I was floored, despite her professed lack of artistic capability, she has a finely tuned eye for the asthetic, it makes itself know in demands for symetry and order. I was able to manage a concession for the herb and perennial area so that I could maintain a more wild feel, but I would have never guessed she would be inclined to abandon the orderly rectangular "banks" of raised beds for keyhole mounds. I'm stoked. Now I have to get out the graph paper and the compass and come up with square footage estimates...and retool the layout in the Jeavons book.

potatoes and timing

onestraw reminded me that I hadn't ordered potato seed yet either. The problem is actually 2fold. First, I calculated the actual number of days in the ground I need according to the 100 sq ft plan in How to Grow... based on frost dates and things are going to be tight. Jeavons says that the plan is for people with 6 months of growing season, which is just a touch more than we get here in zone 5. Not enough for me to say"Well, I just have to forgo one of the succession phases" But its just enough to make it ...tight. It means the zone devoted to early salad crops like peas, lettuce, carrots, radishes, broccoli etc get about 55 days, which thanks to the wonder of genetic diversity is doable if using some of the heirloom seed stocks available...like my favorite Alaska Peas. Back to the matter at hand if I am to follow them with the late crop of corn, then potatoes get a window of 65 days. (Which by the way is exactly what Jeavons suggests).

So bottom line is I need to find some good seed potatoes that grow to maturity in 65 days. Unfortunately most online sources do not list days to maturity, only "early" "late season" etc. Second, is finding a quantity that is cost effective. I need about 10 lbs and a lot of the sources offer 2.5 lbs which at 4 quantities costs the same as the 20 or 50 lbs quantities being offered. And not to be too picky but I need a potato that keeps well, with only two adults and 1 eight year old we will not go through them too quickly. Why not plant less? two reasons. First, having more on hand means we will eat more home grown produce, and I will get to cook more, and share more with friends and family. Second, ego. I haven't actually declared as such but I am going for a poundage goal. 100 lbs from 100 square feet. I think its a reasonable goal given my level of experience. For comparison, Path To Freedom averages @ 1.5 lbs per square foot of garden space based on their advertised statistics. They also have a ridiculously long growing season and waaaaaay more experience.

Any suggestions?


PS:

Jeeze, how could I forget this one, I got some vine cuttings from our soon to be adopted daughter's great aunt. Great productive vines, the ever popular northern staple Concord. My father the amatuer winemaker was less than enthused with the variety, but as a lover of grape juice and jam, I could not be happier. I took the cuttings based on the Cornell Extension guide, but I'm still nervous, I know grapes are pretty reliable rooters from cuttings, but this is my first time propagating in this manner, so there is always some apprehension I suppose. If these take off I might try a hardy table variety like Himrod or Niagra next year. I don't have the space to do any large scale production for wine grapes, which is no real big loss, we're not far from Western New York's wine country which spans from somewhere near Rochester all the way out to Fredonia, which is where my Dad goes for his big juice buckets every year. I'm so excited, even though I know It will not be of age to bear fruit for at least 3 years. Given the space and number of vines I have I should be able to get around 14 quarts of juice once the vines are in full swing per year. Not enough to sell or live off of, but nice for the occasional treat.

more waiting

If you can't tell, its snowing again. I know our last frost free date is not for two months, I know I cant start planting seed until march 19th, but it doesn't make shoveling any less annoying.

What really grinds my gears is the stretches of 40 degree weather in between, this winter we've had more green...well brownish green, than white. Seems to me that a cold frame could be pretty productive, so long as it can survive the dips down to 0 degreesF for the occasional day or two.

GREEN BEAN DREAMS: The Activist Gene

GREEN BEAN DREAMS: The Activist Gene

a very poingnant discussion. What makes some people more receptive to a message which demands change and other people prone to defensiveness? I wish I knew. Lord knows we'd probably all feel a lot less inner turmoil if we could figure this one out.

another trip around the sun

so why does it matter that this is the 30th for me? who knows.

in other news, the mint and valerian appear to be behaving as I hoped. Growth has slowed but the plants appear to be healthy. That ought to buy me some time before spring when I can get them in the ground.

Its 80 in my office right now and 34 outside. I could go on for hours about the badness of our building's hvac system...but I wont.