Work Shy Gardener

People often say "Hydroponics is difficult and unnatural, they grow plants in chemicals." First hydroponics is actually pretty easy, I will get to that over the next few weeks. But as far as unnatural and plants steeped in chemicals lets examine what plant nutrition is. Plants do not ingest, nor require complex nutrients as we do. They do not "eat" proteins, fats, nor carbohydrates. They do not take in vitamins as we would, nor do they inject amino acids. They do make all these things, but the plant does not ingest them.

So what do they need? whats a plant nutrient?:

• the primary macro-nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) 
• the three secondary macro-nutrients: calcium (Ca), sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg) 
• the micro-nutrients/trace minerals: boron (B), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni) 

One thing you will note right off the bat is that all of these things are on the periodic table. That is they are elements and none of them are even carbon compounds (Carbons not on the list, it comes from the air but that a talk about sugar). But then why do we talk about "living soil?" Soil is very active with microbs, that digest and eject elements from organic matter. Plants dont digest food (no stomachs) so the plant relies on the soil microbs to be their stomach. Soil can support plants without them, but would quickly deplete and the plant would become deficient. another action plants need is a week carbonic acid solution. What? rain water with dissolved CO2. This acid solution helps dissolve minerals from the soil.
Plants are truly amazing as its the only organism on the planet that takes in inorganic elements and produces living tissue.
The point is all plants use is raw chemicals, that's it. It really does not matter where the atoms come from, the plant does not know the difference. In hydroponics we try to supply these elements to the plant in a way that the plant has to spend no effort seeking them. The roots can be smaller and the plant expends less energy growing roots and more growing plant. May solutions used come from organic sources (seaweed etc...) but many do not, no matter its all the same to the plant, and ultimately to you. A plant can pick up toxic elements, and frequently does so form soil. Hydroponics can be used in areas where the soil is polluted and unusable, since the plants grow in water pots, allowing us to reuse spoiled land, or land in cities.
Often people will remark that hydroponic plants grow faster. They don't really, the part your used to seeing grows faster, because the plant has to grow fewer roots, but the plant itself grows overall at the same rate.

So the growing season is pretty much here, we are just about to plant, I have started seeds, and of course the garden is twice the size it should be. Oh well. The goal is still to do almost no hard work so we will see. Last year my blog stopped at about 2/3 through the season, so I thought I would post the pictures of what we ended up with. to the right is a small fraction of the cherry tomato I picked, total 5lbs of dried fruit.

To give you a little scale there is the garden at the end of the season with my son in the middle of it, this was taken pretty much at the end of the season. That's corn behind him, 40 ears and these guys grew in 6 inches of dirt. Corn was interesting because I never really noticed that for 4/5 of the season your growing sticks, the ears set at the very end.
We ended up with about 50 cucumbers as well, I took them out toward the end, but in their heyday this is what they looked like. I companion planted them with morning glory to attract bees and so forth. They looked pretty good and got about twice the size you see here. Then there were the peppers, I picked probably 50-60 fresh for grilling and at the end of the season
I dried and strung 4 rings of peppers, which end-to-end equals about 9 feet of peppers "shoulder to shoulder"

This year I have promised myself to journal (blog) the garden once a week at least. I am seed saving as well as preserving this year for 2012 (hopefully) will be a product of the 2011 garden. We will see.

The Iroquois Indians never gave it much thought, but there was a lot of science behind their farming methods, both nutritional and agricultural.

Many Indian tribes were dependant on hunter/gather behavior, but when one item could not be found there was a deficit in the nutrition. The three sisters are interesting because they are a balanced diet. Corn supplies carbohydrates and a variety of important amino acids. Beans have protein, including two essential amino acids that corn lacks. Squash contributes vitamin A. Squash seeds also contain quality fats that corn and beans lack. So the Iroquois stayed relatively health all the time.

So what about the agriculture? Corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder, squash need pollinators, and the Indians did not really plow the land. So why this combination? Initial feeding of the corn was done with fish, a couple small minnows with the seeds, once the corn in 7" tall the beans were planted, which climb the corn (trellising) and like most legumes they fix nitrogen into the base of the corn plant right out of the air. The beans also attracts pollinators with their flowers, kept picked for a few weeks beans create a lot of flowers and the pollinators get used to returning. Once the beans are a foot tall or so, the pumpkins were planted and by the time they set flowers the bees know right where to go (they have been trained). At that point the last 1/2 of the beans were allowed to grow and mature, dry out and stored for seed and food, same for the corn.

All the shaman of the Iroquois knew is it worked. But there was a lot of good reason why it worked and was sustainable. The early settlers owed quite a bit to this method also, because these were the staples the Indians traded them, and taught them to grow.

Next time... Some garden pictures and plans for a micro orchard.

Iroquois Indians lived in new york area and were not what I would call true farmers, they were still a nomadic people for the most part, There was really very little "science" in the farming, like irrigation systems, they mostly acted on cultural mystic belief, they didn't really know why what they did worked. But farming did let them range a lot further than other tribes. The key to travel is absolutely knowing that when you get there you will have food. Without this assurance it was very dicey to move.

Farming was "woman's work" but for the Iroquois Indians this was not a sexist thing. In fact, although the chief was always male, he was elected by women. Divorce was allowed but the children stayed with their mother. In Iroquois culture women had at least equal status to men but in some case had higher status. they farmed because they could be trusted with the task.

Farming today, for the small gardener, is about fresh produce. But for the Iroquois it was about sustained survival. Lets look at the three sisters. Grist corn or popcorn had very low moisture and stored well, this is not the sweet corn we tend to grow. Rattle Snake beans, named for the sound they make when dry, also stored well. Finally pumpkins, most do not realize that kept dry and intact a pumpkin will store for months. They are heavy though so this was most likely a food they ate when they were staying somewhere.

There were three priorities for all early farmers though, first was seed. Second storage crops for winter, then fresh produce. remember, specially for a culture like the Iroquois, food was easy to find in the spring and summer, gathering and hunting were sources of fresh foods. survival was about making it through the winter for everyone. Even in Europe where the potato was a big deal, it was because it stored over winter in the ground.

We farm for very different reasons now, but this year I will be trying to follow these principals, seed saving, storage foods and the produce. The proof will be in next years crop, since I will be hopefully using the seed from this years crop.

Next time... The science of the three sisters

Last year I blogged the garden and about lost my mind with all the writing. This year I have 3 blogs and I have decided that I will write to each blog one time a week. One blog IS a writing blog so....

What plans do I have this year, yes raised beds again but this year I am focusing on tomato's, cucumbers, melons and peppers. I will probably try to keep a bed of radishes going in the shade.

Last year people asked me about my companion planting, I tend to put marigold and morning glory in the beds to attract beneficial insects and it worked pretty well. This year I want to prepare a section of my yard for an interesting experiment. It's called the three sisters.

This is a myth from the Iroquois Indians. Corn, beans, and squash were the most important crops to them. They were called the three sisters, given to man by the great spirit. Basically the area is prepared, and grist corn (popcorn in my case) is planted, when it gets 4" tall, beans are planted at the base of the corn, then finally when all that is 6" tall the pumpkins (their main squash) are inter-planted. The beans climb the corn, the pumpkins overgrow the base to block weeds. The beans are important because they attract pollinators to the corn and the pumpkins. So that's the plan, I will be preparing the plots and taking a few pictures in about a week of so.

Whats it mean? to garden without breaking your back or spending hours weeding. I practice adaptive gardening. That is gardening light weigth enough to allow you to have a day job or a disability and still be able to garden.

I grow in raised beds, there is a 4" concreate weed barrier under them :) and they are filled with a light weight composed based soil which is a little heavier than potting soil but much cheaper to make. In addition i build and use very simple hydrophonics systems (mostly in winter).

Over the years as I have grown in various gardens I have marveled over a plants ability to grow in spite of me. They have after all been doing thier things for millions of years. Each year I planted a garden, exhasted and in pain i tended it and life would grab me. I would quite gardening for 3-4 months, only to find a massive patch of weeds. As I went about clearing the area to mow, I would find heads of lettice, large pepper plants full of fruit and so forth. So I figured they really did not need me to be messing about. So I set out to find a way to give them a chance and me a rest (at least my back)

This year I am tracking my garden in a blog, mostly for myself (gardeners log) and for anyone who has a similar situation (work and physical limits) and just wants to enjoy a garden.

Sacramento, CA Zone 8 is where I live, the climate here is good but in some ways a real pain. Why, because it basically lacks seasons. It harder for me to figure out the growing times etc. This year we had about 1 week of frost.