World goes to Hell, Today I planted food

New Garden, 3/19/2011

Today, Saturday March 19, 2011, I spent most of the day planting food.  CNN reported cruise missiles being fired into Libya; riots/protests in Yemen, Syria and  Bahrain; tsunami, earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan.  My garden is how I find peace in our world.

Ariel View

This space was covered by black plastic for two years.  Back then, when we first created this garden space I used hog wire to fence off one of the few flat areas on our property (about 1/4 acre) to protect it from wild pigs.   I had a neighbor who had an Italian tractor implement called a "spader" create 4 foot wide beds. This is the same as double digging with a shovel, but much faster thanks to the power of diesel.  But I couldn't deal with all of the garden space at one time, so I covered some with black plastic film to keep the weeds from taking over.  Today, I turned the last row into a prepared garden. I used my formula of tilling in dolomite (for calcium and magnesium) and a little fish meal (think back to the Mayflower and the Pilgrims).  Then I spread Master Cho's IMO #4 over the entire bed.  I then chipped sugar cane and spread it over the entire bed at about 1 inch depth.  My thought is that the IMO will  use the sugar cane as food and multiply.  I would have covered the whole bed with grass clippings, but it rained most of the day, so I will do this when I can.  This row is over 100 feet in length.

Seedling Grow, Grow and Grow

Basil, Lettuce, Chard....

The gardens pictured above were prepared in the same way as the new one I prepared today.  I transplanted the seedlings from my seed starter two weeks ago.  The vegetables are just cranking. Jennifer asked me today what I wanted at the Hilo's Farmers Market.  I told her we needed nothing, and moreover, don't buy anything.  

lettuce seeds

One of the keys to sustainability is being able to produce your own seeds.  This picture is a purple lettuce that I let go to seed.  It bolted then produce these puff balls.  I just pulled the puff balls off into the bowl and at the base of each are seeds.  Voila, nature reproduces itself.