Wonderful Work

A wonderful day to plant starts and seeds! We plant both food plants and seeds, as well as, re-pot cactus and plants in our potted porch garden. This work requires those hard labor skills that we rested from last week.

Today saw the re-potting of our stupice tomato, which resides in my windowsill until May. We re-potted a beautiful cactus “de lujo” (a decorative cactus) and the Chumash yerba mansa. We seeded: trombetta squash, cabbage, broccoli, sungold tomatoes, crimson carmello tomatoes, and red & yellow cuorno de toro peppers. Meanwhile, in our earth, our favas dry and await their destiny as our healthy soil.

In terms of the rest of El jardin de la playa, well, our gardeners plant and seed many wonderful things. Don Domingo prepared the earth for an apple tree! In early fall or late summer this tree will provide: golden delicious, gravenstein, braeburn, and red delicious apples. This will be new adventure for our gardeners as we learn to care for our apple tree. Additionally, people sewed summer squash, winter squash and red poppies. These plants will sprout in communal and personal areas.

A sigh of relief follows these spring days of sewing seeds and planting plants. Our hopeful and hard labor maintains healthy ecology in our neighborhood. I rest my hat, I rest my head and hope for the future.

Our Early Spring

The rain waters the seedlings, young food plants, and perennials today. Meanwhile, the blustery wind tests the strength of the young plants, flowers, and new fences. The humans rest today after two weeks of working the land.

Last week while the sun shined, Don Domingo swept and maintained the sidewalk around the garden. The foilage he found, augments his beach sand soil. The blue jays arrived in search for corn kernels. Young finches spent their time eating something the human eye cannot perceive. The humans provided corn kernels and other feed to the local pigeon population. The monarchs, swallowtails, and other local butterflies ate and fluttered through  out our land. As the nectar matures, hummingbirds feast. Hummingbirds and other birds also rest and bathe in the land of our community garden, El jardin.

Over the past week many gardeners tended to their land by cleaning the weeds, tilling the soil, and planting seeds and young plants. So far in our early spring, the following plants grow: indigenous maíz, nopales, various types of onions, beans, various types of lettuce, chamomile, comfrey, our perennial herbs, roses and gladiolas. Fava beans from the winter fallow remain on part of our land. The beans continue to provide nitrogen for our soil. The peach and plum trees blossoms fly and land throughout our land providing nutrients for the soil and beauty for our spirits. Also, our pines drop their needles to augment our soil.

Due to an extremely dry winter for our coastal redwood town, the gardeners planted a few weeks earlier then we usually do. Generally, we fallow our land in the winter due to the excessive rain fall of our location, a neighbor to the Redwood Forrest. This warmer drier year brings a hopeful promise of a larger yield of food, more bbqs, as well as, a healthy harvest of warmer weather crops. In addition, to our usual harvest of indigenous maíz , beans, summer squash, nopales, onions, chayotes, plums, and perennial herbs, we hope to have  stronger harvest of warmer weather crops such as: chiles, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon.

All but one of our plots have caretakers. All of us hope a strong gardener can take over the neglected plot. In El jardín, we enact traditional organic practices. One fallow piece of land attracts pests, such as snails, and compromises our diligent organic farming practices.  At the same time, a neglected plot reminds us what the land would look like with out a garden at all –an ugly piece of land full of weeds! A neglected piece of land reminds us of the strong work we do. This land awaits a loving caretaker.

Our early spring in El jardín finds a friend in hope, promise, and hard work! As current food systems force people to purchase and consume genetically-modified-organism-food, our work with the land enables us to eat and live healthfully. We practice traditional methods of farming, despite the coercion of companies, governments, and non-governmental organizations, who force farmers and food consumers to use toxic seeds and food. Our work and our praise for Mother Earth, creates healthy eco-systems and food systems. Happy spring and happy planting to all of us!

2011 Planting Season

Its been unseasonably warm the last few weeks in Santa Cruz, giving everyone a great opportunity to start cleaning their plots for the 2011 planting season.  There is little planting to be done but plenty of work.  I spent the past few mornings cleaning the weeds from my parcel and turning the soil to aerate it.  Yesterday I harvested my second batch of delicious organic heirloom Nantes carrots (zanahorias en español) and today I will make some yummy stirfry.  Later this week I hope to transplant some of my herbs including oregano, thyme, and winter savory.  I will also be starting some broccoli, fennel, tomato and pepper seeds indoors in the near future.  When these plants are established I will transplant them into the ground.  The broccoli and fennel are hardy enough to be outside in February, but the tomatoes and peppers will have to wait until April or May.  Starting the seeds indoors early will give me a headstart on the harvest this year.