Today, with the companionship of my two-year old daughter, I sowed spinach, radish, mizuna, coriander, and cress straight into the garden beds where they are to grow, and courgettes, beans, and cucumbers indoors. If you start these more cold-tender crops indoors on a sunny windowsill, you can be eating them by Christmas (or you can achieve the same by buying them 'ready to plant' in early October).
For me, growing my own food isn't just about reducing the grocery bill - it also fosters a deep connection with the place in which I live. From sowing to germination to growth to harvest and then consumption, it is a process that encapsulates a lot of the richness of life. My home doesn't just provide me with shelter and warmth, it also provides food for day to day life. This 350m2 of Auckland suburbia, with all its faults and failings, is part of who I am.
This to me is rather healthy. While to some I might be waxing lyrical, I love the connection with land, that I grow when I am partly dependent upon it. Sure, our little space doesn't supply all of our family's food needs, but, during the summer and autumn at least, it does go a fair way towards it. And the joy of deciding what to eat for a meal, based on what is abundant out the back door, is a nice lesson in simplicity and contentedness.
One of the desired outcomes of our garden is that we raise our children to become well-rounded adults. From the age of 'nearly three' our daughter is learning little 'toddler-sized' lessons about truths such as the fruits of labour, that rainy days are needed to help our food grow, and that little actions can have big consequences. She already shares the love that I have of sowing seeds, and I hope with time and maturity, she will have the wisdom to see that abundant crops (literally and figuratively) can come from simple, forward thinking actions.
To get the best out of a garden, due attention must be paid to the soil that forms its foundation - it needs to be regularly enriched with inputs that exceed what is taken out, deepened so that roots can reach water and nutrients in the dry times, and also treated with gentleness (don't walk all over your garden beds!). I think there might be some lessons here for me as a father - the challenge to provide the love and encouragement my children need to grow, to provide a home that is a place of refuge when they are struggling or hurt, and to be firm without being hard.
Its never too young to start - parents just need realistic expectations about what a child is capable of. Don't expect straight rows or a well weeded plot! I hope that my children will carry on in the way that they are brought up - knowing that they are deeply loved and cared for, and knowing who they are and where they belong, right down to an understanding of the literal earth beneath their feet. And if they know this, it is my hope they will become people that know their heritage, and who have a strong sense of belonging to their family, their faith, and 'their place', wherever that may be.
Tim
My garden smells of coffee
My garden smells of coffee. The smell of morning lattes greets me as I open the compost bin, or as I cultivate the ground in preparation for planting.
So far I have spread about 40 kg over the ground, and its a free waste product of the local cafes. Essentially its compost ready to go, and it doesn't cost $6 per 40 litre bag! And if its not collected, it goes to land fill.
Coffee grinds are high in carbon, 1.4% nitrogen, and apparently a cat and snail repellent too. It seems most cafes produce 5-10 kg of waste grinds a day, and are more than happy to have it collected than have it fill their skip bins. So get out there, save money, reduce waste to land fill, and improve your garden soil (all in one mutually compatible go!). At this time of year I am spreading it over the surface in a layer 1-3 cm deep, weeds and all, and then lightly hoeing it in.
We do compost as well, but our three bins cant keep up with the need. The ideal scenario, if you have it, is to make the surface 5 cm a 50:50 mix of soil and compost with each new crop. This way the soil has great water retention over the summer (reducing summer watering costs) and provides ample nutrients for greedy feeders such as courgettes, pumpkin, and leafy vegetables such as lettuce. The only crops I wouldnt generously compost prior to sowing are carrots.
Sowing indoors now for planting early October:
Tomato (Tommy Toe, yellow cherry, black cherry, garden peach, Oregon Spring)
Capsicum (Dulce Espana)
Beetroot (Detroit Dark Red) - will be great eating by Christmas
Basil (Gourmet Blend of purple, lemon, thai, sweet genovese)
Eggplant (Green Splash F1) - for our summer Thai curries
Onion (Red Bunching).
Courgette Costata Romanesco
Courgette Gold Rush
Cucumber F1 Diva
Climbing beans (Dalmation, Purple King, Scarlet Runner)
I put mine on top of the tropical fishtank. If you dont have a heat source enclose each pot in a clear plastic bag and put it on a sunny windowsill. Start the beans, courgette, and cucumber in cardboard toliet roll tubes and then when you plant put them in with the 'pot' - they dont like root disturbance.
And now for the cost-benefit analysis for August:
Cost this month:
Seeds $21. 7 packets at $3 per packet. The remainder of seed sown this month collected from last summers garden (free).
Time: 2 hours (weeding, spreading coffee grinds, pruning espalier fruit trees, sowing seeds). I probably could have done this faster, but Annabelle LOVES sowing seeds, and this certainly doesnt speed the process. However I rather like it that my daughter that keeps asking "sow seeds Daddy?"
Harvest and value:
Mesclun 3 salads @$3.68 each
Bok choy 2 bunches @$2.99 each
Herbs: parsley 2 bunches, rosemary 1 bunch, basil 1 bunch, sage 2 bunches @$3.25 each
Total for August $36.52
Cost versus benefit for year to date:
+$15.52
Herbs are only accounted for as multiple packets if they are 'bought' more than a week apart, otherwise one packet is used for multiple meals. I will find a more digestible way to show this data for the next post!
Happy Sowing
Tim
So far I have spread about 40 kg over the ground, and its a free waste product of the local cafes. Essentially its compost ready to go, and it doesn't cost $6 per 40 litre bag! And if its not collected, it goes to land fill.
Coffee grinds are high in carbon, 1.4% nitrogen, and apparently a cat and snail repellent too. It seems most cafes produce 5-10 kg of waste grinds a day, and are more than happy to have it collected than have it fill their skip bins. So get out there, save money, reduce waste to land fill, and improve your garden soil (all in one mutually compatible go!). At this time of year I am spreading it over the surface in a layer 1-3 cm deep, weeds and all, and then lightly hoeing it in.
We do compost as well, but our three bins cant keep up with the need. The ideal scenario, if you have it, is to make the surface 5 cm a 50:50 mix of soil and compost with each new crop. This way the soil has great water retention over the summer (reducing summer watering costs) and provides ample nutrients for greedy feeders such as courgettes, pumpkin, and leafy vegetables such as lettuce. The only crops I wouldnt generously compost prior to sowing are carrots.
Sowing indoors now for planting early October:
Tomato (Tommy Toe, yellow cherry, black cherry, garden peach, Oregon Spring)
Capsicum (Dulce Espana)
Beetroot (Detroit Dark Red) - will be great eating by Christmas
Basil (Gourmet Blend of purple, lemon, thai, sweet genovese)
Eggplant (Green Splash F1) - for our summer Thai curries
Onion (Red Bunching).
Courgette Costata Romanesco
Courgette Gold Rush
Cucumber F1 Diva
Climbing beans (Dalmation, Purple King, Scarlet Runner)
I put mine on top of the tropical fishtank. If you dont have a heat source enclose each pot in a clear plastic bag and put it on a sunny windowsill. Start the beans, courgette, and cucumber in cardboard toliet roll tubes and then when you plant put them in with the 'pot' - they dont like root disturbance.
And now for the cost-benefit analysis for August:
Cost this month:
Seeds $21. 7 packets at $3 per packet. The remainder of seed sown this month collected from last summers garden (free).
Time: 2 hours (weeding, spreading coffee grinds, pruning espalier fruit trees, sowing seeds). I probably could have done this faster, but Annabelle LOVES sowing seeds, and this certainly doesnt speed the process. However I rather like it that my daughter that keeps asking "sow seeds Daddy?"
Harvest and value:
Mesclun 3 salads @$3.68 each
Bok choy 2 bunches @$2.99 each
Herbs: parsley 2 bunches, rosemary 1 bunch, basil 1 bunch, sage 2 bunches @$3.25 each
Total for August $36.52
Cost versus benefit for year to date:
+$15.52
Herbs are only accounted for as multiple packets if they are 'bought' more than a week apart, otherwise one packet is used for multiple meals. I will find a more digestible way to show this data for the next post!
Happy Sowing
Tim
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)