My evening at the Wayside Community Gardens workshop in Normandy on the north side of St. Louis, could not have been more perfect. The folks who came to learn and participate on July 14, were excited at the prospect of using sheet mulching to cut down on their mowing while at the same time contributing to building up the fertility in the soil.

Wayside Community Gardens, Normandy, MO

We created one lasagna bed for the Girls, Inc. area which my daughter, Mariella Funk, guides and oversees as part of her responsibilities with Operation Food Search.

Laying out the new bed with newspaper.

Adding the organic layers to the new bed.

Adding the finishing touches of topsoil to the new bed.

We also set up a wading pool garden with two very accomplished young assistants who believed you just can’t be too safe when working in the garden!

My best assistants wearing their protective garden gear!

Yvonne helping the group visualize greens and peas for the fall!

Planting carrots and beets.

Thanks to Dan Linck, Jane Reise and all the Wayside gardeners for all the assistance. A special thanks to my daughter, Mariella Funk, for organizing this opportunity to be “outrageous” in Missouri!

One question that came up from the group was about just what organic materials are best to use in a lasagna or raised bed. The list is virtually endless. (More about that next time.) But here’s an example of ingenuity in utilizing whatever you have available to grow food in or on:

And here’s the list of BEST PLANTING DATES for the remainder of July according to the Moon signs (I’m certain Neil Armstrong would approve!)

July 20-21–great for planting (21st is better than the 20th)

July 24-25–Good for all planting/gardening activities plus planning your Fall garden!

July 26-27–Excellent for planting ornamentals or anything for beauty or color.

July 30-31–Another great time for all planting.

(Source: www.starpathways.com)

Next time:  planning your fall garden.

Mohandas K. Gandhi: To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.

Someday I pray, we won’t remember that animals were once harvested like timber or timber mowed down like invasive weeds but respected as the holy givers of sustenance they were intended. My mother, the-gardener-extraordinaire, used to tell me:  “Mother Nature is very forgiving of our best efforts and intentions but she does not tolerate disrespect.”

Factory animal farms are neither respectful, honorable or healthy.  Connect the dots, folks, and get over it! Until then (may I live that long but time is not on my side) I offer some news reports and opinions on the origins of the current ‘canary in the coalmine’ — swine flu and the Smithfield Farms connection.

Tom Philpott opened this can of worms on Grist. See his article here.

Another blog post citing a Biosurveillance timeline of the outbreak.

Mysteries about the swine flu are explored in this article from the Associated Press.

Some insight on CAFO’s for your dining pleasure.

[Even the Dept. of Homeland Security, Open Source Report for August 13, 2007 has something to share]

August 10, 2007 Agence France−Presse — Pig farms to shut down in Romania. Eleven unauthorized pig farms belonging to U.S. company Smithfield in Romania are to be shut down following an outbreak of swine fever, the head of the national sanitary and veterinary authority said Friday, August 10. The agency will also send a veterinary doctor to each of Smithfield’s 25 farms in western Timis county to monitor whether sanitary standards were being respected and to oversee the killing of some 40,000 pigs from the two farms where the outbreak occurred, ANSVSA director Radu Roatis said. Veterinary authorities found this week that 11 Smithfield farms had not been authorised to operate in Romania. Swine fever was detected during the 8 week in two farms in western Timis county belonging to Smithfield. One of them did not have an authorization to operate. Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070810/hl_afp/romaniausfarmhea lth_070810132622;_ylt=Ajp_F5IIjjT5TdT1stampleJOrgF

And finally from the CDC…note that swine flu has been around a long time, according to their report.

Smithfield Farms website page

PS:  I’m NOT against kissing pigs. We raised them on our organic farm and they were intelligent, loving, funny, gentle, bonding animals we treated with respect. I’m uncertain I could raise animals for food sacrifice/slaughter again but I know that humane treatment is possible.

If only all pigs could live the kind of life portrayed above…