(Now comes the part where I get to repeat my favorite saying:) “Don’t tell me you can’t grow food anywhere!” There I’ve said it yet again. Read on and enjoy! (KGI is one of the best websites around, the driving force behind the White House vegetable garden. Please DONATE to keep it alive and well.)

I recently returned from a lively table of folks who gathered for the annual Road Runner Food Bank Fundraising Breakfast. We were 10 people brought together by our common denominator, Melanie Ruben, a volunteer with Road Runner and founder of Albuquerque Backyard Farms and our Backyard Farms Collaborative–a gaggle of powerful, visionary women who run with some of the best ideas and creative efforts to support and teach gardening and growing in this part of the country. (I consider myself lucky to be one of them.)

And while I was buoyed by the table chat about what great things are coming to be–more support for school gardens, many more opportunities to learn gardening, the explosion in farmers’ markets around the state, the increasing demand for locally grown produce–this was against the backdrop of why we had gathered that day: to continue to support the state’s largest food bank and mobile food distribution agency. Road Runner is now 30 years old. I’m grateful Road Runner exists. And I wish it didn’t.

I’ve been part of this movement to re-establish gardens as part of the American backyard, terrace and school for more than a decade now. I’ve worked on hunger issues for more than two decades. Thirty years ago I was moving to 60 acres of land in the Illinois River valley of west central Illinois with a husband and my son, looking forward to creating a sanctuary where I could happily feast off the land for the rest of my life and teach my grandchildren all the delights of life on an organic farm. But the gods had other plans for me so I’m sitting in my apartment in the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico, writing this piece, watching the sunlight on autumn gold cottonwood leaves, hoping for rain.

Water is the defining factor in arid lands. It’s one of the primary reasons I prefer above ground gardens or stand-alone types of gardens: they use relatively little water.  I learned just how little water a garden requires from my good friends at Hunger Grow Away, Hank Bruce and Tomi Folk, who set up Cellugro® gardens all over the world. They found that with about 15 minutes of labor a day and with only dishwater and wood ash as nutrient sources, a single gardener could feed her family.

We could easily end hunger — but not by increasing food handouts. We end hunger by giving everyone access to land, the tools and supplies, and education on how to be their own gardeners. We stop wasting water when every home or apartment building is constructed with greywater features, cisterns for water collection, and each person is educated from a young age on how to save water, landscape to hold water in the soil, and how to monitor and conserve their water supply.  (And I would add when composting toilets are no longer seen as an oddity but a necessity.)

The answers seem so obvious to me and others I’m sure. Unfortunately the people who make the decisions are neither hungry or feel inclined to conserve water.  Therein lies the problem. When the politicians have to face these issues, policies will change. Until then, well, we’ll just have to do it ourselves.

God must think we’re crazy. We let the rain fall off our roofs onto our soil, it washes the soil away and flows to the bottom of the hill. We then climb down the hill and carry it back up to drink. (Ugandan project worker)

Here’s a more beautiful way to feed your garden AND conserve water. Ollas!

East Central Ministries in Albuquerque sells beautiful ollas (pronounced oy-yahs.) These sales help to support the work ECM does through its community garden and other programs so contact them for more information on how to purchase handmade ollas for your garden. With the holidays overwhelming us already, let your friends and family know you’d like an olla in your stocking this year.

Is your fall garden up and growing? Mine sure is! I’ve been munching arugula, chard, beet greens, mizuna greens and baby kale for a couple of weeks now. More beets seem to be germinating every day. The extended summer has really benefited my late seedlings.

The Source Community Garden would like to plant garlic. Lots of it. If you have garlic bulbs for planting or know someone who does, please get in touch.

Here’s the remainder of 2010 Best Gardening Days (for all parts of the country) from the Farmers’ Alamanac:

November 2010
8th-10th Poor Planting Days.
11th-12th Good Days For Planting Peas, Squash, Corn, Tomatoes, And Other Above Ground Crops In Southern Florida, Texas, And California.
13th-15th Kill Plant Pests On These Barren Days.
16th-17th Favorable Days For Planting Above Ground Crops. Extra Good For Vine Crops Where Climate Allows.
18th-19th Neither Plant Nor Sow On These Barren Days.
20th-22nd First Day Fine For Planting Beans, Peppers, Cucumbers, Melons, And Other Above-ground Crops Where Climate Is Suitable. Last Two Days Are Good For Planting Root Crops Where Climate Is Suitable.
23rd-24th Any Seed Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
25th-26th Best Planting Days For Fall Potatoes, Turnips, Onions, Carrots, Beets, And Other Root Crops Where Climate Is Suitable. Also Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
27th-30th Poor Period For Planting. Kill Plant Pests, Clear Fence Rows/land.

December 2010
1st-2nd Good Days For Planting Root Crops, Fine For Sowing Grains, Hay, And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.
3rd-5th First Two Days Good For Planting Carrots, Beets, Onions, Turnips, Irish Potatoes, And Other Root Crops. Third Day Good For Celery, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts. All Days Good For Planting Leafy Vegetables Such As Cabbage, Lettuce, And Collards In The South. Start Seedbeds.
6th-7th Do No Planting.
8th-10th Plant Sweet Corn, Beans, Peppers, And Other Above Ground Crops Where Climate Is Suitable.
11th-12th Good Days For Killing Weeds, Briars And Other Plant Pests, Poor For Planting.
13th-15th Plant Peppers, Sweet Corn, Tomatoes, And Other Above Ground Crops In Southern Florida, California, And Texas. Extra Good For Cucumbers, Peas, Cantaloupes, And Other Vine Crops.
16th-17th A Poor Time To Plant.
18th-19th Fine For Planting Beans, Peppers, Cucumbers, Melons, And Other Above Ground Crops Where Climate Is Suitable.
20th-21st Seeds Planted Now Tend To Rot In Ground.
22nd-23rd Most Favorable Days For Planting Beets, Onions, Turnips, And Other Root Crops Where Climate Allows. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
24th-27th A Most Barren Period. Kill Plant Pests And Do General Farm Work.
28th-29th Favorable Days For Planting Root Crops, Fine For Sowing Grains, Hay, And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.
30th-31st Plant Carrots, Beets, Onions, Turnips, Irish Potatoes, And Other Root Crops In The South. Lettuce, Cabbage, Collards, And Other Leafy Vegetables Will Do Well. Start Seedbeds.

This Veterans Day let’s honor those who came back home to enlighten us and teach us a better way to soldier. Thanks!

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…