Britain's home gardens ruined by toxic aminopyralid-contaminated fertilizer

This story that's just started spreading in the news is frightening. This wasn't caused by home gardeners spraying herbicide on their soil. This herbicide -- aminopyralid -- was sprayed on grass that was made into food for cows and horses, and then made its way into their manure, which was then sold to home gardeners as fertilizer. The herbicide in question (manufactured by Dow) isn't meant to be used on food crops. It attacks broad leaf weeds, hence its devastating effect on plants like tomatoes, potatoes, etc. According to this (and a few other articles I've read on it during the past few days), contaminated soil should not be reused for a year, and contaminated manure should not be used for 2-3 to allow the herbicide to break down. This means that the gardeners in the UK who used the manure to fertilize their gardens have lost this year's harvest and won't be able to grow on the same land next year (most likely). Plus right now, authorities don't even seem to be sure of how to track the contaminated manure. I'm not sure of whether this stuff is widely used in North America.

Mini garden update

One of the neighbourhood cats has discovered my garden. I'll see him amble towards it in the morning when I'm sitting on my back step drinking my morning coffee. Fearless, he is. I'll have to make sure that I keep some sort of screening down over any open areas lest he start using the garden as his personal litter box.

I'd planted some black heirloom bush beans almost three weeks ago (I'm bad with dates and need to check my gardening notebook), and they've been coming up over the past 2-3 days. So have the beets and chard I planted in-between the bean rows. I have heirloom wax bush beans beside them that I planted a little later and they should be coming up soon, as well. Between rain, overtime and the yard being occupied by neighbours, I haven't finished off as much of the garden as I'd like, yet. I still need to pull sooooo much lemon balm and sow some more greens. It's hard to believe that it's past mid-June already; it still feels as if May was right behind me, all spring-like and promise-filled. I have a few jalapeno peppers just barely starting to grow and my potted zucchini has a couple of blossoms.

I'll have to remember to jot down the names of the heirloom veggies I'm growing to post them here.

The garden

So far, I've got three heirloom Brandywines, three organic plums, one cherry and two ground cherry tomato plants in. I've also got a jalapeno pepper and a zucchini seedling (potted, for now). All of these are flowering. This Saturday, I plan to add a couple of bell seedlings, another couple of jalapeno, a cayenne (if I can find one), and at least another three plums.

I have the first sowing of organic leaf lettuce and organic dwarf carrots coming up, as well as my first sowing (15 square feet?) of yellow organic bush beans just breaking ground. Tonight, I planted a 4' row of beets and a 4' row of chard and my second sowing of organic bush beans (these, a drying type -- I'll have to dig out the envelope to post the names). The beets and chard are in between the bush bean rows. I added some thyme seed to my old winter-worn thyme plant (it's seven years old and I'll get another to grow alongside it before I pull this one out of the ground -- it was the first thing I ever planted in my garden). I also scattered some organic spicy mixed greens seed in with the lettuce and carrots coming up around my heirloom tomatoes.

I harvested some rhubarb yesterday. I should have separated some of it early in the spring. It's sort of scrunched together and scraggly. If I play my cards right, though, I should be able to get at least a couple dozen jars of chutney or jam out of it, and some frozen to boot. Right now, I need to figure out what to do with the 50 square feet or so of lemon balm that's spread across part of the garden over the past summers. Do I just pull it and compost it? I have some young burdock coming up, too, in a corner, and need to figure out when to pull it to get to try out the roots.

I'll definitely take some photos this weekend after I get some more seedlings in.

Peak Oil gardening-oriented discussion forums?

If anyone's aware of some good (and active) organic (or biointensive, even) gardening discussion forums on any peak oil oriented sites and wants to share a link, I'd be grateful.

Rain and gardening

The forecast for this weekend called for rain and it poured most of yesterday. I wish I'd gotten more seedlings into the soil of my garden on Friday evening and that I'd had the ground more well-prepared in advance to have been able to sow my bush beans before yesterday's downpour. It's warm and sunny this morning, but the ground is saturated, so it looks as if today will be another day with my nose in an Eliot Coleman book or on the bike. It's too wet to do anything, unless I just skirt the sides of my garden and pull some more of the lemon balm that spread throughout it last summer (which ended up being my first gardening-free season in years). Right now, my established perennial herbs are thriving -- oregano, savoury, sage, lemon thyme, parsley and chives. My echinacea is coming up. The three heirloom Brandywines I planted last week are looking nice, as are the still-potted organic jalapeño pepper and zucchini. I hope that the scattered heirloom carrot and organic black-seeded Simpson lettuce seed had time to settle in before the rain, so that it didn't get moved around or bunched up much. I discovered a couple of asparagus plants on Friday, surprises from seed I'd planted a couple of years ago and about which I'd forgotten; I think I'll try to nurture them to see what I can get out of them since I've never grown asparagus before.

The rhubarb in the yard is lush and green and ready to start harvesting over the next few weeks. I'll likely freeze much of it, but would like to can some -- maybe find a recipe for chutney or something along those lines. I'll have to be mindful of food preservation techniques I use over the next 4-5 months, since I'll invariably have to pull up stakes to move before the fall is over because of oil prices. This past winter, I'd thought about using this year's rhubarb to teach myself to make homemade wine this year, but after spending a couple of weeks sans-vino, I'm thinking of taking a cue from more straight-edge types and of continuing to abstain from alcohol. Between the expense and the multitude of health issues associated with its consumption, I think it just makes sense. Maybe part of today, then, will be spent finding preservation ideas for rhubarb, then...

One drop at a time

There are a number of painless changes that can be incorporated into daily rituals with little or no inconvenience that can significantly lower your personal energy consumption and water usage. Some may seem drastic, but most are the kinds of changes that so easily become second nature after a surprisingly short while. For instance, when I was a teenager and became concerned with water conservation, I adopted the practice of not letting the water run while brushing my teeth. Sounds simple, doesn't it? The thing is that turning the tap off while brushing your teeth can save 5 (or more) litres of water a minute. Let's assume that it takes me four minutes to brush my teeth and that I do so three times a day. That's 60 litres of water a day --21900 litres a year. If I've been doing this roughly 20 years, that means I've saved 438,000 litres of water. That's almost twice the amount used to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and it's something I don't even think twice about doing anymore. Letting the water run would now feel weird.

Recent accounts in the media show an increase in droughts or boil orders hitting populated areas in North America, where water's previously been treated as an unlimited resource. As we continue to pollute our water supply and divert it to factory farms, and as global warming continues to affect our climate and water tables, expect to see this worsening. People living outside of cities and who rely on wells for their water -- whether they're on homesteads or merely living in less populous areas -- are likely much more aware of this than the average city-dweller. Sometimes you've just gotta live it to accept it.

In the interim, here are a few other really small changes that are easy to incorporate into your life to conserve water:

1) When you run the tap waiting for hot water to come out, collect it in water cans for your houseplants or for the garden. Same with any water you allow to run out the tap to warm up before you take a shower.

2) Start taking shorter showers and install a water-saving shower head. Skimming a minute or two off your total can save over 2500 litres of water a month per person. My father used to take ''navy showers'' from years of working as a lumberjack in wooded areas where obtaining usable water involved lotsa lugging. Not wasting water had become second nature to him. Read more about navy showers here.

3) Only run your washing machine or dishwasher when they are full (or when doing laundry, match the water level to the size of the load).

4) If washing dishes by hand, don't let the rinse water run. If you have two sinks, use one to wash and fill the other with rinse water. Do the same when rinsing produce -- rinse it in the sink or in a bowl, rather than running the water (and use the water from the rinsed produce for your houseplants).

5) Keep a pitcher of water in the fridge rather than letting water run to get it cold enough for a drink.

6) Use aerators on all of your faucets.

7) Use a low-flow toilet, or fill a jar with water and put it in the tank. Consider adhering to the following: If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down.

8) Cook food in as little water as possible. To enable this, use proper-sized pots and pans. Not only does this save water, but it minimizes the loss of nutrients during the cooking process. Save the water you use in a container and throw it in your freezer to use later to make soup (or to boil whole grains or rice).

9) Water your vegetable garden in the morning to minimize evaporation from heat. Use mulch to retain moisture in the soil.

These are just a fraction of the small changes or habits that will enable to average urban dweller to start adopting a less water-wasteful mindset. The truth is that there are so many more things that can be done every single time you turn on the tap.

Ginger

Background:
Ginger is the common name of the plant Zingiber officinale, thought to have originated in Southeast Asia -- quite possibly China. Some sources state that the finest varieties of ginger actually originated from the West Indies or from India. Whatever its origins, today it's cultivated in a number of tropical countries from West Africa to the Caribbean. It's even cultivated in parts of the United States (e.g. Florida). It's a perennial reed-like plant with sword-like leaves that grows two to four feet high and produces remarkably fragrant flowers. It grows best in shade and rich, well-drained soil.

The part that we use is the root or rhizome. The young pinkish roots can be pickled or boiled in water to make ginger tea (often sweetened with honey and served with a squeeze of lemon juice). The slightly older root, knobby and woody looking and tan in colour, is what we customarily find fresh in the grocery stores. It's also commonly found in its dried and powdered form. The rule of thumb is to substitute two tablespoons of freshly grated ginger for every teaspoon of ground ginger called for (although it should be noted that ground ginger tastes quite different from the fresh). Here's a bunch of information on its storage and preservation.

Benefits:
Ginger root has long been used as a a home remedy -- all over the world -- for colds and the flu, often taken in the form of ginger tea at the first sign of a chill or the onset of a cold. It's also recommended to combat nausea and vomiting, especially if they stem from motion or morning sickness, or chemotherapy. Its effect on the digestive system is reported to extend to alleviating gas and indigestion, as well as being beneficial for colitis and for cleansing the colon. It's also thought to combat menstrual cramps and hot flashes. It's known to promote sweating and, through this, the elimination of toxins from the system. It's thought to stimulate circulation, and is therefore sometimes taken as a remedy for cold hands and feet. It's also been shown in some studies to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. For more detailed information on its benefits, check out the section on it featured on the (not vegan) World's Healthiest Foods' website.

How to grow it:
Using a firm, heavy and unblemished piece of root purchased in a grocery store, ginger can be grown indoors in a pot if kept in a warm and moist atmosphere. In the north, it's ideal to start it indoors around January, then move it outside once all chance of frost has passed. Ideally, night temperatures should be at least 55 F. If you choose to keep your ginger indoors, place your pots on pebbles in trays with water to keep the air around them humid; if you move it outside, make sure that it's given good shelter from the wind. In warmer climates with longer growing seasons, it can be planted directly into an outdoor garden in the spring. Ginger supposedly thrives in sunny sites in foggy coastal areas where it can receive full sun to partial shade; however, if grown in an area where sufficient water and humidity will be issues (i.e. if it's just plain ol' too dry and hot), try to ensure that the plant is in the shade at least a third (and up to half) of the day.

What you do is get a root at the grocery store, cut it into 1- to 2-inch pieces, each with at least one "eye" or knob on it, and place them (knob upwards) at least 2-3 inches deep in pots of rich soil that needs to be kept moist, albeit with really good drainage so that the roots don't rot. If after a couple of weeks, no shoots have appeared, dig up your pieces of root and check them out. If they haven't changed, clean them off and use them (i.e. in cooking). If you spot little ivory bumps on them, replant them; this means that shoots will soon appear. Don't give the shoots more than around 2 hours of sun a day until they're a few inches high. Ginger is a heavy feeder, so make sure to work a good compost mix into the soil, wherever you do grow it.

Harvesting:
In Zone 7, ginger will freeze over the winter, but the roots will re-sprout in the spring. In Zone 6 or colder, ginger will need to be brought indoors over the winter. Otherwise, you can just harvest them completely and start from scratch for the next growing season. Baby roots -- still pink and mild-tasting -- can be harvested off the main roots early in the season and used to make pickled ginger. Otherwise, harvest the large hand-like clumps of roots in the fall once the plants have withered.

Recipes:
Basic pickled ginger
How to make quick ginger beer (which is, of course, non-alcoholic)


(Listening to: The Replacements' Let it Be)

Seedy Sunday

''Seedy Sunday'' (or variations thereof) is an event usually held in the spring in any given Canadian community where people come together to swap seeds. Whether to share organic seed, encourage biodiversity, preserve heirloom varieties or to just plain old meet other gardeners, these events are happiness-inducing (!!) reminders that spring's just around the corner and that another growing season is arriving.

Here's a list of Seedy Sunday (and Seedy Saturday) events happening in Canada in 2008. Some have already happened, especially in more southern parts of the country.

I'll see if I can find some information on similar events happening outside of Canada and update the post at a later date if I find anything.