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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

DISCOURAGED




Sunday morning I got up feeling discouraged. “Don’t talk to me,” I warned Mike.

We’ve been working earnestly at the Gilbert homestead for 10 to 15 years. I’m so grateful for what we’ve accomplished, but sometimes it just seems we haven’t done enough. Some of what we’ve tried to do has come to naught. Some things don’t move beyond my dreams. I guess that trip to the abandoned yet prolific rhubarb patch brought me down.
 
My mother and father both had green thumbs, but I must have been gawking at the moon – or, more likely, television -- instead of paying attention. As an adult I stood in my mother’s kitchen and complained about my brown thumb. She pointed to my dad in the back yard. “He’ll stand there and stare for a while,” she said, “and then I’ll see him puttering around with stakes and twine or fertilizer.” She finished by saying that a good gardener is a putterer.

It’s difficult when the growing season is short, when we aren’t always here, when growing things means real work and when you know that failure may be in the cards no matter what you do. So I asked myself, Was it different for the homesteaders?

I think my grandparents grew a decent garden here. A vegetable garden was part of the homesteading equation for successful self-sustained living. Livestock provided plenty of fertilizer and there was always a compost pile. Mike notes that the patch of lawn that lies north of the driveway is the best we have. That’s where the chicken coop used to be.

And when the days were hot, maybe the folks carried a little water to the garden, but I doubt it. Water had to be hauled some distance for house use, so they likely didn’t spend it at the garden. The term “dry land farming” applied to the garden as well. But I believe they seldom experienced long summers. Even I remember soaking summer rains. Today we can’t garden here without watering.

The homesteaders learned by experience and stood on what they learned. For instance, my dad planted the corn about the first of June and never before Mother’s Day – or something like that. Any later than that and the corn might not mature before the first freeze. The homesteaders had to pay strict attention to those “days to maturity” on the seed packets.

And speaking of seeds – Were the seeds hardier in the old days? Sometimes I wonder. I’ve flirted with planting heritage seeds. This year I bought Ferry Morse seeds and won’t do that again.

The homesteaders had their fair share of rodents and other farmyard pests, but I think we see an explosion of mice and voles today because of the years we weren’t actively endeavoring to control them. I remember my dad and brother Chuck occasionally setting about to eradicate a mole, and mice were never far away. But my dad never fenced against the deer. Today we can’t grow anything unless we fence first and you can’t fence against the rodents. The need to fence is really a huge impediment to gardening for me.
 
Then there’s the crop dusting and the application of herbicides, and the fields now encroach on the yard whereas in the old days there was a buffer between the yard and the fields.

Still feeling sorry for myself, I went down to check the rhubarb starts at the barn. They may never grow there in that clay. Nevertheless, I amended the soil with some 16-16-16 fertilizer which is supposed to break down clay, and then – Oh joy! -- I noticed lilac we planted last year making a strong appearance from the root. Mike trimmed around it, and I poisoned the rodent holes. Maybe it will grow there. And then I found that our gooseberry bush not only has berries but also new growth from the root. Yay! I had fertilized it a little last year and apparently it liked it, so I loosened the soil around it, added compost, and gave it some fertilizer.

Putter on! KW



7 comments:

  1. I guarantee you cannot have a browner thumb that your old kindergarten friend. The only plants that flourish under my care are silk. If it wasn't for Dan, we wouldn't grow a thing here.

    The deer didn't use to be a problem because people hunted and ate them, but no more, so they overrun town and farm alike. Weather is a variable for sure, and lately we've had such cold springs that there's barely enough time for anything to mature before the frost hits.

    I think you've got the right idea--putter, putter. But it's like Sonya's house--if that's where you put your major effort, it's got a better chance of being done well. Gardening is not your only outlet. Looks like you're having some great success though, and it's encouraging.

    P.S. Good of you to warn Mike ahead of time!! :-)

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  2. Explain how you can put poison in holes for rodents & still protect Nellie from harm.

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  3. Maybe it's best to acknowledge where one's interests lie and leave it at that, but I keep trying with the gardening. You are good when it comes to canning though, Chris.

    Oh! There's a rooster pheasant strutting out by the composter. We seldom see them here. And we leave them alone because we would like the population increase.

    The rodent poison I use is not supposed to interest pets. I apply with an old teaspoon and it disappears into those deep holes. I've never seen Nellie take an interest in it, nor does she dig in the yard. D-con is another matter. Mike has to use some sort of poison in his metal storage shed or the mice take over. We have to keep Nellie out.

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  4. Ah Kathy, should remember that those pioneer folks were much closer to the land and were closer to the land. This helps when one needs to grow all of one's food. Being observant and living in one place for some amount of time allows one to get to know the vagaries of the seasons for purpose of knowing what to grow, etc., ie. your dad's corn knowledge. And whether we want to acknowledge it or not the global warming is influencing the weather patterns, plus the fact that the world IS NOT static and environmental conditions change, all-be-it generally slowly, all of the time.
    Here is a hint about the soil around the Palouse (from your friendly neighborhood agronomist) it is a really good idea to amend the clay soil of the Palouse with stuff that will improve the drainage, this may even include building a raised bed sort of thing that allows one to raise the growing plants above so drainage is better. Most plants DO NOT like to have 'wet feet'. But they are also living things that "want" to survive especially if we help them out.
    Where did you get that rodent stuff? We've been finding little holes around that I figure are ground squirrels of such & we have 2 dogs that make us reluctant to use the other stuff.
    Anyone can feel free to ask me questions about gardening & such and I will do my best to help.

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  5. Your comments are so encouraging, Dr. Molly. I agree that our weather is changing -- in a state of flux even -- and it affects our outcomes.

    I have some homely raised beds - one made with old railroad ties and two big old tires. I'm replanting peas today. They didn't germinate and I think I didn't plant them deeply enough.

    Although I think the ProZap is safe to use around pets, I find myself reticent to go on record. We got it at the Grain Growers (Cenex) store in Lewiston. I will say that Nellie has never shown interest in the rodent holes in the yard but she will dig in the fields. The poison comes in pellet form and is applied a teaspoon to a hole. Generally the pellets disappear into the hole, but if they don't, I push them in with the end of my spoon. Rodent activity continues despite the poisoning, probably encouraged by the proximity of the fields. I don't believe we could manage yard and garden without some form of control.

    I know those furry little (big?) rodents are under there, but I never see them.

    Thanks for your interest, Molly.

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  6. You know, Molly is right about your gardening dilemma..."pioneer folks were much closer to the land." They had to grow food to eat. It was important for them to understand when to plant, how to take care of the soil & react to weather changes.

    Since everyone else at the time also had vegetable gardens, they had the advantage of talking with their neighbors about problems. I'll also bet that the pioneer folks learned how to garden when they were at least 10 years old.

    It's another time and your dinner doesn't depend on what you have or haven't got growing in your garden.

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  7. I'm not discouraged at all! Every year we try some new thing that we likely read that we should do and then we observe the results. The raspberry leaves are much less yellow than they used to be and last year was a great crop! The pears had a good year, too.

    Yep. It's all coming right along.

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