November Odds and Ends

It's been a while since I posted, so I have a number of odds and ends to share, most of them the former.

The first "end" to share is that Thanksgiving eve was the final end to this year's gardening season, with our first hard frost in Grand Rapids. Typically we see our first hard frost in late September, or October for sure. This year, we've been eating fresh garden lettuce, spinach, and chard right up to Thanksgiving.

Now for a few "odds." When I put on my jacket to go for a walk on Thanksgiving, there was this brown fuzzy mass stuck to the left lapel. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a bat that had nuzzled down into the coat rack to get away from the light of day. So I slowly took off my jacket and took the old boy outside. We're not sure how he got in the house, but suspect Honey, our time-share cat, brought him in.

The second "odd" happened a week ago when we went to the Grand Rapids Thanksgiving parade. Actually, there were a lot of odd things about this parade, but the weirdest was the fact that the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans entered their short bus in the parade. Rather than having a bunch of veterans marching or on a float, down the street came a bland white van with windows tinted so dark you couldn't even see the people inside. Thankfully, one extroverted veteran in the back seat took the liberty of waiving out the window.

Lastly, Abbey and I finally got to do something tonight we've been talking about for a few weeks. We went ice skating. We had planned to go downtown (the mailer that came last week said they would be opening November 23 and it's been below freezing for the past three days), but there was no ice there. So tonight we went to Griff's Ice House for Abbey's first lesson. She did great, and is eager to go again. Afterwards, we watched a period of a high school hockey game. Hockey is tops on Abbey's list of spectator sports.

Flickr Blues

You get the good with the bad. My internet service provider (AT&T) just bought out Flickr, so now I have a free Pro account, which allows me to post tons of photos.

The bad part is that sometime in the past something changed with Flickr so that none of my photos prior to January 1, 2007 can be viewed on my blog. I'm in the process of updating URLs; but until then, pics on older entries may not work.

To check out my Flickr files for the old pictures, click here.

Road Rabbits

I always thought life was a little different out in Ottawa County. An experience I had a few months ago seems to confirm my suspicions.

While driving a back road into Holland, Michigan, we came across these two bike riding bunnies. It was no special occasion. No carnival. No parade. No block party. Just two crazy people riding bikes in big fuzzy costumes on a 90 degree day.

42 Revolutions

Yesterday I received probably one of the best birthday gifts a dad could receive--a fun and peaceful evening out with my daughter. With a busy week planned, I needed to get out to the People's Republic of Perkins to pick zucchini and tend to a few other tasks.

We started by pulling up the early corn stalks and planting cover crop seed in the soil you see behind Abbey and the sunflowers. The cover crop is a "winter" mix of wheat, legumes and clover that will help build the nitrogen in the soil and break up the clay.

Abbey was so into gardening that we got a lot of other chores done too. We weeded, thinned and transplanted some small collards, picked zucchini, cucumbers and broccoli, deadheaded the marigolds, and sprayed the pumpkins and squash with egg water to repel the woodchucks that have been burrowing under the fence and into the garden.

We should be picking the basil that Abbey is standing by, but you only need so much basil. Some of the basil is Tulsi, or Holy Basil, and will be dried for winter tea.

With Abbey's cooperation and help, all the chores were done before the sun dropped below the horizon, so we also had some time to take some picture and to smell the flowers.

FRESH Idea

Today I got to see a great idea in action. Project FRESH is a nutrition program that does far more than promote nutrition. To be honest, from my perspective as a gardener and a person interested in community building, I think that nutrition just happens to be a side benefit of Project FRESH.

Here's how it works. In the late 1980's, a number of states (including Michigan) decided that it might be a good idea to create a way for low-income folks benefiting from US Department of Agriculture programs like WIC to have access the fresh vegetables and fruits found in farmers' markets.

Today, Project FRESH is a mainstay of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program in many states. The project provides coupons to WIC participants that they can spend at local farmers' markets. Well received by new mothers, the program has been expanded to serve seniors through Senior Project FRESH. At the end of the day, the farmers trade in the coupons for cash.

Sure, this is a creative way to encourage poor people to eat fresh produce, which is a noble idea but an ethic I'm not all that sure I support over giving poor people the same choices as those with cash.

The better part of this program is the way in which these public dollars are multiplied eight times as they:

1. Feed the poor,
2. Introduce people to new, local foods,
3. Financially support small, local farmers,
4. Help build local food systems instead of trucking under-ripe veggies across the continent,
5. Introduce consumers to farmers (people who are often not only from different geographical communities, but also typically of different races and ethnicities),
6. Build community by promoting commercial amenities like markets,
7. Build more community by creating places where people gather and meet their neighbors,
8. And bring people back into touch with real food and how it is really grown.

Here in Michigan, Project FRESH is administered by the Michigan Department of Community Health in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Michigan State University Cooperative Extension. Local health agencies and MSU extension offices statewide deliver Project FRESH services in cooperation with the organizers of local farmers' markets.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sell some of my Perkins Garden surplus at the new and emerging Southeast Community Farmers' Market, which recently moved to the corner of Franklin and Fuller in partnership with Divine Grace Ministries and the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council. That Thursday I sold spring greens, early chard and broccoli raab that was sure to bolt while I was away on vacation the next week. While my produce and the market customers were not the best match, I did earn a dozen or so bucks which were tossed into the Food System's community garden fund.

Today I returned with a surplus of about 20 golden zucchinis, 30 cucumbers, four heads of lettuce, a handful of white baby eggplants, and three pints of purple beans. The veggies and the shoppers were a much better match and I only came home with a half dozen cucumbers and the eggplants. I netted more than twenty bucks from produce that otherwise probably would have eventually been sent to the compost pile, The cash itself was composted if you will, returned to the community garden program to make the program more fertile.

But the best part of it was that half of the dollars earned were federal tax dollars that fed the poor, built community, supported local community gardens, strengthened the local food system, and kept one more box full of veggies back in California where they were grown and belong.

In this day of scarce resources, it's good to see federal dollars supporting conservation by building local food systems instead of propping up the old industrial model that relies upon cheap oil from the middle east to ship veggies that can be grown anywhere everywhere.

I count it as a good day when I can see and experience a creative idea like Project FRESH that has the support of both the government and local people. It's an especially good day when the program works as well as this one does.

Transit Leadership

Does your Mayor ride the bus?

Lots of Mayors howl about public transit, but few ride it faithfully... let alone sporadically.

Alleged presidential aspirant Mayor Bloomberg of NYC says he rides mass transit religiously (in this case, the subway). But does he? The New York Times published a telling expose today on the Mayor's transit habits. Yes, he does ride the train two days a week, but doing so involves two gas-guzzling, carbon-belching SUVs.

It appears that the Mayor of Gotham takes transit not because it's the right thing to do for the earth and all, but because it is part of his image.

I was at a mayoral forum in Grand Rapids last week. As a regular rider myself, it was easy for me to discern from their answers that none of our aspirants has recently held a bus pass for the Rapid.

Does your Mayor ride the bus?

Birch Grove Trail

Earlier I wrote a few times about the Birch Grove Trail, a new hiking loop the Western Michigan Chapter of the NCTA has been building up near the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary, north of White Cloud in the Manistee National Forest.

Well, the loop was officially opened on June 2 this year. The work is 99% done. We just have three signs to place, but they aren't essential if you have a map. Lucky for you, I've posted a link to a download-able, printable one here.

I'd highly recommend this loop for a summertime stroll. Besides, we need the feet to beat back the bracken ferns on this new trail. Sure, springtime is best for wildflowers and fall good for colors, but the shade of the woods can't be beat in summer.

If you're looking for other place in Michigan to take a summer stroll, check out Mike Ingels' blog. Mike's a history buff, a good writer, has an eye for the unique in the ordinary, and has summers off to do lots of blogging.

Unexpected Surprises

Friday morning at the breakfast table, I got my first surprise. I half jokingly said to Abbey, "Daddy doesn't have anything on his calendar for this weekend, want to go camping with just Daddy?" Unexpectedly, she looked up at me and said "Yes."

I clarified. "Without your Mommy?"

She said,"Yes."

Julie checked with her throughout the day to make sure she understood that this meant spending a night away from home without Mommy. When I got home from work, Abbey was ready to go.

So we drove north and finally found an open campsite when we got to Pines Point campground on the White River in the Manistee National Forest. Abbey slept on the way up, so she was wide awake and a big help with setting up camp. She even had enough of a second wind that we lit a campfire and sat up by it until 10:30pm.

We had a restful night's sleep and slept in late. Then we had a leisurely breakfast of grilled cheese sandwiches and fried eggs cooked over the fire.

In the late morning, we went for a short hike at Abbey's request, then decided to drive over to Freemont for some lunch on the way home.

When we got to Freemont, Main Street was blocked off and there was a huge carnival going on. While I had heard of the event, I didn't know that this was the weekend for the National Baby Food Festival. Being the home town of Gerber, the idea of a National Baby Food Festival is not quite as weird as it sounds.

We took advantage of the cool, clear day and the unknown surprise and mingled about the rides and booths, considering our next step. Abbey finally decided that, after lunch, she wanted to ride the merry-go-round and get some ice cream. So that's exactly what we did.

I'm looking forward to the next time I have a weekend with nothing to do.

Greenwash

I try to keep this blog focused on the positive and do my best to keep from ranting here. Going negative would be too cheap and easy, make for dull reading, and be like 97.6% of the rest of the blogosphere.

But every now and then I have to point out something inane. Actually, I won't do it. I'll let James Howard Kunstler do it. (After July 2007, you'll have to check his archives for the rant).

This parking ramp in LA should take the 2007 award for greenwashing hogwash.

Passing Time

The posts have gotten pretty infrequent this summer, something I have all the best intentions of rectifying soon.

As you can see, we've been far too busy with important stuff, like flying kites on the beach and growing lettuce.

But in all seriousness, it has been a busy summer with trips to Pictured Rocks and North Carolina. When around home, many weekends have been taken up with either trail work on the North Country Trail or getting caught up at Perkins Garden. June is not a good time for gardeners to go away, as the weeds and the bugs come on with a vengeance around the solstice.

But overall, things are going good out at Perkins. While the corn failed and the cucumber beetles are relentless, the peppers will be early, we've never eaten so much of our own lettuce and spinach, and we picked the first two golden bush zuchinnies tonight.

Basil and beans will be coming out of our ears soon, and the sunflowers are sturdy. I have even started planting some fall greens (collards and spinach), and they too are coming up nicely.

More on the garden soon, I promise...

Beach Time

Late May and June are a time of gardening madness. I was spending so much time planting and getting the garden started that not much blogging got done.

Add to that a trip to Pictured Rocks over the Memorial Day weekend. And now a trip down to the Carolina shore to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary.

I've had good intentions of blogging a few updates, but instead I've been swimming, reading, watching birds and catching little sharks on my surf rod.

And I agree with my brother Rich and Abbey that vacations are also good for napping.

Pictured Rocks

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Julie, Abbey and I joined eight friends for a hike along the North Country Trail along Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The trail along Pictured Rocks is about 45 miles long and covers a wide variety of terrain.

We took the shuttle from Munising to Grand Marais on Friday morning and exited the bus to a hoard of black flies. Fortunately, that was the last we saw of those nasty creatures. We had purchased some Repel Lemon Eucalyptus insect repellent that worked wonders on black flies and did pretty good deterring mosquitoes too (although it needed somewhat frequent reapplications for the latter).

On the first day, we crossed behind the Grand Sable Dunes and enjoyed a wide variety of wildflowers and bird life. The forest floor was carpeted with spring wildflowers that had stopped blooming in Michigan's lower peninsula weeks before.

Fortunately I toted along my binoculars, but I regretfully left the bird book in the car. I also had now way to identify flowers, so I picked up a small Michigan guide when we past by a ranger station at noon.

By the end of the first day, we were camped near the Au Sable Light Station.

The second day was mostly beach hiking in the morning, then back into the woods for the afternoon. While we had about a dozen miles to hike, Julie, Abbey and I got started early and walked at a rather leisurely pace. When you hike with a three-year-old, you get plenty of time to stop and reference the field guide. You also get plenty of time to watch birds through your binoculars.

By that evening, the clouds had rolled in an we got a few sprinkles of rain around dinner hour.

The second half of the trip was a dramatic departure from the gentle beach and forest walking of the first two days.

Our family left camp at dawn and stopped on a bluff over looking Lake Superior for breakfast. As we we cleaning up, a frantic hiker passed us and said that he had just come from the next camp don the trail and that there was a black bear in the campground. We quickly packed up and headed onward to see if we could find he bear, but he was long gone by the time we got there.

Later that morning, we started climbing into some rockier headlands. Now we were in the area for which the lake shore is known. Small cliffs gave way to higher and higher ones, and drama of the scenery became more intense. That night we camped at Mosquito Beach, which proved to be a misnomer.

The fourth and final day continued the climbs over rocky headlands. I filled my camera with images, too many to show all of them on this blog.

Bright sun, blue waters and woods full of colorful birds and flowers made for a beautiful walk.

By 2:00pm, we were exiting the woods. As we got near the road, Abbey surprised us all as she saw the car, then turned around and ran back into the woods crying. We quickly soothed her with promises of pizza and Phish Food.

The company was good, the weather cooperative, and Abbey successfully completed her first backpacking trip. It was a good walk and has filled my mind with memories.

Trail Work

Today we lead another trail crew up in Newaygo County to continue working on what is now known as the Birch Grove Trail. While Tom and Larry sawed through some huge fallen cottonwoods and mowed a section to be built in the coming weeks, another eight of us built a nice stretch of sidehill bench.

It was a beautiful day in the woods. Sun, blue sky, and warm, late spring temps.

We'll be celebrating the opening of the Birch Grove Trail at National Trails Day on Saturday, June 2.

Unique Garden

Here's the most unique garden I've come across in a while. I tripped across the Garden Barge on the WorldChanging website in a link to a New York Times article about the floating garden.

The recycled old barge (there are plenty of those floating around the Hudson River!) has been retrofitted with solar panels, wind turbines, greenhouses and hydroponic growing medium. It's a cornucopia of cool, high-tech ideas that explore the concept of sustainability.

The project is organized by the well connected and well-funded New York Sun Works.

Now I'm not completely sold on all of the gimmicks on the barge truly being sustainable over the long haul, but it's interesting to see boundaries being pushed.

For another, perhaps more realistic, look at sustainable gardening, check out the work of Ecology Action. This might work better for those of us who don't have access to a barge and a million dollars.

Time to Eat

The garden at home is in full swing with early crops. The lettuce is just beautiful this year.

Earlier this week, we picked our first lettuce and some early chard. Tomorrow we will also be picking spinach (middle of this picture below, taken two days ago), and the broccoli raab is not far behind.

I have been having a slight problem with some invisible, nocturnal pest. It seems like this pest is most fond of seedlings before their true leaves sprout, so often the plants recover. But he or she seems to also really like broccoli raab and kale that is larger. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem very fond of lettuce or spinach.

I set out slug traps, but they only proved to be a waste of perfectly good beer.

After posting this, I'll be going out to the garden to take another look for the culprit. I'll let you know if I find anything.

Spring Wildflowers

Julie, Abbey and I got out into the woods both yesterday and today. The extreme cold and extreme warm weather earlier this spring has lots of wildflowers blooming at the same time right now in Kent County.

Yesterday we stopped by the Rogue River State Game Area in the late afternoon and I took this picture of a dwarf ginseng, trillium grandiflorum, and the peeking peeper.

Today we took a short walk with some folks from church at Blandford Nature Center. There I snapped the pictures of the Jack in the pulpit and the woodland phlox.

If you live in west Michigan and like to take in the spring wildflowers, get out there quick!

I See Some Work on the Horizon

I stopped by Perkins earlier this afternoon to water some seedlings and was surprised to find that the entire plot had been tilled! Just breaking up the heavy soil at Perkins on a sunny weekend has resulted in a much drier garden.

But it will be a week at least yet before I can start getting things planted out there. We plan to till the garden a second time in about a week so that the soil is more workable for planting. If it stays dry, we may be able to plant before the projected date of May 18. I sure wouldn't mind getting some early corn in.

Last week, I planted some lettuces, spinach, broccoli raab and chard, and all are coming up except the chard. I hope to put in some snow peas at Perkins this week.

A Hard Day's Work

More species tulips are blooming in the garden now that we're back to spring. If you've never grown species tulips, you really should give them a try. They are much more satisfying than the big hybrids.

Species tulips will multiply and naturalize on their own, and come back beautifully year after year. They are little trouble and always give a good show.

One really nice thing about them is that they really catch the eye of people passing by. Like this little pink tulip, which always gets comments from visitors who are used to seeing the same old hybrids again and again.

So far I have five different varieties, one of which has yet to bloom this spring.

But the tulips aren't the only ones up. The peas and favas all sprouted this week. Carrots, radishes and various greens are all on their way too.

Early this afternoon, Abbey helped me plant bush beans and chard. I planted the mustard, as the seeds are far too small for little hands. I also planted some early basil in the cold frame, more cilantro, and some arugula seed that a woman shared that came directly from her father's garden in Italy.

After getting some of the beds at home dressed up, we all went out to Perkins to work on getting some more of the fence put up. During last weekend's work party, we sank more than a dozen posts and got a lot of things ready, but we still have to fence in the early spring beds.

It was a beautiful day for working in the garden... and also a good day for goofing of in a wheelbarrow. But Abbey didn't just goof off, she also explored the main garden with her mom and found some herbs struggling to grow in an abandoned plot from last year. They found some thyme, sage, parsley and one other unknown herb that I'll have to identify after it grows a bit.

After getting some of the fencing done, I double dug a section of the garden and put in two 4'x4' raised bed frames that were also abandoned last year. I filled the frames with a mix of vermiculite, compost and garden soil, then planted them with Allstar lettuce mix, Nancy buttercrunch lettuce, Space spinach, Bright Lights chard and broccoli raab.

We got done a little late, but here's a picture of Julie and Abbey surveying a hard day's work and hoping for a little rain.

Green Things

With the white stuff from last week gone, the green stuff is starting to perk up again and get serious about growing. The peas I planted three weeks ago are still pretty dormant (only an few have attempted to sprout) and the favas and carrots haven't done a thing. But I guess with temps in the 20's and 30's for most of the first week and a half, it's no surprise.

But this broccoli raab is getting serious about sprouting, as is the leaf lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce and spinach. The garlic is on the rebound too. The forecast for the next few days is calling for sun and more warm temps, so the bare beds of soil should really begin looking more like vegetable gardens soon.

Inside the gold frame, things are even happier. As I tend to the plants in there, I get to wondering what the sprouts talked about for the three or four days they were snuggled in the cold frame under a couple of inches of snow. Enough light must have filtered through to keep photosynthesis happening.

After last year's bumper crop of chard, I'm not sure why I planted more this year. Perhaps it was because I really wanted to see the beautiful mixed colors of this Bright Lights variety.

Leaf lettuce is also good for cold framing. This short row will be ready for trimming for baby greens by next weekend. Without the cold frame, I was harvesting my first greens around Memorial Day. This year they'll be consumed before April is over.

Outside the cold frame, the species tulips and early daffodils really took a hit from being under the snow for so long. But I have some miniature narcissus that took it all in stride and began popping open yesterday.

Big THREE!

Like in each of the three years preceding, Abbey's birthday came as Michigan moved firmly into spring. The snows of last week are gone, it's warm enough to sleep with the windows open a bit, and the grass is turning bright green again.

The years continue to march on and Abigail is growing incredibly quickly right before our eyes.

For her birthday, we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Meatballs have become her favorite food--in a house that doesn't buy meat, no less. So don't tell her that the "meat" balls were made of mushrooms and soy.

After dinner, we went to her Grandma Barb and Grandpa Jack's for a party with two of her three-year-oldish friends. She asked for french bread and cheese for her party, so we spread that out along with strawberries, bananas and raspberries. Of course, Grandma found some melting chocolate for dipping.

Tao Te Ching

Browsing through Schuler Books the other day I came across a translation of the Tao Te Ching by one of my favorite translators of Chinese poetry, David Hinton. Mr. Hinton is a well regarded sinologist, which makes his translations of ancient Chinese texts stand out above many of the rest. Even his poetry translations, in my opinion, are better than poets like Pound, Rexroth, Snyder and Williams--all of whom studied Chinese and translated Chinese poetry.

Here's a poem from the Tao Te Ching as translated by Mr. Hinton.

Forcing it fuller and fuller
can't compare to just enough,
and honed sharper and sharper
means it won't keep for long.

Once it's full of jade and gold
your house will never be safe.
Proud of wealth and renown
you bring on your own ruin.

Just do what you do, and then leave:
such is the Way of heaven.
(9)

Hinton provides some helpful notes, key terms and introductory comments with his edition. In reading this poem, it is helpful to understand that "the Way" (Tao) can be conceived as the "generative ontological process through which all things arise and pass away." In the case of Lao Tzu (who is credited with writing the Tao Te Ching), "heaven" is a much more secular concept than in the Abrahamic faiths. A better understanding of the use of the word in this case would be a "natural process: the constant unfolding of things in the cosmological process."

In writing the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu is, among other thing, reacting to the Shang and Chou dynasties' appropriation of paleolithic Chinese concepts of God and heaven for the purpose of consolidating political and social power. That makes this an interesting read in today's world where global figures conveniently mix politics and ancient faiths.

Indoor Gardening

Our foretaste of spring flew the coop midweek last week and we returned to winter, complete with wind, subfreezing temperatures, and snow. While the cold frame has stayed above freezing inside thanks to the thermal mass and organic activity of the live soil, the rest of the garden is on hold.

To keep seedlings moving along, I took inside the flat of cold-weather crops I was starting in the cold frame.

• Seeds of Change Red Drumhead cabbage (2006 seed)
• Johnny's Early Green Lynx cabbage
• Pinetree Cheddar cauliflower (2006 seed)
• Pinetree Nutri-Bud broccoli (2006 seed)
• Johnny's De Cicco broccoli

A trick I have learned in our cold house is to put the flats of seeds in the oven with the light bulb on to sprout the seeds. The oven light raises the temperature inside the oven 5-10º over the air inside the house.

Now the seedlings are sitting in a south-facing window sill in a cool, upstairs room (yes, that is snow outside). The forecast calls for warmer temperatures this week, so they should be moving back to the cold frame by midweek.

Of note to Grand Rapids gardeners is my discovery of Growco Indoor Garden Supply, a supplier of hydroponic growing supplies in Grand Rapids. They have a great selection of organic controls, nutrients and growing medium, including great, fortified soil for seed starting. And as you might suspect of one who peddles in grow lights, hydroponics and the like, their main entry door is around back of the building and mail order is sent in plain, unmarked envelopes. For interested locals, they are located on the south side of Michigan Street, across from Rylee's Ace Hardware, just west of Fuller Ave. To the serious organic gardener, their products far exceed what is available from the big box guys and other garden supply stores.