Gas station gardens

For some time now I've noticed a trend of gas station attendants creating food gardens.  

Swoon.

It's not widespread.  Plenty of gas stations are landscaped with strictly ornamentals.  I took a quick drive this morning to pass by several of the veggie gardens I've noticed in recent years.  I pulled over, in the first instance got gas, spoke to the gardeners, and with their permission took some photos.

Exhibit A.  My new friend is Nepalese and planted these squash and cucumbers.  Obviously, his patch is highly productive, but adjoining a major highway-- not to mention the nearby pumps.  He shared that this is a long-term practice he's carried in his global migration.  Seeing these resourceful beds reminded me of Vietnam.  Especially in and around Hanoi, I saw people garden everything.  Literally.  Food growing on highway median strips, out of cut milk containers on balconies, in old cups on steps.  I had never seen such persistent food growers and greatly respect the inclination to tend plants.

By the pumps, this gas station gardener had tomatoes, marigolds, and even some roses growing in large containers.  This brings me to my concern: is there potential contamination to the food?  What is the soil like in and around a gas station?  How does the air quality affect the plants?

Secondly, if there is contamination, given the issues with so much of our store-bought produce, is this still worthwhile given the risk?

I reached out to the wise interwebs.  A few friends said that strict environmental regulations usually mean that the soil is safe from gas, however, they worried about lead contamination from paint and from the massive amounts of car exhaust.

I headed to another gas station garden.  This gardener told me he emigrated from north India.  He said that he too gardened this way at home.  He had set up a bed behind his gas station, adjoining a neighboring business.

I could tell that the garden, on a raised bed, was highly productive.  So what about those lead contamination concerns?

On the one hand, I really respect these gardener's inclinations.  Many of these workers are on site more than 80 hours a week.  I respect that they use some of that time to also grow food.  Plus, gas stations are inevitably an environmental blight.  Plants are often the most powerful forces to clean soil and air.

I just wasn't sure about these plants...  I turned to Kevin & my internet crushes at Root Simple.  After sending away soil samples, it seems that the Root Simple gardeners may be dealing with some lead contamination, likely from paint in the 1950s.  They researched ways to safely grow.  The first suggestion is raised beds!  Go gardener #2!  The most labor intensive method is simply hauling up the contaminated soil and replacing it with new, safe soil.  However, each of these gas stations would likely be re-contaminated given their locations and services.

Phytoremediation, or introducing plants that pull lead out of soil, is another fantastic solution.  Guess what plant does that well?  Sunflowers!

 Gas station #3.  This Nepalese attendant lined his station with sunflowers.  Smart gardener.

From the interwebs, our friend Mike shared his thoughts:  "I definitely love... to think that we can reclaim and transform all these 'damaged' spaces with vibrant and potentially edible spaces-- but the reality is that the soil/plant uptake of certain chemicals is definitely a real concern...  Arsenic or lead and some other heavy metals of VOCs and dioxins are unfortunately a whole lot  "stronger" than... plants like a tomato [in terms of] cleansing soil.  Underground storage tanks leak often, things spill, and stuff like lead has a significant half life with its neuro toxicity, [meaning it] hangs around a long time... In certain areas, the toxicity downsides outweigh the benefit of some local produce.  That being said, you can improve the health of a location aesthetically by planting non-edibles."

I would certainly love to see fewer gas stations and healthier job opportunities for my new gardener friends.  In the immediate future, I love their resourcefulness and will continue to watch their gardens grow.  I'd love to become better versed in plants that beautify toxic sites.  If any readers have research or links to sites that have experienced renewed health thanks to plant-life, or a combination of efforts, please share in the comments section.  Plants are powerful-- to the imagination and to the physical world.

Shout out to local business! MOORE BROS. rocks our world!

We have happily found a source for wine bottles to frame our raised beds as well as those of clients.  Moore Bros Wine has been so generous & kind in storing wine bottles for us post-tastings.  I unloaded a few hundred in my basement just this morning.  Rooted may need a wine bottle shed soon... the landscaping take on a wine cellar.

Small business collaboration!  Re-purposing!  Artful design!  Exclamatory statements!

Avant Garden Updates

Here's an aerial shot of Avant Garden geometry.  Corn & sunflower beds to the right, with climbing zucchini building ground cover.  To the left, plenty of annuals like tomatoes, peppers, & cucumbers.  Some lettuces in the shade of cucumbers, & herbs like rosemary, basil, & chives.  Further back find berries & fruit trees.

Borage blossoms.  This herb enhances tomato flavor.  The blossoms are also edible.  They taste kind of like cucumber & marshmallow.

Spaghetti squash!  It is efficiently establishing this hugelkultur bed.

This hugelkultur bed is growing a small army of carrots.  We thin, thin, & thin again.  Baby carrots are adorable!

One of my favorite plants: lavender.  It loves full sun, well-drained soil, other friendly lavender nearby, & herbs.  It attracts butterflies & bees & generally smells fantastic.  Throughout the season I create sachets & spike-filled vases.

Potato plants leafing!

And an organic potato farm on our friend, Calyb's arm.

What makes it all grow.  Courtesy of our buddy, Yvonne.

Stay well-watered!

Hugelkultur

At the Rooted Landscaping home garden, we had a lot of wood.  Last year we had to fell several trees that risked falling onto our neighbor's homes.  We hate to fell trees, but sometimes it has to be done.  We now had fresh wood as well as rotting wood from previous seasons.  

We chopped a fair amount for cords of firewood.  We elected to use longer logs to frame out raised beds.  This way we don't have to toil for years digging roots & rocks out of the soil.  We can allow for natural decomposition while we grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs easily in raised beds.  

Our friend Eric mentioned that he'd been playing with a German permaculture technique of hugelkultur.  Rotted wood is piled in a berm shape (though I have seen creative half circles and spirals created).  Organic material, like straw and leaves, is added on top of the rotting wood.  Then you pile and pack loose composted soil to finish the berm.  At this point, the bed is ready for planting.

The obvious benefits are making use of organic matter.  Also, as the wood breaks down it creates a natural heat, which will lengthen growing seasons for plants that like warm feet.  Some gardeners are able to extend growing seasons for crops like cucumbers.  

Deficits are nitrogen deficiencies.  Rotting wood likes to suck it up.  For this reason we've planted peas in a lot of our hugelkultur beds as they do a good job at fixing nitrogen levels.  We may have to add organic fertilizers.

Another problem is erosion.  There's little to hold in the soil.  Traditional row planting is a challenge as the new soil is loose.  For this reason, I got experimental again.  I tried another permaculture technique of choosing seeds of varying germination rates that produced companionable plants.  I spread the seeds evenly across the beds and covered in compost.  I lightly and consistently watered.  Early on, there was some run-off and erosion.  However, as the plants are taking root erosion is no longer a problem.  It's still a work in progress, but I think that in future seasons these beds will be well-established and easy to plant.

To combat erosion, some gardeners dig a trench & layer the hugelkultur bed within.  The trench method is also a good choice when planting potatoes or root crops.  Obviously, trench digging is labor intensive, but so is thinning.  Pick your poison!

This bed has fava beans (good little nitrogen fixers!), kale, chard, carrots, and spinach.  The down-side of the permaculture "raking" planting technique is that there will be labor-intensive thinning!  As the baby plants have come in I've been diligent about giving them breathing room to establish healthy root systems.  This will be an on-going practice as the plants mature.

Fun side note: my friend Ally helped me thin.  She kept snacking on the baby seedlings.  Yum!  My friend, Sonora said that she often adds thinned seedlings as salad garnishes-- the first harvest!

One of the most successful hugelkultur beds is planted with only spaghetti squash.  Like most squashes, spaghetti squash loves to vine and wander.  I figured the vining & rooting might help to better establish the bed.  Looks like that hunch is playing out!  Right now there are only a few leaves visible at the bed surface, but already water is absorbed right into the well-formed bed.  The root system seems to be establishing the bed well!

Our hugelkultur beds, like all our projects, are a work in progress.  We're still learning the benefits & deficits of this approach.  It's so fun to let your home become creative and dynamic art.  To keep your hand print in it all.

Full bellies from the Rooted Landscaping home garden

Here's a sample of what's cooking in the Rooted Landscaping home garden.  In the photo below you see blueberry hill extending along the length of the fence.  In the foreground, against the fence, we've planted two rhubarbs.  Apparently they like buddies.  We planted bare root bulbs where they'll get plenty of sun & have enough room to expand and grow.  We probably won't get much of a harvest for two years.

I'm not a big rhubarb eater, but I do have substantial rhubarb aesthetic appreciation.  These are big focal points in a garden.  They have beautiful color & become fairly low-maintenance once established.  I like to integrate rhubarb into landscape designs for the sheer color and shape.  Edible plants are often lovely.  

Outside of the photo but around where the photographer stood is the little baby persimmon tree.  Given the orientation of the yard, as the tree goes its shade should fall downhill, where we plan a little yoga space (!) & leave the adjacent plants in full sun.

The trench slightly down hill from the rhubarb is now housing asparagus roots.  As the spears begin to poke up we'll slowly add more soil until the bed is level with the grade of the hill.  This plant is also fairly low maintenance.  Most asparagus patches have a life-span of 10-12 years.  We'd like to extend the patch in 5 years to create a nice on-going cycle of asparagus.

Oh, glowing corn.  In the foreground is a raised bed reserved for our friend, Sonora.  We've lured her with land so we get the added benefit of her insight into our growing garden.  See that goofy business with old fence doors & posts behind?  A jerry-rigged cucumber trellis to shade some lettuces.  Give it time.  I have faith.

The rows of logs & soil beyond now house corn seeds & soaker hoses.  There are four rows so that we could interplant corn & sunflowers in diamond patterns.  This is reccommended for corn growth.  They like small hills for water drainage. Given our surplus of logs we decided to hold in the arable soil for the corn with these logs.  It helps direct the water down hill and away from the base of the stalks.  So far so good.

Once we have about three inches of corn stalks we plan to plant the three sisters: squash to crawl over the ground & create a weed barrier, and beans to climb the corn stalks & fix the soil nitrogen.

This little raised bed is showing some life.  We planted the sweet peas & chard early.  They're said to be nice companion plants & provide an early harvest.  There's a big ole chard leaf coming in against the warmth of the log border.  There are more peas planted in other parts of the yard with natural trellising.

Early yields of onions and red cabbage.  We're waiting for the onion leaves to fall over to begin harvesting, drying, & curing the crop.

More food & fun to come!  Yum!

To all you lushes out there...

We need your help.

And your empty wine bottles.

You get the idea.  The post is one of our clotheslines.  I've planted this raised bed with sweet peas that we're hoping to train up the post.

We're beginning to run out of felled logs to frame out raised beds.  For several beds, especially those with undulating edges, we're using buried wine bottles to hold in the soil.  In the area surrounding this bed we're hoping to plant something nice & soil-amending, maybe vetch, maybe clover because the neighboring grape vines are said to like it.

The first time we saw buried wine bottles was at Aaculaax, during a trip to Guatemala.  If you want to see the inspiration in person, check out the yoga retreat I'm leading there next year!

We had collected crates of empty wine bottles from family vacations.  We used them all.  Do you have wine bottles you would donate?  Contact me to coordinate pick-up.  Blue bottles are best!

Food Forest. It's happening.

Kevin & I are slowly transforming our suburban home into a small farm.  Or, we're working towards sustainability, both in terms of sound environmental stewardship & being rewarded with food from our land.  Our home & property are fixer upper's so there have been long periods of preparation.  We look forward to having the space more self-sufficient.  Maybe that's a pipe dream.  Maybe we look forward to just maintenance work.

We called in some friends & spent a cool, sunny day installing some delicious new fruit trees, bushes, & vines!  In the space between our clothes-lines & our neighbor's garage, we built raised beds for conchord grapes & a fig tree.  The garage will give some nice wind barrier for the fig.  We plan to construct a trellis out of bicycle rims about a foot from the neighbor's garage.  That will give the conchords something to climb.  For fun, I planted sweet peas at the base of the clothesline posts.  My hope is to train them up the posts.  We'll see if it works!

Our backyard is full of roots & rocks.  We've been sheet mulching the yard even while we plant food in raised beds.  The raised beds allow us to grow vegetables to keep us encouraged!  It would be years before the soil was sufficiently root free & healthy enough to give us much of a food yield.  This way we can slowly support the soil while getting the quicker rewards of raised bed gardening.

After clearing the weeds we added some weed barrier.  Cardboard works great!  It's water permeable & will break down within a season or two.  This first growing season, when weed prevention is crucial, it will function just fine!

We added composted soil on top, planted the conchords & fig, & ran soaker hoses to give the new guys a long drink.

We went through the same process across the yard along our neighbor's fence.  We're calling this area "blueberry hill."  After prepping and building beds we planted 10 new blueberry bushes & transplanted two existing bushes that were struggling in a shady area of the yard.

 Lots of sun & drainage on blueberry hill!  Perfect.

At the far end we planted a persimmmon tree.  When it reaches full size at 15-20 ft it's shade radius shouldn't interfere with the blueberries getting lots of sunshine.

 A close-up of one of our new arrivals.  We planted a variety of blueberries for nice cross pollination.

We also planted two hugelkultur beds of raspberries & blackberries.  There was much debate about where to create the berry bramble.  We worked with what we have & created two thickets in front of four new fruit trees.  We planted two varieties of apple tree that cross-pollinate well, a black cherry, and peach tree.

Lots of fun talk of what to plant next & where.  Kevin made home-made pizza for the workers.  We happily soaked in sun before getting back to work!

Stay posted as these new additions take root.

Burying Debt

I fantasize about taking my television or laptop into the backyard and shooting it. I resent the time I've wasted on mindless browsing and watching, and I crave the catharsis that destroying TVs and computers might bring. Today, I did something with similar symbolic implications. I buried my credit card statements, my mortgage statements and other papers indebting thousands of hours of my life to institutions that I have no power over. Many of those documents are now providing a weed barrier for the new raised beds I installed over the winter. Though this action was purely symbolic, though in fact the bank still owns 75% of our house, and I owe Visa nearly a thousand hours of my labor, this small action felt really, really good.

Over the winter Maiga and I were cleaning out our filing cabinets. At the end of the day we had a large brown bag filled with documents we no longer needed. These documents had lots of personal financial information, so we didn't want to throw them away, but we didn't want to take the time to shred them. I put them in the basement and figured I'd throw them into a campfire this summer. 

Today as I was gathering up cardboard to act as weed barrier in the raised beds, I noticed the heaping pile of papers. As I threw rich, black composted soil over the bills I felt incredible. Here's to planting seeds of independence and interdependence, to putting our bills to better use, to shooting our televisions, and to designing the lives we want to live!

(This post was written on 3/16 for later publication.)