When it all starts coming together

It has been a while since I posted and there has been a lot happening in terms of the garden and life in general. My garden is finally getting to my favourite stage (funnily enough – it isn’t the fruit-bearing stage) which is where all the plants start to get big enough for me to sit back and think, “hey, this actually might work”.

The wood ash seemed to do the trick and kept the tomato worms off the tomato plants. Unfortunately I lost quite a few of these to insects, however I just kept and dried out the seeds so that I can replant them next year – not totally wasted! The other tomato species (I’ve actually forgotten what I planted BUT I think we’ve got: Roma, Yellow Pea and Grosse Lisse) are doing quite well and beginning to ripen. The fun part is that I can actually use them in the kitchen now.

The corn I planted is looking rather magnificent (aka: it’s pretty tall) and will hopefully start food production soon, I’ve staggered this so that we’ve got some corn plants that are about 4 weeks behind. I’ll admit that most of my gardening ideas/tricks have come from the internet – in this case it suggested this so that there would be more corn for longer. The internet definitely has some handy hints and has played quite a large role in the improvement of my ‘organic’ gardening skills.

I’ve dabbled with companion planting rather than using any chemicals on the garden and that seems to be working. The Marigold’s are keeping insects off the tomatoes and the beans and corn are doing … whatever it is that makes them companions.

There is definitely something satisfying about the arduous task of maintaining a garden. It opens my eyes to the effort required to produce crops on a large scale and indeed makes me more empathetic to the plight of farmers who are failing to sell their product at high enough prices. If this was my livelihood I don’t know whether I could sustain it. Luckily, it is not a money making venture for me.

 

Garden

Lady-birds are helping to keep the insects at bay

Apricots used in marinade and jam

Companion planting corn & beans

Rosemary grown with honey as the root agent

An assortment of tomatoes collected from the garden,

 

P.S: The sprinklers in the images are set to a timer, they’ll only run for 20min using ground-water. Summer isn’t being too kind to the plants but I believe they are beginning to adapt, I’ve been watering them less than most people I think.

What prevents sustainability?

I have done a lot of thinking about sustainability recently, perhaps due to the occurrence of the new year and the subsequent ‘resolution’ posts that appear on social media. What prevents individuals from following through on their resolution to ‘be more sustainable’ or ‘create less waste’?

Conceptually, these are quite simple things to achieve. Step 1: think about your consumption and where you can minimise waste, Step 2: Purchase more responsibly, buy in bulk and recycle, Step 3: Repeat. This is, of course, an oversimplification of a much more substantial process but the overwhelming point is, the application of a sustainable lifestyle is often not maintained. Why?

There is of course the initial expense – buying solar panels, purchasing bulk ingredients/storage equipment, planting/maintaining a garden etc. However, these costs are generally no more expensive than maintaining a consumptive lifestyle and indeed, often become far less as time progresses.

There is also the time and effort involved in learning how to be sustainable, how to find alternative uses for things, researching and everything that goes along with it. If a person is truly passionate about becoming sustainable or maintaining sustainability then this investment of time is inconsequential – you do what you love. It is when you haven’t yet learned to love it that the time becomes a problem.

I am going to do a bit more research on this subject – “What prevents sustainability” and potentially circulate a survey around my home town. This is the crux of the matter, if we can get individuals to sustain their positive change then we can make an impact on society as a whole.

I’d be interested to hear opinions on what prevents individuals from making sustainable change. Only through knowing what the roadblocks are can we hope to overcome them.

Using wood-ash in the garden

In Australia, it is currently summer (rather obvious to those who’re here, but it’s important to point this out). I am in the process of growing tomatoes and they are very nearly ripening but are being attacked by all manner of small insects. Now, typically I don’t mind insects and prefer a rather small-scale version of biological control (read: letting the Ladybirds and insectivorous birds do their thing) to applying pesticides. I’m not overly bothered by holes in silver beet leaves, or a few chew marks on my lettuce. Despite this, the ravaging of my tomato plants is becoming concerning and I’ve heard interesting anecdotes about using wood-ash as an insect deterrent and thought I would give it a try.

Essentially, the idea is that wood-ash contains calcium, potassium, magnesium and a bunch of other trace elements that gardens (in general) love. In terms of insects, it is typically applied on the soil in a ring around the plant to deter snails and slugs. Now, I don’t have a snail and slug problem – but I’ve noted this for future use. Instead I sprinkled wood-ash over the leaves and fruits of the tomato plants to deter flying insects. Wood-ash deters insects by drawing the moisture from their bodies. The ash loses any deterrent properties when it gets wet (hence the importance of summer).

Whilst researching this, I found some other anecdotal information about the benefits that wood ash can have on the garden. These are things that I will try out as it not only provides an organic/non-chemical alternative to pesticides but it also requires me to buy less, and recycle wood-ash that would otherwise have no use. The uses for wood-ash include; enhancing compost, algae deterrent adding essential elements to the soils and as a fertiliser (although I think the latter can remain anecdotal for now).

I will note the effectiveness of these methods and, if successful, will build a storage container that I can put wood-ash in over winter to use on the garden in spring and summer.

Solace in gardening

For the last 5 years of my life, up until recently, I have lived in small houses in the suburbs of Melbourne. These have ranged from 2-bedroom apartments in multi-apartment complexes, to stand-alone townhouses with a small backyard. Regardless of what the style of living is, one thing remains the same in that I have always managed to plant something of a garden. Not only does this reduce my environmental impact by buying less produce, and having less waste (i.e by composting all food scraps and using this for mulch/fertiliser) but it also has become a pass-time that relaxes and gives me a sense of peace.

There is wellbeing inherent in maintaining a garden. There are many possible reasons for this, particularly that being outside creates peace and healthfulness that is not replicable by indoor activities. The sceptics among us (myself included) may also argue a human need for control over something in order to sustain an internal balance. Maintaining control or order, even in a small way, can bring peace to an otherwise discordant lifestyle. This doesn’t need to be a negative thing and indeed with gardening can have many positive outcomes that extend beyond the self. I realised this when I lived in the bustling city of Melbourne, for there is often little time to relax when there is so much activity around you. Gardening forces a slower pace in which to stop, appreciate your surroundings, and reset.

Gardening has shown numerous positive benefits on dietary knowledge, consumption of fruits and vegetables, environmental awareness and social relationships (particularly in the case of community gardens). There are scientific reviews and reports that document this, but I think anybody who has spent an amount of time in a garden can tell you that the positive impact on mental health is perceptible. It’s important to note here, that I am not talking about improvement of mental illness, but of mental health or mental happiness. This relates to, emotional wellbeing, satisfaction and increasing social capital.

In my current garden, I am also trying to increase my positive environmental impact by using no chemicals or pesticides and recycling materials I find around the farm. This means I am also trying my hand at companion planting. That is, using plants that have symbiotic traits that discourage pests or disease (such as tomatoes and merrigolds). I’ll detail my success and failure later in the blog. I’ve included some images of my garden in it’s current stage and will elaborate on certain aspects of it in later posts. The take home message from this post is: try to maintain a small garden, it’s quite simple and the mental and social benefit far outweighs the effort you’ll put in.

Mandarin tree

Celery with recycled PVC pipes

Thyme

Roma tomatoes

Corn

 

References:

Carrie Draper & Darcy Freedman (2010) Review and Analysis of the Benefits, Purposes, and Motivations Associated with Community Gardening in the United States, Journal of Community Practice, 18:4, 458-492, DOI: 10.1080/10705422.2010.519682

Seabin: Cleaning the oceans one marina at a time

There are several reasons why I decided to support this campaign, but I must admit that most of them originate from the fact that I grew up – and spent most of my childhood, by the ocean. Living in a town that relies heavily on the summer tourism industry, and the port and harbour for income, I have seen the damage and pollution that these things inevitably cause. However, it isn’t practical to stop these things from occurring – so we must try to mitigate the damage.

Enter the Seabin, a product developed by some ex-surfers in Perth, Western Australia. The concept behind it is startlingly simple: filter water and debris through a natural fibre ‘catch bag’, the debris and oils get trapped and the clean water is released. A single Seabin works 24/7 and simply needs the catch bag to be removed and emptied when full.

I love this initiative and it is a very clever solution to a problem that is much larger. The small-scale nature of these items means that they can be installed at even the smallest of marinas and still have a considerable impact.

The Indiegogo campaign can be found here: Seabin: Cleaning the oceans one marina at a time

More information can be found on the website: Seabin project