Two gardens, one poking along, the other an explosion of growth. I have two garden spaces, my backyard and a shared plot at a community garden. I recently came into the space at the community garden (you can read more about that here), and this is my first summer season in this new spot. The winter/spring garden there never really took off. It was really too late to plant much. The up and coming summer garden is another story completely. Now that the days and evenings are steadily warmer the plants at the community garden seem to double in size every few days. There are a couple of bare patches, but I am reluctant to fill them with anything. I am seriously afraid we are going to grow right outside our allotted space.

I garden this plot with another family and in it we have one hill of zucchini, about seven cucumber vines, four eggplants, four pepper plants, a row of soup beans, a couple of melons, a couple of winter squash vines, a few strawberries, the remainder of a row of carrots, and a whopping twenty-one tomato plants. We are already harvesting zucchini, a few of the tomato plants have green tomatoes, and the cucumbers and winter squash are setting their first fruit. This little space is proving to be extremely bountiful.

The garden beds in my backyard are a different story. A lot of it was planted before the stuff in the community garden and is still fairly small, and a lot less lush. Take for example the zucchini plants. The one below is at the community plot.

These are the ones in my backyard (lower right).

I have been feeling a little bummed about the pokiness of my backyard beds and have been thinking a lot about what could be making the community garden plot so different. At first I wondered if there were some residual synthetic fertilizers in the soil left from earlier occupants of the space, but the family I have been sharing the space with has had the spot for a few years and has not applied synthetic fertilizers. It is likely that if they were used before they have long been disolved.

So the other factors would be soil fertility, water, and sun. I have good soil in my yard, so it has to be sun and water. And, in the end, I think it is the difference in the hours of sunlight. At the community garden the space gets full sun pretty much from sun up to sundown. My backyard spaces are maybe getting six hours. Growing trees on the edges of our property and in our neighbor’s property are eating into the time the beds receive sunlight. This is a growing problem (no pun intended).

So, I need to come up with a solution or be okay with a slow-growing garden. I could relocate the beds, and I would happily do so if I knew we were going to stay put in this house indefinitely. The prospect of tearing up the little lawn we have in the back and rerouting the irrigation is a little daunting when we hope to sell and move sometime in the next five years. That is a kind of project I would be perfectly willing to do in a more permanent location.

So, I think I have to learn to be okay with a slow garden and grateful for the fast one. I have also put my name on the waiting list to get my own plot at the community garden.

My back patio is a place we use a lot. When the weather is nice (which is most of year) it becomes an extension of our small house. We work, dine, play, entertain, relax, and were even married out there. The patio and the rest of the backyard is one of the main reasons we bought the house we live in.

The above shot is looking straight back from our patio. The south edge of our property is shaded by a California Live Oak. Just in front of it is our little orchard, one each of an apricot, plum, nectarine, and lemon tree. We have artichokes, irises and a sandbox back there as well. Coming up the west side of the lawn we have drought tolerant plants: Agapanthus, irises, golden poppies, and a few others. They all bloom throughout the spring and early summer.

Turning west you run into our garage. The wall is trellised for grapes, although they have a bad case of powdery mildew that I haven’t had time to mitigate. The vines have been there for three years and we haven’t enjoyed one grape. Along the edge of our patio I am growing tomatoes this year and they seem to be liking the new spot very much!

Swinging around north you see the back stoop coming off our kitchen. It is usually littered with things needing to be returned inside. Certain times of the year our kitchen trash can lives out there because we can’t keep the ants out of it. We’d rather them enjoy their trash outside than inside.

This is the eastern edge of our patio, just a short distance from the paving stones to the fence. I have a couple of raised beds here that are trellised for beans, squash, peas, and cucumbers. You can see a peak of the San Gabriel Mountains just over the top of the fence.

Looking down the easter side of the yard, you find more raised garden beds and a path that leads to a nice bench that we never sit in. We have put a lot of work into our backyard, more than the inside of the house. We have built garden beds, laid down tons of mulch, hacked and trimmed and hacked some more (we have a fence full of ivy behind the garage). If I am being completely honest our yard is often littered with sand buckets, small plastic animals, balls, children’s shoes kicked off in mid play, gardening tools, the hose strewn about rarely coiled into its place. It is kind of “shaggy” and overgrown, and we love it!

Right now, today, there are people marching all over the world. Marching to change our food system. As I drove to the farmers’ market this morning, I was a little remiss about not being able to attend the march in downtown Los Angeles, but then got realistic about taking both my little ones on the train ride down there, walking many more blocks than my 5-year-old could endure, and then coming home, possibly having to walk back to where we started to pick up the train again, all on my own. These could be seen as excuses, I guess, but in the this long haul of healing our food system, self-preservation is important.

(If you are wondering why people care so much about opposing Monsanto and GMOs, check out this post by Stacey at Slow Foods Mama. She gives a very good and thorough overview of GMOs and the big business behind them).

Marches are important, so important. They grab media attention, inspire people, create momentum, and hopefully make enough noise to get some people, who may have not been listening before, to notice. Thinking about the march this morning I was taken back to another march I participated in that did all these things. Being a part of the 1999 WTO protest in Seattle, Washington was one of those moments that was transformative for me, and for so many others.

My friends and I woke up before dawn the morning of the first day of the WTO conference and marched downtown from Capitol Hill. I will never forget the feeling of hope and empowerment that filled me when we turned the corner onto 4th street and gazed down over a sea of people. The day was very young and there were already thousands upon thousands of people in the streets with every intersection locked down. What transpired that day, the creativity and organization of the day’s actions, the brutality of the Seattle police force, the enduring perseverance of the activists showed me the scope of what is possible for change (both good and bad).

I first learned about GMOs and Monsanto in the months and days leading up to the WTO protests. At the time, I lived in Olympia, just an hour’s drive from Seattle. The lead up to November 30 was a buzz of teach-ins, organizing for the marches and direct action, street theater performances, trainings, etc.

So, today, there is a march to protest Monsanto, just one of the many facets of what people were standing up against in Seattle all those years ago. Not much has changed for Monsanto in the United States since then. They are just as powerful as ever, but the tide may finally be changing. After the Seattle WTO protests were over I remember a lot of conversations revolving around the question, “What now?” And often the answer was to keep doing the work, the quieter work: talking to people, challenging these companies and policies in other ways, getting involved in organizations who work for change every day, and even challenging the way those organizations work.

So, whether or not you marched today, keep on keepin’ on and make sure you are not supporting Monsanto with your dollars. Buy from safe seed companies. Use this list to avoid buying Monsanto owned vegetable varieties at your local nursery. Keep apprised of Monsanto’s dealings with your government. For U.S. residents see this article and this one. And then get involved with and support the alternative food system that is emerging all over the country and gaining more traction, creativity, and reach every day. And when the next march comes around, make every effort to get there.

Related articles:

Action is as Small as a Seed

Muir Ranch: A Vibrant School Farm

The Four Steps Required to Keep Monsanto OUT of Your Garden

As I sit down to write this post, my eyes dart up at the time. I have exactly 20 minutes left. Exactly 2 hours and 20 minutes ago I left my two children with a trusted babysitter. In exactly 19 minutes I have to pack up and drive home. Today is the first day of “my time,” as I have it marked in my calendar, a few hours one morning a week, every week until the end of August. This was a deliberate creation, something I needed, time to be something other than “mommy.” Time for me to get immersed in my other selves: gardener, blogger, someone who would enjoy a massage or a quiet walk all on her own. I did contemplate getting the car washed, but then decided that falls into the same category as grocery shopping and other such errands, not things that were intended for these three precious hours.

So, on this morning, I decided to dedicate some time to the plot in the community garden. I really enjoy being in the dirt, and more so when I don’t have to keep one ear and one eye on the kids. And while I love sharing my love of gardening with my kids, I also really love doing it on my own (or in the company of other gardeners if the case may be).

The call of summer is getting louder, and things still needed to be planted. So off I went with my seeds and seedlings to finish up planting the plot. While there I weeded, turned soil, harvested, sowed, planted, and watered. All the while chatting on and off with my gardening neighbors. I wanted to make sure I had time to sit down with a cappuccino and do some writing and web surfing before going home, so I forgot to take pictures. I needed both. Garden time and down time. I will have to go back and snap a few.

Being a stay at home mom is something I always dreamed about doing. Now I am doing it, but find one of the most challenging things about it is finding time for the other parts of me. Working had its own very difficult challenges, but I did get to be a teacher for several hours a day. A few hours a week will certainly not be like a full-time or even a part-time job, but they are my hours. Some weeks I may just take a book to a coffee shop, go for a walk or hike on our local trails, or buy a new pair of shoes. But, I suspect I will spend many of those morning, or parts of them, in the garden. I don’t think I can resist.

There are so many things to enjoy about gardening, but I think at the top of my list is sharing what I have grown with others. A few months ago I participated in a “talent” auction with a club I belong to. The participants donated a talent to be auctioned off in a silent auction to raise money for our local library. One person donated hand sewn items, another hand-made cookie pops made to order for your occasion, someone else a two-hour finance organizing session. The went goes on and on. When I thought about my donation, I knew it would have to be something from the garden. Growing food is one of my talents. And so, my auction contribution was three baskets filled with whatever was coming out of the garden or being preserved at the time. The winner would receive all three; one for spring, one for summer, and one for fall.

I just put together and delivered the spring basket a few days ago. As I was thinking about all that would go into it, I realized what a great pleasure it gave me to pull it together. Everything that I placed in that basket was filled with heart. The items represent something I care so much about. In the basket I included carrots, celery, artichokes, onions, arugula, Swiss chard, tomato starts, garlic and a jar of loquat jelly.

I am beginning to wonder if there is a business idea in this? Hmmm….Talk about doing something you love for “work.”