Well it finally happened that I got angry enough to say good by to being the chair of the Genesee County MG newsletter. Not that it wasn't fun to write articles; it was. I enjoyed reading magazines and choosing topics that I thought might be interesting. But in 2009 I believe I did at least 7 of the 12 months; 2010 wasn't a lot better although some new people did help out. Getting volunteers was a struggle nay a battle of wits and wills. Too many not interested; too many saying "I'll help" but then not doing it. Guess who did? In October at a meeting a passed a sign up sheet for 2011. I was doing January; 1 person signed. No way in hell was I doing the other 10. At the spring awards dinner, my name was skipped over surely no accident since it was listed. Time to move on and be like everyone else--do as little as possible.
Here are the things I did for January. All months for 2 years are available on line at the county extension site:
feature article:
The Oct/Nov 2010 issue of Organic Gardening had a feature article “Celestial Gardening” which caught my attention when I happened to see a reference to Stella Natura, a calendar/manual which I had received as a birthday gift but had only skimmed. I started reading “for real” and then checked some on line reference sites.
The article summarizes a visit to the 140 acre Threefold Farm in NY, the site recognized as the beginning of BD (biodynamics) gardening. The farm was established “in 1926 by followers of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of biodynamic agriculture, and has been cultivated that way” ever since. The author visited the Pfeiffer Center, named for Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, who spent 17 years on the land researching BD growing methods. He had run a BD farm in Holland and worked in Switzerland with the founder Steiner before coming to the US in the 1930’s. BD agriculture was born out of 8 lectures he gave in 1924 when, European farmers, concerned with the effects of chemical fertilizers on their soil and on the quality of the food they were producing, asked Steiner to help them develop the kind of farming methods that would combine a scientific understanding of the world with recognition of the spirit in nature and humanity. BD is a worldview that Steiner called anthroposophy, a modern path of human development based on clear, disciplined thinking and exact phenomenological observation. . . The farm is seen as a whole, self-sustaining, living organism that can become a solution to contemporary challenges. . . The mission statement of the Threefold Educational Foundation is “to establish, conduct, operate and maintain conferences, programs of research and adult education in all fields of human endeavor emphasizing the principles and methods enunciated by Rudolf Steiner.” (from www.threefold.org and www.pfeiffercenter.org)
Pfeiffer met J. I. Rodale and in the 30’s and 40’s they worked and did research only 2 hrs apart. Both men sought an alternative to chemical based agriculture; in fact, “Rodale funded some of Pfeiffer’s early experiments, including one in which mice fed an organic diet were found to be less irritable and have fewer digestion problems than those on conventional chemically raised feed.” Pfeiffer’s book The Earth’s Face and Human Destiny was published by Rodale in 1947 and Pfeiffer wrote articles for Rodale’s Organic Gardening magazine. (p. 40)
The Pfeiffer Center offers training programs for BD growers, weekend workshops, a program teaching local school children about gardening, and has a Researcher in Residence program. The most recent was Frank Chester, an artist, sculptor, and geometrician.
The article includes 4 ways to create a BD backyard:
1. Follow a celestial garden calendar. “The idea that the moon and stars subtly influence plant growth is a cornerstone of BD.” The Stella Natura calendar follows the moon through the constellations and suggests “optimal times to work with a plant’s roots, leaves, flowers, or fruit.” (p. 40)
2. Mist with a manure or silica preparation. The Center uses the manure spray in early spring to promote root growth and the silica later in spring and summer to help leaves take up sunlight.
3. Try BD seed.
4. Learn more—at the Pfeiffer Center of course. The Center includes the Threefold Education Center which offers programs based on the work of Steiner, the farm, and the Threefold Café serving in season garden produce. The center sounds interesting, worth even a day visit if you happen to be in the area.
My Stella Natura Working with Cosmic Rhythms calendar explains how to use the calendar and its codes, and includes an interesting article for each month. Contributors “challenge us to consider how we can change our lives to accommodate the needs of all our fellow human beings”, describe the earth seen from the moon, summarize the visibility of the planet in 2011, inform “us of the unintended effects of genetic manipulation in animals”, etc. (Editor’s letter) All are interesting and probably thought provoking since the philosophy expressed might seem unusual to many people. In many ways the calendar seems to me to be like a person plus plant horoscope. The symbols for root, leaf, flower and fruit are specified for each day so the gardener knows that the moon is present in a constellation beneficial to that specific part of the plant. (p.13) Shaded areas for the day suggest times to avoid for seed sowing, and brackets suggest when planets are in constellations that enhance that part of the plant. (It might be interesting to do a comparison of the Stella Natura and the Farmer’s Almanac too.)
gardener to gardener articles:
I’ve never participated in an online workshop until this summer. Design a Work of Art with Your Garden was offered in August by Smart Gardening Online. The speaker, Derek Fell, architect and gardener designer, was knowledgeable and interesting, and was able to cover quite a bit in his hour. I expected the info to be more on how to create an artistic garden but was pleasantly surprised when in fact he discussed gardens of impressionistic painters. Having visited Giverny, I knew what a beautiful place that is; but Fell had photos of various seasons, times of the year I haven’t experienced in Giverny. Renoir’s garden near Nice was shown, Cezanne’s family estate near Aix discussed, and some of Van Gogh’s St. Remy palette presented. Fell showed how the artist used or was influenced by the colors, patterns, landscape of his particular garden or yard and how each artist changed, rearranged, or recreated his own venue. Renoir or more probably his gardener composted and was an organic gardener; Cezanne is often called a master of the greens; Monet supposedly said “I paint what I see, remember, feel”. Mr. Fell did spend quite a bit of time telling what theories of color each artist used or preferred along with specific flowers used, many available here. It was a wonderful first webinar experience.
If you’d like info and advice on storing seeds, finegardening.com has several videos on line related to gathering and storing seed.
Last summer I again did a little experimenting and had the usual set of successes and failures. I tried cutting and putting bottle corks, real and fake “cork”, under flower pots as protective feet. Actually it wasn’t that hard to cut slices evenly and both types worked. I put cheap solar lights at the ends of some garden rows ostensibly to keep deer away to see if the lights deterred them. I’m not sure; there were nearly no deer tracks in the garden this year but maybe there were fewer deer. The garden, however, was quite pretty at night. Milk gallon jugs with stones inside hung from the corn did not stop the raccoons from getting most of the corn. I tried growing seedlings in paper egg cartons, in egg shell halves in cartons, and in a plastic cupcake container that I didn’t want to toss since it was not recyclable. The plants did start to grow but since they were within reach of a beagle, I gave up after several dog investigations. The tomato in a bag experiment had a similar demise. I did find putting paper towel rolls on the wheel barrow handles works quickly and well if there are slivers as long as the dog doesn’t pull them off. Putting gloves over the handles as I’ve read as a suggestion is not a good idea unless exercise chasing the beagle or dog playtime is needed; actually even keeping gloves in pockets seems to be a bad idea with my dog, or having zippers, hats, innersoles, small tools, etc.
The MDOT Wildflowers of Michigan brochure I picked up this summer was certainly nicely done.
The Birds & Blooms April/May 2010 issue had a page showing how to make newspaper pots for seedlings. This could be an easy way to prepare for spring planting when you are doing nothing much, if that happens, during the winter months. The article suggested cutting a newspaper sheet in fourths, rolling a fourth around a container, etc. I decided to experiment and used the Joann’s ad which was a good size for the 3 containers I tried. The article suggested a spice jar so I tried that, a pint jar and a store jelly jar. I found folding the top edge first and sliding one end under the other worked best; I could slide the jar into my paper cylinder and then fold the bottom and tape. The only negative so far is how to store them since they don’t really stack well. See page 11 of the issue for more ideas on using newspapers.
If you happen to get in the Vail, Colorado area you might enjoy a trip to the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens (www.bettyfordalpinegardens.org). The garden tries “to promote public understanding, appreciation and protection of the flora of the Rocky Mountains and other mountain regions around the world” and hopes “to be recognized as the foremost authority on high altitude plants in natural and cultivated landscapes…”
For some reason I was checking something that lead me to Michigan Agricultural Statistics 2009-2010 and impressed by the list of products for which Michigan was first in the U.S.: dry black, cranberry and small red beans; blueberries; tart cherries; cucumbers for pickles; geraniums-seed and cuttings; Niagara grapes; hostas; impatiens in flats and baskets; basket begonias; basket New Guinea impatiens; flats and baskets of petunias; potted Easter lilies; and squash.
2 other areas are always done too, thymely tips and question and answer. They are on line. I'm sure the rest of the year's articles will be great since they won't be mine.
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