Another late night project (and a soap box)

Jeremy can be kind of a pack rat and collector of odd things. (Odd to some people anyway!).

A week or two ago I came home to discover this tiny little wooden crate. Jeremy had seen it at the co-op and it was up for grabs. So of course he grabbed it.



I don't think he had any particular plans or ideas in mind for it. Maybe some sort of storage? I looked at it (it was on its side in the garage at the time) and thought it would make a cute little raised bed. (I was probably inspired a bit after learning about a local guy's salad tables.)

So last Wednesday night, after it had already gotten dark, Jeremy settled the crate right outside the steps, made sure it was level, and put some plastic in it to keep the dirt in and water off the sides (so it will last a bit longer).



He spread some rock in the bottom to help with drainage.



Then he dumped in dirt and composted manure.



I think it was the next day when he planted our little lettuces and endive in the bed.



So we'll see how this little experiment goes.

Why did we do this? Because we could. =)

Why do we do any of this? Why do we stay up past 10pm planting cranberries and blueberries? What makes us get up in the morning? Why are we planting out our yard in as many edible plants as possible?

I guess you could say we're part of a movement. A movement that has been going on for a couple years (or decades depending on how you look at it) and seems to be gaining more and more momentum. We are people who are fed up with, disgusted with, even angered by the corporate, monolithic agriculture business in the US (and the world) today. We want an end to confined-animal feeding operations (CAFOs). We want an end to chickens "living" in battery cages in massive warehouses. We want an end to monoculture - acres and acres and acres of one kind of crop. We don't want any genetically modified food whatsoever. We want to put a stop to the massive amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, drugs, antibiotics and other garbage that is pumped into our foods on a regular basis. We want big agri-business gone and family farms back. We want our food to be grown organically and locally. Hey, food has been grown without all this garbage for thousands of years! All that garbage may have increased productivity for awhile, but it's killing our soil, killing our farms, killing us.

We garden/farm because we want to know where our food comes from. We want to know our food is wholesome and not full of chemicals. We take pleasure in eating a tomato or an egg or a whole meal that came straight from our backyard. We think vegetables, fruits, and flowers are way (way!) better than a totally useless lawn. Our diverse yard provides food for birds, bees, and butterflies. I feel like our yard (garden/farm) is an integral part of a system and it is a system in itself. It is not an island.

We are one of many, many people doing this right in the middle of the city to show that it can be done, it should be done! We have no need to disconnect from civilization and move out to the country. We have every need to stay put, stay connected, live as examples, and teach our relatives, friends, neighbors, and strangers about food - growing it and eating it.

Friends, and lurkers, we in America need to reclaim an interest in food. Demand to know where your food comes from. Demand to know what is in your food. Get to know your farmers and the people who make the food you eat. Spend more money on good quality food, less money on [movies/gas/games/cars/toys/takeout/clothes/whatever!] Learn how to cook. Eat meals together with your family at the kitchen table (without the TV on).


Hmm, well, I guess that's about all I've got to say about that...for now...

Special delivery

Last Thursday, finally, a Speedee Delivery truck drove up with a delivery for us! Two very large and quite heavy boxes.



The box on the right contains trees and taller bushes/shrubs. The box on the left had the blueberries, strawberries, and so forth.

We had been preparing for this day for some time. Jeremy had staked out where all these berries would be going and last week I started digging holes. You should just be able to see seven holes in this picture. There are two more behind me and another three beyond where you can see.



Jeremy busied himself with pH tests and collecting soil amendments, compost, manure, peat moss, bone meal, and all sorts of crazy things. I'm the sort of person that says, "Let's just plant these! The soil is fine! The plants will be fine!" But Jeremy wants to study everything and make sure every plant is going into the most ideal location with the most ideal soil environment. It's possible the plants will do better his way, but I'm sure they would have done just fine my way. =)

We had someone visiting so we couldn't get to the plants till around 5 or 6. Jeremy, of course, had to run off and collect just a few more amendments we needed. We dumped peat moss, composted manure, bone meal, and some other things into all the blueberry holes. Then we got down on our knees and mixed everything up inside each hole. Then each of the blueberries was lovingly planted and watered. We got 4 Patriot blueberries, 4 Blue Crop blueberries, and 4 Jersey blueberries.

The sun had set by then and the light wasn't so good, but we decided to press on. Jeremy staked out holes for the cranberries and lingonberries. We put a bit of compost or peat moss or something or other (hey - I'm just the labor here!) and some bone meal into each hole and mixed things around then lovingly planted and watered those plants. We've got 5 teeny little lingonberries and 15 Pilgrim cranberries.

It was 10:30 at night when we finally called it quits! It was so dark I couldn't see what I was digging, how deep I was digging, or if I was in the right spot. Jeremy had his headlamp on and a shop light pointed at the terrace, but it was still dark. Why on earth would we stay up so late planting you ask? It's not that we had to. As long as the plants are kept in the shade and cool they'll be fine for several days before planting. We were just so excited to plant them!

Here are the blueberries in the light of day (which I guess you can only tell because of the absence of the big gaping holes in the ground):



We came back later and put down pine bark mulch and rabbit fencing around each one.



Friday we got to work early on the strawberries and other plants. We had ordered 15 Ozark Beauty strawberries (they're ever-bearing) and 10 Honeoye strawberries (they'll all produce at one time in June). But as we pulled the bare-root strawberry plants apart, we saw that we got more like 20 to 30 of each! No complaining here though. We just dug more holes - and of course put in amendments, planted and watered. I put in little white tags to mark where they were because some of them were so small.

The strawberries, lingonberries, and cranberries (as well as one blueberry) were all planted on the terrace, which is looking pretty amazing:


This is what the cranberries look like up close:



Saturday and Sunday Jeremy worked to plant the rest:
Three American hazelnuts on the back side of the terrace
One Shagbark Hickory out in the boulevard strip (in the middle of the rain garden I dug last year)
Two Red Lake Currants
Five Consort Currants
One Pixwell Gooseberry
Two Hinnomaki Gooseberries
and One American Elderberry

We definitely have a full yard now!

I'm not sure when any of these will produce. It's possible the blueberries will produce this year, but maybe not. This first year with the strawberries we'll (gasp!) pinch off all the blossoms. This encourages them to grow stronger roots and everything else (instead of putting all their energy into berries). It's an awful thing to do, but anyone who has done it swears by it, so we'll do it too. I don't think the Shagbark Hickory (a nut tree) will produce anything for like 15 years. Yeah, that's a long term investment I guess.

But I suppose any planting of fruit trees, fruit bushes, or perennial plants is a long-term investment. It's my kind of investment portfolio!

Flat Stanely

Hi! My name is Stanley. Well, Flat Stanley actually. A bulletin board squashed me flat when I was sleeping one time! But it's okay, I still get around just fine. I'm friends with Ms. Burton's first grade class at Sacajawea Elementary School in Idaho. They sent me all the way out here to Minnesota - in the middle of the country - so I could see what there is to see out here.

Minnesota is in a part of the United States called the Midwest. The other states in the Midwest are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Some people also call this area the heartland or the breadbasket of the US! Minnesota is famous for having lots of lakes. They say Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes! Lots of people in Minnesota live in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. There is a lot of farming that happens in the countryside of Minnesota.

I came to stay with a couple in Minneapolis who have a farm right in the city! It's a little farm but there is a lot going on.

On the first day of my visit I went to visit their chickens.


There are 8 chickens here and they are all different colors.


I got to check for eggs! There are two in this nest.


The man here, Jeremy, grows mushrooms. Here I am helping to find the mushrooms. They grow on logs.


Here we are measuring them to see how much they weigh.


Here we are cutting up the mushrooms and drying them.


Later I got to help make some of the mushroom logs by putting mushroom seeds into the holes in the logs.


The lady here, Aimee, sews a lot of things. Here I am helping her sew a bag.


Aimee and Jeremy have lots of space in their backyard for growing vegetables. Here I am helping them with the seedlings they are growing. Someday soon these seedlings will go outside and turn into things like cauliflower, beans, and kale.


This weekend I had a lot of fun when Aimee & Jeremy took me to a parade that happens every year in their neighborhood. Here I am enjoying a mango on a stick.


I jumped into the middle of this chalk drawing on the street so I could have my picture taken.


I took a short ride on this funny bicycle. There are three wheels and the person pedaling the bike sits behind the other people who are riding the bike.


Look at that big tiger!


This lady had a really cool snail puppet.


I have really been enjoying my time here in Minneapolis. I'm glad Ms. Burton's students sent me over here!

May Day! May Day!

It's May Day again here in south Minneapolis. Every year hundreds, if not thousands, of people gather for one of the wackiest parades I've ever seen (pics from last year). There is always a theme, though it's often hard to tell what it is, and it's open to anyone and everyone who wants to be involved, and there are no motorized vehicles allowed. It's all people-powered. Some of the same characters show up year after year and I truly look forward to this Minneapolis tradition. And, I can't help myself from taking lots of pictures and videos. It's a hard thing to capture!

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre is the main group that puts on the parade.


A friend of ours on his awesome drangonfly art bike:


Ubiquitous stilters:






Carrying a heavy load...






This whale was equipped with a water canon and would shoot off water every couple minutes.




I want this bicycle!


There are always lots of art bikes at the parade.










That's a big rooster!



At the end of the parade there is always the "free speech" section. This is where anyone and everyone who wants to march in the parade for any reason gets to march in the parade. I think this tail section is just as long as the parade itself - if not longer!


I always like the Aztec dancers:



Most everyone is full of energy, as this band proves - and we were sitting at the end of the parade route!


This is the most awesome bike contraption ever! Ten bicyclists (and someone to steer in front) pulling a trailer with a rock band, and behind that is a shack with a dozen or two people climbing in and out, on and off, up and down, and then there is a couch on wheels behind them, and a couple barrels with people in/on them!



My favorites - the polar bear and grizzly bear:

ice cream & beans

I was marveling at these beans the other day, just how enormous they are, how beautiful they are with the leaves just unfolding from the old bean.



I think some of those beans are 6 inches tall now - definitely ready to go outside! If we weren't afraid of frost... (which I'm not, for the record).

Now, about the ice cream. Jeremy and I went a little crazy last year with ice cream. We went through a lot of 1-pint containers - Ben & Jerry's, Stonyfield Farms, and Reed's ginger ice cream. I saved all the containers so we could use them for potting seedlings. They are working quite well.



Jeremy's flavors range all over the place, but almost anything that is a version of cookies and cream is mine. =)

Tenacious

When I was digging up dirt and plants on the back side of the terrace, I dug up this tenacious little guy:





I felt bad digging it out after it had worked so hard to push through that piece of wood. So I planted it back in the ground. Hopefully it survives!

The dark side...of the terrace

Okay, so it's not really the dark side because it's the south side. But it's the hidden side because it's behind the arbor vitaes and it's on the outside edge of our yard. Our neighbors are a bit concerned about the major positive slope coming into their yard from our yard so we had to do something.



I dug these old boards out of the garage - they were the old boards on the original roof.


I nailed on some leftover lathe to keep the boards together.


I had dug out the dirt from the fence and put the wood in there.


Then I filled the dirt back in (including a couple plants I had had to dig up). Now the giant hill can slope down to this and water won't pour into the neighbors yard.



And here's the rest of it done. I guess it's kind of hard to tell with all the arbor vitae in the way, but there will probably be other pictures of it later.



The fence juts in to our yard like that because there used to be an enormous (enormous!) tree right there. Apparently it's branches touched the roof on our house - which would make it just enormous! It had to go maybe 15 or 20 years ago. Most of the wood from the trunk left behind is rotted away. I ran into a lot of that while digging down to the bottom of the fence.