avocado & bravado : a food blog

This is a special blog post written by my dad, Dennis, who has been learning the ins-and-outs of gardening ever since he could dig his hands in the dirt.

Growing up in a working class Irish Catholic family in Erie Pennsylvania, my family relied on our garden to put food on our table. From the turning of the soil, to planting, harvesting, canning, and turning the soil once more with fallen leaves for the following year, our garden was a way of life for us. Now with the high cost of fresh produce, the economy, and people just wanting to eat healthier, I would like to share some ideas I’ve been taught, tried, and learned on my own to make your garden and soil more productive.

So, you want to have a garden. Not all these points will fit everyone, due to climate  and geographic locations, along with your soil and planting conditions. I’ve been tending to my garden in Michigan for 18 years. I’ve also grown vegetables in Switzerland and Colorado, but I am writing from the perspective of someone living in the American Midwest.

Here are some ways to enrich your soil, but bear in mind that in most cases it takes years to nurture your garden to its full potential:

- First, find a spot that has plenty of sunshine. Believe me, this doesn’t have to be out in the middle of 40 acres. A little shade is a great relief on some plants on a hot summer’s day, especially in the early stages.

- Clear the area of debris, roots, as much sod as possible, and foreign vegetation (weeds).

- Tilling and fertilizing your garden the fall or season ahead of your first planting will greatly reduce the reintroduction of grass and weeds the following year.

Combating weeds: There will always be a battle of yourself against the weeds. There are various ways to combat the weeds, from pesticides to more natural methods. One formula I have used is that after my garden is planted, I place a double layer of newspaper along with about six inches of grass clippings throughout the garden. This works very well, as it acts as a “weed-x” and as a sponge that holds moisture. It also serves as a bio-degradable fertilizer that will enrich your soil.

Using manure: Many people use cow or horse manure to fertilize their gardens, though I’ve never had much luck with this method. Sure, the plants were great and healthy, but those animals tended to not digest their foods very well. I would often find all kinds of different grasses and hay trying to grow in my garden, which in turn increased my never ending battle with the foreigners (weeds).

If you do choose to use manure, make sure that it is seasoned because if it’s too fresh, it will burn and stunt your plants. Growing up, my older brother George raised homming pigeons and their waste worked fertilized our garden. In my early years of gardening here in Michigan, my daughter had a pet rabbit whose waste furnished our garden with its nutrients for many years. By now, the pigeons have flown far away and the rabbit hopped off to never never land. These days I compost.

Composting: There’s nothing like good ol’ compost. I use what I have on hand and these methods have served me very well. Having several full grown white maples in a fenced-in yard creates quite the chore for the fall. After I have harvested all my plants in a pile in the middle of the garden for a burning, I then bring in the fallen leaves. They may be as much as waist high in my 45 x 25 ft garden. I used to just till them in for a few hours until they made a mash type of mixture. I now take my own lawn tractor, raise the blade, muck them up, burn my pile of old plants, spread the ash and then till. The dirt will break down through the winter.

I also keep a Tupperware container on the kitchen counter to collect potato skins, orange peels, and other compost. All of this goes into the compost pile, to be cast in the garden in the winter and mixed in the fall leaves or spring tilling. Take note that all this mulch can make the soil rich. In early spring, I cast play sand or mason sand across my garden in a light dusting, so that the ground will be somewhat porous and not hard. Here in the Midwest, when Old Man Winter goes north and it becomes dry enough to till, turn that soil to break down that mulch you have been cooking in the ground all winter. Don’t forget to burn those branches that have fallen into your yard over the winter. The ash is full of nitrogen and other nutrients that are just as great for the garden -a nice spring fire helps the bitter cold winter fade away.