What a year this has been so far! We’re deep into summer now, and I’m finally at a place where I can slow down, exhale, and truly enjoy the fruits of my labor. This year has been one of deep personal adaptation — a time of releasing old patterns and allowing new growth to flourish. I feel like I am in full bloom, thriving right where I am planted. Each morning, I watch as the native hibiscus and the Texas Star Hibiscus open their petals to the sun. Their fresh blooms have become a beautiful [...]
It officially feels like Fall here in South Louisiana. Even with the 80 degree plus temps, the trees and natural bubble around our home tell me its time for descent. I must admit that I have a lot of resistance to fall, to less light, to the inner retreat that is inevitable. But yesterday I found a lot of joy in spending my morning harvesting what feels like the last of the banana peppers and hot peppers, and lots of okra, beans, turnip greens, and buckets and buckets of pecans. We shared some with our [...]
My husband, T-roy as we like to call him, has become a bird nerd like the ones in the movie, The Big Year, with Jack Black and Steve Martin. He shared with me recently that in some agricultural areas, farmers are having trouble with the pollination of crops due to the insane decrease in birds and other pollinators. That’s a problem ya’ll. Mono-cropped fields sprayed with pesticides and round-up ready, hold no native plants and flowers. We might consider these “weeds”, but these sterile fields have nothing to offer a pollinator. No food, no habitat. [...]
Time-change. Maybe its time to change like the leaves do on the trees. Maybe its time to change from over-busy to lazy-cozy. Maybe winter is what we need. Maybe darkness and moonlight and stillness and rest is required to bud in the Spring. Maybe its all relative. Maybe.
Its autumn. I and feel the wave of tiredness wash over me. “Time to rest,” my body says. And at 42 I feel it more than ever. We made our last harvest this week. The last of the okra, eggplant, peppers, and holy basil. Usually by this time I would have laid the fall layer of compost and planted the root crops by now. But this year, I am off. I wonder if the long summer drove me away from the garden. I allowed myself to get side-tracked by the heat. I hear about all [...]
I meant to write a post about composting and even titled it so but all that came out of me was writing about returning home…so here I go. The hubs and I made it home from our summer of travels a few days ago and now have the dirty job of cleaning out the weeds and dead stuff from the garden. It is a mess but there are still some drought and heat resistant plants living and we plan to make the most of them. From what I can tell, we still have okra, Malabar [...]
We’ve been out on the road for about 6 weeks now. In that time, I’ve kept a keen eye out for farmer’s markets and/or locally grown or produced foods. In the West and Northwest, what I’ve found is mostly locally produced meats and dairy. There are also some locally foraged products such as rhubarb and various berries. However, it has been so hard to find locally grown produce. I’ve noticed that some folks out here have green houses and most would love the opportunity to grow their own produce but the fact of the matter [...]
T-Roy and I are on our regular summer vacation living like dirt bags in the backcountry of Wyoming. Every summer I bring with me a few books to read since we have no cell service and no connection to the modern world. This past week my book pick was The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I found it sitting in a box of discarded books in a classroom of a school where I teach. The book is about dust bowl people migrating to California only to find a harder life there as migrant workers. [...]
Years back, my sister-in-law, Rebecca, gifted me with a book on permaculture. Reading it was some of the best education I’ve ever come across on soils and growing food. One thing in particular was on the use of fertilizers or not to fertilize. I learned that in conventional agricultural practices, “plants often use only 10 percent of the fertilizer that’s applied and rarely more than 50%. The rest is washed into the groundwater which is why so many wells in our farmlands are polluted with toxic levels of nitrates. Applying fertilizer the way nature does [...]
Soil is alive. One key to having a crop that is bursting with healthy plants, well-balanced insects, and thriving wildlife is to fill the soil with as much life as possible. The greater the number and diversity of soil organism-the more plants will be supported by the soil. In turn, an extensive array of plants will attract a copious assortment of insects, and those plants and insects will provide food and shelter for a more diverse collection of animals at the top of the pyramid. Diversity builds diversity. Vegetarians may be appalled, but much of [...]
In case you haven’t noticed, this growing season has been a little drier than our typical South Louisiana wet Springs. I’ve noticed my heavy water plants, tomatoes and cucumbers, are struggling a little. No matter how much I water them, there is nothing quite like a rain, which is rich in nitrogen. It’s these seasons we must turn to our drought resistance crops like okra, peppers, corn, beans, mustards, herbs and even one of my favorites, Malabar Spinach. If you’re not familiar with Malabar Spinach, I urge you to try it. It’s easy to grow [...]
When the world is moving too fast, I often do what is easy instead of what’s right. I choose to see the small picture rather than the large. I desensitize and let it be other peoples’ problems whether it be climate change or school shootings. Nevertheless, I know that these are my problems too. Deep down, I know I must do my part in resolution. There are days I wish I had never taken on this project. The pressure of creating a drawing each week along with a post and stories from the garden are [...]
I recently learned that even if we all stopped driving today and never drove again, we would not be able to solve our carbon problems. However, there is another way to reverse the carbon damage. Soil is one of the biggest holding mechanisms for excess carbon. Each time earth is plowed or tilled, it contributes to soil degradation as well as carbon loss. Soil is a finite resource. Poor farming practices depletes soil nutrients faster than the earth is able to replenish it. The good news is that some folks in the agricultural industry who [...]
As fertilizer, prices continue to skyrocket due to the war in Ukraine so do the cost of groceries here in the US and around the world. If you live in an apartment, gardening might not be an option for you. However, you do have other options. One of my favorite things to grow on my window seal is sprouts. With very little effort, I can always have something homegrown on my table at every meal, even in wintertime. The process only requires sprout seeds, a glass jar, water, and a tiny bit of attention. I [...]
There are several different Native American legends about the Three Sisters. The basis is however, that growing corn, beans and squash together is beneficial. The corn, standing tall, provides the support that the beans need to grow. The bean, being a vine, needs a skeletal system to reach the sun. In exchange, the beans provide nitrogen, which feeds the corn and squash. The squash creates an umbrella that covers the ground inhibiting weeds and keeps the soil cool and moist. “Together, the Three Sisters produce more food, with less water and fertilizer, than a similar [...]
As my tomatoes are fruiting and I am finally able to incorporate basil into my diet again, I want to talk a bit about the idea of Food Sovereignty and Decentralization. These ideas are rooted in establishing a sense of independence and power around our food systems. A lot of things have come up for me in recent years such as reading about pockets of food deserts in our country, the meat shortage during COVID, possible wheat shortages surrounding the war with Russia and Ukraine and finally climate change and how the cost of our [...]
Regenerative Agriculture” describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle. The loss of the world’s fertile soil and biodiversity, along with the loss of indigenous seeds and knowledge, pose a mortal threat to our future survival. According to soil scientists, at current rates of soil destruction (i.e. decarbonization, erosion, desertification, chemical pollution), within 50 years we will not only suffer serious damage to public health due to a qualitatively degraded [...]
After posting last week, my brother asked me, “Kelli, what’s up with the 57? Why did you chose that number of drawings?” I explained that its kind of the whole reason I’m doing this project. Soil scientist believe that at "current rates of soil destruction (i.e. decarbonization, erosion, desertification, chemical pollution), within 57 years we will not only suffer serious damage to public health due to a qualitatively degraded food supply characterized by diminished nutrition and loss of important trace minerals, but we will literally no longer have enough arable topsoil to feed ourselves." I’m [...]
When people said, “wow you’ve grown,” my dad would joke that I’d stepped in fertilizer. I grew up in South Louisiana, a small town less than 50 miles from the Louisiana Gulf Coast in the heart of Acadiana. Although, my friends teased me because I’d tell people I was from New Iberia, the larger “small town” down the road. We lived on my dad’s Nursery or Tree Farm as some folks might like to call it. I spent my days barefoot and dirty, hiding from my parents who might make me work in the yard [...]
