Spring FEVER

Spring has arrived with snow-melting sun and seed blowing wind.  Not to sound too cliché but the need to grow has awakened in me propelling my every muscle, as I spend hours shoveling dirt into a wheel barrel, with a tire barely able to make it, to the raised bed in the green house and in front of the house.  Load after load I move the dirt in hopes that I will be able to grow food free from rabbits, protected and well amended by the time I put the seeds in.

The winter was a hard one.  Snow blessed the cracked ground for a time until it blew away or melted and then returned with another storm.  In this area of Northern New Mexico sage dominates the ground, pushing out some grasses while it protects others and holds tight the high desert floor from being whipped away by whirly winds or serious straight winds. 

My plan this spring consists of creating as many good growing areas as possible.  These areas must meet some requirements: they must be amended, the valley floor has little organic matter and has an alkaline make-up; they must be protected from rabbits and other hungry little critters, a portion of the goods is great to give as an offering but there are too many animals to sustain on small crops; they must have some protection from high winds and frost, this area has reported frosts in every month of the year seeds must be hardy and people must be cunning. 

Construction continues. I’ve been trying to build and have built a green house made of recycled, found and given materials.  I’ve just filled the pallet-bed with soil from the yard and am beginning to amend it with composted mushroom, cottonseed and indoor mix.  In front of the house I’ve begun a keyhole inspired garden built with rock and filled with soil.  The rock may hold some heat in over the cool summer nights and I plan to build the wall high enough so that some protection from wind will exist. 

I don’t claim to be a carpenter or a rock layer.  The greenhouse was built primarily by a friend, I’m adding the simple parts—and never said that it was pretty, but the plants don’t care what it looks like as long as it houses them.  The stonework has proven more difficult than I had imagined.  I’ve seen amazing walls that seem to fit together perfectly.  I rely on the dirt, which will be used to grow to balance and provide strength.  Miguel Santistevan once told me that he was not only a farmer but also an artist, I feel that I aspire to this but have nowhere near arrived.  My art is in the process and learning rather than the end result I imagine.

Grow at home so that you don’t have to buy.