Topsoil: A Most Important Part.

Our house was built 41 years ago.  An acquaintance said he remembered when that piece of land was a farmer’s field.  I assume it had gentle rolling hills like the bare land just a couple of blocks away did when we first moved in.  When our subdivision was developed, I bet the standard earth movers / scrapers were all about leveling some of the area for the streets and lots and later redistributed the topsoil into the back yards.

We arrived three years after the houses were built.  I heard stories of the previous halfwit owner and his neighbour.  There was a very slight slope from the backyard towards the house and the Tweedle Brothers decided that was a dangerous source of flooding. So, Dee and Dum hired a contractor with a tractor and truck to haul topsoil off their properties to level it out.  I’m sure the contractor was smiling; he got to sell the topsoil too.

When I arrived, the half of the back lawn closest to the house quickly dried out in the dry summers – the topsoil was much thinner there.  But my vegetable garden was on the slightly higher, rear half of the yard.  It had a pleasant 10 inches of sandy loam topsoil.

For the next 37 years I mowed the lawn, always leaving the clippings to fall back into the lawn.  This gradually rebuilt the depth of topsoil.  Most virgin topsoils in the area are only 10,000 years old since the last ice age receded and mine is made of the sand and gravel it stands on, volcanic ash from eruptions of Mount Baker and Mount Garibaldi, dust that has blown in, and the organic matter that has built up from the forest and vegetation that grew here.

Last year with lockdowns and shortages I opened up a section of the lawn and created four more 50 square foot beds.  This was on the part of the yard with the thinner topsoil.  I had about 6 inches of topsoil after shaking out the sod.  I’ve raised that a bit more by mining some of the soil from the paths between the beds.  Now I wish I’d fertilized the back yard lawn over the years with some chicken or other manure, like I’ve done with my small front yard, and built up the soil even more (although that would have required more frequent mowing).

Without topsoil I’d have nothing.  In my opinion, people who think they can incorporate the garden centre’s ‘Garden Mix’ is in for a hard way to grow productively.  That stuff is mostly sawdust and sand.  Take a look at it under an eye loupe or magnifying glass.  It’s partly composted to make it look loamy and black and beefed up with some nitrogen for the first year’s crops.  But during the following number of years it becomes a nitrogen sponge as all the carbon uses up all available nitrogen as it decomposes, slowly.  I’d stick with real topsoil.

Not all marketed topsoil is topsoil.  If there’s nothing growing on the top of the pile it probably isn’t.  TOG and I watched another community garden start in a church gravel parking lot.  Some fine member donated loads of topsoil and the gardeners were free to use as much as they needed.  One problem – it was full of weed seeds, specifically, morning glory.  They came up everywhere.  That was a recurring pain.

Another strange thing with that group was it seemed no one loosened up the hard packed gravel underneath their garden plots.  They just poured on the topsoil and planted.  TOG and I just looked at each other and said what we often say: “They don’t know!”  I assume that over several years the roots, bugs and microbes have managed to loosen up the ‘subsoil’ but I would have been there with a pick or broadfork to open up access to the under story of the beds.

TOG’s one and a half acres that he market-farms has a different topsoil signature.  He’s on bottomland in the Sumas Prairie with a soil built up over the centuries from the constant flooding of the Fraser River. It’s a nice deep silty-loam with no stones or rocks.  When he got the lease, he reluctantly had it turned (plowed) to get a quick enough start on the growing season.  

It had been a hay field for a good number of years, usually cut before the grasses went to seed and appeared to not have had any horses on it, so the weed seed count was nice and low.  He did have the pasture's population of crane fly larvae (leather jackets) and those caused some problems the first two years.  

TOG also found he had two areas that were lower fertility than the rest.  He speculates that the field originally had a few bumps that were shaved off and that left a thinner topsoil in those two areas.  It was solved with his soil building, sustainable gardening techniques as well as a double portion of well composted horse manure.

There was one other thing TOG got with his piece of land.  He uncovered the thinned remains of a farmer’s antique garbage dump.  There was nothing left but bits of metal and some very colourful broken glass all spread out in the soil over a couple thousand square feet.  

My first couple of years of helping with the gardening there were interesting; I couldn’t help but stoop and pick up bits of coloured glass.  The tiller fixed most of the rest, rounding the sharp edges and breaking them into smaller bits.  Today there’s very little chance of cutting one’s fingers on the glass shards.

A good topsoil is so much more than just dirt.  It’s living and active, full of life and nutrition, and needs to be sustainably nurtured and cared for.  I believe the day could soon come when the quality of our topsoil could determine whether we’re Dirt Poor or Filthy Rich.

Happy Gardening.

Sunshine Not Shade: A Most Important Part.

Back in 1982 we were house shopping.  We looked at a nice place on half an acre.  Its backyard had a wonderful sunny, gentle south slope.  The owners had all the space in the world to put in their smaller vegetable garden but they chose to place it just north of a large cherry tree.  I’d bet the shade from the tree cut their production in half.

When my grandad retired and sold his dairy farm, he insisted he only wanted a house on a lot.  He said he was tired of looking after a big place and wanted things small.  It turned out he was in his small backyard gardening every day.  As the trees grew taller on the east side of his yard the shade increased and his vegetable production decreased.

Recently while driving back from White Rock, we noticed an acreage with a new greenhouse that was built in the shade of a large pine tree.  No wonder so many home greenhouses are used for storing firewood.

My Lovely Wife and I enjoy the occasional walk in Vancouver.  We admire the great variety of mature trees and landscaping.  Vancouver is so proud of their trees.  They plant more, by the hundreds, (probably thousands) every year.  But in a climate that gets 60 inches of rain per year, the place can be the shade, mold, and mildew capital of Canada.  And there are very few sunny spots for growing vegetables.

I’ve never thought of myself as being a tree hugger.  I’ll save that for the granola crowd.  But I really like trees.  A tree is just a tree until you recognize its type and variety, its growth habit, leaf shape, flower, and seed type.  Then it becomes a work of art.  A wonder of creation.  And it even hurts me when I see one badly pruned and struggling because of it.

The Walnut I planted in my front yard 35 years ago is now 50 feet tall and 55 feet wide with a trunk circumference of 60 inches.  On a good year it gives us two 5-gallon pails of nuts.  My Fig tree is doing well next to the house and gives us 70 lbs of figs each summer.  I have a Plum beside the deck, an espaliered Peach on the south facing side of the house and a dwarf Jonagold spread along the north fence.

But my Stella Cherry tree was way beyond its prime.  It was very diseased, bug infested, and non-productive.  Since it was over a certain girth, I had to pay a fee and get permission from my city to cut it down and I had to post a bond ensuring I’d replace it with another new tree.  They sent out an arborist who gave the okay.  It was the only tree in my yard that I hadn’t planted myself and the previous owner had placed it, as you’d expect, on the SOUTH side of the back yard.

So, we finally got it down and left its stump – for a bird bath or planter or something.  (I no longer have the physical capacity to remove the stump).  And we planted our first ever ornamental tree. 

 

It’s a pretty, little Japanese Maple, with rose red bark all winter and it won’t grow higher than about 12 or 15 feet.  It is planted due south of the cherry stump so it will only shade the stump and its roots. 

And now, after all those years, my garden gets even more sunshine.

Happy Gardening.

Security: Part 1

 When I was seven years old we lived in a new neighbourhood.  My older brother found a new friend and together we followed him down a back road to a tall wooden fence.  There were whispers and hushed tones then this friend climbed over the fence and hurriedly picked some strawberries from that neighbour’s patch.  He returned and we ran quickly away, heart pounding.  Well that was dumb.  My brother and I weren’t those kinds of boys.  We ditched the new friend.

As a teen I pumped gas at a big Shell station just out of town on the edge of a dairy farm area.  One afternoon a couple of the other gas jockey’s buddies showed up with a trunk full of stolen corn.  They were so proud.  I had a taste of a raw cob and told them it was ‘cow’s’ corn or silage-feed corn.  They didn’t know what I was talking about until they tried a taste.  Well that was dumb.

Jesus told a story about a man who planted a vineyard.   

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.”  Matthew 21:33  NIV 

The rest of the parable is very interesting but this time we’ll stick with just the first verse.

Notice that he “put a wall around it”.  Israel is a place of many stones and that is what the wall would have been made of.  Most of us nowadays think of a fence rather than a wall.  What was the wall for?  Perhaps to keep animals, wild or otherwise, from getting at the grapes?  Maybe even keeping people from stealing the grapes?

He also “built a watchtower”.  What was that for?  Probably to warn of people trespassing rather than animals.  One tower could watch the whole vineyard; you would need only one watchman at a time.  Maybe it was to get a clear shot? (not with a camera).  There was probably no need for a watchman to be in the tower to deter thieves except during the harvest.  For grapes – probably a couple of weeks or several more if different varieties were ripening at different times.  Nobody steals sour grapes but the wine they were making was valuable.

There’s a church in town that has a Community Garden.  During its first couple of years in operation it had a sign on the gate of the low chain link fence surrounding it that said something about sharing and caring and such. Well that was dumb. 

Of course that sweet sign had to be changed.  Too many locals were taking up the offer and helping themselves to the produce after hours.  The sign was changed to something more like ‘please respect the labors of our gardeners’, etc.  And they put a lock on the gate.

It would appear that community gardens can work really well for feeding the community rather than feeding your family.  Community gardens might work alright when the locals are overfed and undernourished with burgers and fries, but once times get a bit harder, (that’s when you really need your garden plot’s produce) that low chain link fence might be too symbolic rather than practical. 

Of course my point is Security.  If you’re really depending on the produce you grow to be eaten by you and your family, it is most productive if you have a way to deter thieves.  Fencing is an asset.  And solid board is preferred to chain link --- out of sight out of mind.  

My son, The Organic Grower (TOG), farms an acre and a half behind a row of houses.  There had been one open spot between the houses, along the main road where his setup could be observed by looking through a neighbour’s large side yard.  I was pleased when that neighbour installed a roadside solid fence right across that open spot.  Times are changing and not necessarily for the best.

My missionary friend in Uganda, who teaches the “Farming God’s Way” program to the locals, has a high wall around his home and yard.  There might even be broken glass imbedded across the top of the wall.  What kind of a giving and sharing Christian is that?  Well, the local small grocery store has an armed guard standing out front carrying an assault rifle and there’s another guard in front of the small bank.  And my friend has his lovely young daughters playing in his yard.  Welcome to Uganda.  Perhaps one day we may have to do the same?

So I’m into solid board fences.  I’ve had to replace large sections of my aging fence and I’ve poured a curb under the new section to keep the raccoons from digging under it.  see Raccoon Wars

I soon have to replace the last, longest section.  The neighbour erected a chain link fence behind my old board fence and a tall cedar hedge was planted along that.  But I’m still going to put up a solid board fence with a curb under it.  That won’t keep thieves out of the garden if they really want to get in but they won’t be able to sit in a hedge and watch my garden through a chain link fence.  

So far I hope I can delay installing a watch tower.  Happy Gardening.

 

Winter Cabbages: Storage and Uses

 

Last summer I grew 8 cabbages – Hybrid Storage Green from Johnny’s Seeds.  I picked the first one in mid-September and harvested the rest on October 21^st.  Each cabbage plant occupied 4 square feet of bed and I harvested a total 58 lbs averaging 7 lbs per head or 1.8 lbs per square foot.  That's better lbs/sq.ft. than potatoes or carrots.

 

I’d never tried to store cabbage before other than in the fridge.  I don’t have a bonified root cellar, however I have an unheated, carless garage that doesn’t freeze.  I didn’t know the protocols for storing cabbage so had to wing it.  So far it is working quite well.

I own a vintage galvanized square tub – 21 inches to a side and 11 inches deep.  That sits on the concrete floor with 6 cabbages in it and a plastic sheet with a dozen 1.5 inch sized holes cut into it draped over the top, resting on the top cabbage.  I used some magnets to anchor the cover to the sides of the tub.

Since I’d never made sauerkraut before (where no man had gone before), I dragged my feet on making my first batch.  In early January, I finally lifted the tub’s cover to see what I had.  I found some dark gray mold on the surface of the cabbages.  It had been a bit too damp in the tub.  This was easily removed by peeling a few wrapper leaves off each cabbage and cutting off a bit of each core stem.  

I washed the inside of the tub and reset the remaining cabbages with the same plastic cover but this time I inserted a rod to hold the centre of the plastic up, like a tent.  This vented the surplus moisture much better and 5 weeks later the cabbages were still in fine shape.

It was time to make my second batch of Sauerkraut.  5.5 lbs of shredded cabbage and 3 tablespoons of non-iodized salt (iodine kills the bacteria that I’m trying to grow).  This is kneaded and squeezed with my hands in a big bowl.  The books say for 5 or 10 minutes but I did it for 15.  

Since the cabbage had been ‘breathing’ in the tub all winter I felt that by this second time I would need to add a cup of water to the batch.  The online advice is all over the place on that.  Some say to boil the water first to sterilize it.  However, I’m using my bare hands to knead and squeeze the cabbage.  No matter how clean I get my fingernails they always come out cleaner after all the kneading.  So, sterility isn’t the answer.  

I definitely used chlorine free, filtered water – I didn’t want the chlorine to kill the bacteria.  Others say to use saline water.  Saline is fine but if straight water is well mixed into the batch, the water is salted by the salt in the batch.

The mixed cabbage goes into the big 4-litre pickle jar (the same size I keep my vegetable seeds in) and is pressed down to keep all of it submerged under liquid.  That is held down with a salmon canning jar of clean rocks and then the top of the jar is covered with a thin cotton cloth to breathe.

Seven days at room temperature, then a taste and then (last time anyway) another three days before going into the fridge to stop the action but not kill the culture.  Any mold showing up during the process is quickly scraped off when noticed and all is well.  

Smaller one-litre jars with lids in the fridge work well.  They say all bacterial action stops in the fridge but I found the flavours continued to mellow as the weeks went by.  They report that live sauerkraut keeps in the fridge for two months.  My first batch was eaten in a month.  It was great. 

TOG had mentioned that some fermented foods can become a bit habit forming.  He felt an urge to have some every day.  That could be why people who are into Kimchee must have their Kimchee.  I’ve always kept a close eye on my craft beer consumption (one six pack per week spaced over Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday).  Now I’m enjoying my own sauerkraut.  I’m looking forward to this next batch.  In fact, I think I’ll have the remains of the first batch now.