As fields and beds lie fallow and frozen throughout most of the country, winter tends to be the season of reflection and planning for most horticulturists. Even though the San Jose “winter” here in California is actually a productive growing season with only the occasional serious frost, I thought I would honor the winter tradition and look back on my year.
A lot changed for me in 2008. It started innocently enough with the extension of my small herb bed by adding some sage, basil, tarragon and chamomile. I also started a few tomatoes and a couple zucchini plants. My aims were modest and fit in well with my full time school and part time work schedule (working from home is awesome). But then, along came Gaia’s Garden 
, which I think was given to me around my birthday at the end of March. I devoured it, reading it from cover to cover in less than a week. That week was the beginning of what may well be The Great Transformation of 2008 in the life of Chris Prudhomme. I cannot say enough about Gaia’s Garden. It is an easy read for the hobbyist gardener, but at the same time packed with pertinent, practical and innovative information. It changed the way I saw my garden, changed my place in the garden and the place that my garden had in my world. Within the ecological and permaculture design paradigms I began to see that my garden—and really any space where things can grow—could be a way to start reshape (or avoid entirely) the industrial/capital system that seems at this point in time to be doing more harm than good for almost everyone except a small minority of the world’s population. I knew then that things weren’t quite going to be the same anymore, both in my garden and in my life.
So bit by bit through the year my appetite for all things ecological and horticultural grew and my garden began to change. With each thing I read, the landscape in our backyard underwent another transformation. A compost bin was built and the large patch of bermuda grass (that tries to pass as a lawn) slowly shrunk as the garden began to encroach. I started scavenging and experimenting. In early summer, the small trees that were cut down next door went into a new hugelkultur bed next to the patio. In early fall a double-dug biointensive bed ousted a 100 square foot patch of the ‘lawn’ (ala John Jeavons’ “How to Grow More Vegetables”). Another swath of bermuda grass succumbed to the spading fork and was mulched by the full compost bin as I prepared to harvest the massive amount of leaves about to fall from the pistache trees around our duplex.
Once Upon a Lawn - This was all bermuda grass, at this time the bed had experienced the exuberance of our dog Sam. Amazing the damage such a small rascal can wreak
Now, a month into the new year things look very different compared to January ’08. The lawn has shrunk by 30%, there is now a fenced garden patch with several green manure cover crops growing happily, garlics and onions are knifing up at various places in the yard, and wildflower seedlings are poking their heads out of the soil.
My career focus has shifted as well. I am convinced that our world is in for some drastic shifts and changes within the next decade; the possibilities range from moderate global disruptions to outright collapse of many centralized/globalized infrastructures, severe hardship, and widespread disorder. I am convinced that food production lies at the center of it, so my energies are starting to focus in that direction. I am volunteering at Full Circle Farm and am a farming intern with Veggielution (a fledgling urban farming project). I would love to put my SJSU Computer Science studies to work in some dedicated way, but I am still trying to figure out where that fits in the whole equation. Which is all to say that 2009 is shaping up to be full of surprises.
Accomplishments and good experiences:
A flourishing, sheet mulched, hugelkultur bed
Tomatoes, Basils and Zucchini’s (oh my!)
Smaller lawn, bigger garden
A multi-functional raspberry/strawberry bed (eagerly awaiting February shipment)
Let Nature do the talkin’
TONs of reading (the book list is quite long thanks to Emily’s library sleuthing)
Water Wizard’s (greywater and water harvesting) workshop with Art Ludwig, Brock Dolman and the folks from the Regenerative Design Institute
Bioneers Conference (wow!) Highlights: Paul Stamets, Seed Exchange, Alexandra Cousteau, Ray Anderson, Janine Benyus and so many others
Failures and frustrations:
Almost anything I tried to do with bamboo (dog fence, path liner, trellis) failed miserably
Repeated invasions of our two rascal dogs and subsequent unsuccessful attempts at keeping them out of the garden they love and eagerly destroy with hearty romps and digging
Unhappy native plants (as I type the wildflower seedlings are probably being devoured – sigh)
Stupid carrots (I think I planted them at a bad time and too deeply)
Leggy seedlings in general (I need a cold frame or tiny greenhouse)
Haphazard design and layout (not always the best idea to “design as you go”)
Compost that refuses to heat up (I think I need a bigger pile and more green material)
What happened to the tarragon?!
Leave a Reply