Those who know me are very aware that I\nlove to grow food. I’ve been gardening seriously for about 46 years\nnow, and I still finding myself learning the hard way. What can I\nsay? I’m basically self-taught. In the beginning especially, my\ngardening experience came from books and publications like Organic\nGardening And Farming (now just Organic Gardening) magazine, and\nMother Earth News. I would read anything related to organic methods\nI could find. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When my gardening \u201ccareer\u201d began\nway back in 1973, there was no internet, but there was a thing we\ntechno-nerds have come to regard as \u201csneakernet.\u201d In other\nwords, my fellow gardeners and I would exchange books and magazines\nback and forth in the course of meeting in person over a nice hot\ncup of chamomile tea. I got pretty good at learning how to build\nhealthy soil that would in turn yield strong and healthy plants and\nprovide delicious produce. And of course, when one grows his or her\nown food, the nourishment is just as much spiritual as it is\nphysical. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can you tell I love gardening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, you really do need to love\ngardening to keep doing it. It’s rewarding, but it’s also hard work!\n God bless all the farmers is all I can say… those folks work way\nharder than anyone I know. Anyway, back to the gardening. Yes, it’s\nhard work, but at least in my case I’ve learned some techniques that\nhelp reduce the amount of labor required for upkeep. Take mulch, for\nexample. Take it I say!! It’s right here! What?? You don’t want\nany?? FINE!! Yes, I’ll take your leaves. What? You thought oak\nleaves are no good for the garden?? Well that’s pure bullwonky!! \nNo, they don’t make your soil acidic. They keep in the moisture,\nbuild the soil and prevent weeds from taking over. AND\n<\/strong><\/em>earthworms\nLOVE<\/strong><\/em>\noak leaves, and their poop is alkaline, which serves to neutralize\nany acid that might leach out of the oak leaves. So there!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n But\nI digress (no kidding, right??).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So\nthere I was, minding my own business, developing gardening techniques\nthat became habits. Now there’s the internet, with tons and tons of\ninformation readily available with a flick of the wrist. Some of my\nhabits have been modified due to all the new information I’ve found;\nbut then some old habits are hard to break. One of my habits is\nimprovising when it comes to planting various crops. Today I planted\ngarlic for the 3rd<\/sup>\nyear in a row. However, I’ve modified my technique a bit. First I\nwent online to verify planting depth (2 \u2013 3 inches) and spacing (8\ninches between plants, 12 inches between rows). Then I thought I\ncould save myself some grief by actually marking off the rows with\nbaling twine. Even more useful was the long piece of left over 1 x 1\nthat I marked off 6 and 12 inches for spacing (6 inches was from the\nedge of the garlic bed). Then I marked the rest of the stick at 8\ninch intervals for plant spacing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When\nI got ready to plant, I noodled a bit because the soil is pretty wet\nand cold right now. The idea of digging a hole for each bulb with\nmy pointer finger as in previous years didn’t appeal to me. So I\nthought a bit longer and decided to devise a tool for planting. \nFound me a nice fat (about 1 \u00bd inch across) maple branch that had\nfallen a few days ago, cut it so one side was a nice place to grip,\nand the other side was 3 inches to the knotty part. Perfect depth\nfor planting garlic cloves or onion bulbs. Just push the stick in\nthe ground to the knotty part, drop the bulb in the hole, and cover\nwith a trowel full of soil I already had waiting in a bucket. Easy\npeasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before\nheading out to the garden, I came in the house for a drink of water. \nMy Beautiful Girlfriend and our Beautiful Friend Pam were working on\nsome macrame plant hangers. Our Beautiful Friend is a Master\nGardener, and also is keen on using homemade items for various tasks.\n I proudly displayed my new planting tool, and she said, \u201coh,\nthat’s a dibble!\u201d \u201cA dibble??\u201d I queried. \u201cYes, that’s\nwhat you call those. You made a dibble.\u201d \u201cOh!\u201d I replied with\na grin. \u201cSo now I’m a dibble dabbler!!\u201d She laughed and agreed.\n A dibble. Wow. So of course I had to go the the interwebs to\nlearn more. There are many, MANY types of dibbles for sale from\nvarious vendors. I never knew!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought it was just a stick!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking of farms… I’m pretty sure they are all just like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n