Gardening

Greetings,
         It's the end summer, removing weeds is easier when they are dry.  I have been adding a few more plots. Most lettuces have gone to seed, I am leaving them alone because I don't have more to plant now. There are a lot of birds in the garden, they are probably getting some of the seeds. After the first few weedings, there are hardly any weeds in the beds. Companion planting seems to be helping a lot. 
       Water conservation is good for me because I often forget to water.  Heavy mulching and letting weeds grow around the bed seems to help a lot.  I've planted near a few fruit trees, on the sunny side.  Close plantings of vegetables, which start small and grow large after a few months, surrounded by greens. Greens become bitter the more you pick from them and as the season warms up.  By keeping lots of life in the garden it takes longer for the water to evaporate between watering.
       I'm working on potatoes right now, I'll clear the area of weeds and plant on a shallow layer of harder aged compost.  I'll bury them with a mixture of mostly dried grass (like the hay method) and some soil.
      Cooking has been something that also comes in handy when growing a vegetable garden.  Some things really aren't that good straight from the garden.  I've got Swiss chard and kale growing.  They can use light cooking with some olive oil. Things like fruits can be cooked in many ways; juice concentrates, fruit strips, or even made into sweet sorbets. When I had a lot of lettuce growing, Ceaser salads were a staple in my diet. 
      The healing power of gardening. Digging in the dirt with your hands is healthy, it draws toxins out of your hands.  Having a safe and peaceful place to go lowers stress levels greatly boosting the immune system.
       Growing lettuce is very difficult. It is sensitive to heat as it has a small root system.  A balance of some shade seems to allow more full flavored greens. When cutting I would switch off cutting every other plant allowing an extra close planting. Saving and replanting seeds can save a lot over buying starts. Especially because these are short lived plants. I recommend planting varieties separately both to make cutting faster and to keep the seeds more true to the original plant.
      I went Wwoofing abroad last year. It was a wonderful experience filled with adventure.  It brought to reality how much opportunity there is to help communities worldwide through agriculture.  I got to learn many thing from olive oil processes to using herbs in many dishes. I got to help plant a huge vegetable garden and was able to share things I've learned in the past while learning new things about building irrigation systems.  I was met with great kindness everywhere I went.  It was terrifying when I got off the plane, because I quickly realized I couldn't read anything and not that many people spoke more than a few words of English.  I made up for it by taking things slowly.  There were times I felt uncomfortable, was followed, and didn't have plan. 
     My primary means of transportation was by foot. After three days with a relatively light pack, my feet were blistered so bad I was having trouble walking.  So I found a pair of flip flops.  It helped a lot.  Another time, I had just enough budgeted for a hotel that night.  When I got there, those rooms were sold out. So I dug through my bag and had just enough to pay for the next one up.
    One thing that left me speechless was, I sat down to roll a cigarette, when a group of kids near by came up and gave me a cigarette.  That created a huge shift in my mind to realizing I was finally in a safe place. Then I was able to get where I was headed easier

New Garden

     Spring is arriving. I've prepared a small garden area.  The greenhouse is under construction as you can see in the photo.

Greenhouse being built

The pile of fairly fresh compost which will be buried under the soil.

I left cardboard over an area of lawn for a few months.  This killed off most weeds and got the soil much easier to dig.
I then dug up all the weeds and separated them from the soil.  Dug down again, raking all the dirt off to the side of the 3x6ft

Adding a lot of fresh compost below will help block weeds.

Then the heavier soil is added on the pile.

This is sifted compost. It's what I use to plant in.  Basically sift your compost through a metal screen around chicken wire or a bit smaller.  What I get is soft and nutritious(worm filled!) soil. 

I add this on top of the soil after raking it out some.

I then measured it out and raked it out to 2'6" x 5'6". As the soil settles it will expand back out to 3' x 6'

Here is the raked out and ready to plant soil. I was lucky to catch a nice day to plant, it has been raining often.

It's important to water both the plants and the plot heavily before planting.  Roots don't like to be dry especially during the stress of transplanting.  The roots also don't like sun, so dig the holes before taking them out of the 6 packs.

These are the things I am planting now, also a red sail lettuce. (forgot to get pictured)  In our area there is likely to be mild frost for another 2 months.  All of these are frost hardy.  I have found red lettuces to be able to tolerate cold better than green.  There are a few arugula and romaine. The arugula is about to bolt because I wasn't watering often enough. 

Here is the finished garden bed.  I started by spacing the broccoli and Swiss chard further apart then filling in with the lettuce.  The lettuce is sorted by variety with the green lettuce closest to the near plum tree.  This may help deter heavier frost.   Good luck planting all.

Travel

This is a bit off topic. There are many posts on how to travel affordably, so this will be on how to travel safely.  As with most things in life, appearance is important.  Be humble, everyone you interact with has an unbelievable story. Though always stay aware. As if I feel mistreated I will express it, so will everyone else in one way or another.  Sadly being from the United States nearly everyone I meet has a slightly mistreated feeling towards me. This ties into rehab, to keep the spell, of being from the most aggressively destructive country in the world, at bay you must be generous, but not co-dependent.  Co-depence is when someone is using you to support a habit, whether "using" or not. The main habit I have seen is refusal to work, the illusion that being healthy comes from earning without work.  This is the primary cause of heart disease, etc.. Lack of physical activity, A.k.a. work.
Another way to stay safe is be buzzed while around new situations. This allows you to keep you passions and emotions from strangers. Also beer has a lot of calories and is very affordable, which greatly cuts costs of food.  Next up, travel light. Ties back into being humble, you are exploring the world! You don't need to look perfect. Every extra pound you are caring is making you more exhausted, more vulnerable. Bring a travel toothbrush a bit of paste, a very small blanket and a few pairs or clothes at max. Even if you lose everything you will be fine! Also saves on flights. Don't be afraid to walk away. Listen to your intuition, as soon as you feel something is off, kindly be on your way. Till next time

Back to the Basics

When I began gardening years ago, it was a outlet.  People would say I had problems with alcohol or anything they could put a finger on.  Sadly I believed them at the time. So I would exhaust myself in the garden rather than react to the negativity I was experiencing.

I had a vision of creating a rehab program using work in the garden to redirect the energy of people seeking a more healthy lifestyle. By working in the garden they could learn to support themselves as well as learning about nutrition.

I believe this could help the U.S. become united again by acting as a role model to other nations rather than a fearmonger. Making programs like this available to people on welfare, they could learn the tools to contribute more to society.

This sounds like a vague idea, but it doesn't need to be.  The cost of starting a garden is miniscule, as I wrote about in the post about bees. The benefits would be immeasurable.

Countries dealing with political instability could also greatly benefit from this opportunity. Rather than increasing costly militant presence, the ability to put political pressure on, overall good-hearted, people would be removed.

With much love, continue creating beauty in this world

Always running

There was a fortune cookie that read, "Romance and travel will go together."  I sighed in relief.  In the past 5 years I've quit many jobs to travel.  Many friends pressure me to go to school or take up a career.  Be more romantic and shit. So I feel torn.  I love my friends and value their opinions, but traveling really makes me happy.  So the sigh was at a thought of being able to travel all over and still stay close with the people who are close to my heart. 
I was reading the blog of someone whose journey makes me feel far less different in my own. They were talking about dating themselves. That post inspired me to write more honestly.  I stopped dating a long time ago. I started feeling that there is no one loyal out there and stopped letting myself care about those types of feelings.  Sure it may be an illegitimate (no pun intended) way to feel, but feelings remain. 
There is more to it though. Dating myself became very enjoyable.  Rather than structure my life around one other person. I could roam freely. I began hobbies and started making tons of friends.  And yes, I started to learn about who I really was. What I like and what makes me happy.  I wouldn't shower for days and stopped worrying about how other people view me. The most genuine people I've met started crawling out of the woodwork.
I began learning to see behavioral patterns and could avoid counter-productive relationships much sooner.  So the journey of finding myself became rewarding. The world became a much smaller place.  Because even though I'd never met certain people I could spot their intentions quickly.
This is sorta just a ramble, it feels nice to write out