Where’s the blank canvass?

Reposted from June 16, 2011 http://hipurbanfarmer.myblogsite.com/entry20.html#body


As I was kneeling in my garden to weed, I look at the plants growing from seeds. I just threw those seeds in the ground.  Yes, after years of reading Square Foot Gardening by Mel  Bartholomew and companion gardening books.  I just threw away the book. . . figuratively, of course.

Tomato plants need a 2 foot by 2 foot square, so I guess I can put this little roma plant in the dirt next to the wildly growing chives. Hmmmm, there’s more room over here. I pick some purslane and wild grass. Huh, look at that, it’s a volunteer tomato plant. Well, I’ll just leave that there.  Let’s put some beet seeds in here next to that. They are root crops; there’s gotta be room. I crawl over to the next section. Huh, dandelion. Yeah, that’s got to go. Where’d I put that weed puller. Doggone it, Where’s my tool! Oh, there it is!  Hey squirrel, get out of here!

And so it goes. . . I often think that my kneeling in the dirt is a prayer. Pulling weeds is an affirmation of hope. What I have come to realize, however, is that I never have a blank canvass.  In the spring, the raised beds are already teeming with growth and seeds from the previous year.  I know I could turn the soil over and use it all as some kind of green manure(??). I know that something has to die for my food, yet I can’t bring myself to do it. To create that blank canvass, where I can plant according to the directions that Mel Bartholomew has given, I must pull the weeds and the plants that voluntarily come out from last year.

When I first started the square-foot gardening raised bed, I had a blank canvass. There was new soil with no history of what came before.

Well, that dirt has a history, but I won’t launch into that discussion.

My point is that I only expected the seeds that I put into the ground to come up. Everything else was a weed. And weeds got pulled.

So, now I have no blank canvass. The soil has a history. Next year, I”m going to turn over every raised bed. I will be ruthless and meticulous.  The green volunteers are compost and from that compost, the soil will be conditioned. I intend to plant as Mel Bartholomew has planned and measured out the spaces for each type of vegetable plant. I will bring order to this gardening chaos!