Name of the Game



Weeds do best when watered often!



The name of the gardening game right now is determining which little leafy greens are sprouts that we planted and which are weedy intruders. We've learned to identify 4-5 of the most common weeds, but it isn't always so easy to tell. We're either really good at weeding out our little plant sprouts, or several of our main crops never germinated. Reports from other gardeners are that it has been a tough year for germination because soil temps haven't gotten as high as they normally do. Be that as it may. . .we're pretty sure we've uprooted some of our precious plantlings ourselves. Sad. Oh well, we've reseeded some areas and are moving forward.



Everything you see here is a weed!



Evening gardening is the best!

We need your help with our latest weeding conundrum:



Obnoxious weed?
Turnip?
Parsnip?
Anyone?











RAMERC Garden

This NE Denver urban gardening situation is a little different than most. We've partnered with Jocelyn Miller, the director of the Robert A Miller Educational Resource Center (RAMERC). You can view her website here: http://ramerc.com/index.html. This garden has a very special purpose, above and beyond growing high quality food in an urban center! Jocelyn runs parenting and family coaching classes from the resource center and uses the garden as a living teaching tool. Young parents learn the importance of consistently nurturing their children as they learn to care for the plants. They learn that their children will not grow in healthy ways on their own, and that parenting is hard work but the benefits last forever. She also uses the garden as a tool to promote family attachment. We are just laborers here. The seeds and starts that we planted are hers, as will be the harvest. Regardless, it is a great experience for us and an even greater investment!

The RAMERC back yard boasts four great planters!

Right now, our biggest job is to visit several times a week to water the garden. 

This bed has tomatoes, turnips and green onions on the left, and lettuce,

broccoli and more green onions on the right.

This is our 3 sisters bed:

Here, we have two rows each of corn, pole beans and turnips.

Each end has several mounds of squash.

This bed has three different kinds of peppers,

and we're growing different herbs from seed inbetween.

We can't help but think this trellis is perfect for growing hearty kiwi vines.

Maybe next year . . .

Stay tuned for more growing updates!!

Curtis Park Garden

Even though it is early in the season, we thought our blogging audience might appreciate tours of our urban gardening endeavours. To start, here is our Curtis Park Garden Plot!

Curtis Park is near the famed 5-points area of Denver.

The surrounding neighborhood is steeped in history, culture and tradition!

 Welcome to our garden!

There are 20ish garden plots on this fertile lot.

Below is our plot--picture taken a couple of weeks ago.

We had our tomatoes protected by walls of water until the nighttime temps were high enough for them to

survive.

 Andrew is bringing in twigs we used to build our bean trellis.

 We planted 12 tomato plants: some cherry tomatoes, canning tomatoes and slicing tomatoes.

We bought them from hobby heirloom folks in the area.  Next year, we'll probably buy smaller starts. They are doing well, but it is taking the roots a long time to catch up with the size of the plant!

We planted carrots, turnips, onions and probably something I'm leaving out around the tomatoes. These are called "companion plants" because they work together to build the soil and ward off pests.

 In this section we planted an assortment of herbs and peppers.

The aromatic qualities of the herbs deter most pepper pests.

 Andrew is planting the 3 sisters: pole beans, corn and squash (cucumbers and zucchini).

We also planted a variety of lettuce, radishes, sunflowers, cantelope, watermelon, bush beans, crookneck yellow squash and broccoli. We're going to be busy come late summer!

 And here is the bottom of the trellis for the pole beans. In traditional Native American farming, they would start the corn before the beans so the corn stalks would be strong enough to support the beans. We planted both at the same time, so we expect the beans to need some additional support!

 Here, Andrew is putting the final touches on our hand-woven trellis. If you look closely, you can see the famous "cash register" building in the downtown Denver skyline.

We love making urban areas more food productive!!

Edible Forest Gardens

What a weekend at Woodbine Ecological Center! Andrew and I joined the likes of career permaculturists, hippie crusaders, species-identifying heavyweights and gardening urbanites. We were amongst people who get a spark in their eye when you mention concepts like polyculture design, model ecosystems and niche conditions. We were the green ones in the course, but more than one seasoned veteran told us with tears in their eyes that they are overwhelmed with hope when they see people of our generation perpetuating permaculture ideals.

We had the opportunity to learn the basics of designing an edible forest garden from one of the forerunners in the field, Eric Toensmeier. To start to describe this interesting concept, we can put agriculture and nature on two ends of one food-producing spectrum. The typical gardener would start at the agricutural end and kinda sorta make their way toward the natural end. What we learned to do this weekend was to start with the natural and edge our way back toward the agricultural.

The main idea with this style of gardening is to use native perennial plants in a way that mimic the layers of a forest, and to do so with plants that are good to eat! Perennial planting is the most wonderful and lazy way to garden--the plants come back year after year without much effort at all! And planting native plants not only guarantees the plant's success in your given area, it carries forward the history of an area unlike any other activity!

In really lush areas of the world, we could probably describe 6-7 distinct plant layers. Here in Colorado where the sun is harsh and the soil is dry, we typically see 3 layers at a time, if that: groundcover (grass/herbs), shrubs and trees. There are so many relationships between forest plants, we can only begin to copy the patterns we see.  We learned about some great native plants in each of these layering categories, and we learned how to pair them based on their ability to fix nitrogen, their ideal soil conditions, their ability to attract beneficial insects, their food products, etc.

 All three forest layers are here: trees, shrubs and groundcover!

What an ideal classroom!

After learning the concepts and taking a hike to observe the natural occurrence and patterns of native plants in the forest, we helped design and plant an edible forest garden for Woodbine!

Here is the area with which we were challenged:

Notice the steep south-facing slope and ultra dry conditions!



Here are the plants we used:

Included here are Sand Cherry shrubs (yum!), sagebrush, chokeless chokecherry shrubs, netleaf hackberry trees, burgambel oak trees, banana yucca plants, prickly pear cacti, silver buffalo berry shrubs, purple clover seeds, prairie turnips, mountain mahogany shrubs, black locust trees (from seed!), manroot morning glory, and buffalo gourd. Whew!

The process:

And our fearless leader and instructor assessing the final result:

I was encouraged by the plants that we could use in our own perennial polycultures someday: strawberries, raspberries, sand cherries, hazelnut shrubs, groundnuts, currants, perennial broccoli and climbing spinach. Our favorite polyculture design would have berries and nuts included in the three layers--with which we could make granola bars! We also heard rave reviews about a perennial climbing hearty kiwi. . . now that's a must try!

Here's a parting shot of the most lovely doe overseeing our activities:



Describing Darsan

Darsan (pronounced darshan) means "seeing." A visual perception, specifically of the sacred. What a beautiful concept; seeking awareness of the divine amongst us. Andrew first made me aware of the concept of darsan and it matches so closely the perception of the world I would like to foster and maintain. This blog conversation is my attempt at documenting the divine I see in my interpersonal and natural surroundings.

To give credit where credit is due, darsan is actually a Hindu principle that is often applied to images that are believed to embody the divine. In Hindu tradition, darsan means laying eyes on a religious figure and acknowledging the divine presence that innately dwells there. It seems that this conceptual framework is different than what some would deem idolatrous, but I'm not sure I understand that difference enough to differentiate them for you here.

That being said, I'm going to take the liberty of applying this beautiful concept to my own theological worldview. When acknowledging the trinitarian God who created the world, all the inhabitants of the world, and the natural processes that support this world, we are compelled to believe that each element of creation is a revelation of the Creator. Humanity bears a very specific resemblance to God, as we have been made in the image of God. We are the Imago Dei. It is my quest to appreciate every person I encounter as an "image bearer," a person who is innately significant because of their unique divine reflection. Additionally, we know that the natural world (by this I mean the land, sea, animals and plantlife) is a general reflection of the character and purpose of God. The specifics of God's character and purposes were revealed in the personhood of Jesus Christ. Amazingly, these same traits are revealed in a more general form in the cacophony of the natural world.

It is my desire to live in such a way that fosters an awareness of God's divine reflection in the communities and landscapes of my life. As best I can, I'll be describing darsan. . .