always sowing.

This is my post of shame.

You know, like a walk of shame... returning home in last night's clothes, only I'm returning to "little seed" after about a year and a half of no posting. Yowzah.

I'm back for a couple reasons:
1. I just went out to my garden after a morning of work and I'm feeling inspired.
2. I'm supposed to be writing this article for work and I'm not feeling inspired at all. I'm hoping that writing about something I truly love will make me more motivated to write about marketing and company culture. We'll see.

{loving the color contrast of this lettuce variety + a background of parsnip leaves}

In the last year and a half, despite my absence here, I've been experiencing some real growth in my knowledge of sustainable / regenerative agriculture & gardening practices. I've finished up my Horticulture Degree from NC State University and have helped plan, market, and recruit for an organic farm in South Carolina.

With all the work I've been putting into learning, I find it easy to be discontent with the lack of output that knowledge is driving. Sometimes I feel like the harvest wasn't really worth the work it took to sow.

But then I remember... I'm sowing these little seeds, these little nuggets of knowledge, for a lifetime of change. I'm sowing to change the way I consume, to create a lifestyle for my family that yields healthy / happy humans, to start conversations with my friends and family about our food, and to work toward a system for our world that can feed its inhabitants and renew the earth that gives us such an abundance. This always sowing has a purpose.

The practice of always sowing is something I've been implementing this season in my garden too. I noticed that I was usually picking a weekend each season to plant {for hours}, and then wait-wait-waiting to go out and grab the fruits, and then eat-eat-eating all of that harvest for a really long time without much variation. So this year, I've adapted an always sowing practice of planting seeds here and there - usually 1 or 2 days a week - so that my plantings and my harvests are more staggered. This also helps me to utilize my {limited} space much more effectively, and only take a few minutes at a time.

Try this out in your gardens / raised beds / pots on your deck. Don't plant all those basil seeds at once. Instead, plant a few, reserve the seeds in the packet {storing in a cool dark place}, and then plant some more the next few weeks.

I've been doing this particularly with one raised and one in-ground bed that I've set aside for cut flowers this season. I want to be able to harvest my zinnias / globe amaranths / double click cosmos / rudbeckia & many more all throughout the summer, and I'm hoping this staggered planting schedule will allow for just that. I also want my garden to look beautiful after the first round of mature flowers are spent. And for budget-conscious gardeners like me, this stepped planting approach also helps me regulate my seed usage and get the most out of my seed packs.

{above: a selection of Southern Exposure Seed & Johnny's Selected Seeds packets - two of my faves}

Above all else, the practice of always sowing means I'm outside more, taking in the sunshine and growth of a new spring season, a little bit at a time on almost every nice day. And when I am regularly experiencing those little pockets of joy and awe of God's creation, I feel reassured that my sowing, my toiling, my hard work... it's not in vain.

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap...the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."

- Paul's letter to the Galatians

go herban.

I often feel this tug to live far out from all the chaos of the city. A few acres of land, peace and quiet, and infinite possibilities for horticultural freedom in my yard! Then I think about the great connectivity we have in the city. Friends stop by because they're in the area. My daughter & I can take spontaneous walks with neighbors. We have great jobs that aren't over an hour away. We interact with ethnic & socio-economic diversity. We can grab legitimately good Mediterranean, or Vietnamese, or Indian, or farm-to-table food with friends any time we want to. And the city is ALIVE. I love that.

So once I snap back to reality, my goal is to find ways to integrate those dreamy aspects I love about that wide open space into the more limited space I have at home. One great way to do this is through planting a variety of herbs in my urban yard. They are versatile, useful, and add to the biodiversity in my area. In addition, many herbs are easy to grow, perennial, cold-hardy, or a combination of these traits. Beneficial AND easy? That's a win-win for my urban lifestyle.

Sometimes I think I only benefit from herbs that I use to add or enhance the flavor in my food. But in addition to delicious flavor, herbs are handy for the following reasons too:

* Food for bees
* Attracting beneficial insects to your garden or landscape
* Deter unwanted insects (ex. lemongrass for mosquitos)
* Medicinal use (teas, tinctures, poultices, infused oils)
* Used as cut flowers or as greenery in arrangements
* Beautify your landscape
* Aromatic (perfumes, cover odors)
* For coloring as a dye
* Grown indoors as plant therapy (Read here about the physical and mental benefits of indoor plants.)

{chives can have beautiful flowers like these}

Now that you're completely convinced that growing herbs in an urban setting is absolutely a grand idea, here are some great herbs to get started with...

borage
Borage refills with nectar every 2 minutes, so it is great for attracting and feeding honey bees and other beneficial pollinators. It's easy to grow from seed and has small but beautiful blue flowers. Borage can be applied externally as a poultice for inflammatory swellings, or taken internally as a diuretic, for fever or pulmonary issues, and to promote activity in the kidneys (Mrs. M. Grieve, A Modern Herbal: https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/borage66.html).

downside: Borage is an annual, so it will only stick around for one growing season.

 {image from http://honeylove.org/tag/borage/}

rosemary
Rosemary is great for culinary use. I love to use it on roasted root vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots) or even in a cocktail. Its sprigs can be used in flower arrangements as aromatic greenery. This herb also helps relieve indigestion, muscle pain and arthritis, and even sweetens the breath. It is a cold-hardy perennial, which makes it easy to grow and keep alive for multiple years of enjoyment.

downside: It's best to grow this one from cuttings. Seeds are slow to germinate.

lavender
Lavender flowers and leaves can be used for cooking. This Provencal-inspired recipe is delicious (I can personally attest!): http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Roasted-Potato-With-Lavender. While that potato recipe uses the leaves, this beautiful hot toddy utilizes the lavender flowers: http://www.decotartelette.com/lavender-orange-hot-toddy/.

The U.S. Lavender Growers Association states that bees love lavender in bloom, so if you keep bees or just want to bring these beneficial pollinators into your garden, lavender is a great way to do it! Lavender also calms & relaxes and is used in aromatherapy (by your masseuse & on your cold towel after hot yoga <so amazing>). It eases pain, and is an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory.

downside: Lavender can be tricky to grow in the Southeast because it does not tolerate excessive soil moisture of humidity.

{image from decotartelette.com of the hot toddy recipe linked above}

There are so many more herbs that may be the perfect fit for your region of the country, your lifestyle (indoor, in containers, in the ground), and your desires (medicinal, culinary, aromatic). The Herb Society of America, founded in 1933, has an online Beginner's Guide that may help you get started: http://www.herbsociety.org/herbs/beginners-guide.html.

On your own...
Herbal tinctures have been used for generations to help with issues like digestion. They're very easy to make and half a long shelf life. I love this tutorial on how to make them by Wellness Mama: http://wellnessmama.com/8168/herbal-tinctures/



Links / Sources:
Dr. Julia Kornegay, North Carolina State University Department of Horticulture - lectures from HS 205 (Home Food Production)

http://www.healthline.com/health/importance-plants-home
http://honeylove.org
http://www.herbsociety.org
http://www.decotartelette.com
http://uslavender.org
http://wellnessmama.com/
http://botanical.com/

soil: building a plant's home. (part 2)

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is good soil. Even if you have the funds to purchase organically enriched, fertile loam in bulk, a growing season will deplete the soil of its nutrients and you'll need to replenish them.

In my last post, I talked briefly on the importance of good soil. It can be a controversial topic in America (organic vs. conventional farming, etc.), so I encourage you to do some research on your own to decide where you stand on the issue of what we put into our soil... and therefore into our foods, and into our bodies.

If you're like me and are interested in ways to enrich your home garden soil without the aid of synthetic or chemical fertilizers, here are some practical ways to do so.

COMPOSTING

{photo above: our home compost "center" made by my husband}

Composting is a great way to add organic matter into your soil. It also has other benefits, like making good use of kitchen scraps, fall leaves, and grass clipping that you'd usually have to find an alternative way of disposing.

How does composting work? Composting is "controlling the natural decay of organic matter by providing the right conditions for composting critters to convert yard trimmings into a product that can be returned to your landscape and garden. Tiny organisms (mainly bacteria, fungi and protozoa) break down garden and landscape trimmings in a moist, aerobic (oxygen demanding) environment. The final product in a dark, crumbly form of decomposed organic matter." (Clemson University Cooperative Extension, website linked below).

You don't have to have an ornate or robust compost bin or system for this to work. In fact, all you need to do is tend to the following "key components" as described by Dr. Julia Kornegay of NC State's Horticulture faculty:

1. Carbon/nitrogen relationship: Keep a carbon to nitrogen ratio between 25:1 and 30:1. You can achieve this desired ratio by keeping a 1:1 ratio of "brown" to "green" compost. Brown includes fall leaves, wood chips, shredded paper, & twigs. Green includes grass clippings, kitchen fruit & vegetable scraps, and weeds.

2. Air: turn your compost frequently to let air in.

3. Water: make sure compost receives sufficient water to keep compost moist.

4. Particle size: Shred or chip materials before adding them into your pile.

5. Temperature: Increase caused by active microbial decomposition of organic matter. A proper carbon to nitrogen ratio will keep temperatures high and kill off pathogens.

Composting can be applied as a solid or a compost tea can be created if you have a limited supply of compost. {Check out this great video on how to make compost tea here!}


ORGANIC FERTILIZER
Animal manure is nature's fertilizer. Before the advent of synthetic fertilizers, farmers and gardeners used animal manure to enhance crop fertility and soil quality. It's important to use only dropping from plant-eating animals (no carnivores!). 

If you're not into keeping animals around for their manure - or that's just impossible in the apartment complex you live in - you can purchase organic fertilizers from your local gardening supply store.


VERMICULTURE (aka vermicomposting)

Vermiculture is a great option if you don't have much space. It's essentially a mix of composting & manure: you allow earthworms to feed on your compost and break it down for you. Fun fact: "Worms consume up to 50 percent of their own body weight in food each day," according to an article by Jennifer Pocock on "How Vermicomposting Works." That yields a lot of ready to use compost!

{photo by Anthony Masterson / Getty Images, taken from this online article: http://home.howstuffworks.com/vermicomposting.htm}

CROP ROTATION
Monoculture is bad for the soil. Planting ONLY one crop in the same plot of land, over and over again, depletes the soil of nutrients. 

I've been so inspired by reading some of Klaas Martens' story in Dan Barber's The Third Plate. Klaas is an organic grain farmer in Pen Yan, NY. He says, "The secret to great-tasting wheat is that it's not about the wheat. It's about the soil." And what is one major way he rejuvenates his soil? Crop rotation.

Even though he is farming wheat, he's planting cover crops, legumes (to fix nitrogen), rye to suppress weeds, and more. The goal is to create a home in the soil in which his wheat can thrive. Read more about his story in this brief New York Times article by Dan Barber: "What Farm-to-Table Got Wrong." 


COVER CROPS
Cover crops, like alfalfa, clover, or hairy vetch. These can be grown in your garden bed or field in the off-season. Plant them in the fall and then till into the soil in early spring.


WOOD ASH
Wood Ash from a fire pit or fireplace can be added to your soil to add nutrients and absorb toxins, according to gardening advisor Karen Thurber. Wood ash will also raise the soil pH, so can be used as an amendment to adjust your pH.

I hope you'll be able to utilize some of these methods in your home garden to enrich your soil without the use of chemicals!


Links / Sources:
Clemson Cooperative Extension Home & Garden Information Center: "Composting" http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/other/compost_mulch/hgic1600.html

"Enrich Garden Soil in 4 Ways" by Karen Thurber
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/enrich-garden-soil-in-4-ways#b

"How Vermicomposting Works" by Jennifer Pocock
http://home.howstuffworks.com/vermicomposting.htm

soil: a plant's home.

I have taken a much-too-long break from blogging here on "little seed." The last six months have been the best of my life. Even in the hardest, most sleepiest of times, I love being a mom. I'm very thankful for our daughter, Rynn, who will be half a year old in less than 2 weeks!

One of the things I've been up to in these past few months is continuing my horticulture education online through NC State University. For the next few posts, I'll be taking over this blog to write about Home Food Production (the name of the class I'm finishing up this semester). I'm excited that this blog is an avenue to further my education and satisfy a requirement for my semester project, but also that the class & project are leading me back to "little seed" to continue writing & sharing here with you.

Home Food Production is exactly as it sounds - cultivating food in your own backyard. This involves home gardening and animal husbandry (beekeeping, chickens, livestock, etc.).

Home gardens are an important way to get the fresh fruits and vegetables that our bodies need to be healthy, vibrant, and best equipped to fight disease, infection, allergies, colds, and many other ailments. I think a lot about what I'm putting into my body and how it will affect me. But often times, I stop short there and don't venture to think about what fed my food. As Michael Pollan said in his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, "you are what what you eat eats too." And that's important.

Right now, I'm at home. My home. It's set up just how I want it (for what my budget allows). To my left is a beautiful fiddle leaf fig tree that towers over the cozy couch I'm lounging on to write this post. The rug on the floor is funky & vibrant & I enjoy looking at it. The temperature is just right. I have food in the kitchen for when I'm hungry, and my little companion, a shepherd/cattle dog mix named Tucker is curled up beside me. I am comfortable. I enjoy being here. And more than that, here in my home, it's set up so that I can thrive. I'm not starving myself, freezing to death, or surrounded by things that are dangerous to me or that I hate.

In the same way that I'm able to grow & live abundantly at home, plants need a home that's set up just right for them to allow them to thrive, and SOIL is the plant's home. The soil is allowing water to stay or drain. It's holding the foods the plant needs. It's jam-packed with microbes and insects. It's makeup determines if the plant will succeed. Yet, overwhelmingly, our society chooses to "enrich" our soil artificially with chemical fertilizers that fall short of creating a good home for the plant. And beyond that, our methods of farming and even home food production have been successful in depleting our soil rather than improving it.

Sir Albert Howard, an English botanist and pioneer in organic farming, put it this way: "Artificial manures (synthetic fertilizers) lead inevitably to artificial nutrition, artificial food, artificial animals, and finally to artificial men and women." 

Dan Barber, the famous chef of Blue Hill restaurant in Manhattan, agrees. He sees an absolutely vital connection between how we cultivate our soil, how we grow food, and how we EAT. He discusses the "future of food" in his book The Third Plate, and writes, "Healthy soil brings vigorous plants, stronger and smarter people, cultural empowerment, and the wealth of a nation. Bad soil, in short, threatens civilization. We cannot have good food - healthy, sustainable, or delicious - without soil filled with life."

So how can we practically, in our very own backyards, begin to enrich our soil? Read more in my next post of this two-part series on soil.

the gift of life.

Today was my first Mother's Day as a mother. My daughter is not yet crying aloud or breathing on her own. I haven't touched her skin or seen her face, but the life inside of me is already my child, and I am already her mother. And yet today, even as I felt her little kicks inside of me, it was a hard day.

It seems there would be no reason for me to struggle with this day. I have an incredible mother who is healthy, strong, and wise. We have a solid relationship and she loves me so well. My two grandmothers are a huge part of my life. I see them and speak to them often and they have shaped my character. I spent part of today with my mother-in-law who has exhibited strength and dignity over the past year+ despite suffering an unimaginable loss. And to top it all off, Caleb & I are expecting our daughter's arrival in one short month.

We didn't struggle to get to this point. Graciously and as no result of our own merit, God blessed us with this child just 2 short months after we decided to "not prevent." And as if that was not enough, I have had an easy, I dare say enjoyable, pregnancy. I've remained healthy & to our knowledge, our child is healthy as well. Sometimes I'm terrified that things have gone so wonderfully... too wonderfully... and that something will go wrong. It is a daily challenge for me to trust in the Lord's sovereign design, a design that is out of my control, and to rest in hopefulness and shun anxiety from creeping into my life.

So here I am on this day, Mothers Day number one, with so much to rejoice over, and yet with a heavy heart. The reason is this: As easy as it is for me to count my blessings, it is just as easy for me to count the hardships faced by women and families whom I love. Just as this bump I carry is a reminder to me of this gift of life granted to our family, it is a reminder to so many of pain, emptiness, and strife.

I have learned in the past year that it is possible for pure joy and deep sorrow to coexist... that in life's most despairing moments we can also experience a renewed sense of hope. Though I've learned much of this through coping with the sudden loss of family, I have also learned it through carrying this child. I have come to realize that my responsibility is not only to carry the physical weight of a little human, but to also carry the weight of the gift that she is deep in my heart and to not take her life for granted. I am called not only to "rejoice with those who rejoice" but also to "mourn with those who mourn," knowing that so many women I love would give anything to have the back pain and swollen feet I experience if it meant they were carrying a child.

I wish I could take on the pain of my friends who are suffering from infertility, miscarriages, or the death of a newborn. But I cannot take this from them. What I can do is remember them before I complain, listen to them as they cry, and pray for them in their pain. And along with these things, I can remember each day of motherhood, no matter how difficult things get, to feel the full weight of this gift of life that has been entrusted to me, and to honor the Lord in being a mom.

So to my friend who lost her child in the womb last month...

To my friend I bumped into at the doctor, undergoing infertility treatments and struggling to understand why she can't get pregnant, years after a pregnancy that ended in a miscarriage...

To my friend who cannot carry her husband's child due to medical reasons...

To my friend who spent exhaustive years of treatment and surgery until finally giving up on carrying a child...

To my friend who lost her son shortly after his birth...

To so many others who are aching or know the pain of the loss of a child...

Today I mourn with you, in hopes that tomorrow we will rejoice.

"Behold, I am making all things new...Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." - Rev. 21:5

little by little: a practical gardening post

I have to admit... our house is a wreck.

But, I'm finally starting to feel pretty good about our garden.

This year, I followed the 6 P's that my father-in-law George taught my husband Caleb when he was younger: Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. And so far, it's working out. I hope that this post will inspire you and give you some practical ways to boost your harvest this year.

The most important thing I've learned in gardening is to not wait until the last minute. As a major procrastinator, this is tough for me to do, but it pays dividends in the gardening world (& in life) to prepare ahead of time. {See my last post on preparation & anticipation.}

If you don't have a place designated for your garden already, start there. Create a plan for your space, sketch your vision, and take some measurements. Then hit the hardware store to get what you need to build and purchase for your space.

This year, we moved into a new house & decided to do three raised beds in the sunniest spot in our backyard. If you're managing a larger space, look into a local landscape supply company for mediums like gravel (for good drainage in your beds), soil, compost, and mulch. You'll pay a much lower price, and if you don't have a truck of your own, many places will deliver it to you. Even with a delivery fee, you'll still make out well ahead of where you'd be purchasing bag after bag from the store.

Add hardscapes to your landscape as needed, using the plan that you create (more details below) as a guideline for what you need. Caleb helped me build a great trellis for my pole beans & squash, shown here:

Once your space is created, draft up a plan. This year, I created my own {self-titled} Planting Matrix. I relied heavily on my local co-op extension as a resource to create this personalized matrix. For the Piedmont region of the Carolinas, this guide by NC State is excellent: Central North Carolina Planting Calendarfor Annual Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs. Using the data found here, I created an Excel spreadsheet with 2 tabs: Layout & Schedule.

LAYOUT: This is where your mind can dream & your creativity can flow. Pick a mix of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs that sound delicious or beautiful to you and include these in your space. Arrange the plants within the space how you want them, taking into account things like amount of sunlight, where you'll add hardscape elements like trellises, and what time of year and how long each plant will remain in that space. Go ahead and make a plan for what you'll put into place after a plant is spent for the season.

{I added these dahlias for a pop of bright color & to attract beneficial insects. Marigolds are also useful for attracting friendly bugs, & their petals can be added to give salads a little citrus zing!}

I encourage you to use a digital method for drawing up your master plan. It's easy to change and move things around, print out a page for reference while planting, and a great way to share your ideas with others via Google docs or social media outlets.

{my personal garden bible - the layout matrix}

SCHEDULE: Pay attention to the days to maturity for the plants you've selected, and try to space out when you'll be reaping the harvest of different veggies & fruits. Not only will this cut down on having a surplus & waste from everything in your garden being ready at once, but it will allow you to keep grocery bills down and maintain a steady flow of produce out of your garden and into your home & mouth! Create a schedule ahead of time and stick to it as best you can, using guidelines for your region regarding the last frost and best conditions for seed germination for the variety of plants you choose. You may want to start some seeds indoors and transplant them outside when temperatures warm.

{Kale is very hardy & seeds can be planted directly into the ground. It will germinate even in cooler temps.}

{These poblano peppers were started indoors & transplanted to my raised beds once the weather warmed.}

Once your space is created (hardscapes in place), your soil is prepared (make sure you have good organic matter in your soil and go ahead & top it off with mulch), and you decide on your layout & schedule for planting, you've set yourself up for some major success and hopefully a bountiful harvest. Now get to planting!

preparation & anticipation.

Here in our city, the ice has melted & the sun has started to shine, at least more regularly than it has been. As the temperatures warm, people are emerging from their homes to enjoy the outdoors again after weeks of wet & cold gloominess. Daylight savings has ushered in a season of grilling after work and outdoor festivities with friends, and along with it has come the beginnings of my third trimester of pregnancy.

Early spring has come to be a time of preparation for me as I’ve gotten more interested and involved in gardening & having a yard to tend. It’s important to start making decisions and taking action long before the first seeds break the surface of the soil. Over the past few days, Caleb and I have been making big plans for our yard: taking down some trees to allow more sunshine through, starting construction on a compost bin, drawing up plans for our raised beds, and brainstorming what we’ll plant this season. Soon, I’ll start seeds indoors to move out to the beds so we can enjoy vegetables earlier in the summer, but to protect them from low temperatures that still loom. If we wait until the weather is just right to begin all of our projects, we won’t reap the benefits that we desire.

Yesterday as we were discussing placement for the garden beds in the backyard, I started to feel a sense of urgency. We have little time and much to do! We must tend the ground to make it ready for the advent of spring. We can’t wait for its arrival to start preparing…

This concept reminded me that the same is true for me as a mom. Of course I must prepare the nursery and have the necessary tools in place to care for Rynn (a crib, a carseat, diapers, itty bitty clothes). But what am I doing in my heart to prepare the way for this baby girl? How am I tending the soil of my spirit in anticipation of the blessing that’s about to be born?

Like the alarm going off the morning after we “spring” forward, this is a startling wake up call. If I’m honest with myself, I’ve done very little in preparation for embarking on what I know will be the most challenging but rewarding journey of my life. In a world where social media and the opinions of those around me demand that I make decisions on sleep habits and epidurals and breastfeeding, I’m left with little time for prayer and time in the Word to hear God’s opinions on parenting. I’m so busy taking care of the decisions that will impact my child physically that I have neglected to cultivate the aspect of me that will affect her most: my love.

So as I prepare the garden to nourish my little seeds, I’m resolving to prepare my heart for the little one who will be making her way into the world soon, relying on my care and attention and love to help her grow. May this spring be a reminder to us all to enjoy the moment, but to prepare and anticipate the joys and challenges of the season to come.