Fertile Soil & Seeding Winter Dreams

[Heather K]

Earthdreams awakening fertile fragrant nourishing living creations....I give thanks to the earth-creation and to farmers & growers who move within the earth's life cycles, and understand the limits of earth-gaia's gifts. I give thanks for farmer's growing passions envisioning the fertile dreams of tomorrow's nourishment!

It's December 21st,2009,  and I've just put in my first phone call for seeds, to Bountiful Gardens/Ecology Action, and they don't even have their 2010 catalogue out yet...but they took my order! [phone] www.bountifulgardens.org. (more seed resources below). I also longed to touch the earth again, so on the solstice I went outside and finally planted all the bulbs & garlic I was behind on getting in the ground...thank goodness the ground was still not frozen.

Then I walked through my dream greenhouse...Oh, I do love being in a greenhouse...'My Greenhouse', yes it still exists....still exists in my mind from past careers....still exists in my mind with its invisible footprint resting on the heartsong land I care for. It is marked out with various stones & stakes after using a 'Solar Pathfinder' to find all the variety of sun-arches within a small garden clearing surrounded by tall firs, cedars, & elder fruit trees.

I continue to ponder how to rise up this dream given limited resources, and the limits of the land that also need a footprint for future dreams of graywater catchment & filtration, and a footprint for a 'fertile-composting-humanure-shelter'. Its a hard choice, between a 'sun-room-greenhouse' growing plants & food & warming my winter body, versus a responsible cutting-edge design for a micro-shelter that will capture & compost our humanure 'recycled-gifts' to be returned to the earth.

Yep, as northern gardeners & plant addicts we sense the earth's pole tilting back towards the sun's warming light, even as the months grow colder; and as our addictions, no, our passions continue to breath deep in the visions of roots & seeds resting in earth-dreams awakening fertile fragrant nourishing living creations. Even while our body huddles close to fire immersing in books & seed catalogues, and making winter soups from squash, winter greens & fresh sprouts, we can still work in the garden. There is always compost to add to the garden beds, and collecting weeds for future compost, or turning the compost piles (-I prefer the ease of time & soil creatures turn mine) .

It is helpful to have an old bale of straw setting in the garden to use to protect bare soil and to protect any tender herbs needing insulation. January's also a fine time to create cold frames or hoop houses that can warm the soil early to prepare for planting of February's early crops. Remember the importance of Not cultivating the soil when its wet, which can physically damage the soil's tilth – a chemically complex web of air/nutrients/water and web of soil life (fungi/bacteria/microbes/animals). (Recommended soil books below).

I see the beauty everywhere I turn breathing deep in fresh winter's air and hearing the flutter of bird wings & songs as I rise in the morning to walk through the garden. . . . . .

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““We cannot doubt that we have been given the intellectual vision, the spiritual insight, and even the physical resource we need for carrying out the transition that is demanded of these times, transition from the period when humans were a disruptive force on the planet Earth to the period when humans became present to the planet in a manner that is mutually enhancing.”” - Thomas Berry

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Books on poop, or
Human Waste-Nutrients Recycling Recommended Books:

The Humanure Handbook – Joseph Jenkins
Future Fertility – Transforming Human Waste Into Human Wealth - John Beeby.

Soil Book Recommendations:

“The Soul of Soil – A Guide to Ecological Soil Management”- Grace Gershuny & Joseph Smillie
“How To Grow More Vegetables” -John Jeavons ( A primer on the life-giving 'Grow BioIntensive method of sustainable horticulture) – chapters 2-4 on Sustainability, Compost, Fertilization.
“Soil Biology Primer” ( pamphlet summery)
“Life in the Soil – A Guide for Naturalists & Gardeners” - James B. Nardi
“Teaming with Microbes – A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web” - Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis
“Secrets of the Soil” - Peter Tomkins & Christopher Bird
“Gardening at the Dragon's Gate – At Work in the Wild & Cultivated World” - Wendy Johnson (memoir of philosophy with dirt under the nails)

For more Seed Source Lists go to TWI discussion “Seed Sources/Farms for Open-Pollinated Varieties & Seed-Savers Preserving Biodiversity”
http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/group/seedsavers/forum/topics/see...

and also “Books & Videos & Websites - Seed-Saving”
http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/group/seedsavers/forum/topics/boo...

[Ron Snyder and Cathy Taggett]

Hi Heather. What a nice piece of garden writing. W have been pulling kale to feed our chickens and ducks. We have salad and peas growing under a cloche. Very slowly, but still growing. The soil is still alive this winter.
Ron says we have to get into the garden and beat up the clover so it doesn't kill our strawberries. You are right--there still is work to do in the garden. Cathy

[David Pike]

Last season I built my 10 x 20 greenhouse for $4. It was an old carport frame, covered with an old piece of greenhouse plastic my Dad gave me. If you had to buy it new, the carport frame sells at Costco for $150, the plastic online for about $50. So it would run about $200, brand new. If you could find an old carport frame on Craigslist...

just an idea to nourish your greenhouse dream...