Several Items of Interest

Our weather has finally turned, if only temporarily, and the smoke in the sky has (blessedly) lessened. It is such a treat to get outdoors, to hike and to garden! I will never be complacent about clear air again. Today I plan to get the winter garlic and spinach seeds in the ground. I am woefully behind in these tasks. I must admit that the school workload this fall is much heavier than it ever has been before and I am struggling to get through it all! Meanwhile, I am in the process of rethinking my entire garden space, which is a huge project to contemplate and will have to be done in fits and starts. I very much feel an urgency to plant for the future, which will likely be as hot and as smoky as it has been this summer, and at least as dry. This will require me to rethink my plant choices and, in fact, the entire layout of my garden.

I’ve been interested to read several good articles about plant life and fire. The first is from the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley.

Here’s the relevant info, though I think it’s worth reading the entire article: “While there are much data pointing to the beneficial effects of fires on plants, especially in regard to acting as an environmental cue for seed germination and in seed dispersal, in general, as for humans, smoke and ash are detrimental to plants. Chemically, more than 100 different compounds have been identified in smoke, including toxic levels of nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone. Short-term exposure to smoke (as little as 20 minutes) has been reported to reduce photosynthesis by as much as 50%, as a consequence of both the destruction of chlorophyll, the light-capturing green pigment, and in impeding the movement of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the plant through leaf pores (stomata)” (Dr. Lew Feldman, garden director, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden). He goes on to say that ash may have a beneficial impact on our soil, at least in small quantities, but that it might acidify it slightly. This made me think of how people used to spread their fireplace ashes over the garden to enrich the soil. That usually happened in the fallow season to prepare for the next crop, though. I’m sure we’ll begin to see some studies that help us understand how smoke and ash affect our gardens in the coming years.

image credit: UCANR

The Master Gardeners (also a UC program around here) sent out an interesting email which said, “In our summer issue, featuring Firescaping, we emphasized how ALL plants can burn under the right conditions. California natives are no exception. As a matter of fact some of them are quite flammable. Proper selection and maintenance are key! Considering the current devastating wildfires and extremely unhealthy air stretching over our western states, we'd like to revisit some important features of fire-resistant plants. Look for the following characteristics:

• store water in leaves or stems

• produce very little dead or fine material

• possess extensive, deep root systems for controlling erosion

• maintain high moisture content with limited watering

• grow slowly and need little maintenance

• low growing in form

• contain low levels of volatile oils or resins

• open & loose branching habit with a low volume of total vegetation.”

This also helps me with my plan as I move forward with new garden design. Many home owners around here have basically given up on their gardens, and either “landscape” with rocks or mulch, or just leave dead grass in their expansive front yards. I think we can figure something better out. I have always had multiple goals for our garden: it must feed us, feed the ecosystem, regenerate the soil, conserve resources, and look pretty. The list hasn’t changed, but I now want to add “future climate friendly” as well.

While working on a paper a couple of days ago, my attention wandered to a squirrel in our front garden. The squirrels (mostly fox squirrels) are very active this time of year, collecting the enormous acorns from our valley oak tree, and burying them mostly in my pots of bulbs, which is very annoying. One particular squirrel has figured out a path from our fence to our gate to our roof, and s/he goes back and forth constantly. I was watching her when suddenly she dropped down flat onto her belly on the fence. I was worried that she was sick or dying, but when I looked it up, it turns out this is a defensive posture. According to Geography Realm, “the act of lying flat hides the lighter colored belly of a squirrel. The fur color on the outer side of a squirrel evolved to help the squirrel blend in with its environment…  the posture of lying flat on a surface also helps to protect the vital organs of a squirrel should it be attacked.” We have several kinds of flying predators around here, day and night, so I wonder if the squirrel saw a hawk and immediately dropped? She stayed there for about ten minutes, and then went back to her usual pattern of roof-gate-fence. There is another squirrel who tends to hang out in the back garden, who is missing a foot. I’m hoping these are all signs that the predators are becoming more numerous in our yard. We often hear owls at night, quite close, and since we have a perennial family of rats living in the compost, we are hoping that their numbers are being thinned by them. We can use all the help we can get!

I heard a sparrow in the garden yesterday, which made me realize that I hadn’t heard one in quite a while. That led me to wonder if sparrows migrate.

image credit: UC Santa Cruz

Well, it turns out, they do. Here in central/northern California, the year-round temperature is fairly mild, so we don’t often think about things migrating. It doesn’t seem as neccessary as it would from say, Michigan to Florida. But there are lots of things that migrate to escape colder temperatures, or to find food, or to breed in different places. It turns out that golden-crowned sparrows (like the one pictured above) spend winters in the Bay Area, and head north to Alaska to breed in the spring and summer. According to study published by PRBO, “Each bird, which weighs approximately 30 grams, migrated from 1600 to 2400 miles one-way to their breeding grounds. Their individual breeding locations spanned approximately 750 miles along the coast of Alaska, and their north migration averaged only 29 days while southbound migration averaged nearly twice that (53 days).” This kind of distance blows my mind. White-crowned sparrows (also commonly seen and heard in my garden in the wintertime) also make this kind of migration each year. “Breeders in mountains mostly migrate to wintering grounds in lowland southern California and south into Mexico, departing in September and returning in April and May. Coastal breeders mostly present year-round; not migratory (Mewaldt et al. 1968). Other individuals winter elsewhere in California lowlands and foothills and migrate to Canada and Alaska in April and May; often return to same wintering sites the following September or October (Mewaldt 1976). In montane habitats, fairly widespread in fall, but descend below heavy snows for winter and spring (Grinnell and Miller 1944)” (CA Dep’t of Fish and Wildlife). So do song sparrows. “Song Sparrows are resident throughout much of their range, although the northernmost populations are migratory. Resident populations extend as far north as coastal Alaska. The wintering range stretches across the southern United States and dips into northern Mexico. Birds at high altitudes may also descend into the lowlands during the winter” (Birdweb).

I’m glad to have the sparrows back in residence! They contribute beautiful songs during the dawn chorus, and I enjoy the music.

Lastly, have you seen the new David Attenborough documentary? I found it very compelling. What a career this man has had, and what amazing things he has seen! I love that he considers this documentary his “witness statement.” It is not an easy thing to watch, as he lays both history and the future of the environment out in plain language. But I believe that we, too, are witnesses. And as such, we cannot turn away from this. It enrages me that the political debates include few questions about climate, and are often phrased “do you believe?” or “what will you eliminate?” Let’s get past all that. Let’s start asking, “what is your plan to DO? how will that look? how will we all be included?“ Let’s be honest about what it will cost. The truth is, it will cost us everything; it will be enormously expensive, far more than Covid has been. But it must be done. I would encourage everyone to start accepting and facing what’s to come, and vote accordingly (though I will readily concede that from a climate perspective, there is no perfect candidate; so ask yourself, which candidate will get us further faster?).

On that note, I’m off to plant garlic. What’s happening in your garden this weekend?

Reader Question - Vermicomposting

A reader named Jen writes, “I am considering getting a vermicomposter, and the options range from high end to low cost: https://www.epicgardening.com/best-worm-composter/ The Worm Factory starts at $146 and others are more moderately priced, in the $100 range. The Hungry Bin is a whopping $346! Here are my questions: Should I invest in a more expensive worm bin and if so, why? Should I release some worms into my garden so that the birds have more to eat over the winter? Am I really doing anything about the impending doom of climate change by vermicomposting?”

Full disclosure, Jen is a close friend of mine from childhood. She lives in NC, in Chapel Hill, which is USDA Zone 7b. She lives in a forested area and has a lovely Japanese style garden, as well as some meadow plantings.

We all know the benefits of composting, so I don’t need to go through those again. Our awareness of food waste has been growing lately, and it’s good to figure out some sort of system for dealing with that (besides re-thinking your shopping and cooking habits, which I’ve had to do myself with our teenage son away at college). Chickens or pigs is ideal for this - nothing gets wasted if you have livestock to eat your leftovers. But worms are another livestock option that are ideal for those of us who don’t have the property allowance for larger animals.

I’ve used worms in various ways for years.

I’ve had an official worm bin, which was used by and then given to me by a neighbor, and it was an interesting experience.

These are usually a set of stacked bins. The top few have a perforated bottom, to let worms and leachate move between them, and the bottom one has a solid bottom to keep everything inside. There is also usually a spigot of some kind which allows you to drain off the leachate (basically worm pee). You then dilute this liquid and use it as a fertilizer. Additionally, the castings (poop) are removed periodically and added to your pots or beds.

I found this sort of system high-maintenance. It needs to be in an area that is protected from rain (there are openings in the top to allow air circulation); the top is easily removed by predators who eat all the worms (hence my putting rocks on top); you need to have a lot of leaves or newspaper or some other carbon source available to soak up all the nitrogen that is being produced (poop); and, when it’s time to empty the bins of worm castings, you have to somehow “sift” out the worms, which is supposed to happen naturally with the perforated bottoms but, in my experience, doesn’t work. I used it for about a year and then put it in the recycle bin (after removing all the worms and stuff and putting them in my regular compost).

I can see that this sort of system would be perfect for someone who doesn’t have any outdoor space - a balcony, or a garage, or even a laundry room could host a stack like this. But the mess you make when you remove the compost would make it less than ideal for indoor spaces. If you have very harsh winters, this system could also be good, but again, not easy to maintain indoors. Some people make their own worm bins which is far cheaper than buying something pre-made.

Something I have found far more sustainable is to have an enclosed outdoor compost bin of smaller stature, one made of natural materials that is open to the ground below. My dad made me one like this years ago, a two-compartment bin of old redwood decking, with a hinged lid and removable front panels. Because the bin is so small (3’x3’x3’), it doesn’t hold enough material to get hot enough to break down easily. My way around this is to buy worms every other year, and add them to the bin.

There is likely a worm farmer near you, wherever you live, where you can buy a couple of pounds of red wigglers for about $20 a pound (which you’ll need to do for a worm bin, as well). They will mate and produce more worms, but they also crawl out of the bin and into the surrounding garden, get eaten by birds, etc. So that’s why I buy them every couple of years. They really speed up the composting of my smaller bin.

I don’t bother to add any worms to the big compost pile that resides in the chicken run. First of all, they’d just get eaten by the chickens. Secondly, that pile breaks down faster anyway for many reasons - it’s bigger (more volume), it has its own dedicated sprinkler, and it gets turned by the chickens every single day. There are definitely worms in it - I see them every time I go to collect the finished stuff at the bottom - which have arrived from the surrounding garden.

And that brings me to something else you need to consider - there are already a ton of worms in your existing landscape. They are there even if the soil has been neglected for years. They reside deep inside the moist layers of soil. Rain brings them closer to the surface, as does organic matter. If you have a woodsy area, worms are part of the great soil ecosystem that breaks down all that organic matter - only a small part, to be sure, as bacteria and fungi do most of the work of decomposing the litter that lies on our soil surfaces. The very best way to ensure that you have an active and healthy soil ecosystem is to provide it plenty of organic matter. Don’t remove leaves. Add mulch to bare ground. And you may even want to bury your food scraps out in the landscape - just dig a hole next to a bush or a tree, put your scraps in, and cover them with soil. This is called “composting in place” and many people swear by it. There is a permaculture method called a “keyhole” planting bed, which is a raised bed shaped like a circle, with one path in to the center of the circle so you can reach everything. In that center, you place a wire basket (open to the bottom and the top). In that, you layer leaves and grass and food scraps, and it breaks down right into your bed.

I even had a horticulture professor who basically laid his food scraps down around his fruit trees, not even bothering to bury them! This looks unattractive but is effective. In my neighborhood that would attract even more nighttime creatures, so I need a more organized way to deal with scraps.

As for the birds, something like 98% of bird species feed insects to their young, even if they are seed eaters normally. The young need protein, and the best source of that is insects. Birds need a variety and abundance of insects, and so if you appreciate birds, the best thing you can do for them is to provide insects. Worms that live in the ground are good for some bird species, but worms that live on leaves are much better for a vast number of bird species. Worms that live on leaves, also called caterpillars, are usually a larval stage of many insects. So, as we’ve discussed before, there are many things you can do to increase insects in the garden: stop using pesticides; plant a variety of flowering trees, perennials, annuals, vegetables, and herbs; provide water in shallow dishes; and allow for different habitats - some mulched spaces, some bare dirt spaces, tree snags, piles of logs, etc. Be a slightly messy gardener! Don’t clean up too much. For more on this subject. you would do well to read “Bringing Nature Home” by Doug Tallamy.

And as for climate change and the state of our planet, any action we take as individuals can only help the situation, so I encourage you to compost in any way you can. If a worm bin is going to be the thing that gets you there, then do it. Individual actions allow us to feel as though we are part of the solution and give us hope, so they are important from a mental health standpoint as well. But we also need to realize that it’s going to take global action and policy to really shift the world towards a completely different thinking about climate change. I’m not saying that your individual actions don’t matter. They do. But as individuals, we really don’t have the power necessary to make a significant change. That’s why we need to be proactive about voting for people and policies that support making these big changes.

I hope this helps you to make a decision about whether or not to get a worm bin, Jen! Thank you so much for your question. I’ll be interested to see if anyone else has some other advice for you, perhaps a system that worked particularly well for them, or ideas for making your own bin.

A Policy Brief

As you know, I’m a student, working towards my BA in Environmental Studies.

Today I finished a sample policy brief, which is a summary of information that can help people understand and make decisions about government policies. This was an assignment in one of my classes, and is my first try at this sort of thing, so it’s likely not perfect, but hopefully a good first effort. This particular brief was about accepting the fact of climate change and taking action to reverse it.

When I was writing it, I pretended I was writing it for you - my audience here, people who care about gardens and insects and homegrown food and nature.

So, I thought I would also share it here. If this is not your thing, then please feel free to exit out of this post and come back when I post pictures of kale or bees. But if you’re at all on the fence about this issue, or if you’ve never truly understood it, then you might enjoy reading my little effort to clarify it.

We’re all going to vote soon. The first presidential debate is Tuesday night. The topic of climate change will not be, as far as I know, part of the evening’s agenda, which is reprehensible in my opinion. I believe climate is the large umbrella under which everything else resides - issues of civil justice, health, money, education, our very well-being - everything is affected by climate change. We, as humans, will be impacted. We are already being impacted. Voting for candidates who will squarely face this issue is imperative. We simply cannot ignore it any longer.

“CLIMATE CHANGE: Acceptance and Action

There is compelling evidence for the existence of rapid climate change on our planet. In the last century, and particularly during the last 20 years, we have seen global temperatures rise, glaciers and sea ice melt, sea levels and temperatures elevate, oceans acidify, and the frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires. These can all be traced to the meteoric rise of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. Urgent action must be taken if we are to continue living on Earth. Along with reducing carbon emissions, reducing the use of and increasing the efficiency of energy and materials, and improving agricultural practices, we must also increase the resiliency and sustainability of our planet by reducing poverty, promoting equity, eliminating hunger, and providing education. Only by immediate and drastic actions can we save our planet and ensure the continuation of our species.

Scope of the Problem:

Greenhouse gases, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2) (81% of the total), and methane (10% of the total), are released as a consequence of human activity, and are generated by the production of fossil fuels (gas, coal, and oil, through the processes of mining and fracking) and the burning of said fuels (in combustion engines and power plants). The gases form a thick layer in our atmosphere, acting like a blanket and trapping heat (through refracted infrared radiation). This has caused the temperature of the lower atmosphere to rise to unhealthy levels. In 2017, the temperature reached 1 ℃ above pre-industrial levels. We are rapidly warming and may soon approach 1.5 ℃, which will have dire consequences for every living thing on our planet.

It will take centuries for the excess gases to be removed from our atmosphere by natural processes, so even if we are able to stop all emissions now, we will still experience climate inertia and a continued rising of atmospheric temperatures. The impact of these rising temperatures will continue to be experienced. This is why immediate action must be taken; so that we do not reach the tipping point of no return.

The impacts of greenhouse gas, and the resultant warming, are numerous and detectable now, and will become more so in the future. Physical impacts include extreme weather, which we are experiencing at present in the summer of 2020, on both coasts, as wildfire rips through the West; the East is confronting a horrific hurricane season. According to the NOAA, “the August contiguous U.S. temperature was…. 2.6℉ above the 20th century average and ranked third-warmest August on record.” Sea level rise is imminent as we experience more sea ice melt.

There are also numerous impacts on our ecosystems, with species migration and extinction due to destruction, changing temperatures, and lack of food and water. With marine environments acidifying, there will be hugely harmful consequences to the aquatic ecosystems.

The impacts of this warming to humans include reduced crop production, a greater incidence of infectious disease, and reduced supply of fresh water. We also cannot ignore the mental and emotional threat of climate change. According to the American Psychiatric Association, “Exposure to climate- and weather-related natural disasters can result in mental health consequences such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.” And according to the Centers for Disease Control, “Climate change poses many risks to human health,” including heat stroke and respiratory events.

Human migration is also a very real consequence of climate change. As an example, the 1998 monsoon floods in Bangladesh devastated infrastructure and agriculture, leaving 21 million people homeless.

Current Approaches:

In December of 2015, the COP 21 (Conference of Parties) met in Paris for a climate conference. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was invited to produce a special report for the event. IPCC’s “Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5℃” was written by 74 scientists from 40 countries, and took two years to produce. The assessments and recommendations set forth in this report were adopted by the countries represented at the Paris conference, in an historic consensus (“The Paris Agreement”). Nearly all of the major greenhouse-gas emitting countries ratified the Agreement, which accounts for about 90% of global emissions (the United States has since pulled out of the Agreement, a decision which was made by President Trump in 2017). The Agreement’s aim was (and is) to keep global warming below 2℃. The IPCC recommended that, in future, “cumulative emissions are kept within a budget by reducing global annual CO2 emissions to net zero.” Mitigation pathways include producing power by renewable resources only (hydro, wind, solar, and bioenergy), reduced energy consumption, increased energy efficiency, and land-use changes. The report also included suggestions for sustainable development, because poverty eradication and reducing inequalities improves the well-being of humans, particularly in a warming world. The report states, “… sustainable development has the potential to significantly reduce systemic vulnerability, enhance adaptive capacity, and promote livelihood security for poor and disadvantaged populations.”

A further current approach being used by all humans on Earth at the moment, and that will be used even more in the future, is adaptation. As the climate warms, escape from the impacts caused by increased carbon emissions is impossible, so we will need to learn how to live with them. Planning for these impacts, and implementing measures to combat them, is crucial. Both local and indigenous knowledge can play a part in helping us to prepare. Bracing for more extreme weather events, and learning how to make our living spaces safe, is something we are already doing. The recent wildfires in the West have shown us that the ancient knowledge of prescribed burns can help keep our forests healthy, and less vulnerable to extreme firestorms. The planting of trees can help provide shade to neighborhoods that are experiencing extreme heat. The mitigation of soil erosion can help prepare coastlines for hurricanes. Likewise, we are already taking steps to improve our supply chains with the increased use of local farms and producers. The implementation of regenerative soil practices can increase the health of our crops and provide water capture in the face of drought. Further adaptation will be important as we move steadily into the future of climate change.

Recommendations:

The most immediate need is to reduce carbon emissions. A multi-tiered approach is recommended. This includes halting the production and burning of fossil fuels, with a move to clean, renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro); halting the deforestation of the World’s largest forests such as the Boreal and the Amazon; and implementing regenerative agricultural practices such as no-till, cover cropping, and eliminating the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Simultaneously, we need to increase the amount of carbon sinks on the planet. According to Ocean & Climate Platform, “A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that absorbs and stores the atmosphere’s carbon with physical and biological mechanisms.” The ocean acts as a natural carbon sink, holding carbon in the deep waters. Humus-rich environments such as peatlands, and vegetative areas such as forests, also sequester carbon. Soil is a tremendous carbon sink, so the implementation of no-till agriculture is important to hold on to that carbon.

Artificial carbon sequestration is also being considered. These are processes in which carbon emissions are captured at the point of product and buried. Proposed methods include pumping carbon dioxide deep into the ocean, piping it into underground chambers such as oil reservoirs and coal seams, and injecting it into layers of magnesium- or calcium-rich rock.

Adaptation will also need to increase as the planet warms and impacts are felt. Education is important here, as well as compassion, as we all emotionally and physically come to accept the fact of climate change. Ignorance will no longer be an acceptable choice.

Summary:

The studies produced by the international team of scientists for the IPCC have shown clearly that climate change is occurring now, and that it has been created by human activity, primarily by the production and burning of fossil fuels. The evidence of climate change continues to grow and awareness is ever-present as we begin to feel the effects of its impacts in the rise of global temperatures and extreme weather events. Urgent action is required to mitigate the continued rise of greenhouse gases, and to adapt to the effects of them on our planet. Complacency and willful ignorance are no longer permissible. Humans in all nations must join together to present a strong and unified front, creating new solutions and bravely facing the changes we face. Only by working together can we survive, and thrive, in a new world.

Sources:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

World Meteorological Organization: https://public.wmo.int/en/resources/united_in_science

World Resources Institute: https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/02/climate-change-mitigation-adaptation-strategies

Ocean & Climate Platform: https://ocean-climate.org/?page_id=3896&lang=en

Carbonify: http://www.carbonify.com/articles/carbon-sequestration.htm

United Nations: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/what-is-the-paris-agreement

American Psychiatric Association: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/07-08/climate-change

Centers for Disease Control: https://www.cdc.gov/climateandhealth/pubs/EXTREME-HEAT-Final_508.pdf

International Organization for Migration: “Migration and Climate Change,” No. 31 https://www.iom.int

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/202008”

image credit: IPCC

Planting the Winter Garden/Thoughts on Water

We had a brief respite from the smoke this weekend and were able to get all of the north garden planted for winter. This involved taking out all of the tomatoes and peppers, amending the soil, doing a little aeration of the soil, replacing the drip lines, and planting seeds. The north garden will be home to brassicas and greens, this year. I’ve decided to skip Brussels Sprouts, as I never have much luck with them. But all the other usual suspects are in, and we’ll enjoy eating them early next year. Greens will be available to eat all winter, which we love.

The next job is to cover the hoops with row cover, to keep the birds and the cabbage white butterflies OUT!

I had mulched the tomatoes and peppers heavily with organic rice straw, and one benefit of that was that the soil level was still very much as it looked in April - still level with the top of the raised beds. I thought that was interesting. Another benefit of the straw is that I was able to move it from the beds to the chicken run, and now they have a new layer of carbon to scratch through and soil with their droppings.

In the south garden, Tom took out the beans and cucumbers and I took out the pumpkins and some cover crops. Now we have snap and shelling peas planted, which might crop before cold weather - we’ll just have to see. I’m a little early on my winter planting this year, so I’m not sure how everything will behave.

Our seed garlic will be arriving tomorrow, so I also prepared a bed for that. However, I had forgotten that we had a water issue that needed investigating. We noticed some extremely wet places in between raised beds last May, and Tom dug down to see if there was a leak in the irrigation, and didn’t find anything. We dialed down the amount of water going to those beds and decided to watch it this summer, since I had already planted the summer garden. That seemed to solve the problem, except for one very wet place in between two of the beds. So Tom dug a bunch of holes again today to see if there was a leak. Surprisingly, there wasn’t. And yet we see water seeping out the bottom of the sides of two raised beds! Tom thinks maybe the lower levels of the soil are so compacted that the water is dripping down to that level and then running off. This sounds possible to me. We are on heavy clay, and though we amend the soils each year with all kinds of organic matter, it takes a long time to change the tilth of soil. I also practice no-dig methods, which ensure that soil life is not disturbed, and in theory should actually improve the soil’s texture, but it could be that I need to add more organic matter down lower in the beds, next to the hard pan. So that’s what I’ll do.

This whole issue spurred us to discuss our watering habits more generally. Watering is kind of a crap shoot. In the summer, our plants seem SO dry and tired, and the soil seems dusty and dry, no matter how much we water. And we water a LOT. We are using a lot of resources. The general rule (and this is so general, it’s almost silly) is that plants in the ground (not containers, not raised beds) need an inch of water a week. Well, in a place that rains, that’s easy to calculate; but we have no rain nine months out of the year. So the soil is never soaked, and it is never sodden in the summer months - it is bone dry. Add to that very low humidity in the air (10% humidity is quite usual here in the summer months), and very hot temps (often over 100), and that means the plants are transpiring like crazy. And, we grow most of our crops in raised beds, which tend to stay drier anyway.

We did a whole bunch of calculations and we converted an inch of water to gallons per week, and even when we set the drips for 10 minutes a day, we’re still giving the garden more than two inches a week. You’d think that would be enough, more than enough! But in the summer heat we often drip for 15 minutes a day and the plants are still wilting and sad looking. They produce, though. So I suppose they are getting just enough. But honestly, I am just guessing.

We want to be good stewards of water, here in our dry dry dry West. And yet, we also don’t want all of our hard work go to waste - we want the plants to thrive. Growing at home is still a better use of water than buying fruit and veg from the market, so in the big scheme of things, we are conserving. It just feels bad to be using so much water. If we had a lawn, would we even think twice? Most people don’t.

Well, one thing we can certainly do is make sure that we don’t have any runoff like we did this past Spring. So, organic matter to the rescue! We are also thinking of buying a soil moisture meter, so we can start to really determine how the water is behaving deep in the soil.

Random Thoughts

This is Camp Okizu in 2007, our beloved cancer camp in Berry Creek, CA. We started going to camp as a family in 2004, and both Adam and Rin have attended by themselves every summer since they were eight. Adam has been a counselor for two years now, this past summer online, which was challenging but very rewarding for him. Okizu provides camp free of charge for children with cancer and their families. We love it there.

Okizu was badly burned this past week, in a massive fire that had been burning since our first terrible heatwave in August, but was fanned and spread by the high winds we had during our most recent terrible heatwave, a week ago. Berry Creek was one of the communities that was hardest hit, with a wave of fire that bore down so quickly that many people simply could not escape.

Here’s how the lodge looks now.

image credit: Sacramento Bee

We will do everything we can to help Okizu rebuild.

The smoke is still quite bad here in California, but we are hoping it will move out this week. Unfortunately we need wind to move it, and wind isn’t so great either, in terms of fire. Oregon is having a hell of a time right now, and our hearts are with everyone involved there. There are fires burning up and down the west coast and the western third of the country.

Fire has been much on our minds, but classes and work and life do continue despite it.

The day after Labor Day, a professor of mine read aloud an excellent poem, which I thought you might enjoy as much as I did. It’s called “Worker” and was written by the poet laureate of Berkeley, who also happens to be my professor’s neighbor.

“He who works with his hands is a laborer,

He who works with his hands & his head

is a craftsman, he who works with his hands

& his head and his heart is an artist,

so you said, brother Francis.

Were you then an artist, brother,

rebuilding St. Damian & the chapel

Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciúncula?

I do not know man or woman who works

only with the hands without the head

weighed down as it be or without heart

though it be bitter & hurting.

It is unjust circumstances that separate

the hands from the head & the heart.

Laborers, crafts-folk, artists

we are all workers —

we earn our bread & put

bread, & wine, on the tables.

If poverty there be it is no fault of ours;

the Earth is generous when it does not fall

into the hands of the greedy.

If there is baptism of water & blood

so also there is of sweat.
”

— Rafael Gonzales

As we drove down highway 101 from San Jose to San Luis Obispo on the 4th to drop Adam off at college, we drove through the beautiful salad bowl that is that particular valley in California. But the bowl was filled with smoke, and we were in a terrible heatwave, and the migrant workers, covered head to toe in flannel to ward off the rays of the sun, and masked because of Covid, were bent over harvesting cauliflower and romaine, working for pennies. That is definitely a baptism of sweat. I hope our future world honors labor, hard labor, essential workers, more than it does now.

Finally, here are a series of videos for you, which are part of my Environmental Justice module in one of my classes. Each one is inspiring - some are easy to watch and very entertaining, and some are hard to watch and may make you feel uncomfortable. Personally I learned from each one and thought you might be interested too.

Today we realized our family has been sheltering in place for six months.

I still haven’t torn out the summer garden. I keep meaning to, but every weekend carries its own challenges; one weekend it’s 110 degrees, the next the air quality is so bad that we have to stay inside with doors and windows shut. On Labor Day, it was 111 degrees here. Two days later it was 68 because the smoke had blocked so much sun. It’s been a hell of a ride.