I'm Dirt Rich!

Last fall, I filled my square foot garden beds with lasagna sheet mulch layers and let it settle during the winter. Some decomposition happened but not enough that my spring planting flourished. Gaps developed around the edges of my raised beds where the lasagna compost shrank away. I had a big container full of potting mix that Ott and Vonne made for us a couple of years ago. (The tomato that grew in that container led to a little garden bed and then to several raised beds and then to obsession.) I used the potting mix and dirt from that container to fill gaps in my lasagna compost and then I ran out. Seeing as how I was already over budget with my garden, what was I to do?

I found an ad on craigslist for organic compost @ $.10 a pound. Rick and I drove to High Point today and bought 250 pounds. Now I won't be scrounging for compost. I am set for the season. I can happily turn the compost in my backyard bin and patiently wait as Nature does her magic without mentally screaming at it, "Would you please hurry up!" This compost purchase was a gift from heaven.

The people who sold us the compost have a wonderful thing going. Pastor Jeff Moran has formed an organization called the House Gardens Greening Project. HGGP is helping people set up their own raised bed gardens for an incredibly low cost of $80. In addition (this is from the brochure) the House Gardens Greening Project will facilitate the following programs which are designed to promote sustainability and community:

• Educational Gardening Workshops


• Tool Exchange Center


• Harvest Exchange of Fresh Local Produce


• Community Farmers Market Twice Weekly


• Community Meals Created From HGGP Gardens

Last night, I watched Food, Inc. and the panel discussion afterward on UNC-TV. I am of the opinion that we have become too disconnected from our food sources and that those sources have become much too centralized. The so-called Green Revolution gave us monocultures dependent on herbicides and pesticides, as well as GM foods that biotech companies discourage independent researchers from testing. The movement to take back our food, to diversify, to develop ecologically ethical agricultural practices is the REAL Green Revolution.

Happy Earth Day. I had a really good one. I feel encouraged that people, out of respect for the planet and a growing sense of good stewardship, are taking actions that will ensure many good Earth Days to come.