JOURNAL ENTRIES
No. 0001 January 1, 1999: Resolved to Start Our Garden. Put the tiller in the shop. It was an old Montgomery Ward's five horsepower, rear tine, tiller that had belonged to my father-in-law and it had not been cranked in six years. And it was old and beat up six years ago. It was dirty and oily. And of course, it wouldn't crank. I have never done anything like small engine repair and figured that there could be more wrong with it than I might be able to quickly figure out. We took it to Wards. If I did not have access to a tiller, I would have to "double-dig" the plot. There is no easy way to do any of this. The tiller is almost (almost!) as much trouble as it is worth. It is a hassle to repair, maintain and use. But it can be a timesaver. Double-digging requires time, a shovel, a spading fork, and sweat. You dig out your entire bed, one trench at a time. The trench is as long as the bed. You remove the topsoil and set it aside on a tarp or on the ground. Use the spading fork to loosen the sub soil. Dig the next trench along side, throwing the topsoil from this trench onto the loosened subsoil of the next trench. Continue until the entire bed is double-dug, returning the topsoil from the first trench onto the subsoil of the last trech. As you dig, you can separate the sod from the soil, and even throw it in first, covering the grass with a thick layer of topsoil. This will eventually kill the grass and fertilize your bed. I would throw some extra fertilizer in at this point to help the buried grass break down faster. The advantages to double-digging are that you do not need heavy equipment and if you take your time, doing a little each day, the work is not too hard for anyone. You are also able to deal more effectively with the grass. You can also mix your organic matter into the soil in small batches.
No. 0002 January 3, 1999: Y2K Victory Gardens Our pastor at North Mobile Baptist, in a sermon about Y2K and the Christian response (don't be panicked or afraid, be ready to help and to witness), said he thought it would be a good idea for folks to plant gardens. I agree completely. I don't know how bad Y2K will be, but a garden sure wouldn't hurt.
No. 0003 January 8, 1999: A Time to Garden, Or Why I Quit Radio This entry has little to do with gardening. Please feel free to skip it. I didn't plan this, but sometimes God steps in and edits my plans. I have done a conservative radio talk-show for three years and held down the fort there otherwise for four years. My show was popular and controversial. Even here in the deep South, speaking out truthfully about religion and politics can make you unpopular with the powers that be. They can find plenty of tax revenue to build a ballfield for some private organization , but even after tax increases, they can't find money enough to take care of storm water drainage problems. We have flash flooding in Mobile, Alabama due to uncontrolled urban sprawl. The city council is in the pocket of the developers and I have talked about this for years. (Yes, I'm conservative and complaining about this sort of thing, but we really DO care about our environment.) Several people have actually died in flash flooding at the intersection of University and Old Shell. Important people don't like to hear "I told you so's" from noisy critics. I can give you other examples. Corporate radio is the other side of this coin. A big multinational corporation has been licensed by the FCC to own and operate the majority of the big radio stations in this market (and a couple of the TV stations). Their commitment to local public service (the whole reason for radio licensing) is virtually zero. Don't get me wrong, the local crew are dedicated and talented people, hamstrung from afar by beancounters with hearts of permafrost and from on-site management that would instantly remind you of a Dilbert cartoon. On December 19th, 1998, President William Jefferson Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. It is the kind of history that is made only once every century or two. Our station played infomercials. The only radio stations reaching the Mobile market that did this public service were little hometown station WABF, AM 1220, in Fairhope (God bless them) and the public station in Mississippi . I thought about quiting then. But on this day, the program director (an empty title in this company) mournfully told me that management had sold my audience to the infomercials and didn't care if I quit. So I did. Mind you, I built the ratings that the infomercial purveyors were so eager to buy. An audience that was there to talk seriously about life and politics. An audience that will instantly tune out when some slicky-boy comes on selling herbal extracts for half an hour at a time. I was supposed to do a serious talkshow in short segments in between half-hour pitches for snake oil. Or I could quit. I sincerely believe that my openess and readiness to defend my faith and my direct statements of opinion about the policies and crimes of our politicians made too many enemies. My show was different. No call screener. No tape delay. No holds barred. We only asked the callers to try to be civilized and to remember that mixed company was present. And it worked! I would have put our callers up against any group in the nation for the variety and depth of conversation, debate, and argument that we shared on the air. You can't do that sort of thing in segments between infomercials. By quitting, I gave up an average of $3600 a year in extra income and twenty years of investment in a career in broadcasting. I could tell you many other reasons for quitting, lies from the management, etc. (I was supposed to get a raise for working overtime through the summer to hold the station together after the previous program director died. I, and the audience, expected the job would pass to me. But that was a disappointment I could live with. I stayed on when another program director was chosen. I like the guy, personally, and can't blame him for needing a job.) Folks, the broadcast industry is going down the tubes. Local radio is being replaced by corporate radio and freedom of information in this country suffers another wound. (Thank goodness there is an internet. For now.) After working seven days a week for the last four years on that frequency with no vacations, doing well with the audience, creating an audience on the weekend, and holding the station together through hard times, it was a real slap in the face to be pushed around by cold-eyed mercenaries selling infomercials. As one of my co-workers ironically observed, at a time when a president is on trial for impeachment, when the global economy is in growing crisis, when China is gearing up for the takeover of Taiwan, when biochemical terrorism at home may become a reality, and when our troops are overseas facing increasing danger, it's simply a perfect time to cut down on our informative programming and to run infomercials. It's a perfect time to start a garden.
No. 0004 January 16, 1999: Breaking Ground Got the tiller out of the shop. $90 expense (comparable new tiller, $240). Less than renting one for as many days as I need. Less than buying one new. I began tilling a plot 10 feet wide by 36 feet long. Actually, "tilling" is not the right word for it. "Sodbusting" is more accurate. The topsoil is black and clayey, fairly compact, and about 8 inches deep. The subsoil is a yellowish clay. The tiller has its work cut out for it. They say that you should not wrestle the tiller, that it will do its work without a lot of effort from you. If you are fighting it, you are doing it wrong. Let me say that tilling loose soil that has already been plowed and disked is one thing. A five horsepower tiller goes through it with ease. Sodbusting is hard on you and on the tiller. It does require some strong-arming and complete attention. I learned that it would take a long time to break the thickly matted centipede grass up and to till the plot to any decent depth. I realize that some of you master gardeners and purists out there have been thinking, he ought to be sending off samples for soil tests, he should have done all of this soil preparation in the Fall, etc. The soil tastes sweet and is black. I guess there's nothing terribly wrong with it. I'll think about it later. There's plenty to do now. And the sooner you start the better, Winter will freeze the ground and you waste valuable spring planting time. But, I did not have time in the Fall (see Journal Entry No. 0003 ). Besides, this is not Fargo, North Dakota. This is Mobile, Alabama, situated in the Mobile River basin on beautiful Mobile Bay. The warm and humid Gulf Stream waters give us ample rains and mild winters. The ground almost never freezes solid. We can garden virtually all year long if we want to. It truly would have been better to have done my soil preparation in the Fall. Better still if I had started seedlings (in the greenhouse I don't have), so that I could soon be transplanting plants, instead of planting seeds. But better late than never. In Mobile, Alabama, we can start a garden anytime we please. Or anytime we have to.
No. 0005 January 17, 1999 -- February 2, 1999: Still, I Till I did a little more tilling almost every evening after work, when it didn't rain. This took a long time, but the tiller and I can only take so much at a time anyway. Gradually, the plot was tilled. When finished, I had run the tiller over the entire plot twice across its length and then once across its width. This meant an aching back (not too bad, a few ibuprophin and I was fine), one blister on my left hand, toughening callouses on both hands, an appreciation for the function of a manual choke on a carbureator, and a broken tiller handle. The handle on this tiller was a separate piece of tubular steel, like a bicycle handle. It was welded to an assembly that reached down to the body of the tiller. No time to find someone to weld it back. By inserting the handlebar back into place and rotating it up, the welding beads push against torn metal, giving leverage enough to steer the tiller. The handlebars curve almost straight up now, like a bull's horns. Working the tiller over the hard clayey sod is like taking a bull by the horns. We have dubbed the tiller "El Toro." El Toro does not appreciate having to work for a living. El Toro likes soft dirt that has already been worked. If you work him on heavy sod, El Toro will try to run away from you over the grass and the soil you have already tilled. El Toro will quit and rest himself if you try to work him too hard. You must be strong and determined to make El Toro do his work.
No. 0006 February 3-4, 1999: Dividing The Beds I've started digging a trench centered down the length of the plot, dividing it into two beds of about 4 feet by 36 feet. I removed all of the topsoil from the 18 inch wide trench to a depth of about 8 inches and added it to the beds on either side. I filled the trench with wood chips to form a pathway between the beds. I must make sure that everyone is very careful not to step on the beds. The soil is fairly loose and deep now. The plants need a loose soil for best growth and production. Stepping on the beds would compact the soil, which makes it hard for a plant to push tender young roots through. The better the roots grow, the better the plant will grow. Next, we will really loosen the soil.
No. 0007 February 6, 1999: Organic Matter for the Beds I finished the pathway and moved 26 large bags of very fine hardwood sawdust into place along the outside of the beds, 13 bags on either side. I began pouring the sawdust onto the beds. Later, we will mix the sawdust with the existing soil underneath. The purpose of this is to loosen the soil still further, to kill any extraneous grass or weeds I failed to remove, and to help the new soil mixture to drain better while retaining moisture longer. The organic matter will also nourish the garden as it further decomposes. I am mixing in a volume of organic matter that is about equal to the volume of topsoil in the beds. In this case, that works out to 4 ft. x 36 ft. x 9in., or about 108 cubic feet for each bed, a total of 216 cu. ft. of organic matter. This will be poured onto two beds of 144 square feet each. Here's a quick way to figure out how many cubic feet of matter you need (assuming a topsoil depth in the bed of about 9 inches): Multiply the width of the bed by the length of the bed. (This is the area of the bed.) Multiply this number by 0.75. (That is a 9 inch depth of organic material.) It took quite a while to drag the lawn & leaf sized bags into place. I will not be bringing an area of this size into cultivation at one time again. I plan one more large bed and perhaps a number of other smaller beds, one at a time, but not two large beds at a time. I just wanted to get a big jumpstart on the garden. (Oh, my back. "But it's a GOOD tired!" Then come over here and get as tired as you like!) It would be better to get similar quantities of composted cow manure rather than sawdust. I do not live near a cow or horse pasture where I could go out and harvest this wonderful stuff. I would have to buy manure by the pickup truck load. I could not afford to buy this much organic matter, but I do work full time in the wood fiber industry and could gradually sweep up wood fines and sawdust into bags. I will add fertilizer to the final mix to help it compost down some more before planting. If I did not have access to sawdust of this kind, I would try to find some woods nearby where I could get some humus. In fact, this would be better than sawdust, but not as convenient for me. Forest humus is essentially what the good gardener is trying to duplicate in his garden beds. Rake aside the top two or three inches of leaves from a patch on the forest floor. Rake the leaves into a pile; you will want to replace them. Under the top layers of leaves is a black crumbly soil-like layer that is actually years of collected leaves that have composted down. Use your shovel and fill up some large heavy duty plastic bags with this black humus. Fill a couple of bags each day for a while until you have enough for your bed.. You will need a lot. Always replace the leaves. How many bags should you fill for your bed? Let's find out. Use some tough 40 gallon lawn & leaf bags. Some may already tell you the capacity in cubic feet. Fill it only 2/3 full so that the bag will not be too heavy and so that you can easily close it up. 1 gallon = 0.1337 cubic feet (check this factor) 40 gal. bag = 5.38 cu.ft. Since you can't fill it all the way, lets calculate 2/3's capacity. Actual Capacity = 40 gal. x 0.667 = 26.667 26.667 gal. x 0.1337 cu.ft./gal. = 3.57 cu.ft. Now, let's say you want to plant two beds 4 ft. x 8 ft. That is a total of 64 sq. ft. Remember our rule of thumb for figuring the cubic footage? 3/4 or 75% of the square footage gives you the cubic footage. 64 sq. ft. x 0.75 ft. = 48 cu. ft. If you are using the 40 gallon bags, filling them 2/3 full, then you will need 14 bags of organic matter. 48 cu. ft. / 3.57 cu. ft. = 13.45 bags (round up to 14)
No. 0008 February 7, 1999: Still Adding Organic Matter Finished pouring sawdust onto one of the beds. I'm so stiff and sore that one bed is about enough for the day. I intend to let this sit for a couple of weeks to finish killing the chopped up centipede grass that was mixed by the tiller into the soil underneath. Yes, it's February and my centipede grass is green and growing down here in Mobile, Alabama. If I had double-dug the beds, the grass would not be a problem. I'm afraid that it might try to come up later. Pulling it out might mean disturbing the roots of growing vegetables. Hopefully, the grass is now buried too deep to rise again before it dies. It's a lazy man's risk. So, El Toro may have his revenge after all (see Journal Entry No. 0005).
No. 0009 February 8, 1999: More on Organic Matter I am so stiff and sore from the weekend's work that I have done nothing today. Well, I did salvage some lumber and some 1/8" wire mesh. I plan to build a screener with it. At work, they have adjusted the machine that loads wood chips onto a conveyor belt, which means there will be less accumulation of wood fines underneath. That's too bad, because it was perfect, with hardly any chips at all. Oh, there's still plenty of saw dust (wood fines) accumulating under the belt. But lots of chips, too. Probably about 25% chips to dust. By shaking small batches (lots of them) through the screen, I can still put a very fine layer of organic matter onto future beds. Which is a good thing, because I hope to have more, eventually. While these beds are "seasoning" for the next couple of weeks, I will start another pair of small beds at my sister-in-law's, where I got the tiller. Perhaps El Toro will be happy on his old stomping grounds. The last time he tilled that soil was six years ago. I plan to make two beds for her, 4 ft. x 8 ft. each, with a woodchip path between. Tonight, I hope to put the bare bones of "Poor Robert's Almanac" on-line with Geocities.
No. 0010 February 10, 1999: Still Going On About Organic Matter Oh, my poor, poor back! The lesson today is that we do things slow and easy in the garden. When we pour from big bags that we can hardly lift, we shouldn't be in a hurry. I've strained it pretty good, jerking and tugging fiercely at the bags. And another thing. I think I may have to contain my raised beds after all. I had read of one fellow who had "raised mounds." Part of the idea was that a curved mound gives you more surface area for plants, etc. I liked the idea of not having to find lumber or some other alternative to construct walls for the beds. In pouring out the organics, there were some occassional problems containing the spill. What will it be like when I go over it with El Toro? Perhaps it won't be so bad that I can't just rake it all back up. Regarding soil tests. Dad has a pH kit, as it turns out. Why send off and wait around for weeks on a soil test when you can do it yourself? Go to most any place that sells pool supplies. Buy some pH strips. Some even tell you chlorine content. Boil some water, which gets rid of chlorine and most anything else that might bias your test. Pour it into a pan of soil you have partially filled from different parts of your plot. Your mixture should be mostly water. Stir it up really well and let it settle. Then you can wet your test strip according to directions and compare colors to find the pH of your soil. If it is too acidic, you might add lime. If it is too alkaline, you might add sulfur. Here's why you send off for a soil test if you suspect trouble. The extension service can tell you HOW MUCH lime or sulfur to add. It may be more or less than you think. But the pool pH test can at least let you know if you have a problem or not. My Internet Site. Well, for what it's worth, the site is now available to the world. There is a bit more that I would like to do before notifying the search engines. (So why make it available to the world and then not tell the world? I guess I'm a perfectionist, sort of, and would like to have a little more to show the world before asking the world to look.) At this point, I only have this page, Poor Robert's Almanac, the Contents page, and the Resources for the Poor page. I want to see if I can stick some Excel spreadsheets out there. I've got some that provide a lot of the information I've accumulated. There are other sheets that could be adapted by individuals for their own use. It would also be a handy way to provide data to interested folks as it accumulates. We have Excel 97 on my computer at work. I use Excel 95 at home. I plan to save sheets & data in the older format, so that more people will be able to download. Excel 97 will convert spreadsheet data to HTML tables. I hope to provide a lot of data in this fashion, for those who do not have Excel. If there is enough demand, I could save to a Lotus format, I suppose.
No. 0011 February 11, 1999: A Vegetable Patch for Beth I made two trips early this morning to Beth's house and dropped off 8 bags of organic matter and a couple of bags of wood chips. I went back home and my friend Clif stopped by. We built a screening box. I measured so that it would just fit over an old plastic recycling bin. Janie was running errands and came back with a disposable camera. I've got a real 35mm camera (Cannon AE-1) but this will be easier for Janie to use as we chronicle our gardens. Clif had to leave, and I finished the screener. Then, Janie and I loaded El Toro into the back of the Honda, tied the hatch down, and headed for Beth's. I got started at about 2:00 PM. First, we marked off the area. If it were larger, I would be more careful to square it up. Eyeballing it worked pretty well. I used some twine with knots tied at certain lengths. Then, I started tilling. The ground here IS softer than our backyard. There was a garden here just a few years ago. I decided to screen the centipede grass as I went along. It was sure easier this way. After one pass with the tiller, I would stop, and gather as much grass as I could. I did this with a rake, with my spading fork, and with my gloved hands. I tried several different methods of screening, to return as much soil to the garden as possible. I could quickly see that it would be quite tiring to sift it directly over the bed. Then I tried beating the screen against the bin. Then I tried sliding the screen very quickly from side to side. This works fairly well. The BEST method for screening seems to be to slide the screen forward and backward very quickly. This is a lot easier on the arms. The grass was dumped off to the side. After dumping the screened soil back into the beds, it was time to go back over the same track. And to screen again. So the process was to till a track, screen it, till it again, and screen it again. Once the entire bed was tilled and screened in this fashion, I tilled it again going across the previous tracks. And I screened it again. Then it was time to dig the pathway and to separate the beds. First, we used the knotted string to mark one side of the path. I kept the path straight by following this string. I dug down the depth of one shovel blade, which put us right down to the subsoil. I kept the path just the right width down its length by making it exactly two shovel blades wide. I expect that a shovel-depth of topsoil is fairly standard for older homes. I threw the topsoil from the trench to either side equally onto either bed as I went. Soon, the trench was dug and it was time to pour in the wood chips. I used the all-purpose spading fork to pull the chips along the length of the trench. I stepped and stomped the chips down, compressing them as I went. Soon the chips were packed in the trench up to ground level and the pathway was done. Now it was time to chop up dirt clods dug out of the trench. The tiller does not till quite as deeply as the shovel reaches. After chopping the clods, I smoothed the beds level with the spading fork and the rake. With that done, it was time for dinner. At about 6:00 PM, Beth served up BBQ beef ribs that had been slow cooking on the grill all day. She made some cauliflower salad, using a potato salad recipe and simple substituting cooked cauliflower for potatoes. Out of this world! She also wrapped green beans in bacon and broiled or baked these little delights with brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on them. At 6:30, it was time to finish up. I pulled the bags of woodfines (saw dust) into place and poured them onto the beds. Then, I leveled them off and started cleaning up. The grass went into a bag. (If Beth wants to compost, she's welcome to it. I suspect they will be picked up with the trash.) The tools went home with me and Janie. El Toro stayed with Beth. I will need to till that patch one more time, maybe next week. I can certainly hold off on my own tilling until after that. And it will save an extra ride for El Toro, who tries to make everything as difficult as he can. I was so tired and stiff and sore that Janie and Beth filled her big bathtub with hotwater and herbal bath salts. I guess a bath before hitting the road wouldn't hurt anything. AHHHHHHHH!!!!