Installation

Peace!

Since I'm not working.... I've had time to work on my garden. Right before I was let go I ordered $30 worth of vegetable seeds. Would I have still went on with the garden had I known I wasn't going to have a job? Probably not. But since I ordered them, I am going to keep on keeping on....

I plan to get a few more seeds....

I decided to go with a bale garden. This house is new to me and I don't know what's going on with the land so I figured that the bales (a)can deal with this Georgia clay, (b)would be easier and (c)better for me overall. If you've never heard of wheat bale gardening, google it. People are growing amazing gardens in wheat bales.

Basically the science behind bale gardening is the bales will turn into compost with 10-14 days of treatment. Treatment includes a nitrogen fertilizer and water. Once properly treated, you can put plants right in the bales or start seeds. Starting from seed is actually cool because the bale will retain a certain amount of heat, and plants planted in compost grow out of control. Also plants won't be competing with weeds for nourishment. You do need to add some soil to the top once you get planting. The bales should last through 2 seasons of planting (summer and fall) and then you can either plant new bales over it, till the compost into the ground or both. The down side is the amount of constant watering you have to do. Bales don't hold water well.

I had the hardest time finding wheat bales. Pinestraw? Everywhere! I lucked up and found some decent sized bales at Lowes. They were about 4'x2' and cost $6.77/bale. I was planning to do 15 bales but I downsized to 10. So the bales cost ~$70 and the seeds cost $30. The garden, so far, cost $100. I had a gift card given to me by a friend as a wedding present. Yeah, the God and I got legally married... So my overall investment is $50. I moved the bales in my Jeep. In the future... I will rent a $19.99 uhaul. It cost me $20 to get all that wheat straw out of my car and I think, I'm not sure, that I broke the vacuum cleaner. I'm documenting the costs because folks always wanna complain about how expensive healthy activities are.


The bales are supposed to set up on corrugated cardboard. That keeps the grass underneath from infecting the bales. But not in a bad way. Cardboard will decompose and become part of the compost mix. Also cardboard will encourage earthworms. Worms are great for a garden. But I didn't have any corrugated cardboard,nor was i going out to look for any. Since I have been in the moving cipher, I used a few of the boxes that we used to move. Hey cardboard is cardboard. Right?


I set them up and watered them in. The smell of damp wheat was strangely soothing... The 1st 3 days are water only. Next 3 days are 1/2 cup fertilizer per bale. Day 7-10 the fertilizer is reduced to 1/4 cup per bale. If the bale is cool enough, you can plant on day 10. Otherwise, keep watering without fertilizer and plant on day 14. I'd like to start the 1st week of May.

That's my boo thing garden, y'all!


PEACE!

Deserts

Peace!

I'm Black. And I have lived in Black neighborhoods most of my life... BY CHOICE! But in my new digs, some realities have become abundantly clear. Black neighborhoods are food deserts. Not all... but most.

Food deserts are defined as areas where fresh foods aren't available. Seriously... Really???? What Black people don't want fresh foods? We are cool with fast and processed foods? I don't think so.

I remember an argument with my mother and my uncle. My aunt and uncle came to visit us in NJ, and my uncle straight clowned my mother about her choice to remain in Jersey. The most memorable part of the argument was that our food was nasty. What??? How could our food be nasty? It came from the grocery store. But the grocery store was the same kind of store that every one had. I mean across the bridge where the white people lived, they had better stores, but that was over there. We could go over there if we wanted too. My parents had cars, and sometimes we did go to those stores, but it involved a bit of a road trip.

I went to a HBCU. I lived off campus. And again, the only option was 1 grocery store and a few gas stations. And speaking of gas stations... I had a coworker who lives in the belly of the hood, with no car of her own. I have witnessed this former coworker buy ALL her groceries from either the gas station or Family Dollar. This is the option that is offered to people who choose to live in Black neighborhoods.

I've lived in neighborhoods that started off mixed. I mean if I live there then its mixed right? These neighborhoods had grocery stores (not food marts) banks (not check cashing places), restaurants (not many fast food restaurants), etc. But as the neighborhood became darker... These amenities disappeared. Not all at once, but eventually. And it was blamed on rising crime rates. I call Bullshit! These neighborhoods didn't become more crime ridden. It just got darker. I looked at the statistics that are available for all folks to see and those were lies. Those companies just didn't want to be in dark neighborhoods.

On the flip side. I've lived in neighborhoods that started out very Black, and then white people came on in... They bring in the new businesses... white businesses.... and then the prices of rent and taxes go up forcing the dark people out. there is an area in Atlanta called "Browntown" that's not so brown anymore. They even built these people a new park!!!!

And this isn't a war Black folks can win. Are very presence decreases property values. It's not that we are nasty or violent. But just us being there means that the neighborhood is going downhill. And if we keep coming, they will keep fleeing. The Obamas could move in a lily white neighborhood and the values would drop.

The basics that Black folks get in there own neighborhoods, is always sub par. The schools suck, the roads suck, the cops are meaner, and the food sucks! Food is a primal necessity we all need. How are we supposed to prosper without proper nourishment? When I 1st moved to the city (rather than suburbs) the only person in my office who lived in the city was my white boss. I made a comment about the loss of electricity when the weather got bad and he looked at me like I had 2 heads. He said he can't remember the last time he lost electricity in his white neighborhood. We would lose electricity every week in my Black neighborhood. Not just me, the street lights would start blinking.

So what do we do? The canned answer is we need to do for ourselves. But we have shown and proven that that isn't going to happen. We've drank too much of the Kool-Aid. What we really need to do is have a mental paradigm shift. Yes we need to have our own... But we need to do it right and not half assed. We need to offer our own the very best, with the best customer service. Not that shitty service we get from hood type shops. I went to florist in the hood looking for carnations and you should have seen the anorexic looking specimen she pulled out of the refrigerator. The look of shock on my face had her lie to me and tell me that's all she had. She didn't expect for me to go to the back and look myself. When I saw she was offering me bullshit at full price, I bounced. Also we need to not ask for hook ups like just because someone shares our skin color, they owe us a solid. You don't do that when you go to a white store.

But here's the thing... White folks don't like when we get our shit together. Most race wars were started because poor white folks were mad that Black folks had more than they did. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Until we take the devil off our planet... we will have no justice or peace.

I gotta go now. I have a long drive to get some good groceries....


Peace

Forced New Beginings

Peace!

I lost my job on Wednesday, April 6, 2006. I worked there for 13 years almost to the date! THIRTEEN mother-jumping years!!!! Yes I'm salty. My boss said it's because we aren't making any money and payroll is too hard to meet. He decided to keep his non-working friend who has been there a few years. She does nothing but make personal calls all day. She leaves early every day (at 63 she does crossfit) and comes late most days. This came as a total shock to me, but i don't think it was shocking to the other employees. I was off the week before I was let go. And when i came back on Monday, folks weren't meeting my eyes, nor were they speaking to me. I had seniority over his friend, and there is a person who works per diem, part time. But I am the one... the only one... who got the ax. And I haven't had a raise in 9 years because he said that we were in a salary freeze.... whatever I'm over it. Sort of.....

Anywho... I have time to focus on some gardening! The God and I closed on a house on March 28th. Yes my boss knew all about this while he was planning my exit. This new house is on a half of an acre lot. And.... it already has a dedicated area for gardening and a chicken coop! So while I'm looking for another job, I'll have plenty to keep me busy. On "Axe Wednesday", I ordered a bunch of seeds (in addition to a bunch of other things I wouldn't have purchased had I known I was going to be let go. I actually emptied my amazon wish list...) The seeds came yesterday. Seeds are heirlooms and do not have an unlimited shelf life. So... I'm a need to plant these seeds this season if I want to use them.

I've decided to go with bale gardening. I'm unfamiliar with the property and it is almost too late in the season to get started with the ground. I don't have any seedlings started. It was always my plan to do a bale garden. This being Georgia means we have that red clay which is not habitable for most plants. Especially new plants. A few years of bale gardening, turning the composted bales into the ground every year, will give me, over time, good ground soil.

No pics right now. I'm watching some delivery men try to bring in a refrigerator we purchased when we thought we were a 2-income couple. Oh well!


Peace