The spinach is up! I planted it March 9 (today is April 21) and it was too miserable out to check yesterday. But things change and anybody that is not outside right now is very unfortunate. Surplus vitamin D. The peas, cabbage, and lettuce are still waiting. The spinach I planted in September is coming to life and should be ready to eat in a couple of weeks.
Trump or Biden could only ruin this sunny day by launching missiles. Saying something offensive will slide right off my shoulders because this old cracker knows better. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Pump up your bike tires. Dust off your golf clubs. We’ve got the fever.
Try this: Spinach Salad (Cooking spinach is like tillage. Why ruin a good thing?). Let the spinach grow. A six inch leaf will be as tender as one of those silly things they sell at the store. Tear your spinach because my dad would tear-up if he saw salad being cut. By the way, being a California kid, salad was always greens with dressing. Here, it’s dessert. I’ll take it either way. Rub some garlic in a wooden bowl. Add the spinach and a little grated parmesan cheese. Toss it well with some Italian dressing. Then add just a few slices of hard boiled egg and some crispy pieces of bacon (not some fake soy garbage). You add this stuff last so it doesn’t all go to the bottom or get goobered-up and over-tossed. Serve with real meat and a starch product of your choice with butter. Pairs well with some homemade beer.
Unless you’ve lost your senses of taste and smell (it happens), this should give good reason to get the garden going. But wait! Don’t till it. Think of what a rototiller does. At the point where the teeth turn back toward the surface the soil is smeared and pounded. It is worse than a moldboard plow. When I hear people complain about wet gardens, invariably it has been sealed-off six inches down holding the water like a swimming pool full of mud. Then later during a dry spell, they’ve got sprinklers going because the roots are blocked from reaching moisture deeper down. Then… their tomatoes get blight because they are wet from the sprinklers.
Here are some ideas from a guy who makes more mistakes than most: Till your seedbed with a hoe just to eliminate early weeds. If you are starting with a mess, spray it. Read the label. Then mulch it deep enough to smother later weeds. Grass clippings work great. The mulch will maintain an even soil temperature. Mychorrhizal fungi, beneficial bacteria, and burrowing insects and worms love moist, well-drained soil, and even temperatures. These tools are free and God put them here for you. Don’t kill them. Love them. By the way, planning way ahead, you can mulch an area for next year’s garden and start with a clean slate.
When I moved to Dumont it was at the end of an era. There were lots of gardens, and neighbors chatted as their hoes gently caressed the weed roots goodbye. It was a holdover from FDR’s Great Depression. One disadvantage we have going into another time like that, is the lack of gardens. But we do have abundant knowledge and rookies aren’t habitually doing the wrong things.
We have expensive energy but the bugs are going to hand us dead ash trees. They won’t cut and load the wood so take care of your back or it could feel like mine someday.
A little self-sufficiency is worth more than a bunch of therapists in times like these.
Please respond to my column with a letter to the editor or to me at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com. You will find a poignant Churchill quote if you go to the blog: www.alternativebyfritz.com along with back issues and more.
