It’s always fun to have an organic garden. I could name a few reasons why we have one, but two are unavoidable. The first, because we want to grow our own produces, and we’re sick and tired of eating poison-treated food from the supermarket. The organic movement still didn’t pick much momentum in Brazil, and you either find organic food at outrageous prices, or you don’t find any organics at all. Also, you’re rarely buying local produces. And if you come to think heirloom, forget it, it’s no where to be seen. It’s cheaper and easier to find Argentinian blueberries than local fruit at an accessible price range. And the second, and the one I’m thinking of right now, is killing the stress of everyday life.
Earlier this year, we got ourselves some land on the rural outskirts of São Paulo. It’s big enough to build a house, and grow a really nice organic garden. Plus swimming pool and all other nice bits. But the main thing for us is getting away from this city. Or at least, living about an hour drive away, so we don’t have to be here everyday. When I open the windows, and see the gray outline of our sky, all I can think of is rushing to the backyard and watering our plants. And dreaming of the moment we’ll have our home built and be able to move, and take our plants with us.
But now, we’re growing everything in vases, and that must be of some interest of people all around. The house we live in right now, is a proper analog to an apartment, since we do have a diminut backyard, that does fit a few plants of each kind, in vases, even sunflowers are growing now ( they’re also excellent to get a few pests to feast on them, instead of our heirloom and cherry tomatoes ). We also took our chance at growing some extraordinarily hard produces to find in Brazil ( such as Rhubarb and Asparagus ). And even tho it’s in vases, it’s working. I guess as long as you have a patch in your home where sunlight may shine in, you’ll be able to successfully grow something and both have great, immense fun at the whole process, as well as having a more healthy lifestyle.
The only down part is, you need some space to actually grow enough for your family to feed from. And it takes some planning. I guess a 4x4m space would do for a family of two, if you’re creative and has a good sense of timing.
So, I’ll keep you all posted as how things grow. Right now, our Rhubarbs are still just small seedlings, as everything else. We did manage to get some fresh delicious cherry tomatoes from our backyard, because we did buy one already grown tomato bush, but it proved to be a sort of mistake. Why? Simply, it came infected with a fungus that causes a rust-like infection that will eat out the leaves and eventually kill the plant. So, now, we’re battling it even with our home grown from seeds tomato bushes, that are far from producing, still growing and developing, but sometimes, I have to inspect for rust on the leaves and pull out. I am avoiding using any sort of poison that could solve the problem by removing our desire to stay 100% organic off the way. If we have no other choice, our option for treatment will be some home-made remedies first.
Everything else is fine tho. Rhubarb takes ages to grow. Sometimes I wonder if we’re not doing something very wrong, but considering they’re not dead yet, I guess first the seedlings are growing roots, and then will start looking like proper Rhubarb plants. Lettuce is also taking a long time to grow, but I guess I didn’t space the seeds properly.
Anyway, from now on, every now and then, we’ll make posts about our garden here, so you can keep a look and share our failures and successes alike. 
The first two things I found out, were how to look for resources. The internet is full of interesting groups and forums to debate about gardening. Surprisingly tho, my best sources for information on gardening came from Twitter friends ( hey Steven and Anna! ), and books. So, even tho I won’t disrespect Steven and Anna’s privacy by pointing people reading this blog into asking them stuff about gardening, I’ll share the books me and Susie read, and what we found about them.
The first, is Organic Gardening, the Natural No-Dig way, from Charles Dowding. I got it from Amazon UK, and it’s a british book, so, if you’re in UK, I guess that book will easily become your favorite as well. People in europe will still have much use for it, because even tho from country to country I suspect you have some variation on pests and soil, you still have a very similar weather and seasons, at least, compared to Brazil. People elsewere, just as I did, have to adapt your thinking to absorb what’s useful, adapt what’s interesting and what’s different, and just read the bits and pieces about stuff that won’t happen to you, as a nice curiosity to chat around a table with friends someday.
I mean, the book is great, and very useful for us. But we had to consider our summer is their winter and so on, when it comes to best time of the year to plant anything. And, it doesn’t snow here. The only major difference in Brazil between summer and winter, is that it rains a lot during summer, and dries up completely during winters. And now with climate change and global warming, we can see floods happening during summer every year, and scorching hot, desert like temperatures and moisture, during winter. This week we hit 13% moisture in the air with tons of pollution. That is dry, and the plants do suffer, so, we have to pay way more attention to watering, and we don’t have to replant after snow.
But, other than those considerations ( that you will have anywhere in the world, unless you happen to have a locally written book, in your language, that is a good resource for studies ), this book is a great source of knowledge for organic gardening, and we find ourselves coming back every week or the other to check on something, and became our honest, trustworthy reference on what to do and how.
Just as a proof that organic gardening and food goes hand in hand, this book has a few recipes we’re still to test And, the second book is kind of the mirror image of this one. This is a great gardening book with a few recipes. The next, is a great food book, with some really useful gardening insight and index of references ( the index of references at the end, is worth buying the book, to be honest ). It’s Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home – Cook your way to the Good Life.
Ok, this one needs no introductions, I guess. It’s a must have on every shelve if you do like growing your own food, and eating it afterwards. The recipes are old companions from the TV show ( not tho, restricted to the TV show, but if you are familiar with it, you know what to expect ), and it has the great, mouth watering photography of David Loftus to boot. As a food photographer, I always learn a great deal from his work.
But it’s always great to have these many recipes at hand, stored at home, so you won’t forget. And come back for inspiration on how to do something new. And as far as organic gardening goes, it complemented Mr. Dowding’s book in ways we never expected. The part on Asparaguses is proving to be most useful now we’re growing it
So, that’s it in a short I’ll keep you posted, and hope you’ll enjoy the posts
{ 2 comments }
