From My Garden to Yours

On the face of it, poking a couple of seeds into the soil, sprinkling them with some water and waiting for the harvest doesn’t sound all that complicated. Prior to planned agriculture, gathering and eating required little organization. So how have we ended up manipulating genes, terraforming the planet and changing the climate to satiate our forever-gnawing hunger? Luckily, in our personal agricultural endeavors, we can choose any degree of technology to suit our needs.

For gardeners to effectively compete with subsidized corporate plantations’ low-cost foods, we need to take advantage of recently developed appropriate technology. With the availability of steel fencing, woven wattles of branches are no longer necessary to keep the fox out of the henhouse. We recently had reports of bear sightings in my neighborhood. The animal was captured on a motion-activated digital wildlife camera. Luckily, electric fence technology makes affordable and practical the arduous chore of guarding the homestead against marauders. Turn off the power and rub a little peanut butter on the wire. Later that night, with the charger on, the interloper takes a sniff and gets a quick behavioral modification of several thousand volts.

Seed technology spans the spectrum from the original wild plants still revered for their genetic purity to trans-species recombinant organisms. Open-pollinated varieties allow any gardener to save seeds for the next season, even to select the strongest trait for a local climate or soil. Interbreeding-compatible varieties results in hybrids to provide selected strengths and their ensuing weaknesses. But saved hybrid seed guarantees no dependable attributes. Don’t even get me started on the patenting of wild plants or creating Frankenstein’s genetically modified organisms (GMO). Interspecies GMO genes are now polluting the purity of the wild sources of our foods.

Watering and fertilizing our crops can be as simple as performing a “rain dance,” turning the spigot to fill a watering can or managing with a digital timer, a nano-perforated drip tube-rotating-zone system. I toss a handful of compost into a bucket of rainwater, let it soak for a few days and slosh this tea around the plants. Some growers spend hundreds of dollars on a fertilizer injector measuring exact nutrient percentages based on a mass-spectrometry soil test.

I am honored that my publishers invest tons of carbon-based paper to physically bring you this column. But my column is also available, including archives, online. My website, e-mails and Facebook page deliver timely updates and photos the way snail mail never could. I for one appreciate the opportunity to simplify with technology!