Which world does he live in?

Frauenfelder's book Made by Hand obviously focuses on Do-it-Yourself-activities and still I am buffled how ignorant towards other benefits of his enterprises he (and his family) is. The first chapter was about replacing his lawn with a vegetable garden. The second one was about mending his espresso machine to make better espresso, something I can't relate too because I am no coffee-addict nor would I bother to cause myself high blood pressure by drinking espresso. The third chapter is about his chicken coop. Apparently he wanted to chickens for the eggs, although building the coop was the major DIY-job, but once the hens start laying eggs his family is all put off. On page 109 he admits that they buy packaged food, including eggs in a box from the refrigeratored shelves in the supermarket, and it obviously did not occur to them that this food comes from living creatures. The fact that the eggs slip out the hen's bottom upsets them. So it takes the family a while to actually overcome their absurdism and consume the eggs. Shockingly, when his kids bring friends over they all react the same, can't believe the eggs are edible and keep them as toys instead.  

I don't think I need to point out in detail my reaction to his revelations. I have a lot of trouble to believe anybody, ANYBODY, could be so disconnected from their food sources, have such a city-dweller attitude of "food comes from the supermarket", that they have trouble eating certain products like eggs once they realise it comes from an animal like a hen. What do biology classes teach nowadays? I bet Frauenfelder and his family could not drink milk from a cow milked in front of their eyes. I wonder if his wife breastfed their two daugthers. At the beginning of the book he mentioned that they took a breast pump when they moved with their newborn to the Cook Islands. 


Also, he does not mention anywhere that his home-produced food should be healthier than supermarket stuff. He notices the eggs look and taste different but does not seem to come to the conclusion that this is because the hens aren't battery-kept and fed on grains.  Unfortunately, his vegetables aren't necessarily poison-free. Until he got the chicks he had pest control come in every month to treat his garden against insects, spiders and beetles and such. He stopped doing this in order to not poison the hens. It did not occur to him that the treatment might harm him directly or through being absorbed by his produce? For him it's all about the experience of creating something with his own hands. He does not even mind to buy whatever it takes from the hardware store to complete a project. More accidently, he realises there are cheaper ways and he for example can use scraps from his junk pile that he tends to have in a corner of his garden.
  
I appreciate that he gardens, keep hens (and later in the book probably bees too) and gets his hands dirty. I would love his efforts even more if he considered his impact on the environment too though.

How is your lawn doing?

The grass is still green here in K-W which is sooo nice. Of course the grass gets mowed too, right over the 3 inches of leaves that cover it up and get mulched in the process. Only few people put paper bags filled with leaves onto the curb for pick-up. Some just rake (or blow) the leaves onto the street which I don't like. I prefer the leaves left on the ground, in parks and on sidewalks I love to shuffle through them. I don't think many people leave the leaves on the ground due to organic gardening practices, a natural fertiliser. Maybe, they just can't be bothered to invest the time for raking them up. After all, most front and back yards are still fairly large here, compared to German standards. And the maple trees dump a lot of leaves, that's for sure. I think a lot less people here rake up the leaves than in Germany. There, it is kind of a competition. Then the leaves get either picked up or (improperly) composted in a corner of the garden. My husband told me today most people will rake up the leaves in spring, something I have not heard of before. We are both reading Mark Frauenfelder's book "Made by hand" right now. Hubby started on it and told me what happened on every page so I decided to read it myself. It's a great book. Frauenfelder got rid of his lawn a long time ago, turned the space into a garden and grows a huge variety of fruits and vegetables on it. Mind you, he lives in California. Lawns were the result of posh Europeans who thought it necessary to demonstrate they did not need their land to grow food on it because they could afford to buy it. It's a trend that spread like a bad weed but without benefits. That is unless you have kids that need green space to run around in but even then a more natural approach (wild flowers & grasses mix?) would be much nicer. I'm glad Frauenfelder applied the natural method to killing his lawn, with vinegar, newspaper and mulch. Pouring Monsanto's Roundup on top of the grass surely would not have been an appropriate start to organic gardening. Can't wait for next spring to try our balcony garden again.                      

  

Gardening season has started

The grass is finally green, the sun is out, and the last weekend of May is coming up and so does the planting season in Edmonton. Of course I have already seen the first people wasting drinkable, clean tap water on their lawns. And I am waiting to see all those signs spring up again when people hire a "Green something"-company to treat their lawns with fertilizers and herbicides. Since every gardening company's goal is to make your garden look green and flourishing they represent this in their company's name. But I doubt that many of these companies apply biodegradable "green" substances to the lawns. The fact that they put signs up advising passers-by to keep off the lawn after the substance has been applied makes me personally suspicious. For those of you who do not hire help - well done, because gardening is good for you, especially if you don't use poisons - it's time to think about exactly what to throw on your beds and grass. Native plants are never wrong, vegetables will feed you and if you have children you should not even care about how green or yellow your grass looks, it's being run over frequently any way, hopefully. Children need nature and a garden is a great start. More about this, in another post.
By the way, you might end up fitter leaving all those motor-powered garden tools in the shed and doing one or the other job manually.