Progressive Wednesday

Progressive gardening

Yesterday evening I spent three grueling hours outside with a 30-year-old rotor-tiller, loosening the soil in our backyard so that my wife and I could plant our first garden as a married couple. It was after I had already started the relic tiller (I think it was on my 467th try) that my grandfather told me that you burn more calories using a rotor-tiller than any other outdoor activity. I looked this up and couldn’t exactly confirm it, but after dropping about four pounds in three hours, I don’t really doubt it. While we were a bit late in getting our garden planted (and by “we,” I mean, my wife), I was a week early for National Gardening Exercise Day. That’s June 6. Seriously. I couldn’t make that up.

But why am I writing about gardening on a website about progressive social activism? Well, I believe that most progressives are “green” people, even if they don’t consider themselves to be environmentalists. We respect the earth and the fruit it gives us, even if we don’t spend a great deal of time working with it.

In that light, as I was staring at my freshly tilled earth last night, the beads of sweat hanging from my eyelashes making the garden look like some abstract painting, I decided that I wasn’t going to fill that soil with chemicals to help our plants grow; mine would be an organic garden.

So into the house I went to look up the easiest ways to do this, and I found OrganicGardening.com. They’re advice on the easiest way to keep a garden organically? Compost. Here it is in their own words:

Decaying plant wastes, such as grass clippings, fall leaves and vegetable scraps from your kitchen, are the building blocks of compost, the ideal organic matter for your garden soil. If you add compost to your soil, you’re already well on your way to raising a beautiful, healthy garden organically.

Luckily my wife and I had decided to start a compost pile a few weeks ago, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, it’s as easy as A-B-C, 1-2-3, or even Do-Re-Me. I won’t go into it in full detail, but if you want an easy way to turn that garbage into luscious tomatoes, eggplant, and spaghetti squash, check out this website. Then get that organic garden going. The late cool weather this year means a garden started today will catch up by mid-June to a garden started in early may. Better yet, wait until June 6th and start it on National Gardening Exercise Day. It’s my favorite holiday.

Picture courtesy of this tomato lover.