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Creating Bridges:
The Spiritual & Philosophical:
Organic Gardening
by Frank and Vicky Giannangelo
Under the Cover of Events
“Down the Road”

Visitors these days asking to see the garden have to be satisfied with a walk down a snow-shoveled trail to view the gardens, using more imagination than sight, as we talk about the crops and methods that will come about at a later time. In some ways this is a good thing. Our most recent visitor, from Minnesota, had become a vegetarian a few years ago, and his garden was taking on a new importance in his life. By projecting information into the future, we were able to by-pass the immediacy of the drifting snow.


It is at this time of year that we find ourselves in a back-to-back situation: the media provide us memories of the past year’s events and push us into a new calendar year of resolutions and wonderings. The winds of past events, so important and earth changing, now ripple the surfaces of our lives, leaving what lies underneath to provide the appropriate tack to safe harbor. Julian Jaynes said that, “History does not move by leaps into unrelated novelty, but rather by the selective emphasis of aspects of its own immediate past.” But all too often it is the “leaps into unrelated novelty” from which we are asked to shape our world; the aspects of our “immediate past” covered by “snow” only reveal the outlines of future promise. These outlines that are now submerged are the true and powerful currents that flow beneath the news-event announcements, running deep into an archaic past of common connection. This thread now runs from Minnesota to New Mexico as a sign post of direction: regardless of what is seen on the surface, our inner vision travels the same trail.


The drumming had already started by the time we arrived. The large living room of our neighbor was ringed with people pounding out rhythms, accompanied by others on wooden sticks, tambourines, a cow bell, and all manner of other instruments shaken, tapped, and scratched. Some danced free style in the middle of the room, each giving expression to their individual mood, style, and feeling of the moment. Food and drink in the kitchen provided a second gathering area. There we met gardeners from Taos and San Francisco as we shared experiences, methods, and the thrust or direction of their gardens. All agreed that the “people connection” was the end goal, although each of us was taking a divergent route.


Outside, in a nearby field, an old barn built in the forties with discarded wooden ammunition crates from Fort Wingate had fallen down, been pushed into a pile, and was to be lit afire and watched late into the evening on this winter solstice.


This gathering interwove many a stream of our ancient past into a flowing direction of purpose and continuity, showing once again the outlines of our human destiny, now covered with a soon to melt obscurity. Thus, our visions of spring - looked forward to, worked toward, and shared - will provide the soil in which we can, together, grow.


We wish everyone a Happy New Year!



Transition
“A light behind the hill”



The garden is asleep for the winter, nestled under a brown alfalfa blanket of mulch. Nutrients, added earlier with the tilling, will now be dispersed and absorbed into the de-compacted soil. From the entrance at the garden gate, the view is a flat-sameness resembling an awaiting canvas. Checking the compost piles and the worm beds, we found the wigglers going deeper with the lower temperatures. Our woodpile has been covered with a tarp for the inevitable rain and snow. The straw bale wall, started in the late spring, now has on its stucco color coat, waterproofing and protecting it from the winter weather. Arriving home from school in the late afternoon, the sun seems all too anxious to disappear behind the west horizon, leaving only moments to work on lingering projects and do the daily chores. Cold and dark force us to enter into our hibernaculum, along with the woodpile, the garden, and the worms.


The end of another year approaches - the holiday season a denouement of the year’s events. It feels good to close the sometime stressful, mostly busy, always exciting year. Just as the turning of the calendar page finalizes our year’s endeavors with mindal revisions, so does it also allow our imaginations to leap with prospects and ideas for the new year.


At this time of year our world is lit by the morning sun not coming over the horizon to full light, but showing as lengthened rays, shooting between the canyons cut deep by ancient waters. It is a morning hint, a gist of what will be increased as the day progresses. Soon, it too will be leaving its hibernaculum to help us splash diversity on the now blank garden canvas.


Once again we will approach the world with our new gardens, each of us creating a matrix that contains our beliefs and desires. The garden is an entry point of commonality that provides us with the felt presence of immediate experience. With this experience, we can touch and help awaken all those who may feel isolated, distanced, and alone on this planet.


The Navajo have a saying that “you can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep”. This Snow-White-like-poison-apple that many may have bitten – technology, economics, injustice, violence, or the rush of life – has caused a trance-like condition of feeling helpless and unable to relate to, or help, others. It is true that we, in and of ourselves, cannot wake them: but a garden can reconnect them with forces and energies that are able to reopen their eyes and awaken them to the inextricable relationship they have to each other person on this conceptually shrinking planet.


We look forward to spring when the sun will rise beyond the hill, and will then be able to show forth its full light, aiding us in bringing forth the two greatest crops we can grow – Peace and Goodwill.


Copyright (c) 2002
Giannangelo Farms Southwest
"What is Organic Gardening?"


"Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”
Rachel Carson


ORGANIC GARDENING starts with good soil. When crops are deprived of basic nutrients they languish. Organic soil amendments and conditioners pay for themselves with increased plant productivity. Healthy plants grow more vigorously, taste better, store longer, and better resist insect attacks. They have greater resistance to the cold, heat, drought, and disease. Successful soil building best addresses the soil’s long-term needs by remedying deficiencies organically. Chemical fertilizers add unwanted nitrates or salts to the soil, as well as leaving chemical residues in the food. Organic gardening is growing without chemical fertilizers, naturally building the soil to support healthy plant life. Chemical fertilizers and additives will, over time, damage the soil's ability to provide what plants need to resist disease, insect attacks, and stress. Soil depletion of organic nutrients is one of the main causes of unhealthy plants and disease.

RECIPE FOR SOIL DEPLEATION:

Pesticides + chemical fertilizers = Infertile soil, stressed plants, and insect attacks.


RECIPE FOR SOIL BUILDING:

Organic fertilizers + microbial activity = Soil fertility, healthy plants, and resistance to insect attacks.
A healthy, organic garden produces strong plants that are able to withstand adverse conditions. The consistent traits and habits needed to make good soil can also help build fertility in our lives. Those things we do to create a healthy garden can become the tools needed to explore, change, and enhance our daily lives through:

Assessment - the plan of action

Decision – the choice to act

Implementation– the act itself, the doing


Success in the garden proves the efficacy of these tools, and as we use them to expand our gardens - the garden of our yard, and the garden of our soul - we expand all the aspects of our lives.


Organic soil amendments and conditioners can renew the life of your soil without adding unwanted chemicals. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium are the basic providers of nutrients in the soil. Trace minerals provide the rest.


Soil can either be acidic or alkaline, or neutral – the soil’s pH. pH is the symbol for the logarithm of the reciprocal of Hydrogen ion concentration in gram atoms per liter. For example, a pH of 5 indicates a concentration of .00001 or 10-5 gram atoms of hydrogen ions in one liter of solution. Acidic soil has a pH range from 1 to 6.5. Alkaline soils have a pH range from 7.5 to 10. Neutral soil has a pH of 7. Lime, oak leaf mold, peat moss, rotted sawdust, and soil sulfur will lower the pH in an alkaline soil. For acid soil, add dolomite lime, or oyster shell lime. For the best results, add these amendments in the spring when soils are warming and microorganisms are active. Most plants grow well in a pH range of 6, but will tolerate a pH between 5.5 – 7.


Organic soil-building should include the addition of the following organic nutrients:


HUMUS - organic matter in various stages of decay. It increases water-holding capacity, modifies soil structure, stimulates plant growth, permits root penetration, and helps to correct soil imbalances. Some forms of humus are found in compost and animal manures.


NITROGEN - contains proteins and is a food source for compost piles (grass clippings, green vegetable matter), and it stimulates green growth in plants. Sources are blood meal, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, fishmeal, and fish emulsion.


PHOSPHORUS - stimulates root growth and promotes fruit and seed maturation. Good sources are soft rock phosphate or bone meal. Deficiencies are indicated by purple leaves, brittle roots, skinny stems and late fruit set and maturity.


POTASSIUM - promotes plant vitality and disease resistance. Sources are Greensand, also known as Glauconite, sulfate of potash, wood ashes, or Sul Po Mag. Deficiencies are indicated by an irregular yellowing of lower leaves, and poor root growth.


CALCIUM - important for plant cell wall integrity, root development and leaf growth. Low levels show up as deformed new leaves and branches, weak stems and roots. A good source for calcium is gypsum, which can also lower the alkalinity of the soil.


MAGNESIUM - essential for chlorophyll and green leaf development. Pale green leaves with green veins are a sign of deficiency. Adding dolomite lime to raise the pH in an acid soil often corrects this deficiency. In an alkaline soil you can add Magnesium Sulfate.


SULPHUR - used to lower pH in alkaline soil, and it is a stimulant for soil microbial life. Use sparingly. A good source is soil sulphur, or calcium sulfate – Gypsum.


TRACE MINERALS - found in compost, kelp meal, algae meal, and seaweed meal. These can provide boron, copper, iron, sulphur and zinc.


OXYGEN - one of the most important fertility components in the soil - it stimulates microbial activity and allows free root growth. Humus, peat moss, compost, and aged manure tilled into the soil help to increase the air spaces in the soil enabling plants to utilize the available nutrients. Soil should be loose and never walked on, which only compacts it. Tilling wet soil too early in the season can also destroy soil structure by compacting it, and squeezing out the pockets for air.


SUSTAINABLE GARDENING - one of the most important things about gardening organically is that the process can become sustainable over time. Sustainable soil building begins after the initial soil testing and the addition of organic fertilizers and conditioners, and continues by organically maintaining and improving the soil over time. Sustaining the soil means being able to replenish nutrients with what you have at hand – organic compost, beneficial microbes, enzymes, and earthworms. Ideally, once the garden is established it can be sustained with garden compost alone, using the microbes in your soil to inoculate your compost, which feed your soil.


WORMS - Vermicomposting uses earthworms to make compost. Worms can eat their body weight daily in organic matter and convert it into dark, soil enriching castings full of live micro organisms, growth hormones, and nutrients, humic acids which condition the soil, and a neutral pH.


COMPOSTING - Billions of decaying organisms (25,000 bacteria placed end to end equal one inch) feed, grow, reproduce and die, recycling garden waste into an organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. Composting is the ultimate recycling process – improving soil structure, increasing the soil’s ability to hold moisture, providing soil aeration, fertilization, and nitrogen storage. It buffers pH, releases nutrients, and provides food for microbial life.


PLANTING COVER CROPS - this "green manure" is grown for the sole purpose of being tilled into the soil to add organic matter. It will help keep moisture from evaporating, regulate the soil temperature, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. By providing an insulating blanket, microbes and earthworms will thrive. The more worms in your garden, the more they can break up, fertilize, and aerate the soil. Beneficial insects are also attracted by cover crops; alfalfa can attract parasitic wasps, lady beetles, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs and assassin bugs. White clover can attract Tachnid flies, ground beetles and parasitic wasps that prey on aphids, scales, caterpillars and whiteflies. Most grains will attract lady beetles. Clovers and vetches can attract minute pirate bugs. Fava beans and buckwheat can attract predatory and parasitic wasps, syrphid flies and bumblebees.


CROP ROTATION - Crop rotation also helps to prevent soil deficiencies. By using different plants in different beds, you can avoid depletion of nutrients because each plant has different needs. Planting a legume after a heavy feeder such as corn, will replenish the nitrogen in the soil. Rotate your root crops, leafy crops, heavy feeders, and cover crops. if you keep a garden journal you can keep track of what you planted, and where and when you planted it.


PROVIDING GOOD DRAINAGE - Good drainage is essential to soil health. Too little drainage makes a soggy soil which prevents root growth, nutrient absorbtion, and compacts the soil. A perk test is an easy way to determine water drainage through your soil. Dig a hole six inches across by one foot deep. Fill with water and let drain. As soon as the water has drained, fill it again. Time how long it takes for the water to drain. If it takes more than 8 hours, you have a drainage problem. Add sand, gypsum, chopped straw, vermiculite or perlite to increase the drainage. Too much drainage can be determined by a water test. This will tell you if you soil drains too quickly, leaching nutrients and causing plants to be watered more frequently. Water well a small portion of your garden. Two days later, dig a hole 6 inches deep. If the soil is dry to the bottom of the hole, your soil drains too quickly to promote good plant growth. Add peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, composted manure and mulch well to prevent evaporation.


"When the planes still swoop down and aerial spray a field in order to kill a predator insect with pesticides, we are in the Dark Ages of commerce. Maybe one thousandth of this aerial insecticide actually prevents the infestation. The balance goes to the leaves, into the soil, into the water, into all forms of wildlife, into our selves. What is good for the balance sheet is wasteful of resources and harmful to life.”

Paul Hawkin from The Ecology of Commerce


COPYRIGHT (c) 2002 by Frank and Vicky Giannangelo
Frank & Vicky Giannangelo
Registered Organic Gardeners

Frank and Vicky Giannangelo have been gardening organically for 30 years and are New Mexico Registered Organic Gardeners.


Giannangelo Farms began in 1986 on San Juan Island, Washington - an island off the coast of Washington State, 10 miles from the bottom of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.


After creating formal, patterned, raised bed, sustainable organic gardens, starting a business, and expanding as much as we could handle without hiring anyone, we sold our business in 1993 and moved to Arizona, where we spent three years creating and coordinating the building of a large formal herb and vegetable garden for a private community.


Since 1997, we have lived in northwestern New Mexico in an area presenting many challenges, altitude, erratic spring weather, a short growing season, and a 7,300 ft. high desert environment - which is allowing us to use our experience and creativity to establish Giannangelo Farms Southwest.


There are formal gardens, pools, and ponds surrounded by a hay bale stucco wall, garden beds with rock retaining walls, three pergolas for private formal teas, a labyrinth, garden trellises, and greenhouses - all of which are open to the public year around.


We give a series of spring and fall "You Can Grow!" Workshops on how to do basic rockwork, build hay bale stucco walls, and how to create sustainable organic gardens - with an emphasis on the problems of growing in this area.


In the summer we sell organic herbs and vegetables to a coop market in Gallup, and participate in a local Saturday's farmer's market. Sustainable Organic Gardening CD ROMs are available on our website:





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