Greyshade for the win! OK 2nd place

One of the coolest things about living in East San Diego is that we are near the City Farmers Nursery. Since 1972 Bill Tall (in the picture next our son Colin) and his amazing nursery have been one of the greatest resources for urban agriculture in town. In addition to offering great products and services, the nursery offers loads of free classes and other events. One event is an annual pumpkin growing contest for kids. Our son Colin jumped at the chance. We collected the five Big Mac pumpkin seeds in July and, with the help of an article in volume 13 of Make, grew a 52 pounder. Growing it in the front yard attracted a lot of attention. It broke the ice with a lot of neighbors who finally understand why we aren't concerned about the state of our "lawn."

The contest this year had the highest participation to date. First place was taken by the daughter of an old friend of ours. They have worked on their urban garden for about five years and have built up thick layers of heavily composted soil. Her entry came in at 67 pounds.

Considering that was our first year and we have only started reclaiming our soil we are well pleased with second place. On the whole we have done very well with our first year of gardening. We've produced three varieties of tomato, squash, corn, potatoes, letuce and our avacado tree is thriving. We haven't had much luck with legumes which I suspect is the lack of nitrogen fixing bacteria in the soil. We hope to address this with inoculated seed and cover crops this winter.

A Statement of Policy

This a staunchly anti-consumerist blog. We select certain links from time to time regarding local business, books that we feel appropriate etc. However ANY comments containing unauthorized advertising WILL BE DELETED IMMEDIATELY!!! I have been forced to do this twice in the last week. If it happens a third time I will be forced to put all comments on moderated status.

Yes, someone died.

When a blog goes silent one cannot help but wonder if the writer is still alive and well. Well I am alive but my mother is not. Her last goals in life where to gather her family together for her ninetieth birthday, see us in a house of our own and have her house sold and her affairs in order. With those things accomplished she rapidly weakened and succumbed to pneumonia. She was a fighter but she had no more battles left to win.

She, and my father, raised the late in life accident I am, with stories of the Great Depression of 1930s. It shaped them durring their childhood and teens. My father in particular was frugal to a fault and a relentless DIYer. Influenced by them, my youngest sister (thirteen years older than I) took a house in far worse condition than mine and turned in to a midtown show piece. She was killed in a car accident in 1980.

I am the heir of fallen warriors. They made me the kind of man who charges though life facing every challenge with a battle cry of “Victory or Death!” The problem with that is that sometimes life responds by giving you death and there is nothing you can do about it. That’s not a situation I deal with well. Losing my mother filled me with a sense of defeat and helplessness. All my many projects have seemed to mock me, but slowly the clouds in my mind have been lifting. I have spent some time looking over this blog. Perhaps, like Théoden, my hands will remember their old strength if I once again grip my sword.