#3

HIYA!

This is turning out to be topical, isn't it? Never mind. Read on.

I was looking around the neighbordhood at a place just across the road. There's a vacant lot. Weeds. So I thought maybe I could grow some vegetables there. I asked my boss about it and he said I could just go and start working the land. He said if it's public land then there would be no problem. I wouldn't need to pay any money or get permission! He didn't think anyone would care. I was shocked. So I asked a friend at the temple. She thought about it good and answered that she agreed with my boss! Shocking. Well, I wasn't convinced. I wanted to ask someone in the local government. Don't need to see the inside of a jail. I'm not so interested.

But then there was one day that the landlord, my boss, and I were together just outside the apartment so I asked my boss if he knew who owned the land. They said I could just use the small sliver of land just next to the apartment. I decided it was fine. Really small. A tiny sliver. But I'm happy to use it. The landlady said they've never used chemicals. Or, I'm not sure now, what they've never used. But I'll just use it.

So the next day I started in with a shovel. It's actually quite loose and friable already. But I just have this idea in my head that soil should be mechanically made soft and loose. So I dug it up. Glad I did actually because I found lots of rocks that are too big to be so close to the surface. Too many too big too close. Lots of garbage too like plastic and cement.

After digging I covered the soil with dead grasses and weeds from the neighborhood. There are lots of gardens around but since I doubt that any are organic I didn't want to ask anyone if I could use the dead plants from previous harvests that they really just toss aside. Why in hell don't they see the value of strewing them on the soil? So many good reasons. The weeds and grasses I got for the most part don't have seeds. Except for the wormwood. I'd be pleased to have lots of little wormwood plants growing in the garden. Why do people go buy wormwood at the market when it grows so easily?

Well, I've got the garden mostly dug and mulched. My friends at the temple have given me some seeds. A kind of mallow, Japanese radish (daikon, giant radish), and Chinese cabbage. I'm happy to plant these but they've given me more seeds than I expect to plant. These mixed with lots and lots of local plants. Like the wormwood. Plus plants that I've known from the US and Thailand. I imagine a beautiful garden. Green, lush, full, thriving. And very unconventional. I hope to have it the way I want it sometime next year. I walk around and see the plants I'm wanting in my garden already blooming. That means the plants are going to die. I don't see nearly as many in the younger stages. So I wonder if most of the wild plants that I want in the garden are not winter plants. I don't know what grows here in winter. But I also wonder if, given water, the seeds of these wild plants will grow in my garden. The seeds are there. Purslane, wormowood, and others, dandelion, and others that I have no name for.

The garden, which isn't yet a garden, really, has gone from a place of dry, hard dirt, with nearly no insect life at all, to a moist, insect-rich place that has potential. I've laid stepping stones. This way I won't step on things I want to eat. And won't step on insects that are down there. I'll just step on insects that are beneath the stepping stones!

I've been waiting on this liquid fertilizer. I thought it'd be really easy to find but nobody knows of the stuff. Almost nobody. Anyway, I haven't been able to find it and might have to settle for more typical organic fertilizer. But the stuff I was introduced to today has to be dug in with the topsoil. I don't want to dig any more. I've made the soil loose and friable. I just want to add some nutrient. I don't know how much there might already be in the soil. But I feel certain it's not as rich as it could be.

I'll finish some other things I want to get done right away. And Dong-u (a friend) will call around a little to see if he can find this liquid fertilizer. If there's nothing around I'll just plant. In Thailand, you apply the fertilizer a week or so before planting. So I don't want to sow and plant seeds, then water with this liquid fertilizer. I've seen plants die (in Thailand) because the liquid fertilizer was too much for the young plants.

Enough.
Troy.