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A-Mazing Garden
My grandson knows how to have fun. Pulling weeds and watering are not on Noah’s fun list. Besides, he’s too young for that sort of thing.
His sense of wonder makes him love to follow the paths between my garden’s rows. They’ve grown together enough to no longer resemble the two strips of lawn they were in spring. To Noah it must look like a wonderland of vines, enormous leaves and exotic vegetation that creates a maze-like path. Dodging tomatoes, prickly squash leaves and shiny peppers he twists around one obstacle after another. He carefully protects himself from threatening tendrils with an out-thrust elbow. Then he reverses it or decides to make the return trip down the next strip.
I don’t know what type of temperament turns a weedy, overgrown garden into a playground but I like Noah’s outlook on life.
A River Runs Through It…
The flood bypasses the garden to go into and through the garage. The studio was spared.
…our garage, that is. Several time a year we get very heavy rains that convert our backyard into a lake and our garage into a flowing river bed. Last night’s 5-7 inches (our 5 1/2 – inch rain gage was full) of rain caused the flooding which narrowly missed the garden. In the photo above you can see that the water surrounds the lettuce & bean patch at the left. The main part of the garden is on a little higher ground.
The effect on the garden remains to be seen. We are supposed to get more rain today.
Scarebunny
I’ve often wondered if scarecrows actually work. Ever since I saw a large bird perched on a garden scarecrow’s shoulder I have become a doubter and yet people continue to make scarecrows.
I’ve tried to think of a way to keep the rabbits out of the garden without putting up a taller fence midway through the gardening season. I wondered if there would be something I could use to frighten them that would not be expensive, obnoxious to my neighbors, or deadly to the rabbits. Our rabbits have become sort of like the cousins who came for a visit but have worn out their welcome. I want them gone but not dead.
Even as the bunnies first emerged from their nest in our yard, I knew I’d have to deal with them in a more adversarial way later. But early on they were a good time. We developed a relationship with two of them. They “taught” my 1 1/2 – year-old grandson to chase them in exactly two circles around the yard. It was a wonderful game they played almost daily.
Okay, back to the scarecrows. Actually I am less concerned about crows than I am about my now-grown rabbits. We’re still friends but discovering them inside the garden fence, well – that crosses a well-defined line.
Last year I faced the same issue but the summer weather was very damp and grass and weeds were growing so fast and were apparently so tasty that the rabbits didn’t think it was worth the extra effort to jump the fence. This year they’ve had the taste of seven varieties of lettuce and Kentucky Wonder pole bean plants. They return each day!
As a child I spent a lot of time observing animal life in the wild. I found this relaxing, educational and sometimes amusing. (Nevermind how amused my friends were watching me do this.) This developed into my having a pretty good sense of animal behavior.
It struck me that small mammals do have a fear of snakes and for good reason. I have heard of people putting fake snakes in gardens to keep critters away but these have been largely unsuccessful. They work for a while and then the garden thieves return sort of like the bird sitting on the scarecrow’s shoulder.
Rabbits and crows know the same thing. Something that doesn’t move is not a threat. By moving I don’t mean all flashy and wiggly. I mean moving from one place to another.
My “snake” is actually a section of hose about 6 feet long. It looks just enough like a snake to give a bunny pause. I find myself in the garden saying “Do you feel lucky – Well, do ya punk?”
Early on I didn’t change my snake’s position. It would work for exactly one day before the rabbits returned. But changing it once each day has kept the rabbits completely away. I’ve had no problems with rabbits at all for a couple of weeks now.
I like to think that my hours of watching animals as a kid has finally paid off. It’s also turned me into Dirty Harry.
Scarebunny
The War Continues…
Last year I documented the war being waged in my garden. My “Winged Monkeys” came to my rescue in protecting my broccoli from green worms.
This morning I walked into another battle. A flower spider intended to make a Japanese beetle its brunch. I’ve rarely witnessed a spider taking on something more powerful than itself.
flower spider vs. Japanese beetle - Here, it's advantage spider.
Running to get my camera early in the match, I wondered what the outcome would be. My mind raced. I thought that if the win goes to the spider, would I perhaps be able to order flower spider eggs to control the Japanese beetle infestation currently eating my pole beans? Should I consider raising them and telling my Organic Gardening forum friends I’ve found the answer to this awful problem?
The chase went on for several minutes. Around and around the grape leaf they went. The spider wrapped the beetle with its thread, the beetle tore it up and escaped, only to be confronted again by its determined foe. Neither one seemed to have a clear advantage.
Like any neighborhood brawl, a crowd began to gather. Both a long-legged fly and a ladybug watched from a safe distance.
You can see here what I saw as I first brought my camera to the scene.
After several attempts the Japanese beetle was the victor. He retreated within the relative protection of new leaf growth a little ways away from and out of view of the spider.
It looks like I will need to continue using my old peanut butter jar full of water to solve my Japanese beetle problem. (I couldn’t find it in me to put the battle-worn beetle in the jar.)
captured!
escape!
capture again!
A long-legged fly watches the drama from a safe distance.
It's not over yet! He escapes with the spider in hot pursuit.
The Japanese beetle is putting some distance between himself and the spider.
It's over. The winner escapes with his life.
The Urban Garden
With today’s post I want to introduce some gardens other than my own.
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Two of my “city kids” have gardens. Andy is in Pilsen in Chicago and Jesse is in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. They both have very limited space for growing vegetables but that doesn’t seem to stop them from rather ambitious plantings.
Andy says, “It’s really amazing just how much you can grow if you have enough room and decide to devote enough space for plants. I’ll be totally set with tomatoes for the summer with three plants. Oh wait, actually four plants.”
In addition to the tomatoes Andy is growing:
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• habañero and jalapeño plants from seeds Jesse gave him from last year’s plants
• herbs: thyme and basil
• a two-year old strawberry plant that hasn’t yet produced any fruit
• mustard greens
• a forget-me-not plant
It’s important to note that all of Andy’s plants are inside his second-floor apartment in front of his large north-facing windows.
Andy says, “I’ve been using Terracycle plant food, which is the worm crap fertilizer and it has worked pretty well. I also like how they recycle old plastic pop bottles for the packaging. I guess one thing about container gardening is that you have to keep up with watering because the dirt in containers dries out very quickly.”
Andy's Chicago garden
Jesse also has an amazing garden in a very small space. I asked him last evening if he could send me a photo. He answered this way,
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i saw your message and directly went and shot a photo of my tomato plants. there was supposed to be a storm tonight and this was just as the rain started coming down. those are in my bedroom window. they are growing strong, but they have not fruited yet. many brown leaves. perhaps i am not watering enough? i have a feeling this is it. nothing i have is in the ground and i think the water runs out quickly. it is also possibly very crowded. i have five large plants in my window. in my other bedroom/office/darkroom window i have my squashes and one other tomato plant. they are doing similar. the squashes have been fruiting slightly, but they have fallen off when they do
. i will keep at it.Jesse also notes that container plants need to be watered more often than ground plantings. I would also add that tomato plants are self-pollinating. That is, they don’t need insects to pollinate. They DO, however, need wind or something to make this happen. With indoor tomato and pepper plants you may need to tap the flowers gently to get them to pollinate. Some people use an electric toothbrush to make this happen! Since Jesse’s are on an outside window cage he should be fine. I do wonder a little about Andy’s north light for tomatoes! And… wait a minute… Did Jesse actually say that he has squash plants in his window?
Jesse's Brooklyn garden as the rain begins to fall
Brushing My Tomatoes’ Teeth
Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain) tomato
There are a lot of stages of growth in a garden. Waiting for seeds to germinate, seeing the first “true” leaves, and finding the first squash blossom are landmarks I look forward to each year. Probably my favorite is finding the first tomato.
I have been reading recently on the Seed Savers Exchange forum that the Brandywine (Sudduth’s Strain) variety has some, well… difficulties. Half of my tomatoes are – you guessed it – Brandywine (Sudduth’s Strain). Posters have been using words like “temperamental” and “difficult” regarding this variety. One even called it “legendarily temperamental.” One poster suggested using an electric toothbrush a couple of times a day to vibrate the flower clusters. This is “to allow the pollen to fall from the anthers onto the stigma.”
So I’m to brush my tomato plants’ “teeth” two times a day, huh. Gosh, I hope they don’t need flossing. It is actually nice to know that there are ways to pollinate plants when ideal weather conditions or lack of bees cause fruit to not set. This situation could certainly be encountered by both greenhouse and high-rise patio gardeners. Although tomatoes are essentially self pollinating, some varieties may need a little help. I really recommend the knowledgeable people on the Seed Savers and Organic Gardening forums
I’m happy to report that my tomato plants seem to have produced tomatoes without the toothbrush routine. This weekend I came upon first tomatoes of each of the three varieties I grew.
As usual, I’d welcome any stories about your gardens.
** an update from one of my Seed Savers forum friends regarding the tomato pictured above – “…as is very typical with Brandywine Sudduth’s and other varieties of that era, you can see that that’s 2 merged blossoms. You’ve got a double! That could produce a VERY large tomato.”
Cherry Roma tomato
Red Brandywine tomato
My Spring Break is Over
my grandson's cousin enjoys some baby carrots
I made an obvious decision to forgo writing about and photographing my garden so far this year. It was a nice break that actually allowed me to enjoy getting my patch of green off and running without the encumbrances of camera and computer. Gardening is a messy business and I recall last year finding sudden inspiration while having muck up to my elbows. Dashing to the camera or computer in such a state required significant clean up which somewhat interrupted the flow of both the gardening AND the inspiration. This year when inspiration came I simply said, “Eh…” and returned to pulling weeds in the rain.
A friend on Facebook asked me “What do you have in your garden?” That’s my reason for returning to this.
I am experimenting with new varieties of mostly heirloom vegetables. This year I have purchased nearly all my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, an organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the heirloom seeds of our garden heritage. With any luck this year’s garden will contain:
• Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans from SSE – This is a wonderful old standby that I grew in my first garden in 1973. It’s the only bean I’ve ever grown. For next year I have my eyes on some Rattlesnake Snap beans. I don’t think I can resist “dark green pods that are streaked with purple – very fine flavor.” I like the name too.
• Wisconsin Lakes Pepper from SSE – I’ve always grown California Wonder peppers but wanted an heirloom variety with seeds I can save for next year.
• Jalapeño Peppers from Burpee – just one plant in a bucket from last year’s left over seeds
• Summer Crookneck Squash from SSE – I love the nutty flavor.
• Burpee’s Fordhook Zuccini – I used some leftover seeds from last year.
• Sweet Dumpling Winter Squash – I got these seeds from my son who grew them in Brooklyn.
• Purple Top White Globe Turnip from SSE – I’ll plant a fall crop of these too.
• Scarlet Nantes Carrot from SSE – I’ve finally discovered that the secret to growing carrots is deeply-tilled ground.
• Cherry Roma Tomato from SSE – These are replacing my Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes from the last two years. We’ll see…
• Red Brandywine Tomato from SSE – These are replacing my Better Boy Hybrids from Burpee. Those were pretty good but I want to save my seeds for next year and I can’t do that with hybrids.
• Brandywine (Sudduth’s Strain) Tomato from SSE -another experiment in flavor and seed saving
• Calabrese Broccoli from SSE - I was looking for larger heads this year which I didn’t get from the DeCicco variety I grew last year.
• Giant Noble Spinach from American Seed - These are left-over seeds from last year. My twenty-month old grandson likes this!
• Lettuce a variety of nine lettuces including a Gourmet Blend from Burpee, Black-Seeded Simpson, Burpee Bibb, and Roman Emperor (romaine)
• Mary Washington and Jersey Giant Asparagus from crowns I purchased at Home Depot
Please feel free to leave comments, questions, useful information or idle chat below. Maybe you can tell me what’s in your garden. There is more to come. I promise.
And thanks for asking, Mark.
A Time-Traveling Lupin
I have always believed that when you’ve nothing to say, you’re best served by saying nothing. That has been the case here for some time. When I began this blog I knew that there would be times when I would have nothing to write or even to photograph. There is no shortage of internet writing or photography to fill the void. Thanks for your patience and for taking a look today. -Bill
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I’ve been a fan of television’s Lost since its first season. The sideways story line’s time-bending element featured so much this season appealed to the abstract part of my psyche.
The photo below represents for me a similar time warp. The lupin photographed today began its life 28 years ago and 1,200 miles from where it was photographed.
When we lived on the Maine coast, our family came to love the lupins in our flower beds. In 1982 when we were about to move to Illinois I saved a film-cartridge full of their seeds so we could bring a bit of Maine to our new home. The seeds were put in the freezer which we also moved.
As a photographer I have always kept my film in a freezer as recommended by the manufacturer to maintain its “speed” and color. The seeds and their container became lost among similar-looking but film-containing cartridges. Months became years and years became nearly three decades.
Last year I discovered my lupin seeds and wondered what might happen if I planted them. Looking as dead as so many Lost characters, the seeds had a surprise for me as you can see in the photo.
lupin
Does Anyone Want a Half-Bottle of Scotch?
I’m taking a little break from the garden today.
I’ve always found it humorous when people will say, “Well, Great Aunt Flo would have been 107 years old” – except she’s not because she’s been dead for a decade.
I guess I should have more patience with others that remember their loved ones in this kind of time-warped manner. After all, my father would have been 100 years old today.
Having spent the day in a historical frame of mind, it made me think of all the old things we found when we moved into our house 23 years ago. Even then it was an old house. Many of these things are the kinds of items my father – or his parents – might also have used.
Mrs. Miller, the previous owner, gave us a brief history of the place. It was built as a farm house in the late 19th century and remained a working farm through much of the Miller’s time here. Although they mostly grew vegetables and raised chickens, the owners previous to them built the place as a horse farm. The horses were used to aid in digging the basements of the houses in the area. That would explain why digging around our garden occasionally yields a horseshoe or two.
Our purchase agreement with Mrs. Miller included allowing her to leave anything she wanted on the premises. That resulted in our filling at least three 20-yard dumpsters but a number of interesting items we saved – including an unfinished bottle of Scotch.
Today I quickly gathered a few smaller things that I thought were interesting to photograph. (I don’t even know what some of them are and could use some help identifying them).
Seeing some of these old things did make me think a truly time-bending thought. During my father’s lifetime there was more-than-likely someone that had been alive when George Washington was alive. Figure it out if you care.
In the mean time, take a look and tell me if you know what some of these things are.
I can identify some but what’s the thing with the circle and handle leaning against the left side of the box? Is it for canning? I’m not sure I want to know why the original owner of our house had a single large-caliber bullet hidden in the box.
found in an old metal cigar box
Old photos are always a thing of beauty for me. We found these Civil War-era daguerreotypes in the house. The link to those photographed is now broken and it’s sad. We’ll never know who they were.
Civil War-era daguerreotypes
This is a reminder that we live on a former horse farm. The tag says, “VEHICLE TAX CITY OF CHICAGO 1915 ONE HORSE WAGON”. The owners may have used this wagon to take produce to the market in Chicago.
"One Horse Wagon" tax tag
We found containers of all types. These are the smaller ones and include Kraft cheese boxes, a metal cigar box, many, many old canning jars and my favorite, an old lunch box.
old containers
One of our cheese boxes stored a few light bulbs and a small glass jar.
a box of old light bulbs
This old lunchbox is almost noble in its design and depression-era adaptation. Mr. Miller probably took his lunch to the ball bearing factory where he worked until Mrs. Miller kindly asked him to stop taking it. When we found it, it had received its electrical-wire handle and “stove bolts” hand written on both ends. On the inside we found stove bolts.
Lunch Box
recycled label
I found this two days ago while digging a new section of garden but had found others in the greenhouse in past years. Mr. Miller used old metal machine labels to make labels that suited him for his garden and orchard. I can only assume this was more to label an apple tree than a commentary on some of his produce.
Recycling was a way of life for the Millers and many Americans during the Great Depression.
original side of old metal label
In future editions I may feature some of the larger items we discovered in our house. This would include our old Chambers stove (which we use) and Mrs. Miller’s ancient White Star canning stove in the basement. (She figured that a basement stove would not heat up the house in August and September). A finely-built redwood chick incubator that we found above our garage is used in our family room as a catch-all table. We did throw away the 1/4 mile spool of barbed wire. It would be useful in our garden but not very neighbor friendly in our suburban yard. A complete set of late nineteenth-century Encyclopedia Britannica went to a history professor friend.
And finally, tucked away in the basement’s Mason jar room, behind one of the larger canning jars was this half-empty Scotch bottle. I suppose in a depression environment, nourishment came in the canning jars and courage from a hidden bottle. Happy birthday, dad.
a toast to my father
Welcome Spring..
…well, the table is set – with a white tablecloth in the Chicago area. I can put off further digging for a day or two.
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crocuses
Last Gift
I like surprises. Well, most of the time I do. I don’t like finding a bug in my coffee or a parking ticket on my windshield.
Finding a dozen turnips from last year’s garden under the snow this morning is the kind of surprise I like. It’s a little like finding a dollar bill in the pocket of an old pair of pants. For me it’s also a reminder that even in the Chicago area a garden is not only a year-round commitment but it also can have a year-round payoff.
I don’t suppose there are any good tomatoes under there…
surprise turnips
Planting Time?
Planting time can sneak up on you. If you simply look out the window and wait until you see robins pulling up worms and see some daffodils to plant your garden you can miss a lot of the fun – and cost savings – of planting inside.
It’s not at all early to begin planting, depending on where you are and what you are planting. Indoor planting can begin right now for things like peppers which are slow to get started. Tomatoes could be planted at the same time but usually a little later. I like to plant some marigolds so they’re almost ready to bloom when I put them in the ground.
I’ve come upon a pretty handy and quite reliable source that serves as a good reminder of what to plant when. This is the 2010 Best Planting Dates for Seeds from the Old Farmer’s Almanac. All you need to do is to fill in your town or zip code and information based on average last frost date is there for most things you might wish to plant. There is even a separate date listed as “Moon-favorable Dates.” Having lived on the ocean I am aware of the power of the moon to change tides so I guess it could have some effect on plants. I haven’t paid much attention to this myself.
So what are you planting? Just shoot me a comment (below) and let me know. Should I experiment with comparing “Moon-favorable Dates” plantings with regular dates?
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Just a little update on this post…
“Pogo,” one of the knowledgeable people on the Organic Gardening forum reacted wisely to my mention of the Best Planting Dates for Seeds information. She said, “…All these predictors are based on probability. Generally it isn’t a date, but a range with a certain probability of freezing or not. I like this map (from NOAA) because it gives the probability of both frost (32) and freeze (28). How far you push the dates just depends on how much risk you want to take.”
Even in a very small area that date can be different depending on if you are on the north side of a mountain or the south side; if you are right on the shore or on a nearby rise overlooking that same spot. The date for a valley can be different than the date for the adjoining two rises.
Your own records for YOUR location are the best yet not perfect when it comes to determining the date of the last frost for you.
New Light for an Old Darkroom
It’s a little difficult to picture a garden in the same place where all I’ve seen is snow since December. But daylight is a little longer now and the brutal sub-zero temperatures seem to have gone. The picture changes slowly.
This is the time of year that I like to prepare for the growing season ahead. It’s almost time for indoor planting and that requires some preparation. This year I’m installing a 48″ florescent light in my old darkroom (oh, the irony) to get my tomatoes and peppers excited about life.
I’ve also made a “map” of what will go where in the garden. It wasn’t easy finding full sun for almost everything I plan to grow. If you throw in the rotation factor (trying not to plant things in the same place in successive years) and complementarity (planting vegetables that do well together) it’s a puzzle that would make Will Shortz proud.
I just noticed that my work desktop (non computer) seems to belie my commitment to photography right now. The photo below tells where my heart is. I photographed this exactly as I found it.
More planning, pulling out saved seeds from last year… and how am I going to install that light?
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desktop
“Huge Pumpkins up to 70″ Around!”
My seeds from Seed Savers Exchange
Last year’s successes have emboldened me enough to expand the garden. For the first time I’ve saved some seeds from last year to plant this year. Jesse brought some seeds from Brooklyn at Christmas that I’m anxious to plant and today I got some pumpkin seeds that will give me “huge pumpkins, up to 70″ around!”
I’ve taken a different approach to seed selection. Last year I picked up seeds on sale from Ace and Home Depot. This year I’ve done that again but I’ve also investigated some of the seed companies that specialize in heirloom and rare varieties. I have also taken a look at some of the companies that sell primarily to commercial producers. Those companies that maintain their own test lots and labs and trial grounds and whose germination rates exceed federal standards are the places I want to shop for seeds. Although there are others, I’ve taken a close look at Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Territorial Seed Company, Stokes Seeds Ltd. and Parks Seed Company which has a wonderful Gardeners Handbook.
This year my favorite resource for seeds is the Seed Savers Exchange. This is a non-profit organization that saves and shares heirloom seeds. It is the largest non-governmental seed bank in the United States. They have 23 acres of certified organic preservation gardens. Their site itself contains a wealth of information on all aspects of gardening as well as seed saving and trading. Even their seed packets have instructions for seed saving . The Seed Savers Exchange is the source of the seeds photographed above.
Let me know if you’ve come upon a favorite seed source.
And yes, I know I already used this photo.
Welcome… or Welcome Back!
The focus of our blog – photo-synthesis …a photographer tries to garden – will again turn to the garden – mine and yours. We go from the Black Eyed Peas to snow peas. This will never be a “how to do it” look at anything but rather a “let’s try this thing together and see what happens” experiment.
Those who followed last years version understand that I am relying on help from friends near and far, novices and experts. Yes, we actually depend on information from you for our food!
Again my camera will never be far from me to document the process, the discoveries and the experiments.
I am hoping to include some guest writers this time so don’t be shy about wanting to be included. Just send me an e-mail and let me know what you have in mind. I also intend to invite a couple of knowledgeable gardeners to help us out.
Thanks for taking a look.
Bill
the old greenhouse
New Light from Uncle Lou
I really like getting e-mail messages from Uncle Lou. He has nine decades under his belt and with deteriorating vision his messages sometimes seem like code. The message below came this past Saturday. Although there are no photos with this post, I think Uncle Lou’s writing provides more insight and texture than any of my photos could.
Dear Family:
Every few yeas I relate this Martin Luther King experienceto the family.. it’s been a while so …..
About 20 of us Presbyterian ministers were in Memphis in 1968 during the two weeks just before Dr. King was assassinated.. for sutdying the idea of planting new city churches.
It was duriong the height of the garbage strike.. garbage piled high on every street. Racial tension was high. Some of us ministers were able to get intouch with the striker leadelrs.. we learned about the mass rallie and 4 or 5 of us went to one. thousands there.. what energy and tension and enthusiasm !! It was in a huge place called “The Temple”. And you’ve never hear such a choir ! hundreds in it.. I’m sure you’ve African American choirs.. but you’ve never heard one like this one on that night. WOW !
We wre the only caucasians thee and they had us sit on the plaform.. RalphAbernathy.. Roy Wilkins.. I sat and t alked with Philip Randolph, President of Pullman Porters union all evening. I’ve always treasured that. Dr. King was not there.. at least not in evidence. They took up the collection in garbage cans.
Just a couple of days after we got back to Louisville, Dr. King was kiled. Ruth and I marched in a sumbolic funeral procession hee inLouisville at the same time as the one in Atlanta. We got real flack fromsome of the congregation !
It always brings to mind the racial tension here.. Father Maloney and I did the evening shift on the phone “hot lines” at the old YMCA. We lost some membes because I agreed to swap pulpits for one Sundah with an African-American church in the west end.
Wonderful memories !.
Enjoy the day. It is a holiday.
Father (and other titles) Lou
A Few Thoughts About Baseball
Each year when the World Series puts baseball to bed, I think of it as a game that doesn’t quite go to sleep. Last night the Yankees won – for better or worse – and players and management from all teams will take some time off. For the losers there’s a bitter taste for a while but even for them this event signals vacation and healing.
For most baseball fans it’s a little different. The end of the World Series signals thoughts of “next year” and hope. Even the slow, steadied pace of this game without time limits speaks of hope. Certainly for Cubs fans baseball is a glowing ember that helps keep one warm through a cold winter.
To baseball fans everywhere – even Yankees fans – I wish you warmth and hope for the coming winter.
A Nearer Landscape #4
Maple leaves and pine needles look like they are swimming in a vat of oil on my driveway. Actually that is a little oil from our old Toyota mixed with rain water.
leaves on oily driveway
See Rod Run
Rod Blagojevich has always liked to run… running for governor of the state of Illinois, running from cameras, running to cameras. Lately he’s been running from one reality show to another.
Here’s he’s running in the 2006 Fourth of July parade in Wheaton, IL. That’s the first time I saw him run.
See Rod Run
See Rod Run
New Look… New Focus
The garden that has been my source of inspiration – and food – since April is beginning its natural decline. The cooler weather and shorter daylight hours are suspending growth to all but the newly-planted carrots and turnips. It’s almost time to put it to bed for the year.
I’ve enjoyed the process tremendously and have accomplished most of what I had hoped. My experiments with gardening will continue and I will include some of those in future posts.
I regret not featuring some of my friends’ gardens as I had hoped. My friend Dave, for instance, has a wonderful garden and a greenhouse that he built. I had every intension of taking some photos and featuring that but… well, next year.
The focus of the new blog – photo-synthesis …a new light on old themes – will take a look at the creation of photographs – both personal and assignment photos. We’ll not only look at recent assignment successes and failures but I will take a look back at some early “interesting” – okay, nightmare assignments.
I would really like your input in this thing. Everyone is free to comment.
I’m using this photo of my grandson to introduce a new look and a new focus. Noah is sitting on a deserted Lake Superior beach with a blank slate in front of him. This is how I approach each photo assignment and how I want to view this blog.
Noah on Lake Superior
Labor Day, Abraham Lincoln, and Genesis
resting my hoe
As I take the day off from both my hoe and my camera, I’ve come across a wonderful Labor Day thought. This comes from my wife’s cousin, Trina Zelle – a Presbyterian minister in Arizona. -Bill
Not only was our 16th president adept at citing scripture to underscore his points, it could be argued that Abraham Lincoln read scripture through the lens of his own experience as a worker. In light of his unsurpassed eloquence, we sometimes forget that, early on in his career, he was known as “the rail-splitter.” It is perhaps because of this acquaintance with physical labor that Lincoln’s take on Genesis 3:19 is so strikingly different from conventional and even scholarly interpretations.
God speaks in Genesis 3:19, telling Adam and Eve what awaits them beyond the gates of the garden:
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.
The traditional view of this passage is one of work as punishment for the sin of disobedience: “by the sweat of your brow/you will eat your food.” Lincoln, however, did not view it as the description of a punishment but rather as a moral imperative: the food you eat is to be the result of your own work, not someone else’s.
His interpretation of this passage was not an incidental observation made in passing, but can be found in many of his speeches, letters, and reported conversations. Time after time, Lincoln stands with workers against those who would benefit from their labor without just compensation. It is this core belief that serves to undergird his opposition to slavery: you shall not live by the sweat of others.
Lincoln’s life experience of hardship led him to read scripture from the perspective of a worker, and it transformed our nation. His opposition to slavery was a logical extension of his commitment to worker rights.
Now imagine someone else reading scripture. Not a person who has risen to Lincoln’s stature, but an immigrant, waiting this very evening in Altar, Mexico, to begin the dangerous desert crossing to what she hopes will be work, just wages, and a new and better life. Imagine reading these selections from Deuteronomy 26 through the eyes and from the experience of such a person:
My father was a wandering Aramaean and he went down into Egypt with a few people…and became a great nation.…but the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the Lord…so the Lord brought us out of Egypt…and brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Not everyone has the poverty-stricken background of an Abraham Lincoln or the unknown woman crossing the desert. But we all have the capacity to imagine, to put ourselves in someone else’s place. Such identification is part of what makes us human. And so I invite you to pick up the texts sacred to your faith. You don’t have to pick out an obvious passage that deals directly with economic justice or worker rights. Read any passage, but do so through the lens of a disenfranchised person – an immigrant; a person who has just lost their job and perhaps their house. See what they see. Feel what they feel. That is the beginning of the kind of solidarity that can transform the world.
Rev. Trina Zelle, ordained by the Presbyterian Church (USA), is Lead Organizer for Interfaith Worker Justice of Arizona.
Decay… Again
broccoli leaf
Once again I am struck by the aesthetic side of decomposition. This time I took the broccoli leaf into the studio to photograph it. It was a little late in the evening and pretty dark for photography outside.
This is the same type of leaf that in June I was so taken by its waterproof quality. It now looks very different. No longer waterproof, it has taken a distinctly autumn-ish color. It looks worn and ragged.
As my garden ages it changes in so many ways. Leaves like this broccoli leaf become battle scarred. Tomato plants wither from the inside as they seem to yield their energy to the fruits as they ripen. The same fate falls to Noah’s pumpkin plants. They look horrible – just dying – again, in sacrifice to the beautiful pumpkins they produce.
Only the pepper plants continue to look as virile as their fruits.
This is the period of the greatest harvest. It comes at a price the plant itself pays. We enjoy the harvest but I also watch as the plants begin to succumb to their efforts.