By JULIA LAKEY
As the buds swell on branches and the first shoots emerge, late winter is a good time to plan food growing ideas. Being connected to our food and growing vibrant edibles is a basic way to care for the planet. Eating local food benefits us many ways: We have no food miles when the only transportation is slipping into shoes to head out to the garden with a colander and some scissors.
A conventional American meal requires a whopping 22,000 food miles to reach your plate, according to David de Rothschild’s Global Warming Survival Handbook. How can that be? Each ingredient is trucked or flown to be packaged and sold. Greenhouse gases are also created by producing fertilizers, pesticides and antibiotics.
My winter garden has kale and chard, and those hearty greens end up in stews or steamed to deliver a whopping dose of nutrients since they were growing just ten minutes earlier. Trucked food loses nutrients. My root crops weren’t very large when the cold weather hit, so the carrots and my fall-planted garlic will need some warm spring days to get more than some tops going.
February is the month to get the peas planted — the first seeds to pop into the soil this year. If you haven’t gardened before, start small and build on your successes.
Containers are a great way to get started if you’re easing into homegrown food. Herbs, scented geraniums, tomatoes and parsley are just some of the crops that benefit from containers, plus you can move them around your yard to discover where they thrive.
Remembering to water them is the toughest part. If you’re not sure when you can get containers going, look to Vashon Island Growers Association folks when the Farmers Market starts. Pacific Potager and other growers provide an amazing variety of tomato starts, so you can decide what color and size you want to mix and match in your garden. Deciding to plant in actual ground will give you a larger garden.
If you have soil that has decent amendments or you’re willing to add in worm castings from our own Worm Guys (Mark Yelkin and his son Tanner), any accent area with decent sun can grow attractive edibles. Tucking lettuce along a pathway is a treat because you can watch it grow.
Dedicating a larger area can be as straightforward as getting some landscaping blocks and developing a pleasant shape to the bed — no need to be bound by rectangles! I like keeping my raised beds narrow enough that I can reach the middle from each side: It makes weeding more enjoyable as I perch on the block ledge. When you develop a raised bed you can blend your own soil from the abundance of free Island manure, add clean sand, composted leaves, small chippings and worm castings. Manure and kitchen scraps should have a few weeks or months to compost or they can harm the plants.
Many crops can be grown in our mild climate. You can round out your garden with a rich variety of edibles from our Island farmers. Every dollar we spend on local food benefits local growers, whether it’s Island or regional farmers. Check with the produce folks at our supermarkets to see where fresh items are coming from.
If you’d like to work with a group of gardeners, there are two community gardens looking for more hands. The Vashon Lutheran Church’s garden has benefitted the Vashon Maury Community Food Bank for years. If you’d like to help out with this season’s activities, call Lynn Meinhardt at 463-9687. I began a garden at the Vashon Community Care Center last year. We planted potatoes and squash and got great yields from a fledgling location. Contact me if you’d like to grow food for the care center residents and staff.
Find a spot to nurture local food and mess around in the dirt. Treat yourself to homegrown edibles from your own garden or local, sustainable growers. Where will you plant hope to help heal the planet?
— Julia Lakey is a writer working to heal the Earth.
Help the Earth
Julia Lakey facilitates a monthly Care for Creation meeting. The next will be Thursday, Feb. 21, with food available at 6:30 and the discussion beginning at 7 p.m. in the Church of the Holy Spirit’s Bennett Hall.
