Homegrown Raised beds allow DIY growing By Mary Auld for the Valley Journal
ARLEE– This spring you’ll find a number of sturdy wooden garden boxes dotting the backyards of Arlee, full of rich soil and seeds. By late summer, they’ll be overgrown with stalks of Brussels sprouts, scarlet tomatoes, crisp salad greens and root vegetables. Each spring the Arlee Community Development Corporation’s Food Sovereignty Committee sells and donates raised garden beds to locals who wish to start home gardens. The project came from Tribal Council member Shelly Fyant’s “Healing the Jocko Valley” project. The effort focused on giving people access to fresh fruits and vegetables, while empowering them to take control of how their food was grown. “I wanted to teach people about real food,” Fyant said. She used grant money to purchase the garden beds and deliver them to the homes of people who wanted them. Retired extension agent Rod Davis provided the new garden bed owners with instruction on how to use them. Davis doesn’t have a straight answer for why people should take up raised bed gardening. “There are as many reasons as there are people,” he said. Personally, Davis said, the beauty of a garden compels him. He carefully plans the design of his garden beds to be aesthetically pleasing. He also said homegrown food tastes better. It’s more flavorful than the food that you can buy at the store, which is no longer fresh after traveling long distances to get to your plate. There’s also an economic incentive to home gardening. Davis said it’s less expensive to grow your own produce than to buy high-quality organic food at the store. If Arlee residents raise an excess of produce they can sell it at the Arlee Farmers Market for a profit. Health benefits can also be a product of raised bed gardening. When people build personal connections to nutrient-dense food grown in their garden, they eat less sugary, salty food that can cause health problems, Davis said. This is especially true of children, who are developing the eating habits that will determine their health throughout their lives. “When you’re six years old, an ear of corn is better than a Snickers bar,” Davis said. “Not only is it delicious, it’s fun to be in the garden.” Davis shared his tips for first-time raised-bed gardeners. Build fertile soil According to Davis, the first step to a productive garden is the soil. Simple garden soil won’t give plants the nutrients they need to thrive. Davis recommends mixing compost or other organic matter into the soil in your raised beds each year. To boost the microbial health of the soil, he advises that gardeners add a few shovels of soil from a friend or family member’s established garden. Water correctly According to Davis, gardening in raised beds is a good way to learn how to water effectively. There’s less guesswork involved. You know the soil is saturated when water runs out of the bottom of the box. He said it’s more common for people to overwater their garden beds than to dry them out. In order to avoid overwatering, put a finger into the soil each day. If the soil feels moist, the box doesn’t need 8 - March 20, 2019
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The Arlee CDC’s Food Sovereignty Committee sells and donates raised beds every spring to people who want to start home gardens.
water. If it’s dry, water the box until water flows out of the bottom. The amount of water your bed needs will fluctuate with weather conditions and the stage of the plant’s life cycle. With experience, Davis said a gardener could interpret the “language” the plants are using to communicate whether they’re thirsty. If you identify plants that “speak the loudest” by drooping or browning when dehydrated, you can check in with those plants to determine how much water the bed needs. Plant what you’ll eat “Grow what you’re going to eat and love,” Davis said. One of his favorite foods is fresh broccoli, and Davis likes
FARM and RANCH
that it continues to produce for most of the summer, so he grows it in his garden. He added that root vegetables like potatoes and carrots are “better than Christmas” for kids who like the surprise of unearthing their food. Perennials yield in long term According to Davis, investing in plants that will give produce year-after-year without re-planting is a good way to get into gardening. He suggests planting asparagus somewhere near a garden bed where it will get water frequently. Asparagus doesn’t require much care and will produce abundantly each spring. Rhubarb is ornamental, delicious in baked goods and will last through the cold winter. Berries also grow well in the Lake County climate