A few weekends ago, I was privileged to attend the Soil Family Expo created/hosted by Black’s Tropical Homestead. For 4 years, they’ve been meeting in Savannah, GA to share garden stories, tips & tricks, sell their wares, and to enjoy each other’s company. For some, this is the only time during the year they get to meet face to face. My boyfriend and I took the 5 hour drive and made a whole week of the trip.
I will tell you… when you have a passion on a topic and you surround yourself with people who share in that passion, there is no greater feeling of recharge and belonging. Even for this introverted person, who can go for long periods of time without talking to anyone, meeting and chatting with someone who understands is paramount.
One of the items I brought with me were post cards with some sayings on them. My “Grow Fruit Trees” and “My Marigolds bring Bees to the Yard” logos. They were loved by all who received them but they had some feedback…
You see…
For a long time I’ve been thinking about my channel name, “A Rose Grows in Harlem.” The story goes I started this whole adventure in my NYC apartment. Life happens and I ended up down in Georgia. My NYC roots will always be with me, but I’m not just doing gardening in the city and I’m not only handling roses. So does this name still apply to my channel? Some suggested it didn’t but the overwhelming response from the Soil Family was to keep the name. It was a part of me, part of my garden story and it had strength in the roots. I couldn’t agree more! Although I was in the process of rebranding, I may have another idea brewing, but now I have more time to think about it while still getting into my garden. More details to come. 😉
The Soil Family Expo was amazing and I hope those who love gardening plan to attend next year for the 5th Anniversary: https://www.soilfamily.com/
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So when I came back to MY garden…. You know I was rejuvenated and ready to get in the dirt again. And I did! Quite literally. Someone at the Soil Family Expo mentioned getting free mulch from her city. I remember checking for my town and didn’t find anything years ago but I must have done the search wrong. My town offers free mulch AND compost every Friday from 8am to 3pm! Holidays they have off, but that’s still amazing!
I took myself down to the location and brought along with me some empty cat litter containers. When I fill them up with water, they carry about 4-4.5 gallons of liquid and they’re supposed to hold 35 lbs. I figured that would be perfect for getting some dirt. It was an easy drive from the garden and access was a turn from the road into a gated area. I thought the first piles I saw were mulch, but it turned out to be gravel, also available for the taking. I almost got discouraged, but when I turned around, a truck with a trailer behind with a heaping pile of mulch was driving back from a dirt road to the side. I smiled and made my way over there.
Down the road, there were mountains of woodchips, mulch, compost… etc. The town’s Street Department offers this because they have to prune public trees and shrubs, cut grass and weeds, and their trucks just dump all of that in this huge field. The clippings and woodchips, when left for long enough, become compost, as you do. People are allowed to pull up wherever they fit, fill up their container of choice and then drive away with some amazingly free dirt! They even had an excavator that dumped mulch into a flatbed truck or trailer for a bulk amount. Gardeners, farmers, and even city employees were there to take their fill. It was a fantastic site to see the reuse.
I filled up 8 containers and brought them home and weighed each one. The average weight was around 26lbs per container. That’s pretty good and it has lifted a possible stopper from filling my Dirt Lockers. While top soil is inexpensive per bag at the big box stores, getting 20-30 bags every weekend will kill my bank account. So this option is awesome and helps me feel reenergized to work on my dirt lockers again this year.
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Seeds…. My poor seeds. I think the first time I started seeds when I moved here was probably in January. I’m not sure, because I grew things before I was recording my progress. The second year I may have done it in March. We have a vacation and once I come back from that I wanted to ensure I got those seeds in some dirt ASAP. Now that it’s April 15th, I may not have to worry about growing them indoors lol.
According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the last frost date for my city was April 9th. I just may plant seeds inside and outside to compare how well they grow. If I have extras, I can compost them, sell them or give them away. But I think that would be a cool thing to try.
Now… what am I growing this year? Given the crazy times we’re about to go through… (thanks to politics shenanigans) I will probably plant more of the things we eat: broccoli, string beans, potatoes, corn, peas, carrots, onions, garlic, ginger, etc… I have organic potatoes and other things from the grocery store… but that will be on another video, so I’ll leave that for another post. I’ll just say that I want to ensure we have the means to provide some if not most of our non animal foods.
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And with that I’ll end this post here. Writing weekly seems like a chore. When I leave some time between writings I find the stories and other ideas come more freely and there is more to tell. But I think I may just be out of practice as I used to write things every day in diaries and as stories. I want to get back to that and I’m happy gardening has taken me back there. Find your Soil Family!
~Marj 🌱💞