Applegater Fall 2012 5
DIRTY FINGERNAILS AND ALL
Putting all your eggs in one basket
bY SiOux ROGERS
Putting all your eggs in one basket is
generally advised against in the financial
world or otherwise. Let’s call this basket
analogy “monoculture,” and call storing
eggs in different containers “polyculture.”
What is the concern?
Monoculture vs. polyculture is
actually a no-brainer, but somehow, while
the principles may be understood, the long-
term consequences of polyculture are often
elusive. Think of monoculture as having
a continuous diet of hot dogs three meals
a day. Okay, cook them every which way,
but still you have a monodiet. Think you
will eventually become ill, malnourished
and unable to function? Well, yep, I would
think so. So why are you eating just hot
dogs? The rhetorical answers could be:
(1) cheap; (2) easy; (3) convenient; (4) can
always take medication if you get sick; (5)
very short-sighted; (6) short-term cravings
override long-term wisdom...or something
like that; (7) probably missed a few.
So why do most big agribusinesses
and many home gardeners practice a
system that will have an eventual bad
outcome? In the short run, check out (1)
through (7) above.
While planting single crops is simple
in that watering, fertilizing, and spraying
for disease are no-brainers and the gardener
can focus on a single crop, eventually a
domino catastrophic effect will occur. In
other words, the hot-dog diet may work for
a while and may be simple, but eventually
the fatal flaws will catch up.
If nothing else, planting the same
crop, same species in the same space year
after year would get rather boring. So
maybe the plants actually die of boredom.
If all of this monoculture babble still
appears ridiculous or elusive, read about
the Irish potato famine of 1845 (http://
evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/
agriculture_02).
A healthy, well-balanced garden
should have an abundant variety of crops.
Variety, aside from being the spice of life,
has a synergistic effect in all of nature. In
the garden, for example, peas put nitrogen
back into the soil so a green leafy vegetable
such as kale can grow tall and healthy
if planted in the same soil after the peas
are harvested. Another great practice is
to plant a cover crop such as clover or
legumes. Digging or plowing under
the finished crop will then replace and
Rotate crops, for goodness sake. That
means you do not plant the same type of
tomato in the same spot year after year. If
you do, I bet you are using more and more
pesticides every year and will eventually
pay the piper’s fee. The fee being that bugs
will like your spray and you will need to
switch to another flavor spray and then
the bugs eventually will like
that, too, and you will need to
switch again. Sooner or later,
you will not be able to control
any disease that may attack
your former favorite tomato.
Personally, my garden
strategy has included multiple
approaches. First, and most
important, is to keep the soil
healthy. I continuously add
compost. Actually, since I
am a very lazy gardener and,
since you’ve probably already
heard the gossip, I confess that
I actually dig a pit in various
garden beds and dump kitchen
waste directly into raised beds.
I also add the regular compost
that I have made along with
rotten leaves, chicken coop
sweepings, you name it, I have
added it.
Several varieties of cucumbers grow in a raised bed
Secondly, I am a profound
with dill and volunteer gladiolas.
believer in edible landscaping.
refurbish the soil’s nitrogen. This is called Outside my kitchen door, I often have
“green manure.”
Japanese eggplants interplanted with
I was taught to rotate crops by colorful petunias, and basil growing with
planting a root crop one year—such as my flowering lavender.
beets, parsnips, carrots, potatoes—with
Acknowledge the wisdom of volunteer
an aboveground crop the next planting. plants. I figure that if they are willing and
Aboveground crops might be lettuce, able to volunteer, they must be good,
cucumbers, tomatoes, kale, etc.
strong survivors. Right now, I have a giant
Now that you have read all my squash plant growing in the onion patch.
rantings about monoculture, you logically Who would have thought onions and
might ask, “What do I need to do to be a squash would be good teammates?
polyculture gardener?” Clue: This is not
While I have always loved and
the same as Polident.
practiced companion planting, I am, of
For starts, if you are really planting a late, more drawn to “trap” plants. For
large crop of any one food, plant different example, I have many volunteer orange
varieties, like several types of beets or corn. calendulas. Several years ago I noticed that
Coins for Kitties
Friends of the Animal Shelter and Jackson County
Umpqua Bank branches are again teaming up for Coins
for Kitties, a spare change fundraising drive.
Throughout the month of September, Coins for
Kitties offers a convenient and tax-deductible way to donate
the contents of piggy banks, coin jars and heavy pockets to a
great cause just by dropping by an Umpqua Bank location.
Coins for Kitties donations fund 2-Fur-1 adoptions of homeless cats and kittens.
The 2-Fur-1 program enables qualified applicants to adopt two cats or kittens at the
same time from the Jackson County Animal Shelter while paying only one $70 adoption
fee; Friends of the Animal Shelter pays the second $70 adoption fee. Cats and kittens
that have a playmate tend to be healthier, more socially well adjusted, less likely to have
behavior problems from shyness to scratching furniture, more active and playful, and
live longer, happier lives. All kittens and cats are neutered and spayed before adoption
at no extra cost. So, 2-Fur-1 adoptions help alleviate overcrowding at the Shelter today,
while reducing the number of homeless cats and kittens in the future.
Friends of the Animal Shelter and Umpqua Bank hope to raise $1,000 for the
2-Fur-1 program in the month of September. FOTAS accepts donations anytime during
the year, but Coins for Kitties containers are at Umpqua Bank during September only!
Donating change is an easy way to help FOTAS find forever homes for the many needy
kitties.
Umpqua Bank is accepting Coins for Kitties donations at all Jackson County
branch locations.
Donors do not need to wrap or count their spare change. Umpqua Bank’s coin
counting machines will tally donations free of charge.
Your spare change can change kitties lives forever!
Contact Jeane Lind for additional information at 541-482-6272.
Sioux Rogers—And the beet goes on.
about halfway through the growing season,
say about mid-July, the calendulas started
to be devoured by a small black beetle and
I would pull all the calendulas out. What I
finally (okay, so I am slow) realized is that
calendulas seemed to be the black beetles
favorite food and, therefore, the beetles
did not dine on any of my vegetables. The
calendulas now have permanent residence
wherever they seasonally drop by. This is
called a “trap” plant. Often having weeds
around the perimeter of your garden serves
the same purpose.
In conclusion, on the subject of
mono/polyculture—well, what happens
if you put all your eggs in one basket and
then drop it? Splat, you have scrambled
floor. Monoculture simply does not occur
naturally in nature.
Dirty fingernails and all
Sioux Rogers • 541-846-7736
mumearth@dishmail.net
“But perhaps the most
alarming ingredient in a
Chicken McNugget is tertiary
butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ,
an antioxidant derived from
petroleum… Ingesting five
grams of TBHQ can kill.”
― Michael Pollan, The
Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural
History of Four Meals
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