Good and Evil in the Garden

"Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth 

is the most important labor of man. 

When tillage begins, other arts follow. 

 The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization." 

Daniel Webster

Mother Rabbit with a snack of dandelion leaves

Yesterday, three of our baby bunnies went missing.

They were taken by neighborhood kids, who were overcome by the cuteness of our wee little rabbits. Can you blame them? I may have done the same, 20 years ago. (Gah! So old!)

Trouble is, the baby bunnies are not yet weened. Taking them from the mother rabbit is a death sentence. Of course, the kids didn't realize this. On a hunch, two friendly gardeners made a visit to the kids' grandmother and explained the situation.

By this morning two of the three baby rabbits had returned. The third, I'm sorry to say, will not have survived this long away from the hutch.

 We run a community garden, and happily share our knowledge and harvest with our neighbors. We have greens and veggies and gourds aplenty! For the most part, our neighbors have been friendly and supportive of the garden. We've canvassed the neighborhood, introduced ourselves and invited everyone to stop by and take a look (and some food) whenever they're free. There are no locks on the gates, and plenty of food and flowers to share. Good communication has helped the garden. Some neighbors are protective of the plot when we're not there, and are happy to have a robust garden on their block. After two years of toiling in the dirt where abandoned houses once stood, we've been accepted as a part of the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, not everyone has been so welcoming. When people become suspicious or feel threatened they resort to selfish, hurtful acts. The garden has had its fair share of  anonymous, destructive events. Last month, we found a long fluorescent light bulb smashed and hidden amongst our tomatoes.  This is not the first time a stranger has tampered with the rabbits, but it is the most egregious.

evil tomato by jv9ufxcy on DeviantArt

 I don't know if it's the election, or the books I'm reading, or just my own paranoia, but there seems to be an awful lot of evil in the world, these days. I'm not exactly saying that today is worse than yesterday, or last year, or the last century... but it is NOT any better. Rather than think critically and make independent choices, more and more Americans (Earthlings, really) have fallen in to the mass media / consumerism trap. You cannot easily blame these "Sheeple" when everything they've been told to think and do has lead them into this trap. We can't think and speak independently in this "modern" world. There's too much information being thrown into our faces, so quickly we find it impossible to successfully synthesize and process. It's easier to tune out, or rather to tune into something more palatable and mind-numbing.

WHY IS THIS SCHMUCK'S WORK-OUT ROUTINE NEWS?!?!

 There are so many seemingly-important news stories that it can be hard to keep up. And why keep up, anyway? Increasingly, I feel like I can't make that much of a difference. Our most powerful tool to bring about change is our vote, but I feel as though my vote is increasingly marginalized.Some say you can vote with your dollars, which is true, but also largely ineffective. What we need to do is start TALKING to each other about things that really matter. We need to stop staring at our computers and smart phones and start looking into the eyes of people around us. Talk to your neighbors, co-workers, family and friends. Find out what's important to them, and what they think of our current state. When we're afraid and distrusting of one another, as well as our news sources and government, who else can we turn to but ourselves?

We are constantly barraged by "unbiased" news stories and the opinions of others. In this sped-up globalized world, what's important is often overshadowed and quickly buried by the latest political mumbo-jumbo and gobbly-gook. We often forget about the details of the last article that seemed so important, which is what "they" want from us. Quiet consumption and little actual action makes this oligarchy's job far easier.


Enough about "us" and "them," though. I won't go all Bilderberg on you, today.

When we stop listening and thinking critically, and stop talking to one another about where our society is headed, what will become of us?

((edited 10.15.12))

Baby New Zealand Bunnies

Exciting times at Poppin' Fresh! In the last week we've watched our seven new rabbits grow from wiggly pink creatures to tiny, white-furred "awww" inspiring rabbits.

A flower by the Rabbitry, which bloomed the same day the rabbits were born.

The Hoppin' Fresh sign, part of a drawer from Sean's retrofitted desk hutches.

Mother Rabbit

Seven tiny baby rabbits. You could fit two or three in one hand.

Rabbit Close-up

 The rabbits are about a week old, and are growing fast! In the next few days their eyes will open. They'll continue to live in the next box for now, but soon they'll learn to escape their baby rabbit crib. They'll stay in an extra-large hutch with their mother for quite some time, and will eventually move into their own cages.

Sean's latest construction project is this massive hutch! Soon, I'll share a the finished hutch, complete with shingles. 

Garden Update - With Photos!

September is quickly settling in at the garden, 

and with it comes lots of busy work and plenty of good food.

Sean and the guys finished fencing in our new lot,
and our water storage solutions are working well.

The parsnip seeds I "saved" have germinated,
I'm sore from crouching over the parsnip bed,
thinning out the many extra sprouts.

This summer, Poppin' Fresh has DOUBLED in size, 

after we acquired the lot to our north. 

We may soon make use of the lot to the south, too.

Word of the Learning Leaves gardens spreads slowly, 

and we've had some great new gardeners at the work parties!

A view from behind the hoop house.

Gorgeous onion blossoms!

Our repurposed baby crib, lending support to tasty green beans.

We have over a dozen varieties of tomatoes ripening!

Squash blossoms abound!

The squash are coming in fast and furiously.

Here's our stunted corn - mostly for decoration this year.

The rabbits love dandelions!

"Thing 1" can pack away a pile of dandelions in just a few minutes.

This spooky spider lives near the rabbit hutches.

Community Gardening and Rabbit Keeping FAQ

About a year ago, a friend told us about a new community garden forming a few blocks from our house, funded by the Lansing Land Bank and The Garden Project. We jumped on board, and haven't looked back.

We now help maintain two community gardens where everyone works together. Poppin' Fresh is one of those gardens - and it has exploded in size, in more ways than one!

Our footprint has doubled. Last month we got approval to annex the newly-cleared lot next door. We're slowly gaining new members, which are desperately needed to eat all of the tasty things we're harvesting, year-round.

We're happy for more space, but the most exciting thing to happen at Poppin' this month is the arrival of baby bunnies!

With the arrival of bunnies have come questions from alarmed relatives and curious friends. The best way to learn about what we're doing is to come and see for yourself. Until you make it over to the Garden, allow me to answer some of the questions we hear most often.

Why are you doing this?

We're doing this to learn, plain and simple.

My childhood in the suburbs did not offer much hands-on experience with farming and animal husbandry. Sean and I first got involved in the community garden because it sounded like a good opportunity to get our hands dirty and learn the basics of gardening from knowledgeable people, for free.

Our biggest expenditure has been time, and it is time well spent. We're still learning, but we're also teaching new gardeners what we know. We have fun at the Garden, and the time flies when we're there. It's a nice break from the daily grind. The good people and delicious free food are nice perks, too.

The long-term goal is to strike out on our own, get some land and have our own garden with its associated trappings. Until then, we're making the most of what we have and learning lots along the way.

Okay, so, why rabbits?

Rabbits are so cute! They're cuddly, quiet little buggers with twitchy noses and lucky feet. What's not to like? 

There are other benefits, of course...

• Rabbits produce good fertilizer. And when I say good, I mean really good. Please don't be squeamish - it's just nature! Rabbit manure is one of the very best fertilizers available. Fresh manure from large animals (horses, sheep) is harsh stuff that can kill your plants if applied too soon. It needs to be composted for months before adding it to your soil. Rabbit pellets, which are considered "cold" compost, can be used immediately without killing your plants. It's not as smelly, either.

•  Rabbit pellets fix our soil, and we need it! Before Poppin' Fresh came into existence our land was occupied by a few abandoned houses in a flood plain. We've found more than our fair share of rocks, old asphalt and broken glass while putting in garden beds.  The quality of the food you grow is directly determined by the quality of your soil. Building good soil takes time, but amending it regularly helps! Rabbit pellets are chock-full of good nutrients . They drastically improve the soil's structure and porosity, too. You can find out more about the wonders of rabbit pellets by reading Chris McLaughlin's blog post, Rabbit Manure in the Garden.

• Rabbits eat our weeds! Dandelions and many other weeds are a delicacy in the rabbit world. In a matter of weeks our rabbits ate up every dandelion at Poppin' Fresh, which has left us with nicer grass and happier neighbors.

• Rabbits really are cute!  Adding the rabbits to Poppin' Fresh has strengthened our garden community. Regular gardeners, off-and-on gardeners, newcomers and neighbors all think that the rabbits are pretty darn cool. They've become a nice attraction of the Garden.

•  We're learning livestock maintenance. Rabbits are a cheap, relatively easy introduction to the care and keeping of farm animals. We want chickens, just like most of our gardening peers. Chickens required more than our fledgling garden was willing to provide at that point in time. Rabbits have been a great trial-run for us, and we now feel far more confident about our future ability to keep other kinds of rabbits, chickens, quail, bees, a herd of fainting pygmy goats... or whatever comes along.

So, how do you do it?

 Like many things at Poppin' Fresh, the rabbits just sort of... happened. They were premeditated, but we acquired them far earlier than we expected. It was a mad scramble to prepare for spring, but everything worked out wonderfully.

Our original breeding pair (a buck and a doe) of New Zealand rabbits came from a local breeder. New Zealand rabbits are bred as meat rabbits, not pets. Ours came with small cages, food and water dishes. Though they would have been alright in those little metal cages, Sean built two hutches out of re-purposed desks. They're much happier in their rabbit palaces, within the "Hoppin' Fresh" enclosure.

We cross each bridge when we come to it. As novice rabbit keepers, we didn't know exactly when our doe would give birth, but estimated her due date to be mid-June. We expected a litter of 3 or 4 bunnies. We were wrong. Our doe gave birth to 8 or 9 baby bunnies two weeks sooner than we expected! The Big Hutch Building Party is scheduled for this weekend. If you're available and want to play with power tools while building a better future for some cute rabbits, please join us!

Keeping rabbits as a part of your garden is not as outlandish as you might think. They're worth the work, as long as you don't let them "free range" and eat all of your veggies. That book I continuously mention, The Urban Homestead, was how Sean and I first learned about keeping rabbits as part of homesteading. It seemed bizarre at first. There are some urban gardeners who swear by it, and their results speak well!

The internet is full of helpful information about keeping and benefiting from rabbits, as is the library. We just acquired a copy of the eighth edition of Rabbit Production, by McNitt, Patton, Lukefahr and Cheeke. The MSU Extension is a helpful resource, too. EVERY Michigan county has an Extension office that provides free materials in the hopes of helping people improve their own lives, and their knowledge goes far beyond rabbits and gardening.

What will you do with all those bunnies?

Our main goal is to provide these rabbits with a safe, healthy living environment.

We shelter them, protect them from danger and provide a healthy diet of dry rabbit food and greens from the garden. Once weened, we'll keep the new bunnies in separate cages to control their population... and we'll go from there!

Though we make a lot of jokes about Rabbit Stew, I can't predict the future. All I know is that we'll continue to learn from these rabbits.
 

((Check back soon for video of baby rabbits!))


Find out more about raising meat rabbits on a small-scale urban farm (and SO MUCH MORE!) by watching this video, produced by Dan Shifrin. He's an urban homesteader in Florida.

Jump On My Shoulders, Get My Perspective

This blog post contains:

 - a future flash mob 

- creepy Pee Wee Herman

 - fabulous MS Paint art

 - a community garden update

 - sweet music for you to listen to 

 - suggestions on how YOU can find happiness 

and peace in your life, through a greater 

understanding of the world we've inherited

I lost my camera charger.

It's been well over a week, and that little bugger still hasn't turned up.

I take photos for work daily, and without this component I am left using the crummy old camera from 2003. The images are so grainy I might as well be drawing pictures in the sandbox. Not so good for up-close book shots, eh?

Rather than admit total defeat, I will take this opportunity to showcase some superb graphic design skills.
Please welcome this week's guest artist and her unique MS Paint skills as she attempts to illustrate recent important happenings in my life..

Behold, the beauty and splendor of pure creativity at its finest:

Artist's rendering of a re-purposed "broken" bird bath in my garden.

Artist's rendering of my sister, who has recently graduated from CCS.
Kate is moving to Ann Arbor to begin her illustrious art career.

This morning, my sister took the last load of her belongings out of our parents' house, to her little apartment in Ann Arbor. Twas thrilling! I am le proud. Good job, sea-star!

And now for some ranting, of sorts...
I am incredibly susceptible to conspiracy theories, which began when I first caught wind of the JFK assassination criticisms and questionable "facts" surrounding that event. I was about 15, and shocked that someone would have the gall to murder America's reincarnation of King Arthur. (It wasn't until later that I realized JFK was a womanizing, power-hungry politician from a crooked family, addicted to painkillers, etc.) Moon landing conspiracies also intrigued me, but as a high school student in a government-driven educational program, I didn't have many resources beyond the internet.

Then, I became a history major. I learned about the beauty of the toaster, and the horrors that followed in an increasingly industrialized consumer culture hell-bent on living a life of luxury (or a close approximation, based upon ideals created by clever marketing). I began looking for other "alternative" takes on history. Whispers that I had never before heard were now audible to me, and the "truth" became ever elusive. Over-population, Empires, exceptionalism, Disney World, democracy, Monsanto, Vietnam, the Illuminati, the Bilderburg group, mass media... we have been craftily conditioned to become the consumers we are today. It is our present reality, not just history, that is written by the victors - and their goal is to take care of themselves, not us.

Things are screwed up in this country. The hard you look for answers, the faster questions multiply. I don't have any of the answers, but I do have questions. Lots of questions. If you're feeling as skeeved-out as I am about the past, present and future of our grand, increasingly globalized society, I have a few sources to recommend. Take a look at Ethos, a short documentary featuring Woody Harrelson boasting enough information to turn your world upside-down. It's worth it. Trust me. Watch it for free on Netflix (it's streaming) or YouTube. Tell me what you think.

 Like I said, I don't have the answers. I might have a solution, though. I think that if people simply start talking to one another about our observations, our opinions, our dismay and our optimism, we might just be able to turn off this machine and find a better way of life.

Artist's rendering of creepy googly-eyed PeeWee.

In other news, my (tangible) art has taken a turn for the creepier. I've been cranking things out faster than a cranker-outer-machine, and am considering the idea of doing a little art show somewhere local. But, how would people react to the googly-eyed Pee Wee Herman piece? This sort of genius cannot be expressed through half-assed MS Paint illustration, no matter the artist's skill level.

I've baked over 50 loaves of bread since January 1st. The house smells wonderful, the bread is always better than store-bought bread, and it's cheaper.

There are some neat things I wanted to show you with actual photographs, rather than this MS Paint rubbish. I have some pretty, exotic flowers (Night Phlox) that I grew from seed. They're just starting to bloom. I'm proud, but I wonder if they'll make it through the cold snap headed our way. Our peas are a riot of green climbing up our fence, as well as our chimney. Our rain barrel is almost out of water, but we'll be hooking up a second one this weekend. Once that camera charger turns up I might even provide a real-life photo of Mr. Googly-Eyes.

"Very realistic" depiction of the Garden.

Poppin' Fresh, the community garden we spend much of our time at, has just DOUBLED in size! The Land Bank approved our request to annex the newly-cleared lot to the north. It's full sun, so we're going to grow hundreds of delicious tomatoes, raspberries, blueberries, husk cherries and more. If you've been hankering to get your hands dirty and have some fun with me and the gang, this is a great opportunity to jump in and become a part of Poppin'! We have DELICIOUS, ORGANIC, FREE FOOD FOR YOU. We have soft bunnies you can pet. We have free parking. We have fruit trees, we have flowers, and we have a whole lot of fun. Seek me out virtually or in person if you want to know more!



 AWOLNATION is my current soundtrack. Groove with me. They remind me of Fun., but with heaver baselines, a so they sound a little "harder". (I am a world-renown music critic, people!)

OH! And apparently I am going to be engulfed by a book shop flash/cash mob this Saturday, at The Archives.  Wish me luck, as I am the only person working on Saturday, which is also Be a Tourist In Your Own Town day.

I look forward to finding my camera charger...

Re-purposed Rabbit Hutches

Our community garden, Poppin' Fresh, 

acquired two young meat rabbits from a local breeder. 

Hutches were a necessity but with no funds,

we knew that ingenuity was key.

 

Why spend a bunch of cash on new materials
when you can get them for free?

There's a simple philosophy, once wide-spread
but quickly dissipating in America: 

Use what you've got to make what you need.

Some of you may remember this hutch Sean built:

Hutch #1, before shingles.

Compared to the traditional rabbit hutches for sale, 

this two-story abode is a luxury home
for our plump New Zealand bunnies! 

This week we delivered Hutch #2 to Poppin' Fresh,
and boy is it an upgrade!

Hutch #2, the  Bunny Palace.

 This hutch is mostly comprised of a discarded dormitory desk.

We got two desks for free from the MSU Surplus Store.

  (Side note: The Surplus Store is amazing and well worth a visit!)

Modest beginnings.

We fenced them in to deter

  neighborhood dogs and other dangers.

They're on the north side of our garage, 

so they're protected from the weather, too.

Fun fact: The wooden fence sections came to us from
a neighbor who was about to throw them away.
(Thanks, Mike)

We let the rabbits graze on our impressive
dandylion crop using our converted chicken / rabbit tractor!

We've been working on a few little projects

in addition to the big spring planting push.

There are plenty of greens in the ground

(Swiss Chard, lettuce, spinach, kale)

and our radishes are starting to crown

up out of the soil.

Arugula Flowers!

My favorite in-season treat this week

are the thousands of arugula flowers 

all over the Garden. Arugula leaves are edible and

often found in salads. They taste slightly peppery.

Their flowers are also edible!

I eat them like popcorn.

Yesterday we picked up about a dozen

Brussel Sprout starts from The Garden Project.

Pumpkins, squash, and other delicious things

are just starting to germinate in our hoop house.

Oh, and tomatoes!

 To help new volunteers find their way around,
I painted a sign for each bed.
They're a little quirky, but they work.

We've sort of neglected the front of Poppin' Fresh,
which probably irks the neighbors a bit.
This week I ripped the over-grown wildflowers
sown last year in "decorative" beds.
I replaced them with some Alyssum seedlings,
a few Thyme plants and a bunch of German Chamomile. 
Some Goblin seeds, too, but they won't
germinate for another week, at least.

One of two front beds, and the main gate.

The front gate looks a bit bare at the moment,
but we plan to train our cucumber plants up either side.
I hope it works!

The most important project of all was completed this week:

RAIN BARRELS

 If you don't have water, you don't have a garden.
It's as simple as that.
We don't have a well, and we certainly don't have
a hook-up to city water or the fire hydrant,
like other gardens in the area.

Our rain barrel set-up is our one
source of water for all of our plants.
Sean and friends "liberated" gutters
from a nearby house slotted to be demolished.
We connected them to our storage garage,
then hooked up a tiered rain-barrel system.
At the moment we have six barrels
attached to this garage, daisy-chained together
with an overflow system to collect
as much as possible during those torrential
Michigan rainstorms.

If only we had more than 
two watering cans...

If you live in the Lansing area you should come check it out!
We're always in need of a few extra hands.
We'll let you pet the bunnies, show you around our plot(s),
feed you some Arugula flowers and send you home with
some of whatever is ready to be harvested.
Email me and I'll tell you a bit more,
or keep an eye on the Learning Leaves Facebook page.

("Learning Leaves" encompasses Poppin' Fresh, Leaf Lot,
Marvin's Gardens and other bits of dirt we scratch at.)

See Also:Urban Farming and Community Gardening in Lansing, Michigan