A year and a half ago, I wrote about using greywater. In that post, I said that one of the problems facing homeowners was building codes that were outdated and did not allow for greywater systems. I’ll point out problems when I see them, but I’ll also give credit when it is due. I’m happy to report that the California Legislature has seen the light and modified state law to allow greywater systems. I offer a big thank you to the City of Santa Barbara for pushing this issue in Sacramento. Now California is catching up with a few other western state like Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Personally, I’m happy that the greywater system I’m thinking of putting in can now be put in legally. I’ll be able to save and use more greywater and it will be much easier, also. No more five-gallon buckets from the laundry room!
For more information on the legislation in California, visit this site. There are very helpful descriptions of what is allowed under the law and what is not. This is important, because there are a few safety precautions to take when designing and using greywater systems. For an introduction on greywater, go to the Wikipedia article. An excellent resource for greywater is the Greywater Guerillas. Their website has loads of information and photographs on greywater systems and also includes information on other cutting edge water conservation technologies such as rainwater catchment and composting toilets. For more information on greywater systems, go here. (You’ll notice this last site is in Australia. As is often the case, other countries, particularly Australia and many Europeans countries, are far ahead of the United States on environmental issues.)
In the U.S., Art Ludwig is the Godfather of Greywater and author of The New Create an Oasis with Greywater
Tonight was cool–heck, it was cold. There was a strong wind blowing in off the ocean and last weekend is but a warm memory. Maybe it was the weather and the feeling of fall in the air, but tonight in the garden I was motivated to take out my summer crops to get my beds ready for my winter crops. I took out about half my tomato plants and the big butternut that had taken over part of my backyard and deck. Above you see the final harvest from the butternut, ten big, beautiful squash that will keep for several months. I cooked up one tonight for dinner and look forward to more. This has been a particularly productive plant (actually, two, as I found out when I pulled out the roots). I’ve eaten “baby” butternuts (immature ones, cooked and eaten like summer squash) for a couple of months, and have already eaten or given away a couple of these big ones. So, I had a feeling of losing a good friend tonight. But, I’ll cut up the vines tomorrow night and add them to the compost pile, which I’m building for next spring when I put in next year’s summer crops. With agroecology, what goes around comes around.
Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, in the 1989 movie 
Pisgah View Community Peace Garden now includes a productive vegetable area, a small orchard and a greenhouse, complete with chickens. I didn’t make a complete inventory of crops that they grow, but here are the ones I noted: collards, cabbage, asparagus, garlic, potatoes, figs, apples, kiwis, persimmons, grapes, blueberries, Asian pears and raspberries. The garden now provides fresh food to garden participants and surpluses are sold at market. Robert has recruited neighbors to help with the garden, using it as an educational opportunity for everyone, himself included. One of the ladies pictured above is now teaching nutrition classes in the neighborhood.
In addition to the neighbors, others from the wider Asheville community have been supportive with both their time and money. The garden has grown rapidly in just a few years and has received grant monies to aid in its development. This is a powerful example of what motivated people can do in a very short time, converting underused urban lands into productive farmland.
the benefits of local food production, and partly due to recognition that our current food production system is not sustainable and that growing our own food will become more of a necessity in the future. I admire Robert for making this a community effort. Community gardens provide one way for people to obtain access to land for growing food when private land may not be available. Community gardens also provide ways to teach others, to improve garden security and to simply have fun working together. Robert has clearly tapped into a need with the Pisgah View garden, underscoring what people are discovering everywhere about underused urban lands: Unbuild it and they will come.
I tend to get too busy, trying to fill my life with all the things I love to do. So, it’s nice to remind myself sometimes to slow down, relax and savor the moment. Saturday mornings–like today–are wonderful when I take the time to relax and enjoy my time at home, in the garden and eating breakfast.
Last November, I planted eight cloves of garlic as an experiment. I’d never grown garlic before and wanted to give it a try. This is the result, nine months later. I’m quite pleased. These were easy to grow, and can be grown in my shallow one-quarter oak wine barrel. They taste good, too. I’ll definitely be growing another–and larger–crop this year.
I had two potlucks this past weekend, a Saturday night potluck at a Scottish Country Dance and a Sunday night potluck at a house concert. So, I hit the garden Saturday afternoon to see what I could find for the potlucks. I managed to come up with (from left to right) brocolli florets, baby butternut squash, zucchini and yellow crook-neck summer squash, three varieties of cherry-sized tomatoes, and two varieties of cucumbers. Here’s what I cooked up.
experiment, suggested by a coworker, Rebecca, was to make liquor. I’m not a big drinker, nor do I know much about alcoholic beverages, including liquors. But, I’m fortunate that her husband is a rum meister, recognized as one of the new “mixologists” for his work as a professional bar tender/tropical drink creator/tropical drink bar creator. (For more, see writeups in the 
, Novella describes her experiences doing just that, experimenting–particularly with different kinds of livestock–in the heart of a major city. I’m sure she also touches on two key issues for urban farmers, access to land and water.
As readers of this site know, it is dedicated in part to my dearly departed dog, Pepper. She is buried in my back yard, where I planted flowers on her grave. I now have a profusion of beautiful flowers growing there. I like to think that Pepper is still providing me natural beauty by helping these flowers to grow.
My black raspberry is producing now. The berries keep getting bigger and better every year. Perhaps that’s the advantage of a perennial–every year the root system gets bigger and I get more and better berries. This year’s berries are melt-in-your-mouth sweet and juicy. The berry quality seems to come, too, from my learning to be patient, waiting just a few extra days for the berries to be ripe instead of picking them just a little too early. This is part of the art of being a farmer, knowing when to harvest. It’s one of the hardest things for me to learn. That and being patient.