Fluffy, white, life-giving snow cascades outside the dining room window as El Vecino contemplates taking stock of traditional growing techniques and ways of extending them over a cup of hot holiday spiced tea and a warm sopapilla lathered in Lagrimas Doradas honey (ZiaQueenBees). Traditional growing techniques have been in development over centuries and have been passed on to future generations through oral instruction and hands-on practice. They are the best practices, such as the love of parents for their children, designed to optimally grow organic-equivalent produce for growers’ families.
These traditional growing techniques were the best, based on growers’ knowledge, experience and access to supplies, equipment and resources during the times of our forefathers. Growers’ knowledge has since grown exponentially along with experience in its application and our access to equipment and resources is unparalleled. Now is the time to extend traditional growing by adding our updated techniques based on our knowledge and resources in soil preparation and care, companion plantings, and seed preservation and selection.
Soil preparation begins with additives being administered in fall and plowed under to allow time for further decomposition and integration into the soil. A cover crop of winter wheat or some similar crop is almost requisite. The best possible additive is compost created directly near the plot that uses much of the organic matter from the garden plus some other organics of known source.
Probably the second best is sheep manure that has been composted or has “cured” for five to 10 years. Coupling these techniques with crop rotations and periodic retirement of plot sections will keep soils healthy and productive. My father’s plot in Ojo Caliente has been in cultivation for over 70 years, and as a pre-teen I remember the cantaloupes as being mildly sweet. Current cantaloupes and melons grown there after the treatments and techniques mentioned have simply been fabulous.
Our parents and grandparents cautioned us to avoid planting produce varieties that could envidiarse (colonial Spanish expression for cross-pollinate) and thus grow into unrecognizable and unpalatable produce. This is still very good advice that should be followed and our current knowledge is such that we know that certain companion plantings will not only not cross-pollinate but will provide beneficial assistance to certain plantings.
El Vecino’s broccoli and cabbage grew aphid-free for most of the growing season last year when using cilantro as a companion plant. Tomatoes were exceptionally flavorful when companion planted with basil and were a bit less attractive to the horned green worms that afflict them. Finally, living in a time of weakened and sparse bee colonies, growers must ensure that their produce is pollinated. The traditional technique of planting varied produce in one plot remains predominant in ensuring that a plot’s produce generates a consistent supply of blooming plants that supply nectar to attract the pollinators.
Present day growers have added the technique of growing painted daisies, marigolds or cosmos flowers as pollinator attractants to ensure plant pollination. Wild White and Yellow Clover are also excellent native attractors that should be preserved along a plot’s perimeter. It seems that the modern grower not only desires his wonderful produce but also enjoys the beneficial beauty of colorful flowers to meet his needs!
Our grandparent and parent gardening mentors maintained a store of heirloom heritage seeds adapted to their particular plot locales. These seeds were organic-equivalent used year after year. The only introduction of non-natural state seeds introduced into their plots were the varieties whose seeds were difficult to harvest and or were hybrids of weakened hybrid vigor having low germination rates after the first generation.
They depended upon seed suppliers that often treated such seeds with chemical neonicotinoids to protect them. Current knowledge seems to suspect such chemicals as one of the contributing factors that may be contributing to weakened bee colonies. Though not yet a definitively proven culprit, conscious gardeners may choose to purchase non-treated seeds. The internet provides access to literally thousands of seed sites from which to order whatever non-treated seeds our heart desires to cultivate. Further research into treatments considered organically acceptable can be easily found in the site, http://www.naturallygrown.com. It is a perfect site to research and spend January afternoons in planning for the upcoming seasons.
The knowledge, practices, and heirloom heritage seeds passed on from our forefathers to us have served us as an invaluable treasure for countless years. Let us make a resolution this year to add our updated amendments to the lore of traditional gardening in Northern New Mexico for the benefit of those that follow us.
Prospero Año Nuevo.