{"id":1320123,"date":"2020-05-20T15:19:11","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T21:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=996581"},"modified":"2020-05-20T15:19:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T21:19:11","slug":"bear-column-how-does-your-garden-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/bear-column-how-does-your-garden-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear column: How does your garden grow?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/JeffBearProfile-1024x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/JeffBearProfile-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/JeffBearProfile-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/JeffBearProfile-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/JeffBearProfile-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/JeffBearProfile-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/12\/JeffBearProfile.jpg 1674w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>When it comes to performing most domestic chores, I\u2019ve always had more enthusiasm than skill. I\u2019m a true Taurus and quite literally like the proverbial bull in the china shop, as evidenced by all the chipped plates and mugs in our kitchen cabinets \u2014 the casualties of many unfortunate dishwashing incidents.<\/p>\n<p>This spring\u2019s novel coronavirus restrictions and the recent warm weather have many of us spending more time working outdoors in our gardens and yards. I love gardens, but my relationship with them has always been more about conquest than the delicate art of cultivation. I can slash and thrash like a medieval horde of marauders, but nurturing a living organism to fruition is a skill I\u2019ve yet to master.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019m sure it was with much trepidation that my wife and roommates watched me hacking at the bushes in our backyard last week. I assailed them with pruning shears like the Kraken on Argos, imposing my will in what has since become known in these parts as, \u201cThe Battle of the Shrubbery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plants are forgiving, though. So I\u2019m confident that no matter how badly I treated them, they\u2019ll eventually grow back to a reasonable facsimile of their previous proportions. As Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park said, \u201cLife breaks free.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Much excitement surrounded the installation of three new raised vegetable garden beds at our house this week. With them comes the hope of a bountiful harvest in the fall and the promise of calloused hands and aching backs throughout the summer.<\/p>\n<p>Some of us are looking at these gardens and seeing all the work that needs to be done: the watering, hoeing and sowing. Others are looking at these gardens and seeing life springing forward: new buds and blossoms, leaves and shoots.<\/p>\n<p>I look at these gardens and dream about the amazing salsa I\u2019ll be able to make later this summer.<\/p>\n<p>But my illusions of us saving money on produce by growing our own changed dramatically after I saw the price of soil.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m pretty sure that Earth has an unlimited amount of dirt, so the exorbitant cost of it seems to defy the law of supply and demand. But soil, I\u2019m told, is not dirt, and what I\u2019ve learned is that creating the right soil for growing requires some combination of horticulture, phrenology and shamanism.<\/p>\n<p>If I\u2019d known we\u2019d need a team of scientists and spiritual advisers to grow dill weed, I might have balked at the idea.<\/p>\n<p>We could have saved money on starts if we\u2019d germinated our own seeds, but it\u2019s much too late in the season for that now, so we\u2019re forced to pay the high cost for starts at local garden centers, like they\u2019re some sort of black market contraband.<\/p>\n<p>I always thought I would be good at gardening as both of my parents grew up on Midwestern farms, my grandmothers kept big vegetable gardens, and my mom always grew the most beautiful flowers. But all of that and 99 cents still won\u2019t buy me anything at the dollar store.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a good thing my wife Nina has two green thumbs. I\u2019ve seen her resurrect houseplants that Mother Nature herself seemed to have given up on.<\/p>\n<p>I have to admit that she is the brains of our operation while I\u2019m just the grunt. So while I\u2019m in the hot sun hammering, shoveling, sifting, and doing untold damage to my back, etc., she\u2019s laying in the shade sipping tea while making detailed notes.<\/p>\n<p>She has created a master plan for our garden that includes charts and graphs regarding what to plant, when and where, what type of fertilizer to use, and the placement of cool weather vegetables to warm-weather vegetables, (apparently they don\u2019t get along).<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn\u2019t surprise me if she had researched the genealogy of our vegetables on botany.com, noting that our Brussels sprouts are descended from a long line of Brussels sprouts grown in the gardens of European nobility.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re looking at our little garden experiment as the precursor to a more independent way of life. We like being self-sufficient and have talked for many years about the possibility of growing most of our own food.<\/p>\n<p>The pandemic has made it abundantly clear to anyone paying attention that our world is changing, and if we humans are to survive we\u2019re going to have to change along with it, probably sooner than later.<\/p>\n<p>Growing our own food locally seems like a more sustainable practice than importing it over long distances. It would also allow us to control the quality of our food, rather than depending on the corporate farming model.<\/p>\n<p>Now if I can just come up with an award-winning recipe for salsa.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jeff Bear is a reporter and copy editor for the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. You can reach him at <a href=\"mailto:jbear@postindependent.com\">jbear@postindependent.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/opinion\/bear-column-how-does-your-garden-grow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to performing most domestic chores, I\u2019ve always had more enthusiasm than skill. I\u2019m a true Taurus and quite literally like the proverbial bull in the china shop, as evidenced by all the chipped plates and mugs in our kitchen cabinets \u2014 the casualties of many unfortunate dishwashing incidents. This spring\u2019s novel coronavirus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1320123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-03 21:49:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1320123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}