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The Good Earth: The art of observation in your garden

COURTESY PHOTO Make observations in your garden and keep a journal for seasons to come.
COURTESY PHOTO Make observations in your garden and keep a journal for seasons to come.

As the days grow shorter, the nights cooler, as carrots and greens begin to sweeten, and sections of your garden begin to rest, we reach a time for reflection and appreciation. The days spent working in the soil represent lessons learned. Some of those lessons will have built up confidence while others will have been quite humbling.

In this column we’ve covered water, pest and weed management; how to engage your community through your garden; the environmental benefits of growing your own food; what it takes to grow the most nutritious and flavorful food; the importance of seed saving; and much more. For me, this column has been an interesting step in the process of my development as a farmer for an organization that requires me to teach a subject in which the learning never ends.

It is critical for successful growers to have the power of observation. Many farmers and gardeners get caught up in identifying pests, diseases and weeds; this is important. Scientific data and analysis originally derived from observation. These observations start off as basic. Are these plants healthy? Is my soil functioning at its highest possible capacity? Is this ecosystem that I’ve helped create in need of rest? How diverse is the biology and microbiology in this system?

In an era when so much information is readily  accessible and everything has to have an exact name and diagnosis, more and more people are losing the ability to make these fundamental observations. We need this particular spray for that particular pest, that specific fertilizer for that specific plant and so on.

Such rigid restrictions detach us from fundamental observations and cause us to lose sight of the larger perspective.

Before it gets too late in the season, take some time in your garden to observe and recollect. Think about what was planted, where it was planted, how well it grew, what challenges it faced, how it tasted, what bugs you saw. Stick your hands in the soil and continue with the observation process.

Good observation is a skill that will improve with time and practice. Just like a good scientist, a good gardener will write these observations down and articulate them in a manner that is easy to understand when referencing them over the winter or in years to come.

Some of the best farmers I know have detailed journals full of useful information. Just like every farm, every garden is different, and the more you can understand your particular plot and how it functions as its own ecosystem, the better prepared you’ll be for seasons to come. The single best way to reach this understanding is through the recording of quality observations.

Make sure you take the time to practice the skill of observation, journal as much relevant information as possible and periodically reference it over the winter. This will prove to be a tremendous resource while you’re planning next summer’s garden. Take advantage of the Island’s upcoming quiet months.

One last thing I’d suggest would be to get in some reading. There are great books out there, on both the technical and passionate side of growing, and the library is probably a great resource for many of them.
Eliot Coleman’s “The New Organic Grower” is a great read and favorite reference of mine.

Wendell Berry’s “Farming: A Hand Book” is full of wonderful poems and Fred Kirschenmann’s “Cultivating An Ecological Conscience” is an amazing book that will leave you philosophizing over our food system for seasons to come.

Kurt Ericksen is a vegetable grower at Sylvester Manor.