A .09-ACRE HOMESTEAD
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In fact, when we had our soil analyzed by the state
extension service three years ago, we found that nutrient
levels were very high and the pH was a perfectly acceptable
6.6. Unfortunately, we also discovered that the lead level
was 630 parts per million... not alarmingly high
but significant enough—with prodding from "Children,
Gardens, and Lead" in MOTHER NO. 70—to warrant blood
tests for our children. We were relieved to find the
readings normal but vowed never again to add wood ash to
the garden. We had, you see, burned a good many old painted
boards in our fireplace, and figured that the paint could
well have been lead-based. Furthermore, since our lot
adjoins a road that sees heavy summer traffic, we followed
MOTHER'S advice and installed a stockade fence, backed up
by shrubs, to help screen out lead-bearing auto exhaust.
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We raised snap peas, pole beans, tomatoes, squash, spinach,
Swiss chard, lettuce, eggplants, basil, and parsley in our
small garden, but I quickly began to feel limited by the
13' X 13' plot. A search for more growing space led me to
widen the existing flower beds along the south side of the
house. With that extension, I've been able to grow
trellised pole beans (which provide welcome shade for those
south-facing windows on hot summer days) and still have
enough room for my flowers. The bean-and-bloom beds have
worked out just fine ... as long as I remember to water
sparingly to avoid flooding the basement!
It seems that any gardener who can keep up with
the area that he or she has planted wishes that there were
more land available to put under cultivation. At
any rate, Bruce and I continued to look for ways to
increase our gardening space. On a whim, I planted a tomato
in a plastic bucket of soil and put it on the roof. The
results were nothing short of spectacular! That black tar
roof is actually the hottest and sunniest spot on our
property. In the four years since our first tentative step
into the world of container gardening, we've expanded to
the point where we now have a total of 26 buckets on our
roof, carefully aligned over two of the house's
load-bearing walls. The tubs are filled with a relatively
lightweight mix of equal parts soil, compost, and
vermiculite... and are tied into corrals of 2 X 4's and
cinder blocks so that they won't blow off the roof.
Each spring, when the alewives (a type of herring) run
upstream to spawn, Bruce nets dozens of them. After he
strips out the tasty roe, I bury three of the carcasses in
each rooftop bucket. This "her-ring-ponic" fertilizer works
as well for us as it did for the Native Americans and
Pilgrims back in 1621.
