the pot garden

THE POT GARDEN
no this isnt about what you think it is

this summer while visiting relatives
a relative said
you want to see my moms pot garden

hum
i thought to myself
i knew medicinal stuff had been voted in
but
i didnt know you could grow the stuff yet

no
oh no
she said
its not what you think

so
off we went to look at the pot garden
granted stuff would love to grow in these pots

as we drove up
there was this line of
well pots full of plants

i must say
like i told her
those are the largest darkest egg plants i have ever seen

i tried to mentally line all these up in my garden at the
country n
i realized when i did it
that she had as much or maybe more stuff growing than
i did in my garden at home
well our old one

there were egg plants
big ones
lots of tomatoes
lots of peppers
lots of cukes
all lined up in a row

why are they sitting up on blocks i asked
to keep the fire ants out she said

so
of course
i recognized a good garden when i saw one

ok
how did you do this and why
well they are easy to take care of
no weeding plowing hoeing
just water and pick em

she took pots many from feed buckets for cows
drilled holes in the bottom
added this leaf mulch dirt stuff

apparently for years they have piled up leaves
and pine straw up near a big ole pine tree
that stuff has be well slowly composting
all that time
its used to fill up the pots
the plants are planted
they are watered regularly everyday
to keep them from drying out
the hardest thing to do when you pot garden

then
thats all she does
just add water
rainwater when she can get it

she said the plants like the rainwater better than
the city water system water

yes
i admired that pot garden
i almost well i did get a real high from looking
at them

i had visions of a pot garden
on our new patio here
following this pot gardeners method

best garden ive seen in a while

heck
im sure even willie would have liked this one

the organicgreen doctor

sb country news-its different

SB COUNTRY NEWS-ITS DIFFERENT
thats what i told my wife she yesterday
when i stepped outside at mid afternoon
when i went to water and check on my garden here
well
i almost felt guilty being here
knowing that if i was back at the country n
i would probably be melting
with temps over 100 and high humidity
well
i fought yesterday hard to get my garden cared for in this
low humidity mid 70s sunny weather

i sometimes garden in the midday here
its nice
at 74 degrees and sunny
its like gardening in texas at 600am without the humidity
i also have noted that at that time
mid day
i seem to have the whole garden to myself
since its too hot for some locals to garden here in midday

my garden is a 20 ft x 10 ft plot
in case you are bad at math
thats 200 square feet

at the country n
one of my beds was 3 ft x 12 ft
so this plot is about 4 or so of those beds
since its is 10 ft wide i have to allow somewhere
to walk down the middle

its one of about 20+ plots in the garden

this soil here is sort of a sandy soil clay soil mixture
devoid somewhat of nitrogen
i immediately added after talking to other locals
compost lots of it
nitrogen
mulch
then i the first day i got here
prepped this bed
then
planted all my veggies that i could grow here
tomatoes peppers sunflowers squash more peppers
basil swiss chard kale eggplant
things we will eat

luckily here
you can easily grow things all year round

the principles of gardening are the same
its the timing of planting thats different

its also drier here
we get half of the average rain that central texas gets
this year before the winter rains came
this area was in a severe drought
they almost ran out of water in their reservoir

but
its back to dry now

making it susceptible to fires
which are just a few miles away
soot falls down regularly every day on the garden
i guess the soot is good for the soil

no dont worry
we arent threatened in any way by the fires

so this last week i did my first official harvest
from the garden for supper the other night
i picked
squash swiss chard kale bell pepper banana pepper purslane
amaryth to go in our salad and in our pasta
no my wife she was not allowed to pick my green tomatoes

here above is a picture of my garden at 4 weeks

here below are surrounding gardening plots
the middle of the garden area is reserved for school education
and for raising food to donate to food banks
each plot renter has to do so many community hours a year

if you look you can see the mountains and clouds
in the distance

also
the farmers markets here
well if i am by myself i can spend an hour or two walking
around and talking to all the gardeners and farmers

my favorite are the fresh picked avocados
no not from mexico
from some place nearby here

so
im guilty
feeling that is
until i bite into the avocados and citrus here
taking a slow deep breath
thinking
when was the last time i sweated

the organicgreen doctor

its their our fault

ITS THEIR OUR FAULT
this permeates all of the corners of the us
the big cities the rural areas the poor states the rich states
everywhere
we are all affected by it
this
opiate thing

i was watching the civil war by ken burns the other night
i also have been reading a book about a civil war doctor
they just lined up those shot up soldiers
took the saw those surgeons did
sawed off above the injured area
wiped off the saw
grabbed the next leg or arm
sawed it off
sometimes for several days without stopping

now those guys usually died from infections
some survived
many got hooked thats right
on heroin or morphine

ok so they sort of had an excuse
we now in the united states today
we dont really have an excuse

why do we have this opiate epidemic
its
big pharmas fault
congresses fault
pharmacies fault
federal and state governments fault
and
yes
go walk into the bathroom
look in the mirror

thats you
its your fault
you and i have the power to vote
either we dont care
or
we arent enraged enough

heck
this epidemic has hit the core of america
the middle class white folks
usually when this happens
things get fixed

here is sort of the story of how all this happened
yes i was part of it
since
i wrote prescriptions
and
i vote

heroin and such opioids have always been around
peaking at times
like in those solders after the civil war

the opiates were used
to treat pain
to treat sorrow
to treat then the addiction

a few years ago
the federal and state governments decided doctors werent aggressively
treating peoples pain
so
they began to reprimand doctors for not writing for enough pain meds
the push began
even i who didnt over prescribe this stuff
felt the pressure to well over prescribe
i loosened up my prescribing
heck
its no fun to get drugged in front of the state medical board
with your own lawyer
getting your name in the news
getting your name on the medical boards website
he got reprimanded for not treating peoples pain

now
that never happened to me
but it did to others

we all felt the pressure

now that i think back
i do wonder if some of this was not some conspiracy by big pharma
to get us to prescribe more of their drugs
you know they have powerful lobbyists
who spend millions influencing those folks that we vote into office
they provide these good looking drug reps to sell the stuff
giving away all kinds of free stuff
like meals trips etc

then big pharm really jumped in strongly
pushing their narcotics
on tv ads
sending those reps aggressively to visit with primary care doctors
who they lied to about how these powerful narcotics worked
like hydrocodone and oxycodone
all of this increased the supply the flow of these narcotics
out into the public
initially all legal

then
eg people having orthopedic surgery got all hooked
they needed more drugs
they started seeking more drugs
they stole from others
they faked pain at doctors office
some even sold theirs on the black market

the middle man
those companys that distribute drugs in the us
even
started leaking drugs into the black market

the flow of drugs became almost like a flood

then
congress those people you and i elect
decided to tighten up
on all of this
to stop the flow somewhat

first they started going after the doctors again
making it known that we were all over prescribing
just the opposite of a few years ago

yes
we all felt the pressure
we all cut back
probably too much

heck
i had oral surgery recently and they didnt want to give me pain meds
sorry
i almost demanded them
i am glad i did
since
there was 2 or 3 days of severe pain that thankfully resolved quickly
sure glad i had those few pills around to help

so now
we have created a large pool of addicted folks
we have started to under treat pain again

where do those folks turn to for relief
addiction centers
these are becoming underfunded and the new health law doenst help either
then
its the streets

the narcotic supply was dwindling and expensive
so
enter heroin
its cheaper
works fast
hooks you real good

now we are back to the civil war era
we really havent progressed much have we

we didnt solve it then
we arent solving it now

sorry
i wrote all this
but
i dont really have a solution to present to you
except
we can all vote cant we

if they the politicians think they will be voted out
they will start doing what it takes to solve this problem
but
probably not before then

this seems to be one problem that affects both parties equally
its a non partisan issue

the organicgreen doctor