On Sunday, I went to check out the kick-off event for EATLACMA, a year-long series of exhibits that examine the connection between food, society and culture at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The events are curated by Fallen Fruit founders Matias Viegener, David Burns, and Austin Young.

If you don’t know, Fallen Fruit is an “art collaboration” that began by making maps of public fruit – fruit trees growing on or over public property. Like culinary treasure maps, they guide city residents to forage their own edibles in the urban jungle.

The project is a lot of fun. But, it also challenges people to see and interact with their neighborhoods in a new way: not merely as residents, but as the hunter-gatherers we all are at heart. (You know you feel it!)

For Apartment Farmers, this is a perfect way to live off the land. When my husband and I realized there was no Fallen Fruit map for Santa Monica, we spent one weekend beginning to make our own – carefully walking the alleys and byways of our hood. It was amazing how the sudden attention to detail changed the way we see our familiar landscape. Take a close look around, and the jewel tones of trees heavy with fruit start popping out of the landscape, like some Peter Max cartoon. But you’ll also start to notice how many trees are painfully out of reach, deep within the confines of private property – and simply going to waste un-harvested.

Fallen Fruit is seeking to change this with their “Plant The Perimeter” campaign. They ask us to imagine a neighborhood in which we could simply walk outside and pick all the fruit we need. What if the average distance to get a piece of fruit shrunk from the current 1,000 miles, to 100 feet? By growing fruit trees on the edges of property lines, instead of pointless ornamental shrubs, we could transform our city into an urban Eden.

So, to kick-off EATLACMA on Sunday morning, Fallen Fruit sponsored a fruit tree give-away. They started at noon, and had a huge turnout. By the time I arrived at 12:30, all the trees were already spoken for. (So sad!) But all the lucky early birds got a baby tree – complete with adoption papers. In these official-looking forms, the new “parents” promised to care for their tree and plant it in a publicly accessible spot. After all, the trees will still be here long after we’re gone.

People waiting to adopt a tree

Frankly, I found it odd, at first, to see fruit trees at the museum. Fruit and art seem to me like, well, apples and oranges. The museum is a place where objects are often taken out of their natural environment, stripped of context, and placed in a vacuum. And we all know how nature feels about vacuums. The museum is the antithesis of a thriving eco-system.

EATLACMA is trying to bridge this gap between art and nature, seeking to frame a new relationship between the museum’s permanent collection and the ever-changing natural cycle of growth in this exhibit. By bringing the outside in, these fruit trees represented a nexus between food, art, culture and politics. The trees create a new context in which to see the artwork, and force us to see the oranges-to-be through a new lens – as edible art.

I was finally able to make the connections: Art is fruit, fruit is food, art is food, eat art: EATLACMA.

Now that’s a sweet idea.

As always, there’s lots of fun/free stuff goin’ on this weekend.

Go to the Farm Apartment Calender for more details.  Please let me know of any events or classes you’d like me to post.

Saturday, 2/6

Free Biodynamic Composting Class

23273 RED ROCK ROAD, TOPANGA, CA 90290

Another demonstration of how to make a biodynamic compost pile.  You can read about my experience at the the last demo here.

PLEASE RSVP via email to ecocentricliving@aol.com and I will send you the address more info.or  call 310.463.5323

“Eating food grown in Biodynamic compost will slow aging and heal the Earth.”

http://www.biodynamics.in/compost.htm

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Seed Swap at Venice Learning Garden

3000 Venice Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90066

Annual Seed Swap, in conjunction with Environmental Change Makers, The Learning Garden will host a seeds swap!  Swap out those seeds you didn’t use last year for something new and different! The Learning Garden will sponsor our first seed swap on our patio February 6th. Email the Gardenmaster, greenteach@gmail.com, if you have questions.

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Sunday, 2/7

EATLACMA begins

LACMA – 5905 Wilshire Blvd,90036

What began as the mapping of fruit trees in LA neighborhoods grew into Fallen Fruit, a full-fledged activist art project and collaboration among David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young. Rooted in the notion that all of us deserve to have access to “public fruit,” Fallen Fruit holds a pair of public fruit-tree adoptions, officially launching EATLACMA, the museum’s year-long series of food-related talks, performances, exhibitions, and other events on culture, art, politics, and eatables. February 6, TreePeople Los Angeles sponsors the public fruit-tree adoption at Watts Towers, and on February 7, it moves to LACMA. Potential adoptive fruit parents are encouraged to arrive early for the best selection.  – Tanja Laden

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Thursday, 2/11

Immoveable Feast – Fruit Tree Discussion

601 Santa Monica Blvd., 90401

SM Main Library – MLK Auditorium

Fruit trees can produce well into their eighties, but their permanence can also be a liability when the effects of drought, insect invasion, changing customer demand and delayed innovation combine to decrease production. This panel of experienced tree fruit growers and experts will discuss how they protect flavor and quality by applying age-old growing practices to bold innovation in their search to grow “the perfect fruit.”

Part II of II:

“Of all the animals, the worm has played the most important part in the world’s history.”  – Charles Darwin

Worms.  Check.  Bin.  Check.  Food waste.  Check.  I had everything I needed to set up my very first worm farm.  Opening up the guide book that came with the bin I read, “The Wriggly Wranch™ harnesses the amazing power of earthworms, natures perfect recycler!”  Well, alright then.  Let’s get it on!

If there was a Dwell Magazine for the vermin set, The Wranch would be in it.  With a sleek, black modernist architectural design, it offers Red Wrigglers the finest in contemporary living.

Two plastic boxes, approximately the same size, fit snuggly together, leaving a gap of a few inches inside the bottom box. The top box, which has a screened bottom, is where food scraps go and where the worms live and eat.  Their precious tea, a powerful organic fertilizer and natural pest repellent, drips down to the bottom box which has a spigot, allowing you to easily collect it.

When the top box is 3/4 full of castings, you slide a third box on top of it, and start adding your scraps. Over a period of about three months, the worms crawl up into their new box, and you can harvest their castings in the old box and start again.

You’re supposed to start with 1 lb., or 1000 worms.  I think I brought home about 500, though honestly it’s hard to tell.  I’m not about to lay them out side by side to count (although, I think my husband kinda wanted to). Anyway, they mate like crazy, so  if all goes well, there  should be about 15,000-20,000 worms in a year’s time!

Considering all the rampant worm-sex going on under the lid, they probably should have called it The Bunny Ranch. But, yeah, maybe that would have been too confusing.

To create the initial bedding for the worms, the Wranch provides a block of coconut coir.  When you soak the block in a bucket of water, it expands and breaks up until it becomes a deep mass of mossy, primo worm-grade goodness that looks and feels like moist soil.

We spread the coir in the bin and then dumped our little recyclers in.  I’ve never been so  excited to open a can of worms.  (Sorry, had to make that joke.)

To encourage them to dig themselves into their new digs, we left the cover off and exposed them to light, which they hate. Then we put  a few pieces of lettuce in to start them off slow.

Finally, we covered them with a piece of wet newspaper to hold the moisture in.  Worms only survive in moist environments, so the bedding should always stay damp – not too wet, not too dry.

And that was it. Time to let nature do the rest.

In fact, getting them eating in the beginning is proving to be a little tricky.  It’s been a week now since setting up the Wranch, and the few torn up pieces of lettuce I scattered over their bed haven’t been touched. A little research told me this was normal, and could be due to a number of factors.

First, they need to get used to their new home.  I actually felt a little bit guilty about taking them away from their Vermi-Palace at SMC. But I think they’ll get used to slummin’ it on the porch soon enough.  Also, they are likely eating their coir bedding, so may not be interested in other food yet. Additionally, I may not have gotten a big enough worm-population to start.  Another trip to the Vemitech may be needed if I don’t have enough patience for the worms to get-it-on and let nature to take its course.

I also discovered that the worms don’t actually eat the food, but the micro-beasties that grow on the food as it decomposes. So, following advice from the Wranch manual’s troubleshooting section, I put some of the lettuce through the food processor.  Hopefully, the smaller pieces will biodegrade a little bit faster for them to consume.

I will keep you updated on their progress.  Until then, I leave you with this:

“The early bird catches the worm.  But the late worm doesn’t get eaten.” – Evangeline Heath

Ever since learning that food scraps in landfills actually turn into methane gas – one of the leading pollutants responsible for global warming – I’ve been on a tear to figure out how to compost in my apartment.

My research pointed to one answer, and a most unfortunate new word: vermicomposting. I have to say, I was pretty grossed out even saying it. For me, it evoked images of voracious rats chomping through fetid food waste.

In reality, it’s the process by which worms eat garbage and transform it into fertilizer, which can then be returned to the earth.

Okay, that’s beautiful.  But still, the idea of hundreds of slimy, dirty worms having their way with my garbage in my own home gave me the creeps.

Yet the more I read about it, the more it started to make sense.  First, worm bins are compact so they are a perfect choice for small-space living.  Also, worms can turn garbage into compost in about three months, as opposed to up to a year with garden composting.

And of course, as I’ve written about here recently, worm castings (or poop) and tea (worm pee) are a rich source of nitrogen, making them an excellent organic fertilizer.

More importantly, if properly maintained, the worm bin will not smell.  If it starts to stink, then you’ve got a problem: either it’s too wet, too dry or too full.

When my mother-in-law sent me this video, my mind was made up.  The worms were moving in.

Both Los Angeles County and The City of Santa Monica subsidize composting containers, so residents can get them at a reduced price. For $33 bucks, I picked up my cute lil’ worm bin which even had a name: “Wriggly Wranch.”  Darling!

It turned out to be the size of a large file box with legs, so it couldn’t fit under the sink, as I’d hoped at first. But with my husband’s reminder that worms were used to being outside, I found it fit nicely on my small back porch. They can actually stand temperatures between 50-90 degrees, I learned.

Now I had the bin, but no worms. My first discovery was that there are, in fact, two species: Earthworkers and Composters.  The first are found in the garden and live on topsoil and hummus.  Nightcrawlers are one example, of many.  As for Composters, there are only a few kinds, the most common of which is the Red Wriggler.  This is the one you want for your bin.

A quick Google search turned up a list of companies that will airmail Red Wrigglers to your door for about $25 a pound, not including shipping.  But the idea of leaving such a huge carbon footprint in an effort to recycle struck me as a little absurd.

So I put an ad up on Freecycle and got seven or eight responses in pretty short order.  Worm farmers are a supportive bunch, it turns out.  One woman called my attention to Santa Monica City College’s Recycling program.

They have a giant machine called the Vermitech, one of a few in the state.  It holds over one million worms in a 16 ft. long, temperature-controlled environment. SMC feeds all the scraps the cafeteria creates in food preparation to the worms, and then use the castings to fertilize their grounds.  Brilliant.

I arranged to meet with Madeline Brody, the woman who runs the recycling program.  My husband and I walked over to her office at SMC with a bag of empty yogurt containers (with holes poked in the lid so the little guys could breathe).  Madeline drove us across campus in a golf cart to the Vermitech – and it was clear that this was my husband’s favorite part of the outing.

She opened the enormous lid, revealing a flat expanse of brown dirt. No worms in sight.  But when Madeline put on some rubber gloves and scooped her hands into the soil,  she pulled up a huge clump of hundreds of Red Wrigglers. They were all intricately tangled together like the massive biological network of neurons in the brain, busily transforming garbage into compost.

Nature’s perfect, closed-looped systems never cease to amaze me. This planet has a perfect built-in process for returning waste back to the earth, developed over billions of years.  There simply is no better way to do it.

The American solution, clumping trash into huge brick cubes that send noxious fumes into the atmosphere, is insanely destructive.  Did you know that the Fresh Kills landfill in New Jersey is responsible for a whopping 2% of the methane gas pollution for the entire world?

And you thought Jersey only produced trash TV!

Check in tomorrow to see how I set up Wriggley Wranch.

EATLACMA Debuts This Weekend: A Year-long Project From LACMA and Fallen Fruit

It has been done!  On Saturday my husband Joshua and I drove over to our yard-share, a.k.a Purdue Avenue Farms, and put shovel to lawn.  A few hours later, we had our very first garden bed.  Coming in at  70 square feet (15’ x 5’), it should give us a pretty nice yield.

If you’d like to find out how to get your own yard share, read this post.

I couldn’t wait to get started on Saturday.  I stopped at Anawalt Lumber on the way over to get the sand I knew we’d need to break up the clay soil.  Walking up and down the aisles of gardening supplies, I was shocked at the amount of toxic crap that was being peddled.  Chemical fertilizers for every conceivable plant, flower and shrub.  I’m trying to build soil, not soil the earth, man.

I found a salesperson and asked him where the sand was.  He was confused.  I told him I wanted to add it to my soil.  “Oh no, that will take much too long – what you want is this.”  He led me over to a $20 bag of synthetic fertilizer.  “No really I just want a bag of sand.” Shrugging his shoulders he pointed me over to the lumber department.  Four bucks.  That’s more like it.

Starting A Garden Bed

Step One (Two Hours)

The first item of information you want is where the sun the hits the most land for the longest period of time.  I thought I had a good sense about it. I measured our plot out right down the middle of the grassy yard and started digging. But when we came back the next day for step two, Judith, the home owner, said she had seen the garage shade covering part of the plot for the entire morning. We ended up moving it over by two feet.  It would have saved a lot of work had I taken the time to observe the yard at different times of the day before we started.

Next, following John Jeavons’ instructions in How To Grow More Vegetables Then You Ever Thought Possible….we began loosening the soil down to a one foot depth.

I was happy to see tons of earthworms crawling around.  With the roar of the 10 Freeway in the background, we rooted out weeds and roots and huge clumps of grass as we went.  Wonderfully satisfying work.

The soil was much better than expected.  Judith has done quite a bit of gardening over the years.  At some point she’d added a ton of sand, loam and gypsum. And the soil, still damp from the recent rains, retained a rich, dare I say “earthy” feel. Yet, it had returned in a large part to clay.

Joshua, happy to be away from his scriptwriting for a while, really got into it.  He worked tirelessly lifting up huge clumps of clay, while I did more of the detail work, pulling up the grass and roots, and breaking up the clumps of soil. By the end of the day we had made our bed.  I watered it gently by hand using a sprinkling can already filled with rainwater I found waiting, almost magically, on the patio.

Step Two (1 1/2 hours)

The next day we came back to mix in our amendments. Reading that 4 cubic yards of sand would create a 1/2” layer over 100 square feet, we did a little math and decided to add 1.5 cubic yards of sand.  Jeavons cautioned against adding more than that.  Too much will not allow the soil to hold water.  You want to really mix the sand in, so Joshua and I spent a good hour turning over a foot of soil down the whole length of the plot – getting our weekend exercise!

Then we sprinkled the worm castings I’d collected on my adventure to the Valley last week, as well as Dr. Earth’s Organic 2 Garden Starter with mycorrhizal fungi, which form a linkage between plant roots and the soil and helps get the micro-organic life going. This layer only had to be mixed into the first 6 to 8 inches, so our exercise regimen had a nice cool down period.

By the time we finished, the soil had transformed from clay-ey to light and fluffy and decidedly clump free. Though I haven’t planted anything yet, transforming an unused backyard into a garden-ready space was an incredibly fulfilling experience.

Next weekend, we’ll go back for Step Three: the Double Dig, an ancient farmer’s method of loosening the soil two feet down to provide lots of air and space for the roots to spread.  Stay tuned!

If you’re an apartment-farmer, Darren Butler is someone you should know about. Consulting Arborist, Ecological Designer, Sustainable Landscaping Specialist, and Teacher, Darren is master eco-gardener.  Best of all, he wants to share his knowledge with you.

Darren has an exciting list of workshops coming up that will deepen the roots of your knowledge about all things organic gardening.

FarmApartment has arranged for Darren to lead a class in Small-Space Food Gardening on Saturday, February 27 at the Learning Garden in Venice.  In this all-day course for apartment, condominium, and other urban dwellers who lack land, Darren will introduce methods for growing edibles in spaces as small as a windowsill.  He will start with the basics and leave you with confidence to start your own apartment-sized farm.

Other workshops include:

Dormant Fruit-Tree Pruning, Grafting Basics, (double workshop), Sunday, January 31, 2010, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM, Tarzana

Home Greywater Use and System Design, Saturday, February 20, 2010, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM, Tarzana

Edible Landscaping and Perennial Food Gardening Certification Course, Sundays Feb 21, 28, Mar 7, 21, Apr 11, 18, 2010; 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM; Long Beach

Ecofriendly High-Yield Food Gardening, Sundays Feb 21, 28, Mar 7, 21, Apr 11, 18, 2010; 2:30 – 6:30 PM; Long Beach

7th Congress of Southern California Special Event: Launching the 50% Food Initiative, Saturday, March 20, 2010, 10:00 AM – 4:45 PM, Westchester  Link to email announcement

Because a garden is a terrible thing to waste.

Go to the Farm Apartment Calender for more details.  Please let me know of any events or classes you’d like me to post.

Saturday, 1/30/10

Garden School Workday

Time: 9-12

2055 W 24th St Los Angeles, CA,90018

Come help out in the 24th Street Elementary School garden. They’ve transformed 1/4 acre of concrete into an edible landscape.

You can read about my experience here.

For more details, go to: http://gardenschoolfoundation.org/home/
or contact program director Nat Zappia: nat@gardenschoolfoundation.org

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Marmalade Making Class At Surfas

8777 W Washington Blvd Culver City, CA 90230

Time: 11-12ish

Kevin West is my canning hero.  Here’s my post on the last class he taught.

Class Description:  Don’t be afriad of marmalade any longer! Come see how it’s done! Delicious results in one hour or less! FREE tasting to follow! Step right up! Come join Bettina Birch and me for a FREE marmalade demonstration at Surfas in Culver City.

Bust the recession and save the season by learning to make this innovative, time-saving, labor-efficient, one-step, no-soak TIME TO KILL CITRUS MARMALADE. As an added bonus, we’ll stir up a batch of VIN DE PAMPLEMOUSSE, a zingy aperitif of winter citrus.

Now tell me, how could you let such an offer pass you by?
(310) 559-4770

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Monday, 2/1/10

Gardens of Gratitude kickoff event

SM Public Library – 601 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica, 90401

Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm

Last year, Gardens of Gratitude connected volunteers with people who wanted to start gardens on their property.  It was a huge success and created lots of new gardens in the neighborhood.  They’re doing it again this year.

Event Description: It’s happening. Another Westside Permie Gathering at the SM library. Besides getting the chance to reconnect with old friends and have the chance to make new ones, we’re going to begin the planning of our next Gardens of Gratitude event. This year is going to be even bigger and better than last year.

Make your way down to the Santa Monica Main Library’s Multi-purpose Room on Monday February 1st, 2010 at 6:30pm-8:30pm. Let’s make this gathering one of our best ones yet, bring lots of food for potluck for all to share.

Now that I have an actual plot of land to plant in, a whole new list of concerns and challenges have popped up.  The first one being – what the hell am I planting in?

Soil testing is a good idea for many reasons.  First, it can tell you if there is any toxic sludge stinking up the joint.  Kinda important if you intend to grow food that isn’t lethal. Beyond that, a soil test can tell you many important characteristics of the land before you harvest, so you and your soil can become really good friends.

Think of it as a Facebook Profile for your yard, letting you know what kind of micro-organic crowd your soil hangs out with.  You will be able to learn things like the soil’s balance of minerals, the water absorption rate, and the soil pH (more on pH in a coming post).  Using this information, you can figure out how much organic fertilizer to add and what other soil amendments will help your garden realize its maximum potential.

I chose Timberleaf Labs because it was recommended in my new favorite book: “How To Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible On Less Land Than You Can Imagine,” by John Jeavons.

With a holistic approach, Timberleaf specializes in organic mini-farms.  They take into consideration not only the soil, but the entire gardening environment and individual cultivating practices.  I’m not sure what other labs do, but these guys even wanted me to draw a diagram of my farm, being sure to indicate all significant landmarks.

Well, on Purdue Avenue Farms (which is what I’ve come to call my little plot), the  most significant landmark would be the 10 freeway.  That’s right.  The yard is almost right underneath a massive overpass, towering hundreds of feet above the trees. Though this fits nicely with my Urban Farming aesthetic, I can’t help wondering how the thousands of cars that zoom overhead on any given day have affected the soil.

So, like Sigourney Weaver taking samples from Pandora, I followed Timberleaf’s detailed instructions and collected a composite of dirt from seven random places in the yard.  At each spot I stuck a spade in about 8 inches deep and pulled up a section of the soil that I dumped into a clean bucket.  Then I mixed the soil together and filled up a one-quart bag.

Afterward, when I  sat down to fill out the Soil Sample form, I realized I didn’t have answers to a lot of their questions.  The labs wanted to know how much chemical fertilizer had been used, the last application of lime, what kind of pests the garden was subject to. Being totally new to this land, I was at a loss to its history. So, I did the best I could and will depend on science to do the rest. I packed up my dirt cozily in a leftover Amazon box and shipped it off.

Most soil samples are between $60-$85 depending on how detailed you want to get.  But it seems worth the expense.  It will take a lot of the guesswork out of gardening, and could save a bundle on unnecessary or incorrect soil amendments.

It’s really the only way to get the nitty-gritty on your dirt.

All of my investigations into organic fertilizer have led to a single consensus: worm castings are the shit.  Rich in nutrients and microbeasties, many people believe that it is the best amendment a soil could hope for.

Realizing that this organic garden gold could produce miracles in the clay soil of my yard-share, I had a bee in my bonnet to get me some on the double. I got up bright and early Sunday morning, and hurried down to the Main Street Farmer’s Market, where I heard there would be a woman who sold it – only to find out she no longer had a booth there.  Crap!

But a quick search on Craigslist turned up Steve Gottlieb, owner of a worm-growing outfit way out in Northridge called Golden Wiggle Worms.  Responding to my inquiry, he said he sold it for $1 per/pound.  That seemed like a fine price.

I did some sloppy math and figured I’d need about 35 pounds to cover the garden.   In retrospect, I think I bought way too much. But perhaps there’s no such thing as “too much” when it comes to worm poop.  Okay – does anyone want some worm poop?

I called Steve in the morning to tell him I was coming over.  His voice was scratchy, his words were slightly slurred and he spoke with the hint of a Southern twang.  “I have it out here waitin’ for ya.” He said and put down the phone.

Suddenly, I felt insecure about driving out to a strange worm farm in the Valley.  My husband, not nearly as excited about the merits of worm defecation as I was, declined my invitation to join me.   I was on my own.

Since I was heading all the way out to this far flung outpost of garden treasure, I figured I should at least try and share the wealth.   I called all of my gardening friends and asked if they wanted me to pick some extra up for them.  Only one said yes!  I couldn’t believe the benefits of the fecal matter of worms was lost on so many.  It’s just sad.

After braving the freeways, and navigating my way through the wide boulevards intersecting a typical suburban valley neighborhood, I finally turned into the right cul-de-sac.  I pulled down the driveway of a ranch style house that blended into the landscape.  Parked out front was a pristine, Dodger blue Ford sedan, circa 1982 or so. Well at least I knew Gottlieb had style.

Steve came to the door, a skinny, disheveled man who looked to be in his early 60s, dressed in a bright purple shirt.  The smell of kitty litter and stale cigarette smoke wafted out.  Behind him I could see a dim living room in its own organic state of decomposition – filled to the rafters with decades of junk.  My suspicions about him being a character living on the fringes of society were confirmed.

Though his pale blue eyes were glazed over, he still managed to look at me with a gentle intensity as he instructed me in using his precious natural fertilizer.  He explained that the soil should never be more than 20% worm castings, otherwise it will burn the roots.  With wonder in his voice, he told me that the castings will hold five times their weight in water, so I would need to water much less.

“So can I see the worms?”  I asked.

He was only too happy to let me witness his red wiggley money-makers at work.  We cut through the house. The backyard was a disaster zone too and looked as if it hadn’t been picked up in decades. He led me around the side of the empty pool, which had a brown puddle of rain water laying stagnant at the bottom. Overturned lawn chairs, broken pots, empty buckets, and detritus of every sort littered the patio.

Finally, he showed me the long row of trays where he kept the worms.  They were neatly laid out, with a clean plastic cover over them.  He may have been struggling, but his worms were livin’ the life.

Picking up one worm with a whitish band around his body he looked at me and said, with a proud smile, “Preggers.”

It  dawned on me that, as weirded out as I was by that house, Steve may actually have himself the easiest  job in the world.  He could just sit back and let the worms do the work for him.

I emerged unscathed with about 20 plastic shopping bags filled with worm castings.  Of course one spilled all over my backseat on the freeway, and now my trusty Civic has lovely a Farm Fresh Scent.

Oh, the things I do for my garden.