Container Garden & Drip Irrigation

Today is urban living at its finest. Brian and I have been slowly restoring the house and creating a little hippie-esque sanctuary in our neglected urban neighborhood (that we lovingly call "the hood"). Since my urban granola blog is about revisiting and revitalizing urban life through a sort of hippie and homesteader twist, today I thought I'd show you some surroundings and take the focus off of food. And, I'm here to confirm that a city girl (who regularly wears 4 inch high heels) can install a drip irrigation system for a container garden in one day, by herself.

First off... The Hood. Above is a pic of a wall Elliott Smith posed in front of for an album cover. Obviously vandalized, it is down the street from here and is only one small example of the extensive urban nihilism I'm surrounded by.  Now it's time to create an oasis amid the chaos... 

Let's start with drip irrigation. Below are a couple of how-to videos, and the company DripWorks has an easy to understand how-to PDF on their website. I've been planting herbs (see my last post) and other plants on the deck. It's been overwhelming to stand there with a hose watering 16 pots everyday and I decided that a timer and some plastic tubing could do the work for me. So today I installed 70 feet of drip irrigation on our deck. This was a surprisingly easy project once I got past how daunting I thought it was going to be (note: the difference between reality versus distorted thinking). It required patience to install all the C brackets to hold up the 1/2" mainline and drip extensions, but it only required beginning labor skills... like Tinker Toys for adults. If you can put together Ikea furniture, you have a PhD in building compared to this easy job. The biggest task was understanding the methods and having a clearly laid out plan. So I studied these videos and the Drip Works website. Patti Moreno (Garden Girl) has wonderful tools for Urban Sustainable Gardening...

Just some quick thoughts before you go shopping. I bought all my supplies from a local hardware store. Get to know what you need first, review different drip heads, know the timing for your soil type (slow vs. fast draining), and be prepared with a shopping list. You can buy kits, but most of what I found are too generalized, and you'll need to get your own little details. The basic shopping list for a deck container drip irrigation is:

Spigot

Splitter valve for spigot (I got one with 4 splits, to add another drip line and a hose)

Timer

Backflow device

Filter

Pressure Regulator

Swivel Adapter

1/2" main line pipe

1/2" C fasteners to hold up pipe

Spray paint to match fasteners to your deck paint (if you like a streamlined look)

1/2" corner elbows

1/4" tubing

1/4" barbs (to connect 1/4" to 1/2" mainline)

selected nozzles, or drip heads (my pics below show adjustable heads that allow from 0 gallons per hour up to 10 gph)

The biggest thing I learned for the container gardening drip line is to install a 1/2" main line that surrounds the deck first, then it's super easy to sprout off any variety of 1/4" drip extensions into the containers and hanging planters. It's such big accomplishment, but nobody needs to know how easy it really was. Ha! Here are some pics... 

1/4" drip line extending to pot from 1/2" main line

Potato vine will get huge now!

At sunset, 1/2" main line running beneath mint box

Our oasis...Those curtains are hiding a view of ugly apartment buildings

But within the curtained deck is our little oasis

Miles "The Cheeseburger" Buddha likes his urban oasis

He slept on the couch all day while I installed drip lines

The mint now has its water and I can relax with a Mojito!

Hi My name is Julie and I'm a Carbaholic (Part II): A day in the life of recovery

Well, after the inspiring bitchfest of Part I, who wouldn't want to read Part II!? So, it's been a week since I've gotten back on track. I'm fully following the Weston Price nutritional plan, as advised by my nutritionist, and I'm already feeling more life in me.  In recounting the past eight months off of the plan, while deep in my carb/sugar addiction, I can say without a doubt, that so much of my wellness, sleep, mental health, physical health, and outlook on life is effected by food, and especially too much sugar in my body. But it's not just carbs, quitting sugar or breads, but the balance of proteins, fats and types of food. Already, just a week of morning smoothies with maca, almond butter, and quality grass fed whey has been changing the first half of my day. I'm feeling great! So here's a little window into a day in the life...

Nothing like a ripe banana in my morning smoothie!

I stocked up at the grocery store on organic produce (picked up some gorgeous peonies because they're in season here). I'm even attempting to pay attention to seasonal produce, and found a guide at Field to Plate. I'm trying to keep it simple. Sticking with what's on hand, and getting creative. I have a lot of recipes that I put together while 5 months on My Fitness Pal. I met a lot of amazing friends there, who loved my recipes, so they have been tested. My sundried tomato meatloaf with gorgonzola is a hit! Daily, I'm back to logging my carb-protein ratio, that way I can have mirror on myself. It's a little bit more difficult to deny the Red Vines, when you announce to your friends that you're eating them... didn't eat any this week, though I wouldn't skip enjoying some on free day. Everyone needs a free day. Moderation is my new motto. Anything too extreme, for me, can be like a rubberband pulled too tight. Boomerang!!

Several varieties of mint. It grows like a weed

A few weeks ago I planted more fresh herbs, and have some others that are hanging on from last year's planting. It's urban living here, so I grow the herbs in planters on the deck. This weekend is drip line installation... I found some great resources online to learn about installation. I love these herbs! I've been grabbing the herbs from the garden and trying them out in all sorts of things...from sautes to smoothies. Yesterday I made a pineapple basil protein smoothie. It was so tasty!

Sage with water drops

I've been obsessed with drinks like Mojitos, sans the alcohol. I've been making a watermelon mojito spritzer and a pineapple one... 

Watermelon "Mojito" Spritzer (makes one glass)
Stir together:
Ice
1 organic lime, squeezed
2 tblsp organic fresh mint, torn and crushed
4 ounces crushed watermelon, or watermelon juice
2 ounces sparkling water

Replace watermelon with fresh pineapple juice, to switch it up! Adjust ratios to your liking. Cucumber is nice in these too!

Grass finished steak in raw cultured butter with herbs and peas

I'm so thrilled to have my organic herbs accessible right outside my door, that I'm discovering some new variations on using them. Today for dinner, I grilled a nice grass fed (and grass finished) steak and sauteed herbs in raw cultured butter. I grabbed EVERYTHING, including mint, and garlic, chopped them up finely and made a nice little sauce with fresh peas. I find that this recipe by Nadia G for steak is foolproof if you have no idea how to cook a steak. The balsamic drizzle is pretty amazing too!! Hey, I said my food was healthy, I didn't say it was Kosher! You could replace the butter for some nice organic cold-pressed olive oil and lower the heat when you saute so you don't burn the olive oil.

If you don't believe that steak with a little butter is healthy for you... check out Part I of this blog and notice the lady in the bikini wearing the black hat. She's very healthy, she's almost 40, she ain't fat and she ate cartloads of bacon, red meat, eggs and butter to look this way. Thanks to the Weston Price Foundation eating guidelines she's gorgeous and feeling great! Now that's a day in the life of a recovering carbohydrate addict!


** last note... Just because I spent the past few months eating gummy bears, doesn't mean that I wasn't getting prepared to be back on track. My two favorite discoveries have been these cookbooks. Oh and I absolutely love cooking in one pot-- the Tagine:

Good Meat - Deborah Krasner
Eat Good Food - Bi Rite Market Cook Book 

Hi, my name is Julie and I'm a "Carbaholic" Part 1: Pay the grocer

This post is dedicated to Alexis, who inspired me past my tipping point to write again... Thanks.

Ugh. I need one more of those. Ugh. Let's say it together. Ugh! Carbs. Fucking carbs. Pardon my language, but I mean come on. Carbohydrate consumption has become so pervasive in our big fat society and I'm just one more cow mooing among the masses who's stepped on the wagon train of carb addiction. Where do I begin? Or rather, start over. In the past week I've had several little hints from the "universe" to wake me up from my dim denial that I had entirely fallen off the wagon and (hopefully) "hit bottom." I'm a professional so I think it's ok here if I use some clinical terminology: I relapsed. And I relapsed hard.

Me in Moorea. Could you recover from this? I'm just sayin'...

After our return from Tahiti, I stopped following any of my healthy beliefs (ah the blissful Island of Moorea). Oh, I know, poor me with my uptown problems! But no one ever tells you that when you return to your fast-paced urban life, that you're going to realize what real insanity is. I'd to like to blame this carb addiction on a return from a trip to an island with pure turquoise waters and colorful fish; that my depression upon the loss of that place, that life, was so severe that I spiraled into a pit of Red Vines and Chocolate Covered Gummy Bears... but it is true. At least, that's the point at which all the crappy eating returned, for both Brian and I. It was really difficult to return from almost two weeks of French bread, Cappucinos, white sands and bathwater warm clear seas.... But really, I'm not exaggerating my uptown problem; urban life is difficult...stressful at baseline. It's a far cry from driving circles around a 45 mile circumference island where the only care in the world is a sun hat and not hitting a lazy dog sleeping in the road.

That said, it's an inside job and I can only blame myself for all the candy that I've eaten in the past year. So I'm trying again. A confluence of events led me back to journaling here.... Last week I stood in line at the grocery store with a woman who looked in my cart (chocolate bars, Red Vines, Gushers fruit snacks, crackers, blah blah blah) in actual horror. And it was horrifying. The moment was strange though, because I'm typically surrounded by people with carts as bad as, if not worse, than mine (because our food culture is fundamentally horrid). I'm not alone, but she was only carrying a medication in her hand and that was it. There was a split second of knowing, a shaka-buku wisdom (my trashy food--her meds--something is wrong here, I knew). I smiled at her, looked in my cart and acknowledged her by saying, "Yeah, I know. Terrible." We gabbed about how hard it is to avoid the candy aisle and how all the foods that kids eat (like my Gushers) are so addicting... then she started crying. She told me about her young son's three weeks without a bowel movement and chronic constipation. Despite doctor's interventions, his problems persisted. She felt helpless. I felt less helpless, but sad. Not just sad for her, but sad for me, sad for you, and sad for us.

Why didn't I feel helpless? Because having written this blog, seen my nutritionist and tried something different, I know (despite my cart-full of candy) that there is another way. I told her about my nutritionist, about Weston Price, about the lost food culture of America (that we've lost control of) and that there is another way. She left with some empowerment. Hopefully she will see a nutritionist and a Functional Medicine doctor for her son, rather than just stuffing him with ex lax, Miralax, benefiber... yadda yadda. Solutions sure. Maybe? But not solutions to the actual problem: our children literally don't have access to real "food" anymore.  The milk and cheese (milked from poisoned cows not allowed to eat the grass they thrive on). The bread (too much!). The meat (poisoned, suffering, sick animals). The fish (genetically modified swimming in cesspools). The produce (genetically modified with pesticide in their flesh). We have few sources of food that our bodies don't have to simultaneously detox from while we strain to get nourishment.

The week continued like this, pushing me closer back here... I saw another friend who spoke of her child's constipation and heard further stories of constipation. I received an email saying how appreciated my blog is and that this issue is important. I learned that Walmart will be selling genetically modified fresh corn (without labeling, in the produce section) that has been known to cause organ damage. I see the news about how fat we are, and the advice we're given is skewed. We take laxatives to repair digestive systems that are already so fucked up by the "food" we eat, then we add these chemical problems to functional digestive problems.... and then we go to the doctor. I'm all for doctors; they are healers and miracle workers. But let's help out their already overburdened system... Let's pay the grocer for real food, and not the doctor for desperate solutions.