Paul Campbell

Tonight I want to start a series of blog postings that I will call simply "Reasons I Garden." This may help some readers understand my passion to garden and why I think it should be such an integral part of owning a home.

When I am lonely, disheartened or just confused and bewildered with the cares of the world I find solace in the garden. In the Biblical creation story in Genesis chapter two verse 15 the text reads, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." I often hear from observers of my garden, "Isn't this a lot of work?." The word "work" is said with disdain and repulsiveness.Work was created before man chose to disobey God. The Garden of Eden was created to be a place of work. To be able to care for a garden was part of God's very early plan.

When I am in the garden I am drawn to the beauty of the the plants, the birds and insects foraging, the symetry of so many plants, the smells emanating from blossoms, the moist earth and the rich composting materials. I am drawn to the garden because it was a place originally designed for me to nurture and for the creation to nurture my soul.

Frankly it baffles me when I see so many people who would rather spend their time on a treadmill than working in a garden. Yes, it is work but it is the only work that is truly sustainable. Caring for the garden can provide healthy excercise, healthy nourishment and healthy spiritual refreshment..

It is my opinion that the desire to take "the work" out of gardening is at the core of all of the uses of chemicals to feed the plants and chemicals to kill the "pests." It is as if the serpant from the garden even today continues to tell us a lie so that we can believe "we can save ourselves from work." Rediscovering the joy of work can be the beginning of spiritual health. I am so very thankful that I get to work. The idea of retirement has no ring of joy to me. I hope and pray I can work until the day I die.

I lay a challenge before all those who have grown weary of work. Let me help you begin to garden in even a very small way.

Dig a little spot that is three by three and turn in the leaves several times this fall. Before it freezes hard cover with a pile of leaves. Now if you are not a winter gardener you can spend time on the treadmill while you brouse the seed catalogues. Go to Fedco Seeds and order their catologue. The catalogue is much more extensive than their web site and it is a joy to read information on their seeds.

One of my favorite peppers was discovered as I was reading the Fedco catalogue. As I recall the Jimmy Nardello pepper was named after somone's uncle who immigrated to the US from Italy and brought these pepper seeds on his voyage. Jimmy's are long and very dark red peppers with a mild sweet flavor. They are the first peppers in my garden to ripen.

I have been in the proceess of getting a home ready to sell the past three weeks. When I bought it I was hoping to have it on the market next week. Things just take longer than I usually plan and of course it costs more to make the necessary upgrades than I had planned. I do some of the demolition work and help out a bit. However, I am not a finish carpenter and don't pretend or try to be. I contract out the work that I know I cannot do professionally. .

I recently had a friend say to me, "I have been reading about flipping a house and have been reading and learning everything possible." I asked him if he was working with a realtor and he said no. I advised him to give me a call and he said he would. I see him every week and yet he has yet to call me.

It is so easy to walk into a vacant house and spot a home that someone has bought and is trying to flip. Especially if it is someone who is not a professional remodeler. Typically these homes are in need of repair to the repair. Recently I showed a home to a client where the attempted updates to the kitchen included a two piece granite top that was at least half an inch off at the seam. They had also attempted to update the kitchen without installing a dishwasher.

Often these "get rich quick flippers" also will not bother getting a home inspection. So when they try to sell the home things such as electrical problems or even worse mold problems raise their ugly head and the "flipper" ends up losing money.

Once again applying the Golden Rule is the only way to "flip" a home. If you fix it up so that you want to live in it, you are happy to pay the price you are asking and you are willing to buy a home warranty for the home then it will sell quickly. If you made a little money during the project consider yourself fortunate. Odds are the first home you flip will make little or no money however. So ask yourself, "Am I patient enough to learn from the process and willing to do some real soul searching before I do it again.

Just one last word about flipping. If you are trying to buy a bank owned home be ready to wait and wait and wait. Be aware also that the bank may be looking at more than one potential buyer and that if your bid is not high enough you may lose out on a home after waiting for weeks and even possibly months.

Last Wednesday Kathy and I enjoyed the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville.

We were pleasantly surprised that most of the exhibits, even the places for the animals were air conditioned. The memories of my youthful experiences of attending fairs in the Pacific Northwest as a boy had served to make me prepared for a very hot day. So we were delighted to spend a day at the fair and not feel drenched from the humidity.

My favorite parts are always the animals and vegetables. I grew up on a little organic farm in North Idaho. The dark purple shiney eggplant and the butternut squash are the two of the mainstays in this vegetabel display.

Watching the children show their animals brings back my 4-H days on the farm in Cataldo Idaho. Feeding and caring for that animal for about nine months provided such a good opportunity for me to really underestand the responsibilities of raising animals and later even raising a family.

Kathy's favorite part of the fair is the decorated cakes and and the quilt displays. My older sister Ramona used to decorate cakes so I have an idea of the tedious labor it takes to make a cake delightfully pleasing to the the eye. My best cakes were formed from the mud that bubbled up on a late winter day when the sun and rains melted the piles of snow.

Overall Kathy and I were pleased that the fair wasn't dominated by the commercial industries. Both of us feel as if we may be ready to return even next year. After visiting our State Fair in Washington we both felt like it may take a decade to want to return. So plan to attend next year with your children or grandchildren and have a great time learning about the vast agricultural endeavors in the Commonwealth.

Today I visited the Farmer's Market at the corner of Maxwell and Broadway. That market is open Tuesdays and Thursday. The 7:00 start time is great because there is so much parking available and the produce is so fresh.

Watching people stroll rapidly to the market with their tote bags gave me such pleasure. I imagined the good smells coming from their kitchens this evening and the enjoyment their family and friends would have sharing such healthy food.

I only had about an hour this morning and visited with three different vendors. I felt rushed even then.

I was especially intrigued with Bill Best and his tomatoes. Bill is a retired Physical Education teacher but has been farming for nearly 40 years. Having farmed and taught most of my career I felt almost an immediate kinship with Bill. Bill is the founder of The Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center near Berea. He sells only tomatoes at the market but also has an on line business selling his tomato seeds and 50 varieties of beans. I tasted a few of his Rosalita's and was most impressed with the deep rich taste. It is almost a grape sized tomato. Not real sweet but very flavorful. I usually prefer a very sweet cherry but couldn't resist buying some of the Rosalitas even though we give away about three pounds of tomatoes every day from our own garden.

Bill's web site is http://heirlooms.org/ . I learned more about heirloom beans in the half hour spent with Bill than I could have ever imagined possible. Bill is passionate about helping save heirloom bean varieties. I am very eager to visit Bill at Sustainable Mountain Agriculture.

Carl McMaine a third generation farmer from near Bybee Kentucky about 45 minutes south of Lexington grows very a large variety of peppers, cucumbers, squash and more. Carl's tomatoes got hit by the late blight.this year and he lost all of his tomato crop. The first evidence of late blight usually shows up and within less than a week your tomatoes are wiped out. A recent opinion article in the New York Times blames the widespread blight on the increase in large numbers of starter plants that are shipped without good monitoring for diseases. Read Dan Barber's article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html

Carl starts all of his own tomatoes from seed on the farm. It may be possible though that another nearby farmer or small gardener bought their plants and the disease spread to the McMaine farm.

The perils of farming can only be endured by men and women who are passionate about their work. Where would we get our good food and knowledge of how to continue growing food without the Bill Best and Carl McMaines of Kentucky? Thank you!