Lessons in Sustainable Living from the Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 5: A Reading and Writing Journal (Entry 3: Start Small; At First, Make Your Money Elsewhere; Grow Soil, Not Crops)

The vegetable garden pergola at Dry Creek--a great place to read.

Analysis: 

Steinbeck begins with the concrete:

The owners of the land came onto the land, or more often a spokesman for the owners came.  They came in closed cars, and they felt the dry earth with their fingers, and sometimes drove big augers into the ground for soil tests.  The tenants, from their sun-beaten dooryards, watched uneasily when the closed cars drove along the fields.  And at last the owner men drove into the dooryards and sat in their cars to talk out of windows.  The tenant men stood beside the cars for a while, and then squatted on their hams and found sticks with which to mark the dust.

In The Grapes of Wrath, it is the camera-like eye that tells the truth.  The humans, on all sides, are just trying to figure it all out.  There is a clear moral center, but it doesn't come from the people.  It comes from the omnipotent eye.  That's why the nonfiction-like chapters sandwiched between narrative chapters are essential to the book.  Although lessons in sustainable living continue consistently though out all the book, they are most apparent in the in-between chapters, where, in a sense, the eye-of-God, becomes the narrator.

For instance, in the short paragraph above, we see a couple of malignant factors innate to the economic system:

1.  The owners of the land do not work the land, and therefore have no relationship with it.  Usually, they do not even bother to come look for themselves, but send employees.

2.  Those that work the land don't own the land.  Even if we disregard economic justice here, the eye shines brightly on the unsustainable nature of tenant farming:  those who work the land, know the land, understand the land, depend on the land, ultimately have no influence over the land, because they don't own it.  Their economic status, as we will see, forces them to plant whatever crop pays the most or they are in danger of losing it. 

But God's eye doesn't villain-ize either the owners or their representatives.  The eye remains objective.

Some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do, and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel, and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless one were cold.  All of them were caught in something larger than themselves.

But it doesn't ignore the evil inherent in the system either:  

The owner men went on leading to their point:  You know the land's getting poorer.  You know what cotton does to the land; robs it, sucks all the blood out of it.

The squatters nodded--they knew, God knew.  If they could only rotate crops they might pump blood back into the land.

But they can't make that choice because the banks own the land and the banks must be paid.  Cotton pays, so the land is robbed, year after year, in order that the corporations survive.

The corporation, or mammon, is the center things, not the earth, not nature, not creation, and so in a very real way, even though the individuals may be good, the system is an abomination.

Lessons Learned:

1.  Start small.  If all you have is the 1/4 acre lot your house in the suburbs sits on, farm it well.  Pay off your loans quickly.  As long as you have a mortgage on your land, it isn't yours.  If you lose it, you will no longer have any say about what becomes of it.

2.  At least in the initial stages, make your money elsewhere.  That way all your decisions can be based on what's best for the land in the long term.  You won't have to compromise in order to make enough money to get through the year.  If you do begin to profit, grow slowly, and make sure the amount you live off is less than what it takes to sustain your land. 

3.  Grow soil, not crops.  Once the soil is healthy, the garden almost takes care of itself.

Dry Creek from Above: Phase 1--The Five-Year Master Plan (Garden Design, Water-wise Landscaping, Hugelkultur)

Picture this:  You are heading up a narrow, paved road towards the mountains; on the left is a thick wall of oak and maple clinging to the shaded slopes of a canyon that drops off to the cottonwood bottoms below.  In front, and to the right, is a farm with big, old elms, a trailer house, various out buildings.  But as you turn onto the gravel lane, a world of color opens up. The typical western barnyard blossoms into a playful mix of Tuscany, 1940's and 50's Americana, the psychedelic 60's, and a little bit of Mexico.  This is Dry Creek Farm--where the whimsical is woven with the past and nature to create an interplay of texture, color and spaces.  

Okay, so I dream.  But they are not totally idle dreams.  And I'm not sure they are unattainable.  I have accomplished quite a bit in two years.   

First, an overview of the western 30 acres of Dry Creek.  The photo above shows the portion of the property nearest town.  The top of the photo faces west.  The big, square pond is the county irrigation pond.  The dirt road near the top that goes from the black top to the county pond is the border of the property.  The red-roofed house is ours.  The small pond near the center is where we swim.  The thick band of trees near the bottom of the photo is Dry Creek Canyon, an oak and maple forest watered by a seasonal creek.  Mom and Lloyd's house is at the end of the long gravel road, near the pond.  The pond to the left is actually not on our property, but we have access to it, due to the fact we share irrigation.  When there is water (March through early July), there's lots of irrigation, but sometime between July 4 and July 15th, everything dries up.  This makes our property great for growing trees, but not much else--at least not with traditional farming techniques.  We once grew alfalfa, but we were only able to harvest two crops per year.

Above is a picture of the portion of our land that I consider my yard.  The top of the picture faces east.  It is here, I'll begin developing the gardens.  The thick band of trees left of the road is Chalk Creek Canyon.  When I was a child, the creek here flowed year-around.  However, the county now sucks it dry up-stream most of the year and sends the water to the county irrigation pond.  So here, Chalk Creek has become a seasonal stream, like Dry Creek.  

Just right of the road is the trailer, which for years was our summer home.  To the right of that is the "pig shed," the last of the farm that existed when I was a child.  It is hard to see, being under a canopy of trees.  Across the gravel road, near the bottom of the picture, is the "Blue Door Bar," an old shed we converted into a TV room when we spent our summers in the trailer.  To the east of the trailer and north of the house are the 25 oaks Lloyd and I planted as bare-root saplings back in 1996.  It's taken a long time, but they've become fairly impressive, and will really be amazing in another 10 years.  

Above is the master plan for the gardens at Dry Creek.  After you enter past the elms at the bottom left-hand corner, there will be a choice of two parking areas, one by the trailer, and one near the western fence line.  Generally, I'm against lawn because of the water it uses. However, as the lawn in front of the trailer is part of the land's history, I'd like to keep part of it, at least for a while.  Yet, it is very difficult to keep it green, especially around the edges. Therefore, I'd like to cut it back in an irregular shape and create metaphorical pond.  I'll put boulders around the edge, along with alpine flowers and aspen.  I'm also going to extend the trailer porch out into the green of the lawn as a dock and tie a canoe to it.

Because lawns are well-watered, Aspen eventually send out succors, and if not mowed regularly, take over.  Not only am I fine with that, it is part of the plan.  As much water as aspen need, lawn needs a whole lot more.  Last summer, I watered my lawn on average of three times a week and for most of the summer, it was a pale, dusty green with yellow brown around the edges.  In contrast, I watered my aspen groves on average, once every two weeks.  And I'd rather have an aspen forest than a lawn anyway.  The lawn-lake just creates a fun metaphor to enjoy until the aspen take over.

West of the other planned parking lot is an old cattle trough, which I'll turn into a fountain.  There will be a formal stepping stone path around it, and a small patio behind it with a wrought iron cafe table and two chairs.   Surrounding this will be a Tuscan-styled garden, framed at the back with skyrocket juniper.  I'll also place skyrocket juniper around the parking lots, that'll frame the garden like the scattered ruins of Roman columns.   For vegetation, I'll plant drought resistant plants and flowers, like lavender, black-eyed Susans and sunflowers.  As this garden is a ways from the house, it would be best if it can look healthy with only one watering per week. Using the soil building methods of permaculture, this should not be that hard to accomplish.

Next to the Tuscan-styled garden is the existing rose-garden and the old Mercedes I painted to go with the Blue Door Bar.  Here, I want to plant a dirt road in front of it.  I did say that right.  I'll use flowers to create the illusion of a dirt road with the two tire tracks and with a grass center. Only it will be created completely out of flowers.

An old Mercedes my in-laws were nice enough to haul 242 miles on the back of a trailer
so that I could decorate my property with it.  I added the yellow.

The Blue Door Bar, an old shed we converted into a family TV room and hang out.

To the south of the trailer, in the "square," which is framed by three big, old apricot trees to the east and the pig shed to the south, will be four whimsical specialty gardens, which Marci has made me promise to keep secret until they're completed.  She believes the gardens are unique enough someone might steal the idea.  She might be right,  so I'll share those when they're complete.  

The winding trail that begins in the Specialty Gardens will connect the gardens at the front of the trailer with the oak forest Lloyd and I planted back in 1996 and Marci's cutting flower garden.  As we enjoyed Marci's cutting flower garden so much, we decided we will expand it into the the oaks.  So, we'll have cosmos, bachelor's buttons, zinnias, wildflowers and sun flowers growing in a among the trees. 15 minutes of water per day was more than enough to keep them thriving, and that was without much mulching or building up of top soil.  Using chop and drop methods, I'm sure it won't take too many years before watering can be reduced to 15 minutes, three times a week.  

Marci's Cutting-Flower Garden 2014 with the Oaks and House Behind

Shortly after crossing through the old apricot trees and past the aspen grove, there will be another trail heading south, which heads into the big "island" which is formed by our driveway. This is part of the old barnyard, and the soil is very good here.   On the left side of the trail will be a large park area covered in buffalo grass.  This is so the grand kids will have a place to kick a ball around or play tag.  To the right will be the fruit orchard, a small pond and a pine and aspen forest.  The trail will end at wooden deck that looks over a small winding irrigation stream.

Park Area for the grandchildren.  Currently it is seasonal cheatgrass that I mow.
I'll plant buffalo grass here because it doesn't take too much water, and yet stays soft.

The small reflection pond.  It needs to be lined properly.

The deck will be connected to the driveway by a boardwalk, which will then will continue on the other side of the road and lead to a shaded wildlife overlook platform surrounded by aspen and a large Austrian pine.  There is also an irrigation ditch here to overlook.

The Wildlife Overlook Platform will be designed
to match this grill pad, unifying the garden.

The boardwalk will then continue around the opposite side of the pine, where it will follow the road around to another parking area and our backyard, where our vegetable garden is. Featured here will be three large hugelkultur mounds.  

I hope the above plan gives some idea of what the finished garden will look like.  I believe it will be stunningly beautiful, and more importantly, for its size, will only use moderate amounts of water--far less water than the alfalfa field did.