Feb. 26, 2020
Liz Writes Life
Ray Haupt, Siskiyou Co. Supervisor for Dist. 5, and Erin
Ryan, representative for CA. Dist. 1 Congressman Doug LaMalfa, will be the
speakers for the Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting this Thursday, Feb. 26,
2019 at the Fort Jones Community Center. Time is 7 p.m.
Ray continues to attend meetings on the forestry dilemma and
will share progress being made at agency levels. Erin will report on the
congressman’s activities, including events from Washington D.C. She should have
some fun stories!
Last week, LaMalfa praised President Trump and Interior
Secretary David Bernhardt after they visited California and signed a Record of
Decision formalizing biological opinions that will reduce the wasted water flushed
to San Francisco Bay. This support for the protection of Northern California
Water Rights will also provide more water for wildlife refuges and California
famers’ irrigation systems.
LaMalfa said: “For too long California water has been utterly
wasted by sending vast quantities of it out to the ocean for no environmental
benefit or for human use.” He explained that the previous policy has been a
failure and harmed families, farms, workers and California’s economy.
Garden
Earlier this month, I was talking with a friend from Medford
about gardening and she told me that she did straw bale gardening, last summer.
I had never heard of it and asked her to explain it and then I went and looked
it up on the internet. A man, Joel Karsten, wrote a book on straw bale
gardening and it has blossomed. Simply
put, this is a different type of container gardening with the bale being the
container. You can also think of it as easy-raised-bed gardening. Folks with
poor soil or little room praise this system.
Like most gardening, you need to plan how, why and where you
will put your bales. I think my friend and her husband put them end to end. Some
people put them in a square. Set the bale on its side with the cut-ends
sticking up and the strings around the outside. Because straw has very little
nitrogen, the next step is to “condition” the bale at least two weeks before
you will plant. This means watering it thoroughly and adding quite a bit of
granulated fertilizer every day or so to start to breakdown the interior part
of the bale into a compost mulch. Apparently, this creates an “extraordinary”
root environment.
It takes quite a bit of nitrogen-type of fertilizer – about three
cups every other day with the watering for a week – and then a reduced amount
for several days. Look it up on the internet for an exact amount. Within a few
days of watering, the inside of the bale should start to warm from the de-composting
process. Put your hand into the bale to check. Roots also like warmth.
After two weeks, seeds or small plants can be planted in
holes that you make with your trowel. One discussion that I read said to put an
inch-layer of mulch on top of the bale before planting and water it well. Then,
add another inch or two of a planting soil and water it well again.
Using straw bales is much preferred to hay bales, since hay can
have so many other seeds in it. Funny-looking mushrooms may grow, but this just
shows that the de-composting is occurring. Pull them out and only eat them if
you know your mushrooms!
One thing the internet discussions mentioned is that the
straw bales will continue to need daily irrigating and suggested using a drip
system or soaker hose. It was also said to be sure to put up wire or some kind
of trellises before the plants get very tall so they don’t fall over. Once
again, pre-planning is the key.
I was intrigued by this method. What innovative minds won’t
come up with next!
But, a word of caution: With the warm temps we have had, it
is easy to get excited about starting the garden. We have had frosts and temps
down into the 20s this past week. Just remember that no matter how high the
daytime temps reach, this spring, we will continue to get frosts through May. And,
hopefully, we will have a good bout of rain and or snow in March or April. We
need the moisture!
Election
I haven’t said much about the Primary General Election that
will be held next Tuesday, March 3, 2020. Yep, this is three months earlier
than our used-to-be June Primary. Many of you have likely voted, but for you
leave-to-it-to-the-last-minute voters (like me) I wanted to mention that Prop
13 will likely raise our property taxes. I voted against it.
I know that our school facilities need help and I am not
against our school districts receiving more funds. Unfortunately, like many
propositions, this one will chip away at the previous property tax law, Prop 13,
that protects our property taxes from increases.
This 2020 Prop. 13 is a $15 billion school facilities bond
that has language buried deep within the measure allowing school districts to
borrow more money from the state – almost double what they can currently borrow.
One point I learned, from my research on Prop 13, is that the state already has
a $7.8 billion in unsold, unused school facilities bond monies that have
already been allocated for the construction, upgrades and retrofitting of
California schools.
That is $7.8 billion! Just seems like that money should be
utilized before chipping away at our property tax protections.
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and
farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County
and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at:
lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.
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