The Story of One Urban Garden: An Interview with Kathleen Bellefeuille-Riceby Emily Lardner As I walked through the gate and up the sidewalk, the sun was out and birds were singing. As I neared the house, I was greeted with the soft clucking of a red hen which had just rounded the corner of the house. A handsome black cat followed me up the walk. For a minute, I just stood listening and looking at the wonderful shapes of the espalier trees and the beds that formed an elegant pattern - trying to take in all the life in this place. Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice greeted me, and we walked around the beds in back of the house. She pointed out the over-wintered vegetables, the beautiful rutabaga, the dark green sorrel, the parsley root, and the perennial walking onions, the corn salad acting as cover crop. She and her husband Dave have lived in this house for 18 years, and in that time, they have transformed their 60 x100 lot into a fertile garden. "You can do a lot here," Bellefeuille-Rice said. "We eat a tremendous amount of produce - it's the bulk of our diet." They eat root crops in winter, and lots of eggs. They supplement what they grow by buying local meat and fish, nuts from Burnt Ridge Nursery, and potatoes and carrots from local farmers in the late fall. The key to becoming a practical gardener wherever you are, Bellefeuille-Rice says, is to shift your perspective. Instead of making a list of what you like to eat and then trying to grow those things, you gradually learn to ask the soil what it wants to grow, and then learn to eat those things. Why do it? The Bellefeuille-Rice couple are tax resisters. They intentionally keep their income below a taxable level because they don't agree with the U.S. military policies, and they don't want to support them. She said growing as much of their own food as they can is also an ethical issue. She talked about the politics of not relying on California, Arizona and Texas for produce because the forms of agriculture practiced there have terrible impacts. Extensive irrigation is slowly destroying soils, making them salty. The labor practices, for the most part, exploit people as well. What it comes down to, Bellefeuille-Rice said, is that for every decision she makes she asks herself: "Is this just to the earth? Is this just to people?" While we were talking, she was making seedling pots by rolling sections of newspapers around a small jar and then strategically folding the bottom of one end. Bellefeuille-Rice made some tea for me with last year's rose petals, and was drinking hot water with honey from Pixie Farm. Her main work is gardening. She also cans, dries, pickles, and makes sauerkraut. She used a dehydrator to dry strips of cabbage and green beans to add to soups all winter. She also dries fruit, cans fruit, and makes medicinals like salves and ointments, cough drops and syrup. In spring, Kathleen harvests and dries nettles to use in soup. Improvising She and Dave have a small greenhouse made with improvised materials. Standing about five feet high, three feet deep, and four feet wide, it's situated on the south side of the house near the steps leading inside. It's made with scavenged materials, including old windows. The two cold frames are framed in rescued boards, and the tops are glass sliding doors. When they moved to this lot, Bellefeuille-Rice told the solid waste crew from the city that she was looking for fencing and materials for a chicken coop. They brought salvaged material to her - her only expense for the chicken coop was a $4 padlock. She is saving seeds now, and experimenting with perennial brassicas. She showed me a three-year old kale plant and pointed to the thick, woody stalk of a four-year old collard plant. She's been harvesting leaves from these older plants and is waiting to see what they'll do this year. Building soil When Bellefeuille-Rice and Dave moved into their house on the eastside, the soil was awful. You couldn't stick a shovel in it - it was too hard. They had 26 dump truck loads of subsoil brought to their lot. They added about a foot of grass clippings and manure, but it took three years before worms appeared, and six years before the soil was workable with a shovel. Now, the front yard is home to a series of double-dug beds outlined by narrow paths. Medicinal plants grow along the edges of the house and along one side, a patch of boysenberries and raspberries. Huckleberries grow in the shade of a filbert tree. In the back are more beds, a worm bin, compost piles, a chicken coop, medicinal and culinary berries and a still dormant lemon rose. A shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe is covered with mature kiwi vines. To keep deer away, a living fence was cultivated with jasmine, grape vines, and espalier fruit trees. A soil analysis report from Black Lake Organic confirms the Bellefeuille-Rice's success in building their soil. She showed me the report she just received from Black Lake Organic, as proud of it as anyone could ever be of a traditional school report card. The note said, "these are some of the best numbers I have seen on a soil test." Because so much of their sustenance comes from their yard, Bellefeuille-Rice has the micronutrients in their soil analyzed each year. As she told me, "if you don't have micronutrients in your soil, you won't have them in your food." She also keeps a close eye on her plants, and notices when anything looks like it isn't thriving. She reports that Gary Kline at Black Lake Organic is a "walking encyclopedia about soil." Black Lake soil tests include recommendations for amending your soil: for more information on getting your soil tested, call Black Lake Organic at 360-786-0537, or email mailto:info@blacklakeorganic.com Alleys as opportunities The alley behind the Bellefeuille-Rice house is rarely used, and they are gradually cultivating gardens along that area. Over time, they converted one rock-solid 5 by 10 stretch into a productive potato patch. The whole alley is green, as cars don't use it. Bellefeuille-Rice points out the opportunity presented by places such as the alley: through an amendment to current zoning or the comprehensive plan, such urban spaces could be transformed into footpaths, lined with garden beds on either side. In an emergency, a vehicle could get through - but from the look of this alley, that doesn't happen very often. Advice to those starting out Bellefeuille-Rice advises new gardeners to start small with a10 x10, or 20 x 20 space. It's easy to become overwhelmed by a garden space that looked small in early spring. Better, she said, to "let it [your garden] grow as your passion grows." She recommends two books for inspiration: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver, and Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating, by Jane Goodall. Bellefeuille-Rice also recommends getting involved with Sustainable South Sound, whose predecessor was the Sustainable Community Roundtable. One of Sustainable South Sound's project areas is urban agriculture, organized by TJ Johnson. (See related article by Johnson in this edition) Another good book is Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square Inch Gardner's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting, by R. J. Ruppenthal. Ruppenthal makes a convincing case not only that we all can grow fresh food, but we all should—even if we only have a balcony or a windowsill. His practical focus on doing the best with where you are is likely to inspire you to start eyeing your available space. I started some sprouts, and then, more boldly, began imagining building a compost pile in the driveway. With the help of worms, Ruppenthal says, even that space can become a place for growing fresh food. Emily Lardner is a regular contributor to the Green Pages.
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