Margin of effort

it's within our grasp

Remember when we started our garden, back in April? We’d never had a garden before, and our neighbor Daniel thought it would be a good idea to start one. He built raised beds and a fence from scrap wood, and we painted it with leftover house paint. We ordered soil and compost and peat and mixed it together in the beds. In his living room, Daniel grew tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and squash from seed, and we got some seedlings from In Good Heart Farm. We planted them, along with pollinator-attracting sunflowers, zinnias, and cosmos.

The garden looked like this on April 30:

We kept watering and amending the soil, and by trial and error came up with a method and a schedule. We added fertilizer and planted beneficial plant companions, like nasturtium and marigolds.

On May 16 it looked like this:

Here’s where we were May 30:

And June 5:

We were harvesting cucumbers and squash and lettuce and herbs then, and we had a garden party in June with cucumber pickles, a cold cucumber soup, and fried green tomatoes. But it wasn’t until early July that we started seeing gorgeous red tomatoes:

Which we continued to enjoy, along with squash and okra, all summer. Here is the garden July 24:

All along we had to water—every other day, unless it rained—and pick off tomato horn worms, and weed, and prune back the tomato suckers. Daniel worried—a lot!—every time a tomato split or when the squash leaves yellowed. We had to stake up the heavy pepper plants and shore up the tomato trellises and climb a ladder to pick the okra.

Because of this effort and learning we’re still harvesting vegetables—cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, peppers, potatoes—and picking flowers whenever we want them. We’ve started some fall greens from seed: kale, mustard, lettuce. I think I finally have parsley growing. We have six different kinds of seedling blocks (escarole, frisee, different lettuces, and radicchio) on order from In Good Heart Farm, and I can’t wait to get them in the soil them next weekend.

I’m also planning to canvass voters at least once next weekend, because I know that turnout is key to turning NC’s blue and breaking the supermajority. Richard has trained to be a poll watcher. I’m going to an anti-book banning event at So and So Books on Tuesday, where I’ll give out voting materials from Voting Arts Lab. Also, the Western Chatham NAACP is hosting a candidate forum this Thursday, September 26.

There’s lots to do, lots to learn, but a beautiful tomato pie of victory is totally within our grasp. It’s all within the margin of effort—a phrase I learned from Ben Wikler, Wisconsin’s Democratic Party Chair, who reminds us that in 2020, his state “put in the work… and we wound up winning by 0.6%.”

Here are some opportunities to phone bank or canvass with County to County. And here are some great opportunities in Wake and Granville counties with Neighbors on Call. Both phone banking and canvassing are way easier than they sound, because even if you’re brand new, there will be someone knowledgeable and enthusiastic there to help. You can also remind your neighbors or friends on social media that they should confirm their voter registration status. Make sure your neighbors know their polling place and have a plan to get to the polls.

Here’s the garden this week:

And here’s a photo from Asheville, where we’ve been enjoying friends and books and mountains this weekend:

We’ll tell you more about what we’re reading (lots of new stuff) with a post later this week.

P.S. While Richard and Bea enjoyed a retro arcade, Harriet and I visited the House of Black Cat Magic, which had a voter registration book outside and a special kitten adoption day inside. The House of Black Cat Magic focuses on rescuing and adopting black cats (the hardest to find homes for), and Harriet and I loved playing with these sweeties:

How great is it that they not only find homes for cats, but also register voters?

What’s the magic in your weekend, Frog Troublers? Are you feeling motivated to turn out the vote?

Lots of love from us.