Whose law should we obey?

Honorable Councilors, Mayor and Manager:

Three City Councilors were on the KAJO talk show on July 7^{th .}  When they were confronted with a state law which would nullify a proposed ordinance, one asked whose law we should obey, state or federal?

          The state is the basic level of government, from which both federal government and local governments are derived.  When the colonies declared independence, they declared themselves “free and independent states.”  The Articles of Confederation bound them too loosely for some years, and then the Constitution was written to give the federal government specific, listed powers, with other powers reserved to the states and the people.  Its powers allow it to deal with foreign governments by treaty or war; regulate the military; coin money; regulate interstate commerce; judge disputes between the states; to levy particular taxes to do these and other listed powers; and by the 14^th amendment, to secure the rights of the people in the states.  Much of federal law is not authorized by the Constitution; it is tolerated by the states.

          The states control elections; we register to vote as citizens of our state of residence.  States license driving, marriage and many professions, including doctors.   The vast majority of the laws that we are subject to are state laws. 

          States formed the federal government; they also charter cities and counties.  That which is licensed or chartered by a government can be revoked thereby.  The feds cannot revoke your charter; the state can, in theory.

          The federal government has backed off enforcing its laws where they are contradicted by state law.  The Supreme Court stopped John Ashcroft from going after legal medical marijuana growers and sellers; the feds have since stopped prosecuting people following state marijuana law. 

          Where there is a conflict between state and federal law, therefore, you should obey the one with constitutional authority; they have separate realms of authority. 

          Where there is a conflict between city and state law, you should obey the state, the source of your authority to be a city, unless the state law conflicts with the state or federal constitution.  Then you should defend the rights of all your residents.      

July 2015 protest issue.

Follow @AnRycke on Twitter; GP Gardener on Facebook; check out GPgardener.com for blogs

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com

Marijuana isn’t a weed in Oregon

        

         Remember the anti-GMO ordinances that both Jackson and Josephine Counties passed?   Early in the process, our state legislature passed a bill, SB 863 (2013), which forbade local governments to enact or enforce any local measure or ordinance that would inhibit or prevent the production of agricultural items.  Jackson County voters were petitioning their ordinance for the ballot at the time, so it was exempted from the statute.  Josephine County, starting petitions after the law was passed, was not.

          Jackson County’s GMO ordinance was tested in court recently under the Freedom to Farm Act, and a judge upheld it, finding that there is no right to grow a crop that degrades your neighbor’s crop.  Hemp growers and their neighbors should take note.

          Josephine County’s anti-GMO measure has not been enforced nor challenged; it is of no effect, violating SB 863.

          NowGrants Pass City Council intends to ban outdoor growing of marijuana within thecity.  They voted for it once on July 1, with the second reading to be voted on July 15^th.  Representative Carl Wilson had sent them a letter by email, warning them that they would risk a lawsuit under SB 863 if they passed it.  They ignored that part of the letter, and focused on his warnings about the problems that widespread indoor growing would cause our electrical grid and waste water treatment plant, some finding reasons there to ban pot growing entirely in the city.

          Marijuana is not a weed in Oregon anymore.  It is an agricultural item, legally grown to be used, and has been since medical marijuana was passed.  It has been a legal item in commerce since the legislature authorized dispensaries. 

          Grants Pass has the authority to inhibit or prevent the growth of weeds under its nuisance codes.  It hasn’t had the authority to stop or slow the production of agricultural items since SB 863 was passed. 

But we in Josephine County can thank Jackson County for inspiring SB 863 in 2013.  A lawsuit and injunction will be needed to enforce it if the Council passes their outdoor pot growing ban on July 15^th. 

 Special July 2015 protest issue.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040  rycke@gardener.com

SB 863 (2013) is ORS 633.738

Courtesy of Paul Loney, Attorney at Law:

633.738 Prohibition of local laws to inhibit or prevent production or use of seeds or products of seeds.

(1) As used in this section:

(a) “Local government” has the meaning given that term in ORS 174.116.

(b) “Nursery seed” means any propagant of nursery stock as defined
in ORS 571.005.

(2) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, a local government may not enact or enforce a local law or measure, including but not limited to an ordinance, regulation, control area or quarantine, to inhibit or prevent the production or use of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed or vegetable seed or products of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed or vegetable seed. The prohibition imposed by this subsection includes, but is not limited to, any local laws or measures for regulating the display, distribution, growing, harvesting, labeling, marketing, mixing, notification of use, planting, possession, processing, registration, storage, transportation or use of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed or vegetable seed or products of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed or vegetable seed.

(3) Subsection (2) of this section does not prohibit a local government from enacting or enforcing a local law or measure to inhibit or prevent the production or use of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed or vegetable seed or products of agricultural seed, flower seed, nursery seed or vegetable seed on property owned by the local government. [2013 s.s.1 c.4 §3]

Note: Section 4, chapter 4, Oregon Laws 2013 (first special session), provides:

Sec. 4. Section 3 (sic) of this 2013 special session Act [633.738] does not apply to any local measure that was:
(1) Proposed by initiative petition and, on or before January 31, 2013, qualified for placement on the ballot in a county; and (2) Approved by the electors of the county at an election held on May 20, 2014. [2013 s.s.1 c.4 §4]

                   

Follow @AnRycke on Twitter; GP Gardener on Facebook; check out GPgardener.com for blogs

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com

I suspect that Section 4 has a typo in referring to section 3 when it actually is supposed to apply to Section 2.  I found the same typo online at OregonLaws.org.

GP: Let us grow legally and safely

Speech to the Grants Pass City Council, 7-1-15

Honorable Mayor, Council, and Manager:

          Today, I planted my first legal crop of marijuana.  It means a lot to me to be able to grow it legally.  Tomorrow it could be illegal.  Please don’t make me and many others continue to grow it illegally by demanding that we grow it in our houses.  We don’t have the money for lights or room in our houses.  We have been growing it outdoors or in greenhouses for years now with no problem but thieves.

          Police in Portland are telling people to grow discretely, and not let anyone know, because of thieves.  But in my case, secrecy is futile; I am a well-known pot activist and gardener.  People will assume that I am growing it.

          Pot thievery became more obvious after medical marijuana was passed, but it was happening all along.  Thieves were fairly safe from arrest, though not from retaliation, because pot was illegal.  Pot growers and smokers rarely reported thieves, being punished for growing or possessing it if they did.  That changed with thefts of medical pot, as growers and patients claimed protection of the law when they were targeted by thieves.

          Growing pot under Measure 91, people who are stolen from are quite likely to call the cops.  It won’t be so safe to steal.  But if you pass this ordinance, many of us will be growing illegally and will be subject to fines and confiscation if we report thefts.

We will still be in danger from police, and will be in more danger from thieves.  Those who obey your ordinance will be subject to home invasion robberies, not just backyard sneaks.  People could get killed.

Josephine County voters voted down Measure 91 by only 2 votes: 17,313 to 17,311.  If I had voted for it, it would have been a tie.  It appears that half of the county, and probably half the city, favor home pot growing.

You want to pass a city public safety sales tax in November.  But if you pass this ordinance, you will push away a large minority of voters, the silent majority of those that voted down the county levy.  People who can’t safely call the cops generally don’t vote to fund the cops.  Many more don’t vote at all, they are so alienated.  Please kill this ordinance and allow us to grow cannabis legally, safely, and cheaply, to defeat the black market, the real enemy of law and order.  We might then trust you enough to vote for your tax.

         

July 2015 issue, online at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Follow @AnRycke on Twitter; GP Gardener on Facebook; check out GPgardener.com for blogs

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com

Buy better tomato and pepper starts

Tomato warmed with rocks and pepper in 4 x 8 sand and rocks a week after planting, May 2014: they doubled in size quickly

Tomatoes and peppers are most easily grown from starts, though volunteer tomatoes can sometimes beat even the best planted starts for fast growth.  But if you want big plants that produce a lot of fruit, you need to plant small plants, and never buy a plant that is blooming in its pot.

          A plant that is blooming in its pot has gotten the signal from roots hitting the edge of the pot, wrapping around and touching other roots, that it is not going to get any bigger and it’s time to flower and make seed.  Fast growth stops and flowering and fruit growth begin.  A plant with fruit in a pot will grow hardly at all.

          The larger the pot you buy, the more the roots have been deformed by a succession of pots.  Seeds are not planted straight into large pots; they are planted in small pots and transplanted into larger pots, often starting with less than a cubic inch.  The smaller the plant you put in the ground, the less its roots have been distorted.  Six packs grow better than 4” pots and 4” grow better than 6” pots.  But larger “pony packs” are better than smaller 6-paks.  The potting soil in any pot should be light and loose, without excessive perlite or pumice.

          It is rare to find a 6” pot of tomatoes that is not already blooming, and sometimes it’s hard to find 4” pots not blooming.  This goes double for peppers; it is best to buy them in 6-paks, and look carefully for buds.  Six-packs of tomatoes usually are not blooming, but beware of plants too big for their pots.

          There is no point in rushing the season.  Your plants won’t grow until the soil is warm.   Don’t plant deeper than needed to cover the roots.  If you are choosing plants that are not root-bound, you don’t need to grow roots from the stem for good growth.  The deeper you plant, the colder the soil is beneath the roots.  Laying them down to bury the lower stem just puts the top growth closer to the pill bugs that eat plants in cold soil.  You can pre-warm the soil by covering it with 4 x 8 sand and placing larger rocks around the plants.

Watermelon and peppers grown in 4x8, corn and sunflower in leaves, 2014

          It’s best to wait until May to buy tomato and pepper starts in Grants Pass.  This year, it may be safe to be an April fool, and plant tomatoes in April, as spring weather has been consistently a month ahead of schedule and tomatoes are volunteering.  But we have had a week of cold showers and frost, and we won’t be safe from frost until May.  And yet, we already have 6” pot tomatoes appearing in the markets, which make good money from April fools having to replant because the soil was too cold and the bugs ate their cold-stressed plants.

         

April 2015 issue, online at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Follow @AnRycke on Twitter; GP Gardener on Facebook; check out GPgardener.com for blogs

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com

Grow Big Blueberries in Southern Oregon

We are coming into the season for buying young blueberry plants in the market or by mail, though the prime planting season in our area is late fall.  Still, you can plant them into the ground in the spring and expect them to grow well if you provide the right conditions.   

You can also plant a #1potted plant or mail-order bare root into a larger pot and let them grow twice as large over the summer before planting in the fall.  BiMart has #1 potted blueberries in the spring, some of which are Southern Rabbiteye, which are semi-evergreen, turn colors in the winter, and take our hot summers better than Northern varieties, but they don’t tell you which are which.  OneGreenWorld.com is a nursery near Molalla that sells both Southern and Northern varieties, where you can find out which ones are Southern varieties online.  Buying local is always better if they are available, as you’ll get larger plants at a lower price.

          They don’t like to be planted into plain soil, unless it is exceedingly light and rich, like potting soil.  Rather than planting them in the ground, it is better to set the plant on top of the ground and surround it with enough compost to surround and cover the roots.  Young blueberries grow a sponge of roots only 4-6 inches deep in their pots, putting down a deep taproot only after 4-5 years.  Four to six inches is a great depth for spreading compost to make rich, light soil after it is worked in by worms.  Unlike other shrubs and perennials, blueberries roots will sink into the soil as the compost is worked in by worms; other potted plants will sit on top of the soil as the compost is worked in, and be left high and dry.

          Cover that compost with coarse mulch like ¾” nugget bark, walk-on fir, or pine needles, to keep it from drying out and keep the roots cool and moist.  2 inches of leaves in the fall are probably the best mulch to maintain organic matter in the soil, but I like to scatter our copious coffee and tea grounds into the bark after the leaves are eaten.  It is vital to not let the soil be exposed to sun.  Bark protects it when the leaves have been pulled into the soil.

Southern Oregon has hot, dry summers, not the best conditions for growing blueberries, which like their heads in the sun and their roots cool and moist, but don’t like a lot of heat or dryness.  Indeed, most garden plants prefer a little less heat and a lot more humidity than we have here. 

          The key to getting fast growth and big berries is keeping a mister running nearby through the heat of the summer, particularly from blooming to after harvest.  24/7 is best, as it simulates coastal fog.  It does not cause fungal infections, and helps plants grow over a wide area of the garden.

Last year, an incident showed how vital this is.  A customer turned off one mister for a week near an isolated plant that had been producing big, tasty berries.  The remaining berries all stopped growing and immediately ripened, producing little berries that were not juicy and flavorful.      

                               

February 2015 issue, online at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Gardening is easy if you do it naturally.  Litter is tagging, marking the territory of the disorderly.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com

Don’t till; mulch and plant in it

 Late spring, tomato planted in leaves with rocks for warmth; pepper foreground, planted in leaves, compost and 4 x 8 top mulch with rocks for more warmth and predator shelter; 4 x 8 path between 

This is the season when people start thinking about tilling their vegetable garden areas, but it is too wet to work the soil.  It’s a good time to start building mulch beds that you can immediately plant seeds and starts in.  You can do this anywhere you grow other plants as well; vegetables don’t need to grow in their own mini-farm in your yard; they just need good sun.  They can be worked into your landscape.

          Another good reason to mulch rather than tilling in compost is that tilling brings weed seeds to the surface where they can grow; kills many earthworms and soil predators; and mixes air into the soil that decomposes organic matter faster, causing nutrient loss from leaching and evaporation.  Letting worms work in nutritious mulch captures its nutrients in worm castings that release nutrients slowly and have lighter, better texture than uneaten soil, while coarse top mulch provides a home for predators like ground beetles, centipedes, and soldier beetles while protecting soil.

Fall: a compost pile of layered leaves and garden plants, about 2 feet high, built for growing watermelons, a small yellow Red Hot Poker on one side, a large growing area behind, about 8" deep in leaves.

 February: the pile has settled about 6 inches.

February: compost is added to speed decomposition.  The compost will be covered with 4 x 8 sand before planting the watermelons, with large rocks in the center to plant the seeds around.  Naked leaves will keep weed seeds from landing and sprouting around the watermelons.

        You can build beds with leaves, mainly available in the fall, a foot of which will grow huge vegetables.  For winter vegetables and small seeds, you can put an inch of compost on top, covered with an inch of coarse mulch like pine needles or shredded or nugget.  Scatter small seeds on the surface and plant starts and large seeds into the leaves.  Compost keeps the leaves wet and provides nutrients to help them rot faster; coarse mulch keeps it from drying out.  You can plant summer starts and large seeds into leaves alone for best weed control, as dry surface leaves make a poor seed bed for weeds.  This is just one reason why leaves make the best mulch for maintenance.

A potato popping up in February

          Leaves being not so available in spring, you can build beds with straight compost.  Six inches is equivalent to a foot of leaves and is ready to grow plants right away.  Two inches is good for ornamental shrubs and flowers.  This compost also needs to be protected from sun by coarse mulch, which is also needed for shelter by predators that keep pests under control.

          Paths also have to be mulched, to keep weeds from growing.  Like the beds, weeds have to be pulled when they grow anyways.  2 inches of coarse mulch like wood chips, chipped trimmings, or coarse bark can keep weeds down for a year and has to be renewed yearly.  An inch of 4 x 8 sand, river sand sifted to 1/4-1/8 inch, can be weeded with a hula hoe (AKA stirrup  hoe or scuffle hoe) when the weeds are small, and the weeds raked up, saving bending for each weed.  It is cleaner than organic mulch paths, easily blowing clean, while raking sifts dirt to below the sand.  It's also good for mulching over compost, heating the soil for fast growth.

          Beds made of leaves or mulch will spread into the paths from feet and birds and squirrels seeking food unless they are edged with something solid.  Cobble rock about 6 inches high, can be laid in curving lines for beauty and smooth lines of travel, end to end.  Brick can be used, but is more exacting to lay.  Wood lends itself only to straight lines and eventually falls apart.

February 2015 issue, online at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Follow @AnRycke on Twitter; GP Gardener on Facebook; check out GPgardener.com for blogs

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com

Bitter Cress and Groundsel are already seeding

Groundsel and bitter cress, blooming together

Bitter cress and groundsel are blooming and groundsel is seeding all over our valley about 2 months early, in January, indeed, before Christmas.  They usually start seeding in March.  You won’t get a better chance to eliminate them from your yard than the next few weeks—though a few plants can sprout and bloom all summer, right up to late fall. 

Young bitter cress, close up, abut 2 inches wide

While bitter cress is blooming, it is relatively easy to see by its tiny white four-petal flowers, though the smallest plants are not obvious; some are as tiny as a half-inch wide and 1.5 inches tall, fully seeded out.  The largest are 6” wide across the basal leaves with numerous stalks up to 18 inches tall seeded out.  They are easiest to pull when they have started to develop seed pods.

Just before they bloom, the larger plants are good to eat as a hot, bitter mustard green.  They are small, but softer and juicier than most mustards, good in a salad.  But don’t let them seed out; they are a nuisance.

Seeded bitter cress, popped out and ugly.

They become a nearly invisible green mist when all the flowers are finished, but as they turn yellow and dry, they become an eyesore, and pop their seeds up to three feet in all directions at the slightest disturbance of the pods.  By this time, seed control is impossible; all one can do is pull the dry stalks and resolve to do better next year. 

Groundsel, blooming and seeding in a ditch

Groundsel is also blooming right now, quickly blowing out and spreading to your neighbors’ yards or from them.  It is a miniature wild lettuce and not pretty, up to a foot tall, with squared-off leaves; the flowers are yellow, do not open fully, bending over while they are in bloom, straightening as they make seed.  It is the first blowing weed of the season, blooming in yards and empty lots all over town.  It’s often easy to pull, but like other wild lettuce, sticks hard in hard ground.  Cutting it under its crown, in the soil beneath where the leaves grow, will kill it.

Dandelions are also blooming and seeding about 2 months early.  A famous gardener once said that if dandelions were rare and hard to grow, they would be a prized flower.  Their dead-heads don’t even look bad, and they can be tasty greens before they bloom—but once buds even start to form in the base, they turn quite bitter. 

Dandelions are equally hard to pull before and after blooming:  not easy at all unless your soil is loose from generous mulching with compost or leaves.  With big perennial tap roots like these, it’s best to stick a shovel in next to the root, loosen, and pull. 

Gardening is growing plants where you want them to grow, not where they happen to land.  Many a pretty flower or edible plant shows itself to be a weed unless kept under tight control, and that goes double for flowers that cast their seeds to the wind.

Revised Jan-Feb 2015 issue, online at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com and at the Mail Center, 305 NE 6^th

Gardening is easy if you do it naturally.  Litter is tagging, marking the territory of the disorderly.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com