Sheet Mulching with Campaign Signs!

Feel guilty about throwing away your political yard signs on November 5th? Consider hiring them to work in your garden.

1) Find an area of lawn or weeds you'd like to turn into a vegetable plot.

2) Spread an inch or two of compost right over the sod or ground-cover.

3) Layer your colorful paperboard signs on top of the compost (as they slowly decompose, these signs will keep underlying vegetation from reaching the sun).

4) Cover the signs with several inches of grass clippings, wood chips, fallen leaves, and compost.

5) Water the area every couple weeks.

6) In the spring, you've got a cleared plot of fertile soil to plant in!

Freelance Farmers Endorse John McCain...

Just.

Kidding.

Gardening may be the final antidote to political brouhaha. Just in our ten-by-ten plot in South Berkeley, I've entertained scenarios of one-man secessions from the union ("I've got MORE than enough right here..."). I find myself making up for the sickness of our financial institutions by making this plot's soil even healthier, even more alive and fertile. As the invisible hand of capitalism deals with a muscle cramp, the invisible hand of birth and decay seems stronger than ever in our topsoil. Gardening feels like an eternal first step down John Prine's path of blowing up the TV, throwing away the paper, moving to the country, and eating a lot of peaches. There is little patience for political conversation in the haven of our garden, and even less for political advice.

So why are we endorsing Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States?

Because Obama's unlikely story inspired us to try an unlikely business idea. Because his patient cultivation of momentum and support, his prudence in the face of tough political weather, his ability to turn an ugly crop (Jeremiah Wright scandal) into a nutritious product ("A More Perfect Union" speech), and the daily, tireless labor of his campaign... all of these echo the best traits of the small farmers we've worked for. Obama's got that agrarian sensibility. Sorry, that organic agrarian sensibility.

The secret to our edible landscaping business is in the soil. Turn a yard into a nation of responsible microbial citizens, all doing good work, and healthy vegetables are going to be a by-product. The microbes do so much, and successful small farmers understand the potential of billions of them working in concert. You see thriving crops, they see well-managed soil.

From his days as a community organizer in Chicago to the sophisticated grassroots organizing and fundraising of his presidential campaign, Obama has demonstrated a similar understanding of America's political landscape. We respect Senator Obama's attention to our national soil, and not just our national flowers and fruits. These fruits (be they GDP, military strength, Nobel Prize recipients...) will be more nourishing, more honest and sweet, under an administration that knows its proverbial soil ecology.

Organic farmers must never emulate politicians. But we'll be voting for a politician who emulates organic farmers.