So, if you don’t mind, the Camp Marfa blog will now double as my online gardening journal…

Last year I planted my first ever garden. Taking advice from a friend, I attempted the square foot gardening method, most often shorted to just SFG. SFG is an incredibly effective use of resources, most importantly water and space. I started with a simple 4 foot by 8 foot bed. It’s 14 inches tall and about 12 inches deep. I ran twine north-south and east-west at one foot intervals creating a grid of perfect square feet beds.

SFG 2009: I had the dirt hauled in from a local pig farm and the compost came from a booth at Farmstand Marfa

Last year, I was really excited about tomatoes. Overly excited, honestly. I planted four different types, none of which were that exciting. I had one cherry plant that produced well. The rest resisted and I picked but a few fully ripened fruits by the end of the summer. Marfa was perhaps the only place in Texas to have what could be called a “wet” summer in 2009. While the rest of the state was in a state of severe drought, we were being drenched near daily. Couple that  phenomenon with the high altitudes and I ended up with no more than a half dozen tomatoes that made it past the size of a golf ball before ripening. (I had more tomatoes than that with a single plant, stuck in a bizarre corner at my former Marfa residence.)

Then, with the rain, came the bugs. My tomatoes were decimated in days. The other things I’d planted – mustard greens, lettuce, zucchini, summer squash, etc. – made it a little longer but eventually lost the battle. The only thing that truly hung in there were the jalapenos and anaheim peppers. We ate those into the fall. Otherwise, my garden looked like a wasteland.

So lessons learned. This year I’m doubling the size of the garden and planting marigold around the border. Whereas I had focused on “rows” last year (not hard to do if you have traditional gardening stuck in your head), I’m now looking at blocks of plants, with the larger ones in the center, tapering down to the marigolds. I am also covering the garden, which serves two purposes: (1) bug control and (2) earlier seeding/earlier harvest.

Garden Plan 2010

HANGING PLANTERS
Tomatoes
Planter 1 – Black Truffle Hybrid Tomato
•    75 days
•    Full Sun
Planter 2 – Brandywine Tomato
•    85 days
•    Full Sun
Planter 3 – Italian Ice Tomato
•    65 days
•    Full Sun
Planter 4 – Black Krim Tomato
•    80 days
•    Full Sun

PORTABLE PLANTERS
Sweet Herbs
Mint
Thai Siam Queen Basil
Provence Blue Lavender

FRONT PLANTER HERB GARDEN
Herbs – Annuals already planted
Mexican Oregano
Rosemary
Sage

GARDEN #1
Cucumbers
1.    National Pickling Cucumber (bread & butter) x 2
2.    Little Dillicious Cucumbers x 4
3.    Pickalot Hybrid x 2
Peppers
4.    Jalapenos x 2
5.    Pequin Pepper (bird pepper) x 2
6.    Habanero x 2
7.    Hungarian Paprika Hot Peppers x 2
Onions
8.    Pearl/Pickling Onions x 2
9.    Vidalia Onions x 2
10.    Green Onions x 2
11.    Red Salad Onions x 2
More Cucumbers
12.    Sweeter Yet Hybrid Cucumber x 2 (bread & butter) x 2
13.    West Indian Cucumber (gerkin) x 2
14.    Black-spined Pickling Cucumber (Burpee) x 2
15.    Armenian Cucumber x 1
16.    Lemon Cucumber x 1

GARDEN #2
Squashes
1.    Zucchini x 5
a.    Gadzukes (Star Zucchini) x 1
b.    Black Beauty x 1
c.    Sweet Gourmet (Lebanese Zucchini) x 1
d.    Fordhook x 2
2.    Yellow Squash x 3
a.    Butterstick x 1
b.    Saffron Summer Squash x 1
c.    Golden Crookneck x 1
Other Veggies
3.    Toy Choi (Baby Chinese Cabbage) x 2
4.    Early Harvest Cabbage x 2
5.    Swiss Chard x 2
6.    Brussels Sprouts x 2
Spice Herbs
1.    Mammoth Dill x 2
2.    Coriander x 1
3.    Maliner Kren Horseradish x 2
4.    Silver Rose Garlic x 3

Hey, world! I’m sure you’ve noticed [clearing of the throat] that I’ve been largely absent for the last month. It’s the time of the year when I finish up the annual Big Bend & Texas Mountains Travel Guide and the world goes bonkers. Please stay loyal and I promise to return soon.

In the meanwhile, here are some screen shots of the new guide and my most recent press release.

Shalom!

~Mercer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Last Chance to Participate in the 2010 Big Bend & Texas Mountains Travel Guide

The Big Bend & Texas Mountains Travel Guide has, for twenty-five years, been the primary free travel directory for the greater Big Bend region – Del Rio to El Paso, Midland/Odessa to the National Park. It covers 16 communities, 2 national parks and 14 state parks. (A full list of these communities and parks is below).

This is a high-quality, full-color magazine, chocked full of beautiful photography and informative content. The 2010 edition features, almost exclusively, the work of David Leggett, a talented photographer who has for years endeavored to capture the grandeur of West Texas skies and landscapes. (See more of his work at http://www.phlography.com)

Also new in 2010, the guide will be PERFECT BOUND as opposed to the traditional saddle stitch. Perfect binding dramatically increases the shelf life of a magazine, making it more of a souvenir book than a brochure.

The 2010 guide’s 100,000 copies will be distributed at over 100 locations, including all area chambers and CVBs (Convention & Visitors Bureaus), all 12 TxDOT Travel Information Centers, the El Paso airport, Texas Sate Capital building, State Fair of Texas, San Antonio CVB and over 60 regional convenience stores, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, hotels and retail establishments.

In addition to the editorial coverage on the aforementioned parks and communities, there are several text directories and suggested interest-specific itineraries. These include: lodging, dining, shopping & services, outdoor recreation & adventure, cycling, birding, RV & camping, and art, museums & galleries.

A text listing in a directory of itinerary (business name, address, phone number, web address/email, and short description) in any of these directories or itineraries is just $125. Display advertising ranges from $475 for a twelfth page ad to $3100 for a full page. You can see a full rate card and spec sheet at http://bigbendtexasmountains.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/spec-sheet.jpg

The 2009 edition of the guide was the largest in the guide’s history, with 84 pages and over 200 advertisers. The 2010 edition is on schedule to be equally impressive in size and advertiser participation. It is scheduled to hit the streets on March 5 (just in time for Spring Break travelers), making this the absolute last chance to purchase advertising.

Those interested should contact publisher Mercer Black of Marfa Publishing immediately via email to bigbendtravel@gmail.com or by phone to 512-739-4465. An insertion order can be downloaded at http://bigbendtexasmountains.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2010-insertion-order-email.pdf

What communities does the guide cover?
Alpine
Balmorhea/Toyahvale
Del Rio
Fort Davis
Fort Stockton
Lajitas
Langtry
Marathon
Marfa
Midland
Odessa
Presidio
Sanderson
Study Butte
Terlingua
Van Horn

What State Parks does the guide cover?
Balmorhea
Barton Warnock Environmental Education Center
Big Bend Ranch State Park
Davis Mountains S.P./Indian Lodge
Devils River
Devil’s Sinkhole
Fort Leaton
Franklin Mountains
Hueco Tanks
Kickapoo Caverns
Monahans Sandhills
Seminole Canyon
Wyler Aerial Tramway

What other parks does the guide cover?
Big Bend National Park
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Fort Davis National Historic Site
Lake Amistad National Recreation Area
Chamizal National Memorial

Wondering why some of us are so put off by Ms. Katz’s article. Where here’s the original! Please post your comments here and not Facebook. We need a public forum for this…

There’s something magical going on in Marfa, Texas. This dusty West Texas town has recently become an artists’ retreat¸ hipster hangout, and buzzy little up-and-comer where cowboys hang out with silver-haired émigrés from Martha’s Vineyard. During my stopover, a pair of journalists from Vancouver had traveled there just to see the art galleries and eat at Food Shark, the food truck in the town center.

Longtime residents of Marfa—the ones whose families have been ranchers in this county for 150 years—hate what’s happening to their town. They don’t patronize Food Shark, or the Fair Trade coffee shop, and they stay far away from those community activities that “the artists” enthusiastically plan and attend. They hate the natural side effects of civic evolution: higher prices, strangers moving in next door, the old five ‘n’ dime forced to close. Many of them grumble about packing up and moving to Alpine, the next town up the road.

But I wonder this: Do they realize what happens to towns who do not receive this influx, and the attendant boost to the local economy? Just look at Valentine, on the highway between Van Horne and Marfa. Possibly 100 residents are left. There aren’t any jobs, or any business opportunities. No one wants to buy the land, and the current owners can’t turn a profit on it.

Valentine’s only claim to fame is an art installation modeled to look exactly like a Prada store—complete with bags and shoes donated by Prada. The point of the installation, apparently, is to surprise passers-by: a brightly lit big-city Prada boutique sitting in lonely designer majesty against the quiet, barren West Texas landscape. And it totally works. People insist: if you travel to that part of West Texas, you must see the Prada store. It doesn’t matter if you’ve seen 20 others… the point is, that one’s not really a Prada store, it’s art.

Except recently some locals trashed and vandalized the Prada store—not because they wanted the merchandise, but because they didn’t want “the artists” in their county. So when I drove by it, the lights were off, and I only registered Valentine as a sign on the highway. If the Prada art installation survives, it will be thanks to the illogical dedication of some silly visionary “artist people” from Marfa or nearby. It is already coming to be known as “Marfa’s Prada store.” And Valentine will soon come to look like the town of Ologrande, which I passed through on the New Mexico/Texas border. It has a church. A day-tour company. A post office. A general store. All empty, boarded up, with junk in the yards and “Keep Out—Private Property” signs on the filthy windows. Everybody’s gone.

Comparing this depressing tableau with the happy, optimistic bustle of downtown Marfa, you have to wonder, why does one community thrive while another dies? Nobody really seems to know in this case.

“Marfa’s addictive,” says Robin Lambaria, the thirty-something San Antonio native who runs the Marfa Film Festival (and made it into such a success in two years that none other than Larry McMurtry was her guest of honor last year). Pretenders run around Austin claiming to be in charge of the Marfa Film Festival; Robin, meanwhile, sits in her sunny little office in downtown Marfa screening films and shooting the breeze with rancher buddies, reflecting on the odd serendipity of the world.

“In Austin, there were so many things to do all the time that you never did anything. In Marfa, there’s one thing to do every week, and everyone in the community comes out to it, ” says Daniel Browning, who owns and operates the local café with his wife Jessie. There are challenges to living in Marfa, he tells me, but overall, it’s easy to live a happy life here.

“Marfa sucks you in,” says David Beebe, who just opened the local honky-tonk Pedro’s with his partner. Formerly part owner of the Continental Club in Houston, Beebe is a fabulous example of a Marfa hipster: cowboy hat, coke-bottle glasses, long-ish hair, a business partner from L.A. and a lady friend NOT of Marfa (her emphasis, not mine), but just visiting from Kansas City.

Before I got to Marfa, I assumed it was a retirement community. And actually, the people who put me and Rocky up in their backyard guest cottage are on the older side. They’ve converted a few simple little downtown spaces to the Marfa Guest Quarters, and their backyard turns into a wine bar six days of the week. Certainly a retired couple from Dallas can be happy here. But this city is not thriving on retirement dollars; it’s being shaped by people who fled Austin, Houston, Los Angeles, Oakland, etc. in their prime… but brought their ideas to Marfa, and are giving it their best shot.

Update December 23, 2009 1:15 pm:

My friend Mike Davidson who has been involved in Texas travel and tourism for the last 32 years informs me (direct quote):

Thanks, Mike. Further proof that Lena’s threats are as empty as they sound.

Update: December 23, 2009 –

“…the state of Texas is watching this and you, and have expressed deepest apologies to me about the situation.   –LK”

Lena Katz, the writer of this terrible article that even in revised form is juvenile at best, has decided to take the low road. Apparently it is my fault that she was unable to write a legible and factual article about Marfa. I’m posting for all the world to see our conversation thread. Watch her threaten me with oversight from the State of Texas!

I’ve decided to not engage this woman further. She is clearly not well. Best of luck to you, Ms. Katz!

This is the email I received today:

This was just posted on Twitter by g5member:

http://www.citoyenmag.com/2009/12/22/photo-prada-marfa-at-sunset-roadside-exhibit/