I met with Dennis Carlson at his undisputed second home, the Fish Food Bank Garden. What I thought I would learn would be a straight path of his gardening life was actually a study of diverse paths with a thread of nature always being prevalent. Dennis was born and raised in rural Venezuela in an oil camp, as was his mother before him. The heavily guarded enclosure was his playground as the kids were truly free range. He was always drawn to nature and would often wander with the other oil camp kids. All fruit trees were considered fair game for the neighborhood kids snacking forays. Not only did his love of nature grow from these days but also his love of hunting and living off the land. The native Venezuelan kids would all carry slingshots: therefore, Dennis honed his slingshot skills at an early age. His mother instilled in him a deep respect for nature and his slingshot bird hunting had one rule. Whatever he took down with his slingshot was for food, not just sport. However, she did make an exception for the lizards he did hit, as long as they were fed to the cats.
After 8th grade, the tradition for the American kids living at the oil camp was to be sent to boarding school in the US. Dennis attended boarding school first in Connecticut and later Colorado where he graduated from high school. Dennis’ main criteria for choosing his school location was based on the fact he thought it would be cool to see snow, a distinct change from the South American climate he was accustomed to.
Later Dennis’ path took him to California where he had visited his mother’s family for many summers. While in college in the Menlo Park area, Dennis was drafted into the Army. When asked what job he wanted in the military and where he wanted to be stationed, he chose welder (to learn a new trade) and Africa (to explore a new continent). So naturally he was sent to Germany as a ballistic missile technician. Afterwards, he again returned to California and college. He attended the University of the Pacific studying biology. That not being the correct fit, he transferred to Sierra College near Sacramento, California with the intent to be a forest technician. Dennis then segued to working on a barge off the coast of Norway as an apprentice mechanic. His bilingual skills in Spanish were in high demand among the crewmembers during this time. From there he moved to Washington State but soon learned of an opportunity in forestry for the St. Regis Paper Company in Glenwood.
After his summer working in the woods, he had an opportunity to move to the Hood River area to work as a forest technician. He had an advantage with the Hood River County Forester who was hiring for the position. The manager was looking for someone without a government background who wouldn’t have preconceived forestry practices and notions. Dennis was a willing and avid learner, as he still is to this day. To say it was a good fit would be an understatement. Dennis worked for the Hood River County Forest Department for 30 years before retiring.
He then was free to more fully pursue his love of gardening and community by joining CGMGA in 2010. Dennis grows as much as he can toward his goal of self-sufficiency. Top tip from Dennis is that Butternut squash, as well as being his favorite squash, is great to grow and easy to store. He is a big proponent of soil health and its science. Every year he does a soil test to determine his soil health and what amendments to add to his garden beds. He advises a soil test for gardeners depending on how serious they are about their garden health and robustness. He does note a gardener can still have an enjoyable time without the soil tests while just enjoying the process which is still great. It just depends on what one wants. He personally does a yearly soil test, as well as, maps his garden plan every year. He studies these for reference. That in particular he does recommend for everyone. As he states, “it gives one great insight into your planting and planning.” He has 40 years of maps noting date, variety and location so he can tell what worked and what didn’t. In Dennis’ words, “go for it and record what you do.”
Returning to the monumental importance of soil health, Dennis has come to value the use of cover crops and the constant use of flowering plants at all times in his garden. He previously believed that the soil would be depleted by the constant growing of plants and cover crops. Since that time, he has learned that just isn’t the case. Soils benefit from the rhizophagy cycle in which roots engulf microbes thus extracting their nutrients which they then release back into the soil. It is at its base regenerative agriculture. Soils are only depleted when plants are removed and their digested remains are not returned. The more fertile the soil, the more nutrient dense the food it produces. As Dennis states, “the plants thrive and we thrive.” Also, by providing as much diversity to his garden as possible, “the pests and predators work it out themselves” which goes back to IPM.
If you notice a common thread throughout Dennis’ story, you would be correct. Dennis was first and foremost drawn to nature and the outdoors from his earliest days to even today where you will most likely find him in one of three places: the Fish Food Bank Garden, his own garden or out birding with his two wire hair pointers. He considers himself a hunter-gatherer. His goal was always “to live in nature.” “Curiosity is my motivation and having fun.” Sounds like a really enriching way to live for any of us. And if you want to talk science, Dennis is your guy.
Written by Stephanie Gale- McKnight
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