Wild Weather Gardening

Depending upon where you live, wild weather can be anything from extreme heat to extreme cold. During the past several days, where I live in Southern California, it has been wind, strong wind, life-threatening wind. Not only does the Santa Ana wind make gardening difficult, but it’s dangerous. Even if you aren’t hit by a falling tree or other debris, the weather conditions can cause health concerns. Since I have asthma, I really can’t spend much time, if any, outside during a Santa Ana wind event. Really cramps my style.

In times of wild weather, the Weather Channel is a life saver. They have a service called Weather on the Eights. They supply very detailed local weather information. My favorite is the wind direction. If the wind is coming out of the east, then we are having Santa Ana wind conditions. Coarse particles of soil and mold blow in from the desert. The air can be either hot or cold, but is always very dry. None of this is good for garden plants, or the gardeners who tend them.

So I keep my eye on the Weather Channel, and their forecast. Looking out the window will tell me if it’s windy, but wind from the west (the sea) is beneficial. It’s only the desert wind that causes problems. Sure, when it is violent, like this past week, the damage is obvious. But even when the wind isn’t as strong, it can be harmful. Plants must be watched, or they may dry up and die. For people, an asthma attack can be just as bad.

In the last five days I have been outside exactly twice. The first time was Friday morning, when the air was completely still. There was no wind at all. I was outside very briefly to run essential errands and to grab a few winter transplants from the garden center at Lowe’s. I hoped to plant them when the wind stopped. I tucked them into a large pot that I had cleared a few weeks ago. They stayed there, safe from the wind, until Sunday afternoon. The wind inexplicably shifted from off shore to on shore for about five hours. I didn’t risk staying outside that long. I spent about two hours clearing my now deceased Early Girl tomato plant, amending the soil with a little Mel’s Mix and transplanting two broccoli plants as well as strawberries.

I love growing strawberries in pots. It's so easy.  No muss, no fuss. They are up off the ground, so few critters can find them. They stay clean and dry and easy to pick. I dug a hole in the potting soil in the middle of a large pot and placed a smaller one in the space. I then added Mel’s Square Foot Gardening Soil all around, and tucked in eight small strawberry plants. The neat thing about this method is that it avoids most of the problems associated with growing strawberries. With the pot being on wheels, I can even move it to follow the sun as needed, or I can cover it easily if we have a frost.

I didn't have time to plant loose leaf lettuce, snap peas or snow peas, but I will once these "devil winds" go away.  I know people complain when the cool, damp breezes come in from the sea, but they don't cause any real problems.  It may be cool and a little gloomy, but a sweater and a little patience is all that is needed.  The fog bank usually burns off by lunch.  So when that happens, I'll dash out to the nursery for lettuce transplants, take out my peas and finish my fall planting. 

If wild weather strikes, you don’t have to give up gardening. All you need is information. As I said, I get mine from The Weather Channel, bless them. You can also find them online at www.weather.com. Then, you'll know when it is safe to go outside and get your hands dirty! When wild weather strikes, be prepared to strike back!

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Baby, It’s Too Cold Outside to Garden!

I promised I would let you know about planting my fall garden today. It’s not going to happen. It’s cold, windy and rainy outside my window. That’s just fine with me. It isn’t a heavy rain. My garden will like it. It’s not too cold for my carrots (is that even possible?), but it may finally do in my Early Girl tomato plant. That’s alright. It’s pretty hideous now, although the tomatoes still taste yummy.

One of the best parts of condo gardening is that it really is easy. As long as we keep our gardens small and neat, there is nothing to do most days. There is simply no weeding or fertilizing if you use Mel’s Square Foot Gardening soil, like I do. If you want exercise, I’m sure there’s a gym around. I don’t go to the gym anymore. I have everything I need in a cute little basket I bought at Pottery Barn. So, if there isn’t enough gardening to do to fulfill my daily quota of exercise, I just pull out the ankle weights and non-latex stretch bands from the basket and get my exercise indoors.

Maybe I’ll do some online Christmas shopping, or read a book. Since I have located a relatively small bag of blended organic compost (E.B. Stone) in a nursery nearby, I just need a dry, warm day (like the one in the photo at the top of this post) to refresh the soil and plant a few seeds and transplants. Maybe that will happen later this week. Who knows? It’s fall in California. Almost anything can happen with our weather. One day we get snow down to three thousand feet, and the next it’s ninety degrees. Go figure!

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Amending Garden Soil for Fall Planting

Success at last! It has taken me way too long to find a small bag of organic compost to amend the Mel’s Mix I use in my garden containers. I found a 3 cu ft bag easily, but I only have eight medium sized pots in my garden. I discovered that E.B. Stone makes an organic compost which is available in 1.5 cu ft bags. This is still probably more than I need, but at least I should be able to lift the bag.

The weather forecast this weekend was for showers all three days. but now they say that we will have showers, or maybe full on rain, on Saturday only. I don’t think it's wise to replant my pots the day before hard rain. I might lose the seeds and some of the soil. So, I’ll wait to see how the storm progresses. If it passes my area fairly quickly, I’ll go to Green Thumb and pick up the compost I need, two broccoli plants and some leaf lettuce. I have seeds for the peas I want to plant. They were given to me by a local gardener friend.

This will be the first fall garden I have planted for decades. I started gardening again last January, after a very long break. My sorry looking tomato plant just won’t stop giving me tomatoes. I should tear it out, but how can I when the tomatoes taste so good? The variety is Early Girl. They should rename it “This Girl Won’t Give Up”. The tomatoes are a bit smaller than they were when the weather was warmer, but yum. I just eat two at a time instead of one.

I’ll let you know how the planting goes, and show you how my garden looks once I’ve filled up my empty containers. I hope my peas do better this year than last. It’s up to the weather. It sure didn’t cooperate much last season!

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Planting a Fall Vegetable Garden

I remember what it was like getting ready to plant a fall vegetable garden the hard way. There was a great deal of sweat and fatigue involved. No more. With an easy condo garden, clearing out the old to get ready to plant the new took me about ten minutes. The hardest part was finding a brown paper bag from the supermarket to contain the debris. Since I’m bringing reusable bags on the few short trips I take (most of my purchases are delivered after I order online…wonderful), finding a paper bag took about half of the ten minutes!

I then took my garden scissors, a small trowel and the bag to my garden. There I snipped away any plants that were finished and dumped the debris in the bag. I also removed the garden twine I used to fill in the gaps on my two trellises where I had grown snap beans this season. I dumped this into the bag as well. It’s really inexpensive, so it’s much easier to throw this out, than to untangle it.

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, then you know that I moved my garden pots from one side of the building where I live to the other late last spring in order to follow the sun. The next step in planting my fall garden was to move the pots back to where the sun is now shining most of the day. Then I caught a cold, as did everyone in my family. No one wanted to move pots. So, they sat there for two weeks. I still watered and harvested carrots and tomatoes, but I did nothing else for my garden.

Last weekend, my son-in-law came over and helped me move the pots. I thought he was going to bring my grandsons, but they were off having fun somewhere else. It wasn’t difficult to move the pots. I had purchased a small dolly, and he lifted the pots onto it. We (read that “he”) pushed them one by one to the other side of the building. While doing this he discovered why I suggested bringing the boys. With their size, it would have been easy to push the pots. Although the pots were elevated on the dolly, he had to lean over quite a bit to reach them. Next time he will remember to bring the boys!

That was all my cold would allow me to do. I guess that was even too much. My cold turned into a sinus infection, and I have zero energy for my garden…or anything else. The good thing about an easy condo garden is that it will wait. As long as I water what is growing, no harm…no foul. Of course, I may have missed the window on planting cool season tomatoes. I’m not sure. According to the Burpee planting guide for California, there is no fall season for tomatoes. However, there are short season tomatoes with names like “Siberia”. If I’m feeling better next weekend, I may go ahead and plant one.

In the meantime, I’m searching for a bag of Kellogg N’Rich Organic Compost to augment the Square Foot Gardening soil in my container garden. I found a three cubic foot bag at Home Depot, but that is way more than I need! I don’t intend to store compost. In a condo, keeping the neighbors happy with your garden is really high on the list of priorities. Storing compost is an invitation to problems both from critters and smell. I’m not going there! So the search is on…

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Mel Bartholomew's Coming!

As you may have read in my profile, I'm a high school teacher. School started recently, and I've been too busy to blog. I'm still spending a few minutes in my garden each morning to water and harvet a thing or two. Soon, I'll be clearing out the vegetable plants that are finished for the season, and planting new seeds and/or transplants.

But I have exciting news to share. Mel Bartholomew, the creator of the Square Foot Gardening Method, is coming to Southern California! He will be speaking in Irvine, at the LDS Church at 23 Lake Road at eleven o'clock on Saturday, September 17. I'll be there. If you are within driving distance, I'm sure you'll want to be there too.

He has changed the way the world gardens. Anyone can grow his or her own food in spaces large or small, with no muss, and no fuss. No weeds, no fertilizer. Just a few minutes per day. Organic, healthy food direct from your own garden to your table. Save money, save the earth, teach your children what food should taste like. I'm thrilled to get the chance to hear the man who taught me how to garden over thirty years ago.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

It's Easy to Save Money on Organic Food

Have you seen the prices at the supermarket lately? Wow. Both Suze Orman and Clark Howard discussed the high price of food at grocery stores in the last week. Suze explained why the prices are going up (high cost of oil) and Clark gave tips for saving money at the market (stock up when non-perishable items are on sale). They both believe that the price increases aren’t going to let up for some time. While both of them make sense, neither of them had a solution. We need food to feed our families and ourselves. No matter how many tips you employ at the store, nothing beats free. Grow it.

Okay. Even growing your own food does cost something. But the tuna salad I had for lunch yesterday only cost me for the tuna. I have already eaten enough tomatoes and lettuce from my condo garden to break even on the cost of the plants and water. Sure, I bought the containers and the soil, but those I am able to use over and over. I will add some compost (bought at the home improvement store) when it’s time to replant, but the cost of compost per container works out to only a few cents. When you compare what the supermarket is charging for tomatoes on the vine, $1.49 per pound at my local Ralph’s store, growing your own makes not just sense, but dollars!

I’ve read several articles lately about the high cost of eating healthy. There were three new articles this morning about how to save money while eating right. They all fall into the category of damage control or depriving yourself. Why? Why not refuse to play the game? Opt out. I am no longer buying the vegetables I eat the most. I am not choosing between organic and the cheaper non-organic varieties to save money. I’m growing organically and paying very little for the privilege.

There are two ways to start plants. You can grow from seed or grow from transplants. Growing from seed costs almost nothing. I’m not exaggerating. For the cost of one small bag of anything from the produce department at your local supermarket, you can buy a packet of hundreds of seeds. They will last forever, if you save some of the seeds from what you harvest. You can find several varieties of each plant you wish to grow at almost any nursery or home improvement store. If you look online (I prefer Burpee http://www.burpee.com/), the selection is huge. I plant peas, beans, carrots and marigolds (to deter harmful bugs) from seed. I buy transplants for everything else. This costs me more (the Early Girl transplant that is now giving me free tomatoes every day cost me $7.98), but I’m into easy, and this is.

Now, if you want to be really cost effective, you can even get your water for free. Most people take a bath or shower every day. If it’s especially hot, some people take two! Take one minute off each shower, or drop the water level in the tub by one inch and you have offset your water usage in the garden. If you want to be especially frugal, on a cool day, skip your bath or shower. That will save way more water than your plants need in a week. Of course, this depends upon the size of your garden. My plants are in eight containers. I use ten gallons of water each week when the weather is hot, less when it is cooler. The larger your family, the larger the garden you will need. Therefore, to save enough water to offset what you need in order to grow your own food, enlist your whole family to make this small change in their showering habits.

I still buy some produce at the market. I don’t have the space to grow corn or potatoes, so I stock up when these are on sale. This keeps my freezer full. A well stocked freezer helps the frozen food stay frozen, which reduces energy use. This saves money too. I can’t grow fruit trees either. I like most fruit, so I just buy what is on sale that week. You can save money at the store, or you can reduce what you need to buy there. Control the quality and variety of the produce you eat while reducing or eliminating the cost. Grow it in your own backyard or, like I do, in containers in an easy condo garden. Read earlier entries in my blog to see how to set up your own garden, the easy way!

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Easy Summer Gardening

When I gardened the old fashioned way, summer was full of weeding, pest control and sweat. Not now. Easy condo gardening (in containers) or using the Square Foot Gardening method (in boxes on the ground) means none of the first, and little of the second. The hardest thing about summertime gardening the easy way is patience.

Since adding the bird scare tape, there haven’t been any birds in this part of my garden. No birds in the garden means no damage and more to harvest. The wind keeps the tape moving. The movement, flashes of light on the metallic surfaces and the crackling sound the tape makes keeps them away. Even in the morning, when the wind is very light or non-existent, light reflection does the job. I don’t know why any of this works, but it’s non-toxic, inexpensive, effective and best of all, very easy to use.

Gardeners using containers do have to water more often. The heat of the day and the direct sunlight on the sides of the containers can dry up the soil. The vermiculite in Mel’s Mix helps retain moisture, but I check my garden late in the day, if it has been especially hot. Those days where the temperature reaches over ninety degrees, I water a little in the late afternoon. For me, since there is no water where I garden, it means I have to fill up my five gallon paint buckets where I store water in my garden twice a week. I’ve found a simple way to do this. I had six large plastic jugs sitting in a kitchen cabinet doing nothing. I’ve enlisted them to carry water to my garden. I fill them up at the kitchen sink and place them in the small rolling cart I bought for carrying papers and books back and forth from my car to my classroom at school. It takes only one trip from the kitchen and about six minutes to fill up the buckets on both ends of my building.

But most of the time, all I do is nothing. I water, untangle the bird scare tape around my very bushy Early Girl tomato plant if necessary and go to the beach. From time to time I pull a carrot, cut a zucchini or snip off a cherry tomato or two, but nothing else is ready. All that’s going on is growing. It’s wonderful to see the pole beans climbing up the trellis and the tomato plants setting more fruit, but there really isn’t much else to do. So the rest of my summer vacation will be filled with taking my grandsons on little summer “field trips”, reading and finishing all the little chores around the house that teachers don’t have time to do during the school year. I didn’t know that gardening could take so little time and be so easy.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Gardening with Kids

When my daughter, Ann, was small (She’s thirty-three now.), we lived on horse property in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. The developer had visions of Kentucky, and gave us all white wooden corral fencing in the back fourth of our property. Of course, the homeowners had their own ideas. On one side of my house, my neighbor did have horses. But on the other, there was a putting green. Mine? Why a massive garden, of course.

The sides of the corral were perfect for grape vines. The back worked well for boysenberries. The fences helped tame both, while the plants added beauty, privacy and yummy fruit much of the year. In all the years we lived there, the boysenberries never made it into the house. They were rinsed off and devoured straight off the plants.

We also had a half dozen fruit trees, two kinds of apples, a cherry (not much fruit, since it didn’t really get cold enough), a plum, a lemon, an orange and a peach (which we eventually removed, since we could not keep ahead of the “volunteers”). Then, there was my cinder-block raised vegetable garden. It was about the size of a three car garage, complete with redwood arbor and a small paved area where we stored firewood. I used Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening method, and drip irrigation. It was no where near as much work as the fruit trees. They drove me a little crazy with all the thinning.

We also had a rose garden, with twenty four bushes, including three climbers. Roses take as much work as you have heard, but no one is able to convey the pleasure of cutting your own roses and placing them around the house in vases. The house was filled with fragrance almost all year long. In California, rose bushes do not have to be cut back to their canes to protect them from the cold. I’ve cut roses at Christmas.

I think with fewer trees, it wouldn’t have been so exhausting. It was really too much for a working mother of one, with a husband who preferred golfing with the neighbor to gardening. But we did enjoy the bounty. Every Sunday morning, my daughter and I would take a large basket and a pair of shears up into the garden. We snipped and pulled and collected what we ate that morning. It became a tradition and filled her childhood with happy memories of Sunday breakfast in the dining room, over looking the bird feeder and bird bath. I think her love of fruit and vegetables began in the garden.

There is an epidemic of childhood obesity in America, but not in my family. My daughter, and her two boys, Mike and Nick, have never been over weight. Neither have I. We think vegetables taste better than fried foods and all those other less healthy options out there. They do, you know. All the studies show that children who eat more fruit and vegetables are healthier and do better in school. They grow to be healthier eaters as adults too. Other studies make it clear that kids who are involved in the growing of fruit and vegetables are more willing, even eager to eat them. Any bargaining going on at the dinner table in our homes is the reverse of most. “You can eat another bite of carrots (or peas, orange slices, etc) after you have had a bite of turkey or mack and cheese.”

This past Friday, my grandsons spent the night. We went to Mimi’s Café for dinner, as a treat. That was the exact conversation we had at the dinner table. The next morning, before orange/cranberry juice and French toast smothered with sliced fresh strawberries, we went outside to water my condo garden. We took the trowel and carrot and marigold seeds with us. The boys planted carrots and marigolds and watered the plants. This is always a wonderful time. Kids’ minds are open when they are occupied with some physical task. The younger boy, Nick, looked up as he was watering the zucchini plant and asked, “Grandma, we planted the seeds far apart so they won’t steal water from each other, right?” Always thinking!

As a parent, grand parent and teacher, I can tell you that there is no downside to gardening with children. As long as you do not make it seem like a chore, and as long as they get to eat what they grow, it’s all upside. When my daughter was too little to help in the garden, I introduced her to vegetables in the supermarket. While she sat in the seat in the shopping cart, we went into the produce department. You know how people say, “If you are good, I’ll let you pick out a candy to take home?” Well, I did that in the produce department. “You can pick one, but only one. So be sure it’s something you really want!” Sneaky, right? When she was old enough for pre-school, I discovered that snack time was crackers and the like. I started letting her select a vegetable to take for snack. Sometimes, we cut up zucchini or carrots into coins and sent along a tub of cheese spread for dipping. The teachers were shocked that the kids gobbled them down, and asked for more. No one had told them yet that vegetables were “yucky”.

Let kids pick a new kind of veggie or fruit from the store, farmers’ market or garden. Let them plant what they want. They will develop a taste for them and be more adventurous in their eating habits. They will enjoy the taste of fresh fruit and vegetables, and not need to fry them or drown them in unhealthy sauces. My grandsons prefer raw fruit and vegetables to cooked ones. As you may have read in the press or online, there is a movement afoot to promote eating “real” food. Non-processed, non-adulterated, unpackaged food has become a movement. How bizarre is that? It’s a shame that it is necessary, but what a fabulous idea. Let’s make it cool to grow, buy, and eat real live fruit and vegetables. Let’s start with the kids.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

How to Prevent Bird Damage to Fruit and Vegetables? Glitz!

I was standing just outside the door of my condo, looking down at the part of my garden that is still on this end of my building Friday morning, (I moved most of it to the other end, where there is more sun now), when I noticed a bird munching on my broccoli plant. Did you know that birds liked to eat broccoli leaves? I didn’t. I knew they enjoyed tomatoes, since I saw some damage on the few cherry tomatoes my plant produced before June Gloom showed up. But, I had no clue they would eat leaves.

Early yesterday morning, instead of going to the local mall to walk, I went to Lowe’s. There I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I knew it was open, and figured it would be pretty empty. It was. I walked up and down the aisles at a pretty good clip and window shopped, without windows or other customers in the way. I think I only saw two or three in the whole store. When I had walked about a mile, I headed for the garden section and looked for bird netting to prevent the local song birds from damaging my crops. Zip. I did pick up another Hampton deck box for the large tomato plant I bought last week and a smaller matching container for a yellow straight necked squash transplant I picked up at the same time. The planter came with a saucer, so I didn’t need anything else.

Then it was off to Green Thumb, where I knew I would find the bird netting I needed. I bumped into a helpful employee who showed me where I could find the netting, but then recommended something more convenient. How did he know I’m in to doing things the easy way? Maybe he is too. He pointed out a display of several rolls of “bird scare tape”. It looks like it is made of Mylar, like the birthday balloons you can buy at the florist. It’s red on one side and silver on the other. It’s almost an inch wide, and the roll is one hundred and fifty feet long. Wow. That should last for years in my small condo garden.

Late this winter, I bought several plastic covered stakes to secure fabric in my garden to protect my new plants from wind and driving rain. I still have them, of course. They will last forever. Now that my plants are getting more sun, partially because I moved them to the sunny side of the building, but mostly because it has turned into summer around here, I am expecting the green tomatoes on my plants to turn red soon. Birds have found my third floor condo garden and will definitely notice bright red tomatoes.

In a day or two when the temperature outside lets up a bit, (it was over ninety here yesterday), I’ll go out and place stakes in several pots in my garden. Then I’ll cut strips of the reflective tape and tie them to the stakes at various levels. As the wind blows through the breezeway, the tape will move in the wind and scare the birds away. I don’t know if it’s the bright sunlight bouncing off the two different colored surfaces of the tape, or the movement of the tape itself that keeps them away. I don’t really care. It’s inexpensive and non-toxic. Best of all, it’s easy to find, easy to set up and easy to use.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

How to Give Garden Containers a Lift

When I first went looking for light weight garden containers to set up my vegetable garden, I specifically looked for pots that were square. I wanted to use Square Foot Gardening methods without needing to use geometry! But since my garden is in the public area of a condo, I wanted to make sure the pots were also attractive and problem free. Therefore, I looked for planters that had “feet”. I wanted to prevent stains and rotting of the deck beneath the pots.

Both Home Depot and Lowe’s had plastic pots that fulfilled all of my requirements, but I preferred the appearance of the ones at Lowe’s, as well as their higher stance. I knew that I wouldn’t have to bend over so far when I was tending to my veggies with the taller containers. After setting everything up, I discovered that the feet didn’t lift the pots high enough for clearance of the standard plastic saucers sold everywhere. Rats! I needed about a half inch more lift for the saucers to fit without squishing them. I looked pretty much everywhere before I settled on square rubber coasters sold to place under a bed frame. I didn’t like them much, but I couldn’t find anything else that would do the trick. That is, until this weekend!

I went looking for another tomato transplant Sunday. The one I planted early this year was stunted by our lousy weather. While I was out and about, I strolled throughout the entire garden center of each place I visited. After all, you never know what gem you might discover…like Pot Toes. I could not believe what I saw. Sure, I have a few sets of ceramic “feet” to lift up various potted plants around my home, but these things are genius! They aren’t heavy or clunky. They are sold in small packets of six or twelve. I bought two packs of twelve, and went back yesterday for two more after I discovered they are stackable! Wonderful. Compact, sturdy, strong and best of all, easy to use! They are plastic and come in several colors. I would have preferred brown, like the deck where my garden is located, but the dark gray looks just fine under the speckled white and gray planter boxes in my garden.

I found mine at Green Thumb Nursery which is a small chain in Southern California. I remember shopping at one of their nurseries in the San Fernando Valley when I was little. There’s one only four minutes from my house now. I love going there. The people are very nice and knowledgeable. I looked online to see where else Pot Toes are sold, but couldn’t find them at any of the big box stores or large nursery chains. The parent company is Gardenrite, in Vancouver, Canada. But, if you don’t have a Green Thumb near you, they are also available on Amazon. Just type in Pot Toes. But before you do, go to the Gardenrite web site and take a really good look,  http://www.gardenrite.com/

I tossed out the ugly bed frame coasters I was using, and all my pots are standing on their tippy toes now. They look better and are easier to move. There is more air movement under the pots which is healthier for the plants. Best of all, the plastic saucers fit underneath without being squished. No squish equals no leaks, no stains, no muss, and no fuss. Easy. A product after my own heart.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Summer Squash Hates June Gloom!

Zucchini doesn’t like it much better. This picture was taken late last month, when we actually had some sun during the day. My summer veggies were happy then, me too. In order to move my vegetables to follow the sun as it travels across the sky each day, I was planning on putting wheels under each container. My zucchini is in a round pot which I already had before I started my garden this past January, and it’s on a dolly with wheels. I have been relocating it each afternoon for the last week or so. It’s happier in the sun than it was in the shade. The powdery mildew that has been attacking it, and my summer squash, seems to be backing off some. I think it has helped that I don’t let the infected leaves stay on the plant. I have been removing the worst of them, and putting them in a paper sack before throwing them in the trash.

Wednesday, when I was walking toward the other end of the three-story, twenty-four unit condo complex where I live, I noticed that the breezeway on the other end of the building was in full sun. That was a surprise. This area is the mirror image of where my garden is located, and faces north. Evidently, as the sun has moved to a position higher in the sky as we approach summer, this part of the building receives more sun. It makes sense. I should have figured this out earlier, but it never occurred to me to look.

This is good news, not great news, but pretty good nonetheless. It will save me both time and money. I still want to go visit several nurseries and home improvement stores, as soon as the sun comes out. (Some people window shop at the mall. I do it in garden stores.) I want to pot another tomato plant to make up for the slow growth of the one I already have. This means I’ll need another “deck box”, a bag of playground sand and some more Garden Time potting soil from Lowe’s. But I won’t need six sets of wheels! I already have a hand truck and a couple of bungee cords. I’ll slide the edge of the hand truck under a potted deck box and secure it with two long bungee cords. This way, it will stay in place while I take it on the short ride to the other end of my building.

I won’t be moving all of my containers though. The carrots and broccoli (yes, I am still harvesting a few side shoots every so often) are still happy where they are. Keeping them near my front door will remind me to walk to the other end of the building to water the other four pots each morning. Out of sight out of mind is really true. I believe that gardens need to be as close to the front or back door as possible. If you can see them from the kitchen window, that’s even better.

Decades ago the belief was that gardens belong far away from the house. I guess people thought they were unattractive. My garden was at the rear of my half acre yard. This isn’t as much land as people have who live in the countryside, but for a suburb in Southern California, it was unusually large. It was a bit of an uphill hike to reach my garden, although the garden itself was flat. In the summer, when the temperature hit the low hundreds, it wasn’t as much fun going up there to check things out. The garden was huge, but watering was easy. I used drip irrigation and would again, if I wasn’t living in a condo and gardening in six or seven large pots. With half of my garden being on one end of the building, and the other half on the other end, I’m going to buy another white five gallon paint bucket and little plastic “feet” to raise it off the surface of the walkway. This way, I will only have to carry water every other week. There is no faucet on either end of this building above ground level, so I fill up the container in my garden from my kitchen sink once a week using a plastic pitcher. With two buckets, the water will last twice as long.

This makes watering convenient. Having the water waiting there for me has a second benefit. The chlorine evaporates. This is better for the plants. I also happen to have a second plastic cup from CPK. This is what I use to actually move the water from the bucket to the plants. These cups are small enough to fit my hand (I’m a small woman), and big enough to water each pot with just one dip into the bucket. They came home with my grandsons one day when we went for pizza. Sure, I could buy something fancy, but why? I leave the cup in the bucket. It’s plastic and doesn’t deteriorate. I never have to go looking for it. Using them to water my plants is easy.

I am hoping that my summer vegetables will be much happier at the other end of my building. The short walk to water them each morning shouldn’t be problem. I can use the exercise. Maybe the powdery mildew won’t do so much damage with more sunshine on my plants. I guess I should have used my eyes instead of just my brain to try to solve the sun movement dilemma. If you no longer have the sun you once had, look around. It has to have gone somewhere. Maybe it hasn’t moved very far. With having our vegetable plants in pots, moving our garden is an option others don’t have. But remember, look first. It’s easier.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

School's Out for Summer

Today is the first day of my summer vacation. Summer is the second best part of being a teacher. (The best part is the look on the students’ faces when they finally “get it”). We have about as many days off each year as the average employee in the rest of the world. The main difference is that they receive the time off with pay. Teachers in California are not paid for any holidays (legal or otherwise) or vacations. Didn’t know that, did you?

But we do get the time. Lovely. We save during the school year so we can pay our bills and do things during the summer. One of the things on my list this summer is to spend more time in my garden. It will be no where near the five hours per week of the average gardener in America. What takes them so long? They must still be gardening the hard way, trenching, removing rocks, pulling weeds, fertilizing. Not me. I prefer the easy way. This summer, I’m going to make my easy condo garden even easier. I’m going make it mobile.

I have noticed that as the seasons have changed, my south facing garden isn’t receiving full sun for as many hours as it did in winter and early spring. As the sun has risen in the sky, the sunlight is coming from a more direct angle overhead. The cover over the breezeway where I placed my garden is now shading it for part of midday. Bummer. It was nice having this protection when it was raining like crazy a few weeks ago. But now, I need to move my pots a bit so they receive direct sunlight into the afternoon hours. Simple solution. Wheels!

This week I’m going to visit several stores and look for something ready made that won’t break the bank. I know the nursery nearby has a wonderful round saucer with heavy duty wheels. I bought one for a large clay pot containing some of my geraniums and a Mandevilla. It’s great, but a little pricey. I need six for my vegetable garden pots. If I can’t find anything sturdy and reasonable, I’ll make my own. I’ve been thinking about this for a week or two, and I have a plan.

My pots are square. I’ll buy some lumber at the nearby lumber yard and have an employee cut the wood into squares slightly larger than my pots. If I drill a hole in the middle, about the size needed for a door knob, this would allow for drainage. I’ve seen the same sturdy wheels that are on the saucer I bought earlier at Lowe’s. I didn’t check out the price, but I will. A little paint, a few screws and the garden will be mobile. If the pots are too light weight to stay put when I push them around, I’ll add a little trim on the top edge, but for now, I'm looking for ready made. That’s easier, and that’s the way I like it.

Okay, you are probably a little curious why I have pictures of my grandsons, Mike and Nick, on the top of today’s blog. Each summer we take little “field trips” and a week long vacation together. The point of these trips is to create wonderful childhood memories for the boys. That’s my role, as I see it, in their lives. Sure I spoil them like grandparents should, but I’m a teacher at heart. So each of our trips is planned around what they are going to study the next school year. When we are taking these trips, it’s all fun. When school resumes, and the teacher begins the lesson on California missions, marine life, plant husbandry, etc., their summertime experiences make the lessons relevant and easier to absorb.

The photo above was taken last summer at Cabrillo National Monument, the light house just north of San Diego. We spent the week in San Diego doing all the things you would expect, visiting the lighthouse, the zoo, Sea World, the Maritime Museum and a huge battleship. Coincidently (or not), everything they saw and enjoyed related to something they studied this year in school. This summer, we are going to visit a few public gardens together. Since they helped plant my garden, they think this is cool. But our big trip? Zion or Yosemite. Can you guess what’s on their curriculum for next fall? Geology, geography and maps.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

The Dirt on Dirt

One of the most important parts of the garden is the soil. Living in a condo, and gardening in containers means the native soil in the area doesn’t matter. It can be red clay or full of rocks and the effect on your garden is zero. I buy Garden Time garden soil in bags at Lowe’s. But this blog is being read throughout the U.S. and in several other countries, and I don’t know if this mix is available everywhere my blog is being read.

In case you can’t buy this specific garden soil, I’m going to give you the dirt on dirt. Mel Bartholomew developed a simple formula that eliminates many of the messy parts of gardening. With this mix, you don’t have to dig out rocks, pull weeds or add fertilizer. When I started my garden earlier this year, I had some of this soil left over. One of my older pots with a flowering vine and two geraniums was a little low on soil. I planted this pot a few years earlier, using another type of potting mix. Since the soil had compacted over time, (This doesn’t happen with Mel’s Mix), I used my leftover soil to top it off. I was surprised and pleased with the results. In just a few days, the geraniums gave me more flowers than they had in three years. They haven’t stopped since. The compliments from my neighbors haven’t stopped either.

If you live in an apartment or condo, and you are going to make the formula yourself, I suggest you use a clean trash can lined with a plastic bag as a “mixing bowl”. Alternate putting in the three ingredients using a large plastic bowl as a scoop and mix as you would when cooking. This way, you won’t make a mess. You will need peat moss, coarse vermiculite and blended compost (compost from five different sources, to give you a range of nutrients). Mix these in equal parts, but don’t measure by weight. Eyeball it by volume. How much you will need depends upon the size and number of containers you plan on planting. The bags I buy contain two cubic feet of mix. I used one bag for two pots. My pots are fifteen inches square and eighteen inches tall.

Drill a small hole in the bottom of each container. Place a piece of panty hose over the hole. Drainage hole filters are sold in nurseries, but why spend the money? Old panty hose work just fine. Scoop sand to fill the bottom third of each pot before filling with your fresh, homemade garden soil mix. The sand allows for proper drainage, and the screen you created or bought keeps the sand from leaking out. You won’t have weeds, since the mix doesn’t contain weed seeds. You won’t need fertilizer, since the compost provides everything your plants will need. Watering is easier too, because the vermiculite retains moisture, while the mix allows for easy drainage of excess water. Just add plants or seeds, and all the "dirty work" is done.

The name of this blog is Easy Condo Gardening. I don’t do complicated. If Garden Time garden soil (Mel’s Mix) is available at a home improvement store or nursery near you, go for it. The steps are simpler if you buy it by the bag. Open, scoop, then plant. What could be easier?

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Extreme Portion Control

Have you ever read about the Blue Zones? These are places in the world where people routinely live long into their 100’s. I don’t mean they are kept alive on machines either. They are happy, healthy, mentally sharp and active. We don’t have to move to one of these places to achieve this goal. We just have to adopt their habits. One of them is eating more fruits and vegetables.

When I was a kid the fruits and vegetables you bought in the market had more flavor. That’s because they were grown locally. Locally grown food doesn’t have to make long trips on trucks or container ships. So farmers grew what tastes good, not just what can survive the trip. What’s closer to home than your own backyard or patio? If you have ever eaten a home grown tomato or strawberry, then you know the difference. They just taste better. It’s like a flavor explosion in your mouth!

When my daughter was little, we lived on a half acre in Rancho Cucamonga. I grew many types of fruit and vegetables. We ate what we picked. The boysenberries never made it into the house. We ate them right off the vine. Nothing beats that! Here’s what I believe, she loves fruit and vegetables now because of the great flavors she grew up eating. She is raising my grandsons eating the same way. I don’t have to worry about any of them becoming overweight. Diabetes and heart disease aren’t even on our radar. When I was little I remember hearing the phrase, you are what you eat. No wonder so many people are having problems. “Garbage in garbage out.”

Eating home grown fruit and vegetables gives you great flavors and control over how the food is grown. I grow organically- no chemicals, just natural ingredients. I use clean pots, Mel’s Mix organic soil, and water by hand (unless it rains...again). Because everything is easy to reach, I can spot little critters trying to snack on my plants. I catch them before they have a chance to multiply, so no chemicals are needed! As simple as this is, I still can't control the weather.

The weather this spring has been interesting. Okay. I’m being nice here. Interesting wasn’t the first adjective that jumped into my head. The lack of consistent sunshine has had a bizarre and frustrating effect on my crops so far. Everything is tiny. I don’t mean small. I mean tiny. In the Blue Zones people eat small meals several times during the day. This isn’t difficult when your zucchini and summer squash are Tinkerbell sized. I’m not kidding. Just look at the first crop I harvested. But, because I grew it myself, it was delicious. Now, if it ever warms up…and stays that way for awhile, I’ll be able to make a real meal of my harvest, and have enough to share.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

More Wacky Weather

I’m confused. Is this spring in California or some other season some other place? Earlier this month it was 95 degrees; two weeks later it’s only 65 degrees! But I’m not the only one confused. My poor summer vegetables don’t know what to do. They really want some warmth to get going. So do I.

I went to bed last night with the intent to go visit a few public gardens today. But that was when I was expecting some sunshine this morning. It may be sunny where you live, but it sure isn’t here. We’re in an odd winter weather pattern. Storms form up in the Gulf of Alaska, and swoop down through California, pushing our warm sunny spring weather out of the way. My Peter Pan summer squash is in full bloom, and is setting fruit. The problem is, it needs some heat for the fruit to grow to a worthwhile size. Peter seems to be true to his name. He “won’t grow up”, at least not right now. Later today, when the sun comes out…if the sun comes out, I’ll harvest some tiny little squash, and see if it tastes like it should. I’ll let you know.

My cherry tomato plant looks a bit pathetic too. I know, I know. I should have waited to plant it. I was warned that the frost might kill it. Frost? Here? In February? Won’t happen. Well, it did happen, but I had bookmarked the weather channel’s web site, and knew it was coming. I covered my plants every time they said the temperature would bottom out. I also protected the blooms from hard rain. I purchased several yards of tulle fabric online and stretched it over the plants. I used plastic clothes pins to secure it in place. That was helpful, because those days when the rain was hard, so was the wind. They survived unscathed. Only my dwarf marigolds had any damage at all. Some of the leaves were a little crispy from the frost. No biggie. They recovered.

When it finally warms up a bit, I’m sure my summer veggies will recover too! I expect the tomato plant to bush out and give me lots of plump cherry tomatoes. The few it has produced so far have been very small, but delicious. Nothing, I repeat, nothing tastes better than homegrown tomatoes. My zucchini will go nuts, and give me enough fruit to share with my neighbors (that’s the plan). My pole beans are growing fast (although the leaves do not like the spring rain we have received the last three weeks). Beans can’t be far behind.

My lettuce is content with this odd weather, as are the carrots and the broccoli (which is on its third round of side shoots). But the happiest plants in my garden are my ornamentals. The geraniums love this weather. They have just enough cold to perk up the leaves and enough sun to encourage the flowers. Me? I need more sunshine to go outside to play!

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Inside Condo Garden. Who Knew?

It's raining today, so I'm really glad I drove up the coast yesterday to visit my friend, Bonnie. She moved from one condo to another recently, and I hadn’t seen her new place yet. She also has a solarium now and wanted advice on setting up a garden there. After a tour of her new home, we stood in her spacious solarium and made plans. Some of the area had once been a patio, and that part is covered with a solid surface. The rest of the roof and half way down the sides is glass attached by a sturdy metal frame. There are windows that open on three sides and two glass doors. She gets plenty of sunshine and, with the windows open, ocean breezes. The floor is a light colored tile. This place reminds me of a high-end green house and just begs for a garden.

Bonnie drove us to an enormous nursery in Costa Mesa. It's set up in what appears to have been a series of warehouses. It's a landscapers dream. Each room is filled with a different kind of plant or collection of gardening pots, tools, supplies and knickknacks. The areas between the buildings are covered with rows of ornamental and edible plants. It felt like Disneyland for garden lovers. After wandering around and discussing the various options and prices (ouch), Bonnie selected a decorative metal trellis. Very cute and great for pole beans now and snap peas later.

Then it was off to her local Lowe's home improvement store where I knew we would find pots with a more reasonable size, weight and price. When selecting pots, these are the most important criterion. Aesthetics count too, but being able to lift the pot without a fork lift or personal injury is critical to keeping gardening easy. We found a large selection of lightweight pots, many sizes, colors, and designs. What she liked best was the style I purchased. They are eighteen inch square Hampton “deck boxes”. The price has dropped to just under fifteen dollars. Sure beats the eighty dollar ones we had seen earlier. They are so light weight, that you could easily pick up several stacked inside each other with just one hand. She bought two of these for a tomato plant and pole beans. She also picked up a long narrow planter for herbs.

Next we went over to the bags of planting mix and found Mel’s Mix. This is also called Garden Time and/or Square Foot Garden Soil. We picked up two. Well, actually, a young strong male employee did the lifting; we just smiled, pointed, then pushed the cart inside the store where we found another employee to load up one bag of sandbox sand. When I was in my twenties and thirties I would have done the loading of the cart myself, but my lifting days are over. I don’t even try anymore! 

Back outside Bonnie selected her plants and a third employee helped load the trunk of her car. We asked him to put the big bags of mix on the bottom and the heavier bag of sand on top. I knew from experience that this would make unloading a snap. When we arrived back at Bonnie’s condo, she fetched a hand-truck from her garage, and we placed one of the plastic pots on the lifting surface. It was easy to slide the bag of sand into the pot and roll it into her solarium. We repeated the process with the bags of mix, and then unloaded the plants. Easy peasy! 

She is now ready to plant. The steps are just as easy.

1. Drill a hole in the bottom of each pot.
2. Place a small piece of panty hose inside the pot to cover the hole.
3. Scoop an equal amount of sand into each pot.
4. Fill the rest of the pot with Mel’s mix.
5. Make a small hole and insert a plant.
6. Water. 

A garden is born. Bonnie will need to water each morning and, when the weather finally stays warm around here (warm weather is taking its sweet time arriving this year), check the soil later in the day. Her garden is in a glass covered solarium. It’s possible that it could warm up enough in there to require a second watering on hot days. I know a few weeks ago when we had a few super hot dry afternoons; I needed to water a second time. Gardening inside requires space and light. Bonnie has both. Inside or outside, alone or with a friend, condo gardening is fun and easy.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Seventeen Essential Gardening Tools? Nah!

While I was reading the news online last week, I saw an article entitled, “Seventeen Essential Garden Tools”. Wow! Seveneen? What was I missing? I looked through the pictures, read the descriptions and thought they were pretty nifty. Unnecessary, but nifty. If I had a large garage, with a wall of pegboard, and I wanted to impress my neighbors, this would be a great start. But I don’t need them. If you’re gardening in a small space, like a patio, condo or apartment, you don’t either.

The picture above is my entire assortment of gardening tools. Okay, maybe purple gloves aren’t a tool, but they keep my nails clean. Oh, and the bucket, is that a tool? Maybe not, but it sure comes in handy. I don’t have a water supply where my garden is set up, so a five gallon paint bucket (from the home improvement store) takes care of my watering needs for the week. I fill it up with a large plastic pitcher on the weekend.

I used the green garden twine to help my peas climb a trellis when I started this garden in February. I’m using it again to help my pole beans do the same thing. The beans don’t need much help, but the twine fills in the gaps in the metal trellis I placed between the shoots when they first popped up. The two trellises I have are tall narrow arches made of metal. They will outlast all of us. I bought them on sale at a gardening supply store several years ago. They make the garden look tidy. That’s really helpful considering my garden is fully visible to my neighbors.

So that leaves just three essential garden tools: a trowel, a small pair of scissors and a plastic cup. You can find these anywhere. I had the trowel in a box in my storage cabinet. I lifted the scissors from my craft drawer and the cup was used by one of my grandsons at CPK. It came home partially filled with milk. A quick rinse and a garden tool was born.

After cutting up a pair of panty hose with the scissors and placing a piece over the drainage hole in the bottom of each pot, I used the plastic cup to fill each pot one third full of sandbox sand. This type of sand is clean, toxin free, and helps with drainage. I then used the cup to scoop potting soil into the pots. I use Mel’s Mix. This is also called Garden Time and/or Square Foot Gardening Soil. It is organic, doesn’t wear out and never needs fertilizer. It's one-third vermiculite, one-third moss and one-third compost. The compost is a mixture of five types, which gives the plants a variety of nutrients. Although I'll never have to replace the soil, I will add more compost after my crops are harvested. I buy this mixture in bags. It’s easier than making it myself. I’m into easy!

The trowel has been used to transplant the vegetables I buy in packs. I don’t start seeds indoors. It feels way too much like work, and who has room? When I’m planting seeds, like I did with my pole beans, I use the tip of the trowel to make a small hole, and cover the seeds with soil. Or, if I’m in the mood, I just use my finger (in the purple glove, of course). That’s it for the trowel. But the cup and the scissors aren’t finished. I use the cup daily to water each plant, and the scissors to harvest. This isn’t complicated stuff here. The tools are not unique or expensive. Just look at them. Don’t you have something like this in a drawer somewhere?

Until next time,

Elizabeth

We’re Having a Heat Wave...on the Third of May?

Okay, I would be worried except I know that water works miracles during a heat wave. Veggies don’t mind the heat. In fact, except for lettuce, they love it. We just have to keep the soil moist, so our plants don’t fry. (Now that’s an ugly thought.)  Here's a link to a useful site I use for watering needs.  It has been very helpful.  They take into consideration several variables such as wind and humidity and not just rain and temperature.  The site is far more accurate than I would be on my own. Just copy this address, and add your zipcode to the end.  http://www.weather.com/outlook/homeandgarden/garden/monthly/

This morning, dressed for work and barely awake, I went to my garden and soaked the soil. Total of five minutes. It hit 95° today, but everything looked fine when I checked my garden this evening. Whew! I would hate to lose my new plants before being able to eat some of them! Not to panic. This was easy, as it should be!

I haven’t forgotten that I promised to show you my tools, but I thought I would slip in these words of encouragement, since the weather decided to freak out on us! The forecast is for cooler temperatures this weekend. I plan on buying a new pot and some more soil. I was thinking that a few more pole beans and another tomato plant would be good. I have enough for me, but sharing with my neighbors would be so much more fun than keeping all the homegrown veggies to myself. Don’t you agree?

Until next time,

Elizabeth

Where Does My Garden Grow?

I found a sunny spot facing south a few steps outside my front door. It’s in a shared breezeway. That could be a concern, except that the walkway goes nowhere. No one ever uses the area, but you can see it from everywhere. Here was my only challenge in setting up my garden. It has to be pretty. I found several lightweight plastic pots at my neighborhood Lowe's home improvement store. Problem solved. They look like stone from a distance and are just the right size (fifteen inches square). At only $17.00 each I bought five. They are tall enough so I don’t have to squat to plant, water or harvest. Fabulous.

Finding just the right container is the only time consuming part of setting up your garden. It’s a one time activity though. So I suggest taking your time to get it right. I went to five or six stores before I found what I liked, but I’m picky. It might take you fewer trips. If your garden isn’t visible to your neighbors this won’t be an issue for you. It was for me, but it was time well spent. My neighbors are delighted. A once neglected area is now a lovely garden. These days, I not only harvest veggies, but compliments too.

Next time, I’ll show you my gardening tools (all three of them) and explain how I planted my garden. In the meantime, find a sunny spot nearby which receives six or more hours of direct sunshine each day.

Until next time,

Elizabeth

It's Spring. Let's Plant Something!

Spring has arrived at last. You can tell by all the ads for garden supplies on television. They must have hired a team of landscapers to set up all those garden beds for their photo shoots. There are also beautiful pictures online of gardens full of flowers and vegetables. Most are massive and take a ton of work! I know. I used to garden that way. I was young, inexperienced and full of enthusiasm. I simply got carried away.

I do things easier now. No more long garden rows or wide beds. No more trenching or turning over heaps of soil. No more shovels or pitch forks. I’m finished with fertilizing and endless weeding. I live in a condo, but the techniques I employ can be used anywhere. If you live in an apartment, townhouse or a single family home, you can use these techniques too. You won’t need a garden shed full of tools and supplies. All of mine fit on one shelf in my kitchen. Setting up your garden won’t take days or weeks, just a few hours. You won’t need hours on end to care for your garden either. I take about five minutes a day to visit my plants and give them a drink. Harvesting is accomplished with a small pair of scissors taken from my junk drawer. Simple.

Gardening in a shared living space, like a condo or apartment complex, will take a little creativity on your part. I know it did for me. I live on the third floor of a twenty-four unit condominium building. I have a fairly large balcony, but it’s covered and faces east. There are several very tall, mature trees between my balcony and the rising sun. The trees are gorgeous. I love the dappled shade they provide, but veggies need more sun. The community in which I live does have a community garden. I could sign up for a plot, but then I would have to drive to visit my plants each day. That’s not going to happen! Once I’m home from work, I’m not going anywhere, unless it’s to the movies or out to dinner.

Until next time,

Elizabeth