Square Foot Gardening in Paradise

If you could live anywhere and do anything, where would you live and what would you do? Would you move to Paradise? Would you like it? If you moved there, and you realized that it just wasn’t for you, would you stay or leave? I left. Hawaii is beautiful, but not for me. It wasn’t “Island Fever”. It was the pace of life. I really enjoy living in suburbia, as long as I can visit a city from time to time. But in Kapolei, suburbia is under construction, and in Hawaii, they take their time with construction. Not my style.

So I moved to a different Paradise, South Orange County, California. What do you know? There's a perfect place for an easy condo garden in the courtyard of my new home. I didn’t pick the home for the garden. It was just dumb luck. Or was it? Somehow, I seem to find places to garden wherever I go. At the side of my new home, there are even rose bushes. They were neglected, that’s for sure, but I think they will respond to a little attention and give me lovely blooms. It will be fun waiting to see who they are. Will Mr. Lincoln show up or Mon Cheri? There are ten of them. I’ll just have to wait to see.

This rectangular planter is in the courtyard in front of my home. When I first noticed it, it screamed “Lily pond”. I thought about that for a few weeks. I had a huge lily pond when I lived in Alta Loma. It was so much fun, but a little heartbreaking when a passing heron decided to snack on Spot, Pinky and Blue boy. Such a tragedy. Did I really want to worry about pets? They may just be fish, but they come when you call them and eat out of your hand. Feels like a pet to me. Nope. Veggies!

I wasn’t really sure if there was enough sun for growing vegetables in this spot, since the courtyard is surrounded by the walls of my home. But I placed a large potted geranium just to the left of the planter. It’s been there a few weeks and is healthy, with bright green leaves. It is also covered with clusters of gorgeous pink blooms. I went over to the Armstrong Garden Center nearby and spoke to a gentleman there. He assured me that if the geranium was producing lots of blooms, there was enough sunlight for my square foot garden. Fabulous.

That’s that. Decision made. First step, measure my new “Square Foot Garden”. This is easy, since the tiles are twelve inch squares. There are six tiles across the front and three tiles along the sides. Simple math, eighteen squares. Lots of room, just steps from my kitchen. There’s even a ready source of water, but ick. Something has to be done about the hose! Who wants to look at ugly? Next step, find something pretty to contain the hose!

Until next time,

Elizabeth

You Can't Take Them with You, But You Can Sell Them!

After going through closets, cabinets and shelves, and donating quite a bit to charity, it was time to part with more plants. Although I sold my container vegetable garden, I still had quite a few potted plants on my balcony and in the breezeway just outside the front door of my condo. I knew they had to go, and I don’t mean to Hawaii. That was definitely not going to happen. Moving from one state where agriculture is a significant factor in the economy to another where it ranks number two, just behind tourism, I knew that bringing live plants, especially those which had been grown in a home garden, would not be allowed. But, I knew exactly what to do.

I waited until a fairly sunny Thursday afternoon and went outside with my camera. I snapped a few shots, made a collage on my computer and hit print. I wrote “Moving Sale”, “Come Make an Offer” and my unit number on the four flyers.  I posted one on the bulletin board in each of the three laundry rooms in my building, and one on the bulletin board in the mailbox lobby.

I knew the building would be full of people on the weekend, so the chance that someone would see the flyers would be pretty high. I didn’t realize how much my neighbors enjoyed my gardening. Three separate families made offers. Two were disappointed. I accepted the first offer I received. On Saturday morning the family who made the first offer came to my door with cash and two hand trucks. Within minutes, my lovely potted plants had a new home, and I had one more task crossed off my “to do” list. 

Until next time,

Elizabeth

How to Sell a Condo Garden

Yes, you read that right. After going to Hawaii, I decided that living there was a good idea. This led me to creating a very long and detailed “to do” list. Tops on the list was what to do with my portable container garden? I thought about cleaning out the pots and shipping everything to the islands, but was that practical? No. That would be like paying for everything twice. Then, there is the question of, what if it doesn’t fit my new home or life style?

No, the smart thing to do would be to find another home for my easy condo garden.  Living in a condo complex means having a ready supply of buyers. This is especially true in an organized community like where I was living. There is even a television station devoted to the community which gives free advertising to residents who want to sell something to other residents. All I needed was someone who liked what they saw.

I took a picture of my garden, printed it out in color, and pasted it to the back of the information sheet provided by the “Trading Post” as the advertising segment of the community news is called. I noticed that the announcers held up the information sheets, and many people had printed their phone numbers on the back to help viewers write down their numbers. I simply placed my phone number just above the photo.

But this isn’t all I did. I also printed out enough pictures of my garden to place one on each lobby bulletin board in the eight neighboring three story buildings nearest my own. I thought that if neighbors saw where I was growing veggies in a building just like theirs, they would be interested. They were. A few neighbors came over and looked. They liked what they saw, but couldn’t figure out the logistics of moving the pots to their homes, or didn’t want to pay even my reduced price.

No problem. A few days after I placed the flyers I had made in the neighboring buildings, a security guard who worked in the community called. He had seen one of them and was interested. He came over and bought half of my containers, without even haggling over the price. We rolled them to the elevator, and he loaded them into the back of his truck. Two weeks later, he called and asked if I still had the rest of my pots. I did. He came back the same day, and bought them too. Selling my garden was as just easy as creating it.

I had enjoyed easy condo gardening near my front door. Selling it to someone who, like me, enjoys growing his own organic produce made parting with my garden less sad. But, I had Hawaii to look forward to, and closets to empty. I returned to my “to do” list, and gardening time became donate to charity time.

Until next time,

Elizabeth