I’ve added a review of a new piece of software I’m using to plan my gardens. It is pretty cool, with a drag-n-drop interface, number of plants required, row spacing, when to plant and harvest, and e-mail reminders of up-coming tasks. Click the header link to see my review.
Tag Archives: home gardening
YouTube – Taking Out the Grass
YouTube – Taking Out the Grass.
Santa Barbara’s Billy Goodick and Owen Dell have created a theme song for the Food Not Lawns movement. Check it out, and don’t forget to give it a thumbs up rating!
At Agriculture Department, the Proof Is in the Planting – washingtonpost.com
In another sign that the Department of Agriculture is embracing sustainable food, the agency today will unveil expanded plans for a People’s Garden that will include the entire six-acre grounds of the Whitten Building, the department’s neoclassic marble headquarters on the Mall.
via At Agriculture Department, the Proof Is in the Planting – washingtonpost.com.
How Much Can a Garden Save You? – WSJ.com
“You can easily triple your investment.” That’s better than any of my mutual funds have done lately.
So says the Wall Street Journal. The surprise? Your best investment – it is your back yard. Grow food, save money…
Growing a Greener World with Joe Lamp’l > 021 Growing a Greener World with Joe Lamp’l – Victory Gardens: An interview with nationally recognized authority, Rose Hayden-Smith…
This week Joe Lamp’l talks Victory Gardens with nationally recognized expert on the subject, Rose Hayden-Smith. In this episode we discuss their history, the recent surge in popularity, and what the government is doing today to promote their sustainability.
Introduction
Hi everybody, it’s Joe Lamp’l and Welcome to Growing a Greener World. Well if you love to garden and spend time outdoors, and really care about environmental stewardship, you’ve come to the right place.
Well, not since the early forties has there been so much talk about Victory Gardens. But with a downturn in the economy, the responsibility to feed our families healthier, chemical free food, and our desire to live more sustainable lives, growing our own groceries is back in the spotlight. In fact, 7 million more people will have a food garden this year for the first time, raising the new total to 43 million people. That’s a 19% increase over the previous year, according to the National Gardening Association.
Today we’ll talk to one of the foremost authorities on Victory Gardens, Rose Hayden-Smith to learn about their history and more on why they are so popular today, and are they here to stay?
Click the link blow to read the whole article
Click here to go to the interview audio file
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A brief lesson in soil prep and planting
Here is the basic crash course in area prep and planting in southern California soils:
Our soil is young and rich; all the minerals it need are there. Some are suppressed because the soil is alkaline, but nitrogen is soluble and always fairly low. You counteract the low nitrogen by adding (mildly) nitrogen rich compost or manures (not really that high in nitrogen, but possibly high in salts as well), or growing ‘green manures’ – nitrogen fixing beans, peas, clover, etc.
You can add agricultural sulfur to the soil before you work it up to slightly change the pH; this is a slow but long term treatment. Other sweetening amendments or mulches include pine needles or peat moss (note: peat moss comes at a an environmental cost – I’m trying to move away from it). Lawn and garden chemical fertilizers also acidify the soil, soil if you are just going organic, your soil is probably good as it is.
Here is the theory: You start off correcting compaction through working amendments into the ground to get the soil particles loose enough to allow air into the soil. You create whatever sort of raised bed you want (they help keep root zones from getting saturated), cover them with mulch and / or compost, and put in the plants. After that, the roots penetrate the soil further loosening it, and the mucilage they secrete binds the soil into clumps giving it what is referred to as ‘structure’. Worms are attracted to the growing areas and the dead roots from previous crops, and as they loop up to the surface and feed on the bottom of the mulch layer, they carry than material back into the deeper part of the soil.
In its extreme form, called ‘permiculture’, you NEVER till the soil – you let the roots, bacteria, fungi and worms do all the work. I work mine up every few plantings, and then only to work in more compost or reshape the beds. As long as you NEVER walk on the beds, especially when they are wet, they will develop a light fluffy consistency all on their own.
Now that you have a good garden soil, transplanting the baby plant from the pots or 6-packs is pretty easy. Garden plants fall into two categories, either potatoes and tomatoes, or everything else. Potatoes and tomatoes grow extra roots from their stems, and can be cover to the bottom of the first leaves (in the case of tomatoes) or progressively up the stems (in the case of potatoes).
All other plants get planted with the soil level of the container at or above the soil line. Do not dig the holes deeper than the root ball. All that does is let the root crown sink below ground level. Put the plant in the hole, scoop the excess dirt in around it and (gently) firm it down around the root ball. Water them well to allow the back-fill to settle into firm contact with the transplant.
Do not add any amendments to the back-fill material. Plant the root balls directly in their new native soil. Amendments in the back-fill just add a layer of insulation that prevents the newly plated roots from getting the moisture in the soil.
For more how-to information, please visit my web site, gardening-coaches.com
Growing Vegatbles in southern Califonia
I have added some informative new videos from the California Master Gardener’s video series produced by UCCE. Topics include two videos on home gardening, two on home orchards, and two on weed control. The videos are on this page…
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Update…
This site contains interesting stuff I run across relating to gardens, especially Victory and Community Gardens, and with science-based gardening information on when to plant veggies, recommended varieties, plant symptoms and their causes, book and tools, etc..
Click here to visit the Camarillo Community Garden web site or its discussion forum
Click here to visit myGardening Coacheswebsite.
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