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Garden Tips and Ideas Urban Gardening

Building Raised Garden Beds

 

I am a big fan of raised garden beds. They give you a real advantage when it comes to soil conditions, since you get to control the quality of their contents (think lots and lots of good compost). Our south garden consists of raised beds on top of nothing but rocks, and our plants thrive there! Raised beds can be constructed out of almost anything you can come up with, or even made with nothing at all (you can simply make large mounds of compost/soil over your existing space). Do a Google Image search for ‘raised garden beds’, and you will be amazed at the variety of beds that people come up with.

 

This is a good, basic article on some different ways to make raised garden beds.

 

How to Make a Raised Bed Garden

By Colleen Vanderlinden, About.com Guide

 

What is a Raised Bed Garden?

A raised bed garden is a garden built on top of your native soil, sometimes incorporating native soil, sometimes not. These gardens can be contained, such as when you build a wood or stone structure to keep the bed intact, or they can be more free form, with soil and amendments merely piled several inches high. You can plant anything from herbs and vegetables to perennials and shrubs in a raised bed.

Advantages of a Raised Bed Garden

Aside from avoiding the issue of gardening in poor soil, raised beds offer several advantages:

  • They warm more quickly in spring, allowing you to work the soil and plant earlier.
  • they drain better.
  • The soil in raised beds doesn’t get compacted, because they are constructed with accessibility in mind.
  • It’s easy to tailor the soil for your raised bed to the plants you plan to grow there.
  • After the initial construction process, less maintenance is required than there is for conventional garden beds.

How to Make a Raised Bed Garden

Contained raised beds are the most popular type, and they’re great for vegetable and herb gardens, as well as flower gardens. Fruits, such as strawberries, grapes, blueberries, andraspberries, also do very well in a this type of bed.

You can choose from a variety of materials to construct your frame. Wood is a very popular choice, because it is easy to work with and it is inexpensive. Concrete blocks, natural stone, or brick are also nice options, but there is definitely an added expense and labor to consider in using them. Some gardeners go the ultra-simple route, and simply place bales of hay or straw in whatever configuration they desire, then fill it with good soil and compost and plant it up. This solution will only give you a year or so of use, because the straw will decompose, but it’s worth trying if you don’t mind replacing the bales yearly, or if you’re still developing a more permanent solution.

Since most contained raised beds are constructed from wood, here are instructions for building your own wood raised bed garden.

Step One: Select your site. If you know that you’ll be growing vegetables or herbs, or sun-loving flowers in your new garden, select a site that gets at least eight hours of sun per day. A flat, level area is important, and you should also make sure that the area has easy access to water sources as well as room for you to work.

Step Two: Determine the size and shape of your garden. Make sure that you can access all parts of the garden without stepping into the bed. One of the main advantages of a raised bed is that the soil doesn’t get compacted the way it might in a conventional bed because they are planned for accessibility. It is a good idea to keep the garden to around four feet wide, because this way you can access the middle of the bed from either side. If you’re placing your bed against a wall or fence, it should be no more than three feet wide. Any length you like will work, as long as you keep the width in control. In terms of depth, six inches is a good start, and many vegetables grow well in a bed that is six inches deep. As with many things, though, if you can do more, more is better! Ten to twelve inches would be ideal. If you have decent subsoil (not too clayey or rocky) you can simply loosen the soil with a garden fork and build a six to eight inch deep bed. If your soil is bad, or you are planning to grow crops like carrots or parsnips that need a deeper soil, your bed should be at least ten inches deep.

 

Step Three: Prep Your Site. Once you know the size and shape of your bed, you can get to work prepping the site. How much prep you will have to do is determined by the depth of the bed you’re planning, as well as the plants you’re planning to grow there. If you are planning a vegetable or herb garden, a six-inch deep bed is perfect. To save yourself some labor, you can use newspaper, landscape fabric, or cardboard to cover and smother it, then put your soil and amendments right on top. However, to ensure that your plant’s roots have plenty of room to grow, it is a good idea to dig out the existing sod and loosen the soil with a shovel or garden fork to a depth of eight to twelve inches.

Step Four: Construct the Bed. Using rot-resistant lumber such as cedar or one of the newer composite lumbers, construct your bed. Two by six lumber is perfect, as it is easy to work with and will give you six inches of depth. Cut your pieces to the desired size, then attach them together to make a simple frame. You can attach them in a variety of ways. You can make a simple butt joint at each corner, pre-drilling and then screwing the corners together with galvanized screws. You can use a small piece of wood in the corner,and attach each side to it.

Step Five: Level Your Frames. Using a level, make sure your frame is level in all directions. This is a necessary step because if your bed is not level, you will have a situation where water runs off of one part of the garden and sits in another. If part of your frame is high, just remove some of the soil beneath it until you have a level frame.

Step Six: Fill Your Garden. The whole point of a raised bed garden is that it gives you the opportunity to garden in perfect soil. Take this opportunity to fill your bed with a good mixture of quality topsoil, compost, and rotted manure. Once they’re filled and raked level, you’re ready to plant or sow seeds.

Maintaining a Raised Bed Garden

Happily, raised beds require very little maintenance. Each spring or fall, it’s a good idea to top dress with fresh compost and manure, or, if your bed only holds plants for part of the year, go ahead and dig the compost or manure into the top several inches of soil. As with any garden, mulching the top of the soil will help retain moisture and keep weeds down. Moisture retention is important, because raised beds tend to drain faster than conventional beds.

Original Article found HERE

 

Categories
Garden Tips and Ideas

Fast Friday Tip: Sharpen Your Shovel

A sharpened shovel will make your life much easier in the garden.

 

All you need is a flat file. Keep it simple.

 

 

Lay your shovel flat on the ground and step on the neck to keep it steady. Use your file to gently push away from you at the tip of the blade at a 45 degree angle. Follow along the top until you have nice, shiny, sharpened metal edge. Turn the blade over to remove any burrs.

 

 

 

So easy a kid can do it-with supervision, of course! 🙂

 

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Uncategorized

Easy and Productive Herbs using Herb Spirals

I remember seeing the herb garden at FutureFarming’s headquarters last summer, and I noticed it was circular, surrounded by rocks, and with an apparent plan. It may have been planted with the ‘herb spiral’ in mind.

Herb Garden At Future Farming

 

What is an Herb Spiral?

Locate your herb spiral close to the kitchen for easy harvesting. | The Micro Gardener

Here are some nice examples, followed by a blueprint that shows where to place what herbs. It’s not too late to get this going for the summer!

Herb spiral with compass points. | The Micro Gardener

Giant herb spiral with 50m pathway. | The Micro Gardener

Herb spiral on a small allotment. | The Micro Gardener

Herb spiral within a raised bed. | The Micro Gardener

Click here to enlarge the blueprint, found on Wiki

 

File:Herb spiral.svg

This blog post at www.themicrogardener.com is what got me thinking about herb spirals!

Categories
Uncategorized

Toxic Chemicals Found in Thousands of Children's Products

The study, called Chemicals Revealed, identified over 5000 children’s products such as clothing, car seats and personal care products that include developmental or reproductive toxins and carcinogens.

“The data shows store shelves remain full of toxic chemicals that we know are a concern for children’s health,” said report author Erika Schreder, science director for the Washington Toxics Coalition.

Some examples include: Hallmark party hats containing cancer-causing arsenic, Graco car seats containing the toxic flame retardant TBBPA (tetrabromobisphenol A) and Walmart dolls containing hormone-disrupting bisphenol A.

Some other major findings from the reports include:

  • More than 5,000 products have been reported to date as containing a chemical on Washington State’s list of 66 Chemicals of High Concern to Children.
  • Products reported so far include children’s clothing and footwear, personal care products, baby products, toys, car seats, and arts and craft supplies.
  • Toxic metals such as mercury, cadmium, cobalt, antimony, and molybdenum were reported, with cobalt being the metal most often reported.
  • Manufacturers reported using phthalates in clothing, toys, bedding, and baby products.
  • Other chemicals reported include solvents like ethylene glycol and methyl ethyl ketone, and a compound used in silicone known as octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane.

You can view the full analysis of the reports here.

Categories
Book Review

Book Review: Urban Farms

Urban FarmsUrban Farms by Sarah Rich

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fun picture book for the wanna-be urban farmer. I love looking through the colorful, whimsical photos when my inspiration is running low.

I was really excited to see up-close-and-personal pictures of Novella Carpenter’s inner-city farm, because I find her personal story fascinating–I’ve read her books and it’s nice to put a visual to the work she chronicled so well in words. 16 farms are featured in this book in full, vivid color. The photos have creative flair, with fun closeups and interesting vantage points.

It’s encouraging that many of these urban farms do not have the look of perfection. There are raised beds falling apart but still functioning, straw and compost strewn about, stacks of pots waiting to be used, hoop houses that appear functional but definitely homemade, and a delicious sense of hodge-podge on nearly every page. Now and then a random flower pokes through, basking in the sunlight, or a pig rests by his homemade pen, looking pleased. Why does this appeal to me? Well, it’s enormously encouraging to see real urban farming and all it’s imperfect quirks because I feel like so many of my own personal projects just, well…look terrible. I can get lost in this book for a few minutes and gain new appreciation for my ‘happily cluttered’ garden adventures.

These bright and colorful photos remind me that the beauty lies not in immaculate rows of vegetation, but in the efficient function, the practicality of the urban farm layout. The spaces showcased in these photos have very little wasted space, and are great examples of polycultures, loaded with biodiversity. Also, it’s obvious that many of these urban farms have perfected the talent of repurposing objects for ingenious new uses.

Reading the stories of the farmers who tend these amazing enclosed food-havens is calming and inspiring. Because I dream of creating my own productive urban oasis, I feel a connection to these visionaries.

This would be a nice book to keep on the shelf to gain inspiration whenever you need it. Open to any page and feel an instant sense of peace and purpose

Categories
Urban Gardening

Fast Friday Tip: Pea Seedlings

I have not had very good luck with transplanting peas, but peas are so much fun for kids to start inside. I found this cool tip in a book called How To Grow Food, and I think we will definitely try it! It may be too late to try it this year, for we can actually plant our peas directly at this point in the season. But I wanted to get this idea down for future reference so I wouldn’t forget.  –Andi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Urban Gardening

Unruly Teenage Tomatoes and the Potato Party

Originally posted by Andi at Little*Big*Harvest

Is this a sign that we planted our precious tomato seedlings a bit too early?

These plants have grown so big, that they began falling over last week. If you look carefully, you’ll see we had to rig a twine and tape system to hold them up against the window, along with wooden-skewer stilts tied to some of the stems to help hold them!

In the back of my mind, I often compare seedlings to children. You spend so much time nurturing them in their little nurseries during the late winter, like newborns. You fuss over them, worry about them, rejoice when they grow strong and tall, and lose sleep when they are having difficulties. Eventually the young plants you raised will be transplanted out in the world, where it will be up to them to prove productive and happy.

Well, if the analogy is applied to our tomatoes, they are teenagers–albeit late teens–who have outstayed their welcome home. They should have been out in the world on their own weeks ago. I will not kick them out, because the weather is still bitter at night (waiting for the ‘magic’ plant date of Mother’s Day). But wow. They are entirely too big to still be at home. We thought about getting out to the garden and setting up a cover system with pvc piping and plastic, but money is tight as well as time. We are going to hold out. When it comes time to transplant them, we’ll have to dig deep to provide some support to those long, long stems. I know that last year when it came time to transplant outside, our tomatoes were only about a third this tall. Another interesting development that these teenage behemoths are boasting? They are attempting to make tomatoes already! Look at one of the blooms I found.

In other Little Harvest news, we have decided to plant potatoes. This week we had a potato planting party!

There are so many great ideas for planting potatoes in small spaces. The trick is to keep covering them with soil or compost or rotting leaves/straw (whatever organic material you have on hand, basically) as they grow.  The same holds true whether planting in the ground or in a container. In order to keep burying the growing potatoes, you want to plant them at the bottom of something large. I have been on the lookout for the perfect large container for a few months. I wanted a washtub-style container, or whiskey barrel. Some old tires would have been great (stacking and filling with soil as the potatoes grow). But this giant white plastic pot will hopefully do the trick. I found it by chance at the dollar store at a deep discount, since it has a small crack at the top, which I knew would not effect our potato growing plans at all.

We have not purchased seed potatoes. I have already talked to a seasoned gardener in my family who has told me I MUST buy seed potatoes. Well, we had a bag of organic potatoes that were no longer fit for making lunch, and the sprouts coming out of them seemed to be begging to be put somewhere that they could keep growing. I have a stubborn streak, and being told I must do something a certain way only invites my effort to try a different (and cheaper) way!

 

Before heading outdoors, the kids and I examined the sprouty potatoes. “Gross” and “Weird” and “Scary” were the words I heard most as they touched and looked at the potatoes. I encouraged words like “Awesome” and “Amazing!” How amazing is it that these old potatoes want to grow into new ones?

We cut two of the sprouts off one of the potatoes, leaving some potato flesh with it. We put the rest of the potatoes in the cold garage, thinking we might find more places to plant them later. We then headed out (on a VERY windy day, mind you) and collected some compost. Oh, that rich, wonderful homemade soil! We marveled at the fact that each one of us remembered putting vegetable peelings, straw, and other old stuff, and here it was, transformed at the bottom of our compost ball.

 

You can see our unruly tomatoes hanging out in the window behind us!

 

About to blow away in the wind!!!

As I mentioned above, just a small amount of soil in the bottom of the pot will do. Place the potato bits in, sprouts faced up to the sky, and cover the sprouts with a thin layer of soil. As the sprouts grow through, add soil over the growing plant, leaving just a couple of green leaves poking out into the sun. In this way, the potato plant will grow up into the soil and create many roots. Lots of roots will eventually grow lots of potatoes!

We have high hopes for our new venture. If this proves successful, I’ll be on the lookout for suitable containers for more potato growing!

Categories
Urban Gardening

A Year In The Garden

This Los Angeles family made an awesome video of their urban garden. It’s quick and fun, you’ve got to watch it! It’s proof that much food can be produced even in tiny, urban spaces.

 

 

Categories
Urban Gardening

Monsanto ‘Owned’ Heirloom Seednames to Watch Out For

Are you happily buying seeds and plants for this year’s garden? Please print the list in this article and keep it in your wallet. Every time a plant or seed packet calls your name (especially at big box garden centers), refer to the list and try to avoid these varieties. The most ideal thing to do is to know your seed source (I adore SeedSaversExchange and Baker’s Creek), but I also understand the allure of the beautiful seedlings and racks of seeds found everywhere in spring. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that my favorite dollar store seed (American Seed) is actually a Monsanto company. If you have leftover seeds, go ahead and plant them, but don’t buy any more if at all possible. It makes me sick just how many different ways Monsanto has tried to ‘own’ our food sources.

Scroll down for printable list of plants and seeds. Click on this LINK to see another great list of all seed companies owned by Monsanto, as well as a ‘safe’ list–you may be shocked by all the familiar names. 🙁 Keep yourself aware and informed about where your seeds/plants originate. Any way that we can all STOP supporting Monsanto, the better!

First of all, Monsanto or nobody else can actually OWN these varieties of seed, but as developers of some of these varieties and as suppliers of them under many different companies it can be hard to tell who owns what.  It does not stand to reason that any crop of these varieties growing today or anytime in the future will be genetically modified in any way.  Some of these varieties can be found without any continuing connection to Monsanto or Seminis but it is important to be a little more cautious with these.

If you are the type of gardener who purchases vegetable seeds or seedlings, including tomato plants from a local garden center, be mindful the varieties you choose. Conversely, you might be placing money into the hands of Monsanto Corporation. Below is the list of Seminis/Monsanto home-garden vegetable variations.  It’s often best to buy directly from seed farmers and companies that you can trust (you can find many of them here)

Print this list, and keep a copy in your wallet. Don’t be caught off guard the next time you impulse shop at a big-box garden center.

The seed varieties you have obtained as “heirlooms” from heirloom or organic seed companies are “NOT” GMO seeds, even though they are officially “owned” by Monsanto. As far as we know, the only GMO vegetable seeds available for sale today are new hybrid varieties of zucchini and summer squash, so be sure you order these from certified organic suppliers.

Please understand that Monsanto only owns the trademark names for these “heirloom” varieties. This stretegic move holds two advantages for Monsanto:

1.) prevents new companies from naming new varieties with these or very similar names.

2.) it is an effort to stop lucrative sales by these other companies trying to leverage the heirloom name and consumer loyalty for those heirloom varieties.

If you have left over seeds, do not be reluctant to plant them. Monsanto will only profit from customers purchasing these varieties from companies that are stocking seeds obtained directly from Monsanto or one of its distributors.

Beans: Aliconte, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, Gina, Goldmine, Goldenchild, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Storm, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema

Broccoli: Coronado Crown, Major, Packman

Cabbage: Atlantis, Golden Acre, Headstart, Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty

Carrot: Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Koroda PS, Royal Chantenay, Sweetness III

Cauliflower: Cheddar, Minuteman

Cucumber: Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76, Mathilde, Moctezuma, Orient Express II, Peal, Poinsett 76, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel, Lavender Touch, Twinkle, White Lightening

Hot Pepper: Anaheim TMR 23, Ancho Saint Martin, Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Caribbean Red, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichen Itza, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Habanero, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierro, Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot, Ixtapa X3R, Lapid, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Mucho Nacho brand of Grande, Nainari, Serrano del Sol brand of Tuxtlas, Super Chile, Tam Vera Cruz

Lettuce: Braveheart, Conquistador

Melon: Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno

Onion: Candy, Cannonball, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Vision

Pumpkin: Applachian, Harvest Moon, Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Phantom, Prize Winner, Rumbo, Snackface, Spirit, Spooktacular, Trickster

Spinach: Hellcat

Squash: Ambassador, Canesi, Clarita, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Papaya Pear, Peter Pan, Portofino, President, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM

Sweet Corn: Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obession, Passion, Temptation

Sweet Pepper: Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Biscayne, Blushing Beauty, Bounty, California Wonder 300, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Cubanelle W, Dumpling brand of Pritavit, Early Sunsation, Flexum, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West, King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight, Satsuma, Socrates, Super Heavyweight, Sweet Spot

Tomato: Amsterdam, Beefmaster, Betterboy, Big Beef, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Early Girl, Granny Smith, Health Kick, Husky Cherry Red, Jetsetter brand of Jack, Lemon Boy, Margharita, Margo, Marmande VF PS, Marmara, Patio, Phoenix, Poseidon 43, Roma VF, Royesta, Sun Sugar, Super Marzano, Sweet Baby Girl, Tiffany, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui

Watermelon: Apollo, Charleston Grey, Crimson Glory, Crimson Sweet, Eureka, Jade Star, Mickylee, Olympia

 

Categories
Urban Gardening

Blinded By The Light

Our makeshift growlight, that is!

Noah the mini-gardener

 

 

Yes, I know. I’ve boasted for 2 growing seasons now that I don’t need a growlight. That by rotating my precious seedlings from windowsill to windowsill throughout the day to catch maximum sunlight, my seedlings have done just fine. But the sun has decided to absolutely disappear for much of the time the past few weeks, and it’s been bad news for my baby Amish Paste tomatoes. They began to droop, bend over, and in general look very, very sick.

 

 

very sad and droopy baby tomato

 

I panicked. My first ER action was to dose them with some fish emulsion, diluted (1 t. in about 4 cups of water). After watching them for over a day and seeing that didn’t give them a magic boost, I transplanted them all into larger spaces, in case their roots were not getting enough room to breathe.

 

before: tiny, messy homes
after: bigger and cleaner-looking rooms..ahhhhh

 

 

Start a gardening hobby and say goodbye to perfectly manicured nails

 

 

I gave them a day in their new, larger homes and still saw little improvement. It hit me, in a sudden ‘lightbulb’ moment, that the sunlight had not been strong at all for days.

 

I don’t have the cash to plunk out on some special growlight system (I’m saving pennies for other precious items, like a soaker hose). I thought to myself, ‘hey, I’ve got this florescent fixture over the kitchen sink…I wonder if it would help? I mean, how different is a regular florescent light from a special growlight available for substantial bucks at the garden center?’

 

After a quick search in the garage, I came up with a setup that would get my plants close to the light source. 2 five gallon buckets (which, incidentally, still smelled of the apples I stored in them during apple picking season–I had to stop for a moment to breathe in that wonderful nostalgia), a shelf borrowed from one of our toyshelves in the toyroom, and my seed container (appropriate use for that, or what!). I also found an empty food container of the right size to boost the seedlings up just a bit more–right up to the light.

 

 

 

This setup has worked wonders. Within one day under the lights, our plants grew noticeably,  and they looked happier and healthier. They have reached up toward those florescent photons like their little lives depended on it. The closer I can get those babies to the light the better–in fact I read it’s okay to let the leaves actually touch the light. The less effort the leaves have to make to get to the light, the more energy they can put into growing thicker instead of upwards.

 

I been putting the plants in the windowsills any day that we have strong sunlight, but those days have been very far and few between. So, they spend a lot of time under our little growlight system. I’ve had to remove the extra container by now, and soon will have to lower the plants even more, because they are growing so big.

 

Although it’s taken some getting used to, working around the baby tomatoes is not a big deal. I spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink, so I’m getting to know each plant by heart,  at my eye level. The light has always been a little too bright for me, and at just the right angle that my eyes hurt a bit when standing at the sink, but if it’s helping the plants survive, I’ve got new tolerance for it. Leaving it on for the plants has been a challenge–I’m one of those mamas who seems to be constantly turning off unneeded lights left on by someone. I have to stop myself as I reach to turn out that kitchen sink light…it is now serving a very good purpose! And, I didn’t have to go out and spend any more money that I don’t have on this gardening adventure.

 

Baby tomatoes keep me company while washing unending piles of dishes

 

Take a peek at how wonderful our tomatoes look now, after bigger pots, a little fish emulsion, and a week under our growlight:

 

 

 

Originally posted by Andi at LittleBigHarvest