Garden Coach

Vegetable gardens in back yards haven’t seen such popularity since the Victory Gardens of World War II. The problem created by that 60+-year gap in gardening is a major shortage of people with knowledge and experience.

The relatively few of us who have been gardening for many years find ourselves inundated with questions and e-mails from people needing information on every subject from soil preparation, fertilizers and starting seeds, to getting rid of aphids and rats. Some want more extensive help, from “how to” start a garden to re-building cutely designed, but non-functional, raised beds. None of it is at all complex or difficult, but it does take some learning.

In my observations of people who start gardens for the first time, the foremost problem is simply a lack of confidence. That someone has a “green thumb,” and someone else doesn’t, is silliness. You either want to do it and know you can, or you give up at the first setback. A “green thumb” is nothing but the commitment and desire to have the freshest, best organic food possible for your family. With information and help available on the I-net, answers to every possible problem or question abound. Some of the data is non-sense; some garden gadgets and products don’t work-but make money for the sellers. I’ve been duped more than once myself.

Ten thousand years ago people first began domesticating animals. Since they didn’t have to constantly follow the herds of wild animals, they began staying in one place long enough to also begin growing plants for food. By 5,000 years later, the Greeks had pretty well mastered vegetable growing and were even using raised beds for greater production. The gimmicks and gadgets available today, the powerful deadly pesticides, the “revolutionary” new methods, are really unnecessary. Gardening is simple, easy, and if you have a little understanding, it’s a total joy.

Problem solving is part of the activity. Every once in awhile I encounter a pest or other kind of problem that I’ve never had to deal with. When I do, I have a good idea how to handle it. It always comes right back to the basics of keeping it simple-and organic.

People with no experience at vegetable growing hire me from time to time, either to build gardens for them, to examine their gardens advise them on how to solve a problem, or how to actually get their vegetables plants to produce vegetables.

Not much is more rewarding to me than to help someone produce his or her own organically grown food. It not only helps them, the environment is well served.

Answers for your Questions

(I have at least 100 of these.)
Q. About organic seeds

I get most of my seeds from www.groworganic.com.
More and more retailers are carrying organic seeds, but be sure you see the "Certified Organic" emblem on the package. Man has not genetically modified any that are “certified organic”.
Such certification even precludes hybrid seeds, of which I do use some. They may be organically grown, but as they're a hybrid, they can't be certified as "organic."
One of my favorite things is yellow zucchini. I don't like green, but love the yellow--which is a hybrid.
I also get some seeds from www.totallytomatoes.com, but many of theirs are also hybrids. They do carry a variety of certified organic seeds as well.
I think both companies are extremely ethical.

Q. About legumes
* Alfalfa hay will serve just as well as legumes. I'd use about 1 lb. per sq. ft. of bed surface area. It's hard to dig in, but don't worry about it all being covered. You'll have some stems and strands of it here and there on the surface-no worries. If you can dig in 2 lbs. per sq. ft., so much the better. If you thoroughly shake it up as you spread it over the surface it will be easier to dig into the soil. After digging it in, thoroughly saturate the bed, and if you can cover it with 6 ml clear plastic for a week or two, sealing the edges as well as you can so that the heat build up doesn't escape, it will really speed up the composting of the alfalfa. You can get the 6 ml clear plastic in the paint section - under drop cloths. Be sure you get the 6 ml. The box contains a sheet 10' X 25,' in a roll. I re-use it and it generally holds up for 2-3 seasons before it starts to break down. Clear plastic allows the suns rays to radiate deeply into the soil, while the black plastic only heats the surface.
* I'd mix any kind of compost-the cheapest is about as good as the most expensive, and even though the label says "Organic," it isn't--about half and half with bags of topsoil. Again with top soil, I wouldn't fall for the promo. Nobody regulates compost or topsoil to certify that it's organic. I'd try to buy any that comes from a reputable source. You'll be okay with that. Then mix in your alfalfa, the meals as below and you'll be fine.
* Mr. Bartholomew may not be aware that the roots of most vegetables are within 12" of the surface. If you have 2' of topsoil, you'll be much better off. Realize that if you put the mixture he calls for to a depth of 6", by the end of the season that 6" will have settled to 3". That also means that 2 ft. of mix described above will settle to about 15-18" by the end of the season. Vermiculite and all the "lites" have no nutrient value to the soil. Alfalfa hay will accomplish the same purpose of creating air space and moisture retention.
* This year I'm using "Super Guano" for nitrogen, and "fish bone meal" for phosphorous and calcium. The kelp meal is very important for the loads of trace minerals-mostly long absent from our soils generally. I get all of those from www.groworganic.com I buy it in quantities that last for 2-3 yrs, for the economy of it, but you may not have storage space to do that.
* If you use plenty of alfalfa, no worries about the worms. They love the stuff, and believe me, they'll find it. I've never worried about the worms, never added any, etc.
* I've tried the various brands of drip equipment, but the only one I'd recommend is Rain Drip. OSH carries it, but I don't think Ho. Depot does. Just be careful to get all the right size fittings. If you get the 1/2" feeder line, be sure to get 1/2" parts. They often mix the 1/2" parts with the 5/8" parts--and it creates nightmares when you try to put it together.
* No, I'd never use a timer. Some veg's take more, some take less, and some parts of my yard get more sun than others, so the evaporation rate varies. I almost always use a "moisture meter," but also check by digging down a bit, just so I know that the meter means what I think it means.
It depends on the heat and humidity-and which veg's need more or less water, as to how often I water. Sometimes I won't need to water my tomatoes for 10 days or so, at other times I may need to water them every 2-3 days. Generally I leave the water on for no more than 30-40 minutes, whether I water every 2-3 days, or once a week. It really just depends on the bed itself, and what's growing there.
Nothing elementary about your questions, Christy! Good ones, all. Don't get intimidated by the complexities and don't fall for the gimmicks--it's really very simple. I've seen some TV shows, and read parts of some books on gardening that truly amaze me, some that were absolutely hysterical; all done with a straight face.
Keep it simple and you'll have fine results. Let me know any questions or problems? Always glad to help.
Best Regards,


Q. About fertilizers
Yes, exactly the same fertilizers on everything. I only add some dry milk--a handful in a 3 gal. bucket, and feed the tomatoes about 2 gal. ea., once after they've been in the ground a week or two, and another feeding of that when they're starting to produce. It's not really necessary, probably, but it's an old habit I picked up in the beginning, before my soil was at all prepared right and I thought I could grow something in clay. It's a cure for blossom end rot-- that I've not had in 25 years.
I add my fertilizers early in the spring, when I first turn over my beds getting ready for spring planting--a week or two before I plant, and I do the same again, in the fall, after the summer plants are over, preparing the beds for fall crops and legumes.
That's Black Seeded Simpson lettuce. I've found that it handles the heat and the cold better than any other leaf lettuce--and it's our very favorite, too! I buy it by the 1/4 lb. from www.groworganic.com, for about $10. If you buy the little packages, you pay about $2. for a few seeds-I'd need 4-5 packages to plant a bed the size of the one in the photo. A 1/4 lb. will plant 20 beds that size, so it's a huge savings. (Always keep your seeds in the fridge.)


Q. About white flies
White flies are tough. They can be controlled with rubbing alcohol-about 1/2 cup to a one qt. spray bottle of water, and add about a teaspoon of liquid detergent. You'll need to spray them every day. If they're on your vegetables, don't spray during the heat of the day, as you might burn the plants. Evening would be the best time. You could also just use a fairly strong spray of water and wash them off. Whichever way you go, they'll need to be sprayed every day for a while. (If you use the alcohol and detergent, just try a small area of the plants to see if it's going to burn them before spraying everything.)
Horn worms--and all the green caterpillars, are much more easily handled. "Bacillus Thurengiensis, Kurstaki strain," is the active ingredient you're looking for. "Safer" is the brand I see just about everywhere organic products are sold. It says, "Caterpillar Killer" on the label, comes in a concentrate in a small, dark green plastic bottle. Use about a tablespoon in a 1 qt. spray bottle, and it'll do the job. It's a bacteria, and apparently it pretty much lasts forever. I think this is the 3rd year I'm using one little bottle, and it's still working just fine. I use it on my lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, etc., and just don't have a problem with any of the green devils.
It's harmless to any other pests or beneficials, completely non-toxic, etc., but you won't have any caterpillar problems. I spray anything susceptible to caterpillars about once a week early in the year. As summer progresses, I find I just don't need to use it at all.
Let me know how you do with that?

One Dark Night...

He died at 94 from burn complications suffered while carrying furniture out of his burning house. His father fought for Dixie in the Civil War and let Jesse and his gang hide out on his farm in Missouri after one of their bank robberies in a nearby town. His son, my grandfather, died of natural causes at the age of 94. They smoked, they drank, and they raised their own food, every bit of it. If chemicals were ever available for their farming and gardening, they wouldn’t have been able to afford them, even if they might have stooped to use them.
I’ve had cancer, heart disease and cluster headaches over 2 protracted periods. I’m 67. My blood pressure is normal, no cholesterol problems, and the heart disease that haunted me for 15 years disappeared over 30 years ago. I’m a “long term cancer survivor.” I’ve smoked for 50 years; have a glass of with dinner. Dinner usually includes some kind of meat, be it chicken, fish, pork or beef. Still I can outrun, out jump, out walk, out fight, out cuss, out lie and out talk at least 95% of fellows my age, most of them purer than I. I’ve lived longer than my father, one grandfather, 2 brothers and 2 uncles. Good genes? Certainly. Good eating habits? Dubious. But the meat I eat is as pure as it can be in this world, and the vegetables I’ve been eating for 25 years have been grown in my front and back yards—as purely organic, nutrient laden and as fresh as any that exist anywhere in the world.
When I read about e-coli killing people and destroying lives, see poisonous pesticides freely sold and used on lawns, landscaping and vegetables, kids eating junk food 3 times a day, with 1/3 of them condemned to some form of diabetes, I wonder when we the people, will say, “Enough!”
Now I read that the oil and chemical companies, in hand with the drug makers, the pharmaceutical companies, have been given a free pass by our elected congressional “Representatives” on their deadly “medicines.” They can kill and maim any or all of us they want and not be held accountable. That’s because the “Scientific” community has deemed some fraud like “swine flu,” an “epidemic,” and some kind of “national emergency.”
“Our food should be our medicine,” said Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. What have we done to our families, and ourselves and what power over our own lives have we given up?
Every medicine in use today is experimental. Every one of them is “experimental.” And yet somebody who says they’re an “expert” tells us we need them. We, like sheep, buy them.
I’ll continue my wicked ways, grow my own non-toxic vegetables and I’ll personally take care of whatever meat my family and I use. I know how to buy untainted meat and properly handle it. There hasn’t been a toxic chemical in my vegetable beds in the 25 years it’s been since I built them. And I, for one, won’t ‘go quietly into this dark night.’

Best time to plant a Garden

Now is the time to start.
While my garden is a year round activity because of our southwestern climate, most are not. From the time our favorite summer vegetables are over for the season, until spring planting time, I concentrate on nourishing the soil. I'll plant beets, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, carrots and such things in about half my beds. In the other half I'll spread a pound or two of alfalfa, or alfalfa meal, for each square foot of bed. I'll add the amount of bone meal, kelp meal and fishmeal indicated on the package labels, dig it all into the soil and saturate the soil with water.
When whatever vegetables I had in the other half my beds come out, I’ll nourish those beds the same way, and usually then plant “cool weather crops” such as above, in the beds that were first fully fertilized.
After a few days, I scatter legume (beans, peas, etc.) seeds by hand, and spread a thin layer of straw or shredded alfalfa over that, just enough to cover them, and water it down. They'll grow well through our colder months. Just as the legumes start to blossom, I'll chop them up and dig them into the soil. The roots will be laden with nitrogen, and the green legumes dug into the soil will feed the earthworms, fungi, molds and other microorganisms that are vital to healthy soil. Then cover the bed with a sheet of 6 mil (millimeter) plastic (available in any hardware store) and put rocks in enough places around the edges to hold it down until planting time.
Clear plastic will allow the sun’s rays to radiate deeply into the soil. The soil will get very hot when the green organic matter starts composting, and the heat can’t escape because of the plastic sheeting. When the soil cools off, but is still somewhat warm, I’m ready to plant. Usually two weeks under the plastic will do the job. If I want the soil to cool off completely, I’ll remove the plastic several days prior to planting.
If you have only one growing season, you probably want to make the most of it. As soon as last year’s garden is over, that’s the perfect time to get the bed ready for spring planting. By the time spring comes, all that organic matter will have broken down into a rich compost, complete with a replenishment of vitamins and minerals to the soil. (Follow the package suggestions on any of the organic meals [fish, bone, kelp, etc.] you use, as some recommend application every 6 months. You may want or need to re-apply those in the week or two before planting.)
You’ll have the best garden on the block!

Organic?

You feel good when you buy organic food or cosmetics. It says on the beautiful green package that it’s, "Pure & Natural,” “Organic," “Nature’s” or some such. How can you go wrong?
Some “Jason, Pure & Natural Organic” products contain 1,4- Dioxane, a known carcinogen, right along with ‘Giovanni Organic Cosmetics,’ “Kiss My Face” and “Nature’s Gate Organics,” according to findings by the Organic Consumers Association. Of course action is being taken against these unscrupulous characters, but correction is very slow where big profits are at stake.
How do you know what you’re buying isn’t toxic or carcinogenic?
Look for the round circle emblem that says, USDA (US Dept. of Agriculture) in the upper half of the circle, and Organic, in the lower half of the circle. So far, not one product certified by the USDA as organic, has been found not to be exactly that in tests regularly conducted by the Organic Consumers Association.
A number of lawsuits have been settled and more are in progress to stop companies-even huge companies, from stating, representing or implying on the package that a given product is organic, while it knowingly contains carcinogens and/or other toxic chemicals. There are more of such products on the shelves of every food store than we suspect.
Some of Whole Foods own brands, labeled “organic,” knowingly contain carcinogenic and/or toxic chemicals. Lawsuits are pending that will no doubt change that very soon.
You find products with "Organic" boldly stated on the label, products beautifully packaged in green wrappers, implying all the buzz words, "Natural," "Nature's," and so on. If it doesn't have the circle that says USDA over the word Organic, you can bet your lunch money that it isn’t.
If the product were truly organic, the producer of the product would certainly go to the trouble of coming under the USDA organic standards necessary to become certified by the USDA, or one of its licensed certifiers.
If you’re going to pay more for an organic product, now you know how to be sure that it is truly organic.

Recipe for Eggplant Parmigiana

1 large eggplant (about 1.5 lbs.)
2 beaten eggs
1.5 cups cracker crumbs (ground [with a rolling pin] Saltine crackers seasoned with garlic powder, basil, and oregano. (Any type of Italian seasonings you like)

2 cups of Melissa’s spaghetti sauce
1 lb. Havarti cheese, sliced
1 lb. Cheddar cheese, sliced
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Wash eggplant and cut crosswise in ½ inch slices. Dip into beaten egg, coat with seasoned crumbs. Place on platter and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (Sometimes Lee does this the day or night before he’s going to fry it.)

Fry eggplant on both sides until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Spread 1/3 of sauce in 12x8x2 pan. Put a layer of eggplant, then a layer of Havarti and a layer of Parmesan. Repeat, starting with a layer of sauce, then a layer of eggplant, layer of Cheddar, Parmesan sprinkled over all. Repeat layers.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

***Lee makes this in much larger pans. The recipe is very forgiving as far as ingredients go. If you make this one a few times you will have the hang of what the proportions are and then go wild after that! :)***

LEE NOTES:
My slavish attention to recipes notwithstanding, I don’t pay attention to much of the above. I spoon the sauce right out of the jar, just slightly covering the bottom of the pan or dish. I’ve cooled the fried eggplant to the point I don’t get 3rd degree burns when I put the first layer of eggplant on the bottom of the pan. I put a single layer of sliced Havarti or Sharp Cheddar cheese over the warm/hot eggplant, spoon a thin layer of sauce over the cheese layer, sprinkle a layer of fresh grated Parmesan over the sauce, and repeat the process: 1) Sauce 2) Fried Eggplant 3) Cheese (alternating the layers-Cheddar/Havarti/Cheddar 4) Sauce 5) Parmesan. All there is to it. I fill a large pan in just that sequence, ending with steps 4 & 5. I may have 3-6 layers of eggplant by the time my pan is full to the top. It will usually weigh about 10-12 lbs., net of the pan. I leave it in the oven until it has a nice color on top. It takes longer than 30 minutes for the ones I make—maybe 45-55 minutes?

After it’s out of the oven and cooled, I put the pan(s) in the fridge overnight. Next morn, I take a butter knife and cut all the way through to the bottom of the pan, in squares—about a dozen in a 10-12 pounder, and slide the knife all around the edge of the pan, just to loosen it a bit. I cover the pan with plastic wrap and put the pan in the freezer for the day, or overnight.

When I’m ready to wrap it, I hold the pan upside down under warm running water, being sure my fingers are on the surface of the E.P., just in case it gives way—it doesn’t. After a minute or so, I drop the pan; pan side up, on a large bread board and the whole thing should pop loose. I then use a butter knife to cut/punch through along the scored lines that I can barely make out.
It breaks apart pretty easily. Double wrap the pieces in plastic wrap, put in a zip lock bag, and a year or two later, it’s impossible to tell if it was made yesterday or today. There’s no quicker, easier, tastier dinner come mid-January!

Alfalfa

The word “alfalfa” is an Arabic word, meaning, “the best fodder.” Fodder is “food for livestock, obtained by cutting and drying any of various grasses, such as alfalfa.”
I usually use five bales a year, which weigh a little over 100 lbs. each. Once they’re delivered to my house, I have to find a tree trimmer who’ll run the bales through a chipper-shredder, otherwise used for shredding tree branches. It’s fast. The shredded alfalfa is then put in large black trash bags, usually 3 bags per bale, and I use it throughout the year. I spread a couple inches over a bed and dig it into the soil, and I use it for mulch when my seedlings are a few inches high. This year the Feed and Grain store manager suggested that since I was going to use it in my garden, why not buy Alfalfa Meal instead of alfalfa bales? My wife bought 20 bags of 50 lbs. each, a total of 1,000 lbs., for less than it would have cost to buy and shred 500 lbs. of alfalfa. That was a perfect birthday present.

Organic Matter and Fertilization

Organic matter of all kinds is a must to keep the soil healthy. Lawn clippings, if they are free of dog litter, chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers, are usually ideal. Fallen tree leaves, alfalfa hay, and fruit and vegetable waste are also ideal, but may need some time to decompose. A trick I use to speed the breakdown of various green organic matter is to put it in a clear plastic bag, seal it tightly and set it in the direct sunlight. A week or two of that is worth 2-4 months in a compost bin. Most of the moisture that the material contains will be at the bottom of the bag, so I’m careful not to break the bag and spill it before I have it over a bed.

How do you Make a Tomato?

“Wow! I can’t wait to go home and make a Tomato!”
The lady from the office down the hall was very excited when she brought back “the Organic Tomato” DVD that she had just watched on her computer.
“That’s exactly what I needed to see. I’ve read the books and the articles and still I can’t do it just from reading about it. You’ve shown every step of how to do it and explained it so well. You’ve made it so that anyone can grow a tomato! You’re the Rocket Scientist of Tomatoes! Where’d you learn all that?”

You can’t know how thrilled I was to hear exactly that response-again. She was repeating, almost exactly, what every one of the first twenty people said who saw this DVD before I released it. That was exactly the purpose for making the original “Organic Gardening Made Easy,” in the first place.

A Rocket Scientist I am not. I spent 2-3 hours every day for 2-3 years reading every book and article I could find on vegetable gardening. It took the first six months to figure out that much of it was impractical, much of it was far more technical than it needed to be, and much of it was just plain wrong. Twenty-four years of actually doing it, trying various methods, continuous reading and close observation, are what I put into those two DVD’s. A Rocket Scientist would never have had to work at it as hard as I did.

I wanted to teach people only what they had to know in order to grow their own “amazing” vegetables. Looks easy? Exactly! But it took me 24 years of work, study and application to be able to make it that way for everyone

Where are the answers?

Smoking is not a healthy thing to do, nor do people have to smoke in order to live. It’s a conscious choice.
People do have to eat and drink water in order to live; and they have to do it every day.
What do we know about our food? Do we know what’s in it, where it came from, its nutritional content, what it was grown in, or whether we should be eating it at all? What about our water?
How many products on the grocery store shelves, whether food, personal hygiene or cleaning products, contain known carcinogens?
Why do we accept that 30% of our kids are headed toward diabetes, and that 50% of them are overweight?
Why do we accept that kids are in the house watching TV or doing computer games during the day because it isn’t safe for them to be outside playing?
How many people take the time to learn how to quickly and easily cook a few things that might be healthy, rather than just pick up fast food for the family dinner?
Could it be that there is a lot more money to be made by not even trying to teach people the answers to any of the above questions?
Where are the TV commercials showing the evils of a fast food diet? Did you ever see a commercial that showed you how to quickly sauté some Swiss chard, steam some winter squash, or make a gourmet salad cheaply and quickly?
Ever see a commercial showing an obese kid being told he’s got diabetes from consuming too many “Super Sized” fast foods?
Ever see a commercial showing a grieving husband blaming ‘Nachos Grande’ for his wife’s heart attack?
Of course not; and you wont. There’s no money in good health. As long as the people who say they are concerned with our health don’t have to actually do anything important or serious, as long as there’s more money in doing nothing, they don’t even want you to ask those kinds of questions. The big money is in seeing to it that we have poor health, regardless of the lip service to the contrary.
Those people are keeping us focused on the evils of smoking, under the guise of taking care of our health. As long as 100% of us have to eat and drink every day in order to just live, the people who say they are concerned about our health should inform 100% of us about our food and water.
I think they won’t. I think they’ll keep promoting the evils of the fewer than 30% who smoke. Make those rascals pay more taxes! Where’s the tax on a double cheeseburger with fries? Obesity is the much larger health problem today, yet smokers are in the minority, so they’re penalized more easily.
Some will keep us pitted against each other in every facet of our daily lives, in any area of life that can be worked. That’s easy; it’s popular, and it makes us think they’re actually doing something about our health.

Building a Planting Bed

About half my yard is of beds made of concrete and stone. The stone came from riverbeds, the desert, etc., and was free for the taking. Where the stone beds weren’t practical, I used Douglas fir, 2” X 12” lumber that I had cut to lengths I needed. I treated that with an insecticide, and the wood held up for about 8 years. By then it was almost rotted through in some places and needed replacing. As I wanted beds that wouldn’t need to be re-built every few years, I invested in a composite lumber, Trex, which cost about twice what lumber would cost, but apparently it will last forever. After 6 years there isn’t even a hint that it might not. I consider it well worth the investment.

If you want a bed of say 20 square feet of planting surface, you’ll need a box of 4 feet wide, and 5 feet long, and 2 feet deep, (Volume = length, times height, times width) you would need (2’ high X4’ wide X5’ long =) 40 cubic feet to fill the box. As most compost comes in 2 cubic foot bags, that would be 20 bags. That would give you one bed of 20 square (4’ X 5’) feet planting area. Those 20 square feet should produce about 200 lbs. of tomatoes in a good season, or 40-50 lbs. of leaf lettuce over a 3-month period, or literally hundreds of Japanese eggplants, or 80 lbs. of zucchini, any combination of the above, or an abundance of whatever it is you want to grow.

You could get by with a planting bed of only 1 foot deep, especially if you have somewhat decent topsoil to begin with. For ease of gardening, an allowance for the soil settling, and a couple inches on top for mulch to protect the soil and hold in moisture, I recommend beds 2 feet high. (That height is very appreciated when you plant, thin, etc., as you don’t have to get down on your hands and knees.)

If possible, you’ll want a mix of good topsoil, compost, and whatever organic matter might be available. The best time to get a bed ready for spring planting is not in the spring, or a week or two before planting. You still might get a decent crop, but it will be many times better if you prepare your bed in the fall. The organic matter needs to break down further through the action of various microbes, fungi, molds, etc

Soil

If you don’t really know what good topsoil is:
It will be brown, black or even reddish in color.
It smells like good fresh dirt.
It breaks apart very easily when moist.
Is porous, yet holds moisture-it takes a small hole filled with water several seconds to drain out.
It will have several large earthworms when you turn over a small shovel full.
You can see organic matter such as leaves, plant stems etc. that are apparently rotting and/or breaking down.

If you’re lucky enough to have anything close to topsoil, you’re in good shape. If not, you can develop, and/or improve it.
The roots of most vegetable plants are within a foot of the surface. I’ve read that lettuce roots will go to 4 feet deep, tomatoes to 10 feet deep, and so on. All that may be, but the greatest mass of root structure will be in the top 12 inches of soil.
As my entire lot was nothing but hard clay that would grow nothing similar to a decent plant, and having tried and failed at every means of turning that clay into something like soil, I gave up that enterprise. I built large boxes on top of the clay, about 2 feet high, and filled them with half each, bags of store bought topsoil and compost. That can get a little expensive if you live in the city and don’t have access to free barnyard manure or river bottom soil that you can import to your boxes. I found a nursery that gave me a great price on the topsoil and compost for the quantity I needed.

City Gardening

Some of my earliest memories are of being in the Victory Garden my grandpa had during WW ll. In those years, it was every American’s duty to conserve on generally everything. Food and gasoline were particularly needed for the war effort, and rationing, through the use of “meat stamps” and “gas stamps,” was in effect. It was almost un-American not to have a vegetable garden, called a Victory Garden, if you possibly could, and it saved gas stamps to not have to make those extra trips to the store.

In the cities and towns, if there was no backyard at your house or apartment, the Victory Garden was in the front yard. Often both front and backyards were in vegetable gardens. With the end of the war and the on-set of large housing tracts, rapidly expanding suburbs and general prosperity, the Victory Gardens of the cities and towns were turned into lawns and decorative shrubs. Now you could buy anything you wanted at the big grocery store nearby. You could even buy the gas to drive there without guilt or gas stamps.

Today we read and hear about e-coli in the lettuce, chemical pesticides on pretty much everything, and questionable sanitary practices of those who handle our food. The stories seem endless. Why is it then that so many people who appear to be so health conscious in every other way, don’t plant a tomato or little lettuce patch? I see gorgeous roses and hydrangeas, which take as much or more time and money to produce than it would to grow the best organic tomato most of the current generation has ever tasted.

Our home is on a hillside lot at the northeast edge of Los Angeles, between Glendale and Pasadena. The place was very rundown when we moved in over 20 years ago, and dirt from the hillside was starting to drift into the kitchen windows. Lawn was impractical for the slope of the lot, so I started building flowerbeds. Most of the flowers did okay, as long as I watered them every day. It finally dawned on me, after eating store bought tomato, that there was no reason not to use a little of my space to grow a few vegetables.

The first year was a disaster. My tomatoes only got a couple feet high, every tomato got blossom-end rot before it ripened, the Japanese eggplant roots didn’t spread beyond the exact size and shape of the original plastic container they came in, and 2 months later the plants hadn’t grown one inch. The kind of soil where I’d always had gardens was always good, fertile ground. Los Angeles isn’t generally known for it’s rich farmland. What I had was clay-hard, cold, clay.

I almost accidentally happened upon some books by the man credited with bringing the organic gardening practices from centuries gone by into the modern era, Robert Rodale. With that newfound knowledge, I came to understand some vital facts: 1) Given 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day and adequate water, the soil is everything one really needs to know. 2) Strong healthy plants come from strong healthy soil. Those plants defend themselves, to a very large extent, from harmful insects and disease.

Californians alone spend Six Billion Dollars per year on pesticides, I’ve read. That equals $150 for every man, woman and child in the state. Let’s hope that all isn’t going into our bodies and our bodies of water. I spend about $15 per year on pesticides; Bacillus Thurengensis, commonly abbreviated and simply called BT, a bacteria, harmless to people and animals, completely rids plants of all the various little destructive green worms and tomato hornworms. I also confess to carefully using a little slug bait, not in contact with my soil, but between two pieces of dampened cardboard, when my seedlings are about to emerge from the soil. I’ve not found a cost effective nor foolproof organic method to stop slugs from wiping out my crops before they even get started. Once the plants are up several inches, slugs don’t do enough damage to be a problem. It only takes one application of Snarol, or some such, between 2 pieces of dampened cardboard near the seedlings for the first week or two after the plant has emerged. After that, the plants aren’t damaged much by slugs or snails. Once a week I spray BT on plants susceptible to inch worms, hornworms, cabbage loopers, etc. I spray about 3 times during only about the 2nd month of the plants life. I’ve used Insecticidal Soap for scale insects or some such, but I haven’t even needed that in the last 2 years. No doubt I’ll use it again in the future, as different insect problems arise from year to year.

Beneficial insects are more common and more numerous than the destructive ones. My rule is that if I can’t identify a bug or worm as harmful, and if I don’t see it actually causing damage, I don’t bother it. Ladybug larvae look like tiny gila monsters, Lacewings can be mistaken for moths at night, Lacewing larvae can be mistaken for inchworms, and each of the 3 eat almost their own weight of aphids and other harmful pests every day.

Eat your Landscaping!

That’s right, you’ll have beautiful flowerbeds, be doing your immediate environment a big favor, have much better vegetables and you and your family will be a little healthier.

Better yet, your yard will look fabulous. One of the most neglected, most beautiful and delicious vegetables you can grow is Ruby Swiss Chard. Kids even love it---if it’s fresh. It’s loaded with vitamins A, B’s, C, E, and a wide variety of minerals, including calcium and magnesium—if it’s fresh.

Closely related to beets, it’s impervious to insects. You’ll never even be tempted to use a pest control of any kind. It’s a gorgeous growing plant that just keeps on giving. I recently took out 3 plants that I’d planted 15 months ago. It was still producing, and had been throughout the entire 15 months. I only took it out because I wanted to plant something else in that spot.

To have a quick and delicious vegetable in less time than it takes to drive through a fast food place, just take a pair of scissors out to your flower bed, cut off the outer stalks of the Chard at the base of the plant, rinse, and start cooking! You can do that year round in our climate, but if you can only grow it for a few months, it’s well worth it. Every few days in warmer weather, you’ll have a whole new batch of outer leaves to harvest.

Be sure you get "Ruby Swiss Chard." What you'll normally find already started in the nurseries is called, "City Lights Swiss Chard," or "Bright Lights Swiss Chard." Whatever the boys in the laboratories crossed Ruby Swiss Chard with to make the hybrid, yet very colorful "Bright Lights Swiss Chard," has taken away the natural insect repelling substance in Ruby Swiss Chard. When cooked, if you manage to get rid of the aphid infestations, it looks just the same. The problem is that the "Bright Lights" hybrid is an aphid magnet. If you can’t find the started plants, it’s very easy to grow from seed.
To Cook:
* Heat some extra virgin olive oil and garlic in a large pot or frying pan, chop up the stalks into bite sized pieces.
* Roll the leaves all together and cut them into about 2 inch wide strips.
* Put the stalks in the pan with the heated olive oil and garlic.
* With the burner on medium heat, cover, and when the stalks are almost soft, add the leaves, toss with the olive oil, garlic and the almost done stalks, and cover the pot or pan.
* Check them after 5-7 minutes, and if not quite done, which is about the color and texture of cooked spinach, give them another stir, cover and give them a few more minutes. We like to add a bit of organic cider vinegar, but that’s just a matter of taste. The vinegar also helps release the calcium in green vegetables.

Do carrots have feelings?

I just heard that more kids are becoming vegetarians.

The reason? They see film from slaughterhouses on You Tube.

It isn’t for health reasons, it isn’t for monetary reasons, it’s because they see animals dying. I’ve never watched that sort of thing on TV or the computer. I know animals die. I grew up on farms, helped butcher pigs, rabbits, chickens and calves that I’d raised from newborns. I shot plenty of rabbits, squirrels, quail and pheasants for the dinner table. There were never illusions or confusions back then about mice, pigs, cows or deer that talked to each other, or had human thinking ability. We had a pretty clear idea, most of us, that if we were going to live, some plant or animal had to die.

We cared about our farm animals and treated them well. We didn’t like to kill them, but when we did, we did it quickly and humanely. Sometimes the tough young man or the old guy who had to pull the trigger had tears well up before he could stifle them.

Did you ever pull a carrot out of the ground? Did you notice how vibrant the green, healthy top growth was just before you pulled it? Did you ever notice 10 minutes later that it had started to wilt, the vitality of the living plant was gone? Did it feel anything?

The carrot didn’t squeal or panic—did he? You didn’t hear it if he did, but does that mean it didn’t feel anything?

I for one believe it had feelings. It was a living thing. I’ve killed plenty of plants and vegetables too, and they have feelings. You can watch their reactions to various actions that you take--if you watch closely and really see what you’re looking at.

No human can exist on this planet without something dying. Nobody can prove to me that a cow has more feelings than a carrot.

Know what is eating your lunch

I've always been in the habit of finding the right culprit before I take any pest measures. Sometimes you know the problem immediately; sometimes you can't figure it out at all. And that's where I was with my new Black Seeded Simpson and Romaine lettuce crops. Something had been eating it. It wasn't slugs, pill bugs or green caterpillars--the usual suspects with lettuce being eaten away, but I simply couldn't identify what it was.

Yesterday I was having a cup of coffee on the balcony overlooking my back yard, above the lettuce beds. A flock of about 50 sparrows lit on the phone wires above the gardens. They flew down into my yard, and I slowly crept over to see what they were after. The little rascals were taking chunks out of my lettuce leaves and devouring them!

I clapped my hands loudly, which of course interrupted their feast and dispersed them. And I laughed. Over my entire life I've been an observer of sparrows. How could I possibly not know that sparrows eat lettuce! After all this time, that this was the first time I've seen them eat anything green was very amusing to me.

When I was 6-7 yrs. old, it was great fun to trick them in a corner of grandma's hen house and catch them in my hands. They're very cute, innocent little guys, and they eat a lot of usually unwelcome bugs.

I'm not going to go to any big effort to keep them out, but I'll chase them out whenever I see them in my lettuce. They won't eat that much and I like having them around. It's nice to know they appreciate the vitamins and minerals, and the lack of chemicals and dangerous pesticides in my lettuce. In fact I take it as a great compliment.

If you don't know what's eating your lunch, save yourself some brain damage and find out-- before you start solving the problem.

Let us talk about Lettuce

We can grow lettuce year round here in Los Angeles, but if you’re starting to get spring fever, in your climate, one of the first things you’ll probably be able to plant is lettuce.

We prefer Black Seeded Simpson, a hearty leaf lettuce, as you see in the DVD. I buy it by the ¼ lb. package from Peaceful Valley Nursery, for about $11.00. They say there are about 100,000 seeds per ounce. I haven’t counted them, but a ¼ lb. of it is enough to re-plant a 17-20 square foot bed 5-7 times over the next year and a half. I keep all my seeds in the refrigerator, as they’ll remain fully dormant and in much better condition than if they’re left at room temperature. The last crop of lettuce is always just as vigorous as the first.

If your soil isn’t somewhat fine, the seed has a hard time in setting down the initial roots. Over 20 years ago when I was first filling my raised beds, I used a lot of Supersoil and was happy with it. Yesterday I bought some 2 cubic foot bags for $5.97 per bag. That’s about $3.00 less than I’ve been paying for bags of “premium” compost, which was much coarser material than I like, but presumably it was the best on the market.

Upon opening the bag, I remembered why I had liked it 20 years ago. I trust the ingredients as much as any other commercial compost, but always prefer to use my own. I always use more compost than I can make. The Supersoil is finely ground, and perfect for planting lettuce. Lettuce isn’t a “heavy feeder.”

If your soil is coarse, you might want to try:

* Evenly spread about 2 cubic feet of fine compost over a 15-20 square foot planting bed. Spread your fish, bone, and kelp meals over the compost, if you’re using them. Don’t apply more than the package calls for-more is not better

* Dig, with a digging fork, the compost in to the depth of the fork, about one foot, and mix it well with the soil. I never use a shovel in my beds as it destroys too many earthworms. I haven’t cut one in two with a digging fork, as you will if you use a shovel. Contrary to the popular myth, fewer than 10% of worms will survive being cut in two. If at all, only the half with the smooth band might survive.

* Smooth the bed out and level it as well as you can.

* Spread about 1 inch of the fine compost over the bed.

* Replace your drip system, if you’re using one.

* Saturate the bed with water, ensuring the entire surface is wet.

* Scatter a small handful of lettuce seed, as even as possible, over the entire bed and gently spray water over the entire bed until the surface looks very wet -- not so wet that the seeds float together and form clumps. (It’s hard to see the black seeds on the black compost, so observe closely where your seeds fall. Other leaf lettuce seeds are beige in color.)

* Cover the bed with cardboard. (I keep large cardboard boxes and cut them into large single sheets.)

* Remove the cardboard after 2-3 days.

If you have hot dry weather you may need to cover the bed with cardboard during the next few days beyond the first 2-3, uncovering the bed late in the day, and covering it up again in the morning. You might see some white mold forming. Not to worry, as it will be gone quickly when the sun and air get to it.

The advantages to planting leaf lettuce seeds this way is that you don’t need to cover the seeds with soil so they’ll sprout faster, the cardboard cover holds the temperature of the soil and seeds at a more constant temperature, and the seeds don’t dry out during the day when you can’t always keep them moist.

Of course you can omit the cardboard and just carefully cover the seeds with about 1/8^th of an inch of fine, light soil. I’ve never been able to master that talent, but the cardboard is a perfect solution.

In a few weeks, enjoy a great salad!

Onions

Since the YouTube posting by Barbara Lee regarding her immense onions, 4 lbs. 12 oz. was the largest; I’ve had lots of questions about onions. (To see the video, go to “Recommended Sites” on www.organichomegardener.com, click on “My Blogs,” scroll down to “My Blog Site,” scroll down to “Testimonial to Organic Gardening DVD,” and simply click on the Play button.)

The Egyptians of 4-5,000 years ago were the first known cultivators of onions. There are any number of types and varieties of onions, and generally they are of either the “Long Day” variety, or the “Short Day” variety.

Those of us in the lower latitudes, as in southern California, have relatively short summer days compared to the more northerly latitudes, as in Washington or Connecticut. While the Long Day varieties are generally successful here, we excel in the Short Day varieties.

Maui onions, Texas 509 and Walla Walla are examples of Short Day onions. The Short Day varieties are generally far milder than Long Day. The reason for that is simply that the Short Day varieties don’t absorb much sulfur from the soil. It’s the sulfur absorption that makes onions “hot,” and some varieties absorb more sulfur than others.

Onions are essentially bi-annuals. That means they are generally planted in one year and harvested the next. If you plant onion sets in the spring, they should be fully matured in about 100 days. There are varieties of onions that grow from seed to maturity in one season, but most are Long Day varieties that require 13-14 hours of sunlight per day. The amount of sunlight per day is crucial to the development of the bulb. If your onions don’t develop bulbs, the most probable reason is that they simply aren’t getting enough sunlight. The more sunlight they get each day, the bigger the onion bulbs will be.

While I’ve grown many varieties of onions over the years, both Long and Short Day, all very successfully, our favorite is the Walla Walla. I’ve grown them in the same 2 beds year after year, for more years than I can remember. In late spring, as the onions are maturing, I plant winter squash seeds or seedlings between them. As the squash plants need more and more space, I harvest the onions as the growing squash require more room. After the crop of winter squash is harvested, I plant a crop of legumes, which I chop and dig into the soil around mid-November. I let 3 or 4 of the largest and best onions go to seed, dry them in the sun and then put them in the refrigerator. (All seeds should be refrigerated until you’re ready to plant them.) Around the first of November, I start my onion seeds, 20-40 to a pot, in 1-gallon plastic pots. Between mid-December and Christmas, I transplant the seedlings into the beds, allowing about 1 square foot per seedling.

The green tops of the onions grow through our mild winters, but the bulbs don’t even start to grow until the weather warms and the days get longer. Then it seems that around the first of June the bulbs almost suddenly start to explode into huge onions. One bed gets up to an hour more of sunlight every day than the other bed. There is always a noticeable difference in the size of the onions from one bed to the next. That hour difference makes an average ½ lb. per onion in size difference between the two beds.

The soil in both beds is exactly the same, and both have always had exactly the same cultivation. The amount of sunlight is just that critical to the size of your onions.

Onions prefer a pH of 6 to 7, as do most vegetables. If you use plenty of composted organic matter, you probably already have just that pH. To onions, probably the more critical factor than having the right pH is simply having enough sunlight--the more sunlight, the bigger the onion.

About Compost

What I’ve been doing for several years to handle my space shortage, and yet be able to use all the plants that I’ve taken out at the end of their season for compost, would make a compost expert scoff.

The common definitions of “Compost” all include that it’s decaying or decayed organic matter, used to condition and enrich the soil and to improve its composition.

Traditional compost piles can take 2-3 years to become fully ready to use in the garden. That simply won’t do for most of us today who have little space, and less time, to devote to traditional compost piles.

I’ve read several books and studied any number of articles on composting, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never be the microbiologist one almost needs to be in order to claim to be an expert on the subject. I certainly am not an expert on composting. Very few home gardeners need or even want to know the full scope of composting. We do need to know some of the basics.

There are tumblers and bins and all sorts of dandy gadgets and ingenious inventions that will speed the process. I’ve tried a few of them and all of them worked just as promised. My particular compost needs are large. There is a huge amount of plant matter left after my vegetable plants have run their life cycle. After all, I do have 420 square feet of gardens! My 80 square foot tomato bed alone, with 7 plants 4 ft. in diameter and 7 to 9 feet high, produces a considerable amount of organic matter.

Ten or twelve years ago I built a box out of scrap plywood and 2” x 4”s, about 4 ft. wide, 4 ft. deep and 8 ft. long. It sits a few inches above the ground, and has a plywood bottom that I stapled a sheet of plastic over, thinking it would take longer to rot out. I think I was right. It works well enough, but even that isn’t big enough to handle all the vegetable matter I want to compost.

If I have a very large quantity of material, I fill the box with plants that I’ve taken out of my beds. I either chop the plants up where they stand and put them into the box, or I put them in the box and chop them up there as well as I can. If I have it, I’ll throw in straw, chopped alfalfa hay, and/or old newspaper, last falls leaves that I’ve kept in large clear plastic bags, and/or corrugated cardboard, and mix the green plant material with the dried organic material (the hay, newspaper, etc.) as well as I can with my fork. I’ll water it to be sure it’s good and moist--about like a wrung out rag or sponge would feel to the touch. It will get surprisingly warm in that pile in a day or two. After a week, the full box is only about half full, so I’ll pile the left half on top of the right half, and add some water if it needs more. A few days later I’ll move all of that, starting from the top - so that the top is now on bottom, and the bottom of the old pile is now the top of the new pile. I’ll do that every few days, and in very little time, about 6-8 weeks in the late summer, it’s about as ready as I want it.

Some people just dig their old plants right back into the gardens. That’s okay too, provided they were strong and healthy plants that had no harmful insect eggs, fungus, molds or other diseases.

Very large clear plastic trash bags, doubled, with one inside the other, became a solution to the problems of space, time, and not putting harmful agents back into the soil. Clear plastic allows the sun’s rays to radiate through the bag, and the combination of that heat and the heat given off by the decomposing green material will heat the contents to well over the 130 degrees necessary to kill most of the harmful elements that may be there. In a matter of a week or less, left in the sun, a well-sealed bag 2-3 ft. wide and 2-3 ft. high will be about 75% smaller. It would be safe to dig right back into the soil, but I just empty the stinking contents-and they do stink, right into my bin. The odor quickly dissipates once air can get to the material.

If I have any doubts that I might not have destroyed any destructive agents, pill bugs, slugs, etc., in my finished compost, I’ll put it in the doubled clear plastic bags, well sealed, and let it sit in the sun for at least a week. Even at that stage, the temperature inside the bag will soar, ensuring that I’m not continuing the life-cycle of anything I don’t want in my soil.

Between the box, the bags, digging under the young legumes that I plant at least once a year in every bed, my compost needs are cheaply and easily met.

Please don’t hesitate to write to me with any questions. It’s my pleasure to answer any gardening questions I can.

Forget the Gadgets and Gimmiks

“My full direction is toward helping the guy like you with his garden produce for his family use. Just do the basics that were developed thousands of years ago,” I told the fellow who asked me about some new garden gadget. If we could get 80%--even 40 or 50%, of the people growing their own anything, the impact would be huge. What I've learned over the years is that it takes an enormous amount of education to get people started even trying to grow a turnip. I've totally aimed toward simplicity in my gardens.

You see, I want people thinking in terms of, "You mean all I have to do is this, and I can have a real tomato like yours?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean."

The more complexity and significance you introduce, the less likely the average guy or girl is going to want to even give it a try. And one for one, anyone I can get to even "try," is thereafter hooked. They want to grow more and more of their own food.

But they have to start small, and it has to be as simple as it can possibly be. I just keep promoting the basics--and the basics are far more than adequate for anyone to get the best vegetables they've ever had.

When you put complexities there, such as how to make the perfect compost tea, how to grow an upside down tomato, or try to sell the notion that people must have this or that exotic new gadget in order to grow a carrot, you kill more interest than you create. Sure, you'll sell a few gadgets, but what have you really accomplished outside of a quick buck?

Experienced gardeners-real gardeners don't buy into that sort of thing. They just do the basics: natural soil enrichment, proper planting techniques, proper watering. And they get tired of people saying they “just have a green thumb," and that's why they have a great garden. A green thumb isn't something you're born with. You have to earn it.

My ears were roasted!

Last night at dinner my wife wasn’t happy. She’d been to the grocery store. We rarely buy vegetables.

She demanded, “Where are our beets, our broccoli, our turnips, our carrots? I wanted cauliflower. Where’s the cauliflower? Do you have any idea how much produce has gone up? The prices are outrageous!”

Why didn’t you buy some? I asked.

I soon heard the current price of everything from beets to yams. I learned how brown the cauliflower was, how wilted the broccoli looked, how dry the carrots were. And she was not happy in the telling of it.

None of my several excuses were worthy enough to ward off the assault--nor was my plea that we had lots of lettuce, radishes, and turnip greens in the gardens, winter squash in the basement, chopped peppers and onions, eggplant parmesan, in the freezer, and lots of her fabulous pasta sauce in the pantry.

The promise to plan things more carefully next year barely got me out of trouble.

When a lady wants cauliflower for dinner, my explanation that she can have some next month isn’t going to end the conversation happily.

It’s not like she couldn’t afford to buy whatever she wanted; it’s that she won’t. When you’re used to having vegetables for dinner that you picked an hour ago, something from the grocery store has very little the appeal.

Who will show the kids?

A couple of months ago I happened to catch a radio show in which an M.D. was talking about how generally ignorant kids today are about where food comes from.

The Dr. commented that one of the best things we could do for our kids today is to teach them how to garden.

Very well said, Dr.—but who is going to teach them?

I offer our DVD to valid schools at my cost. That isn’t enough, of course, but I hope it helps. It’s rare that someone, even in the middle of New York or Los Angeles, doesn’t have at least a wee bit of ground that they could improve and plant something.

Sure, I know where it comes from...

It comes from the back room in produce department at the store,” is a pretty typical answer from city kids today.

But did you ever see the look in a kid’s eye, or the smile on their face when they picked some beans, dug up a potato, or pulled an ear of corn from the stalk?

The first thing little kids say to me when they run down the stairs at our house, faces aglow, is something like, “Can we pull some onions?” or “Can we dig some potatoes?”

I wouldn’t trade those moments for anything.