URBAN GARDENING: MAKE IT EASY & AFFORDABLE

By Annette Faurote

HISTORY:
Started in summer of 2006 on a small urban lot, poor rocky, clay soil with sad ornamentals & grass
Started-limited soil improvement-grew veggies, but poorly
2007 improved the soil-sheet mulching (layers of cardboard, newspaper, green grass clippings, hay (not straw), compost & amendments
Built one raised bed on part of driveway, for improved soil. Planted 13 edible trees.

WINTER IS THE EASIEST TIME TO GROW & DOESN’T USE MUCH EXTRA WATER. TRY IT NEXT WINTER!!!

MAKE IT EASY:

1 PLAN YOUR GARDENING AREA
Best to have 6 hours of sun light.
Don’t let lack of a yard discourage you! Containers-basil, tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, etc. Garden on a porch, balcony.
In a south window (basil, lettuce, herbs). Share a yard with a friend or senior citizen. Use your front yard. Community gardens.
In ground is easiest. Improve the soil!
Raised bed. We built it on part of the driveway, ground was too hard to break up & improve. It has better soil & fewer insect problems.
If building a raised bed. Improvise for materials: used wood (a neighbor’s old deck, scrap lumber, parts of an old metal garage door, etc).

2 SOIL
The most important part of gardening is soil health!!
Add as much organic material as possible.
Compost-City of Redding ($1.50/5 gal. bucket, $5/30 gal can, $12.50/sm picket load)
Collect all types of materials: leaves from parks (we asked a mobile home park for their leaves), grass clippings (we got from a business, they load it into our vehicle in bags), coffee grounds (arrange with a coffee stand), newspaper, cardboard, manure, food scraps & egg shells, your compost.
Make your own compost (use wooden pallets, a circle of fencing material, scrap wood)-pile on EVERYTHING organic (no meat or synthetic materials). Keep it wet, if possible. Let it sit & decompose.
Add manure-horse manure is free at rodeo arena. Ask someone with animals for their manure. Large amounts of bedding may require longer decomposition time (up to 2 years). 3 5-gallon buckets applied per 100 sq ft. can lower pH one point. Examples:
Horse 7% N, 0.2%P, 0.7%K Age 2-3 months
Rabbit 2.4% N, 1.4%P, 0.6% K Age 2 months
Chicken, fresh 1.5%N, 1.0%P, 0.5%K Age 2 months
Chicken, dry 4.5%N, 3.5%P, 2.0%K Age 2 months
Steer 0.7%N, 0.5%P, 0.7%K Age 2 months
Beware that steer manure from feedlots may have remnant pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, hormones, etc.
Avoid buying bags of commercial manures, soils that are expensive & may have chemicals & pharmaceuticals from industries. If you do buy these materials in bags, buy organic.

3- PLANTS (Vegetable seeds & starts)
Starting seeds is cheaper, but time consuming & takes learning.
Buy organic (& heirloom) seeds so that you can seed save for the following year. Caution: seeds saved from hybrid plants (most commercial types) usually won’t grow normally.
Choose drought & heat tolerant varities for Redding summers. Choose cold tolerant varieties for winter.
Save containers for seed starting. Ask friends, Craig’s list for unused 6 packs & pots. Use store containers: yogurt containers, plastic food containers that vegetables come in & have clear tops like mini-greenhouses, etc. Be creative.
Planting seeds: best to use potting mix. However, I extend potting mix w/ my own soil. (I am told this leads to “damping off”-soil diseases, but I have not had this problem).
-Read packets to plant at appropriate times. I do a Feb, March, & April planting. Then a fall planting (August, Sept., October)
-Remember each plant has different germination rates & temperature requirements.
-Most seeds don’t need light to germinate. But they need warm temperatures.
-Lettuce does need light.
-After sprouting put outside for increasing time each day for “hardening off” (makes them strong enough for outside).
-All seeds need good air circulation & continuous moisture.
-Some seeds do fine if direct sown into garden (beans, peas, corn, squash)
-Root crops (carrots, beets, turnips, & radish) do better planted directly into soil.
-Some seeds do better if started in flats (tomato, pepper, & eggplant).
I find that I have fewer insect problems if I raise plants as starts, putting them in the ground when they are stronger. Tender small plants get eaten more often.
Once seedlings have germinated, put in a sunny location, ideally w/10-12 hours of sunlight.
If seedlings develop long stems, they aren’t getting enough sun.

4- VEGETABLE STARTS
More expensive but easier & faster.
Locally grown & organic starts are more likely to be successful; adapted to area & climate. This also keeps the money in our community.
Local nurseries, Shasta College sales, & Turtle Bay Arboretum are local sources.

5- WATER
Mulch! The more layers of material (leaves, newspapers, cardboard, sawdust, compost) the more moisture & better the plants will do.
Use drip irrigation, soaker hoses for conservation & better for the plant roots. (We still water some plants with a hose).

6- Easy Central Redding Vegetables:
Summer: Tomatoes, red, green, hot peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, zucchini, summer & winter squash, strawberries & swiss chard (year around).
Winter, fall, spring-Greens-swiss chard, kale, mustard, lettuce, arugula, cilantro, parsley, brocolli, radish, turnips, miner’s lettuce & beets.

7- CONSIDER GARDENING IN FALL, WINTER, & SPRING
Less labor and less to no water.
Fewer insect pests.
Food is more expensive in winter.
Can grow more yearly variety.

8- CONSIDER PERMACULTURE
Copy nature. No tilling. (We tilled the first time). Add materials to top of soil for improvement. Mulch heavily (8-12+”)! Focus on perennials (a plant that life more than 2 years). Or plants that are easily self-sowing seeds (parsley, arugula).

9- GARDEN PROBLEMS
Strong plants in good soil have fewer problems.
Slugs-we had a huge problem. Coffee grounds definitely discourage slugs. Now we have almost no slugs.
Aphids-inspect plants, spray with soapy water.
Heat & sunburn damage on plants (tomatoes, peppers). Plant in shade of other plants.
Poor luck with some plants (corn, peas, sunflowers, melons)…we keep trying & learning.
Deer-high & irregular topped fences. Dogs help discourage deer.
Grow enough so that insect damage is not a big deal.

10-TOMATO NOTES
Start by seed 6-7 weeks before planting.
Harden off, gradually exposing to increasing number of hours of light each day.
Plant deeply, up to first leaves. Roots will grow along the stem.
Like temperatures of 70-80 degrees.
Determinate-compact bushes produce most of crop at once. Harvest all fruit in a few pickings. Needs cages & staking.
Indeteminate-fruit in clusters along vine stem. Continue to grow & produce fruit all season until frost. Need more support than determinate.
Soil-like well drained heavy organic material (manure, compost, etc).
Mulch around stem. Medium fertilization. Too much nitrogen causes healthy leaves & poor fruiting.
Blossom-end rot means low calcium in fruit &/or uneven watering (drought stress followed by excessive water). Maintain pH 6.2-6.8, add calcium (oyster shell, NOT DOLOMITE). A quick remedy is Epsom salts. Avoid over fertilizing with nitrogen. Avoid irregular watering. Water 1-3 times per week.

LAST THOUGHTS
Purchase materials as a last resort. Always look around your yard, neighborhood for used materials. No need to buy most of these things. Improvise. Trade & share tools, seeds, plants with friends & neighbors.
Less work are perennial plants-these stay in your garden year-after-year. Redding examples: fruit & nut trees, swiss chard, kale, asparagus, artichokes, strawberries, french sorrel, herbs, berries, grapes, kiwi, (oregano, thyme, rosemary, chives, mint), etc.