Veg Gardening Changing Climate Survival Guide!

The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) is an 80-acre research, demonstration, advocacy and organizing center in Sonoma County, California. We live in a time of profound challenges that require immediate, courageous and strategic responses. We are confronted by global ecological and climate crises… OAEC supports diverse communities to design their own regenerative systems at the regional and local scale. OAEC supports change makers and communities to design for a resilient future.

There are other organizations like this one that are helping us plan specifically for our areas. Sometimes the processes of one situation can be used as a template, adapted for another area, the basic premises, sequences holding across the board.

July 2019 Kollibri Terre Sonnenblume’s latest article was published. The title reads: Our Veggie Gardens Won’t Feed us in a Real Crisis As things stand right now, for most of us he’s right.

As Veg Gardeners we are emissaries to all who would grow food! In a serious crisis, our skills may be called on to feed many people. Kollibri’s provocative article makes you think about how important our growing can be in these times of extreme climate situations.

Some of you may be permaculturists, already knowing about collaboration with the land, sustainability, self-reliance, having multiple support/backup systems. Others of you may be rank gardening beginners. Most of us are in progress. We need you all!

Kollibri’s experience is his. There are many stories to be told, many responses possible. Some of my thoughts and responses include:

• Select safe land for your growing space carefully for the long term. Anticipate what changes you can, timing as possible. Have a backup plan in mind. Yes, there will be unanticipated events – a microburst storm, a devastating foreign insect coming through, huge hail where it hasn’t happened before, others.
• Change your diet. In a crisis you might expect to let go of meat, diary, and grains, or reduce your intake dramatically. Instead of beef, raise fish or other animals, perhaps. Maybe your choice will be animals that provide milk and fur. How about chickens? They poop manure, scratch, eat insects, make eggs!
• Learn about soil. Check out the soil chapter in the book Gaia’s Garden!
• Plant efficient per square foot plants. Our small 10X20 Community Garden plots teach us that. Those plants can be high producers like zucchini, plants that produce prolifically all season long, or cut and come again types like lettuces and kales. In summer string beans are super producers – broad beans and long beans give you more bean for the space they take up!
• Plant Perennial plants, like Tree Collards, for continuous crop all year and year after year.
• If you have cold winters, plant potatoes that store well. In summer plant winter squashes that store well in winter. Set up an in-the-ground greenhouse to equalize seasonal temps.
• Learn about Succession Planting. While one plant is growing, plant another round. Some plants are started every week.
• Learn about Seed Saving so you allow time and space for that type of production as well.
• Plant year round habitat for birds to keep pests down, and for bees and other pollinators to keep pollination going.
• Check out what the indigenous ancestors in that area survived well on. Restore some of that process. It could be an efficient food/garden forest. Could be ‘Tending the Wild,’ using edible native plants, as Kat Anderson writes about. If your land is hilly, terracing is a phenomenal and beautiful technique. If your land is flat, build bioswales to collect water, hold moisture.
• Plant plants that have over-the-top nutritional value like fast grower Garden Purslane, pur·sluhn, aka Verdolaga south of the border.
• If you are planting for a family, consider the special food needs of children, people who are ill, elders. Plant herbs for medicine.

The Gardener’s New Emergency Kit Bag!

SEEDS  A gardener’s emergency kit bag is a little different! It likely includes important select seeds for all seasons in an airtight container! Select some productive fast growers, like lettuce and radish (has edible leaves too), and ones of plants that produce all season long. Select bush and pole beans, determinate and indeterminate tomatoes. Select heat, drought and cold tolerant plant seeds. Some will grow earlier crops that produce in cool weather! Some survive heat, grow later and more healthily in fall. Some will survive frosts, even freezing. Be sure to have seeds for all seasons. Some areas, especially flooded areas, it isn’t recommended to grow edible plants there for at least one full season, so you need access to fresh soil and to be prepared for every season. Remember, you won’t be the only hungry people. Take as many seeds as possible. Seeds for flood soil restoration. Seeds for sprouts!

SOIL  If you anticipate you would need ‘soil,’ whether you would be able to leave in a vehicle or intend to stay where you are, keep a couple or more bags of fresh clean compost around at all times. You can plant directly in compost. Remember, kitchen scraps can be processed to be used to make more compost. Think about including a lightweight folding shovel in your emergency kit.

What if you live in an apartment? Growing food in a north facing window system would be a challenge – not enough sun. If you have power, set up some grow lights. These days, thoughtfulness about your directional window placing could become vital. Install  window solar power devices for when your power is off! Many a fine container garden has been planted in windows, on balconies, along the stairs, on the walls, a pallet leaning against the wall, in hanging baskets, on trellises made of strings or wire. Creativity abounds! Also grow tasty high protein sprouts!

Weather Crises are now unpredictable. The modern survivor needs to be prepared for any kind of emergency at any location, at any time.

IN a Crisis situation, burning heat, a water wipe out, an extended freeze, it’s over. What do you do? In a worst case scenario, there may no longer be a nursery or transplants at it. Most crops planted from seed take two+ months to get into production. Lettuce/Microgreens are really fast, but even they take about two weeks minimum. Radish, an incredibly fast grower, takes about a month. Transportation may be an issue. You may need to migrate to land that has plants to forage. Carry your lettuce plantings with you – wagon, cart, bicycle, grocery cart, sleep with them to protect them. You may become vegan for a while. You may not be happy, but you won’t die, probably will lose some weight! Succession planting becomes a necessity.

Always have an emergency backup supply of dry food for until your new plants become available to eat. Be sure your food supply takes up little space and weighs little. You want to be able to carry it comfortably if need be. In airtight/waterproof bags pack: Jerky, nuts, the least bulky dried vegs and fruits. Make a trail mix of nuts for protein and dried fruits that are high in Vitamin C: Raisins, Peaches, Pears, Bananas, Apricots, Longans, Litchis, Cranberries. Include trail bars that don’t melt or freeze. Keep a ready lightweight waterproof backpack.

Heat – Maybe Drought, Fire

In a serious heat situation you may need to migrate north to a cooler higher land or coastal land with access to clean water. Plant right away in a sheltered, perhaps shaded area, use shade cloth if you can get it, branches if you can’t. Choose a north facing slope for less sun. If there is no slope, build one as you can. Put up porous windbreaks to slow drying wind. If the soil is sandy, compost, compost, compost for water holding capacity. Bring seaweed from the ocean if you are coastal. Mulch to cool down the soil. If it is windy, put shade cloth, heavy branches, stones or other cover to hold the mulch in place, especially if your land is sloped. The Zuni used ‘gravel,’ handpicked pebbles as ‘mulch’ in their waffle spaces. Use the old Zuni humble technique of Waffle gardening. They knew how to garden in heat! If planting in trenches, make them deeper and at right angles to the Sun’s path to take advantage of the shade the sides of the trenches make.

Simplest and cheapest is to set up an underground greenhouse to equalize seasonal temps. Make it the right size for your needs. Dig it right into the side of a hill or slope if possible. You want that shade and shelter for both you and the plants. Check online for the pros and cons of building bank barns for your animals. Bank buildings can be improvised to suit a temporary immediate need, or planned to the inch if built for long term use… Fastest and next cheapest are Hoop houses! See Growing Super Veggies in HOT, Drought, Desert Areas!

In the most urban situations like New York City, use those balconies, the rooftops, a window! Just be sure the balcony or roof will support the additional weight of soil and water. Whenever you rent choose a place that has 8 hours of sunlight. Wherever you plant, choose highly productive plants per square foot. Pole beans on a trellis! Bush Zucchini. Cut-and-come-again plants like chard, celery, lettuce/microgreens, kales. Chard, celery and lettuce need a lot of water. Otherwise, choose plants that are heat and drought tolerant.

Walipini Pit Greenhouse! How a Walipini works and how to build one!

Great tips here: Underground Greenhouse Ideas: What Are Pit Greenhouses

In the long term, plant more trees like fast grower legume trees that feed the soil and cool the Earth. Plant them in Bioswales that hold moisture. The trees make shade, hold even more moisture, secure the soil with their roots. If possible, start where there is an initial water supply.

Beautiful Nature Walk Bioswale at Dawn, Duarte CA by BlueGreen Consulting

Flood

This is no longer new to us, but it’s a dramatic example. 7.23.19: Less than a month after New York City declared a climate emergency due to a heat wave, the reality of the crisis came crashing home Monday as streets across Brooklyn and Queens were inundated with dirty water flash flooding a day after power went down in three boroughs. These New Yorkers aren’t going to be growing much of their own food right now. But, do what you can! Use those balconies, the rooftops, a window that receives sun. A LOT can be grown in small spaces! Choose apartments wisely – sun facing in case you need that sun.

July 2019 NYC: Heat Wave, Blackouts, Flood back to back.

Some consider floods to be worse than droughts. Flood soils are dangerous, mask and gloves needed when you do remediation. You may not be able to grow edible plants there for at least a season.

You don’t want to plant in low areas after a flood. There are sewage, oils, plastics, garbage, disease in that water – likely Giardia, sometimes dead animals and humans, their fecal matter, fecal matter from nearby animal/chicken farms. Afterwards there are decaying materials. The soil that remains may be infected for a long time to come. Your first tactic would be to plant quick growing detoxing grasses, sunflowers and other plants that remove crud. Grow plants that reach deep into the soil and loosen its structure. Turn the soil to off gas toxins and so dangerous soil organisms will dry and die. Incorporate fresh clean compost. See more ideas

If your veg garden got flooded, here are some important tips. Shasta CA Master gardener Leimone Waite gives good 2023 information! West Virginia U Extension Horticulture Specialist Lewis Jett has further advice. Adapt these informations to your area.  

Planting in lowlands, below dams or water barriers, may not be the wise choice these days. An unusual amount of fast high water can blast right through these structures. The face of agriculture is changing. Grains and corn may become unprofitable choices, equaling less beef, higher prices. Water may bring silt and fertile soil or fast flooding may wash away all the topsoil leaving nutritionless, even dirty, soil. For your personal situation, choose higher land. If needed, protect it with terracing, done with a combination of bioswales and Hugelkultur. Choose the cleanest soil you can find to plant in.

Soil Restoration Please see this List of Phytoremediation Plants Used to Clean Contaminated Soil. Alfalfa grows quickly. Sunflowers take longer but are pretty. Willow trees. Per Anita B. Stone ‘Indian Grass is one of nine members of grasses that assist in phytoremediation plants. When planted on farmland, the reduction of pesticides and herbicides is significant. This list also includes Buffalo grass and Western wheatgrass, both capable of absorbing hydrocarbons from the land.’ Be sure to grow grasses appropriate to your location, native grasses if possible. Put some alfalfa and grass seeds in your emergency kit!

Three things are important! 1) Install a ground cover of water absorbing plants to detox the soil if you must replant in areas that have flooded. 2) Plant quick growing legume soil feeding plants and trees to feed and restore the soil. 3) Include plants that will grow deep and break up that soil, that make breathing airways for soil organisms that will help clean up the soil. Oats are good.

Rapid Run Urban Bioswale, Seven Hills Neighborhood, Cincinnati OH  The learning curve was steep…

In the long term, in non-urban areas, or urban areas that are interspersed with land, build bioswales that interrupt stormwater flow and divert it to areas that need water! Interrupt flooding with many bioswales – just like in nature. Remember these words: Slow, Sink, Spread! Put rough big materials in the bottom to slow that water down so it has time to sink. Cleverly make that bioswale curvy – install ‘S’ curves, to slow that water down! Make side branches, bulges along the way, and deltas to spread that water. Again, make generous stormwater retention ponds along the way.

A big 2¢ worth from Cornell! Woody Shrubs for Stormwater Retention Practices

China is building 30 ‘sponge cities’ that aim to soak up floodwater and prevent disaster

Freezing or an Extended Period of Exceptional Cold

There may be no snow plow, cell service; electricity may be out. It’s not safe outdoors for humans or pets, farm animals, livestock. Fishing at the lake through an ice hole may be all that’s left, IF you have a lake, if it has fish…

In an immediate situation, a southern migration may be in order, preferably to land with a clean water supply. If you stay, go Vegan, at least temporarily. Building a greenhouse may be a challenge. We want warmer, to reduce wind chill. The ground may be frozen, so no underground greenhouse yet. But you can build along a south facing slope, even a snowbank! If there is no slope, build one. Gather and pile up any materials at hand. Make the face from wood panels, plastic sheets, old windows, even logs and branches can do the job. At each side put up permeable wind barriers that make a U shape with your ‘greenhouse’ and let the area inside the U warm up. Use any reflective materials you can find to reflect heat onto your greenhouse.

In the long term, well in advance, build a greenhouse. Such a greenhouse can be built in the ground during summer months when the soil can be worked. Homesteaders in -40° weather, used their garage and came to two prime conclusions. #1 is Insulation! No surprise. #2 was their water tanks, a thermal mass that kept their water buckets near the tanks from freezing solid! They needed water for their plants! You can put in stoves, showers, sleeping quarters! Store foods you want to be cold well away from the stove area. Clearly, light is needed. That’s why a greenhouse against a slope or a mound you make is a practical idea. The south facing side can have light allowing material slanted against it steeply enough the snow falls down. If you want to collect it to make water, all the easier. Depending on what you want to do, snow can act as insulation. See excellent tips at SF Gate: How to Keep a Greenhouse Above Freezing. When you can, install a self-sufficient Solar Power System for energy to keep your plants warm, lighted and growing.

Green Sprouts in the Canadian Arctic A unique “Green Igloo” project is helping grow fresh vegetables in a remote Inuit community! The 42-foot growing dome, built in modular sections, can handle seven feet of snow and winds up to 110 miles per hour.

Keep extra bags of compost/manure, to plant in while soil isn’t available. Grow cold-tolerant crops that can even tolerate a freeze. Harvest frugally. Plants grow slowly when it’s cold. Grow plants that regrow – like lettuces/microgreens, bunch onions, spinach, chard, Kales. Plant successively to keep supplies coming. While one plant is regrowing you can harvest another area.

We have now discussed Greenhouses for both heat and freeze temps needs. Underground greenhouses accommodate both situations with less difficulty. Just be sure to make them safe from flooding or snowmelt. Bioswales work well with planting more trees and diverting water, making more space for the natural flow of water.

We haven’t talked about SPROUTS! Technically, growing sprouts isn’t gardening, but it’s a relative! In all cases, Heat, Flood and Freeze they can be grown easily and super quickly, 2 to 5 days, in light weight containers. Select seeds that have plenty of protein! Make a fast growing mix and a slower mix. Mix in some spicy seeds for tasty results. You do need water to rinse them and they need to be kept warm. You could carry them in your jacket when it’s cold. In the diagram below, particularly note the grams of Protein!

Please right click on image, select ‘Search Google for image’ to see a more clear image.

If you are starting over, you might consider a Food Forest. If you have enough land with good soil, they have special advantages, including the possibility of mitigating crisis situations. Same goes for the use of Permaculture techniques, which might include a Food Forest. Food Forests often start with, may already have trees you want in place. They can provide shade and windbreaks. Wood for winter. Food Forests provide high density production per square foot, a variety of foods and living needs in a much smaller space! It would serve you well to read up on both and possibly modify your long term plans for a safer, more sustainable and comfortable life.

Not everyone likes or wants to garden. If you are evacuated, right away select a food person. Could be an experienced veg gardener who knows how to get things going again. They will work intuitively and be innovative on their feet as needed. Select someone who has a natural inclination. If no one in your group likes gardening, appoint someone responsible and practical to do it anyway. Give them your support by working side by side with them as much as possible. It’s a start. Some people don’t yet know they would like to garden! Show them what you are growing; give them a few samples of your 100% fresh organic food with no packaging! That full bodied taste and fresh texture makes a huge difference! Someone who loves gardening enjoys the work it takes. A greater amount of fresh food will need to be grown to meet initial crisis needs.

Some of us Community Gardeners are considering meeting together if there is a serious crisis and we would evacuate together if need be. We could help people with the food situation. Local permaculturists might form a team to help our community in extreme circumstances. They might train for different kinds of climate situations. We need Permaculture First Responders on staff! Farmers might join an advocacy association to train key gardeners about mass production techniques. Neighborhood associations could create a seat on the council for a person to get knowledgeable and take charge of crisis food needs. Certain centrally located secure homes could be appointed as gathering places. Homeowners that already have veg gardens could be assisted to produce more.

We have been talking about temporary survival fixes in extreme circumstances. The important key to all is responsible land stewardship toward regenerative agriculture. See about Crater Gardens! Sepp Holzer has one! Do read the comments at this page. Create your own to suit your space and needs!

Plan and support Regenerative Agriculture!

This post is intended to be provocative in its own way. Please think about it, let us know your ideas, make comments, ask questions, share your experiences. This has been in the back of my mind for some time and is still in progress. Our solutions now will undoubtedly change as circumstances change, unfold. It will take all our collective genius. People who have lived alone will find themselves suddenly thrust into collaborating. Life will be changing for all of us. We’re in it together.

Be safe, be well, tend your future just as you would your garden ~ it is a garden of another kind!

Updated 3.25.23

Sharing is Caring! Let’s get the word out!

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Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

The Green Bean Connection newsletter started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA, Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. Both of Santa Barbara City’s remaining community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

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February, Very First Spring Planting!

Radish Sprouts looking at the Sky!
Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Capture water! Grow organic! 

The Seed Swap was a huge success! In a total downpour, it was buns to buns standing room only at times! All the seeds and cuttings were taken, there were generous sharings! My talk was well attended, I got the Romanesco Zucchini seeds I was hoping to find, along with some other treats including cilantro seeds I was out of, and a locally grown loofa! A lot of people were from out of town, so good to see gardener friends ~ the music was great! Congratulations to Oscar Carmona for his Seed Savers Hero Award! Happy planting to you all!

This year my summer strategy is to plant tall in the West to filter sunlight, give shorter plants respite from the hot afternoon sun, keep them a bit cooler, keep the soil a bit cooler, more moist. Last summer, record HOT, our crops were done in July and we had so much heat, fall planting wasn’t successful until the end of October. Hopefully my strategy will give a longer growing period this year.

• Plan to put indeterminate tomatoes and pole beans in vertical cages or on sturdy trellises on the western border. Indeterminate tomatoes are an excellent choice! They are water savers since no time is lost starting more determinate/bush tomato varieties, having periods of no crop while waiting for them to fruit. Basil is great with tomatoes, and a pack of dandelions!
• Next, intermingle mid height plants, bush beans, determinate tomatoes – good choice for canning, tall peppers like Big Jim Anaheim or Polanos, zucchini – try the prolific heirloom, star shaped Costata Romanesco! Potatoes with Zucchini to repel squash bugs. Radish with cukes & zukes to repel cucumber beetles.
• Leave a broccoli or two, that will get taller, on the West side, for salad side shoots.
• Leave a couple kale that will get taller on the West side. They will produce all summer long. Plant lettuces on the sunny side under your brocs and kale.
• Plan to put cucumbers up on mini trellises to keep them disease free and clean, and so they ripen evenly all the way around.
• Scatter the ‘littles’ among them on the sunny side. Some of them will be done before the bigger plants leaf out. When the bigger plant leaves start shading out the ones below, harvest strategic large lower leaves.
• Lower plants like eggplant, like a little humidity, so snuggle them among, in front of tall chards, maybe some curly leaf kale behind the chard. Radishes with eggplants and cucumbers as a trap plant for flea beetles.
• Leave room for some arugula, cilantro, chamomile, a carrot or two, and a celery to go to flower to bring bees and beneficials! Besides being beautiful and having lovely scents, let them seed out for seeds for next plantings. Carrots love being with cilantro and chamomile!
• If you love cabbages, plant a few more, but they take up a fair footprint for what they produce and they take quite awhile to do it. Plant quick maturing varieties. You can do better by planting drought tolerant prolific producers! These are the top 5: Indeterminate tomatoes, pole beans, Zucchini Romanesco, Giant Fordhook chard and Thousand Headed Kale!
• In the East put in your shorties. Beets and carrots there and among the big plants. Bunch onions away from beans. Strawberries and lettuces. Radish.
• Pumpkin, melon, winter squash vines require some thoughtfulness. Pumpkin and winter squash vine leaves get as huge as zucchini leaves, easily a foot wide! Mini melons have dainty 2″ wide little leaves, can be trellised, are definitely low to the ground, can be quite smaller than strawberries! A healthy winter squash vine can easily be 3′ to 4′ wide, 30′ long plus side vines, and produce a major supply of squash! You can use them as a border, as a backdrop along a fenceline. In SoCal, unless you are a squash lover, or won’t be gardening in winter, there is question as to why you would grow winter squash at all. Greens of all kinds grow prolifically here all winter long, giving a fresh and beautiful supply of Vitamin A.

Planning now is important because not all these plants are installed at the same time. Planting in the right places now makes a difference. Zucchini, cool tolerant tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and corn can be started now, by seed, in the ground. March is a little warmer and early variety plants get a better start. April is most everything – cucumber, pepper, squash, beans, more tomatoes, watermelon. May is the true heat lovers, cantaloupe, okra (June may be better yet), eggplant. Some gardeners wait to plant tomatoes until May and June to avoid the soil fungi of earlier months. I hold that space by planting something temporary there in March.

In spaces needing to be held for later, ie if you are planting okra in June, grow plants that are quick and prolific producers grown for their leaves. They produce continuously, and can be removed when you want the space. You will have lush harvests while you are waiting. Think of kales, chard, lettuce, beets, even mini dwarf cabbages. Perhaps you will leave some of them as understory plants and plant taller peppers like Poblanos or Big Jim Anaheims, and tomatoes among them. When the larger plants overtake the understory, either harvest the smaller plants, or remove or harvest lower leaves of larger plants and let the smaller ones get enough sun to keep producing. Super use of your space.

The weather is warming rapidly, January ground temp at Pilgrim Terrace is 51-55 degrees, and likely we will have another HOT summer, so our planting times may be earlier, but, again, remember, day length is still important. No matter how early you plant some plants, they still won’t produce fruit until they have enough hours of sun, and for some, warmth including day and/or night and/or ground temps. If they miss their window, they may never produce at all…. Keep growing those leafy producers – lettuce, chard, kale – in that space and plant the right plants at the right good time! See Best Soil Temps

Start seedlings indoors now for March/April plantings. If seeds and tending seedlings aren’t for you, just wait, get transplants and pop them right in the ground per their right times!

Right now, from seed, sow beets, caraway, celery, carrots, chard, chervil, chives, collards, cilantro (coriander), dill, endive, fennel, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuces, mustards, green onions, bulb onion sets, flat-leafed parsley, peas – mildew resistant varieties, white potatoes, radishes, shallots, spinach, and turnips. With our temp changes, get bolt resistant/slow bolt varieties, and especially drought tolerant varieties.

Along with deciding plant locations, get ready for Summer Gardening!

• Install pathways, berms. You may have to do some rearranging if you decide to plant tall West.
• Waffle Garden, basins & windbreaks, Water Garden. Excellent drought choices.
• Gather cages & trellises
• Terrace slopes – prevents water runoff and topsoil loss
• Build raised beds, Hugelkultur
• Get new containers, pallets, boards, wire for bird protection
• Organize where you will keep straw bales for summer mulch
• Setup Compost areas – enclosures, area to compost in place

Spring planting soil prep! 

• Add compost & other amendments to your soil all at the same time.
• Add well aged manure as appropriate. Less in spring because you want fruit production, not leaf, unless it is a plant grown for its leaves, like lettuce, kale or cabbage! None for carrots, peas or beans.
• Add 25% worm castings. As little as 10% works. They are potent, help with plant immunities to disease.
• Adding guanos high in P, Phosphorus, at planting time helps your plants continue to bloom LATE in the season! Jamaican bat is high P phosphorus (blooms) 1-10-0.2.
• Sprinkle with a tad of coffee grounds to reduce wilts fungi.
• Don’t cover with mulch unless you need it for erosion control. Covered soil is cooler. Let your winter cool soil warm up.
• Water your prepped areas when you water your other veggies. Moist, not flooded soil is rampant with life!

One more round of green manure is doable. Grow it where you will grow heavy summer feeders like tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, chilis, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, melons, and corn; hungry stalk vegetables like celery, fennel, rhubarb, and artichokes; or continually producing green, leafy vegetables like lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard. Green manure can be beautiful favas, bell beans, or a vetch mix to boost soil Nitrogen. Favas are big and you get a lot of green manure per square foot. With our warming weather, longer days, your green manure will grow quickly! As soon as it begins to flower, whack it down, chop into small bits and turn under. It’s more tender to chop then. Taller is not better. Wait two to three weeks and plant, plant, plant!

Sidedressing! Hard working plants need fuel and water. As broccoli starts to head, give it a fish/kelp tonic! After the main head is cut, your side shoots will flourish!

Pests!

• When you put in seeds, sprinkle a bit of Sluggo type stuff around immediately to keep snails and slugs from vanishing upcoming seedlings overnight, making you think they never came up! No, they didn’t let you down. Killing off the creatures ahead of time saves the babies. It stops new transplants from being seriously damaged or entirely eaten while they are small. Do this a few times, to knock off the generations, and there will be no tiny vegetarian predators for a while.
• Pull away those blotchy sections leafminers make on chard and beet leaves. Remove whole leaves that are too funky for rescue. Harvest the bigger outer lower leaves more often to stay ahead of the miners. Water a tad less so leaves are less soft and inviting.
• Hose APHIDS off chard, kale and brocs. Keep doing it for a few days to catch the ones you missed.

  For hard to get at places, down the centers of chard, crinkly kale leaves, get out that spray bottle! Treat once, wait a couple days, treat the ones that got away and newborns.I tried it, it WORKS! The simplest is to spray with 2 Parts alcohol, 2 parts water, 1 part  soap. DO NOT use on seedlings, it will kill some of them. Spritz lightly rather than drenching or you may kill your bigger plant too!

  Lemon Spray It kills the aphids on contact. Grate the rind of a large lemon. Boil it in enough water to fill a garden spray bottle. Let the mixture sit overnight. Strain the liquid into the garden spray bottle. Spray the aphids and larvae directly. It’s over for them.

  Vinegar Spray Get out a spray bottle and fill it 1/3 of the way with distilled white vinegar and the rest of the way with water. This will kill the aphids and larvae on contact. Some plants react badly to the vinegar. It’s important know which plants you can and cannot use this method with. Test it on a small area of your plant before doing a large area.

  Calcium Powder Sprinkling calcium powder around the base of the plants is another natural aphid repellent. The aphids do not like the calcium and will generally stay away from it.

  Banana Peels?! Burying shredded banana peels around the base of plants is an odd, but effective remedy. It has been around for ages and many gardeners will swear by it. I’m gonna try it.

• Remove any yellowing leaves that attract white fly.
• Gophers You can still put in wire protective baskets or barriers, especially now while the soil is softer after  the rains. If you see a fresh mound, trap immediately.

Prevention  A frustrating typical disease is Powdery mildew. It’s common on Curly Leaf kales. Plant leaving plenty of space for air circulation. Apply your baking soda mix. Drench under and upper sides of the foliage of young plants to get them off to a great start! Do this the same or next day if transplanting. A super combo is 1 regular Aspirin dissolved, a 1/4 cup nonfat powdered milk, heaping tablespoon of baking soda, a teaspoon liquid dish soap per gallon/watering can. Reapply every 10 days or so, and after significant rains. Not only is prevention so much better than after mildew has set in, but this mix stimulates your plant’s growth! See Aspirin Solution.

Do not compost diseased or infested leaves or plants.

Especially after our recent rains, check beets, carrots, radish, potatoes, turnips, in general, for low soil. Soil naturally compacts with watering. Some of these veggies naturally push right up above ground as they grow. Planting their seeds deeper doesn’t compensate. It’s the nature of the veggie! Never hurts to put a handy little pile of extra soil near where you plant them. Cover their exposed shoulders to keep them from drying, getting tough, needing peeling, losing the nutrients in their skins. Uncovered carrot shoulders don’t ripen but stay green. Same with potatoes.

Thin any plants you intentionally over planted – carrots, beets, turnips, kale, chard, mustard. If you planted too close together, take out the shorter, weaker plants. They are all great in your salads along with small tender Brassica leaves.

Watering & Weeding is important after rains. Winds dry soil quickly and short rooted plants like peas, or seedlings, need to be kept moist.

Dust Mulching, cultivation, is perfec to break up the soil surface. That keeps the water from wicking to the surface and evaporating. If you use a hula hoe you do two things at once! Just a half to one inch depth cuts off weed sprouts. Indeed, it turns the soil a tad, all that’s needed. More weeds will follow, but it’s quick and easy to repeat the process. Two, three times, a few days apart, and there will be little weeds after that for awhile. Get ’em while they are small and easy to do. Smart gardening.

When grass has those frilly little green tops, it is blooming and seeding! Remove it ASAP. Better yet is to remove weeds before they seed! If at the seeding stage, gently pull, don’t shake the soil loose from the roots and spread seeds all over, if possible, and don’t put them in your compost!

Keep COMPOSTING! Soil building is the single-most important thing you can do for your garden. Compost keeps your soil aerated, has great water holding capacity, feeds just perfectly! And if you made it, you know what’s in it! Make it HOT, Cold, or In place!  Dry is dead, so be sure it is always slightly moist.

Giving back to Mama Earth is nature’s natural way! And, like Will Allen says ….there is something very Spiritual about touching the soil, that’s where life begins.

Have a wonderful February! May your seedlings grow well!

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The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. We are very coastal, during late spring/summer in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

January Rainy Garden Images!

See the entire February GBC Newsletter:

Chard, an Elegant Colorful Pleasure!
Everyday Gardening – Free Therapy & Lots of Healing
Seeds@City Urban Farm, San Diego City College! 
Events!  Earth Day!

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10 Easy Steps to Make RICH COMPOST!

I love Val Webb’s image and she and I both love COMPOST!  She says:  There’s an irresistible alchemy involved when you can start with garbage and end up with a wildly nutrient-rich substance that has been likened to Ghirardelli chocolate for earthworms.

Composting is EASY! Start Now!  Get your soil fat!  The sooner you plant, and plant in tasty soil, the sooner you get a great harvest!

There’s compost and vermicompost, hot and cold compost, compost in place, trenching, to name a few.  You have options!

Compost is decayed organic matter – poops – that’s manures, dry leaves and straw/alfalfa, wet grasses and kitchen wastes. Compost has a variable amount of Nitrogen in it depending on what has been composted and how the compost was made. Some studies show unturned compost has more Nitrogen than turned compost. Homemade compost can be up to 4 N, as is fish emulsion and chicken manure. Steer is 2, horse 1.7. If you need a quick boost for a yellowing N starved plant, go for bat guano, or easily assimilable blood meal, both at 10 N! Be careful with that bat guano, it’s hot and can burn your plants. And both are pricey. Get just the amount you need at Island Seed and Feed’s bulk bins.

Vermicompost is worm poop. Politely, worm castings. Simple as that. Red wriggler worms are easy to raise, will eat lots of things but do best with tender stuff, your green kitchen waste. They love cantaloupe and melon rinds, nesting in avocado shells, egg shells keep their pH neutral. Wrigglers are surface feeders not earthworms. If you put wrigglers in the soil, they die. Worm castings (vermicompost) have negligible N, about .05, are NOT A FERTILIZER, but do a lot of other good things for your plants. Highly recommended.

Hot compost has to be made carefully, have just the right mix, be tended like a baby, and defies many attempts to get it hot! If you don’t get the combo of your materials right, you are cold composting. The advantage of hot composting is it is fast, kills bad creatures and weed seeds. Also kills the good guys. But. Only in the parts of the pile that actually get that hot. The whole pile never gets that hot, like the outside of the pile. Even if you turn it so the outside goes inside, it’s hard to guarantee it will all get that hot, so be advised. It’s pretty cute to see all those little plants that spring up in the pile….

Cold compost is just throwing your done plants or trim, preferably not diseased or pest infested, into a pile or your compost enclosure, layering with some wet or dry material as needed. It might get hot, it likely won’t. It will decompose if you keep it moist. If not you have dead dry stuff, no nutrients.  Some studies have shown that cold compost is more nutritious than hot compost.  Makes sense since you aren’t burning off Nitrogen and other goodies including beneficial insects and microorganisms.  If your stuff doesn’t turn black and fluffy and smell good when it is decomposed to unrecognizable pieces, you don’t have compost. Perhaps you could use it as mulch?

Composting in place, sheet composting, Lasagna Gardening, is a time saver, no moving later. Chop and drop on the spot, add dry/wet materials as needed, amendments, red wrigglers, let nature do the work.  Especially add some chicken manure before you add your layers, because decomposition uses Nitrogen!  If you are starting on top of turf, using cardboard as your bottom layer, be sure to SATURATE the cardboard.  Don’t rush this part.  Really saturate it.  You want it to last long enough for the grass underneath it to die, to keep the grass from growing up through your pile; you also want your cardboard to decompose so your plants’ roots can grow through it when your pile sinks as the pile decomposes.

Trenching kitchen trim is traditional – cover it and forget it! Crushed eggshells, torn tea bags, coffee grounds. Six inches deep is all you need to do. Cover with the soil, water as usual, your stuff will disappear in about a week! Don’t put in meats or oils that attract digging predators, or grains or cereals that will attract mice. Leave out citruses and spicy foods.

Start Now! 10 Easy Steps to Make RICH COMPOST!

Make the most out of your finished plants or trim; use them for compost, organic fertilizer! A compost enclosure is a fine garden investment! Keep it humming! Dig your compost in around your plants, plant IN your new compost! Surface compost Nitrogen just off gases, so put a layer of soil over your compost to keep the Nitrogen right where you need it, in the soil feeding your plants.

1. Get or make your enclosure, a good working size for you, then layer, layer, layer! Half inch layers are ideal, but do what you can.  A pile 3′ by 3′ is your best minimum if you want a hot pile.  Enclosures can be free pallets on Craigs List tied together, plastic beehive types to keep the rats and mice out, the circular hard black rubber kind, to expensive rolling types, garbage cans with bottoms removed, holes made in their sides!  Do what works for you!
2. Dry stuff first so it will get wet from the stuff you put on top.  That’s ‘brown’ – dry ingredients such as dead leaves, wetted newspaper or cardboard, alfalfa/straw.  The formula is 2 dry, brown to 1 wet, ‘green.’
3. Layer up with your kitchen waste you saved, undiseased green waste from your garden or greens recycle bin. Avoid hard woody stems and seeding weed plants. Cut up large items, halve whole items like apples, potatoes. Tear teabags, crush eggshells.
4. Lay in a few yarrow leaves to speed decomposition. Grow yarrow by your composter for handy use.
5. Inoculate with a sprinkle of soil, living micro organisms, that multiply, munch and speed composting.
6. Sprinkle your layers with aged manure (keep a bucketful next to your composter) to enrich it.
7. Keep layering up to 3’ high or until you run out of materials.
8. Keep your composting materials moist, to keep them live and decomposing.  Don’t let them dry out – dry is dead, nothing happens, nutrients are lost, time and space wasted.
9. Cover with a large piece of *folded heavy mil black plastic to keep your compost moist, and dark so any worms that take up residence work up through the whole pile, to the top .
10. Keep adding to it, stir or turn often to oxygenate, weekly if you can.  Composting organisms need lots of air to operate.  Keep it moist but not drippy and drowning.  Some studies show compost is more Nitrogen rich if you DON’T turn it!  Hmm…read on.

If you are not able to do that much heavy turning or don’t want to take the time, simply, push a long stick into your compost, several times, in different places, to let oxygen in.  Or, if you are inclined, at intervals in your pile, as you build it, you can insert, horizontally or vertically, 2″ PVC pipes, that have had holes drilled in them every 6″ for aeration.  If you are going to insert horizontally, make your holes on one side only; put the holes side down to keep them from clogging.  Make sure both ends stick out so there is air flow through the pipes.  If you insert vertically, drill holes all around the pipe.  If you use a larger diameter, line it with wire mesh to keep it from filling with debris.  Once made, you can use your PVC over and over.  Other alternatives are to make wire mesh cylinders or tie a bundle of twigs together.

Your compost is finished when you no longer recognize the individual materials that went into it. If you are have a small compost batch, when ready, lay out your *folded plastic cover, pitchfork the still decomposing stuff on top of your pile onto your plastic.  Use that good stuff at the bottom where you want it. Or plant in the nutrient rich spot where your composter was!  Put your composter in a new spot, fork the stuff still decomposing back in, add new materials, recover, do it again!  The process slows down in winter, speeds up in summer, generally you have some compost in 6 to 8 weeks.

If you have time, throw a cup or so of compost in a bucket, fill with water, let sit overnight, voila, compost tea! Soak your seeds in it before planting!  Pour it round your plants or use your watering can to spray it on their leaves, both tops and bottoms – foliar feeding.  Your veggies will thrive!  If you have a lawn, make aeration holes with your spade fork and pour the tea down them.  You soil will start to live again!

Your soil and your plants thank you!

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Mulching, Composting in Place – Some Like it HOT!

I used to be a total mulcher, covered my whole veggie garden. I’ve adjusted my coastal SoCal mulch* thinking to match the plant! Same goes for composting in place. That’s a good idea for some areas of your garden, other areas not at all!

If you are coastal SoCal, in the marine layer zone, your mulch, or composting in place, may be slowing things down a lot more than you realize. The best melons I’ve ever seen grown at Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden were on bare hot dry soil in a plot that had a lower soil level than most of the other plots. The perimeter boards diverted any wind right over the top of the area, the soil got hot!  It was like an oven! So, let it be bare! No mulch under melons, your winter squash, pumpkins except under the fruits to keep them off the ground, clean, above soil level insects.

For more heat, put up a low wind barrier – straw bales, a perimeter of densely foliated plants, a big downed log, be creative. Permeable shrubs are the most effective wind barriers. Let your peppers and jicama get hot! Eggplant are Mediterranean heat lovers! Okra is Southern, hot.

Tomatoes need dryer soil to avoid the verticillium and fusarium wilt fungi, no more than an inch of loose straw to allow airflow at soil level but keep heat down. Let ‘em dry nearby; water a foot or more away from the central stem. Let that tap-root do its job, get the water below the fungi, wilt/blight zone, the top 6 to 8 inches. Drier soil is not comfy for slugs.

Get cucumbers up on a trellis, then you won’t need mulch to keep the cukes clean and bug free, but rather because they have short roots. Preplant radish to repel cucumber beetles when your cukes bloom. The radish will provide a living mulch as their leaves shade the cuke roots. Eat a few radish, but let the rest grow out to keep repelling the beetles. In time you can gather their seeds. Plant heat tolerant lettuces at their feet to act as living mulch. They both like plenty of water to keep them growing fast and sweet, so they are great companions. Slugs and snails like peas and lettuce. You will need to use a little Sluggo or its equivalent if you feel comfortable to use it.

Clearly, no mulch, more heat, equals more water needed. In drought areas, plant in basins below the main soil level. Use your long low flow water wand to water only in the basin at the roots of your plant. Fuzzy leaved plants, tomatoes and eggplant, prefer not being watered on their leaves anyway. Since there is no raised mound, there is no maintenance needed for berms surrounding the basin, but you will need to keep the basin from filling in. Plant companion littles and fillers in the basin around the base of bigger plants. They will enjoy the cooler damper soil and provide living mulch to keep that soil more cool!

LIVING MULCH  is triple productive! It mulches, provides companion plant advantages, and is a crop all at the same time! Closely planted beets, carrots, garden purslane, radish, turnips act as living mulch to themselves and bigger companion plants you plant them by. The dense canopy their leaves make lets little light in, keeps things moist. Cucumbers under broccoli are living mulch while the brocs repel cucumber beetles! If you cage or trellis your beans, most of the plant is up getting air circulation, keeping them dryer, more mildew free, if you don’t plant too densely. They, cucumbers and strawberries, also have short feet that need to stay moist, so do mulch them – your beans and cukes with clean chop and drop, straw or purchased mulch.

Zucchini, doesn’t care. They are a huge leaved plant, greedy sun lovers, that are self mulching. But, you can feed their vine up through the largest tomato cages, cut off the lower leaves and plant a family of lettuces, carrots, onions, salad bowl fixin’s or basil on the sunny side underneath! Especially preplant radish to repel cucumber beetles! All of them like plenty of water, so everyone is happy.

Cooler crops, over summering Broccoli, Kale, Chard like moist and cooler, so mulch deeply very early in spring.

Boards as mulch! Your strawberries like slightly acidic soil, and acidic mulch – redwood or pine needles. Also, you can lay down boards between mini rows of strawberries to keep the soil moist under the boards, the soil between the rows that the berry roots have access to. It’s a variation on pallet gardening. The advantages of using boards are you can space or remove your boards so you can easily access the soil to add amendments, you can add or remove boards to make a bigger or smaller patch, you can make the boards the length you need or want, space them as needed per the plant. Planting between boards can be used for lots of other plants too if you won’t be planting an understory! As for your strawberries, as they leaf out and get bigger, in addition to the boards, they will be living mulch for themselves!

If you are going to mulch, do it justice. Besides wanting to cool your soil, keep moisture in, prevent erosion, keep your crop off the soil and away from bugs, and in the long-term, feed your soil, mulching is also to prevent light germinating weed seeds from sprouting. Put on 4 to 6 inches minimum, tomatoes being the exception. Less than that may be pretty, but simply make great habitat for those little grass and weed seeds! Mulch makes moist soil, where a rich multitude of soil organisms can thrive, including great fat vigorous earthworms! You see them, you know your soil is well aerated, balanced, doing great!

Mulching is double good on slopes and hillsides. Make rock lined water-slowing ‘S’ terrace walk ways snaking along down the hillside. Cover your berms well and deeply to prevent erosion and to hold moisture when there are drying winds. Be sure to anchor your mulch in windy areas -biodegradable anchor stakes are available. Carolyn Csanyi has some clever ideas on how to keep your mulch on a slope. Plant fruit trees, your veggies on the sunny side under them, on the uphill side of your berms. Make your terrace wide enough so you don’t degrade the berms by walking on them when you harvest.

If you mulch, make it count!  Mulch with an organic degradable mulch. Chop and drop disease and pest free plants to compost in place, spread dry leaves. Spread very well aged manures. When you water, it’s like compost or manure tea to the ground underneath. Lay out some seed free straw – some feed stores will let you sweep it up for free! If you don’t like the look of that, cover it with some pretty purchased mulch you like. Use redwood fiber only in areas you want to be slightly acidic, like for strawberries or blueberries.

COMPOSTING IN PLACE  Build soil right where you need it. Tuck green kitchen waste out of sight under your mulch, where you will plant next. Sprinkle with a little soil if you have some to spare, that inoculates your pile with soil organisms; pour on some compost tea to add some more! Throw on some red wriggler surface feeder worms. Grow yarrow or Russian comfrey (Syphytum x uplandicum) near your compost area so you can conveniently add a few sprigs to your pile to speed decomposition. It will compost quickly, no smells, feeding your soil excellently! If you keep doing it in one place, a nice raised bed will be built there with little effort!

You don’t have to wait to plant! Pull back a planting space, add compost you have on hand or purchased, maybe mix in a little aged manure mix, worm castings, your favorite plant specific amendments. Sprinkle some mycorrhizal fungi on your transplant’s roots (exception is Brassicas), and plant! Yes!

*Mulch is when you can see distinct pieces of the original materials. Finished compost is when there are no distinct pieces left, the material is black and fluffy and smells good.

Mulch is magic when done right!

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The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. All three of Santa Barbara’s community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are often in a fog belt/marine layer most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic!

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In honor of Earth Day!

Food Not Lawns is all about raising veggies not grass.  Studies show they both take about the same amount of water, but veggies pay back sustainably with fresh highly nutritious food on your table and no-food-miles or pollution.  Plus they make seeds for their next generation, adapting to your microclimate niche!  http://www.sbfoodnotlawns.org

• Do I have to rip up my lawn?  You can do lasagna gardening/sheet composting right on top, start with cardboard/newspaper. 
• Do I have to do a major portion of my lawn?  You can do any part you want, big or small, your call!
• But I don’t want to do my front lawn.  You don’t have to!  It’s yours, do what makes you happy!  You only need 6 to 8 hours of sun to grow veggies, any space, corridor that has that, works.
• Is it really hard work?  Using the lasagna/sheet composting method is no harder than gathering the materials to do it!  There is NO DIGGING!  And you don’t have to build raised beds.  Building soil on top of your lawn can make a lovely undulating landscape.  Frameless raised beds have plantable sloped sides!  
• Is it ugly?   Could be, but how you do it is up to you!  It can be integrated along/among border landscaping plants, you don’t have to have raised beds at all.  If you want to though, you can make really attractive raised beds with beautiful materials, ie a lovely rock wall, terracing.  You can  cover an unsightly area like the edge under a south facing deck.  There are so many lovely options! 
• I don’t want to wait months before I can plant!  You can plant the same day!  Just pull back a planting hole,  throw in compost, bought or made by you, plus any amendments you want, just like usual, and plant NOW!  No waiting at all!

                            Sheet Compost/Lasagna Garden Layers                           

Mulch or Tarp or not
Optional – Compost, Sprinkled Soil
Repeat layers until 18” to 2’ deep
Greens – Garden chop & drop
Browns – twice as deep as greens
Greens/Wet – kitchen veggie scraps, garden trimmings, grass, manure
Browns/Dry – leaves, straw for air circulation, alfalfa for Nitrogen
Well wetted Cardboard/Newspaper
Existing surface – Lawn

Wet green layers go above dry browns so the juicy decomposing stuff seeps down, keeping the brown stuff moist!  Straw is good in a brown/dry layer because air can pass through it, keeping the pile aerated!  Throw in some red wriggler worms to work the pile, make castings!  Maybe toss in some soil to ‘innoculate’ the pile with soil organisms.

Don’t worry overmuch about exactness of ingredients in your layers as you chop and drop greens from your garden/yard.  In fact, you can mix them up!  But do put in manures for Nitrogen (N).  Decomposing plants use N to decompose, so add a little so your growing plants will have an adequate supply.

If you can, make your pile at least 18” high; it is going to sink down as it decomposes.  Thinner layers, or layers that have been mixed, and smaller pieces, decompose faster.

If you like, cover the whole pile with some pretty mulch when you are done!  Or tarp it to keep things moist until ready for use.

When you plant, especially in ‘new’ soil, sprinkle the roots of your transplants with mycorrhizal fungi!  The fungi make micro filaments throughout your soil that increase your plants’ uptake of minerals, especially phosphorus that builds strong roots and increases blooming, fruiting!

Anybody can lasagna garden/sheet compost in any garden, any part of a garden, any or all the time!  It’s a time honored soil building/restoration technique!  Happy planting!

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February! SOIL & SEED Month!

Please see February 2010 for tips on aphids/white flies, slugs/snails, gophers, soil, seed starting basics! 

When there are warm days, it is ever so tempting to plant up summer veggies!  Don’t do it.  Not yet.  Start seeds. 

Depending on how much space you have, plant a last round of your very favorite winter crops – lettuces, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, kale, kohlrabi, potatoes, radishes, turnips.  Bare-root asparagus and artichokes.  I forgot to tell you last month, you could start zucchini!  At Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden we had an elder gardener who always started his in January, early February, and had great zucchini way before everyone else!  Other than zuchs, really look at those days to maturity, and add the number of days you expect for harvest duration.  If you plant a long maturing plant that would be harvested for some time, think if you would rather have that space for an early round of a summer veggie you love more.  Choose mildew and disease resistant varieties for your late peas.  

Keep sidedressing your producing plants, protect your tasty lettuces from slugs and snails.  Keep watch for aphids, and, if you disturb your plant and a little cloud of white things fly off, you have white flies.  Spray those little buggers off asap so they don’t spread to your other plants or someone else’s!  Keep up with your harvesting.  Wait until it warms up some more to prune frost damaged plants.  Even wait until next month to fertilize.  

But do prepare your soil for March summer veggie planting.  Dig if you must – I’m a no-dig, no weed person who leaves the living soil structure intact [see Gaia’s Garden, 2^nd edition, chapter on soil].  Instead, prepare your soil by layering good stuff on top, called Lasagna Gardening, sheet composting, composting in place, or on-the-ground composting!  Garden smart!  If it is already there, you don’t have to move it from the compost pile to where it is needed!  Build your soil in place or in your new raised beds!  If you are putting raised beds on top of your lawn, lay down several layers of heavy cardboard first, to stop the grass and weeds, thoroughly soak it, then layer, layer, layer!  When they get there, your plant’s roots will easily poke their way through the cardboard.  Definitely attach gopher proof wire mesh to the bottom of your raised bed frame before you start filling it, unless you are creating your garden on top of concrete or a roof.  If you are container gardening, check out Patricia Lanza’s book Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces: A Layering System for Big Results in Small Gardens and Containers: Garden in Inches, Not Acres. 

Healthy layering should be 2 dry/Carbon to 1 wet/Nitrogen. 

Carbon – carbon-rich matter (like branches, stems, dried leaves, peels, bits of wood, bark dust or sawdust, shredded brown paper bags, coffee filters, conifer needles, egg shells, hay, peat moss, wood ash) gives compost its light, fluffy body.
Nitrogen – nitrogen or protein-rich matter (manures, food scraps, leafy materials like lawn clippings and green leaves) provides raw materials for making enzymes. 

• Lay twigs or straw first, a few inches deep. This aids drainage and helps aerate the pile.
• ADD dry materials – straw, leaves and wood ashes. If you have wood ashes, sprinkle in thin layers, or they will clump together and be slow to break down.  Fine chopped, smaller materials decompose faster.
• Lay on manure, green manure ( clover, buckwheat, wheatgrass ) or any nitrogen source. This activates the compost pile and speeds the process along.  Put on rinsed seaweed for minerals, scatter some yarrow sprigs to further speed decomposition, and, of course, your kitchen food waste. 
• Think how that pile is going to decompose lower and lower.  Build enough layers to get the amount of soil you need.  Could be 18” high.
• If you like, sprinkle some microbe rich topsoil over it all to ‘inoculate’ with living soil organisms that will immediately go to work.  Add a few handfuls of red wriggler compost worms.  Add any other amendments that make you happy.
• Install some pathways.  Don’t walk on your oxygen rich breathing brew and squeeze the life out of it, or crush your worms and soil structure!  Keep things fluffy for good soil aeration and water absorption.   
• If you need to, for aesthetic reasons, cover the compost with a pretty mulch that will break down slowly.  Spread it aside when you are ready to plant.  It could be down leaves; if you need your soil in that area to be slightly acidic, cover with pine needles (strawberries).
• If things get stinky, add more carbon.
• You want to plant NOW, or the same day you layer?  Can do!  Or your instant soil wasn’t so instant?  OK, here’s the instant remedy.  Make planting holes in your layers, put in some compost you purchased or have on hand, mycorrhizal fungi, and plant!  The rest will catch up, and the heat from the composting material underneath will warm your plants!  You WILL have a fine garden!  

If you do also need a traditional compost pile for spot needs, consider “No-turn” composting!  The biggest chore with composting is turning the pile from time to time. However, with ‘no-turn composting’, your compost can be aerated without turning.  The secret is to thoroughly mix in enough coarse material, like straw – little air tubes, when building the pile. The compost will develop as fast as if it were turned regularly, and studies show that the nitrogen level may be even higher than turned compost.  With ‘no-turn’ composting, add new materials to the top of the pile, and harvest fresh compost from the bottom of the bin.

So here are 3 ways to save garden time and your back!  1)  No digging!  2)  Compost in place, no moving it.  3) No compost turning!  Uh huh.

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Mulch, Water, and Weed Smart!

If you didn’t mulch, didn’t mulch thick enough, or your mulch is thin and tired, now’s the time to put some down! It keeps your soil cooler, reduces evaporation, you use less water. Mulch prevents light germinating seeds from growing, using up soil nutrients and your soil.      

Big weeds – if healthy with no pests, chop and drop – that can also include your spent big plants, tops that have bolted, ones you no longer want. Toss the heavy stems into your long-term compost or green waste disposal. Chop and drop practice makes perfect pure guaranteed organic mulch. Remember, you won’t be doing chop and drop with Brassicas that have poisons that kill small seeds like lettuce seeds.      

Little weeds – get ‘em before they seed. If you see flowers, no matter how cute, pretty, and tiny, tiny seeds are very soon to follow. Every one of those is a new little weed that will need weeding, eats up your time weeding, again, and soil. Grass, with that pretty little plume? Those are flowering, seeding. The wind will blow them about. DO NOT pull and lay them on your soil to regrow right there. Remove them, not even into your compost pile, especially if you are not doing hot compost. Even then, it’s not likely every part of your compost pile will get hot enough to kill those little survivor seeds.      

Pigweed, Lamb's Quarter - Chenopodium, Nutrient Accumulator

When you pull little weeds, and you want to use them for mulch, leave them with their roots up, not down where they may grab what soil they can and grow again. One way to instant ‘weed’ tiny weeds in soft soil, is to use a knife, thin blade or stick, and poke/cut them down, push them into your soil. Instant mulch! Works better than raking or hoeing because that dries out your soil, and exposes more light germinating seeds so they can grow too, more weeding.      

Good weeds – Gardeners, we can reduce or eliminate fertilizer costs and improve soil naturally with plants that are “dynamic, or nutrient, accumulators.” Often they have long tap roots that gather nutrients deep in our soil and make them available to other plants. Some are very nutritious!  You can steam them or eat tasty young tender leaves in salads!      

Pigweed/lamb’s quarters, comfrey, dandelion, garlic, yarrow (also helps heat, decompose your compost more quickly!), fennel, purslane, buckwheat, parsley, peppermint, chamomile, stinging nettle, thistle, vetch, plantains, are all nutrient accumulators! Yes, several of those are ‘weeds,’ but now you will never think of them quite the same way again!

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