Techniques

Vertical gardens for beginners

August 28, 2011 By Leslie Leave a Comment

Vertical gardening is a method for growing more food in less space.

For example, in traditional vegetable gardening, tomatoes sprawl over and around their cages. However, you can grow your tomatoes along a trellis, a post, or even a single strong string with relative ease. This method allows you to plant more tomato plants in your garden as you eliminate tomato plant sprawl.

My favorite method of vertical gardening—again, I’m a lazy gardener—is against stakes. This method has worked particularly well for me with tomatoes. I prefer wooden stakes that are an inch square and five or six feet tall. Simply buy as many stakes as you have tomato plants, and when you put the plants in the ground, set the stakes in the ground at the same time, being careful not to stab the roots of the young plants. As the young plants grow, gently tie the thicker branches of each plant to the stake, using either strips of fabric or a vinyl stretch tie.

For this method to work best–to keep the plant put its energy into growing up instead of out–you need to pinch off new growth at the point where the existing branches join the main stalk of the plant. I typically do this once a week; it only takes a few minutes, and once your tomatoes are trained up the stake, these little extra sprouts are easy to spot and remove.

This is an effective, but not necessarily the sturdiest or most attractive, way to grow vegetables vertically. If you’re looking to grow heavier vegetables–like squash or even pumpkins–vertically, you’re going to need something more substantial. If you’d like to see how to build a simple but tall and strong support for heavier plants, I recommend All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, as the book has plans for constructing, with only a few tools, an affordable but substantial trellis. The book also explains where to situate your trellis (hint: don’t place it in such a way that the vegetables growing on the trellis will shade out those in the garden bed), how to best secure the netting that forms the ladders up which the plants climb, which plants grow best vertically, how to train plants up the trellis, how to increase your tomato yield by planting one tomato plant hortizontally (!), and how to secure the trellis if the plants become heavy at the end of the season.

If you’re ready to tackle slightly more advanced vertical garden methods–many of them exceptionally beautiful–I recommend you get your hands on the lavishly illustrated and highly inspirational book Garden Up! The book has a chapter on growing edibles up, against, and hanging from walls, with a special focus on how to irrigate plants in such a system. The chapter also covers growing on espaliers, using containers creatively in vertical plantings, making “potato condos,” and constructing nontraditional trellises.

Photo by digika, and used under a Creative Commons license

Keeping Cats Out of the Garden

August 22, 2011 By Leslie Leave a Comment

I like cats–I really do. If my spouse wasn’t allergic to them, we’d definitely have a couple. However, one of the neighbor’s cats has decided the square-foot piece of garden immediately next to my front door is the world’s best litter box. I’ve been interested, then, in ways to dissuade cats from digging around in the garden. Here’s are some techniques my research has turned up so far, but I’d love to hear your ideas—especially inexpensive ones—on how to keep cat poop out of the spots where I might want to grow food.

Water. Set up a motion-detecting sprinkler system. If there’s motion in the garden, the sprinklers will come on. Of course, you’re going to want a system that you can turn off easily–the computerized sprinkler system at the house we rent is not one of those–so that you’re not drenched when you work in the garden.

Dense vegetation. Plant flowers, or vegetables that are OK with being crowded, close together. Many cats don’t like to squeeze between leaves (though some will do so happily). As I’ve learned recently, an open patch of soil = great place for cat poop.

Crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper. Apparently cats don’t like strong smells like these, so you can spread ground hot peppers around the border of the garden, or even on spots within the garden.

Pinecones or stones. If there’s a spot the cat likes to target in the garden, place some pinecones there to discourage them from inhabiting that space. Pinecones are uncomfortable to walk on—or, I imagine, squat on—and stones, if placed in the ground a bit, make digging difficult.

Give in and build a cat garden. Set aside a small portion of the garden for the cat to use. Plant catnip, cat thyme, and cat mint. I don’t think this is an option for me, as I’m not about to put a welcome mat for the cat right by the front door. That said, maybe cultivating a cat garden in another part of the yard might lure the cat from the front door.

Or, do the opposite: plant an anti-cat garden. Apparently cats don’t like lavender, geraniums, or rue, a—like red and cayenne pepper—the scents are too strong. With my luck, my neighbor’s cat—or cats, I’m really not sure—would be lavender lovers, but it’s worth a try, I think.

Spiked mats. You can see one type here: Cat Scat Mats. These are mats featuring small plastic spikes that stick up about an inch or so from the ground. Alas, these mats will also discourage you from walking barefoot into the garden. (But hey–you’re probably not walking into your garden barefoot if, like me, there’s a half-hidden stash of cat poop in it.)

If you’ve had this problem, how did you solve it? (Please tell me there’s a solution, as I don’t like welcoming guests with cat poop by the front door.)

Cat photo by zenera, and used under a Creative Commons license.

Filed Under: Garden pests, Techniques

Crappy Soil? Try Raised Bed Gardening

July 24, 2011 By Leslie Leave a Comment

The two things I least look forward to at the beginning of each spring are turning over compacted soil and pulling weeds from hard ground. Even though I’m enthusiastic about gardening, I also have a lazy streak in me, so I appreciate a good, honest workaround for these two challenges.

I found one solution in raised bed gardening. It’s a bit of work up front–you’ll need to build (or buy and snap together) the frame for the raised bed, then haul a bunch of soil to it. But once those two steps are complete, gardening becomes sooooo much easier.

Raised beds offer a number of advantages (for all gardeners, not just lazy ones like me):

You can control what kind of soil your food grows in. If you rent your house, or you’re the second or third owner, or if your house is build on former brownfields or even fill land, who knows what’s in the soil? Find your favorite organic soil–or gather up your compost–and use it to fill the bed.

Raised beds tend to have a higher yield. Because you’re filling your raised bed with quality soil instead of whatever happens to be in your garden, you’re going to have more nutrient-rich soil, which usually translates to more vegetables and flowers. Be the envy of your neighbors!

Raised beds can be cultivated at a variety of heights. I tend to make my raised beds only about nine inches deep, but again, I’m lazy and not likely to invest in constructing bed beyond the frame. If you have back or joint problems, you can raise your beds off the ground completely. You can find a variety of raised bed garden construction plans online (at Sunset, Popular Mechanics, HGTV, and Micro-Eco Farming, for example–that last one has plans that are accessible for people with mobility disabilities). If, like me, your woodworking prowess ends with screwing four boards together in a rectangle and plunking it on the ground, but you want something more attractive and accessible, you can buy a raised garden bed that resembles a table.

Raised beds reduce soil compaction. Most raised beds are no more than four feet across, which means most people can reach all parts of the bed from its edges (with a little stretching). Because you’re not walking on the soil in the bed, the soil doesn’t become as compacted. That’s not only good news for you–you’ll spend less time struggling to turn over compacted soil at planting time–but also for your plants, as less compacted soil allows more air to reach your plants’ roots.

Raised beds have better drainage. In part because the soil is less compacted, raised beds allow excess water to seep away relatively quickly. Again, this helps air reach plants’ roots. If you live in an area with saturated or clayey soil, a raised bed filled with good soil can do wonders for your garden’s drainage.

Raised beds tend to have fewer weeds. If you’ve filled your raised bed with weed-free soil (and why wouldn’t you?), and if you put a weed barrier under at the bottom of your raised bed (under the soil you added), you’re probably not going to get a lot of weeds. Those that do pop up should be easy to pull because, as described above, raised beds tend not to have compacted soil, which can make it difficult to extricate weeds’ roots.

Raised beds can deter mammalian invaders. If you have a problem with gophers or rabbits, you can place chicken wire or a similar barrier at the bottom of the raised bed. Similarly, you can put a cage over the top of the garden to prevent incursions from above. This also keeps cats from using your garden as a litter box–a problem I’m dealing with myself right now.

Further resources

There are a ton of resources online about raised beds, but they’re of uneven quality. There are, however, some excellent books about raised bed gardening, and they’re packed with useful, actionable information. My favorite is Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening.

There are also many raised bed garden kits available. This one is really impressive. It is large, attractive, and, because it’s made from cedar, ecologically friendly. It features a built-in trellis, automated irrigation system, and even a gate. This one has two tiers, which also can be really attractive.

If you’re battling garden critters but don’t want to poison them, and if, like me, you’re not particularly handy with building things from scratch or are just plain impatient (also like me), you can simply buy a small-animal barrier.

If you have experience with raised bed gardening, what suggestions do you have for others? And if you’ve never tried it, what questions do you have?

Photo by Andrew of All Things Michigan, and used under a Creative Commons license

Filed Under: Garden pests, Garden planning and design, Raised bed gardening, Small space gardening, Soil, Techniques

Choosing Healthy Plants at the Nursery

July 3, 2011 By Leslie Leave a Comment

photo credit: Marcy Reiford

As a gardener, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed this spring and summer.

When I walked into a gardening center in California, I was familiar with the plants there, and I had a huge selection of plants from which to choose.

Here in Idaho, nurseries are fewer and far between–and they’re only open for a month or two, often closing by the end of June, the point at which all your plants should be in the ground–and the selection at the garden centers at the bigger home and garden stores (e.g. Home Depot) is not particularly impressive. (Shade plants, I’m finding, are especially difficult to find in any kind of diversity.)

All I have going for me, then, is that I know how to pick out healthy plants. I may not yet know which are best for my soil and microclimate, but I’m pretty confident that I can tell a soon-to-be-sick plant from one that will thrive.

Here. then, are my tips for picking out healthy, robust plants for your garden.

Look at the foliage.

Unless the plant is supposed to have leaves of another color (I’m looking at you, heuchera), be sure the leaves are a vibrant green.
The plant should have sufficient foliage. It shouldn’t look thin or “leggy”–meaning the stem has grown so tall and thin that it can’t support the foliage, flowers, or fruit of the plant.
Leaves should be full, not wilted or turning yellow or dry at the tips.
Brown, dry leaf tips may indicate a plant hasn’t been getting enough water.
Conversely, limp, waxy leaves with yellow tips are a telltale sign that a plant has been overwatered.
Thin, bleached-out leaves can be a sign of infestation, as can leaves that show damage on their undersides or that have pieces missing from their edges.
Leaves that are brown and wilted or that have odd spots of color on them may be a clue to a fungal infection.
Plants with broken stems are weak; they may have been handled roughly by the staff at the nursery.

Peek at the roots.

Yes, it’s difficult to see the roots of the plant while it’s still in its nursery container, but these are the plant’s life-support system (they transport water and nutrients from the soil), so you want to be sure the plant has strong roots. A little gentle probing can give you an idea of a plant’s roots’ health.

Tip the plant to one side, and gently scoop away a bit of dirt, checking first one side then the other. You also might be able to (gently) slide the larger, more robust plants (this works best for half-gallon containers and larger) a few inches from their plastic pots so that you can see the top of the root ball.
You want to see roots that are full and spread out. This is key.
Avoid plants that are “root-bound”–meaning they roots are all tangled up together, and have begun spiraling around, shaping themselves to the plant’s container. It’s difficult for plants to recover from this condition; while some new root growth will expand into adjacent soil when you plant it, the original roots will continue to strangle one another.

A typical root-bound plant looks like this; in extreme cases the roots wrap themselves even near the top of the container.

photo credit: madaise