Fire Safe Gardening

Posted By Firefox on April 7, 2009

Edible landscapes are everywhere it seems rights now: from the front lawn of the White House to the display gardens of slick design magazines.  Each spring seed catalogs highlight new colorful varieties of tomato and pepper to add splashes of vibrant color to the vegetable beds. 

Seed catalogs, like Territorial Seeds, offer open pollinated heirloom varieties.

But all this glossy marketing has a real basis in the need for many of us to reconnect with our food sources and ensure that the meals we serve our families are safe and free of harmful pesticides.  But the success of any new garden is in knowing the basics and how to get started from the soil on up.

Raised beds are the ideal way to start growing tasty organic food

Vegetables are the true athletes of the garden world.  Strong vigorous hybrids bred to perform with the biggest fruits, best disease resistance, and longest harvest.  But just like top athletes they need a good diet to fuel that performance.  That is why soil preparation is so important to edible garden success.  Vegetable roots need nutrients and water available easily to fuel rapid growth; so garden soil needs to be open and full of oxygen.  Tilling is the way farmers break up soil, but you can perform the same function with a garden spade, turning the soil one spade depth at a time.  Add lots of organic matter like organic compost and manure to feed the new vegetables. 

 Some gardeners who have some patience have learned that a low-work method gives the same result.  It is called sheet mulching or “lasagna” gardening.  This method basically covers the existing soil, weeds and all, with thick layers of straw, compost, manure, and good soil to create a “lasagna” layered effect that builds new healthy soil and allows the roots of the vegetable athletes to do the heavy lifting on their own.  Young seedlings are planted in this layered mass and the roots eventually delve deep, beginning to break through the compacted soil underneath and leaving airspaces for water to penetrate. New layers of mulch and organic matter are added to the top of the bed every few months, slowly building a deep bed of rich soil without ever wielding a spade. Whichever method you use to create a good garden bed, make sure to add new compost and manure each time you replant a crop.

Now that you are thinking soil you need to think of where that great soil is going to be.  Many gardeners think big, way too big. The key is starting small with a few beds and building on your success.  An effective new edible garden works best if it is contained within raised beds of reasonable size, about 4 by 4 feet.  Many garden suppliers offer full raised bed kits. A typical raised bed can grow 70 heads of leaf lettuce or 80 pounds of heirloom tomatoes. But by containing the garden beds, you can reach in from all sides to make harvest and care easy and rotate crops easily from bed to bed through the seasons.

So now it comes down to what to plant.  Tomatoes are hands down the most popular edible to grow.  There is lots of talk about heirloom tomatoes but few understand what makes them so special.  Heirlooms come in a myriad of colors from yellow to stripped green pink and purple with quilted, creased, or elongated shapes, they often have thicker flesh and intense rich flavors.  Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated, meaning that they have the ability to produce viable seed that can be saved and grown the following year.  If you have ever left some tomatoes to fall off the vine you can see what I mean.  The fallen fruits of an ‘Early Girl’ produce seedlings with tiny cherry-type tomatoes, often with a watery flesh, not the firm large fruits you expected.  Hybrids do not seed “true”.  Heirlooms owe their existence to gardeners of decades past that saved and shared seeds, often discovering new and unusual variations along the way.  These backyard gardeners gave their discoveries amusing names like ‘Mortgage Lifter’, ‘Jersey Devil’, and ‘Hillbilly’.

Almost every success and failure in the vegetable garden can be traced back to the soil, the home that plants live in.  For many a lack of nutrients and water is the turning point. Weak plants are more susceptible to pests and diseases; strong plants will never need to be sprayed with harmful pesticides.  Each time you replant a crop, add organic material and trace elements to ensure a strong crop but don’t forget to irrigate.  With our busy lives watering the peppers seems like the last thing you want to do after the evening commute but a skipped watering can ruin months of strong growth.  One company, Mini-Farm Box, makes it easy with a customized watering system included with each raised bed box they sell.  Timers and drip systems deliver measured amounts of water at the root, where it is needed and eliminates guesswork. 

Growing your own food is more than just the hip thing to do this summer it is part of a more sustainable lifestyle for you and your family.  Healthy soil grows healthy strong plants.  Raised beds save time and focus your efforts, giving you room to expand on each success.  Heirloom varieties give you new and unusual fruits to enjoy and serve your family with the reassurance of providing healthy pesticide-free meals.

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Categories: organics and sustainability
Tags: big sur, food, minifarmbox, organic gardening, tomatoes