Keep Your Plants Happy & Lower Your Waterbill (Part I)

With record-breaking temperatures many gardeners are looking for ways to keep their garden from wilting in the heat and keep their water bills low. While mulching reduces the need for watering and rain barrels reduce the amount of municipal water you're using, you can reduce your dependence on municipal water even further by watering more efficiently. This involves using systems like drip-irrigation, soaker hoses, and water timers. In the first part of this series I will go over the basics of drip irrigation.

Hay Bale Gardening

Want to grow vegetables or flowerings, but not keen on digging around in the dirt? How about if you have a bad back, or use a wheel chair? Hale bale gardening may be the answer for you. The idea is simple, all you have to do is properly prepare the bale, then plant your veggies and/or flower right in the intact hale bay, keep it well watered, and watch them grow!

Bayscaping at VCU this Saturday!

This Saturday, April 24, 2010, volunteer gardeners like you will be completing the first of three projects designed to improve water quality of the James River and Chesapeak Bay in Richmond, Virginia. Every time it rains in Richmond, VA (and many other cities worldwide) the storm water treatment system is overwhelmed, discarding untreated waste water into nearby rivers, lakes, and bays. This means that every cigarette butt, every piece of litter, all of the oil slick and asphalt chemicals, and all the pesticides and fertilizers used in yards citywide are being dumped into the James River and Chesapeake Bay.

Bayscaping (Chesapeake Bay + Landscaping) helps reduce, slow, and treat storm water run-off being discarded into local waterways. The idea is to replace select areas of turf, ivy, cement, asphalt, etc. with native plants, which are able to absorb a significant amount of the runoff, reduce the flow rate of waste water, and filter the waste water before the water makes it into the storm drains. Native plants are adapted to their specific climate and environment, making them tolerant to the water conditions or droughts of the local area. Besides less watering, they require less maintenance, little to no fertilizer, and little to no pesticides, making them an ideal choice for economical and chemical-free landscaping.

You can be a volunteer gardener at VCU! Come out for an hour or two, or stay the whole day.

Day: Saturday, April 17, 2010
Time: 9:00am - 3:00pm
Location: Trani Life Science Building
Street: 1000 W. Cary St.
City/Town: Richmond, VA

Why Everyone Should Garden

Have you every tasted garden-fresh food? Did you notice that the taste bears almost no resemblance to store-bought varieties? Peppers from the garden seem to be an entirely new and different vegetable. They are crisp, sweet, and so packed with flavor you wonder that one vegetable can contain it all.

Everyone can garden at home. A garden need not be large, complicated, or a lot of work. A garden can be a single potted tomato plant, a window box, a window farm (more on this in a future post) a few peppers on a balcony, or a small plot of land in your yard. Gardening doesn't have to cost a lot of money - you can get many materials for free or cheaply on craigslist, at thrift stores, or from a local garden club.

The trick is to start small and do your research. By starting a small garden and adding to it gradually, you can learn to take good care of the few plants you have now without getting overwhelmed. You don't need to buy fancy books to learn gardening either. There are many gardening books available at thrift stores and used book stores, or you can take advantage of the huge wealth of information on the internet, on websites like Garden Guides. Many garden clubs, like Tricycle Gardens, offer free or low cost workshops to help you get started. Learn which plants grow well in your area, and in the space and lighting you have available. Vegetables generally need 5+ hours of direct sunlight a day, but if you are growing indoors you can supplement this with fluorescent lights.

Gardening is a relaxing and rewarding hobby, and can be great exercise too. Growing vegetables and herbs can save you money, and can allow you to try different varieties that would otherwise be too costly or simply unavailable in your supermarket. If you grow organically you can have fresh food free of pesticides, preservatives, and artificial appearance enhancers, such as wax on apples. So why not give gardening a try this Spring? Because who wouldn't want their very own produce stand in their own backyard?

No Work & All Play Garden

How would you like to spend less time and money on weeding, watering, and fertilizing your garden this year, and more time enjoying it? No, I haven't been eating the mysterious mushrooms growing in my yard...All this and more can be yours with a mulched garden using the Ruth Stout method. Ruth Stout (1884-1980) is known as the person who made the magic of mulch famous among gardeners. This method is fairly easy to start small and build upon. Not only can you often find freely available materials for mulch, but this method could actually save you money, by having to water and fertilize less!

Publish Your Own Seed Catalog

Are you lost on how to organize your seeds? Try using an old 3 ring binder and 3.5" x 5" photo holders! I picked up a 3.5" and 4" binder from the thrift store for $1 each, and after about $12 for the photo holders I had a storage system for all of my seeds for under $15. The photo holders allow you to store and view up to 8 packets of seeds per page. Organized alphabetically, by plant type, or by planting season, this system allows to quickly find the seeds you're looking for. And when your seeds are well organized you will be less likely to buy extra seeds you don't need. Try using coin envelopes to keep your partially used seeds sealed up and safely stored.

Seeds of Suicide

Disturbing exposé on the plight of cotton farmers in India: Seeds of Suicide. Many farmers are persuaded to buy genetically modified (GMO*) seeds, which haven't been properly tested for ease of growing and crop production. These GMO seeds can cost more than five times the amount of traditional cotton seeds, and require costly pesticides, fertilizers, and more water than non-GMOs. GMO seeds are patented, and are not allowed to be saved by farmers for next season's planting. Most farmers are forced to borrow money to buy GMO seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers. When crops fail and the moneylenders come knocking, some farmers are shamed and desperate enough to look for a way out: suicide by drinking their own pesticides.

Some are now turning to organic cotton. Organic methods produce lower yields, but much less risk to the farmer, because they often don't need to borrow money to start their crop, and can save seeds to plant for the next season. For more information and background, go to Frontline.

*Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are plants or animals that have had genes (heritable material) permanently added to them to produce desirable traits, like disease resistance, drought tolerance, or increased size of fruit. GMOs are akin to gene therapy, introducing genes into living human cells to cure disease, in which there can be great benefit, but also risk if not carefully planned out and monitored. Watch my blog for an upcoming post with a more in-depth description of GMOs, and possible risks and benefits.

Veggie Grow Op

Planted my seedlings yesterday...finally! Next year I'll try to start at the beginning of February. Our frost date in Virginia is about half-way through April. I mixed 1/3 organic seed starter, 1/3 store-bought manure/humus, 1/3 generic potting soil, a small scoop of blood meal and a small scoop of organic fertilizer. Last year I used 100% seed starter mix and it was really hard to water it thoroughly, because the water just beaded on top of all that peat!

Here's a google spreadsheet of the seedlings I planted in plastic, reusable trays:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aqvu0HFKFzwGdGZzczdJVGZXMEdzdjI2VVVrbDJLS3c&hl=en

I tried a number of new tomatoes this year, including jelly bean, a type of grape tomato, and yellow pear. I also tried Early Girl, an early fruiting variety that worked well for my neighbor last year. Of course, if all of my seedling grow I won't know what to do with them all - how would I ever use 72 tomato plants?!? But I figured I could sell some of the plants, and maybe plant some extra tomatoes this year, again to sell. After all, if I'm going to keep rescuing feral cats, I have to fund my efforts somehow (more on this later!)

Black Gold

Here's a useful youtube video on how to make your own black gold - compost! Compost can be used as a mulch to keep down weeds, and as a natural fertilizer to help enrich your soil for growing vegetables, flowers, or grass. I think I may follow the tips in this video to make myself another compost bin. I bought a compost bin August 2008 that you could use for anything, including meat (which you can normally never put in compost). It has worked well but is now completely full, and never had enough room for all of my yard waste.

Potatoe Loco

This year I will trying to grow potatoes. I don't know why, but they just seem more intimidating to grow than other vegetables...so I did my homework. As usual, the first place I went was gardenguides.com, and I wasn't disappointed. They had a great article to get me started, plus some instructional videos, with two slightly different methods...

Start Your Garden Right with Tricycle Gardens

Tricycle Gardens, a local, non-profit, community gardening organization in Richmond, VA is holding a Seed Starting & Soil Preparation workshop Saturday, February 27th:

Learn how to grow your own vegetables and flowers by starting them from seed. We’ll discuss everything you need to know to successfully start seeds for your garden, how to prepare your garden soil and how to care for your young seedlings. We’ll also discuss popular vegetable varieties that will grow well in this area!

Location: Bryan Park Greenhouse
Time: 10am- 12pm
Cost: $20

Please email learn@tricyclegardens.org to RSVP.

Composted Goodness

Whether you realize it or not, composting saves green. Trash pick-up is included or subsidized by the taxes you or your landlord pays. The more often and the greater the quantity and/or weight of trash collected, the more the city is charged for this service. And the city is kind enough to pass that charge along to you.

Build Your Own Rain Barrel

Here is a YouTube video by Lowes that helped my husband and I build our rain barrels. We didn't end up using the exact parts they did, but it was useful none the less. We combined the ideas from the Lowes video and this website to come up with the cheapest, most effective design for our needs. There is also a video that shows how to make one using the parts on that website.



You may also find this video helpful:

Sprouting into Spring

I'm really excited for Spring to arrive, and gardening to begin! Right now I'm in the planning stages. This year I plan to grow cucumbers, zucchini, radishes, peas, beans, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, squash, potatoes, watermelon, cantelope, carrots, and pumpkins. Plus many varieties of herbs, and a cut flower garden. This is in addition to my currently growing strawberries (of which I need to add more plants), raspberries, and blueberries. I've never tried to grow squash or potatoes before, so it should be interesting. And now, readers, you may begin to understand why I have so many rain barrels!

Plants need friends too!

Like high school, plants often separate themselves into natural cliches. Some individuals get along and work altruistically together, while some covertly gossip and sabotage other plants behind their backs. The art of planting groups of plants together that work well as teams, while separating plants that are natural enemies, is called companion planting.

Companion planting isn't hard to learn, and their are many great websites that can help...

Rain Barrel Bananas

I went a little crazy last year with the rain barrels...I currently have 4 hooked up (but not in use over the winter), and 3 more assembled, but waiting to be hooked up. Wait a minute...you don't know about rain barrels? What you don't know could be costing you money!