focusing on this year.   The previous owner poured a concrete pad in the back yard that seems to have been intended as a basketball court.  This area gets some prime sun and it seems a waste to shoot hoops here.  After all, isn’t that what a driveway is for?  So we have been using it as a dumping ground for the grass killing detritus of our small-scale logging operation.

However, we still have a concrete pad in full view of our eating area that I have been agonizing over.  Last year we put some raised beds there, but only so we could grow tomatoes and peppers,  not to create an oasis as I hope to do.

When I opened up the April 2009 issue of Organic Gardening magazine I found my inspiration.  The idea is a “potager” which is French for kitchen garden.  However, this is no 10X20 rectangle with veggies all in a row.  This is someplace you want to sit and breathe deeply.   I know you would love to see a picture of this paradise, but unfortunately you either have to buy the issue or wait until May is on the newstands and check organicgardening.com because there isn’t a picture on the site.  However if you are interested in making food production pretty, it could be five bucks well spent.

If you have been gardening for any amount of time you know that raised beds are the buzz now.  They are great for lots of reasons: you can start earlier because the soil is warmer than that in the ground, you can really control the quality of soil which helps to eliminate some types of disease and control weeds, and if you size them well they are much easier to work.  As you can see from the pictures, we have given them a shot. Not a pretty sight.  Yes, they did all of the above, but MAN they are ugly!!!

The goal of a potager is to create a garden that is both edible and beautiful.  This is partially accomplished by structure.  The garden is very tidy and ordered.  It is saved from being uptight by curving shapes that soften it.  There are trellises with vines like peas and beans  growing up them for a vertical element and (edible) nastursiums spilling over the sides.  Herbs are sprinkled throughout, which are beautiful in their own right and will flower if you can resist snipping them off for pesto.   Flowers are  incorporated solely because they are beautiful, though did you know you can eat pansies or that marigolds are a great insect deterrent?

The wow factor of the potager in the magazine is the brick pathway throughout.  It really finishes it.   I don’t think concrete will have the same effect, so I am working on that.  Plants are getting moved around, varieties are changed, seeds are being tucked into pots of dirt as I try to decide  how to make it a place of beauty and veggies, and that will be revised over and over until planting day.   The reality is, here in Western Massachusetts we still have the possibility of snow even past the first day of Spring.  My hope lies in the fact that today I was able to finally get a trowel into the ground and plant my first seeds of Bright Lights Swiss Chard.  There is still plenty of  time to dream.

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Yesterday I took the time to repot many of the seedlings that we started back in early February.  Of the varieties are: Cal Sweet Watermelon, Ice Box MickyLee watermelon, Straight 8 Cucumbers, Bunching White Libson Erect Onions, Hearts of Gold Cantaloupe, Early White Bush Scallop Squash, Waltham Butternut Squash, and several varieties of sunflowers including Mammoth, Lemon Queen, and Red Sun.

Most of the seedlings germinated, although not to the time tables on the package, and produced was seemed to be a great crop of seedlings.  We took extra care to cover on cold nights and really tried to water consistently.  We even kept the tops on the seed starting trays until the plants were hitting the top of the lid.  Then, within a week or so, several of the plants started to die off; starting with the cantaloupe, then the onions, Early White bush scallop squash and finally most of the Cal Sweet watermelon. I was able to salvage the Waltham squash, some of the Ice Box MickyLee Watermelon, a small amount of the onions, a single start o the Cal Sweet watermelon, and several the cucumbers.  Most of the sunflower starts are going nuts so those seem to be quite hardy and will take whatever bit these seedlings.

I thought it would be useful to post a couple pictures of one of the failed seedlings and let readers speculate on the cause.  I used bagged soil to start the seeds and did not sterilize the soil first which I have read will lead to some pretty major seed failures and disease.  It almost has the characteristics of damping off disease but I don’t know if that will strike such young plants.  Anyway, I’m going to pick up some more trays and start a new set — this time making sure to sterilize the soil first.  I also plan on moving the seed trays to an area where they receive more sun than the few hours they were receiving under the patio cover.

All in all, the good news is we have a ton to plant and there will always be some failure rate with seeds.  So a good rule of thumb is to plant 20% more than you think you will need.  If they all survive, you will have extra plants to give away to other Urban Gardeners or even those looking to Garden in Small Spaces.

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Living in a city lot, we don’t have all that much room to grow veggies.   Sure, we could rip out the lawns and plant

rows, but that would be a huge undertaking and upset Shasta, our dog.  So we have taken to planting where we can and have had some success growing in borders, containers, and in a spot designated for herbs.

Gardens Don’t Need to take up a lot of Space

While that’s contrary to my dream of a very large garden, it’s true that you can successfully garden just about anywhere.  Recently we installed what  I have termed the salad wall.  The new found space was the result of ripping out an old rotting wood fence covered in cat claw vines, and replacing with a block wall.

Once the vines were gone, we could see the potential of this new space.  Narrow and long, this 1.5 foot x 40 foot ribbon of dirt runs alongside the south side of our driveway that joins the street to our detached garage.    This space was originally wrapped in railroad ties, and while they are perfectly acceptable, they were in sad shape and I had designs on a brick border.  So after a weekend of slinging mortar and bricks, and popping Advil for my aching back, we had a nice raised bed to start the salad wall.

Now when you garden in a climate like Phoenix has, you learn that location is king and the directions on the plants are meant for somewhere else.  Full sun plants tend to get part shade, and if you are brave enough to try gardening all summer long, you had better learn how to plant in a manner that shelters your more sensitive plants.  Our bed will be on the north side of a 6 foot block wall which means it gets little to no sun in winter, and gets cooked in summer, so here’s what we did:

We started the bed with lots of great soil.  The base of the planter was very sandy from the installation of the floating paver driveway, so we had pretty good drainage.  The soil was mixed to a depth of about a foot using a trenching shovel and hoe.

(You will want a trenching shovel if you plant in narrow spaces as they are only 4 – 5 inches wide.)  We then planted two varieties of grape vines (Thompson Seedless and Flame Reds) which grow great here and will provide a canopy and some much needed shade for the peak of summer when the sun is directly overhead and will die back in winter when the sun is not so intense.

Then we planted a 6-pack of sweet 100s tomatoes, Spinach, Butter Crunch lettuce, and red snail lettuce.

The goal is to swap out plants all season long that will do well in the northern exposure and rotate the crops as needed. We then topped the whole bed in a unique mulch made of cocoa pod shells.  It’s amazingly light and looks a lot like gravel when down, but mad the whole yard smell like chocolate when we first installed it. The sent has since abated.  It appears to be wonderful mulch for water retention, but w e are afraid that it doesn’t let in enough air as the surface is getting moldy.  Since noticing this, we have cut back the water, turned the mulch, and are waiting for higher temps to kick in.  Today was 85 degrees, so I don’t expect the mold to hang out much longer.

What I forgot to do was run a length of tubing through the bet to irrigate.

So once the lettuce is done, I will pull drip irrigation through the bed before planting the next round.

More to come on gardening in small spaces…

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the urban garden startup

It’s been a slow start, but now that we have joel’s yard tilled ammended, and raked into rows, we have started/planted the following.

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