taking up space, in a good way!

I finally planted my herb garden (in a pot), Roma tomato (with stake), and all of my hollyhocks. In order to plant the tomato, I had to relocate some Black-eyed Susans and realized I just have too many. So, in addition to the previously offered sedum, mint, and creeping jenny, I would also like to offer some Black-eyed Susans.

When planting the tomato, I was reminded that all tomatoes are virtually vines. Because tomatoes try to root wherever the stem touches soil, planting lower will create more roots and better support. I removed the lowest pairs of leaves and then literally back filled the hole just under the first leaves. I put a 4’ green stake next to it and will use flexible cloth ties to secure it as it grows.

I also finally got to plant my new blue pot! I relocated an existing Salvia and ‘neon flash’ Spirea to the blue pot and will add some sort of flowering, trailing annual as well. The pot itself was already quite heavy and the thought of filling it with soil was less than attractive. For this reason, I put two empty plastic bottles in the bottom to take up some space (pictures). This is a great way to save soil and reuse some of those plastic bottles too!

The aphids (and ants) are still coming back on my Rose of Sharons, so my next step is to spray them with a soap solution. There are a variety of homemade soap spray recipes on-line. I think I’ll just mix some dish soap and water in a small hand-sprayer and see how that works.

using the 3-R's in the garden

As any good environmentalist or native Californian will tell you, it's always best to reduce, reuse, and recycle. In the garden, that means composting! Compost is a dark soil-like substance derived from decaying plant, animal, and other organic materials. This matter is broken down chemically, through aerobic decomposition, as well as mechanically, by various organisms and micro-organisms (think worms and fungi). Through these processes, waste matter becomes a highly valuable landscape commodity.

My composter, ‘The Earth Machine’, is an 80-gallon bin made from recycled materials and sold by the local government for $45 to encourage backyard composting. Not only do composters provide a valuable resource, they save space in our landfills! For a little over a year now, I’ve been putting weeds, plant clippings, coffee grinds, fruit and vegetable rinds, paper, and soil into mine. The main thing to avoid is anything that contains animal fat and pet waste.

I keep my compost bin next to my trash cans. Ideally, a compost bin/ pile should get at least 5 hours of sun each day. Mine probably does not, which is why it has taken a little longer to yield worthwhile compost. But the whole process takes little effort and there are a variety of compost bins available to fit every space and budget. A lot of people are concerned that the compost pile will smell bad and/ or attract unwanted visitors (i.e. raccoons, opossums). Rest assured, if you put the correct items into your compost bin, you will not have a problem with either nuisance.

I’m looking forward to ‘harvesting’ my compost this season and working it into my planting beds. But it’s important to keep in mind that compost is not a fertilizer. Rather, it improves the soil’s texture and tilth by providing organic matter and humus when incorporated into planting beds. This allows the plant’s roots to more easily take up nutrients and moisture from the soil. Here's to using the 3-R's in the garden, Happy Composting!