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Urban Farms – A Really Productive Edible Landscape

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May 212012

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Take out the lawn and put in fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, bees and rabbits and you may just have the garden of eden.

By Avis Licht – What do you imagine when you hear the term “urban farm” ? To me it sounds big with rows of vegetables and possibly a barn with animals. But that’s not the reality of urban farms that I visited in Berkeley, California last week. Over the next few weeks I’ll be high lighting a variety of gardens/farms in the city. Some are backyards, some are vacant properties on loan to non profit organizations and some are community gardens.

Today I want to show you how one woman, Ruby Blume turned her backyard into a fully functioning mini farm, providing her with most of her food needs, including meat, honey, fruits and vegetables, mushrooms and plenty of beauty.

She co wrote the book Urban Homesteading with Rachel Kaplan and runs the Institute of Urban Homesteading in Oakland, California. They offer many classes in gardening, animal husbandry, kitchen skills, food preparation, handcrafts, permaculture and much more.

On Saturday, June 9th, 2012, they will be hosting an Urban Farm Tour from 11am – 5 pm in Oakland and Berkeley. Details and descriptions at iuhoakland.com

A small backyard can produce a lot of food. Grow what you love to eat.

When you raise your own animals, you know how they've been treated

Rabbits are ready to eat after 8 weeks

A few hives can be safely put in a backyard for honey and pollination

Quails -They don't take up much room, are beautiful to look at and apparently lay good eggs for eating. Lovely quail house.

You can grow mushrooms at home by buying spores and inserting them into the logs

Ruby had her logs at the side of the house where nothing else would grow

Edible flowers add to the diversity and beauty of the garden

Bay Friendly Garden Tour – May 19, 2012- Edible Landscaping Made Easy

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May 162012

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A peek at the edible front yard

by Avis Licht – Saturday, May 19th, 2012 is a day to tour beautiful Bay friendly Gardens in Marin County, California. The host gardens represent diverse microclimates and demonstrate the many different styles of Bay-Friendly gardens. You will find urban homesteads with orchards, chickens and bees, greywater installations and drought tolerant replacements for water thirsty lawns. Touring existing gardens is a great way to get new ideas for your own garden.

I’ll be giving a talk on Edible Landscaping Made Easy at 11 am in Larkspur at one of the gardens we’ve transformed from ornamental to beautifully edible. I’ll talk about design ideas, existing conditions, setting priorities and answering questions.

If you’re in the area be sure to come by. The garden tour is $10 for all the gardens. To find out more visit http://bayfriendlycoalition.org/GardenTour.shtml.

Just getting started on the spring garden

Set out beds and paths and start planting!

A small front yard turning into and edible landscape

Container Planting for the Edible Landscape

Garden Design, Ornamental/edible plants, Plant information, Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Apr 302012

by Avis Licht – Growing food in containers is easy and straightforward. Here are some tips that will give you greater success.

Ornamental containers can grow herbs and food.

Colorful pots mixed with herbs, lettuce and flowers are easy to harvest

1. Site your pots so they get enough sun for the type of plant you are growing. Lettuce doesn’t need to be in full sun, but most of your herbs prefer it sunny. If you’re planting on a deck with an overhang be sure to watch what the sun does during the day. If you have a choice, morning sun is better for plants than afternoon sun, which can be really hot.

2. Choose plants that you like to eat and will be sure to harvest. Herbs are a great choice for containers, as you can cut a little bit off regularly and the plant still looks good and grows well. Herbs suitable for containers are: Rosemary, parsley, thyme, chives, basil, cilantro, lemon verbena, oregano, lavender, tarragon, sage and mint.

These violas have been blooming for 5 months

3. Edible flowers, of course are a great plant for containers. They are ornamental as well as edible. You can decorate your meals with them. Some of the easiest to grow include, nasturtiums, dianthus, calendula, Lemon Gem marigold, Citrus Mixed marigold and Tangerine Gem marigold. Scented geraniums have leaves and flowers that you can use to garnish food. Pansies are well known, can grow in shade and are easy to find. Pansy and violet leaves and flowers are edible and nutritious.

Nasturtiums

Pansy and lavender combine nicely in pots

4. IMPORTANT TIP! Plants in containers dry out quickly. Sun on the pots heats up the sides and causes them to dry out. It is important to keep them moist. When soil dries out water goes through the soil without being absorbed. People think they’re watering when they put the hose to the pots, but in fact, if the soil is dry, the water goes through the pot and out the bottom.

There are a couple of ways to deal with this. If you have a drip system, put the pots on their own schedule and water them 5 minutes, 2 or 3 times a day. This allows the water to soak in and not drip out the bottom.

One of the best solutions to container planting that I’ve found are self watering pots. They have a reservoir at the bottom and the moisture wicks up into the soil. Some of these pots only need watering once a week or even once every two weeks and your plants stay healthy and strong. It is a great solution.

I’ve been using these containers for years with huge success. You can get them from Gardener’s Supply along with a light weight soil medium for growing your plants. They have a special container and mix just for tomatoes

Self watering containers keep plants from drying out.

Keep plants moist and healthy with self watering containers

Let me know what are your favorite plants to grow in containers.

How to Grow the Best Tomatoes in your Edible Landscape

Ornamental/edible plants, Plant information, Soil and Amendments No Responses »

Apr 242012

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We love a salad of different kinds of tomatoes

by Avis Licht – A fresh picked, ripe, delicious tomato is one of the best foods in the garden. They are soooo much better than store bought and so easy to grow, that they are one of the most widely grown vegetables. Here are a few tips that will help insure you get the best, tastiest and healthiest tomatoes.

1. Pick a sunny site. You can’t make up for lack of sun. Look for at least 7 hours of sun per day.

2. Tomatoes prefer well drained, neutral to slightly acid soil. Add lime to acid soil and sulfur to alkaline soil. Make sure your soil drains well. They don’t like sitting in water.

3. Pick several varieties that are suitable to your climate. For instance, if you live near the coast and fog, it’s better to grow cherry tomatoes that don’t need a long, hot season. The larger the tomato, the longer the season. There are plants known as determinate and indeterminate. Determinate types are bushier, need little or no staking and tend to bear all their crop at once. They do well in pots or containers. Indeterminate grow taller and need staking. They bear their crop over a longer period of time. If you plant some of each you will have tomatoes over a longer period. Check out this site for varieties of heirloom tomatoes.

Stake your tomatoes early and keep them off the ground to reduce rot and pests

4. Set out your plants after all danger of frost has passed. The biggest mistake people make is putting out their tomatoes too early, during a warm period in early spring. They get whacked by a late frost, or just cold weather. Tomatoes like warm soil. Put the plants in and after the weather warms up a little, then mulch them.

5. Give tomatoes well aged manure or compost. They don’t need a lot of nitrogen, but do need the micronutrients in the compost for good flavor.

6. HERE’S AN IMPORTANT TIP: Give your tomatoes regular water. If the roots dry out, they don’t take up the calcium in the soil, which results in cracked fruits and end rot. However: when the plants are getting ripe, you can cut back on the amount of water. Mealy, watery tomatoes are usually a result of OVER WATERING!

Best tool ever. This will save you time, water and money. Click on the picture to buy it!

I use this simple, inexpensive gauge to let me know how moist the soil is. You can’t tell by looking at the surface if you need to water. The top of the soil can be dry and the soil at a few inches below may be wet. Check first before you water. Believe me, this is one of my most used tools.

7. When you finally get your delicious tomatoes – DON’T put them in the refrigerator. It ruins their flavor. Keep them out on the counter out of the sun. Hardly anyone knows this. But you know it now.

These cherry tomatoes start bearing early, give a lot and last until the first frost.

HELP! – It’s Spring and Weeds are Springing up like Crazy

Pest control organically, Plant information, Soil and Amendments No Responses »

Apr 192012

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Weeds come in many disguises like this invasive Forget me Not

This always happens every Spring. I think I’m on top of the jobs I need to do in the garden, and then boom, I look out the window and the weeds have grown overnight like the bean in Jack and the Beanstalk. Although some of them actually look kind of pretty, like these Forget-me-Nots. This innocuous looking plant is actually an aggressive, invasive plant. Have you ever tried pulling out these “innocuous” plants when they’ve gone to seed? Their seeds stick to you like glue and it can take hours to get them off your clothes and socks.

In general we mean a plant is a weed when we don’t want it in the garden at all, or at least not where it has shown up. Certain plants are always unwanted. These are the category of pernicious weeds such as poison oak, creeping morning glory, bermuda grass and the plants that are harmful to you or impossible to get rid of. Let me say right off the bat, that I never use chemical poisons. Weeds in my yard need to be removed by hand, digging them out, or by barriers to cover them and keep them from getting sunlight, or by spraying them with nontoxic potions, such as, Dr Earth Weed and Grass Herbicide or vinegar/soap/ solutions. (Use white vinegar: Add 2 tablespoons of dish soap to vinegar. Pour this mixture in a spray bottle. Spray your weeds!)

In his book, On Good Land: Autobiography of an Urban Farm, Michael Abelman wrote this great bit on weeds. “When dealing with “weeds,” timing is especially critical. Remember that “weeds” are merely plants out of place and that weed competition is primarily a problem in the early stages of crop development.

“Three things resolve weed competition easily: early cultivation, the right tool and attitude. The goal is to never weed but to cultivate. Cultivation aerates the soil around the plants, and cuts off or buries young tender weeds. If you have to actually weed, your are too late and will have created far more work for yourself.”

Don’t be too late – start weeding now!

If you want to find some great tasting heirloom tomatoes, Burpee is having a sale. You can get them on special just through this site:$10 off orders of $40 or more with code AFFTOFF thru 4/23 at Burpee.com!

TOOLS I RECOMMEND.

My favorite tools for cultivating weeds out of your garden:

Best use of time and energy - use this hoe early and often

The Hoe : This long handled, double edge weeder, lets you go back and forth for most efficient use. When the weeds are young and the blade is sharp, you just put it lightly below the soil surface and it cuts them off cleanly, leaving them in the ground. You don’t have to bend over and it is easy on the back.

Corona Clipper SH61000 Diamond Hoe

The Triangle Hoe: I use this hoe to go between plants that are close together, especially good in vegetable beds and flower beds. Like all other cutting tools, you should keep the blade sharp.

Truper 30002 Tru Tough 54-Inch Welded Warren Hoe, 4-3/4-Inch Head, Wood Handle

Great for tight places: vegetables and flowers. The Triangle Hoe $22.99

The Hori Hori: This strong tool is useful for many tasks $27.95

Japanese Hori Hori Garden Landscaping Digging Tool With Stainless Steel Blade & Sheath

Hand Weeding: The Japanese Weeding Knife: Hori Hori Tool

I love this tool and use it all the time. It’s good for weeding, planting, and scarifying the soil. I have a confession, though. I put it down in the garden about 6 months ago and can’t find it. I know it’s there and am sure each day that it will turn up. I’m afraid I’ll have to get another one. Is there a GPS tracking app for lost hand tools?

SPRAYS: Usually a last resort, sometimes we have to go there. For particularly pernicious weeds like poison oak, bindweed and bermuda grass I use Dr Earth Weed and Grass Herbicide. Ingredients include Citric Acid, Cinnamon Oil, Clove Oil, Soybean Oil, Rosemary Oil, Sesame Oil, and Thyme Oil. You can buy this from Organic Green Roots, which donates a portion of every sale to school gardens.

April in the Edible Garden- Planting a Theme Garden

Garden Design, Native Plants, Plant information No Responses »

Apr 092012

Eggplant with basil and tofu anyone?

by Avis Licht

When deciding what to plant in your garden, in addition to the obvious parameters of site and climate, you can have fun with ideas based on what kind of food you like to eat. Are you Italian/pizza lovers? Is your favorite dinner a Mexican style salsa/burrito/tomale? Why not plant a theme garden based on your favorite meals? To make that homemade pizza sauce you could plant different heirloom varieties of paste tomatoes, with 3 different types of peppers and quantities of flavorful herbs.

When deciding on the vegetables for your style of garden, you can also look up recipes and find out the best herbs for your dishes. Instead of going from store to store trying to find the right herb, you could just go out and pick it fresh.

Asian herbs include: Chinese chives, coriander, cilantro, ginger, Thai basil, lemongrass, peppermint, sorrel and dill. Asian cuisine is vast and covers many countries, but there are some herbs like the lemongrass that have a very particular flavor which can be hard to find in stores. Although it is a tropical herb and doesn’t live in climates below 30 deg F. you can treat it as an annual and it will give you plenty of leaves.

Beautiful in the edible landscape, Lemongrass is an unusual and wonderful herb for Thai food.

Herbs that are common to many types of cuisine and easy to grow include: onions, cilantro, garlic and basil. Mediterranean herbs like rosemary, marjoram, oregano, parsley, sage, thyme and bay leaves are easy to grow and should be in everyone’s garden. It’s hard to describe the difference between fresh and dried herbs to those who don’t use fresh herbs. I guess it’s like the difference between breathing in the fresh air at the ocean and using an oxygen tank with tubes up your nose. Well, that may be a little extreme, but you get my drift.

Thai Basil has a unique flavor- grown with beans in this photo

Some unusual vegetables that you would use in Chinese and Japanese cuisines include bok choy, Napa cabbage, daikon radish, green onions, snow peas and soybeans. You can find seeds for these plants in any of the catalogs in my Resource page.

For a Mediterranean garden you would plant all of the following: tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers,asparagus, Tuscan kale, Savoy cabbage, radicchio, endive, artichokes, zucchini, fennel, bell peppers.

For Mexican cooking, legumes (black beans, pinto beans), corn, and a variety of peppers (poblano, jalapeno, ancho, serrano) are key. And don’t forget the squashes. They’re easy to grow, taste great and keep well, (that would be winter squash).

Themed gardens are beautiful as well as productive

Stay tuned for landscape plans for theme gardens. Subscribe to my blog and you won’t miss any of the information you need to keep your garden healthy, beautiful and bountiful.

Here’s a great recipe I found for Homegrown Pizza Sauce – all ingredients from the garden:

How to make Homegrown Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

“I’ve always made pizza sauce based on my mother’s recipe, starting with a can of tomato sauce. This year, I started with paste tomatoes from my garden with great success. You’ll notice that the amounts in the ingredient table below are rough; please add veggies and herbs according to your taste

3 pounds very ripe tomatoes, washed, stemmed, quartered, and seeded
1 yellow onion, very small dice
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbl. dried oregano
1 tbl dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tbl. olive oil
sea salt, black pepper, and sugar to taste.

Place quartered tomatoes in large saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently. The tomatoes will let go of a surprising amount of juice.
Remove from heat and strain off solids. Set solids aside and return juice to the stove.
Simmer juices, uncovered, until reduced.
Add tomato solids back into the saucepan and stir in all remaining ingredients except sugar.
Bring sauce back to a simmer and cook, stirring regularly, until the onions are translucent and the sauce has reduced to the desired consistency.
Taste.
Add a small amount of sugar, mix thoroughly, and taste again. Repeat until you achieve an acidity that tastes good to you.
Sauce should keep in the refrigerator for about a week, in the freezer for a few months, or may be canned.” From www.opensourcefood.com.

Don’t forget, it’s not too late to start your Spring Garden. To help you I’ve put together a handbook on the steps you can take to be successful in your garden. Included is information on soil, sites, annuals, perennials, fruits and much more. This is a 20 page guide to get you started on your edible landscape. Forty years of gardening has given me plenty to share. If you have enjoyed my blog, be sure to get my booklet.

Spring Garden Made Easy

Plants for the Bees – Bring health and happiness to your garden

Garden Design, Plant information No Responses »

Mar 282012

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Borage blooms early and long - the bees love it (click to enlarge)

by Avis Licht

Often, when I design a garden people ask me if it will bring bees. Usually, it’s because they are afraid of having bees in the garden. Bees, who are gentle creatures, are more interested in finding nectar and pollen than stinging you. Often people mistake yellow jackets, who come in late summer to eat your sweet fruit or meat at the outdoor barbeque, for bees. They are not the same at all.

Bees are absolutely necessary to the health and productivity of your garden. We need them to pollinate our fruits and vegetables. 35% of our food worldwide is pollinated by bees. Imagine a world without honey. Well, please don’t do that.

Recently there has been a disappearance of bees called Colony Collapse Disorder. Entire hives die without apparent cause. By planting bee friendly plants you can personally aid in their resurgence.

The best plants are ones that are native to your locale or grow well in your climate. Herbs, flowers, and flowering trees all contribute to their food source.

Using only organic controls in the garden is another way of protecting your bees.

Don’t forget to buy my ebook on The Spring Garden Made Easy

There are many wonderful bee plants. These are a few of my favorites.

Lavender can be planted in the ground or in containers. Beautiful everywhere.

1. Lavender: For millenium lavender has been used in soaps, balms and sachets as well as medicinally for its calming effect. My local ice cream shop makes the best honey lavender ice cream. Grow it in full sun, well drained soil, in climates that don’t go below 20 deg F.

2. Salvias: In the sage family there are many herbal and ornamental varieties of Salvias. Bees and hummingbirds love them and they come in many colors.

This bi colored Salvia, Hot Lips, is just one of many varieties. (click to enlarge)

3. Lemon Balm, Melissa officinale – In the mint family, Lemon Balm has a wonderfully lemony flavor for tea. It is considered one of the premier bee plants. Melissa is a Greek word meaning honeybee.

In the mint family, Lemon Balm has a wonderful lemon flavor and is easy to grow

4. Ceanothus– California lilac (many varieties). Many native plants are helpful to the bees. The California Lilac grows on the hills in California and as its name suggests is wonderfully fragrant. It flowers in the blue, purple and whites and can be a very low growing shrub or up to 15 ft. Well drained, sunny sites are what it needs to thrive. It requires very little care.

This rosemary is planted next to my Apple tree. It brings the bees to pollinate the tree.

5. Rosemary – One of the most loved herbs for cooking, rosemary is easy to grow and long lived. The bees love it. In my garden it starts to bloom early in Spring and is under the apple trees which are just starting to bloom. This companion planting encourages the bees to pollinate my fruit trees.

In the herb family you can plant Basil, Catnip, Dill, Fennel, Hyssop, Lavender, Parsley, Rosemary, Thyme, and Sage to encourage your friendly bees.

In the ornamental flowers, try Agastache, Salvia, Bachelor Button, Black Eyed Susan, Clematis, Coreopsis, Lantana, Larkspur, Sweet William , Yarrow, and Zinnias.

In shrubs, Ceanothus, Manzanita, Arbutus, Mahonia and Philadelphus are beautiful and useful.

The Crab Apple tree blooms early and is absolutely buzzing with activity.

The buds on this Ceanothus are just getting ready to open. (click to enlarge)

The bees adore this Crab Apple which blooms in early spring

Coming in for a landing

How to Plant Seedlings in your Edible Landscape

Plant information No Responses »

Mar 262012

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Herbs and lettuce grow well in pots on the deck.

by Avis Licht

In other posts I’ve written about seeds; where to get them, and how to sow them. Now that they’ve turned into sturdy little seedlings, I’ll show you how to plant them.

1. First thing is to make sure your bed is ready for the seedlings. This means that the soil should be worked up into a fine tilth so that it is soft and crumbles easily off your trowel. Add whatever amendments you have at hand, like compost, bone meal or manure into the soil before you transplant your seedlings.

2. Depending on how your seeds were started, you will either take them out of their little six packs, or as in the case of these photos, from a bunch of seeds sown in a container.

Gently open the root ball to separate the seedlings (click to enlarge)

Hold your seedlings gently (click to enlarge)

Keep separating the seedlings until you have them one at a time. Lay them so that the roots are straight down, not crunched up. Gently hold the leaf, open up a hole deep enough to let the roots dangle straight down and not get crunched up. (if you get my drift). Slowly let the soil back into the hole to cover the roots. Gently firm in the soil around the crown of the seedlings. You want the roots too make contact with the soil, but not rip the roots by pressing too hard.

Gently press the soil around the seedling. (Click to enlarge)

Hold by the leaf and let the roots dangle

Gently hold the leaf and dangle the roots (click to enlarge)

Keep the soil below the crown of the leaf so that it doesn’t rot. Be sure to water in your seedlings. Put the water at the base of the plant slowly so that the water seeps into the soil. This will allow the roots to make contact with the soil and get moisture. If roots are not in contact with the soil, but are in air holes, they will dry out.

It’s best to plant into moist soil that crumbles in your hand, not too wet and not too dry.

Closely planted lettuce in Spring

This seedling will start growing immediately

After they are planted you need to make sure they don’t dry out. Check the soil for moisture if it doesn’t rain. Just looking at the surface of the soil doesn’t tell you if it’s moist underneath. Check with a trowel down a few inches. If it’s dry at 2 inches or if the plants are wilting, be sure to water them.

Don’t forget to take your walkabout in the garden to keep an eye on your seedlings. If anyone is causing trouble, like birds or snails, you’ll want to catch them right away. Now all you have to do is be a little patient, then the eating begins.

I took this photo this morning after a gentle rain.

It's late March and the strawberries are starting to blossom

WalkAbout – Daily Observation of the Garden

Garden Reflections, Pest control organically, Plant information 1 Response »

Mar 222012

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The first buds opening on my Magnolia (click to enlarge)

by Avis Licht – Taking a walkabout in the garden each day lets you see the changes taking place in both subtle and not so subtle ways. I take my coffee out in the morning and stroll around the garden. This quiet time encourages me to see what’s happening, instead of just seeing what work needs to be done.

The first buds on the spring flowers seem to come from nowhere. Overnight they open up.

Lettuce protected by wire and bird netting

Beautiful red spotted bibb lettuce loves the cool weather

The little lettuce seedlings don’t mind the cool weather and are growing like crazy.

But wait, what’s this? Who ate the bok choy? I bend down and find that the tender leaves are being munched. By noticing this right away, I’m able to protect the young plant before it’s completely eaten. It’s good to recognize who’s doing the damage so that you can take the right measures to protect the plants. No point in covering plants with netting if it is snail damage. And no point in putting out Sluggo snail bait to stop the birds. Take a look at this photo. You can clearly see that a bird’s beak has taken a bite out of the leaf. If you have only a few plants, try this little trick that my friend uses: plastic fruit boxes over their heads.

Tell tale signs of bird damage - a beak bite in bok choy

Protecting your seedlings with these reused fruit boxes.

Early morning walks let us hear the birds singing. We’ve had a pair of California Towhees making a nest in the Manzanita bush near our deck every spring. When it’s quiet out I can hear them rustling around under the bush looking for nest making materials. They have become so used to us that when we leave our back door open in warm weather they just walk on in to the house. They like the cat food in the kitchen. Amazingly enough our cats have never shown any interest in these birds.

Since it’s Spring, it’s time to start your vegetable garden in your edible landscape. Do yourself a favor and use my helpful book, The Spring Garden Made Easy.
Here is the information you need to start your Spring garden. Included is information on soil, sites, annuals, perennials, fruits and much more. This is a 20 page guide to get you started on your edible landscape. Forty years of gardening has given me plenty to share. If you have enjoyed my blog, be sure to get my booklet. Great low cost!

Early blooming tree, the Crab Apple encourages bees to come to the garden

Crab Apple, an early bloomer, brings bees to the garden

A light rain moistens the Calendula, which blooms early in Spring. The petals are edible. Use them to decorate your salad.

A little more looking around and I discover that Miner’s Lettuce, Montia perfoliata, is ready to eat. A native plant with lots of Vitamin C it is mild tasting and wonderful in salads. According to a study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 100 grams of miner’s lettuce—about the size of a decent salad—contains a third of your daily requirement of Vitamin C, 22 percent of the Vitamin A, and 10 percent of the iron. It’s free, it sowed itself and all I have to do is pick it!

Delicious Miner's lettuce, free for the taking

Another plant we think of as a weed, which comes up in profusion in Spring is the wild onion. I harvest it like chives all Spring. It has a mild oniony flavor. To keep it from taking over, be sure to dig up the roots when you’re weeding it. Leave a little patch for your fresh early Spring harvest.

The wild onion though lovely in the spring can also be invasive. Keep an eye out for it spreading

Beautiful white pear blossoms lighten up the sky

My walkabout this morning had a lot going for it. Let me know what’s happening in your garden!

California Native Plants Flowering in the Spring

Garden Design, Plant information 2 Responses »

Mar 192012

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by Avis Licht – Native plants in your garden: a very good idea. They are already adapted to your climate and soil, so don’t need a lot of fussing and attention. In fact, they demand to be left alone. You will bring in a large diversity of important pollinators and insect controllers naturally. Birds, bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, pollinating insects are all attracted to native plants. The more diversified your garden, the healthier it is. Many people think that native plants aren’t good looking enough for their landscape. Here are some photos I took the last few days, that will show you otherwise.

One of the best sites I’ve found for California native plants is Las Palitis Nursery. Their website is a treasure trove of information on growing native plants.

The manzanita graces the dry hillsides of California - Arctostaphylos varieties

Manzanitas are great wildlife plants. Providing nectar for butterflies, hummingbirds and native insects. Many of the manzanitas regulate their nectar to attract different insects, butterflies and hummingbirds during the day.

The deep blue flowers of Hounds tongue are one of the first of spring - Cynoglossum officinale

Indian Warrior - Pedicularis densiflora

Indian Warrior was used medicinally as a muscle relaxant .

Native to the Coast Ranges in California all the way north to British Columbia. Ribes sanguineum, Pink or Red flowering currant.

R. sanguineum is one of the all-time superb early-spring-flowering shrubs. It is easy to grow, you can prune it or not, and the red or pink flowering currant has showy flower clusters. Time of bloom and flower color vary according to cultivar, but figure on anything from creamy white to crimson, beginning in February and sometimes lasting till May. The blue-black fruits are attractive, but are mainly for birds. They’re not poisonous, but they don’t taste good. They bloom at the same time as the California Lilac, Ceanothus, which is light to dark blue. They make a very attractive couple.

This blue Ceanothus blooms at the same time as the Pink flowering currant. They go well together.

These lovelies easily fit into your own garden. Aquilegia formosa, California Columbine.

Don’t forget about my ebook on the Spring Garden. There are lots of great pointers for starting your Spring Garden.

Table of Contents - click to enlarge

Here is the information you need to start your Spring garden. Included is information on soil, sites, annuals, perennials, fruits and much more. This is a 20 page guide to get you started on your edible landscape. Forty years of gardening has given me plenty to share. If you have enjoyed my blog, be sure to get my booklet. $10- such a deal!

Early spring you'll see these tiny but beautiful shooting stars - Dodecatheon clevelandii

Blood Meal – The good, the bad and the really ugly

Plant information, Soil and Amendments No Responses »

Mar 152012

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It says "All Natural" but where did it really come from?

by Guest Blogger Extraodinaire- Robert Kourik, author of Your Edible Landscape Naturally

As organic gardeners, we’re always looking for natural and non-harmful ways to add nutrient to the soil to aid in plant growth. One of the most important nutrients and one of the hardest to find in organic form is Nitrogen. Nitrogen encourages leafy growth and fruit and seed production. As plants grow, they take nitrogen out of the soil and it needs to be replaced. But how? Growing nitrogen fixing plants is one of the best ways to restore it in the soil. But this takes time. Compost and manures, which are also excellent for the plants, have relatively small amounts of nitrogen.

Blood meal is a fast-acting, high nitrogen, organic fertilizer. It is concentrated and often thought of as “hot”, meaning too much can hurt tender root hairs or roots. Often just a light sprinkling is enough. It can have a nitrogen content of 12.%, 1.00% phosphorus and 0.60% potassium. It can also attract dogs, racoons, possums and other meat eating animals that will dig up the garden beds. Blood meal, as you would expect, is a byproduct of the animal butchering industry. It takes a lot of energy to create blood meal in the form we use it in the garden. We also don’t know how the animals were raised. So it’s a bit of a stretch to call it “all natural and organic” in the way we want it to be safe and harmless to nature.

By knowing what blood meal is and where it comes from, you can make an informed decision about whether to use it or not.

You can save energy by growing a legume crop solely for the accumulation of nitrogen in the lumpy nodules located on its roots—fertilizer gathered free from the nitrogen in the air. Legumes that produce enough nitrogen for hungry crops (like corn) are alfalfa, fava beans, clover and peas. Till under the young foliage before it blooms—called green manuring. This will increase the yield of crops without using blood meal. Use green manuring of any legume in any annual vegetable bed.

You can read more about fertilizers and everything else you might want to plant in the edible landscape in Robert Kourik’s book, Designing and Maintaining your Edible Landscape Naturally, at his website: www.robertkourik.com

An early flowering, easy to grow plant- Hellebore

What is an Organic Fertilizer Anyway?

Plant information, Soil and Amendments 1 Response »

Mar 132012

Compost and mulch make a beautiful cover for the sil

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by Avis Licht

A beautiful garden grown with compost, manure and mulch

An organic fertilizer refers to a soil amendment derived from natural sources that guarantees, at least, the minimum percentages of nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. These include plant and animal by-products, rock powders, seaweed, inoculants, and conditioners. These minimum amounts can be very small. For example, horse and cow manure often have less than 1% nitrogen by weight. This is not to say it’s not a good fertilizer, it is. But depending on your plant’s needs, you may need to add other sources of nitrogen.

One word of caution. An organic fertilizer means it comes from natural materials, BUT it doesn’t mean it’s organic. Cottonseed meal comes from a plant, but cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed crops. There will be pesticide residues in cottonseed meal unless it specifically says it comes from organic cotton. Bloodmeal and bone meal take a great deal of production and energy to produce these fertilizers. Plus you don’t know how the animals were raised. It can seem very complicated to stay fully organic. When possible ask for the source of your fertilizer.

We take a short break from our program to let you know about this important news. The Spring Garden Made Easy, by me, Avis Licht, is now available for all you enthusiastic gardeners that want to get your Spring garden planted with the least possible problems. Yes, now you too, can have the Garden of Eden in your back or front yard. Or maybe a few lettuces and tomatoes. It’s all in this 20 page ebook, with easy to follow suggestions. Links in the book will lead you to much more detailed information. Try it, you’ll like it. Only $4.99.

This is the cover to my book.

Different manures have different nutrient values based on the animal, what it ate, how much bedding is in the manure and so on. In another post I’ll talk about the relative merits of different manures. For now, let’s just agree that manure from herbivores that is composted, is a good organic fertilizer. I say herbivores, because we don’t want to use poop from meat eating animals like dogs, cats or humans. There is risk of parasites or disease organisms that can be transmitted to humans from meat eating animals. For ease of listing, here are Vegetable fertilizers: alfalfa meal, cotton seed meal, green manure, sea weed, wood ash. Animal by-products include: manure, blood meal, bone meal, fish meal, feather meal and bat guano. Mined minerals include: rock phosphate, green sand, gypsum.

Compost bin for a family of 4 – 6 people

The easiest fertilizer is compost that you make at home from material in your yard. But it takes a LOT of material to make a little compost. You’ll probably have to bring in compost or topsoil when you first start your garden. This is not terrible, it just costs money and uses outside resources. Sometimes we have to do that.

Soil amendments are materials that don’t have a minimum amount of nutrient, like compost. They can be worked into the soil or laid on top. Amendments are important for the humus they add, the tilth, and aeration of the soil. Without proper soil aconditions, it doesn’t matter how much nutrient you put in. Roots need air, water and microbial activity, which all comes from adding organic amendments.

Mulch is material laid on the surface and does not add nutrient to the soil until it breaks down over time. Mulch protects the soil from compaction, erosion and keeps the weeds down. It also conserves water. Even though we don’t call it a fertilizer, it’s a very important part of the garden and soil and plant health.

In previous posts I wrote about legumes, which fix nitrogen and wood ash. Keep coming back, as I’ll go through the whole list of fertilizers. In the mean time, dig up your beds, or sheet mulch them, and then add compost and/or composted manure. You’ll be off to a good start.

A Great Organic Fertilizer for Your Edible Landscape – Legumes

Plant information, Soil and Amendments 1 Response »

Mar 092012

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by Avis Licht

: Beans are legumes that “fix” nitrogen

Nitrogen is absolutely vital to plant health, and legumes are the plant world’s way of taking nitrogen out of the atmosphere and putting it into the soil. I think that’s pretty amazing. Therefore, legumes are a gardener’s best friend. Next to rain, which of course is our best, best friend. I’ve written on how rain also brings down nitrogen from the air to the soil for plant use. This is also amazing. But that’s nature for you.Most nitrogen in the world is in the form of a gas – which most plants can’t use. However, legumes, which are in the pea family, grab nitrogen from the air and store it in their roots on nodules. It’s actually a bacterium call Rhizobium that converts the nitrogen gas into a form that will be released into the soil that plants can use. This bacteria occurs naturally in the soil. You can increase the amount of nitrogen that a plant will fix by adding more of this bacteria, known as an inoculant. You can buy coated seed or buy the rhizobium and coat your own seed. You can find out more about them from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply

Here’s a short plug for my book on putting in a Spring Garden. (Keep on reading for more info on legumes.)

To help you get started on your Spring Garden,there’s plenty of good advice in my ebook:The Spring Garden Made Easy. It’s $10. If you’ve gotten useful information from my blog,here’s a way to keep me going. Thanks for reading. Be sure to leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. I love to hear from you.

The most commonly grown legumes for nitrogen fixing are alfalfa, clover, fava beans, vetch and peas. The best time to harvest your legumes is BEFORE they flower and form seed pods. The pods take up most of the nitrogen. You can cut the plant at the base, leaving the roots in the ground and either put the green tops into the compost pile, or work the greens into the ground. If you put the “green manure” into the ground it will release the nitrogen over time. Initially the nitrogen will not be available to your next crop because it will be tied up in the decomposition process. What this means is that you should plan ahead for legume planting, so that you have time for the greens to break down in the soil before planting your next crop. Legumes make a wonderful cover crop for the winter, and at the same time prepare your soil for spring planting. If you need to plant immediately, I suggest you put the greens on the compost pile, leaving the roots in the ground.

This diagram shows the difference in nitrogen availability in young and old plants. It is from Robert Kourik's book, Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape (used with permission)

There will be more information on organic fertilizers in the next few posts. Subscribe to my blog and you won’t miss any of this useful information. Robert Kourik will tell you about blood meal – the pros and cons. Find out about other safe and interesting ways to fertilize your garden organically.

A Great Organic Fertilizer for Your Edible Landscape – Wood Ash

Plant information, Soil and Amendments 2 Responses »

Mar 072012

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by Avis Licht

Flowers, trees and shrubs love wood ash spread lightly around the base

Just like humans, plants need food to grow well. Where we use protein, minerals and carbohydrates for fuel and growth, plants need nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and a slew of micronutrients. Over the next few posts, I’ll be writing about different organic amendments. Before you add to the soil it’s important to know at least something about your own soil. Since most of us don’t know what is in our soil, here are a few ways to figure out a little about your soil.

You can buy a soil testing kit at your local nursery, or online at Gardener’s Supply. This is a simple and easy to use kit to find out the basics of your soil needs including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Existing plants, also known as weeds, are a good indicator of soil health and type. If you have lush plants, that are green and healthy looking, you can probably deduce that you’ve got fairly good soil. If plants seem small and stunted, this could mean several things. Compacted soil, low nutrient level or lack of water are the main culprits. This article on Weeds as Indicators of Soil Conditions will tell you much

more about plants as indicators.

For those who use a wood stove, wood ash is a free and excellent source of nutrients for the garden. There are some caveats, so listen up.

Lightly spread wood ash around your plants

1. Wood ash is a source of potassium, lime and trace elements

2. Since wood ash is derived from plant material it contains most of the 13 essential nutrients that soil must have for plant growth.

3. When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, but calcium, potasium, magnesium and trace elements remain.

4.After wood burns it has liming agents which raise the pH, this neutralizes acid soil. That means if you have acid soil as in the Northwest of the United States, adding ash wood reduce the acidity. This is good news for some plants and bad news for others. Read on.

5. If you have acid loving plants like blueberries, rhododendrons, azaleas and gardenias you don’t want to use ash around them

6. Do use ash on flower beds, fruit trees, lawns and shrubs.

7. The fertilizer value depends on the type of wood you burn. As a general rule hardwoods like Oak produce 3 times more ash per pound of wood and contain 5 times more nutrients than soft woods like Douglas Fir.8. Use one half to one pound of ash per year for each shrub or rosebush.

9. Don’t leave ash in lumps or piles, it can leach too many salts in one place.

10.Use wood ash in compost piles to help maintain the best environment for micro organisms. Spread a little ash out in layers between adding weeds and kitchen waste to the pile.

11. Don’t use as on newly germinated seeds, it has too many salts for little plants.

(If you are reading this in your email because you are subscribed to my blog, you may want to click on the title and read it in my website. You’ll have access to all the other posts AND My Book! the Spring Garden Made Easy.)

Be sure your ashes are cool and in a non flammable container

How to Start Vegetables from Seed for your Edible Landscape

Container planting, Garden Design, Plant information, Soil and Amendments 3 Responses »

Mar 052012

by Avis Licht

If you don’t have enough light in your house you can use these simple grow lights

Yesterday I talked about seed starting medium and today I want to talk about light and heat.

When starting seeds early in the season, it is usually too cold to start them outside. That means, they are either in the house, cold frame or greenhouse. It’s a rare house that has enough sunlight to start seedlings indoors and not have them get leggy. It’s an even rarer house that has a greenhouse or cold frame.

Light for starting seeds:

Most seedlings require 14 to 16 hours of direct light to manufacture enough food to produce healthy stems and leaves. The characteristic legginess that often occurs when seedlings are grown on a windowsill indicates that the plants are not receiving enough light intensity, or enough hours of light. If your seedlings are in a south-facing window, you can enhance the incoming light by covering a piece of cardboard with aluminum foil and placing it in back of the seedlings. The light will bounce off the foil and back onto the seedlings.

If you do not have a south-facing window, you will need to use grow lights. When growing seedlings under lights, you can use a combination of cool and warm fluorescents, or full-spectrum fluorescent bulbs. Incandescent bulbs produce too much heat in relation to the light given off. They also lack the blue-spectrum light that keeps seedlings stocky and dark green.

To get excellent pots, potting soil, greenhouses and more, go to my store and you can find what you need easily.

Along a protected south facing wall, this little house can provide protection for your seeds

Seedlings need a high intensity of light. The fluorescent bulbs should be placed very close to the plants—no more than three inches away from the foliage—and should be left on 12 to 14 hours per day. If you are growing your seedlings on a windowsill, you may need to supplement with a few hours of artificial light, especially during the winter months.

Temperature for starting seeds:

The temperatures for optimum germination listed on seed packets refer to soil temperature, not air temperature. Although seeds can vary drastically, most vegetable seeds need a warm soil temperature around 78 deg. F.

If the soil is too cold, seeds may take much longer to germinate, or they may not germinate at all. To provide additional warmth, you can use a heat mat or place the containers on top of a warm refrigerator, television, or keep them in a warm room until the seeds germinate. Just be sure to get your seedlings to a sunny window or under lights within 24 hours of seeing little sprouts emerging through the soil surface.

After germination, most seedlings grow best if the air temperature is below 70 degrees F. If temperatures are too warm (over 75), the seedlings will grow too fast and get weak and leggy. Most seedlings grow fine in air temperatures as low as 50 degrees, as long as soil temperature is maintained at about 65 to 70.

Some seeds can be sown directly in the ground like these beets

Give them light and warmth and keep them moist, and your seeds will work hard on your behalf. At the risk of repeating myself, the best thing you can do in the garden is to observe your plants. Keep an eye on them and they’ll let you know if they’re happy.

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Ingredients

There are many wonderful bee plants. These are a few of my favorites.

Here’s my new ebook on starting your Spring Garden. 20 pages to help you figure out where to put, what to put in it, and how to keep it healthy.

Light for starting seeds:

Temperature for starting seeds: