Townhouse Gardening--What I've Learned

This is my first post in two years and three months, so if you thought I was finished with this blog, you're not alone! Life just got too busy for me to spend much time at the computer and I've been focusing on other things. But as fall approaches and I realize my gardening is drawing to a close for the season, I have been reflecting back on how far things have come and how much I've learned this past year about what I call "townhouse gardening." We never thought we'd end up in a townhouse, but it has been a blessing in many ways. However, when I first saw this tiny courtyard and realized my dreams for land would have to be postponed, my heart sank. Ugly rocks and cement was all I saw and it seemed too small to do anything with. Happily, over time my vision expanded as my imagination saw how it could be more. 

So if you, like me, want to garden but have only "a small bit of earth," read on... (See my list at the end of things learned so far.)

After building and filling a Square Foot Garden box (always a staple in our gardens), I turned my attention to other potential garden spots, focusing on areas that receive a lot of sun. I decided on three places and we cleared them of rocks. 

Two of the areas are shown in these first three pictures: the fenced-in place to the right of the stairs, and the area to the left of the front door. Thankfully, my husband was able to do most of the digging to loosen up the sad soil that has been smothered in rocks for who knows how long. (Now we're working on improving the soil, which process will include clearing another area soon for a compost pile.)

Five months ago I planted quite a few strawberry plants in this section--a total experiment, since summers are so hot here (triple digits for three or four months in a row). While most of the plants survived, they didn't get much bigger, so I recently opted to add other plants for ground cover and additional aesthetic appeal. Hopefully they'll spread well next spring and fill out this area.

At the back I added two lavender plants that smell lovely.

And interspersed among the strawberries I planted these fun sun roses. (The mesh effectively prevents the neighbors' cat from using this as a litter box.)

Last year I planted several things in buckets and some did better than others. This year the chard and basil (which was a volunteer) have done well all season. After my oldest daughter tried flowers from seed without enough success, we opted to fill them with flower plants instead. We have especially enjoyed the vinca, which has continued to bloom all summer and thrives in the high heat as long as we water it well every day. 

 

In the plot to the right of the stairs I planted more strawberry plants, which have thrived there. (Yay!) My second daughter planted sunflowers here as well, which are so fun to watch grow.

To the left of the stairs, for the second year, I planted tomatoes--with cilantro in the middle. It was very interesting and gratifying to see how much better the plants grew this year, after a winter of adding ash and charcoal to the soil. We'll keep working on it for next spring.

A couple months later later, the cilantro had grown taller than the tomato plants (here it is going to seed).

Behind the tomatoes we planted a row of marigolds for pest control and added beauty and they thrived beautifully in the early summer. Marigolds are always a great one to plant from seed!

In the garden box in front of the woodpile I first planted tomatoes and a pepper. Unfortunately, cockroaches ate up the pepper plant as well as everything else I planted there, except for tomatoes, squash, and some stevia. So I will be taking other measures next year, to protect against those beastly bugs. 

The tomato plants grew rapidly and thrived here, soon growing as tall as the woodpile.

Tomatoes plumping up!

 

And, while this is a poor picture, it shows how tall our tomato plants are now--taller than the fence behind it and nearly as tall as me!

So here are the five main things I have learned about townhouse gardening: 

1) Any improvement, no matter how small, makes a big difference quickly. 

2) It's less stress, much less overwhelming, and takes less time than a yard does (of course). 

3) It's less expensive to overhaul and maintain. 

4) It's easier to keep track of everything and know how each plant is doing. 

But here is the most important thing I've learned: 

5) If I can still garden with this small space, just about anyone can! No excuses! :)

Summer Squash Alfredo Pasta

With the abundance of garden produce every summer always comes lots of squash--although not too much this time, because we didn't overplant. :) But I had several summer squash that needed using at once, so I decided to try something new. It was a success!


Summer Squash Alfredo Pasta

I just threw together the following:

Cooked whole wheat pasta (about 26 oz. uncooked)
5 or 6 medium-sized summer squash, diced and cooked
Homemade Alfredo Sauce--my favorite homemade Alfredo sauce can be found here, but I included it below for convenience:

Light Alfredo Sauce

2 c. milk
1/3 c. (3 oz) cream cheese
2 Tb. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 Tb. butter
3 garlic cloves
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese (I used the real kind)

Toss milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in blender (I love how easy this part is!)

Process until smooth and set aside.

In non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic.

Let garlic saute for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly.

Add milk mixture to pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.

When nice and thickened remove pan from heat. Add cheese, stir it up, then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in fridge, sauce will thicken almost into a solid; just re-heat and add a little milk.

Creamy Tomato Soup

A couple weeks ago we had garden tomatoes coming out our ears! I didn't have time to can and didn't want to put any more diced tomatoes in the freezer either, so I decided to make a huge pot of tomato soup. I've done this before but never found a recipe we just loved. So I asked my friends on Facebook and was referred to the recipe on Our Best Bites. I tried it and it was a big hit! So this has instantly become our family's default recipe for homemade tomato soup. 

Note: This time I modified it as indicated in italics, but I may try it other ways when we have other ingredients.

Creamy Tomato Soup

1 Tb reserved oil from sun-dried tomatoes, or olive oil (I used the latter)
1 c. chopped onion
¾ c. shredded carrot
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar (I used raw sugar)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbs dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2/3 c. sliced sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil (I would love to try this some time but didn't have it.)
2 (14.5 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained (This is where the fresh, homegrown tomatoes came in for me--not canned this time of year.)
1 (14oz) can chicken broth
3 oz reduced fat cream cheese

optional: 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

optional: Parmesan cheese and fresh basil for garnish

Place oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, and garlic, and cook for 3-4 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring often.

Add sun-dried tomatoes (if using), canned tomatoes, chicken broth, (raw) sugar, salt, pepper, oregano and basil. (If adding red pepper flakes, add now.)

Bring soup to boil, reduce heat to simmer. Cover pan and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove from heat. Place soup in blender (do this in 2 batches if necessary)--or I highly recommend using an immersion blender. Add cream cheese. Process until smooth.

Add additional salt and pepper to taste and then divide soup among bowls. Garnish each serving with a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaf, if desired.

Spring!

Now that we live in the southernmost part of our state, spring comes early. And it has arrived in full swing!

But I know many of you throughout the country are still digging out from under yet another snowfall. Ugh. I feel for you because I've been there!--for most of my life, actually. And that's why I have appreciated our milder winter and early spring this year. It seems like a miracle! But I guess, for me, spring anywhere feels that way.

With impending spring come thoughts of the summer's garden and all the accompanying planning and anticipation of growing my own food and getting my hands back in the soil. What a blessing to be able to grow things, nurture them, and harvest them for my family's nourishment and health. There's just something about the whole process that is good for the soul.

Spring is my favorite season of the year, hands down. I love the fresh smells, the beautiful shades of new life blooming, and the hope that comes from realizing that once again the world's renewal won't fail us. To me, it speaks volumes about God's love and the hope He wants us to have in Him and in the power of change and renewal.

The Power of Urban Farming

"This video will inspire and reengage your conviction that urban farming may indeed be THE most important social and environmental movement of our time." (link)

Here are the top 5 reasons why:

New Possibilities in the Garden

We are now officially relocated and I'm back to blogging. While it was a difficult move in many ways, we are happy to be closer to family and I am beginning to really understand how many more garden possibilities I will have here in the southernmost corner of our state. The temperatures are so much more temperate that the growing season is extended considerably, and many plants I could never have thought of growing before can survive the mild winters here. That makes me so excited! So I wanted to pass on some of that excitement (and perhaps a couple of plant ideas) to you, via pics of my mom's beautiful garden (from whom I get my "green thumb"). :)


Pistachios!
I just think it's so cool that she can grow these here, and I can't get over what beautiful trees they are. Even if they didn't grow fruit I might still plant them because they are so lovely. Pistachio trees are one of those types that require both a male and a female tree to properly pollinate. Above is the female, below is the male.

Her pretty Rose of Sharon bush somehow still flowers during this intense summer heat.




Grapes are nothing new, but my mom's is flourishing so well it's amazing. I hope the one I planted back at our old place will spread and grow this well...

Pomegranates are a fruit I didn't grow up eating, but since then I have really learned to appreciate their sweet, nutty flavor. And they can be pretty expensive at the store! So how about just growing your own tree?! My mom loves the fact that the tree (or is it a bush...?) has all growing stages on it at once.
Hence, here we have a gorgeous flower...



Here a green fruit...

And here fruit that is developing a blush.

Lastly, here is one of my mom's legendary tomato plants--taller than my 8 y.o. so far. Some years they grow taller than my mom, so this is nothing new. And the tomatoes they produce are succulent!

Happy gardening, everyone!

Composting, How to Start

"Composting is an excellent way to avoid both wasting useful, natural resources and creating environmental problems, while at the same time producing a high quality and inexpensive soil amendment." (howtocompost.org)

The other day, a friend and I were discussing our gardening plans, both of us eager to get out there and work in the dirt, when we touched briefly upon composting. I got to thinking later that, while I've posted a few times on the topic, I've never actually talked about it in any depth. And if you, like my friend, need to improve your soil, this is the easiest, least expensive way to do it. Plus, it's environmentally responsible.

As a preface, let me say that when we moved into our home, nearly three years ago, a section of the backyard had obviously been used at one time or another as a garden. Also obviously, it had been quite a while since it was actively used for that purpose. But...at some point, someone took pains to improve the soil and we now reap the benefit. However, after three years of regular, year-round composting, our soil is even better than it was. Case in point: In the summer when the ground is warm, you can go into our garden, pick any place, dig up a shovel-full of dirt, and find at least one fat, juicy worm in there--if not a few of them. That, my friends, is garden-friendly soil! I love seeing those worms.

So here's the easy, no-cost way to compost:

• Pick a spot in or near your garden plot, out of the way of foot traffic, and dig a hole. Smaller is better, as this site attests, but you want it big enough that you won't have to dig a new hole every week.

• Collect kitchen scraps in some kind of small bucket in your kitchen (I use a milk jug with the top cut off). Nearly everything from your kitchen that you would normally throw away can be composted--excluding any meats, bones, fish, or animal fats. These waste products attract cats, rodents, and other pests you don't want in your backyard! (For additional items to leave out of your compost, see this article at thegardenofoz.com.) Not to mention, these waste items would make your compost pile pretty smelly.

• When the bucket is full, take it to your compost hole and dump it in.

• Every week (or more often, if you're better at remembering than I am), shovel some dirt over your compost materials. The microorganisms in your soil will greatly aid in the breakdown of your compost.

• Regularly turn your compost with a shovel to mix it up and add oxygen, an important part of decomposition. If you live in an area that is very dry during the summer, adding water to your compost every week or so also helps to break it down more quickly.

• Once your compost hole is full, completely cover it with dirt and let it sit a few weeks to a few months. Meanwhile, dig a new hole.

It's that easy!

For more efficient composting, the above-linked site points out that mere kitchen scraps isn't the ideal ratio of green to brown compost material. So be sure to add some leaves if you have them, too. Another amazing thing to add, that most people don't even think about, is human hair. If you give your family haircuts, one of the best things you can do with those hair clippings is take them out to the compost pile. They're full of nitrogen, which can be hard to find in other compostable items. (See my post on composting hair here.) Of course, if you have rabbit droppings, those are an ideal, slow-release fertilizer, also full of nitrogen that could be added to your compost pile, in moderation.

Note on composting seeds: Before we got chickens, we put all kinds of seeds in our compost pile, since they were kitchen scraps that we didn't eat (such as cantaloupe and watermelon seeds). Either we didn't mix our compost often enough or the sun didn't bake the seeds hot enough to kill them, because we ended up with all kinds of volunteer plants in our garden last summer. It was fun to see which vegetables and melons we ended up with, but that was enough surprises! I am glad we can now give our chickens all the seeds we don't want and spare that experience this summer.

Garden Planner

Are you tired of planning your garden with pencil, paper, and a really, really good eraser? I certainly am! So this week I've been having fun trying out something new: Garden Planner. This great program is free for 30 days, and you don't input any credit card information to try it out, so a subscription won't automatically start. It's helping me see my future garden much more vividly, which makes it easier to see how I should arrange my various herbs, vegetables, and berries. It's also helping me think of new things to plant which are appropriate to my area, and includes details on each plant, like where it grows best and when to plant it. And when I'm finished planning, I can print off my "garden map" to use outside while I plant it all. Check it out here!

Gardening: "A Subversive Activity"?

Fellow gardeners: Have you ever considered your garden "a subversive plot"? I hadn't. But it makes sense. And knowing this, I feel more empowered and impelled to continue this subversive activity (hee hee)...

Below is an 18-minute video of Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardeners International. He believes "A genuine shift of power in society will follow when people take food production into their own hands. Some staggering statistics are offered here, that really take the conversation beyond gardening as simply a healthy, virtuous hobby." (Note: his humor is a little hokey at the beginning, so just bear with him. He's got some really good things to say. :) )

Edible Front Yards

There is a movement for front yard gardens that is gaining popularity, acceptance, and excitement throughout the country. I used to not understand this idea, but the more I pour water into my lawn each summer, wasting such a precious resource in my desert climate, the more I realize how much merit this idea actually has. Why give any plant so much water if it doesn't give anything back (in the edible sense)?

So here at the end of winter, when I start my yearly yearning for spring and begin planning my garden, I am learning more about edible landscaping. Since I already have five SFG boxes in front of my house, the next step of creating even more of an edible front yard, isn't too hard to imagine. And I've had many favorable comments about the boxes so far, so I don't think my neighbors would mind more front yard edibles. :)

In my attempts to learn all I can, I am currently reading two books I found at my local library that are giving me lots to think about: Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy, and The Edible Front Yard by Ivette Soler. The photographs are beautiful and inspiring, and my brain is awhirl with possibilities!

Of course, there are also many inspiring website on this topic, such as The Front Yard Farmer, Dog Island Farm, and--of course-- UrbanHomestead.org. Northwest Edible Life even explains why you shouldn't rip up your grass before planting edibles. Good information!

I'm not sure how many of these ideas I'll be able to implement this coming spring, but I'm moving in this direction...

I would love to hear your experience and ideas on edible front yards!

The Permaculture Egg

I've been learning about permaculture (a close-looped system) lately and it's fascinating! Here's a little video about an ingenious idea for raising chickens and gardens in a mutually beneficial system that is much more cost-effective, humane, and "green" than the industrialized process of egg production:

Fall Reminders

For most of us, fall is definitely in the air! The days have cooled, the nights have started to freeze, and the leaves are turning colors and falling. Time for fall cleaning and retiring that garden bed. I love gardening, but I have to admit it's a relief when I get a break each winter. :)

It's time to finish those canning projects and add the finishing touches to our harvest for the winter. I brought in all the pumpkins and melons (none of which we planted--they just grew on their own) to store them indoors, and now my food storage room is about full. It's a good feeling.

It's also time for fall planting, for those of you who, like us, add a few permanent plants each year. We planted a fruit tree (to replace one from last year, that didn't make it), a grape plant, and four raspberry plants. Now is a very good time to plant any of these, as long as they are potted plants (and not bare root). Keep watering them until it freezes consistently at night and they should do fine through the winter and come back beautifully in the spring.

Oh, and for those who missed my autumn post last year with tips for staying healthy as the weather cools, click here.

Happy fall, everyone!

Marigolds

My husband planted marigolds in our backyard traditional garden this year as a natural pest control. We've tried this a couple times before but never gotten to them to grow very well from seed. This year they did awesome! I've never seen marigolds this huge before. It's so fun!


As you can see, they're several inches taller than my 16-month-old. With any luck, they'll seed themselves throughout the garden plot for next year.

In the gardening book, Just the Facts (p. 33), it states that marigolds are "The workhorse of the pest deterrents. Plant throughout garden to discourage Mexican bean beetles, nematodes, and other insects."

They're so pretty, too! Why wouldn't everyone want them scattered throughout their gardens?

Trimming Tomato Plants

I thought this picture was an interesting illustration of how well Mel's method of growing tomatoes works. (That's Mel Bartholomew, creator of the Square Foot Garden.) Both piles were picked the same day. The one on the left has 10 tomatoes, while the one on the right has 9.

On the left are the tomatoes I picked from my neighbor's traditional backyard garden while they are out of town. On the right are those I picked from one of the square foot gardens in our backyard. Both are sun-ripened, yummy garden tomatoes. But ours, as you can see, sometimes even split from growing so large.

I know there are other factors to consider, such as soil and amount of sun and water received regularly, but I feel that my trimming of the plants has really increased the growth of my tomatoes this year.

I had never heard of trimming tomato plants until the first time I read Mel's book, All New Square Foot Gardening, several years ago.

I understood the concept but wasn't convinced of its effectiveness. On page 159, Mel writes: "The theory behind pruning to one single stem is that all the energy goes straight up the main stalk, and you will have more tomatoes per square foot than if you allow it to put energy into branching out." Makes sense, doesn't it?

The first time I did this (a few years ago), I religiously trimmed the "branches" once a week. I don't remember if our tomatoes were bigger than usual that year, but it did seem like the tomatoes were being a little overwhelmed by our Arizona sun (even in the cooler mountains, where I lived). And when I explained Mel's method to my mom, who lives in the southernmost part of Utah, where the summer sun and heat get extreme, she was doubtful that this method would work there, for the same reason. Those tomatoes needed their branches to shade and protect them, she thought.

So this year, in northeastern Utah, I put those two trains of thought together and it has worked beautifully. I don't get around to trimming branches every week, and I leave many of them on for shading and stability, but I've found that trimming out extraneous limbs gives space for air and sunlight to get down into the plants and ripen the tomatoes. And we've never grown tomatoes this big!

Garden in a Glance, III

This was my first year to grow Cosmos--and really, my first year to seriously grow flowers. I have been delighted by these cuties, as well as by how low maintenance they are. They don't require a lot of water, do better without fertilizer, and love the heat. And if I leave them to go to seed at the end of the season, they should come back next year on their own!

They started out like this:

And now they look like this:

 

My two flower gardens don't provide us food to eat, so they don't directly enhance our self-sufficiency, but there is something to be said for increasing the beauty in your world...

Garden in a Glance, II

Today's "Garden in a Glance" is tomatoes. 

I'm so excited about these because they are the best tomato plants I've ever been able to grow. I guess the combination of the early, hotter summer, the dry weather (of course, I water them regularly), the location, and the perfect soil (brand new Mel's Mix) combined to give us a beautiful tomato crop this year.

 I have 20 plants (16 shown here) and most of them have gotten huge, with amazingly thick stalks. We've just started harvesting them, since they're finally starting to ripen. I've thus reintroduced "real" tomatoes to my children, proving to them that there really is NO COMPARISON between store-bought tomatoes and the home-grown variety.