GARDENING: THE
‘MATER CHALLENGE
As I am
working on my “How Much to Plant” chart I thought of all of those that are in
apartments, have HOA’s and landlords that won’t let you till up the yard, and
people who don’t want to spend a lot of time gardening, but do want to grow
something.
On the Dave
Ramsey list some of us have been picking on one fellow because every year he
talks about how he should garden, but
life always gets in the way. It’s all
good clean ribbing and he takes it very well. This year I have suggested to
him, again, that he start with just one large flower pot.
I know some
of you are thinking “A flower pot? You can’t grow much in a flower pot!” But you can, and anything you do grow
yourself is of course that much better than anything you will ever buy at your
local grocery store.
An excellent
source of information on how to do this organically would be the book by
Patricia Lanza “Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces, a layering system for big
results in small gardens and containers.”
In the book
she walks you through various types of small gardening tricks and gives ideas
on containers, both sitting on a ground or table, or hanging baskets, along
with ideas for tiny spots in your yard.
I particular
like the idea of a themed garden when doing a small space. Her themes include recipes for using the food
you produce for a Tex-Mex Garden. This
includes either a small garden or using one or more large containers on your
patio to grow basil, bell peppers, cilantro, chile peppers, garlic, onions,
oregano, thyme and tomatoes.
The Linguine
Garden has you planting, basil, garlic, onion, oregano, tomatoes, sweet frying
peppers, zucchini and parsley.
For a pizza
garden I would recommend tomatoes, garlic, oregano, basil, onion, thyme, bell
pepper, and pepperocini peppers.
Do you
notice a pattern here? Many of the
ingredients to grow for each theme are the same. All three have tomatoes and the herbs grown
with them vary only slightly.
So the ‘mater
challenge is born. If you do not have
the time, space, or inclination for a big kitchen garden, how about a single large
flower pot garden?
How you
build up your soil in the pot is your choice.
Because I garden strictly organically my flower pot plantings are done
via the Lasagna Gardening method with lots of layers from found materials
around the farm, but that doesn’t mean you have to do the same. If Miracle Grow is your cuppa then use it, I
simply prefer not to for personal reasons.
However, I’d
rather suggest you purchase a bag(s) of organic garden soil and organic compost
(I personally like mushroom compost) to fill your pot.
Garden soil
too expensive? Consider what we did as I
was growing up and have done here on the farm more than once. Find a chemical free area you can dig your
soil from and dig up some dirt for the flower pot.
When I was a
kid you didn’t have to worry about what was in rain water run off so every
spring after Bird Creek had flooded Mom would load up my brother and I and we’d
go to the banks of Bird Creek and fill every container she had brought with mud
from the banks of the creek. Back then
her theory was some of the best top soil in the state had just been deposited
in that creek. Sadly, that might not be
a good idea these days.
Now I do a
lot of digging around my own ponds, and from the deep leaf mulch in our
woods. Because we use no chemicals here
on the Rock ‘n Tree Ranch I have no fear of what might be in the dirt. The leaf mulch is deep and rich in our woods,
so it is well worth digging.
However you
fill your pot is up to you, don’t forget to open the drain holes on the bottom
of the pot before starting. If there are
no drain hole tap outs available put a layer of gravel, small rocks or even
marbles to help allow for drainage and to keep the plant roots from drowning if
you or God happen to over water one day.
Now it’s
time to plant it. I’d start with the
biggest space taker in the pot, in these three scenarios it would be the tomato
plant. I would suggest a heirloom indeterminate
such as Brandywine, Champion of Goliath.
All produce well all season long and are hearty plants.
Be prepared
though, heirlooms are not going to be your perfect round gmo rich tomatoes. They may be odd shaped, multi-cheeked, are
even a slightly different color (I love Cherokee Purples). They will also have TRUE tomato taste,
something you will never get with a grocery store tomato.
Once you’ve
chosen your tomato plant go ahead and plant it with its trellis in place. Yes a trellis. It can be something as simple as a stake that
you tie the plant to as it grows—be aware some tomato plants get quite
tall. Or you can do any number of other
trellising ideas. Cruise u-tube and you
will be amazed at all the ways you can trellis plants.
So now you
have the tomato and trellis in place and
you know this tomato plant is going to grow up, not out so you have all that
extra space around the bottom of the tomato plant to plant in. Don’t get too carried away, because anything
you plant there is going to need growing room.
But plant
underground and above ground plants both.
Onions and garlic do most of the growing underground, they stay pretty
compact as well. Herbs, of course , are
above ground and look gorgeous hanging over the side of the planter as the
summer progresses.
Should you
want to put other upright tall plants such as peppers and zucchini in your
planter then supply them with a trellis as well. The sky is the limit on how far up you can
go. Just remember you can plant in three
layers in one pot, below ground, above ground and in the air. That’s a whole lot of gardening in one
container.
Food for
thought. Put this big pot on a wheeled
plant dolly with a saucer under it when you first plant it and when cold
weather comes just roll that baby indoors for fresh food throughout the
winter. Tomatoes, herbs, and many other
vegetables are perennial and only die off in our gardens because the cold
weather is murderous on the tropical plants like tomatoes and peppers.
All you
would need would be a couple of cheap florescent light fixtures to have home
grown goodness year round.
There is is
the ‘mater challenge I challenge each and everyone to plant at least one flower pot of fresh food
for their family.
Jan who will
be doing flower pots, other containers and in the ground gardening all in OK.
