Year Three Begins for the Redneck Garden

I finally got around to planting & realized this is the 3rd summer of Redneck Gardening. Same buckets, same small yard, but a few lessons learned along the way. 

I started with heavy soil, much like the native clay soil of the region. It seemed like a good concept; if I had a bigger yard & was planting in the ground, this would be the soil type, so why not in containers? It turns out that one of the cool things about container gardening is that you CAN use better soil. DOH! Most folks aren't going to remove a foot of soil over their whole garden, install drainage & then put in a foot of high-dollar soil, so they make due with what they have, amend as best they can and garden away. Folks with money might build raised beds & bring in an amended soil from the neighborhood garden center, but even that is a crap shoot. Rock yard garden centers typically use whatever dirt they can get for free or cheap & the cheapest amendment they can get their hands on. This means the dirt likely came from a construction site & you can guess what may or may not be in it. Organic matter may be a commercially produced greenwaste compost or something like stable shavings, mushroom compost (which is typically sterilized, meaning it has zero beneficial biology), uncomposted manure or tree waste, and the list of possibilities goes on & on. As nice as those folks are, don't let them convince you that this is really the "Premium Planter Mix" the sign over the bin claims.

In containers, it's a whole different game! For one, if you are buying soil, you need a LOT LESS, so spring for the good stuff. No, that does not include anything with the Miracle Grow label on it. Read the label, folks. Make sure you know what you are getting. Factoid: labeling is very strict in places like California & the manufacturer HAS to be sure to include everything that goes in the bag. Unfortunately, since many of the big brands are manufactured & marketed in many different areas, the ingredient list not only includes what IS in the bag, but anything that might ever be in the bag. Again, you never know for sure what is really in the bag, or in what proportions. My best advice if you go the bagged soil route; by a regional product, something made close to where you are, preferably organic. Mixes with coconut fiber (coir) will hold more water than those with peat & will rehydrate better. Try to buy a mix with sand in it if you can. Manufacturers don't like sand, because it adds weight & reduces the volume they can ship in a given truck. Consequently most retail bagged mixes contain no sand or soil at all. I'm also not a fan of perlite (expanded obsidian) or vermiculite (expanded pyrite). These are ultra lightweight fillers often used to reduce weight and improve drainage. They are not porous, so don't help with air & water movement in the soil, they are also environmentally challenging to produce. I prefer a mix with pumice or lava if you can find it.

I am more fortunate than most in this department. Dirt is my life. Well, livelihood actually. I don't have any formal education in soil science, but I do have 20 years of on the job training. Seems odd that it took me so long to start gardening. You would think it would've been a natural thing for me, but it just didn't click for me until more recently. Better late than never, I guess. I've enjoyed tinkering with the soil in my containers. They have great drainage, but don't dry out (I hand water twice each week), they are about 2/3 mineral (sand, soil, lava) & 1/3 organic matter (compost & worm castings). I don't add conventional fertilizers. Instead I add a little new compost and calcium sulfate (or gypsum) each year & everything seems to be doing great. I have also added a product called AXIS, which is calcined diatomaceous earth. AXIS has the perfect pore size for absorbing & releasing water when the plant needs it. The other benefit is that as moisture levels draw down & AXIS releases the water, it actually pulls air into the soil. This stuff is awesome! This combination seems to produce healthy plants with amazing root development.

Enough rambling about dirt, time for some pics!

The Front Porch

Poblano, Jalapeno & Habanero Peppers to Keep Things Lively.

Grafted Tomatoes are new to me this year. And apparently I don't cook with fennel often enough.

And now for the ornamentals:

The kniphofia on the left had four bloom spikes a couple weeks ago, now my other one is getting into the act.

Wifey loved these little happy faces.

Love the color these dianthus bring & they love this hot little planter by our entry.

Last one, another favorite from Annie's Annuals. This even survived being tented with the house!

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

Just a Little Bit Longer Kidz, We're Almost There.

I thought this day might never arrive, but some of the big heirlooms are finally showing a little color!

Dagma's Perfection may not be quite perfect, but it will work for me!

Ernie's Round is coming along as well.

Ernie's Round also won the "Vertical Challenge", climbing more than 7 feet above the soil. Not bad for a large variety growing in a bucket!

And then there are the peppers...

This small plant was supposed to be a green bell, but turned out to be yellow instead. This is a very productive little plant.

These are the best of the Poblanos, nearly 6 inches long. I see Chile Rellenos in the near future!

This is the Habanero that was near-death when I brought it home from the MG sale. Guess it likes my coddling, 'cause it's going gangbusters now, in a 10-inch pot!

And the Hinkle Hatz? These little buggers are s'pose to be smokin' hot & this thing is loaded! I'm just waiting for one of them to turn color so I can test them out. There will be a VERY cold beer close by when that day comes!

Black ChuChu eggplant & lemon cucumber have also been very productive lately. Do I ever LOVE all garden-fresh goodies in my salad bowl these days.

Just had to show off Mr. Black Adder as he looks sooo happy in a real pot. Hard to believe he was in a 6-inch pot just a couple months ago.

So, as we've discussed before, patience is a BIG part of edible gardening and I don't seem to have much of that these days. It's just a darn good thing that the rest of The Redneck Garden has stepped up to keep me distracted from the lack of tomato availability or I'd be seriously bonkers by now.

Are We There Yet?

"Are we there yet?" Anyone who's ever traveled with kids surely has heard that question and you younger gardeners were probably saying things like this not too long ago, much to your parents frustration. Well, it's the middle of July and hopefully your garden is bursting at the seams. I've been reading blogs, facebook posts & tweets from folks all over the country, enjoying bushels of juicy tomatoes, sweet corn, hot peppers, blah-blah-blah.

Don't get me wrong, The Redneck Garden is growing like mad, but outside of the herbs, all I've been able to harvest is lettuce & a couple of lemon cucumbers. Every morning I walk around my containers, say good morning to all my children and offer them heartfelt encouragement. I drive to work wondering, will this be the day I see some color in the tomatoes? Every evening, I drive home, walk into the yard, asking just like my kids on a long car ride; "are we there yet"? And every day, the answer is the same; "not ye-et". Patience has never been my strong suit, can you tell?

So here's what's going on in The Redneck Garden:

The Yellow Pear Tomatoes have looked exactly like this for at least three weeks.

The mystery volunteer is clearly some sort of cherry tomato that is putting out big long racks of fruit.

On a hopeful note, I took this pic of the egg plant flower on July 9th.

And just nine days later, we have fruit!

The heirlooms have all outgrown their 4' cages by 2' or more, they have plenty of flowers & fruit, but the late spring and cool start to our summer are keeping them from really getting with the program.

The new green bell from the Master Gardener's sale is covered in flowers and young fruit.

The little, frail Habanero (also from the MG sale) is finally bulking up and showing buds.

And it looks like we will eventually get a good dose of "Hinklehatz" peppers, which the label said are "extremely hot". Someday.

I should say that the couple lemon cukes we've had were excellent and I've been able to enjoy a few delicious radishes, fresh cut lettuce & loads of herbs. However, if you've been following my chronicle of The Redneck Garden, you know that this is my first serious summer garden and I'm still learning the many lessons that gardening teaches. Let's just say that my grade in "patience" shows that I need to work a little harder at going with the flow. I enjoy the anticipation, but can't wait to show off a huge "Yellow Dagma's Perfection" or "Pink Stump of the World" to my mega-mart, sawdust-texture tomato eating coworkers. Soon, I hope.

So please tell me how your harvest is going, so that I may vicariously enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Rapid Growth in The Redneck Garden

So, this is probably just my rookie gardener showing, but I just can't stop being amazed at how quickly my garden has taken off this season. All the transplants were done on 5/16 & the seed starts (lettuce, spinach, radishes & carrots) were sewn on 5/22. For the new visitors, you should know that I garden organically, there are no chemical fertilizers used, ever. Take a look, tell me what you think & let me know how your garden is doing.

5-22

6-16

5-22

 6-16

5-22

6-16

(Yes, the lettuce finally bolted)

5-22

6-16

5-22

6-16

5-22

6-16

5-22

6-16

There are more, but I think you get the picture. Hey, I know it's early in the season, but things are looking pretty good in The Redneck Garden. We are already harvesting heavily from the herbs; parsley, basil, dill, fennel, chives, marjoram and lots of cilantro. There have been some challenges too, like the lettuce seedlings that were decimated by birds, some critter eating the tops off my radishes, the scallions that never showed at all and the habanero that is still only 3" tall. Overall though, the garden seems pretty happy. I think my latest incarnation of Terra Vida Living Soil has given everything a great start. Stay tuned for more updates as summer (if it ever really does get here) progresses.

In case anyone is wondering, here's a list of the edibles:

• Hinklehatz Red Pepper
• Crookneck Squash (3)
• Jalapeno Pepper
• Lemon Cucumber (2)
• Poblano Pepper (5)
• Green Bell pepper (2)
• Yellow Bell Pepper
• Habanero Pepper
• Ambassador Squash
• Tomato, Green Grape
• Tomato, Yellow Dagma's Perfection
• Tomato, Ernie's Round Pink Beefsteak
• Tomato, Pink Stump of the World Beefsteak
• Tomato, Beam's Yellow Pear
• Tomato, Unidentified Volunteer
• Black ChuChu Eggplant
• Blue Lake Bunch Beans (2)
• Strawberries: Chandalier, Sequoia & Eversweet (1 each)
• Radishes, Rainbow
• Carrots: Purple, White, Red & Yellow
• Baby Leaf Spinach
• Sea of Red Lettuce
• Sweet Baby Romaine Lettuce
• Dill
• Fennel
• Parsley (2)
• Sweet Basil (4)
• Chives (2)
• Marjoram (2)
• Rosemary (2)
• Cilantro (4)

Hope you enjoyed the Redneck Garden update. Leave a comment & let me know how your garden is doing.

Matt

The Redneck Container Garden ver. 2.0

I don't know about where you are, but the prolonged cool, wet weather in Northern California has definitely slowed the pace in my yard. I've had some upgrades going on though to keep things interesting. If you've followed my previous posts (here, here, here, here, here, & here), then you know all about my miniature urban farm, grown mostly in five-gallon buckets as my postage stamp lot just doesn't have any other suitable space. Well, let me introduce you to The Redneck Garden ver. 2.0.

This was the final image from my April post, giving a hint of things to come. The 5-gallon buckets now have some tougher, stronger more handsome big brothers.

Most of the buckets received a basic drainage modification courtesy of my cordless drill.

Thanks to a couple of my favorite tools, this...

and this,

Have turned into these...

and these.

I learned a lot from conversations with other gardeners and reading articles like this one from Love Apple Farm's Cynthia Sanberg, with very good instructions for growing tomatoes in containers. I learned that tomatoes need a minimum 15-gallon pot and they prefer to root deeply. The metal tubs met the 15-gallon minimum, but seemed a bit shallow. The Redneck Garden still has a very tight budget, so I searched for the best possible option for my dollar. Having no luck at yard sales & thrift shops, I settled on the metal tubs for $15.00 each and the plastic buckets are still just $2.34 each. Even the cheapest plastic containers approaching this volume were nearly three times this combined cost. Clearly, a better scrounge, with a little time & energy could round up these items for free or cheap, but I had procrastinated myself into a corner and needed something quickly.

This pot-within-a-pot design gave me the necessary depth to give the tomatoes the full Master Gardener treatment. The holes were dug, I dropped a couple aspirin into the hole, placed some calcium sulfate (basically high-grade gypsum, but egg shells are good too) and some organic tomato & vegetable fertilizer and tossed in the lower leaf stems that I removed from the plant. Unlike most plants, tomatoes will actually grow more roots from where the stems were removed when you plant them deeply like this.

 Here you see a plant that was nearly 2 feet tall in it's 4" pot, now only rises about ten inches above the soil. Fill them in loosely, resist the urge to pack the soil as this forces much needed oxygen out of the root zone. I finish all my containers off with a layer of compost as a mulch. This will help retain moisture and provide more nutrients to the soil as the compost decomposes.

As many of you know, my day-job involves large-scale soil blending for commercial landscapers, nurseries, golf courses and more. I've been using The Redneck Garden as a bit of a proving ground. Okay, so I couldn't stand to grow plants in sub-standard soil, meaning that there isn't any sort of true comparison. However, I offer the next two pics to show what kind of root growth takes place in good soil.

This is one of the buckets that had a Romanesco Cauliflower in it until recently. With the plant and main root stem removed, you can see that the fine root hairs permeate the entire container.

This is a bunch of the "Brite Lites" chard I pulled out of the little window boxes. The soil couldn't have been more than 4 inches deep, but when I lifted up on this plant, it picked up all the soil in the whole container. The roots of the neighboring plants had all intertwined and were now just one big root mass.

Here are some of the other new residents of The Redneck Garden:

Lemon Cucumbers

Ambassador Squash

Black Chu-Chu Eggplant

And Blue Lake Bunch Beans. Oh, and that lettuce, we've been cutting off of that plant since last November and it is still going strong!

The window boxes are now home to Marjoram, Cilantro & Chives.

There are a few hold-overs too. I saved my pepper plants from last year, some of which are doing well, others not so much. Three of my four Poblanos made it through winter, but they have been very reluctant to leaf out & flower. If they don't come around soon, they will lose their space to the new Habanero and Hinklehatz Red I picked up at the Palo Alto Master Gardener's plant sale.

My Yellow Bell has several clusters of new fruit already.

This Green Bell is doing better than it looks in this pic. It has lots of blooms and new fruit already.

The Jalepeno has been bloomin' it's fool head off.

Now, my wife enjoys the fruits of my garden too, but she was craving flowers, so I surrendered my only two in-ground planting areas to appease her...

The back-fence planter is a heavily shaded work in progress.

And the narrow front walkway strip now has lots of color. Hopefully it will attract some beneficials.

The current view from the curb.

And my front porch farm.

I hope you've enjoyed the updated Redneck Garden ver. 2.0. There are a few other new happenings too, but I have to save something for the next post. I encourage you to share this post with new or potential gardeners who may not feel they have the ability or the space to grow their own food. It has been a fantastic experience for me and I've been amazed at the amount and variety of produce we've been able to harvest. It's great to get in touch with your food supply. I know exactly what goes into those plants  (100% organic) and the fresh, honest taste is at least ten times better than store-bought.

Stay Happy & Healthy,

Matt