Book of The Moment: Animal Vegetable Miracle

I would imagine that many of you are familiar with Sharon Astyk's writings (Casaubon’s Book; Sharon Astyk’s Ruminations on an Ambiguous Future). I am an avid reader and Sharon has recently commenced a daily blog entry on the books she suggests for our edification. The title of the posts are, "365 Books #___." Sharon is a prolific writer and a farmer in upstate New York. I cannot believe she finds the time to write all that she writes AND farm(!), but, in plentiful evidence in her writings, she reads a whole lot too.

I only have an acre to keep up with and a couple of writing projects, so I am a little envious of her time management skills (and should go looking for anything she has written on the subject), but I will emulate her after a small fashion. I will post one book review every so often and over any amount of time, build a library of the books I suggest. These will be mostly garden books, but every so often, I will add in books that have changed my life in ways that have contributed to me becoming the gardener I am today.

So here we go with the first book, a 'why' book more than a 'do' book.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Barbara Kingsolver, Steven Hopp and Camille Kingsolver

Publisher: Harper
ISBN-10: 0060852569
ISBN-13: 978-0060852566
Cost: $14.95 Paperback

“At its heart, a genuine food culture is an affinity between people and the land that feeds them.” Barbara Kingsolver

A lot of books a person finds in the bookstore are eager to tell you what to do, sometimes with a rather shrill tone. Kingsolver, with her husband and two daughters (one was too young too sign a publishing contract), tell us what they did, acting on their conviction that they had to change their participation in the way they ate and participated in the American food chain.

Most of us are probably more than a little queasy about the modern American food distribution system. No other culture has had the luxury of food choices that we enjoy and the productivity of our agriculture staggers the imagination, still at no other time in mankind’s history has a civilization faced such an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Something is terribly broken with the way we eat.

The Kingsolver/Hopp clan do not intend to preach to us about what we could do, but quietly set off on their own private revolution and simply confide in us what happened. They chose to become “localvores” (also written as “locavores” by some), eating only food produced within a 100 mile radius of their home in Southwestern Virginia. Each family member was allowed to chose one item from a further realm (Steven Hopp, obviously a man of vision, chose coffee), but beyond that, the commitment they signed on for was to eat locally for one whole year.

Most Americans would think of eating seasonally as a little too “quaint” – something akin to foregoing indoor plumbing – if they thought of it at all. But when one chooses to eat locally, one is also choosing to eat seasonally in some degree as well. This alone would be a shock to most of us, used to, as we are, strawberries any month of the year, or peaches, asparagus, or any of our common fruits and vegetables. In fact, it’s probably a point of pride for our culture that we can eat these things at any time of the year.

But what has the cost been? Our farmers are as bankrupt as the taste of the food from the local market. No preaching, but plenty of common sense guides the family through the year as they learn how to provide a lot of their own food and how to get the rest from local sources. Not only is the family empowered, but those they work with locally are also empowered. Not only do they not starve, but they eat well. In fact, their year long experiment has changed by year’s end from experiment to lifestyle.

Along the journey, the “Miracle” in the title seems to morph as the book progresses. In the beginning, filled with the fear of throwing her family’s diet to the winds, the “miracle” seems to be they might really be able to eat through the year. By mid-book, the “miracle” becomes this tastes so good, even though it is a lot of work. By the conclusion, the miracle is the transformation that will inspire many others to try this as a way of life and the hope that Kingsolver and clan clearly offer the rest of us.

The Kingsolver family maintain a blog site that has more to tell about their year of food 'freedom.'

david

Trowel And Error; Resourcefulness and Sustainability

Trowel and Error, Over 700 Tips, Remedies and Shortcuts for the Gardener
By Sharon Lovejoy
Paperback , 336 pages
ISBN: 9780761126324 (0761126325)
Published by Workman Publishing
$13.95(US)


The only thing I have against Sharon Lovejoy is that she writes with the same breezy, humorous and informative style that I write and she got published first!

Most of our lecture material dealing with pest control will be from Sharon's book.

This is one of those small investments that pays big dividends for a gardener. Sharon was on the 'recycle, reuse, repurpose' bandwagon before there was a bandwagon; her ideas are in that thinly populated category of "Ideas That Become More Relevant With Time." This book will save you time and money and belongs on every gardener's bookshelf.

david

The Garden in August; Part I

A couple of handfuls of Cannellini beans show the beautifully dried beans ready to be bagged for storage away from critters that would like to eat them as much as I would! And this is just one of the many things we are harvesting from the garden this month!

(This month I am experimenting with the idea of posting the monthly hand out in several segments. This is Part I - there will be several addendum's, hopefully weekly or so, to this one over the course of August.)

I used to think of August as nap time, and in the heat of Southern California's summer, it sure is inviting! Grab a cool drink, a hammock and the Dodgers on the radio and I can feel the muffled sounds of snoring...

But not anymore. Not since I realized that growing the food was less than half the battle. I mean, there's a lot to do on that account too, more will be revealed very soon, but getting the harvest in and making good use of it is another important part of gardening.

It's hot work, but this week alone, I've harvested 10 pounds of those famous Italian Cannellini beans (a dried bean sometimes referred to as 'white kidney beans' but that refers to the physical appearance and not to their eating or cooking qualities), about as many pounds of peppers – mostly the sweet banana types that I hope to pickle soon. As well as the tons of cucumbers I am hauling in. Did you follow my advice and plant any Armenian cucumbers? If you did, you are swimming in cucumbers by now and have come to realize the reason that pickles have such prominence in our culture!

How do you preserve the harvest makes a huge difference in how well you can eat from your garden. When the season is in full swing, like it is right now, dealing with the abundance is the major focus of the home gardener.

There are several ways to deal with fresh produce that will allow you to eat from your garden long after the heat of August is gone. You can dry the produce. This is the easiest way. Beans, like my Cannellinis (above), are simply left on the plant until the pods are crispy and ready to drop the white bean seeds on the ground. I come along, gather them up and lay them in a dry, partly sunny location to dry for a couple of days. In Southern California that should do them nicely. Putting them away with too much moisture could result in moldy beans when you want to use them in cooking.

Juicier veggies can be dried too, but they take longer and are a little more involved. If you want to dry tomatoes, or peppers, pick up a good book on drying. Look for a list of my suggested books soon. Drying has the wonderful advantage of not being dependent on the power grid to continue to be edible, unlike freezing which is totally dependent on electricity.

Likewise canning definitely cannot be done without careful consideration. Pickling making jams, a subset of canning, is not quite as involved as other types of canning though it too needs to be done with some awareness. Pickling and jams are easier because the high acidity or sweetness (pickling uses vinegar, jams and jellies avoid botulism with lots of sugar) keeps the bad organisms from growing in your food without using a pressure cooker. Get a good book on canning and pickling and you will discover a whole new world.

Certain kinds of fermentation have begun to make a comeback in modern times. Making alcohol has been one way of preserving grape juices, and apple jack for apples. They require no refrigeration, because most of these methods predate electricity by a couple hundred years. Again, delving into that would take more space than I can muster right here.

But do give how you will keep some of your harvest on into the coming months should be a priority in this month of plentiful heat and produce to match!

Check back next week for more August doings.

david

Field Trip for 18 July 1:30 to 3:30

This coming Saturday we are meeting at Pottery Manufacturing and Distributing, 18881 S. Hoover Street, Gardena, CA 90248. It is a little intimidating to find this place, I would look it up in Google maps and study it first.

View Directions to `18881 S Hoover St, Gardena, CA‎ in a larger map

It's not HARD to find, but it isn't in a straight line either.

Please attempt to carpool if you can and reduce our carbon footprint...

Their number is 310.323.7772 and mine is in your syllabus if you have any questions. They will give us all a good discount and will treat us most kindly.

david

The Garden in July

Corn high in the garden promising good eating right around the corner. As a boy in Kansas, I knew my Grandfather's goal every year was to harvest sweet corn ears by July 4th. He might have even had money bet with a neighbor or two who would harvest corn first and I'm sure in most years he won! Corn takes a lot of room though, most of us will have to buy our corn at farmers' markets.

July means we are speaking of hot weather, so now is the time to get a cool drink and say hello to summer in our Southern California gardens; I insist that no garden should be created without seating for the gardener to glory in the work that has been done. This is not the month to do a lot of planting, if you can help it at all. Water is what your garden wants along with some weeding and harvesting. Don’t just pour water on your garden without exercising your noggin! Monitor the soil moisture and apply water as needed – but before plants begin to wilt. Try to water when less will be lost to evaporation – early in the day or late in the day… At night under the full moon listening to the owls... Stick a finger in the soil up to the first knuckle – better yet, turn over a small spot of soil with your trowel. It should be slightly moist down about an inch or so. The surface of the soil can be quite dry and that's fine. A gardener is more concerned with the moisture level in that part of the soil where roots live.

Check the mulch level this month – insure it is deep enough to keep roots cool and prevent evaporation of the precious water you are putting down. I don't use ANY fertilizer, which means my plants are never over-fertilized, except I am cautious about using really good compost that might have a lot of nitrogen in it on tomatoes or other members of that plant family (peppers, eggplant, potatoes and deadly nightshade, for example). They tend to use up all the nitrogen you give them by growing very large and healthy looking plants and not setting fruit. For our climate, this isn't a disaster, you just have fresh tomatoes in October and November. But if you don't want to wait, skip fertilizer or good compost. Save it for corn which is a notoriously heavy feeder.

I know I said this isn't a good planting month, you and I both were supposed to get all that done last month, but we probably didn't, so listen up: With care, it is still possible to sow beans and, for those of us with the room, corn. If you need it, it's also possible to sow another planting of summer squash. Some of the real heat loving veggies can be set out, like more peppers or tomato plants. If you desire that foul taste of eggplant, one might set out another plant at this time. But these guys will need extra water (try to plant them in the late afternoon – and try very hard to minimize root damage). The problem with planting now is that the leaves can easily transpire much more water than the small root system can take up. If these plants have been growing in the same amount of sunlight that they will get in the ground into which they have been transplanted, they stand a much better chance of survival. But wilted leaves the following afternoon suggest the root system is not keeping pace with the lost moisture and unless your little darlings put on enough roots quickly, or you can do some judicious, temporary shading, your crop might not make it to a thriving adulthood.

Other experienced gardeners have disagreed with me so this is purely my own call, seen with my own eyes, but I don't think corn works well once the Summer Solstice has passed (June 21 or so). As the days get shorter (Wait! Weren't they just getting longer? What happened?), corn “realizes” it has to set seed before the cool months of fall and winter and so it flowers and sets seed as fast as it can. I've seen corn seedlings at six inches high fully tasseled out and trying to produce ears of corn. The ears they did produce were so small you needed a 10x jeweler's loupe to see them! Not a lot of corn to eat. Gardening will disabuse a person from believing that California doesn't have seasons! The plants know seasons better than we do.

In our climate, especially in that part of the west coast that gets a lot of Pacific Coast influence, growing the cucurbits can be a challenge because the moisture in the air allows mildew to grow and kill these plants. The cucurbits are cucumbers, squashes, melons and pumpkins (which are really a squash) and they are particularly susceptible to getting mildew. It can be hard, in some years with heavy 'June Gloom' to get a good crop. There are some remedies for mildew but I haven't tried any yet. I get rid of the infected plant and simply grow another. It's usually only a hassle with winter squash.

Summer squash is called that because you eat it in summer. Summer squashes include zucchini, patty pans, crooknecks, and all the squashes the British call 'marrow' and 'courgettes.' They are characterized by soft skin and will rot if you keep them around too long without refrigeration.

Winter squash, which includes pumpkins, are so named because they would keep for many months and provide families with food over the winter months. It is their hard outer shell that allows them to be a part of a winter diet in a world without refrigeration and the ability to transport food over thousands of miles. Our ancestors relied on the keeping ability of winter squashes to hold starvation at bay. Keeping winter squashes edible for a long period of time in Southern California is a challenge because we don't have root cellars to store them cool and dry. Many of us can't really grow a lot of winter squash because of the space they take up.

The avalanche of ripe harvest should begin to worry you before July is halfway through. Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, beans, corn, zucchini, stone fruits and others will begin to overwhelm a gardener. Keep the harvest coming by picking when ripe promptly and finding ways to keep the produce for later.

Zucchini and summer squashes are a special concern. A four inch squash on Tuesday will be 9 inches and will resemble a caveman's club by Friday. It won't be as tasty and tender. Any summer squash will do that, with the ones we call 'zucchini' being the quickest to grow to laughable sizes fastest. It's the reason for a million recipes for Zucchini Bread, Zucchini Casserole, Zucchini Lasagna – I have even eaten a Zucchini Crumble, which was pretty good as long I could avoid eating any of the zucchini in it (which means eating the brown sugar, butter and cinnamon around the zucchini slices). Don't let that happen – once they have gotten much beyond the four to six inch size, they aren't all that tasty and begin to get woody. Harvest them early and often – just like voting in Chicago!

Melons are a challenge. Cantelopes and honeydews should have wilted tendril at the stem end of the fruit and should smell ripe (mouth waters when smelling). Watermelons are much more difficult to tell; I have a very funny story about being fooled by a watermelon when I was twelve, but that's for another day. I only know to thump them, listening for a dead, almost hollow sound to determine ripeness.

Cucumbers are not so much a challenge – as soon a cucumber is big enough for you, snag it. There are many different varieties of cucumber and it would be impossible to list each and every one because they all come in different sizes and shapes. Suffice it to say that Japanese cucumbers and Armenian cukes are able to get quite large and be edible – not just edible, but delicious! Not so much with other varieties. I know everyone gets goo-goo eyed about 'Lemon' cucumbers, but I don't share the love on them. Some say you have to wait until they turn yellow before they are good to eat. I think they are never THAT good to eat no matter how long you wait. I'll go with the Japanese or Armenian cucumbers – highly productive and delicious!

The harvesting of corn is another that begs exploration. The first time I saw city folks trying to choose ripe corn in the market, I was completely blown away! I had never seen people pull back the shuck (the leaves covering the ear) to see if the corn had filled out the cob or to see how large the kernels were. Although, I suppose if you hadn't picked it yourself, these things would be suspect. I had learned to merely feel through the leaves to 'see' what was underneath. Corn sold in markets – even farmers' markets – is usually picked after it's past the optimum stage – and non-gardeners are likely to prefer it. It is a 'more = better' kind of thinking. But corn kernels that have gotten big and fat are not as juicy and not nearly as tender. Smaller kernels are better.

The tassel on a corn plant are the 'boy flowers' and the silks are the 'girl flowers.' The pollen falls from the tassel onto the silks and that causes the kernels – really the seed of the next crop of corn – to grow. Each kernel has its own silk – if you find a cob with a vacancy (no kernel where there should be one), that is one silk that did not get pollinated. When the silks begin to dry out, they have been pollinated. If you have experienced worms in your corn, as soon as you can see silks, put a couple of drops of mineral oil in the spot where they emerge from the shuck. The worms will find that an impassible barrier and you'll have worm free corn! To harvest, feel the ear – it does take some training, but after a time, your tactile explorations will enable you to feel the ripe (and full ear) and leave the underdeveloped still on the plant. Grab the ear firmly and pull slightly out and down in one compelling motion and liberate it from the plant. The up and down ends will need trimming to find the actual ear in all that you have in your hand. Here again, you can find it by careful touch.

In this season of heat, don't neglect yourself when you are in the garden. The sun we experience today is not the same sun our grandparents faced. With ozone depletion, it is much easier to have to face skin cancer, so take steps to avoid having to deal with that. I know the popular method to avoid overexposure is to slather on lots of sun screen, but I don't find that a realistic alternative for a person in the sun almost every day. In the first place, I'm concerned that all that goop eventually gets washed off our bodies and goes into the waste stream and I know there is no provision for what happens to it after that – it isn't one of the substances ameliorated by city sewage treatment and so flows out into nature where we don't have a clue what it does. It's just another human pollutant and no one has bothered to investigate if it's harmful or benign. Dealing with our environment, we should always assume the worst and take exceeding care to not damage the only world we have. I know this is a contrary view.

I continue to wear long pants and long sleeved shirts even on hot days. I have several that are quite light and let the breeze flow through. It is one way to avoid harmful rays and avoid having to purchase goop on a regular basis – the pores of my skin aren't clogged up with questionable solutions and I am as comfortable – or as uncomfortable – as the next person. I also strongly suggest a hat – not only for the interdiction of the sun, but a way of shielding my eyes and keeping cooler. And besides, a straw hat is the epitome of fashion!

And while we are on this tangent, consider your number one tool set in the garden: your hands. This is one set of tools you can't replace or upgrade so it's best to take good care of them at all times. For gardeners, the feel of earth in their fingers is one of the true joys – and feeling of connection – a gardener can experience. However, the hands can also get injured easily in a garden so take a few steps back and consider how to protect them. When doing repetitive tasks that abrade your skin, wear gloves. Have more than one pair: one for moist work that has a moisture barrier of some kind, one for light work (goatskin gloves are marvelous to the touch – they contain a lanolin that works wonders on your hand while you work) and a heavy leather pair for hard work. The goatskin and heavy leather gloves can now be replaced by some non-animal products that are almost as protective. You will find good selections of gloves from your local nursery and your local big box store – mail order gardening companies' catalogs show you the full range of whats available. There is no need to settle in your glove choice – never buy a glove you find uncomfortable. In the first place, you don't need to and in the second, it will discourage you from wearing that pair as often as you might need to.

One more thing: is your tetanus shot up to date? Talk to your doctor – this shot should be renewed every several years and you should strive to remain current. I'm not a doctor and I can never remember how often it is now recommended (they changed it several times and I'm not sure which figure is right anymore). It was seven at one time, now I think it might be ten. So, talk it over with your doctor. You don't have to garden on a former dump site (which is what The Learning Garden once was) to be surprised by a nail or broken piece of glass. And while soil is one of the safer substances in its natural state (penicillin was concocted from a soil mold), soil in the city might not be in its natural state!

In the evening, grab some lemonade and contemplate your garden. You are awesome – you are growing food you can eat. Aren't you glad you put a seat in your garden? When you are done with your reverie, go inside and write me an email about how happy you are. I also accept checks.

david

Class Syllabus: Container Gardening

Instructor: David King
Email: greenteach@roadrunner.com

COURSE TITLE AND NUMBER: Container Gardening: Patios, Balconies, and Beyond BIOLGY X 498.3

There are no prerequisites for this course. We will meet from July 9th through July 30th for 6 meetings. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FINAL MEETING IS ON JULY 30th and credit students will have an assignment due.

All class meetings, except for two field trips (noted below) take place on the UCLA campus in 325 Botany, 6:30 to 9:30 Monday evenings.

Course Purpose
At the conclusion of this course, students will be confident in planting a multiplicity of containers with a wide variety of plants that will thrive in our unique climate. Students will be introduced to design principles applicable to container gardeners and will learn their care and maintenance.

Course Objectives
Students will be able to meet the following objectives by knowing:
Types of pots used in container gardeners
The qualities of the components of potting soil and how to choose a good one
Color combinations and other basic design principles
Care of plants over their life span
Appreciation of light and water in container gardens
Students should also be able to report that they’ve been inspired to find their own individuality in container garden design and to experiment with colors, plants or containers that had been off their personal radar before this class. Students are expected to share their experiences and knowledge with the class which guarantees an enhanced learning experience for all of us.
Application
This course is designed to be applicable for home gardeners whether they are in a house, a condo or a town home; as well as professionals that wish to incorporate container gardening as a part of their business’ offerings. Students should also find time to do some networking with fellow students.

Text for this course:
Sunset Western Garden Guide 8th Edition, Brenzel, Kathleen Norris, Editor, ©2007, Sunset Publishing There will be no specific assigned reading from this book, but it is the “bible” for gardeners in Southern California.

In addition, the following texts are suggested for your reference shelf:
The City Gardener’s Handbook, Yang, Linda, ©2002, Storey Books, Published first as The City Gardener’s Handbook and then as The City and Town Gardener and now back again under the original title.

Potted Gardens, Cole, Rebecca, ©1997, Clarkson Potter/Publishers

The two field trips are on Saturdays, as indicated below.

Date
Mtg
TOPIC
07/09
1
Lecture: Introduction – roll, Extension policy, meeting time and place, attendance and tardiness, office hours, expectations, objectives. Tools; types of containers; light; why containers, nuts and bolts of containers...
07/16
2
Lecture: types of soil; considerations of soil type and pot type relative to plant type, color and design; three demonstration containers
07/18
3
1:30 to 4:30 PM Field Trip Pottery Manufacturing and Distributing, 18881 S. Hoover Street, Gardena, CA 90248 Phone: 310.323.7772
07/23
4
Lecture: California Natives in Pots; two demonstration containers
07/25
5
9:00 to Noon Field Trip: Practical application of the class, The Learning Garden Patio
07/30
6
Container maintenance, renovation, pests and problems, year round interest; Credit project is due

Credit Students: Your grade will be predicated on class participation and a design project assigned at the first class meeting.
Office Hours
I have no set office hours, however, I am available by phone (the number above is my cell phone) and by email. I am willing to meet with students almost any day of the week at my office at The Learning Garden or a mutually convenient coffee bar. It is my most sincere desire that you learn and you will find me very approachable. After class is usually not a very good time because that’s when all students vie for answers and we are all tired after a long day. You can net a more thoughtful answer by contacting me another time.
Updates and Handouts
For this course I will utilize my personal blog page at http://lagarden.blogspot.com/ to post handouts and extra material for the class. There is an RSS feed through which each posting is automatically forwarded to your email so you can have access to handouts whenever they are posted. This approach is most handy when dealing with field trips because links to maps can be posted and any last minute updates are easily available. If this technology is new to you, another classmate or I will guide you through it. It is not difficult. If you miss a class or need an update, can't find your syllabus or whatever, you can find it here. You will need to, of course, bookmark it before you loose your syllabus...

Project Guidelines For Credit Students


Design a container garden with a minimum of five pots, any size (although five two inch pots won’t necessarily net a decent grade). Themed design.

Specify:

The purpose of the garden
Placement according to light
Other buildings or features that obfuscate or enhance light
Type of building; building color; building style
Interior style
Any particular facets of the owners’ personality that impact your design
How the owner will use the space
Plants used in each pot, by scientific name at least, indicate their water needs
What the pots are constructed of (i.e. terra cotta) and design
Pot size
How will they be watered?

Summarize

How your attention to all the above achieves your stated purpose.

I am looking for an understanding of what plants do well together (color, foliage, water requirements) and plantings that will enhance the building, style and owners’ lifestyle. I am also looking for appropriate design (i.e. no Phormium tenax in a narrow hallway).

I have left this pretty open in hopes of accommodating a wide variety of interests and desires. If this is too open for you, I’ll be happy to fill in details that will narrow your focus.

Bibliography for
Container Gardening

Container Gardening, Elving, Phyllis, Editor, ©1998, Sunset Publishing, A small book with some good ideas and at least it’s a look at the West Coast.

Potted Gardens, Cole, Rebecca, ©1997 Random House – I love her attitude about gardening and how she approaches the whole thing with a strong sense of whimsy and joy. Her gardening philosophy fits very well with my own. She writes a lot like I do.

Roof Gardens, Balconies and Terraces, Stevens, David ©1997, Rizzoli International Publications, Another ‘east coast’ book, but again the ideas and creativity are worth consideration as a starting point.

Sunset Western Garden Guide 8th Edition, Brenzel, Kathleen Norris, Editor, ©2007, Sunset Publishing All of the recent editions have their merit, but each successive edition has more plants and updates the scientific undergirding of gardening, so I encourage you to invest in the most recent edition you can afford (used copies are usually easy to find, either locally or at Amazon.com, I have a few for sale!). This is the number one go-to book for horticulture in Southern California; no other book is as authoritative as this one for our area. We cannot take advice from most gardening books and apply it to what we do in Los Angeles because our climate and soils are nothing like the rest of the world – especially those on the east coast and England where most books about gardening originate.

The City Gardener’s Handbook, Yang, Linda, ©1995 Storey Publishing, Although written for the east coast, this book’s ideas and principals are so clear and valuable, it stands out as one of my favorite references.

The Complete Container, Joyce, David, ©1996 Reader’s Digest Again, another focus on the east coast, but the ideas and plant lists in this book are better than most. It has pretty definitive instructions and is full of good clean photos. A good book to have – especially if you only buy one.

The Terracotta Gardener, Keeling, Jim, ©1990, Trafalgar Square Publishing, Not really a design book, but a historical perspective of terracotta used in English gardens and some background information on terracotta.

Grow Your Own

( (c)2009 LA Yoga Magazine, used with permission; this article first appeared in LA Yoga Magazine's June 2009)

Nothing compares with the taste of freshly picked, vine-ripened, home-grown tomatoes. Sweet, juicy, delicious, colorful, bursting, it’s something special. Even the most organically grown, farm fresh produce isn’t quite the same as the loving care we take with growing our own food. While we may long to grow our own, we may feel constrained by apartment or urban living. By thinking out of the container a little bit, it's possible to grow food in a very small space, even a patio or balcony. If we are creative about it, it can be an exercise in artistic living. Container gardening can create beauty in our home environment. It's time to scrap the old mentality that has food production in containers looking like little mini-farms with Round Up clean fields. We can cultivate containers filled with edible plants that are as glorious to look at as they are to eat.

Growing is a project with a time commitment that gets stretched out over the coming several months. Before beginning, it's a good idea to meditate on why this is important to prevent the spirit flagging midstream.

Some popular reasons to grow your food include:
1.A feeling of freedom from the food grid.
2.Knowing this food was grown without chemicals.
3.Making an ecological statement that the current way food is produced and shipped miles for consumption is a precipice built on cheap and abundant fossil fuels.
4.And, dare we say it, love.

Plants nourish us in so many ways, yet our modern society has attempted to reduce all life to a soulless materialism that rests in constant consuming. Growing your own food, even if it's a small portion of what you consume, makes a very direct statement, to you and to the world, of your intentional love of yourself. By eating food cared for with love and intention, you express your love for the planet so many people call home.

A focusing on growing our own food breaks the societal patterns which pull our heads in a million directions with constant messages about spending and conforming. Growing our own food is incessantly at odds with the consumptive mindset. This can force some uncomfortable decisions: when the plants need attention, do we dare choose the silence and peace of growing plants over the glitter of a night at the movies? Remember the benefits of having your own garden: the taste of freshly-grown produce, the connection with the earth and the cycles of life, as the motivations to water your plants before you fall into bed and counter the tendency or temptation to neglect our garden, especially after coming home exhausted after a rough day.

Sunlight

Once you have decided to grow some food, you need to realistically appraise your site. Light, of course, is very important as plants grow by using sunlight. The city presents some opportunities that you can exploit to your gain because of the abundance of reflective surfaces. We have been told that food plants must have a minimum of six hours of sunlight per day, but that figure has never taken into account the massive amount of reflected sunlight that shines all around us.

North, South, East or West?

First, determine which direction the open side of your growing area faces. If your site faces north, your choices will be the most limited as your growing area will likely fall in the shade of a building most or all of the day. But look around, since a light-colored wall that gets plenty of sunshine facing the growing area can reflect sunlight back onto it.

East facing is the next most challenging, although a bright building, a street or another large light colored object may increase the available light.

West-facing usually makes for abundant sunlight. The South-facing direction, though, is the cream of the directional crop. However, in some city situations, West or South, combined with lots of reflective surfaces can be too hot. Still, too much sun can be solved more easily than too little sun.

Have hope and begin. Plants are more willing to grow if there’s hope. And, if you’re unsure, the situation might not be as bleak as perceived; there might be windows of light here and there that are not readily apparent to a human (non-plant) eye. If in doubt, start with some perennial herbs like rosemary, oregano, thyme or marjoram. If these do poorly for lack of sun, it may be time to stand in line for a community garden plot.

However, if you successfully cultivate some sprigs of fresh thyme or oregano to add to your cooking, then you can move on to something a little more challenging. Different plants have different light demands.

The Light Continuum {Kerri: make this some sort of graphic with an up/down arrow}

Most light-intensive

Grains: corn, wheat, rice, barley. Sunflowers. Legumes: beans, lentils, peas.

Fruits: eggplant, tomatoes, peppers.

Edible leaves: parsley, lettuce, cabbage. Edible flowers: broccoli, artichokes (do you have space?). Edible roots: carrots, beets, radishes.

Least light-intensive

Start with leaves and roots and give it a whirl. Allow the plants to talk to you in a way that informs you of their needs for sun and water.

Equipping Your Space

You will find there is not as much to buy as the gardening magazines tell you. And of the things you do need, make the conscious decision to invest in them. Tools are not the most important thing to consider. The container itself and soil you put in the container, however, are very important.

Containers

Plastic permeates our lives today. It is not sustainable and is a blight on the Earth. Use it if you must (because of weight), but do so understanding that it is not ideal. There are lightweight paper pots sold in most nurseries and big box stores that durable for three years. They eventually rot out, but they are about as fossil-free as anything else is today. And they come in a variety of sizes from small to those that will hold a large artichoke.

Found objects make great pots. The requirements are that your containers can hold soil and have a hole in the bottom to allow excess water to drain. Please don’t kill your plants by drowning. If the container doesn't allow for drainage, it is not an acceptable choice. Cover the bottom hole with a piece of screen –readily available at hardware or other stores. A lifetime supply will cost about five dollars and only needs to be large enough to amply cover the hole. Do not use a broken piece of pottery, called a 'shard,' to cover the hole, as it makes a lovely home for snails, slugs and other plant-eating critters. The screen is a marvelous improvement.

In Southern California and many urban areas, thick containers are almost essential – like wood or pottery. The sun that beats down here can raise the soil temperature in a plastic pot to a very uncomfortable temperature for plant roots. Black plastic, such as that in nurseries, has killed more plants than the so-called 'black thumb.' Terra cotta is a beautiful and practical choice for Southern California – the properties of breathing (terra cotta isn't completely sealed and there is moisture exchange and air exchange that closely resembles a more normal environment for plant roots), beauty and variety of form makes it a good choice for our homes. It is breakable, of course, and for people with overactive children or animals, another choice might be more intelligent. Wood also has many of these same characteristics, but it does tend to rot over time (if it's treated to not rot, it's not fit to grow food!),

The container needs to be large enough to accommodate a plant's root system – while experience will be the best teacher, a simple look at the size of the plant and its growth pattern will tell you a lot. Root plants (carrots and beets) will need much deeper pots than lettuce or any of the culinary herbs.

Soil

One last technical thing and we can plant. Soil. Do not get cheap potting mix; of course, don't get a potting mix loaded with fertilizer or the new 'soil polymers' (manufactured 'beads' in the soil that are supposed to hold water for a longer period of time – if you dig up soil that had these things in it a few months ago, they are gone – where did they go? They dissolved into the water around the roots of the plants and went into your food. Are they harmful? Like most new inventions, they've never been tested in human food. If that bothers you, make sure your potting soil doesn't contain them.). A potting soil labeled 'organic' should be somewhat more expensive than the non-organic blend, if it is cheaper than the non-organic mix, be suspicious. Sand, which is a very valuable part of a good potting soil, is heavy and costs more. If the producer has substituted some other ingredient, the soil will not drain sufficiently to keep your plants happy.

The bag should also be labeled “potting soil.” Planting mix, organic compost and other bagged items are not acceptable for container plants. Soil from the local ground is not acceptable either.

A plant in a pot is not in a natural environment. Plant roots need water and (surprise!) air to be healthy. Potting soil is a mix of many ingredients that allow the roots to live happily inside the pot. Beginning gardeners will especially benefit from a lot of sand in the potting soil.

Planting Day

A tomato is a rather large plant. It needs a deep pot – imagine a five gallon bucket, the ubiquitous white plastic bucket that ships everything from paint to pickles these days. That's about right for a tomato. But while it wants all the depth for its roots, the tomato will do very little with all the surface area of such a large pot. That space can be used for color and for more food plants. A tomato will grow to be at least four feet tall. Think to fill in around the tomato with something of visual interest, as well as culinary interest, that can please your eye as you look at the tomato. A perfect companion, to the eye as well as the palate, would be basil which could grow to about 2 ½ feet tall. Then one plant of something that grows down – like oregano would be a wonderful addition. That makes almost a pizza garden!

One could easily add a small flowered plant as well – in the city, I love to use alyssum, a small white flowered annual that smells a lot like honey. Usually sold in white, which lends itself to blending with all other colors, the scent is heavenly and it is carefree and exuberant in a way that pleases the spirit. Other choices are the little lobelias that come in many different colors although they lack the same alluring aroma

Most of us have a mental model of growing food in austere conditions that consist of only one plant surrounded by lots of bare soil. This is the image given to us by a culture divorced from nature! In truth, if you look at the real world of plants, they are all mixed in together – there are a multitude of species happily occupying the same space. Not only is it possible to mix lots of plants together, it is preferable! You will have happier plants and a more pleasing visual atmosphere on your balcony or patio.

Water

When asked how often to water, anyone who answers “once a day” or “once a week” isn't being honest. That is another holdover from an industrial, mechanized worldview that simply doesn't apply to living, growing beings. Water your plants when they need it. Stick your finger in soil to the first joint. Is it wet? Hold off. Moist? Add some water. Are you finding yourself having itchy skin because of dryness in the air? Water. Santa Ana winds blazing through the land? Water. By tuning yourself to what is going on around you in the natural world and less to what is on the radio, knowing what your plants need today will become more natural to you.

Growing even a small portion of your food is not just healthier eating; it is a way to manifest your natural presence in a world of honking horns and concrete. It is satisfying to the soul and brings a peace beyond the simple act of looking at a growing plant. Growing food brings a person into a harmonious circle that resonates with life and nature. No one more than modern 'civilized' man needs that blessing.