Don't Just Stand There -- Plant Something!

[Catherine, The Herb Lady]

Dear Folks,

I love that statement! The Arizona Nursery Association uses it for
promotion and I have decided to use it also - it is a statement of
fact for those 'what do I do now' moments.

Are you stressed, worried about everything from the terrible
devastation in Japan, to your own economic worries?

Don't just stand there, plant something!

I'm not being facetious -- when stressed, I go to my gardens. To me
there is nothing simpler (make that non-stressful) than starting new
seeds, watering (appropriately), checking on new seedlings, or
transplanting those ready, or harvesting.

I think it is the ultimate living activity, which does not involve
moral issues. You sow a seed or transplant something, and you are
nurturing a living thing. Which in turn -- when you garden with
edibles -- nurtures not only you and your family, but also the
butterflies, hummingbirds and bees (and the occasional bunny). To me
it is a total win-win situation, with little downside risk.

I was watching a video on the internet this morning by the "Garden
Gal" and she was show-casing using soil socks -- to my knowledge they
are not sold in the valley. They are woven material tubes filled with
soil/compost and are designed to allow you to slit into them and
transplant seedlings or sow seeds.

The point of the video is you could set up a 4x4 garden in about 30
minutes after purchasing the soil socks and seedlings.

I am asked about the "square-foot" gardening concept a lot,
particularly in the spring. The Garden Gal, used a raised bed which
looked to be about 12-16 inches tall. I will get to the soil socks
and square foot gardening.

First, getting a garden bed going, quickly, is attractive for a lot of
reasons. Pressed for time, and no particular experience in gardening
with veggies, etc. many would-be gardeners want a fast start-up, and I
don't blame them for wanting something easy to begin with.

However I truly want you to be SUCCESSFUL whether you decide to start
small and simple or go the whole route of tilling the garden beds with
good compost.

Here are the desert-garden limiting factors when using square foot
gardening concepts, soil socks or even those ever-popular topsy-turvy
tube pots -- HEAT and COMPACTION.

HEAT -- the top three inches of bare soil, the sides of containers
(any container), particularly dark pots, including the side 6 inches
of soil in the container, asphalt and concrete, can be a blazing 180
degrees on a typical summer afternoon here in the desert.

If you ONLY want to garden in the winter, then shallow containers will
be okay for a short winter season garden, but you won't be able to
grow tomatoes or basil* (the top favorites for the edible gardener) in
our winter here in the desert (the plants may grow but they won't
produce usable fruit or herbs).

COMPACTION -- many popular gardening gurus live in true 4-season
climates, which means they grow everything in the summer. They also
have sufficient natural rain fall that supplemental watering is
usually not necessary. Their limitations are too much moisture --
which is why non-glazed terra-cotta pots work in those areas but not
ours -- they are designed to wick away excess moisture; and they don't
have as prevalent a high clay soil content, which leads to excess
compaction as we do here in the desert garden.

Compaction is the action of highly mineralized soil, high mineral
content water and the intensity of our sun -- year round in the
desert. Which is why most of us choose to live here. The challenge
for plants is that compaction-action is the beginning of caliche.
Caliche is actually a form of natural concrete, acts just like a block
of concrete as if you planted your garden in a concrete cache-basin.
Detrimental to healthy, thriving and productive gardens.

Shallow traditional 6-inch deep Square Foot gardens, narrow containers
(including topsy-turvy-style) and soil socks only filled with soil or
compost, will compact in short order.

The concept of square foot gardening -- dense planting -- is
appropriate for our desert gardens -- just not SHALLOW -- to succeed
the square foot style needs to be 12-18 inches deep to get the roots
away from the hot surface.

The soil composition must also be altered to include a very, very
fluffy mix. I personally use a 70% compost / 30% vermiculite mixture
for starting my plants/seeds in pots first. You can either use
compost or commercial soil and the vermiculite in the same formula. I
prefer vermiculite over perlite because the former stays mixed and
blends in with the soil in appearance.

If you want to make your own soil, mix 1/3 compost (can be leaf mold
-- composted leaves), 1/3 garden soil and 1/3 vermiculite. The garden
soil will contain microbes and maybe even worms to help your plants
out.

Gypsum is an anti-compaction element which keeps minerals from binding
together and starting the calich process and can be applied to
container gardens a couple of times a year - usually in the summer
when we have to water more. (More water = more minerals.)

BACK TO SIMPLE -- use the container method or square foot gardening
method BUT, make the garden deep or the container wide (2 feet
minimum), make a very loose soil . And finally MAKE SURE you are
planting at the right time of the year for the variety of edible you
want.

*Basil, like many warm weather herbs favors warm soil and sunny
mornings to maximize essential oil production which gives us the
wonderful aroma and flavor. In the presence of cold, damp soil and
and cool air or gloomy days, the essential oils actually retreat give
the leaves an unpleasant aroma and flavor.

So what are you waiting for -- don't just stand there, plant
something!

Have a great day,

Catherine, The Herb Lady