Gardening for Geeks by Christy Wilhelmi

Occasionally I will encounter a gardening book that will present completely new or detailed information that is not found in many other places. But for the most part, when I pick up a gardening book, I often find the book catalogues the ideas presented by others in various books and publications rather than introduce a new concept. Although Gardening for Geeks by Christy Wilhelmi fits much more into the second category than the first, it is still worth a read. Much of what I read in this book, although compiled from other works, included some good summaries of already existing reading material.

 

It was definitely worth looking through this book.

 

Even though many of the gardening methods presented in this book, including square-foot gardening, are really good sometimes I wonder how much they get what happens in my region, such as the high potential for insects and disease to completely wipe out a bed of lettuce or tomato plants. It is not that writers of gardening publications are purposefully misguiding readers, but when you live in an extreme climate it can be easy to feel that garden book authors just don’t get it. That being said, some of the biointensive methods, such as the French Intensive, hexigonal planting  and the 60:30:10 method really interested me. Even without knowing much about the French intensive method before digging my 24 inch deep mostly compost beds, it seems as if I am doing many of the same things that the French intensive method promotes.

The most helpful bit of information I learned about was from a book called How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons. According to Jeavons (as cited by Wilhelmi) a gardener can make their garden much more sustainable if they grow utilizing a 60:30:10 formula for sustainability. The premise of this sustainability formula is to have the land produce food for both the gardener and the garden. Apparently it should be able to produce enough food for one person by utilizing only 4,000 square feet of garden space. The way this formula works is to commit 60% of garden space to crops that return large amounts of carbon and nitrogen back into the soil such as grains, fava beans and cover crops to create mostly biomass to be composted and some food. At the same time, 30% of the garden should be designated for high-calorie crops, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips and Jerusalem Artichokes. Lastly, Jeavons says that 10% of the garden space/time can be devoted to tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce, carrots, etc.

 

My high-calorie sweet potato crop knows no bounds as it grows into the alley. (=

While I have slowly moved towards a method like John Jeavons’ biointensive method I never thought that it could be related to biomass. Many of the 60 and 30% crops deserve more time and room in the garden because they are much less work for the organic gardener in relation to pests and disease than because they “environmentally friendly”. Though most intensive gardeners may scoff at the idea of dedicating so much of their plots to corn and potatoes, perhaps they will decide to raise more grain and high-calorie crops when times get tough and they require a garden that is more self-sufficient.

 

A Tucson Planting Guide for the Organic Seed Saver

Years ago, after many failed attempts to understand gardening in Tucson I made this little guide for myself, which consists of 3 charts. Please note that I am not saying that this is the "definitive" guide to growing plants in Tucson. Rather, this is an attempt to better understand how to plan out my gardening.

 

With the first chart I was attempting, on my part, to understand when to plant, how long I could expect plants to take to germinate and grow. First, it lists some "general" planting dates. But more importantly it then lists the optimal soil germination temperature (in parenthesis). Knowing the soil temperature allows the gardener to note the current conditions, rather than relying on a calendar that may not be as accurate. 

 

The next set of numbers underlined in the third column lists the days until you can expect to notice seedlings popping out of the ground. Lastly, the chart tells the amount of time you can expect until you might see a harvest. Plants that are grown over the winter months under less light will take longer to grow.

 

 

Contained in the second chart (on the upper right) is a basic guide to NPK ratios of various amendments. All amendments will vary – so I take this with a grain of salt.

 

Finally, the last chart of this guide (on the lower right) concerns seed viability. Why, you may ask, might this information come in handy? Any gardener wishing to have some hope of self-sufficiency recognizes that a major component to being independent in a time of need is to have control of his seeds. Knowing how many years a gardener can keep seeds in a cool dry place enables the gardener to plan the frequency by which each vegetable variety must be grown.

 

On a side note - If people would focus less on complaining about big agricultural companies such as Monsanto and more on saving seeds we would not have to worry about the negative side affects that such large companies could create. A gardener who possesses quality water and soil and employs appropriate gardening practices can determine her skill at saving seeds by the quality of the vegetables harvested from her home-saved seeds.

Gardening in Layers

One of the reasons why I love to grow things here in Tucson in the summer time is to see my garden turn into a miniature jungle. On a small scale, I can use the intense light to my advantage by packing in as many vegetables as I can into as small as a space as possible. This is what I call “intensive planting”.



My understory here has squash and sweet potato vines.



Intensive planting can occur in an area where the intensity and duration of sunlight is so great that you can cover every square inch of ground with vegetables. In areas of the country where there is minimal light (or in partially shaded areas with a lot of moisture) gardeners may not be able to grow their plants so close together without experiencing negative side effects such as bacterial or fungus problems.

As I plan my garden based on where the sun will be and based on how much light my plants will receive throughout the day I am getting the most light out of the area that I have. As I decide where to plant vegetables, I think of my plants based on their eventual size, and imagine what my “miniature jungle” will look like later on in the summer.
 

One method of intense planting is to consider plant height



 The lowest canopy of my garden is often covered with sweet potatoes – which spread like ivy in all directions – only a few inches off the ground. The next tallest area is populated with peppers, tomatoes, squash and other plants that grow between 2 and 4 feet tall. The highest area of my garden is populated with cucumber or bean vines, some of which will grow as high as I can trellis.



Vigorous tall pole beans grow next to squash of medium height



By thinking about layers when planting, gardeners can avoid having to do much weeding, especially later in the season. Though this method may not be for everyone, it is definitely one approach that has served me well for me here in Arizona.





One of the few problems with a crowded garden is where to walk



Downsizing my Winter Garden

Kids' Garden in Orange

As my summer garden waned in the decreasing day length of October I began to formulate my plans for my winter garden. Last winter’s warm and dry season found me running out to my vegetables them almost daily to hand-water. Now that my wife was going to school full-time it would be impossible for me to be hand-water my garden while getting myself and my family ready to leave for work and school each morning. Something just had to go. 



The rope is meant to keep stray balls (and children) from falling on the plants

I decided that I could grow only the size of garden that would work with a small soaker hose. The only location that was currently unoccupied with “stuff” was the kids’ garden. Though this had previously been a place where my kids could much on veggies at their leisure, I had a family discussion and explained that I would need to commandeer their garden plot this season to retain my sanity. My children understood and reluctantly agreed.



Bull's Blood Beets

Downsizing a garden is really difficult for someone who really enjoys growing as much as possible. I am literally trying to do the same thing as before, but with less space. The Red Creole onions came to me via the Pima County’s Seed library while my chickpeas came to me via the USDA. Should I want to save these seeds for future generations I will definitely have to grow them out again in a larger population to avoid the bottleneck affect that leads to inbreeding depression and poor plant vigor. This inability to select plants based on vigor or trueness-to-type is one of the reasons why this winter’s garden is mostly an “experiment with a few varieties” rather than an actual full-fledged garden.



Onions, such as this Red Creole, take a while to grow




My first herbs ever, Cilantro plants, next to one of my Chickpea plants

With exception of the Atomic Red Carrots and the Bull’s Blood Beets – both of which I planted in greater numbers - the population of my veggies has made it so I’ll have to grow these same varieties out another winter before I can obtain a population of plants in which to save strong seed from.

Some onions growing in my winter garden

Digging



Digging is good work for the young and healthy

In reading the book or watching the movie “Holes” you develop a good sense of how difficult it is to dig out dirt in a hot arid environment. Admittedly it was difficult for me but it could have been much worse. In many locations around Tucson people commonly complain of hard packed dirt and of caliche - a hard collection of minerals (primarily calcium carbonate). I would not be surprised if caliche was the main ingredient in concrete. Often trees and other deep-rooted plants will perform poorly if the gardener does not break a hole through a sub-surface layer of caliche to allow for water drainage. I borrowed a neighbor’s caliche bar – a metal rod with a spike on one side and a wedge on the other – and used it along with my shovel in digging my winter garden bed. While digging I encountered quite a few small ½ inch to 1 inch chunks of the caliche but found the process to be otherwise uneventful. Soaking the area with water the night before digging always helps.

Before I began digging I laid down my blocks to the perimeter desired. I removed soil down to the 2 foot mark, leaving enough dirt on the inside of the garden bed to be a good foundation for my underground weed block. To create my weed block I “planted” blocks vertically in the ground on the inside of the garden perimeter and cut a metallic insulation material to fit snug against the outside of the planted (vertical) blocks. Thus the Bermuda grass would be blocked from getting its tendrils into the garden by the metallic insulation and by the vertically planted blocks on the bottom and by the horizontal block perimeter on the top. I cannot stress enough the long-term benefit of keeping out weeds from the beginning. It is wonderful.

To go with picture: Digging is good work for the young and healthy.

Finding a site for my Family and the Garden

From the very first time my wife and I decided to buy the house we currently live in I was looking at the area that I could use for my garden. Flat was a big requirement. Another requirement of mine was to have a good amount of South-facing sun for the winter. I wanted something with west-side shade for the summer, but I was sure I could grow shade, if needed. We settled on a home with a usable interior and an exterior that needed some help. It was in a cul-de-sac in walking distance of an elementary.



My lot with the current garden plots


We moved in mid-May on my daughter’s birthday. I tried salvaging some of the boards from where we had lived previously but the new house had termites anyway- and I didn’t want to encourage them any more than needed. So I left the boards in the alley. There were a lot of blocks in the yard, so I figured I could use them for the perimeter of my garden, as needed. One of the things I really hated about my first garden’s perimeter was the constant fight with Bermuda grass. I have not defeated Bermuda grass but some of the methods I adopted in making my new gardens have really aided in subsiding the flood of the unwanted turf.