My "Old" Garden

My inital garden was in a relatively flat area on the mid-east area of Tucson. We were renting at the time, but our landlord was very willing to let me dig up the ground to plant a garden. It began as a compost pile. One day I threw some store-bought cantaloupe into the pile and that is where my garden began. In the time leading up to us moving from this site I learned several lessons.

The first lesson I learned was to not grow in native soil. I would amend and amend my soil with compost time and time again just to have it quickly revert back to its light-colored brick hard consistency. The second lesson came from growing plants in containers. I quickly learned that the sun cooks anything above the ground and that, for the purposes of insulation from dramatic temperature shifts and water conservation, the best solution would be a lowered garden bed. In a conversation with another member of the Tucson Organic Gardeners (TOG) noted that you cannot grow in the soil here and said that the best thing to do would be to grow in straight compost. At the time, I agreed. I hope to expose some of the benefits and drawbacks of such an approach as I relate how a compost garden worked for me.



The Winter Garden at our old house

The Summer Garden at our old house

Welcome to the Scientific Gardening Blog

Welcome to my Scientific Gardening Blog!
This blog is devoted to the study of effective gardening techniques required to boost the productivity of my organically-managed home garden. Having grown up in the Silicon Valley in Northern California my memories of gardening involved mostly weeding and eating. The question, “Will this grow in my garden?” was never a concern as much as the question, “Can I keep down the weeds and can we eat as much as our garden will produce?” In retrospect, my earlier attempts at gardening were very minimal as my interests were devoted to other things at that time. For some reason I have always needed some kind of hobby or something to focus my efforts and attention on. A few of my past hobbies have included learning about cooking, nutrition, alternative energy, raising reptiles, and raising praying mantises. My last hobby, raising mantises, became a bit too much when my wife Mel, with our fourth child on the way, requested that I focus my efforts on a less time-consuming pastime.

So now I research ways to improve my garden so that it can be more self-sufficient in producing organic produce for my family. My inspiration for my research comes not only from written literature but is more often informed by my observations of the condition of my garden. My drive to continue learning is grounded in the realization that as my learning expands I become more enlightened about the limits of my knowledge. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Though I am an old man I am but a young gardener.”