Cascadian Farm Organic Goodness

Since I don’t have a garden of my own this year (you can read about why in my previous post, here) I decided to visit with fellow green thumbs and have them show me what they’re growing this year. So it was only natural that I start with the gardener who inspired me to grow vegetables, my dear friend Candice. Candice started gardening four years ago when her stepmother gave her two tomato plants. At the time she wasn’t too invested, but loved having fresh tomatoes come harvest time. With every season her enthusiasm grew and so did her garden. She loves to grow vegetables that yield a long or big harvest, like lettuces, tomatoes and zucchini. She found the broccoli she grew this winter to be anti-climactic. J This summer Candice’s garden includes tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, a grapevine and Swiss chard still going strong. All started from seed (except for the bell peppers which never seem to take) and all organic. That was the only option for her. Her favorite thing about organic gardening is that her six year old daughter loves eating the fresh vegetables that they grow. The other day Ava picked a tomato off the vine and ate it like an apple. “She never would have done that with a tomato from the grocery store”, Candice told me. And although Ava is a notoriously picky eater, she always willing to try veggies from the garden and loves Swiss chard!

When I asked Candice her best trick or favorite gardening tool, she immediately said the drip irrigation system she and her husband Chuck installed last year. La Mesa is a town in the east part of San Diego County and it gets hot there, regularly reaching triple digits in the summer. Watering the gardening quickly became a chore. When her gardening “guru” (a friend’s mom whose been gardening for years) suggested she install drip irrigation she thought it sounded “hard core” - like a complicated and expensive thing. She was delighted to find out that $20, a trip to Home Depot and about an hour’s worth of work was all it took to change her garden forever! Everything began to thrive because it was watered more thoroughly and efficiently.

I’m excited to see how Candice’s garden does each year. The great (and sometimes frustrating) thing about gardening is that every year is different. It’s a lot like life, as Candice said “you get better every year, but still some things don’t do well and then there are surprises that do. You just never know.”

Photos by Kari Burks

I grew up with a modest vegetable garden along the side of our house. My mom would have me pick vegetables for nightly meals or for a rhubarb dessert. In the summer we'd visit the local farms, and there were many, picking fresh berries or buying from their stands.

What I took away from those experiences was a respect for where the food at the dinner table every night was coming from. I could identify with it, and I felt connected to it, especially when I had been to the source that it had come from.

One thing I hated about the apartment living I did for so many years was the lack of space to grow anything. I quickly learned how to grow herbs in a container successfully, even when there was limited sunlight on the covered deck, and I soon moved on to bigger things once I had a yard. But why? What is it that motivates me to get my hands dirty in my backyard?

1. Fresh always tastes better. A tomato that is still warm from the afternoon sun tastes exponentially better than one that was picked green ripened with ethylene to increase its shelf life.

2. Gardening is good exercise. Bending to weed and harvest, walking with buckets of water, it all takes energy. Gardening is exercise in my own backyard that I am not paying a monthly membership fee for and keeps me in shape, gets me outside and away from the computer.

3. I'm teaching my children. One of the most important reasons for me is sharing the knowledge of growing our own food with my children. I believe it's important for them to know that food starts as seeds that are cared for until they become edible. We even go as far as harvesting seeds from the fruits and vegetables to plant next season.

4. I know exactly where my food has been. In addition to shopping at the farmer's market and getting to know where the food I'm buying comes from, growing my own means I know exactly what is in the soil and on the vegetables.

5. Having fresh produce available leads to healthier eating. When all that's in your cupboard are prepackaged cookies, you're more likely to eat prepackaged cookies. When you have fresh produce growing in your backyard just waiting for you to pick it, you're more likely to make a meal from it.

6. Gardening is fun! My kids love to dig in the dirt. They are constantly putting holes in places I'd rather there be no holes. Embrace your inner child and start digging. Plus, when you're gardening, there's a reward at the end!

Why do you garden?

Photos by Shaina Olmanson

You could have told me, but I wouldn’t have believed you… No summer garden, just because I had a baby, in November?! Crazy. But true nonetheless.

This time last year I was five months pregnant picturing how life would be with an infant. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but somehow I’d manage to take care of the house, the husband, and the dog, prepare delicious fresh meals, tend the garden, blog and socialize all with baby attached to me, snuggled up in the Moby. Ha! The past 7 months with my son have not been quite as idyllic as I dreamed. Is it for anyone?! Even though “they” told me having a baby would change everything, I couldn’t fully comprehend how. I do now. Many of the things I enjoy doing most, like gardening and blogging, have taken a back seat to caring for the baby, the house (we’re moving next month) and adjusting to my new role as a mom.

So here we are in the midst of a beautiful summer, but am I picking beautiful fresh strawberries or anticipating the harvest of sweet corn right from my backyard? Noooo. Am I bitter? Honestly, no, I’m not. I can’t say I’m not disappointed. Mainly that I’m not one of those Super Mom types that seems to effortlessly find time to get everything done and look beautiful doing it. But this first year with my baby, however difficult, is so precious and brief, I really don’t mind.

Besides, not having a garden this year has given me the opportunity to garden vicariously through other local gardeners. I’ll get to do something else that I love to do - be nosey! I’m going to see what’s going in local gardens and farms and share that with you! I can find out their best tips, as well as their struggles - and maybe even score some heirloom seeds for next year, if I’m lucky ;)

If you are lucky (and live in San Diego County) I may feature your garden! If you have a vegetable garden and would like to be interviewed for a future post, join my Flickr group, Show What You Grow, and upload photos of your garden. We’ll select someone to be featured at the end of the summer.

Photo by Kari Burks

Hi Cascadian Farm fans! You overwhelmed us with such great questions last week! Jim is very busy this time of year, but he's going to take some time to answer a few of your questions each week for the next month.

Q: The first question came from Susan - who asked: "Does organic mean it's not GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms)?"

A: Yes! Certified organic means that GMO crops have not been used. The USDA organic standards board does not allow for any GMO crops to be used in organic agriculture. A farmer using GMO seeds would not be able to use the USDA certified organic seal.

Q: Alice said: "I need some suggestions on feeding your plants organically!!!"

A: Alice, we have a saying in organic farming "Feed the soil, so it can feed the plants." Conventional farming uses water soluble fertilizers which are quickly absorbed by the plants (almost like an IV drip of fertilizers).  Organic farming focuses on adding rich organic matter to the soil, so that the various microbes and chemical processes in the soil food web can convert them to available plant nutrients over time. Here are a few ways to add nutrients in the soil:

• Crop rotation: Don't plant the same plants in the same places every year. Different plants pull different nutrients from the soil - so changing up your plants will make sure you're not depleting the same nutrients over and over again.
• Cover crops and green manures can be grown in the soil as part of the rotation and/or in the winter to reduce erosion, and then tilled or dug into the soil about a week or two prior to planting.
• Compost: try saving your grass clippings, leaves, and organic waste in a compost pile. You can mix this in with your garden soil each spring to feed the soil food web.  Many municipalities are developing green waste composting programs that take lawn clippings and tree trimmings and turn them into garden compost.  Check out what is available in your area.
• Mulch: you could add a layer of mulch (at the farm, we cover our blueberry plants with sawdust!) to your garden each year. This will not only help prevent weeds, but last year's mulch, can decompose and feed the soil for this year's plants!  This works best with perennial plants.
• There are several organic blended fertilizers, both granular and liquid that can be used.  These are generally based on one or a variety of organic “waste” products like scraps from fish and poultry processing.  Check the internet and local resources to find what is available in your area.

Q: Michelle asked how she can keep weeds at bay in her organic garden, without using synthetic chemicals or herbicides. We got Jim on camera to answer this question:

Thanks for all of your questions! There are a lot of them, but Jim will do his best to share his insights with all of you as he has time.

In my last post I talked about creating a garden planting schedule for spring to help you keep track of when you can start sowing seeds for various vegetables. Although some seeds do best sown directly into the soil, many vegetables (especially those that are sensitive to cold or have a long growing season) benefit from being started indoors. Growing from seed not only gives you an early start, but you can order more varieties of veggies than you would be able to purchase locally as seedlings. Since starting a plant from seed may be new to some of you I thought a quick 101 course would be helpful. Here are the basics:

1. Purchase high quality seeds or if you’re using seeds from the previous year’s garden test them first.

2. Select the right container for planting. Peat pots or pellets (made of compressed peat) can be planted directly outdoors, which is great for plants with fragile roots. If you are using a terracotta or plastic pot, wash it thoroughly prior to planting. Plastic cell packs are very convenient when sowing a large amount of seeds.

3. Use an organic soilless seed-starting mix comprised of milled peat moss, vermiculite and perlite. Do not use a topsoil mix.

4. Label all seeds with date and variety. A tray beneath the containers is good for bottom watering and covering the seeds with clear plastic wrap aids in germination.

5. Provide adequate light. Set up grow lights (full spectrum fluorescents) directly above seeds to warm the soil and provide required light (raise lights higher as seedlings grow).

These are just five pointers; you can always ask your local nursery for more help getting started. For those readers with gardening experience, please comment and share your best tips for seed starting.

Related post: Veggies 101: How to start a Vegetable Garden

March is here and spring, my favorite season, is right around the corner. I have garden fever and am anxious to get my hands dirty again! I am starting to think about what I want to grow in my vegetable garden this year. I know the thought of gardening seems really far off to those of you still covered in snow, but you can actually start sowing seeds indoors for certain plants months before the last frost.

But how do you know which plants to start when? Or when you’ll be able to plant directly into the soil? If you’re like me, it’s a relatively new concept to actually plan these things and not just pick a random warm weekend to get started. Well, I found a great online Vegetable Garden Planting Calendar that takes the guess work out of planting. All you do is plug in the date of the last spring frost in your area and it gives you the start date for everything from onion and broccoli to tomatoes and corn.

So how do you know when the last frost is? You can get a good idea from this growing zone map on Burpee’s site which divides the country by average lowest winter temperature. These zones are used in many gardening guides and nurseries to let you know the right time for planting in your area. However, you need an actual date for your city to calculate your planting calendar, which I found here. Now all I have to do is decide what I’m going to grow and mark those date on my calendar. This y ear I want to try a few new things like cucumber and eggplant. What veggies are you going to grow in your garden this year?

Lately we hear a lot about “going green”, but living walls take the idea in a whole new direction, literally. Living walls or vertical gardens allow you to bring green where space is limited, either indoors or out. They are basically a framework of plants placed onto the side of a building or wall. Patrick Blanc, a French botanist and pioneer in the field vertical gardens, has created some truly amazing large scale installations and his website is a must-see. However, these walls can be small scale as well using flowers, succulents - even vegetables. Keep in mind that plants with shallow roots are best as they have an easier time staying attached to a vertical surface. If you are a do-it-yourself-er check out ELT Living Wall Systems list of plants that work well.

The living wall trend has recently caught on here in San Diego, where space is definitely a commodity. The wall above (photo by Scott Neubacher Caligure) was created by Tend Living a local company whose inspired owner; Britton Neubacher describes the walls as “living art”. Tend Living’s various “plant scapes”, including fantastic hanging “orbs” (modern terrariums in locally hand blown glass containers) have been displayed at Jett Gallery. They recently teamed up with Pigment to erect a 6’x8’ wall in their North Park location and are busy with many residential projects around town.

The living wall concept is really catching on. They really are gorgeous, not to mention beneficial, purifying the air by removing harmful toxins and adding humidity. The visual effect is amazing; it reminds me of an aerial, bird’s eye view of a rainforest. A smaller wall could easily replace framed art on the wall of any home. Succulents would be perfect in a modern setting; flowing plants or flowers would work well in a traditional home. I love the idea of bringing the outdoors in and can’t imagine a better way to do it.

Well Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but if you're like me and haven't started your holiday shopping I have four great gift ideas for the gardener in your life. The adorable "Eggling" designed by Jun Inui and available at the MoMa Store is a fun stocking stuffer for apartment dwellers or gardening newbies. The extra large egg, hand-made from white ceramic with a terracotta tray, comes with a seed packet of either basil or mint and is ready to grow in the peat mixture. The eggs are $9.50 each and make a cool modern design statement in a grouping of three.

Every gardener, expert green thumbs and novices alike, needs a reference book like this one from the American Horticultural Society's New Encyclopedia of Gardening Techniques (above). It contains thousands of illustrations, hundreds of color photos and covers a wealth of gardening techniques. It is an incredible resource and at $29 on Amazon, quite a deal.

For the gardener who has everything, these Bionic Gardening Gloves may be just the gadget. Although I love the feel of the dirt in my hands, when it's time for serious weeding you need a good pair of gloves. Designed by a hand surgeon, these leather gloves have breathable zones and cushioned areas to prevent calluses. They are $39 and available at Target.

Lastly, for the stylish gardener who wants to look good even when she's covered in dirt, there's the Orange Mum Garden Belt and matching Hat from Hable Construction. The utility belt features 3 big pockets and 4 loops to hang tools for $65. The wide brim hat made of cotton canvas has a raw edge and is currently on sale for $30! Any one of these gifts are sure to please the gardener in your life - happy shopping!