Garden Update: The Peas are Planted

Last Tuesday, we finally got the first of the peas in. It's not that we procrastinated. It's just that we had all that snow, then rain, so the soil was too wet to work. Then it took a while to prepare the bed, which had been rototilled back in November. In the photo you can see that one row is planted. I used two twigs and some twine to give us a straight line. Then we pulled the worked soil up from one side to form a long raised row. We had to rework the soil a bit by hand because there are still some root clumps from the tilled grass, and lots of rocks. With that chore done, it was easy to straighten the row,  pat down the sides and smooth the top. Then Michele and I started planting the Oregon Sugar Snap Snow Pea seeds we got from Burpee. These seeds look just like little peas (which they are), except that they are white-ish, rather than green, and are a little shriveled-looking. I made a small hole about 1 inch deep with my dibber, which is a clever, wooden tool you can see in the photo above. I bought that dibber in England many years ago when I took my mother on one of our tours of gardens there. Michele followed me and placed a pea in each hole. Then we filled the little holes with soil and patted the row down firmly.  This week, we'll plant another row of peas so that we have a succession of harvests. If we planted them all at once, then they would all ripen more or less at the same time. This way, the harvest will be stretched out over a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we're getting a lot of rain. I hope it isn't so heavy that is washed the seeds out.

Making Compost

When I was growing up, there was always a compost pile located somewhere at the back of the yard. My dad tossed on grass clippings, fall leaves (that were raked, not blown around by noisy machines...oh, wait, that's a post for another day), dead garden plants, over-ripe tomatoes, and other organic material from the garden beds. I don't remember kitchen garbage added to the pile, though I do recall seeing grapefruit halves, egg shells and coffee grinds in a neighbor's compost. Back then, in the semi-rural neighborhood of my elementary school years, everyone had big yards with vegetable gardens. And the refuse from those gardens was thrown on a pile. I don't know if most people called it compost, and I have no idea if the end-product -- that amazingly rich, decomposed organic gold - - was ever used by those neighbors.

Today, everyone seems to know at least a little about composting. When I did a Google search of "how to compost," more than 8 million matches appeared!  Well, here is number 8 million and one.

I'm a big advocate of composting. By composting garden and kitchen waste, we can divert all that matter from landfills, thereby reducing the amount of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide produced. Since organic matter mixed with trash accounts for about 40% of the stuff dumped in landfills, composting will prolong the life span of a landfill, reducing the need to truck refuse even greater distances to newer landfills. If that weren't enough of an upside, we have the end product...compost.

When decomposed organic matter is added to soil, it provides all kinds of nutrients and organisms essential for soil health. Compost will also improve soil texture and helps maintain a nice, "neutral" pH. And, over time, with a good, thick layer added every year, compost can reduce, or even eliminate the need to resort to environmentally-unfriendly fertilizers.

I compost in a heavy-duty bin made of recycled plastic similar to the one pictured here. We keep a small stainless steel compost pail next to the kitchen sink to collect the waste so that we don't have to trek out to the garden everytime we generate some garbage. In addition to kitchen waste, you can compost:

• leaves
• weeds (without seeds)
• grass clippings
• dryer lint (especially if most of the fabrics you dry in the dryer are natural fibers)
• shredded or ripped newspaper
• thin cardboard
• pine needles
• straw
• woodchips
• cornstalks (the more broken down the better
• manure from plant-eating animals

Never add grease, meat or fish scraps, dairy products, bones or dog or cat poop to the compost pile. And avoid adding diseased plants. In a future post, we'll look at tricks to maintaining a healthy compost pile.
Do you compost? What kind of bin do you use?

Clear the Air with House Plants

While many of us have been diligently adding insulation, caulking cracks and replacing weather stripping in our homes to prevent heat loss, a scary thing might be happening. Our homes might be at risk for Sick Building Syndrome.  According to an EPA fact sheet on the issue, "up to 30 percent of new and remodeled buildings worldwide may be the subject of excessive complaints related to indoor air quality (IAQ)."

This indoor pollution can be caused by poor ventilation systems, and the off gassing of volatile organic compunds (VOCs) found in paints, adhesives, cleaning agents, upholstery, carpets, building materials, solvents and other chemicals, as well as mold. People who work or live in a sick building may suffer with a variety of symptoms including headaches, eye, nose and throat irritation, dry cough, nausea, difficulty concentrating and sensitivity to odors.

Most of us probably don't live in sick buildings. But even if our homes are relatively healthy places, there may still be a few nasty contaminants lurking about.

You can avoid some of these pollutants by replacing paint, carpet and upholstery with new versions that don't have VOCs. That gets pricey. You might add an air filtration system to your HVAC units, another expensive route. And of course, you can always open your windows and let fresh air in, though that's not the most attractive option in the dead of winter.

You might also think about adding some house plants to your life. It turns out that ordinary house plants can clean all kinds of nasty toxins from the air inside your home.   The following list, compiled in a 1980s NASA study, reveals the top 19 plants for cleaning indoor air:

1. Philodendron scandens `oxycardium', heartleaf philodendron
2. Philodendron domesticum, elephant ear philodendron
3. Dracaena fragrans `Massangeana', cornstalk dracaena
4. Hedera helix, English ivy
5. Chlorophytum comosum, spider plant
6. Dracaena deremensis `Janet Craig', Janet Craig dracaena
7. Dracaena deremensis `Warneckii', Warneck dracaena
8. Ficus benjamina, weeping fig
9. Epipiremnum aureum, golden pothos
10. Spathiphyllum `Mauna Loa', peace lily
11. Philodendron selloum, selloum philodendron
12. Aglaonema modestum, Chinese evergreen
13. Chamaedorea sefritzii, bamboo or reed palm
14. Sansevieria trifasciata, snake plant
15. Dracaena marginata , red-edged dracaena

Some plants are better than others at removing specific compounds. For example, philodendrons and spider plants gobble up formaldehyde, while gerber daisies and chrysanthemums are known to go after benzene.

But you don't have to limit yourself to this list. Most plants will have some air cleaning capabilities. At the least they will absorb carbon dioxide from the air and replace it with oxygen.  The NASA study recommends one 6 inch plant per 100 sq. feet of space. So you might need 4 to 8 plants to keep the air in your family room healthy.

In future posts, we'll look at thrifty sources for house plants, and at techniques for making new plants from the ones you already have.

Looking at Leeks as Spring Garden Plans Continue

Last week I posted about ordering seeds for spring planting. The little packets have arrived with all the promise they have stored inside, but we're still weeks away from planting because of all the snow. It's not likely we'll get the snow peas in by St. Patrick's Day, and even the hardier lettuces won't germinate if the soil is still really cold. So while I wait, I've been thinking some of the other vegetables we plan to grow this summer. With so many vegetables to chose from, how do you narrow the list down to a number you can manage?

If your garden space is limited - we have about 400 square feet - you just can't grow everything you want to. So the strategy I usually suggest to would-be gardeners is to grow the vegetables that you like best, those that are the most expensive to buy or the hardest to find in stores or farmers' markets, and those that taste best when just picked.

Leeks always appear near the top of my list. While they aren't hard to find and the flavor isn't appreciably different if they are just harvested or if they've been shipped from somewhere, leeks tend to be expensive. Recently, we bought 3 good-sized leeks at the grocery store, and the tab came to $2.99. Basically a dollar per leek. That's pretty pricey.

We use leeks, especially in cold weather, to make home-made vegetable or chicken stock; potato leek soup; leek and cheddar quiche; and just last week for an incredible rustic shrimp bisque. I've also made frizzled leeks, and if you haven't tried them, you should.

Leeks are part of the Allium family, the same as onions, garlic, shallots and chives. 

I grew leeks from sets last year that were given to me by my friend Jenn of The Turnip Truck. The sets look like tiny scallions - not quite as big as a slim pen, and about 4 to 5 inches long.  Jenn gave me instructions for growing them: take a Sharpie pen, push it into the soil, pop a leek set into the hole, and water. That was it. The watering pushes the soil that has been displaced by the pen back up and around the tiny leek. You can help the process along and mound the soil up around the the baby plant. The higher the soil goes, the longer the white part of the leek will be (this is called blanching). Young leeks like to be well-watered but will tolerate less water as they get larger. They also do well if you've added lots of nice, rich compost to the soil before you plant them.

I was only moderately successful with the leeks last year. But excessive rain and aggressive weeds took a toll. The leeks I did harvest were delicious! This year I plan to grow about 100 leeks...store value about $100. That sounds like a lot of leeks, but remember, I'll be sharing the garden's bounty with 3 other families.  As soon as I know how much the sets cost, I'll let you know.

Growing Veggies in Small Spaces = Big Savings

When I wrote  The Potted Garden in 1997, I devoted a few pages to growing vegetables, and other edibles, in containers and other small spaces. In my newest book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegetable Gardening, I explore the concept of small space gardening even further. It's a topic that really intrigues me.

Our tiny, in-town back yard is too small and too shady for a typical vegetable garden, so for years I have grown tomatoes, kale, lettuce, spinach and herbs among the geraniums and other ornamentals in pots on the terrace.  It's easy, rewarding and inexpensive.

This morning, I was delighted to read a New York Times article about a program in San Jose that is helping families create organic vegetable gardens in their urban back yards. Organized by a Master Gardener, the program's volunteers have, so far, installed 30 raised-bed gardens, each with seedlings, new soil and a drip irrigation system, in low-income, mostly Latino neighborhoods where many residents are food pantry clients.  Each garden costs $210 to install. The program, called La Mesa Verde, also provides bi-lingual gardening classes and twice-a-year visits from volunteers to help the novice farmers master gardening techniques. La Mesa Verde plans to install a total of 100 gardens by spring.

The new gardens are producing onions, broccoli, peas, cilantro and more. One newly-minted gardener claims that the garden is saving her family $90 a month on their food budget. Since the climate in San Jose is suitable for nearly year-round gardening, that family may be saving close to $1000 on food a year. And they'll be eating fresh, organic foods that might not be accessible in their urban environment.

As the program grows, organizers and volunteers hope that gardening know-how will be passed along from parent to child and neighbor to friend. Small space organic vegetable gardening, while not a cure-all for the economy or the environment, is one of those little green and frugal steps just about anyone can take.

Do you garden in a small space? I'd like to know about it.