Category — urban garden

This is definately one of the more interesting ideas I have stumbled upon: PlantBot!  The “bot” basically crawls around looking for the best sunlight for the plant, which is great for apartment dwellers who need to move their plants around to sunny locations frequently.  I am totally fascinated by PlantBot and would love to get one, but I have no idea if/where they are sold.  I am also curious as to whether or not PlantBot freaks animals out, so if anyone has eny experience with PlantBot, please let me know. 

After many small successes and a few major disappointments, I have decided to take on the container garden once again. The weather is beautiful and cool and I’d love to spend some time curled up on a hammock with a good book, but the ratty looking remnants of the container garden were totally ruining the ambiance.  So yesterday I uprooted the stragglers (sorry Swiss chard!), and re-potted some of my healthier plants and added a few new herb seedlings.  Even though the garden is much smaller and doesn’t currently have any fruit or vegetable plants, it looks much better.

I am a little disappointed that the experiment in growing edible plants didn’t go better, but hopefully this latest incarnation of the container garden will be a bit easier to manage and enjoy.  I will keep you posted!

Just a reminder: Tomorrow is Park(ing) Day LA, so be sure to check out the temporary green zones in your neighborhood!

Maybe Park(day) LA will help inspire some creative urban garden ideas!

If you are still a little hesitant about committing to a composter, check out this article from Eco Salon titled “30 Unexpected and Unusual Things You Can Still Put in the Compost“.  It is pretty eye-opening and a little disgusting.  Still, I guess it’s better to know what’s going into your compost than to be naive about it.   Happy composting!

One day I had the start of a very lovely patch of mixed lettuce plants. The next morning, I had a few stems of lettuce and one lonely leaf covered by a few small green caterpillar type creatures. Then my Swiss chard got attacked by the little buggers. And now the peas have some weird white spots on the leaves. Sigh. I feel like I am losing the war here.

I thought container plants were supposed to be more pest-resistant, but I guess I was wrong. I really want to avoid using chemical pesticides, but I don’t know what the best alternative is. Some natural pesticides seem like they’d be the perfect solution, but I want to do a little more research before I start spraying anything on plants I eventually want to eat. I also like the idea of companion planting as a natural alternative but I don’t have much space to introduce a lot of new plants at this point.

The other alternative is to let go of the dream of growing my own veggies in the heart of the city and get some great outdoor furniture so that we can enjoy the space and the cool air outside the apartment. I have gone back and forth on this many times, but I just can’t seem to commit to anything. There are hammocks and chaise lounges and cool double chairs that have a little umbrella table in the middle, and they all seem they’d be awesome for different reasons. I am just having such a hard time of letting go of that utopic vision of actual edible plants in my backyard.

I will most likely debate this more tonight as I plant some mint seedlings where the lettuce plants used to be, because I can’t bear the site of that big empty container. Sad days in the garden indeed.

My container garden is going wild with all the warm weather we have been having. The only problem is that I seem to have planted too many seeds. Here’s the situation: we bought seeds at various intervals throughout the years but never really had an opportunity to grow them so we froze them. Although they seemed alright, they’d been in the freezer for a while so I was pretty sure that not all the seeds would sprout. Boy, was I wrong.

I now have a TON of little Swiss chard, mint and dill plants, and I just noticed that I have several chili pepper plants sprouting as well. That’s in addition to more fully developed grape tomatoes, Anaheim chiles, carrots, cantaloupe, basil and mesclun lettuces. So now I am weighing the options for thinning out the sprouts.

I have sort of given up the vertical garden idea, just because I am nervous about everything falling over in an earthquake. Now I am considering some nice window box planter, since it seems like a great way to really enhance the look of our place as well. However, I am concerned that water used for the plants may somehow start to rot or warp the wooden siding, so I need to do more research into window box planters before I commit. I do love the way they look, though. Check this out:

I am totally in love with this idea: planters that hang vertically like art on walls. These “living wall planters” are a great way for city dwellers to maximize their garden space while adding a really cool design element to their homes. The best part is that they are available for less than $200.

I just spotted this on Laist: Residential composting may be the next phase in reducing landfill waste. That’s fantastic news, and I really hope the program is a success. It definitely provides another reason to think about getting a home composter. The city is providing 2-gallon composting bins to the initial 8,700 hundred homes participating in the project, but if you want a more stylish option, check out these compost bins:

Blue Planet Smart Compost Bins

Green Cone composter by Solarcone

Ceramic Compost Crocks

My container garden is improving rapidly. In addition to herbs like basil, mint and chamomile, we now have grape tomatoes (instead of cherry), swiss chard and hot banana peppers. I am also getting ready to plant a mesclun mix in one long container, and carrots, peas and cantaloupe in big pots this weekend. I thought that would be the end of my planting for a while, but I just found this article about no-dig gardening from the LA Times, so now I am reconsidering my options.

The advantage of a no-dig garden, in addition to not having to dig into the hard, sun-baked Southern California soil is that the method doesn’t require a lot of water because the layers of the no-dig garden retain moisture longer. It’s not a “waterless” garden; it just needs to be watered less often. It is also great for people who don’t have a lot of outdoor space. Plus, PIC has been totally gung-ho on the idea of getting a composter, so if we start a no-dig garden, at least we’d have an immediate use for the compost. My only concern is that if I commit to a no-dig garden, there won’t be enough space left over for even a chaise lounge. So I guess this weekend I’ll do some measuring and see if a no-dig garden can work into my dream of a garden oasis.

Here are some more no-dig gardening resources:

• No-Dig Vegetable Garden
• Bare Bones Gardening: No-Dig Potatoes
• Instructables: Easy organic garden any where - the NO DIG GARDEN
• Path to Freedom: Garden Tips and Tricks

The LA Times has a great article about a movement called guerrilla gardening. Basically, people stealthily plant neglected public areas for the purpose of making the environment more appealing for everyone. Guerrilla gardening movement proponents call it a “form of protest and direct action” and “urban ecological subversion“, but I call it good, clean (if not totally legal) fun. I wonder if there are Swiss Army-style garden tools that fit easily into pockets and are good for this kind of hit-and-tun gardening. I will have to do more research into that, but for now, some Guerilla Gardening links:

Inhabitat:Guerrilla Gardening: Strategies for Greening the Hood

Treehugger: Guerilla Gardening: Resistance is Fertile

Green Guerillas.org