Sustainability - What Does That Mean To Average Home-Gardener

Dear Folks,

Sustainability is one of the top buzz words now, but what does that mean to the average home gardener.

A way to look at it would be as a simple, seasonal garden plan.  Let's say you want to garden in a container or a raised bed.  I get a lot of questions on container gardening so if I take you through a simple large-pot edible garden, all of the same principles will apply to an in-ground garden.  By-the-way the main reason I favor in-ground is the properly prepared soil gives running shoes to the roots, then can go as deep and healthy as they need.  Plus it is easier for the worms to do their tilling and amending activity in the ground.

So it is October and you get a large (at least 20 inches in diameter) pot.  You put drainage in the bottom.  You can use rocks or several inches of packing peanuts, then put wet paper toweling over them.  That keeps the soil mix from sifting through.

Make a mix of compost and "fluff" - I have recently begun using parboiled rice hulls, Suzanne Vilardi introduced me to and I love it.  It is natural, biodegradable and a good alternative to vermiculite which I have used for years.  I personally got away from perlite years ago because it separates from the soil and no longer works as the anti-compaction component it is supposed to be.  I generally use about 70% compost or superior soil and 30% of the 'fluff.'  Make sure your compost is perfectly rotted.  Hot compost will kill your first plantings.  Fill the pot to within 3 inches of the top and water it.  If it settles a lot add more mix until it reaches that level.

Think about the location for the pot - DO NOT plan on shading it - the whole point of a seasonal garden is to plant at the proper time for the season and sun is the friend not the enemy to edibles.  If you have a full sun location, positioning the plants and seeds won't be a problem.  If you have a location in a typical residential area, then you will need to consider that the tallest plants need to be on the North Side of the pot, to ensure all of the lowest growing plants get their share of the sun.

VERY IMPORTANT -- with any seasonal container garden it is necessary to make sure you plant at least 6 inches in from the sides.  This allows for the soil to act as an insulator to the roots for both cold and heat.

WATERING:  USE A moisture meter to know when to water.  Insert near the center of the pot, and water when 2-3 on the dry side.  Watering sequence will change as we get cooler and then warmer.  Skip next watering is you receive half an inch of rain or more, IF THE next watering cycle is within 3 days of the rain.

2 Pot Options:

1) perennial and Other herbs

2) veggies and other edibles


Perennial and Other Herbs

October - plant a rosemary and thyme plants, centered in the pot about 6 inches away from each other.  Seed in on four sides side 1) dill, Side 2) cilantro, Side 3) any type of pansy or violet, Side 4) 4 cloves of garlic spaced 3 inches a part (growing as green garlic)


--Green garlic harvested like scallions can be successively planted either by starting a new row 3 inches to the side of the first one OR by replacing each clove as you harvest. Usually the first ones are ready in about 6-8 weeks when the top growth is 8-10 inches tall.  You can continue successive planting of the garlic through early May.

December - seed in chamomile 'under' the canopy of the pansies.  The chamomile likes the cool weather and will be ready to harvest by the end of January, give or take.

February - see in basil under the canopy of the pansies and chamomile.   The basil will germinate as the soil is warmed by the spring sun (and IF WE do not have any killing frosts).

March - seed in chives and epazote under the cilantro.  The cilantro will begin to go to seed in March when the temps are in the consistent 80-90s.  Harvest the flowers for use in salads and soups, but allow some to go to seed and harvest, store and re-sow next fall.  Same with the dill, use flowers in salads but allow some to go to seed.  Use some seed for cooking and save some for harvest next fall.


--sow in Portulaca seed in and around the canopy of the rosemary and thyme.  This hot weather loving plant will eventually create a soil canopy keeping the surface cool during the summer.  It dies back in the cooling weather of the fall.

When the dill and cilantro plants are spent, cut at soil level (rather than pulling them and disturbing the rosemary and thyme roots. Toss on the compost pile.

April - pansies or violets may being starting into producing seed.  Harvest dried seed for re-sowing next fall.  When plants die back, crush and distribute powdered plant residue on the pot soil surface.

HARVESTING:  Harvest your herbs as needed, but do not harvest more than 1/3 of the plant at a time, to keep it growing.

Veggies and Other Edibles

October -- Transplant 1-2 bush or pole bean plants or sugar peas - create trellis for them to grow up and position the plants and trellis on the north side of the pot.  See other pot option for some additional sowing -- sow flowers in and around the beans or peas.  Sow calendula for additional petals for salads.  Transplant 2 lettuces, 2 arugula and 2 kale plants east to west in along the center line of the pot.  On the south side of the pot sow east to west:  short half row of short-season carrots and a short half row of radishes. 

--radishes are ready to harvest usually every 30 days, replant seed in hole.  If thinning seedlings, save for salads or rinse and store for making stock later.  Replant carrots as harvested.

--Greens are treated as cut and come again crops.  Harvest 1/3 when 6-8 inches tall and you should get 3-6 cuttings over the fall/winter.

-- green garlic can be planted along the inside 6 inches of the south side of the container and harvested and successive planted through May.

December -- plant strawberries if you have room, near the center of the pot.  Sow nasturtium seeds (nick each seed and soak overnight before planting - can be allowed to go up trellis or sprawl over sides of the pot.

--if you want to change our your root crops sow parsnips and turnips now.  Add 3 swiss chard seeds to one hole in the greens area (large growing leaves).  Re-seed any of the greens which may be spent.

January - sow seeds of tomatoes under canopy of flowers near center of pot (will germinate in warming soil IF WE do not have a hard frost) - when the seeds germinate, keep the seedlings covered with a plastic water bottle with the bottom cut off (cloche) and use the cap to expel excess heat and moisture during the day.  Use the cloche until all danger of frost is over.  IF the seeds do not germinate for whatever weather or other conditions, transplant 2 plants near the center of the pot when available and use cloche until frost danger is over.  Choose determinate varieties - you will not stake or cage these plants but let them sprawl.

February-April -- sow chive seeds along the south east side of the pot - in 6 inches.  Sow soybeans (through May) - they come mature for green edamame all at once on each bush, sow successively for continued crop.  You can change out or add as you have room for a few beets in the root-crop area.  Transplant 1-2 eggplant. tomatillo and/or pepper plants.  Transplant a basil plant among the tomatoes, eggplant or peppers  DO NOT plant both hot and sweet peppers in the same pot.  Sow in Portulaca seed in and around the center area of the pot.  This heat loving edible flower will sprawl and canopy the soil surface during the summer.

May -- transplant or sow 1-2 okra in at the north area where the beans / peas are/were.

August - under the canopy edge of the tomatoes, basil, etc. you can sow greens and cilantro seeds - OR you can allow the rest of the summer garden to finish production and re-do the pot in October with the same sequence as above.

Harvest dried seed from your edibles for re-sowing in their next season.

--harvest beans and peas as they reach an edible size. Allow some pods to dry for seed harvest for replanting next fall.  Replant sugar peas if they are spent in January.

--to fix the nitrogen in the soil from the beans and peas, allow the plants to die off before cutting at the soil level, toss in compost pile.

. . .

More On Sustainability

If you are not familiar with Joel Salatin, you should get to know him and his thoughts and experience as a 'grass farmer' who gets every bit of edible produce, meat and eggs from one of the healthiest farms anywhere and all without the use of un-natural 'stuff.'

Joel has a new book out - I have not read it yet, but I will.  There are a variety of videos on youtube with Joel discussing his passion for healthy and sustainable food.

Folks, This Ain't Normal!

Video on Joel and his book

Some of Joel's practices revolve around the concept of rotational animals and crops.  He will let the cows out into the pasture for a short browse. Then he brings out the chicken tractors where his flocks browse the pasture, eating bugs in the cow patties and spreading the manure around to properly continue the growth feed cycle.

He has his critics, but mostly from the factory-farm crowd and the over-the-top government regulators (whom many believe are controlled by the FFCs), who want to tell you what food you 'can't' produce or purchase.  His point in the new book (he has authored several) is that at no time in history has our food buying and eating habits been so disconnected from 'real'

If I were to personally make an analogy to what he is trying to get across - it would be the sci-fi explored concept of getting everything you need from a pill -- either "Soylent Green" style or just the idea that some people and a whole lot of food processors are trying to make food so modernly convenient that they want it all to come so amalgamated and condensed that no one could even tell where, or what, it came from.  That IS Scary, because we seem to be on the course, as more and more 'fresh' food is being customized to the specifications of not only large processors but also large chain stores, the only thing resembling real is that at one time the food might have been in the ground -- maybe.

I spoke to a soil analysis several years ago about a huge chain I won't name required a grower I won't name to create a specific fruit crop.  The guidelines by the chain to the grower were so specific that the grower refused additional soil analysis which would have made the soil healthier and create a better fruit because it was not required by the chain.

If chains can dictate not only what they want, but how healthy they do or do not want their purchases for the consumer to be, we are in deep do-do as my Deane puts it.

Other foods like "economy" cheese which is little more than food-grade plastic, touted as a source of calcium, because the mineral was added, but there is no protein content, are an outrageous fraud!

What it takes to get the attention of corporation non-health-type mandates is for the consumer to 1) be educated and 2) be vocal on what you want.  They eventually hear it, as the offerings of natural and organic options become more available.

But the consumer also has to be specific. If we do not accept false attempts to get consumers buying what is touted as natural (but is not when you read the label with chemical euphemisms for real ingredients)   The term "natural flavors" is coming more and more into question as what the flavor is actually made from may not be THE flavor it is touted as.

Whether you grow some of your own food (I hope you do) or you want to buy the best for you and your family, you NEED to educate yourself on what you are purchasing.

Do you want real food, or do you want a chemistry-produced euphemism of food?

Be nice to yourselves,


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

Container Gardening - Another Idea

Dear Folks,

When I did my recent poll/survey on what you want more information on 52% said "container gardening".  During the last couple of months I have been actively researching on variations of hydroponic gardening (including methods to include aquaponics).  All hydroponics is 'container gardening.'  Along the way I have found some truly ingenuous ideas for growing edibles in small spaces.  Most of the initial information I found was for the apartment/dense city dweller, like window farms made out of recycled 2 liter bottles.  That fits right in with my theme of growing a 'community garden' in an urban setting like an apartment complex or dormitory.  Several 'balcony farmers' get together and share the harvests.

After seeing the 2 liter vertical systems (see my post from June here ) I really felt that something like that was doable outside, but the challenge with 2 liter containers outside is it comes right up against the primary challenge facing those who want to garden, in containers, in the desert -- the heat impact on narrow or shallow containers.  So I went looking further.

The essential fact:  If you want to / choose to garden in small containers you have to limit your growing season to the less than 90 degree times of the year - that equals about October 1st to April 1st.  That is a nice growing season for all the cool weather plant options.  Outside of a green house you won't get basil or tomatoes for very long and only at the opposite ends of that calendar time frame.

So as soon as I made that decision for my hydroponic system search I discovered vertical systems made from 4 inch corrugated drain pipe.  I am purchasing the necessary components and will start blogging on the process over the next several weeks.

In the meantime, a lot of container garden questions are about 'grow boxes' and the limitations similar to what I discuss above.  Too narrow and too shallow for year-round growing.  I am always focused on how gardeners can take advantage of our year-round growing conditions to maximize harvest potential.  You can use the grow boxes in the same time frame mentioned above October through March

However, if you want to use the growbox type concept AND garden year round with it, I came across a site with some cool DIY ideas for building your own grow box, self watering and contained for balconys, patios or even indoors (keep in mind indoor gardens require additional light AND air circulation to be successful).



Insinde Urban Green

From this creative person is a neat way to build a container garden using perforated corrugated drain pipe, some form of a container (so you can choose a larger one more suitable to our heat impact) and some recycled bottles.  Viola - you have your own grow box.  NOTE: Important - for this kind of system you must use perforated CDP.  For the hydroponic system I am designing I have to use non-perforated.  Excellent photos to illustrate the concept.

And finally, a note about why I am going to do a hydroponic system - I'm running out of space :-) and I needed to go vertical with a system which I could automate to some extent.

More later

Have a great day!


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

Creative Container Garden Ideas in the Desert

 Dear Folks,

I just finished up a 3-part workshop preceded by an Edible Flower lecture and it is time for me to get back to serious work in the garden.  I have to harvest my garlic scapes and my new potatoes — I'm thinking a nice garlicky potato salad with a cold glass of green sun tea steeped with lemon verbena and spearmint, yum.


Back to different fun stuff in the garden.

As many of my long-time readers know I always suggest a very large container with a minimum suggestion of 2 ft wide, to maximize your success in the desert when gardening with pots

When you think pot think outside the pot for ideas for containers.  Here are two really cool ideas, one is a recycling gem of an idea, and the other one for those who may have some physical limitations.

What do you do with a 'dead' jacuzzi?

Well if you are a very creative person, you turn it into this fabulous container garden!

Hannelore G. has been a reader for years and asked me if she could make her no-longer-working Jacuzzi into a big container garden.  I asked her a couple of basic questions: sun access/orientation, could she drill holes in the bottom, could she reach the center from all sides (important so you don't have to get up and crawl over the garden to do weeding/maintenance in the center), and what did she want to grow?

I provided her with soil/drainage mixtures information, some suggested plantings for this season and look what she did with it. Awesome!  And her lovely blue door, gives a "Santa Fe" look to the whole visual appeal along with her added garden art work in the "container."

Now that is a container garden!

Next Up:  Discovery Point Retirement Community in East Mesa, is the site of this super "table garden" for residents.

Michon Jablonski and Cherie Scott, the Marketing Director and General Manager respectively, contacted me about participating in their Arbor Day celebration, but also their interest in finding a way to have a community garden for their residents.  I found plans for a table garden designed for those with physical challenges -- you can wheel right up to the table and garden, or stand comfortably -- and their Maintenance Manager, Dustin Beckstead and crew built this hell-for-stout version.  They had a planting celebration day and the garden was blessed, and off and growing!  http://www.discoverypointretirement.com/  480-559-8134

With the heat right around the corner (or tomorrow!), the selections of things to grow in pots or even in the ground gets reduced until August (which is the beginning of fall seeding in time).

I am going to do a whole blog on a variation of the three sisters garden, but here is one to give a try right now.  Sunflower, Edamame (soybean) and summer squash.

Soak the seeds for a few hours first before planting Normally I suggest soaking seeds overnight, but don't soak soybeans longer than 8 hours or they will start to ferment..  Arrange the sunflower seeds so they will be in the ‘back' or north part of the garden or pot — if you are feeling ambitious, you can put one of these pots or garden patches together each week through the first week in June — soybeans come ripe all at once on their bush, so this gives you several crops.  After planting the seeds cover the ground or soil with some dried leaves and watch for slugs — with our abundance of rain this year the slugs and snails have been out in force.  For additional visual attraction, sow impatient wallarana seeds or portulaca (moss rose) along with the Sunflower, et al.

SLUG/SNAIL TIP: Because the slugs were getting my early sunflowers and beans, I cut up paper towel cardboard tubes and toilet paper tubes into 1 inch circles and used them as "collars" around the new planted seeds and seedlings.  Nestle the collar into the soil.  The slugs and snails can't get to the plants.  The collar eventually collapses and deteriorates and you can remove it and toss it into the compost pile.

As mentioned, I will blog more about the three sisters, and in particular about sunflowers, because almost the whole plant is edible. More later :-)

GRILLING TIP: Make basting brushes from stiff herbs.  Rinse and tie woody stems together with cotton twine and bast away for added flavor to the grill.  Fruit Kababobs - try woody rosemary sprigs, soaked for an hour and thread with pineapple or other firm fruit, turn to get some grill marks on the fruit, but don't char.

And another free shipping offer from my publisher's site.  They are offering free shipping with a minimum purchase of 19.95 to any US address.  It is called the FREE summer shipping so it should be active for a while.  The special code appears on checkout, so you do not have to remember a code.  If you change your order so the amount before tax or whatever drops to less than 19.95, the free shipping is removed.  My page at the publisher site.  http://stores.lulu.com/herbs2u

Have a fun time in the garden, kitchen and at the grill!

-- Catherine, The Herb Lady