Our class on compost was very informative today – Glen Andresen from Metro’s Natural Gardening program, was here to talk about how to make your own compost, and how to use it.  The primary benefits of compost are:

• improves the quality of clay or sandy soil
• reduces water and fertilizer needs
• retains moisture in the soil
• increases aeration – which is essential for beneficial microbes
• increases heat absorption
• decreases potential erosion problems
• helps prevent soil compaction

Successful composting:

• Ideally, try for a ratio of one part green stuff (fresh grass clippings, green leaves, hedge trimmings, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, or horse, cow, or poultry manures) to two parts brown stuff ( woody prunings, dried leaves and twigs, straw, wood chips, old potting soil, shredded newspaper, pine needles, nut shells)
• To speed things up, chop it up.   The more surface area there is, the easier time the microorganisms have eating it up.  Use a chipper/shredder on woody stuff, if possible; run the lawn mower over trimmings or dry leaves to break up.
• Size matters - in order to trap heat in the middle, an ideal size for your compost pile or bin is 3 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot.  Any size will work, of course, but it might take a little longer.
• The pile needs air and water - these are living organisms in your pile, so make sure they have fresh air occasionally (turn the pile, or use a tool to bring stuff up from the bottom and churn it around) and a bit of water.  It should feel damp but not wet.  Pounding rain and scorching heat can really affect your pile, so monitor it for moisture, and cover it or sprinkle it if needed.
• Not everything is compost-pile worthy – do not put these into your compost bin:  meat or fish parts; dairy products; bread or grain; grease or cooking oil; diseased plants; weeds with seed heads; invasive weeds such as morning glory; pet wastes.

I hadn’t thought about this before, but Gle says compost has a shelf life.  Since it is so full of live microorganisms, you should not let it sit around once it is done.  It should be spread around your garden – just a small top-dressing around fruit trees, berries, vegetable beds, or ornamentals will do them great good.  It is also a great amendment to your lawn, feeding it slowly over time.

So, no excuses now – get composting!

I’ve already mentioned Glen Andresen’s class this coming Saturday, but it bears repeating.  Good gardening is ALL ABOUT THE SOIL, and there is no finer soil amendment than compost.  If you have a corner where you can put a compost bin, or create a compost structure of your own, believe me, you won’t regret it.   Glen (from Metro’s Natural Gardening program) will share all you’ll need to know to make your own compost, and he should know:  his home garden is quite remarkable – full of edibles of every type as well as compost bins in varying levels of readiness.

For anyone serious about sustainability, living ‘green’ and natural, this class is a must.  A few spaces still remain, and remember we ask you to call to register for our classes:  503-649-4568.

Composting 101  ~  Saturday, June 20th,  1 pm, free class

I was pleased to see the front page article this morning in the Oregonian about composting kitchen waste.  Many of us fail to take the time to collect and deposit our kitchen waste onto our compost piles, using our outdoor bins mainly for yard debris.  But as we know, we cannot put kitchen waste into our yard debris cans for weekly pick up - they are composted using different methods – and so kitchen waste heads for the landfill. 

I encourage you to read today’s article on the benefits of composting for our environment, and then to consider attending our upcoming class.  We’ll have Glen Andresen, Metro’s Natural Gardening Specialist here on Saturday, June 20th, to talk about “Composting 101.”  I have toured Glen’s home garden, and I must say, he’s the real deal.  Over the years, he has developed a sustainable system that works for him — his entire urban lot is devoted to edible gardening – fruit trees, raised beds filled with annual and perennial vegetables, bees, and several compost bins.  Glen will walk us through the easy steps in converting our kitchen and yard waste into a nutrient-rich amendment for our gardens.  And, if  you can’t wait for our class, read all of  Metro’s tips on composting at  http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=553.

We sell Metro’s Earth Machine compost bins here at Farmington Gardens for $49.99, so if you don’t feel like driving out to Swan Island to pick one up, you can get them here.  This is the year to adopt some good habits, both for ourselves and for the planet!

p.s.  Please call us to register for this class – 503-649-4568.

We had a great class here this morning lead by Carl Grimm, Natural Gardening Specialist at Metro – he had terrific advice about gardening in a natural, sustainable way, working WITH nature rather than trying to coerce it to do our bidding.  He had suggestions for ways to minimize the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and had concrete reasons why we should care which course we chose.  We have leftover brochures from Metro if you are interested in these topics – feel free to ask for one the next time you are here.

We had hoped Carl would spend more time discussing how to incorporate edibles into existing landscapes, but since many of the class questions centered on the basics of organic gardening, we didn’t get there in much depth.  Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE that folks want to truly understand and embrace organic gardening!  But I thought I’d try to fill in the gap with a few suggestions for ways you might think about incorporating edibles into your landscape, if that is one of your goals this year.  Here are a few ideas to consider:

• Think about reducing the size of your lawn.  Oftentimes, the lawn is in the sunniest part of the yard, and this is prime real estate for vegetables and fruits!  Carl touched on this topic briefly in his description of how to put a raised bed over existing lawn.   Lay several layers of cardboard down directly on the lawn, and fill your raised bed box with a good planting mix with lots of compost.  This should effectively kill the lawn underneath, while still allowing proper drainage for your raised bed.
• Consider a container garden for some of your edibles.  Small trees such as columnar apple trees or fig trees, can do very well in a large decorative container on your sunny deck.  Others to consider:  herbs, lettuces in a large bowl, and even tomatoes in a large container.  Remember the mature size of the root ball of your plant and choose a container accordingly.  For instance, tomatoes should go into at least a 15 gallon pot.  Another thing to remember with containers:  they are completely dependent on you for water and nutrients, and therefore need more of both than an in-ground garden. 
• Horizontally-pruned espaliered fruit trees can provide a beautiful decorative fencing between areas of the garden, or along a fence or wall.  And as a bonus, you get fruit!  We even have espaliered trees that have a variety of apples on one tree – you don’t get a lot of harvest of any one kind, but you get a very nice assortment over a longer period of time.
• Think outside the box when it comes to how to train grapes.  Conventionally pruned grapes didn’t work in my garden – took too much space – and so we trained our grape vine along a sunny back wall of our garage,  high over our heads.  We used large decorative wrought iron hooks on which the vine rests. It doesn’t block our walkway, gets plenty of sunshine up there, and we get a huge harvest.  Downside: we need a ladder to pick them, but we don’t mind!
• Think about substituting edible shrubs for some of your ornamental shrubs.  Blueberries, for example, are great in a mixed border.  They are beautiful all year long:  beautiful blooms in the spring which attract beneficial insects; gorgeous blue fruit throughout the summer months; and brilliant red foliage in the fall.  I think even the bare branches are attractive in my beds throughout the winter.  Evergreen huckleberry is also a great addition to a mixed border, and it provides much-needed filler during the winter.  Other good options:  Elderberry or Jostaberry currant.
• Think about replacing the typical hanging basket of geraniums or other annuals in that sunny spot, with a pot of strawberries, or cherry tomatoes, or herbs. 
• There are excellent options with small trees too — replace some of your ornamental small trees with great dwarf fruiting trees.  The columnar apple trees are extremely narrow, and would provide a nice vertical element in a border, as well as fruit.  (fyi: we just planted a couple of columnar apples in our demonstration vegetable garden for just that purpose – check it out as the season progresses to see how it looks).
• Think about growing vertically whenever possible – you reduce the plant’s footprint, making it possible to grow more intensively.  Something as simple as a rustic tee-pee of bamboo or grapevine trimmings can provide structure for beans, small squash, or cucumbers to climb upon.  It also creates a great focal point in the garden.
• Many of the vegetable plants are beautiful.  Bright Lights Swiss Chard has brilliant, multi-colored stems of reds, oranges, and yellows – the colors really pop in the garden.  They can be used as you would any tall annual.  You will harvest them repeatedly until frost, and then more sporadically through the winter.  Frilly kales are a beautiful textural addition to the ornamental garden, as well as being tasty and nutritious.   Eggplant, with its dark purple, shiny fruits, are another elegant addition to a flowerbed.  Artichoke (and its similar cousin Cardoon) provide delicious eating as well as beautiful silvery arching fronds in your flowerbed.  Don’t be afraid to incorporate veggies with your flowers – please just give them the room they require.  If they are too crowded, they will be more susceptible to disease and will have reduced harvests.

I hope this gives you some ideas for ways to incorporate edibles into your garden.  Think creatively, and try tucking your favorites into your landscape.  Mixing edibles and ornamentals is really fun and easy and creates such an interesting garden.  Just remember to put the right plant in the right place — those that require lots of sun will not thrive under a shade tree!

I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep this up, with the list getting longer and longer!  But since you gardeners are so eager to know what’s available for your vegetable gardens, I will do my best to keep you updated.  Remember, now is a great time to be prepping your garden (adding a layer of compost, weeding etc.), but for the most part you should only be planting out things that can tolerate the cold soil.  This means you should wait to plant out things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, melons, cucumbers, squash, beans — all of these like WARM soil.  Now, if you are able to provide warm soil, with a greenhouse or season extenders like cold frames, walls-o-water,  cloches and the like – then feel free to go to it.

Now that I have put the disclaimers out there, let me tell you that the first tomatoes are here!  Yes, we have 8 varieties in 4″ sizes at $1.49 – Oregon Spring, Brandywine, Beefsteak, Big Beef, Roma, Celebrity, Early Girl, and Sun Gold.  These are all great tomatoes for different reasons:  Oregon Spring and Early Girl are early ripeners; Celebrity has great yields and is a favorite with home canners; Brandywine is a classic favorite heirloom with great flavor; Roma is the favorite sauce tomato – low in joice and high in pulp; Beefsteak and Big Beef are both larger sized tomatoes with great flavor and yields; and of course Sun Gold is the hands-down winner of several of our Tomato Fest tastings.  It is a sunny yellow cherry tomato with a sweet fruity taste – kids love it.

Everything else we have is good to go now in the early garden.  These will all tolerate cool soil and spring temperatures.  We’ve got rhubarb starts, horseradish, asparagus, strawberries (bareroot and in pots), artichokes, onions, cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, pea starts, Swiss chard, collards, beets,  spinach, celery and lots of lettuces.

And another reminder about Carl Grimm’s class here on Saturday:  Carl is a Natural Gardening Specialst with Metro, and will be talking here at 10 AM.  He will have lots of information on how to garden sustainably and organically, and especially how to incorporate beautiful edible plants into your landscaping.  If you don’t want to designate a section of your garden for edibles, or don’t like the aesthetics of a vegetable garden, there are certainly ways to grow some of your own food anyway.  Carl will have suggestions for how to do it!  Class is free, call us to register:  503-649-4568.

Landscaping With Edible Ornamentals

Carl Grimm, Metro’s Natural Gardening Specialist, on “Landscaping with Organic Edibles.” Carl combines edible, ornamental and native landscaping tips to help home gardeners kick the chemical habit in style. Learn the essentials to organic gardening, as well as new ideas for bringing beauty to the veggie bed and food to the flower border – what a great concept!   Call to register for this free class, 503-649-4568.