I am not the gardener in my family. To keep my yard looking remotely presentable a team of people show up for one hour every Wednesday mornings and presto flowers. Attempting to grow food – other than my citrus trees – is monumental for me.
We live in one of the best growing climates in the world and I have a weekly gardener coming to tend to my yard, sprinklers to water it and NOTHING to show for it… ever.
This year I decided that it was time to try to grow some food. My mother is an avid gardener, as are both of my sister… I could do this.
The initial idea was to plant in an amongst my regular plants. That didn’t work out very well… turns out our team of expert gardeners is not very adept at steering around newly sowed seeds and the soil wasn’t very good.
Our Chosen Location
Not to be discouraged I pitched Dude on the idea of turning a thin sliver of our yard into a garden. By some miracle, not only did he agree – he also said “why not make it bigger”!
So I set to work – which in this case required a meeting with my gardener and we set a time to tear up a section of our yard, put in a drip watering system and import some compost. Now, after a few hiccups in the execution I have a lovely raised bed garden.
I’m still not sure we found the best soil. I searched high and low in Los Angeles for organic compost and ended up going with compost that is made from clippings from Griffith Park and zoo doo – yep exotic poo! The city calls it TOPGRO – they say it’s organic, it’s free for the taking and well tested to ensure that it is ready to be used.
In the LA area you can also get compost from the Green Recycling Center – 2649 Washington Street, Los Angeles. Fri/Sat/Sun from 9-3.
Once we got the compost in the fun started. My family had set up a rough plan for me that I tried to follow… and I’ve been trying to companion plant using this guide. There are many moments of confusion… will this lettuce really work in full sun, I need a taller plant that will work in the shade here… and so on.
The children are over the moon excited. I bought them each their own watering can to avoid the ongoing battles that would have come with one. I also faced an interesting dilemma at the garden store when purchasing a watering can of my own… Buy the plastic can that is made in the US or the Metal Can made in China? I opted for plastic – I think it will hold up much longer and not need replacing.
So far we have planted: Strawberries, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red & green peppers, butternut squash, melons, cucumber, snap peas, lettuces, spinach, basil, broccoli, leeks, basil, chives, beets, carrots and grapes! Still to come are parsley, oregano, zucchini, beans and baby pumpkin.
We did a couple other things to help create a natural good growing environment:
- Worms – The kids went crazy over the container of worms I bought to get my worm population started… never thought I’d use those words together in a sentence!
- Ladybugs – Apparently ladybugs eat aphids and other undesirable pests… We’ll see because I set at least a hundred of them free one night. Releasing them at night, they don’t fly away. Instead they look for food and will hang out and lay more eggs. We’ll see!
I’m still noticing that some critters are munching on my delicate fresh plants, so I need to determine what is doing the damage to find the right natural predator for the job. I’ve also planted nasturtiums throughout the garden to help.
The gardener got me up and running and I’m doing the planting myself. For the gardening purists this may seem wrong, but for this Diva I’m going to call it a happy starting point.
Once I get this plot going – I’m going to go through my landscaping and see where we can find places to add raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
{ 6 comments… add one }
I am so excited for you. The garden is looking great and I am so jealous that you will be able to grow year round. Its great the kids want to be involved too–they will especially love it when they get to pick and eat food straight from the garden.Congrats!!
Slugs and Snails – that’s what has been eating my garden at night (at least in the front). Last night we staged a commando raid. I’m not a fan of killing anything and I realize everything has a purpose in the ecosystem but these plants are getting expensive and as we replaced all of the border plants yesterday we were determined to protect them! My poor Chinese Magnolia had started to look terrified as whatever munched the border plants has started on the bottom but I just didn’t want to spray… so we watered a little about 5pm after getting the border finished… took showers, ate, relaxed in front of the tv and at 11PM went out with a flashlight, a bucket and my fearless Hubs. I pointed and he plucked and um.. eradicated. No salt or bleach. (common things I have read that cause extra suffering). Just a quick one/two. We may have to do this a few times to completely clear them up. As far as the grasshoppers in my bougainvillea or what is terrorizing my Avocado?? That’s another day!good luck Tania!
Yes… plucking snails and slugs is meant to be pretty effective. There are also burrowing snails that eat other slugs and snails… they are about $14 a container at our OSH. Might be worth the investment.
I have some black spots on my tomatoes – not sure what it is… or how to fix it. Will google!
What a wonderful garden!
Beautiful garden but I don’t actually have a gardener to come build one for me. Hope for a more hands on walkthru sometime. But to start, where’d you purchase the worms and ladybugs to battle for you?
Hi Candida,
Sorry for the late response. I found the worms and ladybugs ate my local OSH store! I’ve also seen them at a few other nurseries. Make sure you release the ladybugs in the dusk or night – or they will fly away during the day. Released at night they go in search of food and then settle in!
I am so grateful that we were able to hire someone to get me started. I never would have tackled it on my own. For many people this might be an option… once the initial design and set up is done… the work is far less strenuous.