Organic Garden Patch
This time of year the garden should be in full swing, pouring out tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, melons of all sorts, eggplants, okra, corn and more. This all makes for an outrageous assortment of dishes, summer salads and lots of Asian, Greek and Italian dishes. We can make fresh, succulent and enzyme-rich dishes right out of the garden. Nothing tastes better or is better for you than this. You cannot buy that kind of freshness. Fresh cut oregano, marjoram or basil can be added to these dishes to enhance flavor to a culinary delight.
What's missing? “Fresh Greens” (lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, cilantro, green onions, bok choi, tatsol, celery). The micro climates for most of San Diego County are equal (except for the coast) with lots of over 100 degree days. These crops will wilt and dry up in the afternoon, even after a good morning's watering. The need for fresh greens is a year-round experience. None of us can go without chlorophyll and still keep a strong health profile. It is the health giver. How can we get the valuable minerals, vitamins and enzymes of these fresh greens in our bodies without going crazy?
The answer is shade. At least I didn't wait until next month to get that answer to you, but how do you achieve shade? This is simple. Take an average garden bed 3'x10' and create a structure out of PVC pipe. Simply cut 3 lengths of 1/2” pipe (thin wall) 10 feet long. Then take re-bar (2' long) or any type of thin metal and drive it into the ground on both sides of the bed, on each end and in the middle. The PVC pipe will slip over these and form an arch across the bed. With some fairly strong string, tie the pipes to each other to keep them a little more stable. Then go to a hardware store, garden supply center, or farm store and purchase some shade cloth (30% to 40% - 10' wide x 15' long). Simply drape this over the bed and “voila!” a shade garden.
The next thing to do is to put a couple of small micro sprinklers (full circle) in the middle of the bed, 5' apart, and you're ready to go. When winter comes, this same shade area can be covered with plastic to make a temporary greenhouse to keep out-of-season veggies going in the cold.
I do not think you can get nursery plants for any salad veggies this time of the year, so plant seeds. They will be up in a few days with the summer heat. Thin to 3” apart for lettuces and Asian greens and 20” for the cabbage family. It will only take a couple of weeks 'till lettuces and softer greens are ready for baby salad greens. Thin them to 10” apart for full-size lettuces. Apply a layer of mulch, (grass clippings, straw, etc.) and water every day in hot weather and every other day on the cooler days.
Whenever you are planting, always add a small amount of good quality and broad spectrum “organic” soil amendment to the garden bed. There are so many good resources available, and a variety is a good idea, so use any brand that is for sale at your garden supply center or nursery.
In future articles we will get deeper into the varieties of soil amendments that are good and available. Also, we'll suggest resources for supplies to grow cover crops and soil enhancers that will make your garden stronger and more vital as you grow and use it. The longer you have a garden the better it will produce and the more exciting the food will become as the soil improves with the good practices that you can do.
Jerry Weiss is the owner of Rocky Peak Farms in Fallbrook. 760-723-9424. Rocky Peak has been a CCOF and Demeter (bio-dynamically) certfied farm for more than 15 years. Send you gardneing questions to Jerry Weiss c/o The Light Connection.
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