Gardening On A Postage Stamp Lot
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I lived in a two story end-unit townhouse, which faces southwest. The back yard
faced northeast and is about 10x20 FEET. The sun had to rise almost until noon for a four hour
period of direct sunlight. Not exactly perfect for gardening purposes, but reasonably ok
when you see my results. By using Mylar sheeting on the ground under light-loving
plants like cucumber and by carefully placing vertical reflectors around the garden
, I've been able to meet their light needs. You might even say I mulch with Mylar, as I lay it down
in sheets and stake it down, with an ample opening for the plant and rain water.
Aluminum sheets nailed to wood stakes also work quite well as vertical reflectors, moving light
from unused areas back into the garden.
NOTE FOR 2001: I have now bought a new townhouse, with even less land to work with. I view this
as a challenge, and I think my former techniques are up to it.
2003 is here, and I am preparing the ground. I am growing tomatoes,
pole beans, cucumbers, chard and lettuce. I have painted the
metal shed white where it faces the garden, for more light. Last
year I used black plastic instead of mulch, but I am returning to
mulch this year. Also, I will be adhering more strictly to the
square-foot method. I've been getting fast and loose about that in
the last 3 years.
I will be gardening further from the fence, which I may replace
before the summer is out.
I use two different fertilizers, K-Mart's GroBest 15-30-15 (Miracle Grow copy) and
Bloom 10-60-10 for rooting. If you want to stick to one fertilizer I would purchase
Bloom. It is much safer for the plants and has produced uniformly excellent results.
I foliar-feed my plants by spraying the leaves with Bloom solution from a spray bottle.
This is the only regular work I do after planting. I used manure to condition the
soil in my cucumber trench, but otherwise fertilize chemically.
I use the mulching method prescribed by
Ruth Stout in her various books ("How to have a Green Thumb w/out an Aching Back", etc.)
and have reduced the amount of weeding to nearly nothing. My property doesn't produce enough waste for a good compost heap, but I do set aside
fallen leaves and grass clippings for later use as mulch. I have found it easier to smother
weeds with mulch than to pull them after they have become firmly rooted. Also, by the time they
have grown an inch or two they may have already begun choking off other plants. So it is best
to cut the problem off at the source.Most of my mulch is straight pine bark, the cheap stuff.
I'm really happy about how sucessful I was in
my anaerobic composting experiment. I placed everything that had seeds or roots in it (weeds, rotten fruit,
rotten tomatoes, dead plants) into a contractor-cleanup grade black plastic bag. This type of bag is
similar to the usual trash bag, but has very thick plastic. I poured water into the mixture and
sealed it shut. It smelled like hell but I was able to work it into the soil. I believe it was nutritious, but with the total lack of rain this year, who knows. It's a better kind of composting, in my view, since it is more predictable and takes NO work.
I start my plants when possible indoors, with Jiffy peat pellets.
I have been able to do just as well as a garden center would, and it adds to my enjoyment, knowing that I lead the plants through
their entire life cycle. A Jiffy greenhouse (a plastic box with a transparent top) keeps watering
to a minimum. Place the greenhouse in a south-facing window and water carefully.
My father decided to do the same and had great results, even with a
Swiss Chard plant that wasn't recommended for early indoor starting! (I'm mixing Swiss Chard
in with my lettuce, but only half a dozen- they are VERY productive!). The peat pots allow roots to grow
through them, eliminating planting shock. I prefer climbing plants
such as pole beans and cucumber since harvesting is so convenient. This probably explains why I have
stayed away from planting vegetables one has to dig up to eat.
Claiming growing space from the lawn requires edging material, which comes in many forms. I use old-fashioned metal edging made from corrugated, galvanized
steel. Not fashionable, but easy to work with. Rubber or plastic edging is harder to work with as
it has a tendency to revert to its original shape. Part of my garden was edged by the previous
owners with wood rail ties. This is great-looking but hard to install, and I know I'm going to return the new growing space to lawn before I sell.
With the steel edging I was able to accomodate the unusual shapes and curves
of the arable areas of my tiny back yard. My only complaint about steel is that
it tends to disappear over the course of the year. My solution is to use a pair of dollar-store pliers (the kind that
are too poorly made for any real work) to pull it up section by section every spring. Steel edging
may not be available in your garden/hardware store. I could only find it in a second-hand store. Fortunately
I obtained a sizable unused roll. This is the kind of thing many people might have somewhere in the garage.
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