gardening

John Reinhardt is an urban planner, writer, photographer, and urban gardener. An avid cook, John is interested in the intersection of urban design, sustainability, and food systems planning. He currently resides in Washington DC and works for the American Planning Association. He currently writes Grown in the City, a blog about urban gardening and food systems planning.

So it’s June already.  If you’ve been following this feature on Thursdays, perhaps you’ve already built yourself self watering planters or planted an herb garden. If you started early, perhaps you’ve even been able to harvest early producers like lettuce, radishes, snow peas, or zucchini.  But now it’s June and it’s getting hot.  Very hot.  This week saw three scorchers and today is no different – and the summer is only beginning.  So it’s fitting that this column focuses on dealing with the heat.

Washington is known for its hot, muggy summers – but how does this influence your gardening?  For starters, it becomes more important to make sure that your plants have enough water.  When plants begin producing fruit, they become water hogs, (most fruits and vegetables are largely water). Since I water from the bottom using self-watering planters, I check for water levels once in the morning. For the past week, I’ve had to add about half a gallon to each planter, each day.  Keep in mind that smaller planters, such as the yogurt container herb planters, will require more frequent watering.

How else might the heat change your plans for a lush, productive garden?  When the temperature rises above 90 degrees, many plants do not tolerate it well.  A whole bunch of things can happen – lettuces, spinach, and herbs can bolt.   Zucchini can drop flowers (which several of mine did, much to my dismay), and tomato pollen can become infertile leading to dry, dead flowers that don’t bear any fruit.

The plants on my balcony are large, because my balcony often gets hotter than the ground temperatures from the reflected sun.  This was great in March and April, when my little seedlings needed the warm temperatures.  Now, it seems like the poor things are baking.  With a week of 90 degree temperatures, I’m a bit worried about a whole round of fruit will not set.  K-State has a great article with more information on “flower drop,” but here’s some quick tips for city dwellers.

1.      If you can, bring the containers inside or put them in the shade.  This doesn’t work for me, as I don’t have a sun room or screen porch.  However, I do have the luxury of moving some of the more heat-sensitive plants into the shade of the shelving unit I put out on my balcony.  The sensitive plants go right to the bottom, where they get the least sun.  The sun lovers, like the lettuce, go on the top shelves.  Because the plants that I keep on the shelving are in small containers, I can move them around if they need more or less sun.

2.      Choose drought tolerant varieties.  For example, Burpee, one of the large seed companies, sells “Heatwave” lettuce, which I am currently using on my balcony.  I sowed this variety a few weeks later than the “gourmet mix”, knowing that it would be hotter when the lettuce matured.  Some varieties of tomatoes and peppers love the heat, as do herbs such as rosemary and oregano, which grow in dry, warm Mediterranean climates.

3.      Pollinate before you have blossom drop, and pinch off any bolting!  If you get to plants such as tomatoes before the heat gets to them, you may be able to pollinate them by hand.  This website has some great information on pollination.  And if you’re growing lettuce, basil, or other leafy vegetable, be sure to pinch off any bolting (when a shoot sticks up and grows flowers).  The bolting of basil may be pretty, but it’s nature’s signal that the plant is in stress or the growing season is coming to a close, and the plant better make seeds to carry on its genes!  Smart, eh?  If you pinch of the stem, however, you can trick the plant into continuing to produce more edible leaves.

If you follow these tips, you can survive a hot DC summer.  Anyone else have any good tips for beating the heat?

John Reinhardt is an urban planner, writer, photographer, and urban gardener. An avid cook, John is interested in the intersection of urban design, sustainability, and food systems planning. He currently resides in Washington DC and works for the American Planning Association. He currently writes Grown in the City, a blog about urban gardening and food systems planning.

Guerrilla gardening is one of my favorite urban gardening topics, and something I am constantly learning all about.  According to some accounts, the term was coined by in the early 1970s by activist gardeners in New York City, but the practice of guerrilla gardening has been going on since recorded history – remember the story of Johnny Appleseed?  By its simplest definition, guerrilla gardening is gardening on land (public or private) that doesn’t belong to you.  Richard Reynolds, one of the most visible members of this movement, has a fantastic website about the topic at Guerrilla Gardening that I highly recommend.

Some people guerrilla garden for food, some to make a political statement, some to beautify an area, and others to make people smile.  There are many in Washington DC, if you keep your eyes open.  Some gardeners do their work anonymously, often at night, throwing seed bombs or planting flowers in tree wells.  Others actively care for their public gardens, encouraging others to tend to the garden and share the bounty.

The Dupont neighborhood has quite a few guerrilla gardens.  There is a sunflower garden in the planting strip on the northwest side of 16^th and P and in the past I’ve spotted one at 18^th and Church, in front of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church.  There’s also  a full-fledged vegetable, herb,  and flower garden cared for by two guys name Steve and Phil located right on the circle.

Once your eyes are open to guerrilla gardening, you can’t help but see places – everywhere – that could be transformed into edible or ornamental landscapes.

Week 3 of the Licking Creek Bend fall 2009 CSA share included Apples, Hot Peppers, Quince, Butternut Squash, Potatoes, Kohlrabi, and Ornamental Squash – plus greens

John Reinhardt is an urban planner, writer, photographer, and urban gardener. An avid cook, John is interested in the intersection of urban design, sustainability, and food systems planning. He currently resides in Washington DC and works for the American Planning Association. He currently writes Grown in the City, a blog about urban gardening and food systems planning.

So maybe you don’t have the time, space, or inclination to start your own urban garden, but still have the desire for fresh, high-quality local food.  And wouldn’t it be great to skip the lines at Giant, have your shopping for the week done in five minutes, and simultaneously support the local food systems economy?  There’s an option – Community Supported Agriculture.

From the USDA:

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a new idea in farming, one that has been gaining momentum since its introduction to the United States from Europe in the mid-1980s. The CSA concept originated in the 1960s in Switzerland and Japan, where consumers interested in safe food and farmers seeking stable markets for their crops joined together in economic partnerships.

In basic terms, CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes, either legally or spiritually, the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Typically, members or “share-holders” of the farm or garden pledge in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer’s salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm’s bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production. Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. By direct sales to community members, who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.

So where do you find a CSA?  Local Harvest has a fantastic website that provides information about different CSA models, and provides links directly to CSA’s in your area, based on your ZIP code.  I’m a member of Licking Creek Bend Farm, and help support the efforts of a great guy, Michael Tabor.  I get to chat with him each Saturday morning when I go pick up “my box” in Adams Morgan, at the market on 18^th and Columbia.  He gives me the inside info on which apples are the best, or how to prepare the kohlrabi that’s in the box.  This past week, they ran a farm tour for subscribers, and they do a Halloween pumpkin patch tour for kids.  As the USDA says, it’s like having a community farm next door, only your farmer neighbor lives in Pennsylvania.  It’s relatively inexpensive as well – each week I got a box of farm-fresh produce (and apple cider in the fall) for what amounted to about $40 a week.  I felt good knowing where my money was going, and where my food was coming from – a true local economy.

Continues after the jump. (more…)

John Reinhardt is an urban planner, writer, photographer, and urban gardener. An avid cook, John is interested in the intersection of urban design, sustainability, and food systems planning. He currently resides in Washington DC and works for the American Planning Association. He currently writes Grown in the City, a blog about urban gardening and food systems planning.

While many of us urban dwellers have dreams of a small peaceful acre out in the countryside where we can garden to our heart’s content, in reality, many of us are lucky to have a sunny windowsill in an English basement.

One of the easiest ways for curious urban gardeners with limited space to test the waters is with a small herb garden.  That said, there are some simple tips to avoid heartbreak and a windowsill of (unintentionally) dried herbs.

Continues after the jump. (more…)

John Reinhardt is an urban planner, writer, photographer, and urban gardener. An avid cook, John is interested in the intersection of urban design, sustainability, and food systems planning. He currently resides in Washington DC and works for the American Planning Association. He currently writes Grown in the City, a blog about urban gardening and food systems planning.

Gardening in the city can be a rewarding, yet challenging experience.  If you’re lucky enough to have a coveted spot in a community garden, hang on to it!  You can even try sharing backyards (a site I used to connect with some other urban planners who were interested in gardening).  The easiest way, however, is to start container gardening.

Last season I started with tomatoes and herbs out on my balcony in Columbia Heights.  The plants grew marvelously, until about August when I struggled to keep them alive in the DC heat.  I’d water once in the morning, once when I got home from work, and once again in the evening.  I still had trouble keeping up!

This season, I did some research and learned to make self-watering planters.  I made three sizes – an 18-gallon size that holds tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, peas, string beans, and some herbs.  I also constructed a smaller size, made our of recycled yogurt containers, that currently have basil, cilantro, sage, garlic chives, and common chives growing in them.  Finally, I constructed shoebox size containers to house flats of lettuce, radishes, and other similar vegetables that need to be started at different times throughout the season to ensure a long harvest.

I highly recommend the self-watering container method.  For under $20, I was able to construct an 18 gallon tub;  for next to nothing, I was able to use my recycled yogurt containers to grow herbs in.  For those who are in really sunny locations, or who travel for work, these self-watering containers are a must.

Check out the plans and photos at www.growninthecity.com