Gayla’s Gardens

July 11, 2006

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Growing More-erer Food

Because I am afflicted with the disease commonly known as “Can’t-Walk-Past-Plants, Most-Especially-Plants-on-Sale”-itis and because an entire kitchen garden that was non-existent a few days ago doesn’t seem to be enough today; I done went and bought me some pathetic-looking transplants. But wait, they were only fifty cents! Except the tuberous begonia — that was two bucks.

It went like something like this: I was walking past the Loblaws (Canadian supermarket chain) where I was lured by a sign hanging over the garden centre stating, “The Sales Have Begun!”, to which my mind responded, “I may be able to squeeze a few more plants in. This is last, last call. I can’t NOT see what they have. And I need more soil amender.”

In fact we’re so far into summer that this week is sort-of like last call in a city like Montreal where the bars stay open late followed by another round at a skeezy after hours bar where libations are surreptitiously purchased from some dude sitting on one side of the room and mixers are purchased legally from a station marked “Canteen” on the other side. And to be honest grubby is kind of how I felt buying fifty cent hybrid peppers from the garden centre of a popular chain supermarket when the remaining 99 percent of my plants are homegrown heirlooms or purchased from small, organic growers. But when that last call panic sets in I can be swayed to the dark side by just about any sad looking thing with a sale tag. Plus I am going to save these plants from the dumpster and grow more food! Right?

Here’s what I got:

Tuberous Begonia – I could have cared less about tuberous begonias until I learned that the petals of hybrid varieties have a sour, acidic taste that makes a juicy substitute for lemons. Now I’m a champion for tuberous begonias everywhere. I chose a variety with golden orange flowers.
Sweet Pepper ‘Orange Grande’ – This one had a fair-sized pepper on it. When buying sale plants try to avoid plants with flowers and fruit since the stress of living in a tiny pot results in plants that have put all of their resources into reproducing. I chose mine because it had the healthiest, lushest looking leaves of the bunch. The pots were fair-sized making peppers a good choice regardless. Peppers aren’t heavy feeders and can take a bit of abuse. Tomatoes on the other hand were just plain done. I had to pull myself away knowing that nothing was going to save them now.
Sweet Pepper ‘Sweetspot’ – Okay, how could I not buy a variety called ‘Sweetspot’? I am immature.
Zucchini ‘Goldrush’ – It didn’t look any worse than the plant I just transplanted from my shady plot so why not?
Columnar Basil and Genovese Basil – One can never grow enough basil. I am convinced this is true.

I picked the pepper off as soon as I got it home. Part of the strategy behind Project Save the Hybrids is to get them on the road to producing healthy leaves and establishing roots. Allowing the pepper to continue forming would be diverting energy into the wrong place.

And yes I did purchase bags of soil amender; mushroom compost to be exact. Unfortunately it was not on sale.

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July 9, 2006

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Project “Grow More Food”

It’s time for me to face the cold, hard truth; my plot at The Parkdale Community Beer Garden is officially crap for growing veggies. With every new year I have found that while my soil continues to improve, the light on my tiny plot has been slowly declining. A couple of overhead trees have been growing larger and lusher turning what was a garden on the cusp of partial sun to a garden that is definitely partial if not pretty much (look I’m not yet willing to go there yet) shade.

Partial, sorta, almost, maybe, probably, SHADE.

I finally emerged from the safe and comforting bosom of denial this week to admit that I wasn’t going to get much of a yield this year. The zucchini growing in the plot is a fraction of the size of the plant that is not only flourishing but currently producing fruit in a container on my rooftop. Same goes for the lemon cucumber. Don’t even ask me about the peppers, all of which were positioned in the absolute brightest part of the garden. Even the greens are spindly, pathetic versions of their true selves. I had such excitement for the ‘Romanesco’ broccoli! My beautiful ‘Armenian’ cucumber seedlings seemed to be absorbed by the soil. I have had to face and accept what I have probably advised gardeners about a thousand times over this year alone: know your conditions and grow plants that suit it. Don’t fight nature. Most edibles just don’t do well in shady spots. Grow a woodland garden and get over it. Or a boatload of mint and sorrel. Actually the nasturtiums appear to be kicking major ass and I’ve got enough oregano to keep myself and everyone I know in organic, dried oregano well into middle age.

And there is another up side here. While I was coming to terms with my dilemma I noticed that my neighboring plot — the large one, with the best sun exposure — had gone untouched this year and was quickly becoming a borage, calendula, cilantro, and assorted weeds factory.

The other day I was riding my bike past one of my favorite vegetable gardens and noticed that the usually overflowing yard was empty. And just like that I rode past the next day and discovered the gardener in the yard planting tomatoes. I thought to stop and chat but was instead struck with the idea to plant the abandoned plot. Sure it’s late for tomatoes but I had a few in containers that I had been saving for something else and they were larger than transplant size so it why not take a chance?

I pulled out and dug up the roots of everything you see in the foreground.

My plan of attack was simple: remove all weeds, keep calendula, cilantro, and SOME of the borage (I also discovered garlic chives in there), amend soil (ongoing as my compost reserve was limited), transfer the most hard-up plants from my plot, plant some seeds, and do the whole thing without spending any money.

Stage one of the transformation took most of Saturday. I set out with my favorite cultivating tool removing the weeds that had grown more than knee-high. The sun was brutally hot reminding me for the umpteenth time why this kind of gardening work is done in the spring on an overcast day! But the blaring heat was also a reminder of why this plot is so much better than mine. Sun and heat loving tomatoes, and peppers will thrive here! I will have my ‘Romanesco’ broccoli! There is still hope for the zucchini. I’d be so sick of beans between the plants happily growing on my rooftop and the beans I planned to plant that I’d be having green bean-related nightmares come September.

I required a staking system for my tomatoes but didn’t want to do single stakes like I’d be doing in my smaller plot. It was fine in a plot where the sunny side was at a premium, but I hated the Vlad the Impaler look all those stakes created. Plus I found it annoying if not kind of creepy that every photo of me in the garden looks like I’ve got a stake protruding from the top of my head. It reminds me of that scene in “The Exorcist” where the priest sees a picture of himself with a line through his neck. I liked the idea of adding some height to the garden but didn’t want to spend money purchasing new bamboo stakes when I already had perfectly good (but thick) stakes kicking around. My solution was to set the stakes up like I had planned to do with bamboo but they were too thick to tie, and I didn’t have any tools available for building. As a solution I McGyvered a broken tomato cage over the stakes to keep them in place and braided the top wires together to prevent poking someone’s eye out. It’s not the most attractive “garden architecture” I’ve seen but it’s solid. I sowed assorted ornamental lettuce seed at the base of each tomato plant for added appeal.

It’s hard to see in the pictures but I did remove a hefty batch of borage. I’m allergic to the prickly plant so while I enjoy it’s beauty and the cucumbery flavored flowers, I’d rather use that real estate for peas and peppers. I did manage to transplant everything from the other plot that was faltering, amended the soil, sowed quinoa, shungiku, edamame, bush beans, peas, and assorted greens. I have plans to add basil and onions but I had done as much as I could take in one day.

My upper thighs and arms are killing today proving once again why gardening literally kicks ass.

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June 20, 2006

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Feed Them to the Squirrels

Gardening is all about experimentation and adaptability. You can try and lock down a “method” but nature has its own ideas. Every gardening season is different for one reason or another. Often times it’s large and subtle differences in the weather. Some years it’s a freak plague of aphids from the sky, a raccoon that has decided to obliterate the corn, or like this year, a family of baby squirrels.

About a month ago we discovered baby squirrels nesting underneath the roof of our building. My first reaction was “aww cute” followed by the realization that I was going to be providing the cuteness with their own personal cafeteria! I get the odd squirrels visitor every spring and over time I’ve learned to deal with their ways. They are generally most interested in digging in the fresh soil, likely looking for that peanut they buried last fall (I did in fact find a whole peanut this year). I put homemade water bottle cloches on the young seedlings and chicken wire cloches over larger plants to prevent digging damage and the occasional nibble. Both barriers work well and stave off a lot of potential damage. By the time the plants have grown too large for the cloches, the squirrels have moved on. While they often come back in the late summer to take bites out of the tomatoes, the number lost to the squirrels is minimal. A certain amount of crop loss to critters is an accepted part of sharing space with living beings.

I suppose this year isn’t any different, it’s just that I’m feeding a family of squirrels instead of one rogue squirrel so the damage is greater. And since this group have clearly found Eden, they aren’t planning on leaving anytime soon. Their tastes are so bizarre and varied I can’t predict which plants to protect and which to leave. They have no interest in the lettuce but have chewed off all the flowers in my succulent window box. They can’t be bothered with basil, but ate an entire eggplant (my ‘Turkish Orange’ no less!) seedling and a pepper plant.

I started two types of peas back in April: a snow variety with pretty purple flowers called ‘Carouby de Maussane’ and a dwarf variety I have grown several times called ‘Tom Thumb’.

'Tom Thumb' Pea Plants

The ‘Tom Thumb’ plants have been thriving and providing me with lots of tasty snacks. The other variety would be thriving if not for the squirrels! When I first noticed the nibbling I thought perhaps it was my cat. She has an appetite for strange vegetables (radishes and edamame) and the container was propped up against the railing where she often sits and surveys “her kingdom.” I noticed that the nibbling started once the plants had grown tall enough to reach the rim of the railing. So I moved the container and still the nibbling continued. A month has passed and the ‘Carouby de Maussane’ peas are incredibly haggard and sad. They produced one flower, which produced one tiny pea that was promptly nibbled and left to hang on the vine.

'Carouby de Maussane' Pea Flower

Meanwhile the succulent lettuce plants growing underneath remains untouched! And the ‘Tom Thumb’ peas are left untouched! They dug up and destroyed an entire dwarf cucumber plant, and left containers of swiss chard. I don’t get it!

Pea plants chewed by Squirrels

Well today I confirmed the culprits are definitely the squirrels and not my cat. I caught one using a deck chair as a prop to reach the tops of the peas. Thankfully I am also growing ‘Carouby de Maussane’ peas at my community plot where they are in a spot a little shadier than they would like, but are growing without interference from critters. It’s interesting, but I have far less critter issues at my community plot where plants are growing in an area heavily populated by all sorts of wildlife than my rooftop deck that is stuck in a typically urban landscape without even a single tree nearby.

Squirrel eating peas

What to do about squirrels is probably one of the most popular questions I get when I am out giving talks or demonstrations. My answer is often that barriers methods are the best bet since they keep critters off your plants without hurting them in the process. The city is often accussed of being a place uninhabitable for wildlife. Growing an organic garden is one way to encourage wildlife and combat that assumption. So when I think about it, would I rather a critterless world or a few damaged plants?

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June 10, 2006

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Gardening & Deck Design – Gardening with Gayla Trail

- From: Gardening & Deck Design (Summer 06)

“My concept of what’s possible as far as gardening goes is pretty open ended,” says Gayla Trail, who grows edibles and ornamentals on a roof deck, in a strip of city-owned property at the side of her apartment building and at a community garden. Trail credits her can-do attitude to her West Indian-born grandmother, who grew vegetables on her balcony in St. Catharines, Ontario.

In 2000, Trail launched YouGrowGirl.com, an online community of mostly North American gardeners but with members as far away as Australia and India.”

-pages 42-44

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June 7, 2006

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Succulent Window Box 2006

Growing succulents in the window box on the fire escape portion of my rooftop garden has become a tradition — most likely because they are just about the only plants that can survive the intense sun, heat, and drought. The deck is fully exposed to all sorts of harsh conditions but the fire escape area takes it to another level with black metal railings that absorb the sun’s rays throughout the day. And of course I had to go and make it worse by installing a galvanized metal window box to boot.

I try and mix up the plantings every year with the one requirement that the plants can survive. Plants that make it through both the summer and winter are given an easy retirement in less sunny pastures. I was shocked to discover a lavender from last year’s box still kicking it this spring.

From the Front: