No time to garden but I want organic veggies

My son lives in an apartment in the middle of Houston, travels a lot, and is busy running his own business. He still wants to eat good, fresh, organic produce. Hmmm...... Today's blog addresses his dilemma as well as that of many others either no time or space for growing your own. There are several ways besides going to whole paycheck natural food store to get the produce you want.

Farmer's markets are springing up all over the nation in large cities as well as smaller communities. You will find a good variety (at least from May to October) or something like that for most markets. They usually coincide with peak harvest times although I read, recently, that several markets are continuing through the winter selling either easily stored vegetables, home preserved, or pre-cooked. I love market days. No two markets are alike not even markets held in the same place from week to week. As the seasons go, so go the markets.

Another excellent way to get your vegetables and fruits is to become a member of a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, called CSAs. This concept came to the U.S. from Europe and Japan in the 80's and is spreading rapidly in the U. S. and Canada. The center of a CSA is a farm that grows a variety of foods, some organic, some not so check before you make your decision. The members pay a monthly fee, which helps sustain the farmer with regular income, and the farmer, in turn, either delivers or arranges weekly pick ups to or by the members of the pickings of the week. This gives the member a fresh variety of locally grown vegetables. Some CSAs ask their members to donate a day of their time to work in the garden. It's a nice added benefit for both the farmer and the members.


One other way for a city-dweller to get some fresh veggies is to become part of a neighborhood garden or seek out Urban Harvest to see where they have gardens that need members. These neighborhood or community gardens vary widely from community to community but usually require input from all members so they can reap the harvest.


In Little Rock, Arkansas, there is a large county park where the Little Maumelle and the Arkansas River meet. Community members can request a "plot" where they can fence it, raise whatever they want, however they want to grow it. Some people bring small tool sheds to keep their gardening supplies handy.

If you are interested in any of these options of obtaining fresh vegetables and fruit, here are a few links to look at:

http://localharvest.org This is a website where you can look up CSAs, Farmers Markets, and more

http://www.urbanharvest.org/ Houston, Texas organization for community gardens

And my son? He found a great Farmer's Market on Richmond he likes to frequent when he's in town. When he comes to see mom? He can pick whatever he wants from her garden!!

An unexpected hummingbird

The other day, I was walking from my garden to the porch where, in season, the hummingbird feeders hang to feed the little visitors. They leave the hill country in mid-August. I take the feeders down, clean them up and store them for the spring migration. This is mid-September and the feeders are put away. I have a garden below the feeder hooks that have red-flowered salvia and autumn sage. I saw a lone hummingbird, hovering from flower to flower, drawing sustenance from what was there. I was wondering why the bird didn't fly with the others or why it showed up at this time. I went inside so it could feast in peace. I didn't want to scare it off. We've had a drought so I don't know how many natural feeding areas they have between here and their southern home.

Sometimes, I am like that hummingbird, not quite in step with everyone else. I'm not flying with my charm (group of hummingbirds). I flew away from them to the hill country and am in a spot where there are more mockingbirds, wrens, and other birds (including hawks and owls). I feel out of step and not sure if there are any hummingbirds around me. When I walk into a cafe or sit down at a table for the local fund raiser, people look at me and keep up their conversations.

I've been in this position before and it takes quite a while to find a place where you fit in. I feel awkward and inadequate. Sometimes, others come in our midst that look a little lost, out of place. It may be church, synagogue, school, or community activities. It's hard being "out of step" so, if you see someone looking a little uncomfortable or out of place, don't just look and turn the other way pull out a chair and start a conversation. Your other friends will follow your lead.

Garden space - What do you do with all these vines??

There are a lot of great veggies and fruits that grow on vines. If you leave them alone, they'll take over the whole garden, yard, lawn furniture and children if they're still long enough!!! What can you do? The answer is TRELLIS. Trellises, come in all types of designs made of all types of material. I'm going to show you some from other sites and I'm going to show you some of my "repurposed" trellises.


You can find easy designs on trellises all over the Internet. Being the "getting back to hippy roots" type of person, I really like Mother Earth News and Grit magazine sites. They have awesome do-it-yourself articles, videos, and instructions. The trellis to the left holds about 20-30 snap bean vines. This is from the Grit article found at: http://www.grit.com/Do-It-Yourself/Garden-Trellis-Design-and-Construction.aspx. This photo doesn't show the trellis design. That will come later.






Trellises can be purchased, kits built, they can be simple and functional or elegant. Many garden centers have some sort of trellis or vertical growing apparatus. You can also, use 2 or 3 -1" x 2" x 10 ft boards nailed to the back of a sheet of lattice burying 2 ft of the 10 ft board in the ground for support (or nailing them to the side of your raised bed.






In addition a really cool design using the same idea as above is the frame and rope or frame and twine trellis. These are great because you can get quite a few plants on the same trellis. Not only that but you can use the top of the trellis to frame out a "cold frame" or plastic crop cover to protect your garden from cold weather.







As I said earlier, I would show some of my repurposed trellises. I found the main part of this trellis in the back acreage of our property when we started a clean up project. it's an old bed spring (sort of beat up) but the vines are loving it!!! In this photo they you don't see them growing but it's nearly covered now. You'll see a large branch makes up the "frame" of the bed. We have a lot of health thinning on the back property so, we will have lots of wood. Why not use it for this?


Mesquite trees are known to leech or use more water than other plants so they aren't the best thing in the pasture. So, we took down the mesquite saplings. Some are used to reinforce barbed wire fencing. I saved a few for a special trellis. I made a tipi and wove twine in a net. This was the beginning. later my husband took the twine off and put old chicken wire (poultry netting) around it (with one side open as an entrance). The idea is to have the vines climb up the outside and close in the tipi. It's a fun place for kids to play or if you don't have kids, you can grow some sensitive plants in there that could use a little bit of shade. As a master gardener said at a program a few weeks ago, "When the seed packet says 'full sun' I don't think they had the blazing Texas sun in mind!". Some plants that in most parts of the country can handle full sun might need a little shade to keep from burning up!


Trellises save space, keep the garden space neat, and make harvesting a whole lot easier!!

Join me for the next blog on organic additives..