Consulting with a Gardening Guru

A garden that screams "My gardener is absolutely clueless."

Who could resist?  An offer from my friend to have his gardening guru friend come and take a look at my garden?  Larry is someone with experience since childhood in the ways of growing things, and was one of the folks in charge of BARAGA, a huge community garden in Burnaby.  I first heard about Larry when my friend offered me some leftover leek seedlings just waiting for a home.

Larry's leek seedlings

I was curious about what Larry would say about my garden, the type of garden which screams, "My gardener is absolutely clueless."

The first thing he noticed was the lack of irrigation.  I sheepishly explained that I water the garden by standing there with a hose.  He suggested a tube system, 25 feet, with 16 emitters placed every 2 feet, plus a pressure relief valve, or to avoid turning on the water full blast.  I took his suggestion and headed to Lee Valley and picked up the $34 Fence Mount Sprinkler Kit, because it was the only thing I saw online.  Later I found that there were definitely more options when I did a search for irrigation.  There is a specific Raised Garden Bed kit, which is cheaper at $28 than $33 and does not require my purchasing mounting clips.  I've got to go back and make the exchange soon!

We went through the different vegetables planted in my SFG.

I had carrots still in the ground from last year.  He said that carrots are biennial and that once they flowered, they would turn woody and be no longer good to eat.  Well, thank goodness my kids plucked most of the carrots out (without my permission) a few weeks ago.  The carrots are only just beginning to flower this week, the middle of May.

As for my leftover kale, once it flowers I need to pluck off the flower and it will continue to taste all right, but I should soon yank it out.

Tomatoes should be chosen on the time to maturity.  Our growing season is not very long and tomatoes need warm weather to come to maturity, so I should aim for 60 days as a maximum time requirement.  Days to maturity can be tricky: it is not from when you plant the seed, but from when the plant first comes up that you count the days to maturity.  The gold nugget variety is not as flavourful as the sun gold.

As for my horrendous beets, which seem to develop lush tops but skinny roots, he suggested not to plant too early.  Early April is as early as it gets.

Foreground: Beets.  Background: Spinach.

He chuckled at my zucchini, asking whether I knew how much room it would take up, since I planted its square right next to my mizuna square.  Yes, I was aware that it would soon take over a huge space in the garden, but I figured the quick growing mizuna might make it to a big enough size before the zucchini went Godzilla on me.  He said it would take FOUR square feet when grown, which I confirm is the case from my plant last year.

From front to back: zucchini, mizuna, peas.

We discussed aphid control.  Last year my broccoli was rendered inedible by aphids and cabbage white larvae.  He said that depending on how adventurous you are, you can blast them off with water and they will often not come back or get drowned.  Best are baby ladybugs--to be obtained from vacant lots with lots of flowers.  Unfortunately we noted that in my area, with lots starting over $1M, that vacant lots are fairly rare!  The baby ladybugs like eating nectar from flowers.  If I bought adult ladybugs, they would *maybe* eat some aphids before they flew away to someone else's garden!

Broccoli, put in two seeds.  I will cut off the top of the smaller one.  Beet from last year in the square with the broccoli.

I could also spray the broccoli with BT, or squish the eggs of the cabbage whites.

My rhubarb was looking very sad and yellow.  He suggested that a hilling a pile of compost around the plant is the best thing.  Not being that into rhubarb, I'll take this under advisement.  Ha!

I bought a male and female kiwi plant pair which are supposed to bear fruit after three years, but this being my third year, they look fairly sickly.  The leaves are eaten away almost to nothing every year.  I need to come out at night to see what is eating the leaves.  It could be weevils, slugs, or pill bugs.  If weevils, I could knock them off at night (11-12 pm) and into a container of water.  I also need to learn how to prune the thing to promote fruit.

My blueberry bushes must have the dead branches cut off or they will continue to draw nutrients.  I need to cut them back 1/4 or 1/3 to help it grow back stronger.

My first year planting baby bok choy.  Boy, do these grow fast... I only planted the seeds a week ago, and they mature in 21 days.

This whole consultation took only 30 minutes.

Larry has started up his own blog at Larry's Organic Garden where you can read up more detail of his extensive experience.  You might want to contact Larry for some advice about your own garden.