Month: March 2016

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Why Don’t My Plants Grow?

Ok, so when I first started playing with dirt I made a lot of mistakes in terms of planting, transplanting and overall buying the wrong seeds at the wrong time.

I started making gardening friends (no joke) old folks, young folks, hippie folks and they had the same general wisdom – “Try it and see what happens…”

After failing and failing some more I decided to start learning more about my general climate, soil conditions and what types of seeds would sprout when.

Here was my first step – USDA Hardiness Zone Map

Here is a good planting guide from The Farmer’s Almanac

Don’t worry, I’ll keep updating these links as I find more. There are so many out there. I live in Los Angeles and I believe I’m in zone 10. My last frost is February 15, meaning anything I planted before then really didn’t have a fighting chance. Once I got to that point, I waited until past last frost, planted corn and some sage and it’s doing well.

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Three Sisters Planting

I’ve been on a research kick all Winter in order to prepare for Spring and I really wanted to try something new and challenging for the Spring. I came across a few posts regarding the Native American way of planting and how it can be beneficial to both the soil and plants. You’ll find more info. here . The idea is to plant the corn first, then once it’s 5″ talk, you plant the beans around the corn. The corn will provide support for the beans. After that you plant squash for ground cover.

The corn I planted is called Oaxacan Green Dent Corn – from Seed Savers.

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I prepped the soil through the Fall and Winter by using the box as a compost bin. It didn’t really smell but I had to be dedicated to turning the soil. The soil appeared to be very rich, fertile and better than anything I had ever purchased at any gardening center. I would do this again in a heart beat – it really reduced our food wastes as well. I guess having to look at your trash often helps you reduce the amount of trash you make. Eggs, coffee, leafy greens decomposed quickly – citrus not so much.

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It still looks a little messy, and I do need to keep picking out any growths that aren’t corn – so medium level of involvement.