Building sustainable edible gardens | Portland, OR | Independence Gardens LLC

Mother Earth can generally plan her own business pretty well, and it’s a good thing, too: fundamentally, the success of our gardens hinges on the stability of those natural cycles and predictability of larger patterns.

Planning your garden effectively involves being aware of the constraints and opportunities created by constantly changing external circumstances, and doing your best to make investments strategically so that you are as likely as possible to get what you want out of your garden.

Sometimes, we like to play with the idea that garden plans are a lot like vacation itineraries. Want to play along? Read on!

Could you go on vacation without an itinerary? Of course. Lots of people do it. And when you travel, you’re in control of some things and not in control of others; nothing ever goes precisely as planned, anyway. But a wise travel agent or advisor would probably only recommend traveling sans plan if and only if:

• You already have a pretty good command of the language, so you aren’t wandering around clueless and you don’t accidentally insult someone!
• You’ve been there before: you know what you do and don’t like/what does and doesn’t work for you; there’s room for exploring new places, but you know you won’t get stuck without a restaurant or place to stay
• You are exceptionally able to keep your eyes wide open and be on the lookout for the good kind of unanticipated opportunities…and you have ample time and energy to do so
• You’re going to visit a friend who lives there, and knows what’s what…

It’s not a huge stretch to connect these planning tips to the garden. Below, with a few examples from both types of plan, are a few tips:

• Makes you assess your goals ahead of time: are you going on vacation to take time off and relax and go sit on the beach (plant only what’s really easy…), or is this an adventure (purple carrots, hot peppers) or an educational experience (you are in it to learn/explore)?
• Keeps you engaged/extends the pleasure of the vacation (for some people): but how many months are you going to spend planning for the little time you actually have to travel/grow?
• Helps you set realistic expectations: are you really going to see all of Europe in a week (or grow all of your own food?)
• Raises awareness of gimmicks: research the all-inclusive cruise/upside down tomato planter before you go buy one
• Reduces impulse buying and therefore costs: if you’d planned it out better, you could’ve gotten a better deal on that hotel stay/yard of compost…

So, do you always follow your itinerary to the letter? Maybe, depending on what kind of traveler you are. But maybe not. Even if you’re really OCD, try to leave some wiggle room! You don’t want to get so fixated on your plan and how it’s supposed to be that you can’t appreciate or adjust to how things really are. ‘Cause that world out there is always changing.

I was alerted recently to the fact that I tend to use that phrase a little bit too often. Well…here’s my excuse: ’tis always the season for something in the garden!

On this, the first day of November, we’re still in the midst of fall garden cleanup and winterizing. Yes⎯this means that if you haven’t gotten ‘er done yet, there’s still time to do the necessary physical work that will help your garden survive the winter and thrive in spring. What’s nice is that the sooner you get that side of things done, the more time you have to plan your garden for next year.

On that note, although I haven’t written a proper blog post in months and months (I have been writing for All Things Real Estate and putting out our monthly newsletter, mostly on time, but that’s the extent of the writing I’ve had time for!), I intend to get some planning blog entries up here in the next few weeks. So stay tuned for that. And in the meantime, the inspiration for this seasonal re-entry into the blogosphere is as follows.

Not only do our rainy falls and winters offer a window of opportunity for thinking about our own garden spaces; they allow us to look up and out and think big thoughts about the larger context within which we’re doing what we’re doing out there in our back and front yards, on our balconies and patios, and through our community garden spaces.

In our corner of the world, nothing represents big thinking like emergency preparedness. In the wake of “Superstorm Sandy,” it’s impossible not to think about the potential weather-related calamities that could be in store for us here in the Northwest. And here, we’re also thinking about the Big One, too, and assorted other phenomena that could affect us in ways that we probably can’t even anticipate (and, of course, a lot of ways that we can easily predict).

Edible gardens are one key component of resilient communities, we believe, and this weekend, we are excited to be teaching a class called “Prepping the Garden and Gardening ‘Prepared’” at ResilienceNW, a community disaster preparedness conference here in Portland. Many of our classes cost as much as the whole conference does ($20), so we encourage anyone who’s able to make it to the conference to do so⎯it’s a heck of a deal. And if you’re not able to make it, please check back here for some more thoughts on resilience after the weekend…after which we’ll be talkin’ garden planning…and beyond.

20x20 community garden plot - after cleanup

Passive solar house - before cleanup

Passive solar house - after cleanup

Just wanted to share a few good pictures of recent garden cleanups. ‘Tis the season; good luck with yours, and let us know if you need a hand!!

What’s the simplest way to describe people who design, install, and maintain outdoor environments? Well, they’re “landscapers,” of course!

But that one word doesn’t quite fit all.

In the general arena of landcare professionals, there are a lot of specific types of work to be done: landscape design, landscape maintenance, backyard farming, edible landscaping, landscape architecture, outdoor construction, coaching and consulting, building edible gardens… It can get a little confusing, so it can be easier to use one word to describe us all! However, specific rules, regs, and professional standards apply to each of these fields, and determine what types of work practitioners can do.

For instance, even those who know our business well frequently refer to Independence Gardens as a “landscaping business”. But since we don’t have our Landscape Contractors Board (LCB) license, we make very sure that our work respects the rules set by that body: among other things, we don’t call ourselves landscapers, and we try to explain the differences to others who use that word as shorthand to describe what we do.

So, what is the difference? Landscape contractors are registered with, and regulated by, the LCB. We got our Construction Contractors license (CCB#186008) so that we could build garden infrastructure, which helps people get comfortable working in their own garden spaces. We don’t recommend or install any plants that don’t have an edible use, since we think food-producing plants are beautiful and productive. In the end, our contribution to healthy outdoor environments is that we help people grow their own food: we don’t do it for them, but we empower them to do it themselves.

If you are in the market for help in your outdoor space, we recommend checking out businesses listed under Oregon Tilth’s Organic Landcare Certification, the City of Portland’s EcoBiz Program, and/or the ReDirect Guide. When you call up to tell them what you want, in case they’re not a good fit, they should be able to refer you to a professional who’s better suited to do the work you need done.

Summer gardens tend to be bigger, size-wise, than fall/winter gardens, so it’s normal to be looking at some empty garden space during the off-season. Here are a few basic goals for that space:

• Protect the soil from compaction, erosion, and nutrient loss due to hard winter rains
• Suppress weeds, which can still grow through our not-so-fair winter weather
• Maintain and enhance soil structure
• Replenish organic matter and nutrients in the soil

In order to accomplish these goals, you might choose to use cover crops and/or sheet mulch. You probably have areas in your garden that could benefit from either or both method(s); here is a brief explanation of each, along with some of their benefits:

• Cover cropping (also known as “green manure”) uses winter-hardy plants that will be turned under in the spring to loosen and aerate the soil. It also adds organic matter and nutrients (primarily nitrogen), enhances soil microbial activity, and improves soil structure.
• Sheet mulching, which is also known as “lasagna gardening,” is a way to use slow composting in place to create planting areas; it is also an easy way to prep new ground in fall for planting in the spring.

Which areas can benefit from cover cropping/sheet mulching? Anywhere you have grown crops in the past and/or intend to grow crops in the future! You can throw small seeds around or drill medium-large seed in between existing plants and in cleaned-out beds, and sheet mulch around existing plants or over cut-short grass to create new planting areas.

Ideally, cover crops should be planted before the end of September: they need time to get established before cold weather hits, and planting early gives you more options for what to plant. You can sheet mulch up to six months before you need the space for planting. Sheet mulch doesn’t get hot like other composting methods, and it takes some time to break down into a good planting medium.

Cover crops can be used alone or in combination. If you plant them together, aim to plant a nitrogen-fixing legume with a tall crop for structural support, or use a pre-combined “garden mix.” Some good green manures for fall planting and spring removal:

• Hairy vetch—nitrogen-fixing legume
• Winter rye—winter-hardy grain that grows tall
• Crimson clover—shouldn’t spread like other clovers

For more information about winterizing your garden, check out this blog entry from last year. And at this key time of the year, keep up the good work!