So guess what you can do in LA? Grow plants all year long. Time to plant some plants! And this time around, no greenhouses.
kentucky gardening
So last week we got some scrap wood and planting soil and built a garden box in the back of the yard.
Ready to go! Now, what to plant.
First stop: one of my go-to LA gardening blogs to see what they recommended planting in SoCal in late July:
JULY:
Oh. Well then.
I am not sure what “extreme necessity” looks like when it comes to urban gardening…but after some thought I decided that this probably qualified. So.
Next stop: advice from Alix.
plant any leafy or salad greens – kale, chard, lettuces, spinach, arugula. you can plant root veggies like beets and carrots. you can plant any brassica – broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
OK, much better. So I made a list (kale, chard, beets, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, and some herbs) and headed out to get some seedlings/seeds/whatever I could find with You-Know-Who in tow.
She is not a huge fan of the carseat. Getting her in and out is no small task.
Stop #1: the big sign out front that said “HYDROPONICS” should have been the first sign that this probably wasn’t the right place for us…but I already had her out of the carseat, so there was no turning back. We walked up to get buzzed into the store with mirrored windows (signs #2 & 3).
I entered the store, baby on hip. The two tatted dudes behind the counter stopped what they were doing and stared at me.
“Hey, hi. I think I already know the answer to this, but do you guys sell seeds or seedlings?”
(blank stares)
“…like, for a vegetable garden…”
“Oh! Oh, noooo….no we don’t, sorry. But there’s a place around the corner that does!”
Back in the carseat. Five block drive, pull into a corner shop with one beat up truck in the parking lot. Wrestle HH out of the carseat to find…Stop #2 only sells grass seed. But the owner’s brother Francisco sells veggie plants! 10 blocks away.
Wrestling matches four and five of the morning.
Stop #3 speaks only Spanish, but they have veggie plants! Exactly four types: white onions, green beans, and two types of peppers. Plus some basil. None on my list, but whatever. I was not going home empty handed. I took them all.
Set HH up at her post at the other end of the yard, and…
Hm. Maybe not the best planned layout.
Saturday I gave in and headed to Home Depot to see what I could find to fill out the rest of the garden box, plus a planter my parents had donated to our yard. And…here it is, our late summer/early fall crops for 2014:
Herbs
Italian Basil
Cilantro
Tarragon
Chives
BBQ Rosemary (smells amazing)
Trailing Rosemary
…plus some blue salvia, because it’s nice looking, drought tolerant, and the hummingbirds in our yard like it
Tomatoes
(Chosen solely based on their name…the same technique I use for my March Madness bracket, which has experienced moderate success over the years.)
Early Girl
Champion
Beefeater
Peppers
Anaheim
Green Sweet Bell
Red Sweet Bell
Squashes
Zucchini Squash
Straightneck Squash
Cucumber
Straight Eight
White Onions
I don’t know what a Straight Eight cucumber is, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to find out.
Rambulatory Ambulatory 