1) Edible Gardening in the City
So far the class has been good. A lot of the information I already know from reading books and the likes but occasionally I come across an interesting fact that I didn't know about like a large garden bed is easier to keep moist than small pots. This explains why I always have trouble with water in the summer. We also went over what is ment on seed packs when they stay things like "as soon as the soil is warm/dry enough"
The reason for these sayings is that every place has a last expected frost date (May 9 for Toronto) and so a specific date cant always be given. I have included "translation table" on common phrases
" as soon as the soil is dry/warm enough to work" - this is usually mid April in Toronto
"when the soil has begun to warm up" - mid May
"when all danger of frost has passed" - early June
"mid summer for a fall harvest" - first of August
I have already had my first assignment which was:
Describe your existing growing conditions. (soil type, sun and wind exposure, micro-climates and challenges) What amendments and improvements are needed?
This was due at the beginning of our second class and here is what I prepared:
Soil type: potting soil and black earth. Because all of my garden plants are in pots I had to buy all of my dirt last year from the store :(
-> soil has good moisture retention, holds together when squeezed
-> lacks nutrients as it is reused from last year.
-> primarily missing phosphorus based on purplish tinge of seedlings. I used The Organic Gardeners Handbook to come to this conclusion along with the fact that most of the plants I grew last year were tomatoes and they are phosphorus loving plants from the Google searches I have done.
-> for amendments I have Better world organic fertilizer as well as what worm compost I can scoop from my worm bin. The Better World fertilizer is a cool fertilizer made from beetle larva and is classified as a 2-2-2 fertilizer. I am also thinking of dropping by the local Starbucks for used coffee grounds to add to the tomato plants as I have read (on the internet) that coffee makes a really good mulch for tomatoes (good source of nitrogen)
-> the other thing that I am thinking of doing is to gorilla garden some comfry or other fertilizer plant in the planters around our apartment. The planters are rarely tended so I figured if I snuck some in no one would notice and since they aren't edible directly I don't have to worry about people stealing them.
Exposure: Thankfully I live in a south facing apartment but it is fairly high up (20th floor).
-> from the pictures I have posted in the past you may have noticed that I have some challenges when it comes to light. First I have a concrete barrier at the end of the balcony that blocks a lot of light. Last year I tried putting the plants on a shelf to raise them up but then I have to deal more with the wind that is up there. The sides of my balcony are a frosted glass so while they get better light its still not directly. On top of all of this I also have to deal with the shadow of the balcony above us which is the bane of my garden.
I even did a diagram to try and figure out how much of the balcony had full sun exposure. I did it in pencil so hopefully this picture will be visible.
So as you can see I don't have a huge amount of space that gets direct sun. only 84 cm of width in June
Challenges: My biggest challenges will be the high level of wind that I get on the balcony, especially for the plants that are tall like the grapefruit tree. Last year the top 20 cm ended up getting completely stripped on leaves due to the high winds.
Other challengers are the lack of water due to the balcony above me so I have to spend a lot of time watering the plants in the morning. I also have some concerns regarding the lack of pollinators since we are so high up and I don't remember seeing a large number of insects up this high.
Amendments: as I stated earlier I will be amending the soil with fertilizer, worm compost and perhaps coffee. Added to that I will be getting some bone meal to help replace the missing phosphorus.
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