Transcript Xeriscape Veggies

How to Xeriscape Your
Vegetables
Grow Water Wise Veggies
And Herbs
7 (or is it 8?) steps of xeriscape:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Plan
Soil
Limit (Edit)
Irrigate Efficiently
Mulch
Appropriate Plants
Maintain
Add a sense of humor and adventure
These steps, applied to growing vegetables in containers
Plan - Design
• Location – 6 hours of sun (know your east, west, north, south)
• Containers – efficient use of space and water, must be large enough
to produce a good crop, at least 12” wide and deep
• Flexibility – rearrange, combine options:
1. color, scent
2. shape, form, line
3. size, scale, texture
4. variety or repetition, transition or unity
5. change layout during the season as plants change (cool season to
warm season veggies)
6. sort by watering needs (group closely to prevent evaporation)
Soil
• Containers give you a chance to choose your soil
• 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite or perlite
• Make your own compost
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Not rocket science
Green/Wet (veggie wastes, coffee grounds, water from steaming veg)
Brown/Dry (leaves, chopped twigs, straw, newspaper torn up)
3 Keys: temperature, oxygen, moisture (3 x 3 foot ideal)
Turn, aerate, water if needed
Result is called “Black Gold”
Make your own compost tea
Compost bin
Aeration Tool
Rocket Science
Limit (Edit)
• Condense – what will you eat? Grow that, think quantities
• Simplify – choose the right varieties
• Clarify – think pretty, colorful, desirable, so you want to spend time
observing and caring for them
• Results in an edited, simplified, condensed arrangement of containers
full of what you like to eat, using less space, less water, and creating
less work (and pretty – don’t forget the flowers, for you and for
pollinators, and a comfy chair)
Irrigate Efficiently
• By drip
1. Purchased kit
2. Soda bottle with needle hole, buried to its shoulder
• By Self-Watering Containers
1. Make your own buckets
2. Make your own bins
• By controlled watering
• Use existing water sources (harvesting wasted water)
Mulch
• Best, #1, is compost (you know how to make that, now)
• Plant densely – fill in space with low growing flowers or shorter time
to harvest veggies while taller ones grow
• Straw, dry leaves
Appropriate Plants
• Most appropriate plant = what you want to eat
• Look for shortest growth to harvest
• Look for low water use
• Always (my personal opinion) plant a few flowers with the veggies
Maintain
• Weeds not a big deal in prepared container soil
1. No hoeing allowed
2. Pull a weed or two while you sit in your chair, a mug in the other hand
3. Easy to observe and pull weeds when they are tiny
4. No backlog of seeds lurking in the soil, waiting to haunt you
• Bugs and other Critters
1. No gophers
2. Easy to observe and deal with a bug or two rather than an infestation
3. Easy to toss a cover over if needed (frost or bug intervention)
4. Scoot containers out of harm’s way if a hailstorm moves in
• Harvest is simple and convenient
Humor (Adventure and Fun)
• Definition of insanity: do same thing, same way, and expect different
results…be a sane gardener, willing to try new things
• Accept mistakes and failures, learn from them, smile, try again
• Experiment with confidence
• “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” –Audrey Hepburn
1. Let’s plant
2. Let’s learn
3. Let’s grow and flourish along with our plants