Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden Organically: Tips and Tricks from the Garden Wise TV Show

Meg West is the host of the quarterly sustainable landscaping program “Garden Wise” where in this second episode, “Dynamic Organics,” they focus on tips from the professionals to grow your own vegetable garden organically and in your own back yard. For more Garden Wise episodes subscribe to the SaveWaterSB YouTube channel.

Garden Wise Episode 2: Dynamic Organics

Video Summary and Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden Tips

For those that don’t have the time to watch the whole video, here is our video summary and accumulated tips to grow your own vegetable garden from Meg and the experts she spoke with.

First Stop: Healing Grounds Nursery with Oscar Carmona

Meg’s first stop is was to speak with Oscar Carmona of Healing Grounds Nursery:

The primary reasons for people to garden organically according to Oscar:

• Taste and Flavor
• Nutrition (closer to eating it after being picked, the more nutritional content)

Soil fertility is the key, Oscar says, lots of organic matter in the form of compost and mulch make plants healthier and taste better. Commercial fertilizers are primarily salt based, while they offer Nitrogen, Phosphorus or potassium in significant amounts, they do so at the expense of the lifeforms in the soil which makes it impossible for the earthworms and microorganisms to survive there. Organic soil, on the other hand, is the way nature has kept the earth stable for 1000’s of years and we’re just helping nature strengthen that cycle. A lot of people don’t realize that plants  that are conventionally grown are grown not for flavor or nutrition, but for convenient shipping and storage ability.

Oscar explains that recycling your green waste is the key for would-be vegetable gardeners. Our compost is the “gold” of rich soil so people can really do wonders for their home gardening endeavors by simply beginning to recycle (static pile or worm bin) green waste, coffee grounds, juice pulp, leftover breakfast fixings, newspapers, cardboard (mix in straw), etc. and get it into your garden! Worms do all the work because they like moist, decomposed food, and then they will decompose it further. Grab some soil and when the castings look like dirt and you can no longer recognize what it is, it is ready for compost as a wonderful addition for container gardens, backyard gardens, and anywhere else you might want to grow happy, healthy plants.

One other vegetable garden tip:

A 5 gal bucket is the capacity for keeping roots for tomato plants/cucumbers.

Grow Your Own Vegetable Garden Tips from Healing Grounds Nursery Overview:

1. Improve soil fertility
2. Avoid using synthetic fertilizers
3. Recycle green waste
4. Create a worm bin!
5. When the bin looks like dirt it is ready to use
6. Apply compost
7. Enjoy your home grown food

Second Stop: Island Seed and Feed

Island Seed and Feed specializes in organic gardening where Meg asks how do we know if a garden product is organic? The answer: OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) stamp lets a consumer know it is safe to use in an organic garden.

Some of Meg’s Favorite Organic Gardening Products

• Malibu Compost Tea: Great for spraying on your plants and it helps to control diseases and makes plants strong
• Kelp Green: Comes in a liquid form and can be applied straight to the plants or in the soil and also helps control disease and supports healthy plants
• Eco Cast: Worm castings to take your soil to the next level
• Tanglefoot: A safe way to fight ants
• Copper Tape Barrier: Slugs won’t cross barrier
• Dr Bronner’s Soap, cayenne pepper and Tabasco are a great make-at-home spray that eliminates aphids

Another great tip for home gardeners is knowing your soil’s nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium levels. To accomplish this you can send your soil to a lab for testing and then you will know exactly what your soil needs. Here are four local labs recommended by Meg:

• Associated Labs – Orange, CA
• Soil and Plant Laboratory – Orange, CA
• PACE Turfgrass Research – Oceanside, CA
• Wallace Laboratories – El Segundo, CA

Third Stop: Kitson Landscaping with Sarah Kitson

Kitson Landscaping with Sarah Kitson is a Pioneer with organic landscaping on a commercial scale. One of the biggest challenges on a commercial level is making sure your garden looks good all the time.  The #1 most important garden care product according to Sarah: MULCH.

Mulch is CRITICAL to Landscape

• Keeps weed growth down – less week pulling!
• Keeps moisture in the soil (use 2-3 inches)
• Breaks down and turns into new soil
• Can easily be created from recycled green waste material
• Only needs to be applied once or twice a year for huge benefit

Fourth Stop: Nico Lebredo of Rincon Landscapes

The folks at Garden Wise don’t promote lawns because they take a ton of water, are expensive to maintain, and are usually maintained with chemical fertilizers that are bad for the soil and bad for the environment. However, if you do have a lawn the following tips will help you maintain it.

Lawn Care Tips

• Leave clippings on the lawn to act as a natural and organic fertilizer
• Adding organic matter also improves the water holding capacity to your soil – so you save water
• Having your sprinkler on drip and only using sprinklers for lawns is another way to save water
• Adjust water percentage seasonally and turn off when it rains
• Water at night to reduce loss by evaporation
• Turn off your hose! A typical running hose wastes 9 gallons or water a minute
• Get water saving tips here: www.sbwater.org
• Check to see if you can also get rebates when installing sustainable landscaping such as drip irrigation, mulch, and drought tolerant plants

“Gardening organically is easy and it’s the right thing to do to protect the environment.” ~ Meg West

25 Mins In: Brazillian Cedar Wood Tree

At the end of each episode they are now also picking a unique tree to tell you about. This episode they discussed the he Brazilian Cedarwood Tree. Start at the 25 minute point for a complete history, series of interesting facts, and even additional books to read if you’d like to know more about the Cedarwood Tree.

29 Mins In: Firescaping

Landscape Designers Owen Dell and Billy Goodneck designed the original firescape demonstration site. This section of the show discusses how wildfires can be reduced by appropriate planning of water wise plants, irrigation and management using a zone system, several types of plants that are in the garden.

37 Mins In: Plant Rant – The Yucca

Each episode they also pick a flower and help you know it better. In this episode they focus on the Yucca a “dramatic, dangerous, and drought tolerant plant.” There are a long list of different Yuccas and Meg says, “If ever there was an architectural plant, Yucca is it.” Parts of the Yucca can be used to make soap, clothing, and even cooked and eaten.

For tons of more information and research online to help you live green and save water www.waterwisesb.org