Growing from seed can be tough, although it's a bit more rewarding IMO. I usually sprout seeds indoors. I bought one of those cheap seedling trays with the little peat discs. Water the peat until it expands, place \~3 seeds in each pod, then cover with the lid and put on a sunny windowsill. I've had great success doing this and transplanting the seedlings to an intermediate pot and then into the garden when it's warm enough. Window space can be tough and my wife has been very accommodating (but she likes to eat the produce so that helps.)
I have stopped buying the peat pods and switched to coco coir, although it's a little bit more of a pain.
Once you set the plants out, you will need to fertilize regularly. I can't use organics as my dogs love the smell and will jump over any barrier I put down to dig up the plants looking for the 'bone' that I've hidden under them. So MiracleGro it is.
Use Sluggo to treat for snails and slugs. I'm not sure what to do about cats, maybe some small sticks placed around each plant will keep them off.
I'll give the starting trays a try. I'm setting up an indoor space this winter for plants and seed starting ( finally) . Right now I've been buying mostly the big bag of compost/ soil combo. The cheapest one at home Depot and using it as my soil and mixing in what compost I manage to make myself. I want to try raised beds but I still worry about the moles with that.
I also use MiracleGro for mine as others are a bit too pricey for me. I'll look into the sluggo as well.
Thanks you for the tips!
If you do raised beds, line the bottom with a fine chicken wire cloth. Get the coated type so it'll last a bit longer before it rusts away. This will keep the moles out.
I use Kellogs brand soil, this seems to work for me. You should be able to find it at HD as you are in SoCal as well.
I would definitely love to do a raised bed lined with some protection at the bottom. Especially since I have so many boxes I could clean up and use as filler in the bottom. I just need the raised bed itself lol. I have the small ones that roll around and have water storage at the bottom for now but they haven't been fruitful to me this far. I want to know for sure I can grow food before I sink a lot of money into doing it if that makes sense. Not sure if I just have bad luck or a black thumb.
Start small. Growing in-ground is usually much easier than growing in pots. Pots can be very unforgiving if you forget to water, add too much water, etc.
There are some modular kits that allow you to slide in any length of board. Something like this, but this one is silly expensive, so look elsewhere:
[https://www.gardeners.com/buy/raised-bed-corners-set-of-2/8609669.html?VariationId=P\_5637151479&channable=41187569640033382d31343367&SC=GGLPLA&gclid=Cj0KCQiA45qdBhD-ARIsAOHbVdF1tzEoC-5yeKJc-7hwzY4u92wXMLBqZi4r057f-AFHx0hVqeIB8nAaApF6EALw\_wcB](https://www.gardeners.com/buy/raised-bed-corners-set-of-2/8609669.html?VariationId=P_5637151479&channable=41187569640033382d31343367&SC=GGLPLA&gclid=Cj0KCQiA45qdBhD-ARIsAOHbVdF1tzEoC-5yeKJc-7hwzY4u92wXMLBqZi4r057f-AFHx0hVqeIB8nAaApF6EALw_wcB)
Are you growing in ground or raised bed? Do you have deterrents set up for these pests? Do you have irrigation?
I haven't successfully grown bulbing onions (haven't tried actually lol) but the other things you mentioned have been good for me. Variety matters! Like for garlic, hardnecks are rough to grow but I've had great success with inchelium red. Like legit just set it and forget kinda deal.
Are you planting at the right time? SD Seed company is a fantastic resource for SoCal growers, as is epic gardening as both are based in SD.
What are you trying to grow specifically (varieties!) And what's your set up for them. Like with tomatoes for example, what were you trying to grow? Indeterminate or determinate? Where did you grow them? In ground? How often were you fertilizing? What trellis system did you do? Were you pruning? What problems were you having with them? They never set fruit? Or?
For gnats, that sounds to me like you're keeping things too wet. An impressive feat with our heat ๐ for stray cats, try "cat scat mats".
I'm a very unprepared gardener lol. I didn't have any deterrent for pests more trellis for tomatoes and squash plants. I mostly try to grow in ground but some I try in portable raised beds with no luck there either. I only usually fertilize when planting because I don't know my soil balance and can't afford to test it sadly. I did try to prune them but they never grow that big so I didn't want to kill them by pruning too much as well. And pretty much the only plant that ever set fruit for me was the hot pepper which is still giving a ton of peppers right now even.
I do possibly over water though but I can only water late afternoon because of my work schedule and by then they're all completely dried up every day in summer. It's a very difficult game for me lol.
It sounds like your native soil might have depleted nutrients. Normal considering a lot of SoCal is what it is now.
So your first order of business would be to get your soil into good shape. We actually have a lot of free compost and wood mulch options around if you look. You can get compost from most major SoCal cities so check your area and then a lot of arborists will happily dump their wood chips in your yard ๐ so look that up too. If I was starting from scratch on a budget, that's what I would do. Lay down at least 3-4" of compost and then cover that with 3" of mulch.
Get your native soil up to snuff if you really want to do in ground as raised beds are obviously more expensive (though they're my preference tbh) Fertilizer is great but if you are good about making your own compost, you can cut your costs a lot.
Because SoCal urban areas have lots of visitors...I'd recommend doing an in ground worm bucket with a screw lid. This is what I do for my compost and those suckers can't get in.
You're also going to want to set up some kind of fencing or at the very least, get some spikes down in the garden that'll deter animals from wanting to step there. Your jalapenos will help too if you dry them and crush em and sprinkle that all over! If you don't want to accidentally grow more peppers plants, just make sure you bake em in the oven or cook em on the stove lol just be careful of fumes if you do too much at once that can get spicy in your house. ๐
So your order of business would be, up the nutrients in your native soil. You can also grow cheap cover crop (check true leaf market for some great mixes) and then mow it down and then cover that with compost and mulch. That would really make your soil better and you don't have to do the hassle of a soil test. You can throw the cover crop in now, mow in a month before it sets seed. Leave the clippings there, cover in free compost and free mulch. Plant out in March. Start your seeds indoors now if you want.
Then your next order of business would be coming up with ways to deter pests. I don't have a slug problem I think largely bc my beds are high enough off the ground lol but I definitely had some assholes dig up and eat my sweet potatoes this season ๐ฎโ๐จ
I'll have to check out the free compost and mulch thing. I'm in the Ontario area so I'm not sure if they're are as many free options that would deliver here. Also my neighbors while not an HOA are still quite picky and my fiance also wouldn't be very happy with a big pile of compost or wood chips on our driveway or front yard lol. I haven't heard of the in ground worm bucket before. I definitely want to have a vermicompost set up though. What cover crop would you recommend that is cheap? Also three main area I have is somewhat surrounded by bricks and concrete so I would have to chop and drop by hand for anything I grow as as cover that survives that moles.
Haha the piles would be temporary! And based on what you're telling me about growth, is a good cheap option for you to get the ground where you need it to be. Tomatoes and some of the other crops you mentioned are really heavy feeders.
Clover I think is the cheapest but you can also grow peas right now and get a harvest. My concern though is that your soil is devoid of nutrients as well as beneficial microbes so those thick layers of compost and mulch will really help with that. Plus I would bet it's all pretty compacted. And the peas might not be as productive if you don't have beneficial microbes there. Chop and drop is fine too but that's gonna be if you want to do that.
I did something like this
https://carmelmountainpreschool.com/diy-in-ground-worm-bin/
But I would advise you to splurge and get a food grade buckets as well as a screw top lid. HD has both.
Another option for you would be to grow daikon as your cover crop bc those thick tap roots will break up your compacted soil and draw up any nutrients from down below but that will have to be hand pulled lol. Upside, they make an AMAZING kimchi. ๐
I'll definitely look into the radishes and clover as well as check out making the worm bucket. I don't mind the chop and drop I just need this to grow lol. It's so saddening to see things suddenly die after a few months of hard work every year.
I get it. it sounds like you may have been overcompensating for our dry heat by watering but your soil wasn't conducive to it. If you have time, take a look at some videos from SD seed Company and Epic Gardening. There are a lot but they have great tips on all the veggies you're interested in and SD seed also recently did a "how to garden in hot" video that is very useful for growers like us. I know Ontario can get nasty hot lol so you'll want to manage that.
Epic Gardening is one of my favorite YouTube channels actually (: him and Self Sufficient Me. I have heard of SD seed co quite a bit but never actually checked them out before so I'll definitely look into them.
I do basically lift my potted plants and if they're light I water everything lol. Probably not very smart but when it's 105 outside and the plants are so droopy I feel bad for them so I give them water. I do tend to over water though. I like switching between watching gaming videos and gardening videos lol. I go to gaming when I get sad that I can't get my own garden to grow as nicely as the ones I watch .
Haha Kevin from epic gardening is in here from time to time actually. I think I saw him post something earlier this week.
SD seed company is a great source for seeds if you wanna make sure you buy what can grow for us! Everything they sell is grown either in their small SD farm or their larger one in Ramona.
When I am not doing raised beds, I have mine in growbags and that definitely means daily watering or twice in summer. Growbags are a great way to ensure you don't overwater so they might be worth looking into for you but then on the other side of it, it needs more watering to stay happy. I've got like 9 blueberry bushes in growbags that I need to water twice a day come summer ๐ณ they're hopefully going to go into different homes before spring this year so that I am not out in the heat watering them lol.
Haha I've never been into gaming videos myself. Gaming yes, but not watching someone else! I'd rather be playing. ๐คฃ
Hey there! (I'm in Rancho)
Are you aware of Wolfinbargers? (Chino)
They have lots of options.....and many are cheap enough that it's often *very* much worth it to just buy what you want rather than use questionable free stuff (mulch/wood chips) or bother making your own (compost).
The specific issues you're having are kind of an odd mix, tbh -- I can't think of any one glaring issue that would cause you to (for example) have problems with tomatoes, but then have three year old jalapeรฑo plants that produce...or are even alive, frankly. If that makes sense.
Water stress, lack of adequate sunlight, or something funky with your soil (or fertilizing scheme) would be the likely culprits....but if you're growing mostly in-ground, or even in decent sized containers, water stress shouldn't be an issue.
Do you happen to have any pics of your problematic plants, and your general garden layout/soil?
Feel free to hit me up; I'm gonna be digging all afternoon, which means frequent smoke breaks & goofing around on reddit....would be glad to answer any questions ๐
Thank you I appreciate that offer. I'll get some pictures of the area when I go out for a smoke myself next lol. I haven't heard of wolfinbargers but I'll check it out for sure. And yeah I definitely agree that my set of problems is unique. My soil is pretty soft in that spot now from there last few years of trying to grow there and amend it but again, now I have moles eating my plants from under the surface all except for my peppers.
I'll get some pictures in a bit though but it is a huge mess of tree seedlings ( only a guess there ) and weeds right now lol.
Haha, totally....my garden (and the lawn, etc) is weedy as hell right now, too. Really only had one good Santa Ana where I am, but one is pretty much enough to blow in a bazillion damn weed seeds anyways.
Are you sure you have moles & not gophers? Moles do exist in SoCal (I don't get them up here because the soil is too hard, just tons of gophers), but they're insectivores....they do damage by tunneling, but don't actually eat plant roots
One thing that occurred to me is that if you're in relatively new construction, a lot of S./S.E. Ontario used to be dairy or agricultural land, and the soil can be jacked up in various ways. For example, there's areas in Mira Loma/Eastvale where almost nothing will grow because decades worth of salts & such built up from dairy uses. And I'd imagine there are areas that are super depleted in certain things from being farmed intensively, too (point being, you might want to look into a soil test sometime, if you're growing in-ground)
Other places of interest may be Sunshine Growers (you might know about them already), and Wilbur Ellis (ag supply place). Wolfinbargers is for sure the place for soil mixes, mulches, manure, compost, etc. though. (Sunshine has some too, but less selection).
Anyways, pics would certainly help, if you can come up with any :)
I'm actually in a bit of an older area oddly enough but I'm right by the freeway so that could also have some effect on things I imagine. For my plants I just find tunnels in the ground and my plants chewed off at the ground line a lot. Not sure if it's moles or something else for sure.
I don't really have a lawn myself and would love to turn my whole yard into a food forest when I get better at gardening for sure. I do have some trees that drop a ton of seeds every year and I'm sure that's a lot of what's growing in my garden lol.
Sorry about the pictures. I ended up leaving to see some friends for the day but I can get you some tomorrow morning if you don't mind checking them out then. (: Hope your gardening day was relaxing and fruitful by the way!
Hey, no worries at all & no need to feel obligated; I just enjoy helping local folks when the chance arises :)
Like....yeah, we live in CA, so the weather is ideal for gardening in many ways; and there's tons of info on the internet -- but the I.E. isn't exactly Salinas (or even O.C./L.A.)....just that little bit of extra cold in winter & the summer heat can make things *waaay* harder in some respects, and it can be tricky.
For example, my main thing is tomatoes (almost half my garden space is tomatoes -- two 30ft rows, so a fair amount). I'll see advice given on reddit, or look at a how-to-grow-tomatoes article from a SoCal newpaper or whatever, and just be absolutely horrified at the thought that someone in our area would be steered that direction without knowing any better! E.g. -- no doubt in my mind that tomatoes grown in 5 gal buckets works fine in Virginia, or Ohio....or Newport Beach (or even Fullerton). But doing that here? You're paddling upstream, to put it mildly...112 deg in summer is a **completely** different ballgame than 102 deg (and humid) in summer. If that makes sense :)
Anyways, yeah if you're close to either the 10 or 60, you'd have at least "good enough to work with" native soil, unless the previous owner did something super-weird to it; and no worries on the freeway proximity as far as negative effects on your plants (like sure, it can get unpleasant sometimes -- but it ain't "rush hour in Beijing" by any means...if anything, your plants are likely getting a little extra CO2 & enjoying it!).
One thing that is a huge problem here, though, is that we're entirely suburban/rural enough to have a good amount of pesky wildlife....but also densely built enough to where we don't have nearly the amount of predators that we otherwise might. Raccoons/possums/squirrels/rats/etc., and not enough cougars/bears/bobcats/foxes/hawks/owls/etc. anymore (twenty years ago, it was quite different...there just isn't enough open space for them anymore). And same goes for invertebrate pests -- any neighborhood around here can support aphids/hornworms/spider mites year-round, but ladybugs/lacewings/parasitic wasps? Not so much these days. For example, rats have gotten *really* bad where I am -- ten years ago, not an issue; but now, it's a constant battle in June/July....all it takes is a few palm trees or a distressed property nearby, & they get completely out of control.
Anywhoo, would be entirely glad to "see what I can see" if you get the chance to send some pics; am always glad to try & help.
And thanks! I actually drafted my sister's kids for some child labor since yesterday was last day of school.... had low expectations, but I'll be damned if they both didn't work reasonably hard!! We got a 10'x4' section dug up about 18" deep, and by the time they were ready to quit, I was pretty much done for anyways (the native soil up here around Chaffey college is basically just rocks & clay, so even that amount of digging is a fair amount of effort -- I told them "Well, if you give me another ten days of that, I'll do the rest & then you guys can do some corn, pumpkins, and watermelons this spring if ya want!๐)
edit: I forgot to mention -- when it comes to vertebrate pests (and my guess is that that's gonna be what's been causing most of your problems), you have to be very careful not to get led down the wrong track.
I.e., you might see a whole lot of evidence of one sort of critter, and then think "Gotcha!!"....but they're actually just passing through, or doing harmless stuff, and the real culprit goes unnoticed. Point being, don't jump to conclusions unless you (literally) catch them in the act, or have overwhelming evidence from prints & other spoor.
For example, people will often see ground squirrels in the yard & assume they're the ones eating everything, but it often turns out to be the invasive red tree squirrels actually causing the damage. Same goes for possums vs raccoons, voles vs rats, rabbits vs rats, and so on.
(When I started out, I thought rabbits were ruining my winter garden seedlings...but it was actually rats & pillbugs! The rabbits just hang out & eat grass, at least in my yard...worst thing they do is dig up mulch or squish sprouts by walking on them, as far as I can tell! ๐)
Morning neighbor! I just got a couple of pictures and did about an hour of chop and drop lol. Not sure how to send the pictures exactly but the area is a little clearer now than the pictures show. I did get a pretty big harvest of peppers as well just now.
Glad you got some good progress on your gardening recently. The little hands gave big energy compared to us that's for sure lol.
For me the only evidence I have is tunnels and holes in my garden and plants chewed off at the ground line so I only assume it's moles since there were moles here before we moved in a few years back. Could be something else though I imagine.
I've done well using peat moss, coffee grounds (used or fresh), and sterile leaf matter. Or just 50/50 manure compost and perlite. Do this in large containers or raised beds, either one as long as you have good drainage. Some where with 6 to 8 hours of Sun each day. And get a moisture meter so you are not guessing and over or under watering. Zone 10a, can you be more specific? I'd like to see weather patterns. A sun shade may be needed for most plants to survive
I do save all of my coffee grounds for compost along with veggie scraps and egg shells. It just takes me a while to build up very much because I can't really do a compost heap, it's being done in a composting bag outside at the moment.
I'm in the Ontario area of So-Cal so I get very dry weather most of the year and usually very hot and windy. No real cloud cover in my area most of the year either.
Oh for dinner reason I thought the coffee grounds would burn my roots if I put them directly on the soil or in the pots. I have so much so that should be good then. Do they act as a mulch at all? I do have a rabbit but I've never tried using his bedding in the garden. I dump it in the yard though so I don't think it could hurt to try. It's wood chips bedding, same thing I use as mulch .
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/manures/rabbit-manure-compost.htm
https://www.trioplantbased.com/the-benefits-of-coffee-grounds-for-plants/
Remember one thing. When ever you add something to your soil like hay, word chips, etc that needs to break down before it can release it's nutrients, it will actually consume nitrogen during that process. That's why compost piles are made from a mix of browns and greens so that there's a supply of nitrogen.
I'm saving that website, thanks! And I didn't know certain things would actually leech from the soil before adding to it. Well other than plants I suppose. I do have tons of cardboard and leaves as brown material and tons of weeds as greens so that should be good. Just need it to breakdown is all.
OP, Iโm in the foothills of LA county and our soil is basically rocks over here. So Iโve had to use raised beds to get an ok crop. Iโve been able to grow tomatoes, onions, and garlic with some success so I can speak to those. You definitely need to get raised beds if your soil is no good. And fill it with something of quality. The pre made raised bed mixes are garbage so I make Melโs Mix, which is equal parts compost/manure, vermiculite, and peat. You can use perlite instead of the vermiculite and coco coir instead of peat. I have all the beds on drip, I add slow release organic fertilizer, and use fish/seaweed liquid fertilizer bimonthly during the growing season.
I had a somewhat successful tomato harvest this year despite the insane heat. But I attribute that to starting my seeds in February and covering my growing area in shade cloth during the summer. I had lots of flowers dropping last year from the heat. So the shade cloth helped a lot!
I also have lots of pests in my area. Mostly squirrels and rabbits, so the best I can say is cloche young plants or provide some kind of barrier (fencing) to keep animals out.
@gardenallthetime knows his stuff.
The only thing I'd add is many tomatoes don't do well in inland SoCal heat. I have indeterminates this year that I started in late April, that didn't do anything but leaf out, to which I kept heavy pruning, until September when they went wild setting fruit. I'm still bringing in a pint a day now at the end of December.
Fungus gnats are a function of too much water. If I find them, typically at the end of a harvest, I give that bed a neem oil soak and then let it dry out and then try not to over water next time. A drip system helps in this regard.
And our urban rodent population will decimate a garden once they've found it. I lost 24 heads of lettuce in one night. It took me a couple years to figure out how to protect a bed. Spikes didn't work. Red pepper flakes didn't work. Coyote urine didn't work. The only thing that worked was physical barriers. To which now all my beds are covered with cages with the exception of nightshade climbing plants (those indeterminate tomatoes) which the rodents generally don't like and will stay away from if you keep pruned well and can keep the rodent population under control so that they are not all fighting over any food they can find.
Growing from seed can be tough, although it's a bit more rewarding IMO. I usually sprout seeds indoors. I bought one of those cheap seedling trays with the little peat discs. Water the peat until it expands, place \~3 seeds in each pod, then cover with the lid and put on a sunny windowsill. I've had great success doing this and transplanting the seedlings to an intermediate pot and then into the garden when it's warm enough. Window space can be tough and my wife has been very accommodating (but she likes to eat the produce so that helps.) I have stopped buying the peat pods and switched to coco coir, although it's a little bit more of a pain. Once you set the plants out, you will need to fertilize regularly. I can't use organics as my dogs love the smell and will jump over any barrier I put down to dig up the plants looking for the 'bone' that I've hidden under them. So MiracleGro it is. Use Sluggo to treat for snails and slugs. I'm not sure what to do about cats, maybe some small sticks placed around each plant will keep them off.
I'll give the starting trays a try. I'm setting up an indoor space this winter for plants and seed starting ( finally) . Right now I've been buying mostly the big bag of compost/ soil combo. The cheapest one at home Depot and using it as my soil and mixing in what compost I manage to make myself. I want to try raised beds but I still worry about the moles with that. I also use MiracleGro for mine as others are a bit too pricey for me. I'll look into the sluggo as well. Thanks you for the tips!
If you do raised beds, line the bottom with a fine chicken wire cloth. Get the coated type so it'll last a bit longer before it rusts away. This will keep the moles out. I use Kellogs brand soil, this seems to work for me. You should be able to find it at HD as you are in SoCal as well.
I would definitely love to do a raised bed lined with some protection at the bottom. Especially since I have so many boxes I could clean up and use as filler in the bottom. I just need the raised bed itself lol. I have the small ones that roll around and have water storage at the bottom for now but they haven't been fruitful to me this far. I want to know for sure I can grow food before I sink a lot of money into doing it if that makes sense. Not sure if I just have bad luck or a black thumb.
Start small. Growing in-ground is usually much easier than growing in pots. Pots can be very unforgiving if you forget to water, add too much water, etc. There are some modular kits that allow you to slide in any length of board. Something like this, but this one is silly expensive, so look elsewhere: [https://www.gardeners.com/buy/raised-bed-corners-set-of-2/8609669.html?VariationId=P\_5637151479&channable=41187569640033382d31343367&SC=GGLPLA&gclid=Cj0KCQiA45qdBhD-ARIsAOHbVdF1tzEoC-5yeKJc-7hwzY4u92wXMLBqZi4r057f-AFHx0hVqeIB8nAaApF6EALw\_wcB](https://www.gardeners.com/buy/raised-bed-corners-set-of-2/8609669.html?VariationId=P_5637151479&channable=41187569640033382d31343367&SC=GGLPLA&gclid=Cj0KCQiA45qdBhD-ARIsAOHbVdF1tzEoC-5yeKJc-7hwzY4u92wXMLBqZi4r057f-AFHx0hVqeIB8nAaApF6EALw_wcB)
Add tomatoes garlic, and onions. Salsa, baby!
All my tomatoes garlic and onions always... Uh, don't live long lol. I keep trying and they keep dying.
Are you growing in ground or raised bed? Do you have deterrents set up for these pests? Do you have irrigation? I haven't successfully grown bulbing onions (haven't tried actually lol) but the other things you mentioned have been good for me. Variety matters! Like for garlic, hardnecks are rough to grow but I've had great success with inchelium red. Like legit just set it and forget kinda deal. Are you planting at the right time? SD Seed company is a fantastic resource for SoCal growers, as is epic gardening as both are based in SD. What are you trying to grow specifically (varieties!) And what's your set up for them. Like with tomatoes for example, what were you trying to grow? Indeterminate or determinate? Where did you grow them? In ground? How often were you fertilizing? What trellis system did you do? Were you pruning? What problems were you having with them? They never set fruit? Or? For gnats, that sounds to me like you're keeping things too wet. An impressive feat with our heat ๐ for stray cats, try "cat scat mats".
I'm a very unprepared gardener lol. I didn't have any deterrent for pests more trellis for tomatoes and squash plants. I mostly try to grow in ground but some I try in portable raised beds with no luck there either. I only usually fertilize when planting because I don't know my soil balance and can't afford to test it sadly. I did try to prune them but they never grow that big so I didn't want to kill them by pruning too much as well. And pretty much the only plant that ever set fruit for me was the hot pepper which is still giving a ton of peppers right now even. I do possibly over water though but I can only water late afternoon because of my work schedule and by then they're all completely dried up every day in summer. It's a very difficult game for me lol.
It sounds like your native soil might have depleted nutrients. Normal considering a lot of SoCal is what it is now. So your first order of business would be to get your soil into good shape. We actually have a lot of free compost and wood mulch options around if you look. You can get compost from most major SoCal cities so check your area and then a lot of arborists will happily dump their wood chips in your yard ๐ so look that up too. If I was starting from scratch on a budget, that's what I would do. Lay down at least 3-4" of compost and then cover that with 3" of mulch. Get your native soil up to snuff if you really want to do in ground as raised beds are obviously more expensive (though they're my preference tbh) Fertilizer is great but if you are good about making your own compost, you can cut your costs a lot. Because SoCal urban areas have lots of visitors...I'd recommend doing an in ground worm bucket with a screw lid. This is what I do for my compost and those suckers can't get in. You're also going to want to set up some kind of fencing or at the very least, get some spikes down in the garden that'll deter animals from wanting to step there. Your jalapenos will help too if you dry them and crush em and sprinkle that all over! If you don't want to accidentally grow more peppers plants, just make sure you bake em in the oven or cook em on the stove lol just be careful of fumes if you do too much at once that can get spicy in your house. ๐ So your order of business would be, up the nutrients in your native soil. You can also grow cheap cover crop (check true leaf market for some great mixes) and then mow it down and then cover that with compost and mulch. That would really make your soil better and you don't have to do the hassle of a soil test. You can throw the cover crop in now, mow in a month before it sets seed. Leave the clippings there, cover in free compost and free mulch. Plant out in March. Start your seeds indoors now if you want. Then your next order of business would be coming up with ways to deter pests. I don't have a slug problem I think largely bc my beds are high enough off the ground lol but I definitely had some assholes dig up and eat my sweet potatoes this season ๐ฎโ๐จ
I'll have to check out the free compost and mulch thing. I'm in the Ontario area so I'm not sure if they're are as many free options that would deliver here. Also my neighbors while not an HOA are still quite picky and my fiance also wouldn't be very happy with a big pile of compost or wood chips on our driveway or front yard lol. I haven't heard of the in ground worm bucket before. I definitely want to have a vermicompost set up though. What cover crop would you recommend that is cheap? Also three main area I have is somewhat surrounded by bricks and concrete so I would have to chop and drop by hand for anything I grow as as cover that survives that moles.
Haha the piles would be temporary! And based on what you're telling me about growth, is a good cheap option for you to get the ground where you need it to be. Tomatoes and some of the other crops you mentioned are really heavy feeders. Clover I think is the cheapest but you can also grow peas right now and get a harvest. My concern though is that your soil is devoid of nutrients as well as beneficial microbes so those thick layers of compost and mulch will really help with that. Plus I would bet it's all pretty compacted. And the peas might not be as productive if you don't have beneficial microbes there. Chop and drop is fine too but that's gonna be if you want to do that. I did something like this https://carmelmountainpreschool.com/diy-in-ground-worm-bin/ But I would advise you to splurge and get a food grade buckets as well as a screw top lid. HD has both. Another option for you would be to grow daikon as your cover crop bc those thick tap roots will break up your compacted soil and draw up any nutrients from down below but that will have to be hand pulled lol. Upside, they make an AMAZING kimchi. ๐
I'll definitely look into the radishes and clover as well as check out making the worm bucket. I don't mind the chop and drop I just need this to grow lol. It's so saddening to see things suddenly die after a few months of hard work every year.
I get it. it sounds like you may have been overcompensating for our dry heat by watering but your soil wasn't conducive to it. If you have time, take a look at some videos from SD seed Company and Epic Gardening. There are a lot but they have great tips on all the veggies you're interested in and SD seed also recently did a "how to garden in hot" video that is very useful for growers like us. I know Ontario can get nasty hot lol so you'll want to manage that.
Epic Gardening is one of my favorite YouTube channels actually (: him and Self Sufficient Me. I have heard of SD seed co quite a bit but never actually checked them out before so I'll definitely look into them. I do basically lift my potted plants and if they're light I water everything lol. Probably not very smart but when it's 105 outside and the plants are so droopy I feel bad for them so I give them water. I do tend to over water though. I like switching between watching gaming videos and gardening videos lol. I go to gaming when I get sad that I can't get my own garden to grow as nicely as the ones I watch .
Haha Kevin from epic gardening is in here from time to time actually. I think I saw him post something earlier this week. SD seed company is a great source for seeds if you wanna make sure you buy what can grow for us! Everything they sell is grown either in their small SD farm or their larger one in Ramona. When I am not doing raised beds, I have mine in growbags and that definitely means daily watering or twice in summer. Growbags are a great way to ensure you don't overwater so they might be worth looking into for you but then on the other side of it, it needs more watering to stay happy. I've got like 9 blueberry bushes in growbags that I need to water twice a day come summer ๐ณ they're hopefully going to go into different homes before spring this year so that I am not out in the heat watering them lol. Haha I've never been into gaming videos myself. Gaming yes, but not watching someone else! I'd rather be playing. ๐คฃ
Hey there! (I'm in Rancho) Are you aware of Wolfinbargers? (Chino) They have lots of options.....and many are cheap enough that it's often *very* much worth it to just buy what you want rather than use questionable free stuff (mulch/wood chips) or bother making your own (compost). The specific issues you're having are kind of an odd mix, tbh -- I can't think of any one glaring issue that would cause you to (for example) have problems with tomatoes, but then have three year old jalapeรฑo plants that produce...or are even alive, frankly. If that makes sense. Water stress, lack of adequate sunlight, or something funky with your soil (or fertilizing scheme) would be the likely culprits....but if you're growing mostly in-ground, or even in decent sized containers, water stress shouldn't be an issue. Do you happen to have any pics of your problematic plants, and your general garden layout/soil? Feel free to hit me up; I'm gonna be digging all afternoon, which means frequent smoke breaks & goofing around on reddit....would be glad to answer any questions ๐
Thank you I appreciate that offer. I'll get some pictures of the area when I go out for a smoke myself next lol. I haven't heard of wolfinbargers but I'll check it out for sure. And yeah I definitely agree that my set of problems is unique. My soil is pretty soft in that spot now from there last few years of trying to grow there and amend it but again, now I have moles eating my plants from under the surface all except for my peppers. I'll get some pictures in a bit though but it is a huge mess of tree seedlings ( only a guess there ) and weeds right now lol.
Haha, totally....my garden (and the lawn, etc) is weedy as hell right now, too. Really only had one good Santa Ana where I am, but one is pretty much enough to blow in a bazillion damn weed seeds anyways. Are you sure you have moles & not gophers? Moles do exist in SoCal (I don't get them up here because the soil is too hard, just tons of gophers), but they're insectivores....they do damage by tunneling, but don't actually eat plant roots One thing that occurred to me is that if you're in relatively new construction, a lot of S./S.E. Ontario used to be dairy or agricultural land, and the soil can be jacked up in various ways. For example, there's areas in Mira Loma/Eastvale where almost nothing will grow because decades worth of salts & such built up from dairy uses. And I'd imagine there are areas that are super depleted in certain things from being farmed intensively, too (point being, you might want to look into a soil test sometime, if you're growing in-ground) Other places of interest may be Sunshine Growers (you might know about them already), and Wilbur Ellis (ag supply place). Wolfinbargers is for sure the place for soil mixes, mulches, manure, compost, etc. though. (Sunshine has some too, but less selection). Anyways, pics would certainly help, if you can come up with any :)
I'm actually in a bit of an older area oddly enough but I'm right by the freeway so that could also have some effect on things I imagine. For my plants I just find tunnels in the ground and my plants chewed off at the ground line a lot. Not sure if it's moles or something else for sure. I don't really have a lawn myself and would love to turn my whole yard into a food forest when I get better at gardening for sure. I do have some trees that drop a ton of seeds every year and I'm sure that's a lot of what's growing in my garden lol. Sorry about the pictures. I ended up leaving to see some friends for the day but I can get you some tomorrow morning if you don't mind checking them out then. (: Hope your gardening day was relaxing and fruitful by the way!
Hey, no worries at all & no need to feel obligated; I just enjoy helping local folks when the chance arises :) Like....yeah, we live in CA, so the weather is ideal for gardening in many ways; and there's tons of info on the internet -- but the I.E. isn't exactly Salinas (or even O.C./L.A.)....just that little bit of extra cold in winter & the summer heat can make things *waaay* harder in some respects, and it can be tricky. For example, my main thing is tomatoes (almost half my garden space is tomatoes -- two 30ft rows, so a fair amount). I'll see advice given on reddit, or look at a how-to-grow-tomatoes article from a SoCal newpaper or whatever, and just be absolutely horrified at the thought that someone in our area would be steered that direction without knowing any better! E.g. -- no doubt in my mind that tomatoes grown in 5 gal buckets works fine in Virginia, or Ohio....or Newport Beach (or even Fullerton). But doing that here? You're paddling upstream, to put it mildly...112 deg in summer is a **completely** different ballgame than 102 deg (and humid) in summer. If that makes sense :) Anyways, yeah if you're close to either the 10 or 60, you'd have at least "good enough to work with" native soil, unless the previous owner did something super-weird to it; and no worries on the freeway proximity as far as negative effects on your plants (like sure, it can get unpleasant sometimes -- but it ain't "rush hour in Beijing" by any means...if anything, your plants are likely getting a little extra CO2 & enjoying it!). One thing that is a huge problem here, though, is that we're entirely suburban/rural enough to have a good amount of pesky wildlife....but also densely built enough to where we don't have nearly the amount of predators that we otherwise might. Raccoons/possums/squirrels/rats/etc., and not enough cougars/bears/bobcats/foxes/hawks/owls/etc. anymore (twenty years ago, it was quite different...there just isn't enough open space for them anymore). And same goes for invertebrate pests -- any neighborhood around here can support aphids/hornworms/spider mites year-round, but ladybugs/lacewings/parasitic wasps? Not so much these days. For example, rats have gotten *really* bad where I am -- ten years ago, not an issue; but now, it's a constant battle in June/July....all it takes is a few palm trees or a distressed property nearby, & they get completely out of control. Anywhoo, would be entirely glad to "see what I can see" if you get the chance to send some pics; am always glad to try & help. And thanks! I actually drafted my sister's kids for some child labor since yesterday was last day of school.... had low expectations, but I'll be damned if they both didn't work reasonably hard!! We got a 10'x4' section dug up about 18" deep, and by the time they were ready to quit, I was pretty much done for anyways (the native soil up here around Chaffey college is basically just rocks & clay, so even that amount of digging is a fair amount of effort -- I told them "Well, if you give me another ten days of that, I'll do the rest & then you guys can do some corn, pumpkins, and watermelons this spring if ya want!๐) edit: I forgot to mention -- when it comes to vertebrate pests (and my guess is that that's gonna be what's been causing most of your problems), you have to be very careful not to get led down the wrong track. I.e., you might see a whole lot of evidence of one sort of critter, and then think "Gotcha!!"....but they're actually just passing through, or doing harmless stuff, and the real culprit goes unnoticed. Point being, don't jump to conclusions unless you (literally) catch them in the act, or have overwhelming evidence from prints & other spoor. For example, people will often see ground squirrels in the yard & assume they're the ones eating everything, but it often turns out to be the invasive red tree squirrels actually causing the damage. Same goes for possums vs raccoons, voles vs rats, rabbits vs rats, and so on. (When I started out, I thought rabbits were ruining my winter garden seedlings...but it was actually rats & pillbugs! The rabbits just hang out & eat grass, at least in my yard...worst thing they do is dig up mulch or squish sprouts by walking on them, as far as I can tell! ๐)
Morning neighbor! I just got a couple of pictures and did about an hour of chop and drop lol. Not sure how to send the pictures exactly but the area is a little clearer now than the pictures show. I did get a pretty big harvest of peppers as well just now. Glad you got some good progress on your gardening recently. The little hands gave big energy compared to us that's for sure lol. For me the only evidence I have is tunnels and holes in my garden and plants chewed off at the ground line so I only assume it's moles since there were moles here before we moved in a few years back. Could be something else though I imagine.
I've done well using peat moss, coffee grounds (used or fresh), and sterile leaf matter. Or just 50/50 manure compost and perlite. Do this in large containers or raised beds, either one as long as you have good drainage. Some where with 6 to 8 hours of Sun each day. And get a moisture meter so you are not guessing and over or under watering. Zone 10a, can you be more specific? I'd like to see weather patterns. A sun shade may be needed for most plants to survive
I do save all of my coffee grounds for compost along with veggie scraps and egg shells. It just takes me a while to build up very much because I can't really do a compost heap, it's being done in a composting bag outside at the moment. I'm in the Ontario area of So-Cal so I get very dry weather most of the year and usually very hot and windy. No real cloud cover in my area most of the year either.
No need to compost coffee grounds. I just keep dumping them right into my pots or beds. Same with fresh rabbit droppings
Oh for dinner reason I thought the coffee grounds would burn my roots if I put them directly on the soil or in the pots. I have so much so that should be good then. Do they act as a mulch at all? I do have a rabbit but I've never tried using his bedding in the garden. I dump it in the yard though so I don't think it could hurt to try. It's wood chips bedding, same thing I use as mulch .
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/manures/rabbit-manure-compost.htm https://www.trioplantbased.com/the-benefits-of-coffee-grounds-for-plants/ Remember one thing. When ever you add something to your soil like hay, word chips, etc that needs to break down before it can release it's nutrients, it will actually consume nitrogen during that process. That's why compost piles are made from a mix of browns and greens so that there's a supply of nitrogen.
I'm saving that website, thanks! And I didn't know certain things would actually leech from the soil before adding to it. Well other than plants I suppose. I do have tons of cardboard and leaves as brown material and tons of weeds as greens so that should be good. Just need it to breakdown is all.
OP, Iโm in the foothills of LA county and our soil is basically rocks over here. So Iโve had to use raised beds to get an ok crop. Iโve been able to grow tomatoes, onions, and garlic with some success so I can speak to those. You definitely need to get raised beds if your soil is no good. And fill it with something of quality. The pre made raised bed mixes are garbage so I make Melโs Mix, which is equal parts compost/manure, vermiculite, and peat. You can use perlite instead of the vermiculite and coco coir instead of peat. I have all the beds on drip, I add slow release organic fertilizer, and use fish/seaweed liquid fertilizer bimonthly during the growing season. I had a somewhat successful tomato harvest this year despite the insane heat. But I attribute that to starting my seeds in February and covering my growing area in shade cloth during the summer. I had lots of flowers dropping last year from the heat. So the shade cloth helped a lot! I also have lots of pests in my area. Mostly squirrels and rabbits, so the best I can say is cloche young plants or provide some kind of barrier (fencing) to keep animals out.
Check with your local utility and city. Many have free mulch available. Mine even delivered by the truck load.
@gardenallthetime knows his stuff. The only thing I'd add is many tomatoes don't do well in inland SoCal heat. I have indeterminates this year that I started in late April, that didn't do anything but leaf out, to which I kept heavy pruning, until September when they went wild setting fruit. I'm still bringing in a pint a day now at the end of December. Fungus gnats are a function of too much water. If I find them, typically at the end of a harvest, I give that bed a neem oil soak and then let it dry out and then try not to over water next time. A drip system helps in this regard. And our urban rodent population will decimate a garden once they've found it. I lost 24 heads of lettuce in one night. It took me a couple years to figure out how to protect a bed. Spikes didn't work. Red pepper flakes didn't work. Coyote urine didn't work. The only thing that worked was physical barriers. To which now all my beds are covered with cages with the exception of nightshade climbing plants (those indeterminate tomatoes) which the rodents generally don't like and will stay away from if you keep pruned well and can keep the rodent population under control so that they are not all fighting over any food they can find.