Grow your own anytime, any place

When Milford Scott moved from the “country” to the “city” a few years ago, he was determined to bring vegetable gardening along with him.

At the Clarks Hill home he built more 43 years ago, his tomato plants towered over his 6’3’’ frame and the fruit they bore were as big as soft balls. Just because he moved into a new house in Martinez he saw no reason why he couldn’t have a vegetable garden again.

“There are no regulations against having a garden in the city,” Mr. Scott said. And he wants to encourage others to have the pleasure of home-grown produce.

Just like the First Lady, Mr. Scott, 80, started with a blank slate, although Michelle Obama had a lot more help.

“It was nothing but red clay,” Mr. Scott said of his back yard that now features a vegetable garden and several fruit trees.

Through trial and error he developed a gardening system that grows cucumbers and tomatoes vertically. He encircled each of his four cucumber mounds with a cylinder of concrete wire. A sturdy trestle serves as the anchor for the ropes and wires that secure each cucumber and tomato plant, allowing each to run as tall as it can. The better boy tomatoes are growing in thick clusters. Mr. Scott took off the bottom leaves of the cucumber plants so he can see the cucumbers to pick.

Mr. Scott dug up the plot and incorporated chicken manure. He prefers to use non-chemical fertilizers such as chicken and cricket manures. The plot has built up over the past five years with grass clippings.

Three years after planting fruit trees, Mr. Scott is picking dozens of plums left after birds take a few first. The pear tree also has fruit this year, and the fig tree seedling he brought from Clarks Hill is bursting with baby figs.

No one should feel hampered by a small yard in the city, Mr. Scott believes. There’s always room for a few vegetable plants that can produce a steady supply of vegetables for you and the neighbors.

If you haven’t mulched your vegetable garden yet, do it now. The soil should have warmed up nicely with all the heat and it will appreciate the cooling and water conservation mulch will provide.

Since the Gnome had questions about mulch, I pulled out some notes from Master Gardening class that could help.

If you chose wood chips, you need a barrier or the wood will drain nitrogen out of the soil. Several layers of newspaper will do the trick to separate the wood from the soil.

Organic mulch is best. Pine straw is a great choice for us, but you can use hay and later hoe it into the soil to add nutrients.

Stone will collected and keep heat in – be forewarned, this is Augusta. Remember not to let mulch touch the trunks of plants. It can cause rotting. Plan to cover any bed to a depth of 3 to 5 inches.

Avoid these as mulches: Nutshells (can contain the dreaded nematodes) Fresh wood chips (should always mature first) Straw and hay are fine around vegetables but can contain weed seeds