Making Drainage Holes in a Metal Container

All along my brick patio I have a beautiful container garden that is flourishing since I installed a drip irrigation system.  I like planting lots of edibles in containers.  I have quite a few containers that have some of my favorite plants like Mint and arugula.  These containers stay outside year after year.  There are a lot of different types of containers you can use.  I love terra cotta pots and glazed containers, but for me, in my New England climate, I have to bring those into my shed once the growing season is over or risk them cracking when the weather gets below freezing; a big chore in late fall. Plastic containers are a turn off for me, but I love galvanized metal containers.

Harvesting My Three Sisters Garden

As you may already know, I love planting a three sisters garden every year.  The three sisters are corn, beans, and squash.  I have adapted this Native American method of gardening to fit into raised beds. In my video, it is growing in beautifully.  The beans are ready to be harvested.  Every year I wait and wonder when the beans will be ready for harvesting.  It seems so long for the first flowers open on the pole beans and then before I know it, the beans are ready to be harvested.  They taste delicious raw. This video is part two of my native American Three sisters garden video series.  You will see an update on my garden and join my daughter and I picking beans.

Tips for Making stuffed Grape Leaves

For years I have been cultivating grapes in my back yard garden in New England.  It takes three to 4 years before they start producing grapes.  All that time all I grew were grape leaves.  I finally learned how to make stuffed grape leaves. I have a neighbor whose grandparents are Greek and would visit with him during the summer. Every year they come by my farm stand and get the usual: a dozen eggs, some leaf lettuce, and a bunch of my grape leaves.  Stuffed grape leaves are easy to make, but do take some time.  They are so delicious it’s worth the wait!  Dolmades:  is an Arabic term meaning "something stuffed."

Tips for Mulching Your Garden

I have found that mulching my vegetable garden is a must for me.  It helps keep the weeds out and the moisture in.  I like using cocoa shells and newspaper around my plants.  There are lts of things that can be used as mulch.  Some more popular and redily available mulch is Cedar mulch.  It takes a long time to decompose.  Cocoa Shell mulch smells amazing.  It comes from the waste when chocolate is made.  It is also a great soil conditioner.  I love using newspaper because I am keeping it out of the landfill and reusing it to grow edible plants.  The newspaper will break down within the growing season.

Eco Friendly Christmas Tips

There are many things that everyone can do to make this christmas an eco-friendly Christmas. The first thing you have to do is start with the all important christmas tree.  In an effort to lessen my impact on the earth. I've chosen to use a live Christmas tree. After Christmas, I'll plant it and be able to enjoy it year after year outside in my landscape.  Live trees can be pricey, mine cost about $125 but even if you're opting for a cut Christmas tree or a store-bought plastic tree, there are still things you can do to be eco-friendly.  Try making your own ornaments to trim the tree. It’s a great way to get kids involved.

At Home with Patti Moreno, The Garden Girl

Reality TV  is all the rage and over the summer I pointed the cameras behind the scenes of my everyday life.  I can't believe I'm even showing you this! During the growing season my family life revolves around meals.  Eating fresh from the garden is so muh fun. In the video, I graze thru out my garden for a quick snack of freshly picked fruit.  Then it’s time to gather my ingedients from the garden for the evenings meals, I pick everything that I need for a fresh from the garden family dinner.  Cooking with the family is always special.  In the video, we all take turns helping to cook dinner and document the process.

Make Way for Ducklings Part one

My first experience raising ducks wasn’t the greatest, but they sure were delicious.  This year the family and I decided to try it again, but this time just for fun.  Our big pond was just calling for wild birds.  We raised them indoors starting when they were a day old.  Soon we took them outside to walk around near the pond and they went into the pond.  I find it so facinating that they always stick together.  What a great way to spend an early spring day watching the ducks.

Starting a Vegetable Container Garden Indoors

A Little Bit About Me

I grew up in New York City and had no idea what a garden was. The gardening bug bit me when I became a mother. After my daughter Alejandra was born, I looked in the mirror, saw that I had gained 70 pounds, and decided I had to do something about it quick. A new mother in a new house, I decided to start getting into shape by working on landscaping my yard at our home near Boston.

Green Resolutions for the New Year

For me green means being conscious about my impact on the environment, conserving energy, managing my waste, and connecting and nurturing nature through gardening.  This transformation didn’t happen overnight.  Every year I incorporate new sustainable lifestyle choices.  For example: I stopped using any paper or plastic cups, plates, napkins, and paper towels, I also switched to storing leftovers in canning jars instead of plastic containers, and I use Seventh Generation brand toilet paper.  This might be a drastic change for you, so I’ve put together a few green resolutions for the New Year to get you started toward living a greener lifestyle.

Container Gardening

For the vast majority of city and suburban gardeners the use of some form of container gardening is a must. From traditional terracotta pots to galvanized metal to the more ornate, container gardens can grow a surprisingly large amount of organic vegetables for you and your family to enjoy. Gardens can be as large or as small as you want them to be. From giant greenhouse operations to a few potted plants in and around the house or apartment. It all depends on how much space and time you want to devote to it. For the beginner, it is always best to start out small and then expand gradually. No matter what size your garden is, you will find that your plants are dependent on three major things, Soil, water and Light, without these elements in their proper amounts nothing can be successfully grown.

Favorite Holiday Gifts for Gardeners

The holidays are here and it’s time to pick that perfect gift for that special someone in your life.  Here’s a list of my top gifts for the gardener this winter.  Have a Happy, Healthy, and Safe New Year.

Tools: Radius Garden Tools

For me my garden tools are crucial to growing fresh organic vegetables in my back yard.  I’ve been using Radius Garden tools for years because of their durability and ergonomic design.  They have a lifetime guarantee also, so if anything happens to them, they can be replaced.  Now that’s value.  From Hand tools to rakes and shovels get Radius Garden Tools and garden more, hurt less.  Visit http://www.radiusgarden.com to purchase a set.

Make Way for Ducklings

I often sit by my pond as still as I can hoping to see a heron or other wild bird swoop down and take a dip.  Last fall a teenage hawk spotted my pond and stopped by for a visit.  It was truly a treat for a city girl like me to see that kind of wild life right outside my door.  This inspired my family and I to raise a small flock of ducks this year.  We acquired day old mallard ducks in early spring and raised them inside until they were big enough to live outside.  We set them loose on the pond in the front yard and instinct took over. They looked so at home in the pond.  My cameras were there to capture them on the water in this video when they were 4weeks old.  I raised two ducks a few years ago before I installed my pond. It wasn’t the best experience, but they sure tasted good.

How to Grow an Olive tree in a container

I’ve always loved olives.  I don’t know if it comes from my Spanish heritage, or my early exposure to Homer’s Odyssey, but I’ve always enjoyed eating them and the fact that they are a symbol of peace made it a no brainer for me to try to grow my own olive trees.

Then it hit me.  I live in New England where it is void of olive groves or rich heritage surrounding them.  Olive trees traditionally grow in subtropical climates (Ahh to live in California) and are native to the Mediterranean. They are hardy from zone 7-9.  Living in zone 6 makes it impossible to grow olives outdoors.  I started researching and came across some interesting techniques for growing olive trees in containers.  The first thing I discovered is that because these evergreen trees grow slowly they have traditionally been grown in terra cotta pots and used in topiaries for centuries.   I also found more contemporary applications where landscape artists have used olive trees for bonsai.

Uses for Fallen Leaves in the Garden

Fallen leaves are a rich resource for your garden.  In the city to the suburbs the norm for some time now has been to rake up the fallen leaves and put them in paper bags on the curb to be picked up.  This is energy misplaced.  The best thing for any home gardener to do is to utilize the leaves right in the back yard.

Tips for Raking leaves:  Rake leaves onto a tarp.  This will make it easy for you to move them around your yard.  Once you’ve raked the leaves onto the tarp, use a push mover to shred the leaves.  This will help the leaves to brake down faster.

Planning Next Year’s Edible Harvest

Just as soon as the leaves start falling off the trees and the days become noticeably shorter.  I begin planning my garden next year.  There are those things that I grow every year like lettuces asian greens, herbs, cucumbers, eggplants, onions, and too much to list here.  There are also new veggie delights I want to try like Peppercorn, vanilla, Figs, Dragon Fruit, and kumquats.  That’s just a preliminary list of course.  I place my seed order the end of January, so I have time to start my seeds indoors at the appropriate time. This is when I also figure out how much more room I need.  I seem to expand my growing space every year. I’ve got plenty of room in my container garden to add quite a few containers and I’ve finally built up enough soil in 4 raised beds so I’ll be able to bring 132 square feet of growing space on line this spring.

Organic Gardening Articles:

Weed control has been an issue for gardener’s going back thousands of years and one of the things that bedeviled me in my early gardening years. Let’s face it, weeding is pain, it can be back breaking, ruin the “look” of your garden and rob your plants of needed sunlight, water and nutrients. But a few years back I learned that weeds are essentially missed placed plants, they are kind of like teenagers, they just want food, shelter and a place to reproduce and your garden is a wonderful place for them to do that. As an organic gardener your goal isn’t complete eradication, if it is you’re probably reading the wrong magazine, the goal is, like with teenagers, control and I find that there are three major steps in controlling your weeds. The most important thing is proper set up and preparation. If you take the time to set up your garden properly you can reduce your time in maintenance, by almost 70%. The simplest thing you can do, weather you garden rows or in raised beds like I do is provide an actual physical barrier to keep those pesky weeds in check.

Start Going GREEN Today!

3 things that you can do save the planet.

You don’t have to become a hippie and live on a commune to do your part for our planet.  There are simple things you can do to live more sustainably.

Start composting. 

Waste is just energy misplaced.  Keep your kitchen scraps out of your garbage can by starting your own worm bin.  Worm bin you say?  Why yes.  Everyone has a plastic storage bin so purge your self of some clutter and transform it into a worm breeding factory.  Put 1/4inch holes on the bottom of the bin and along the lip to allow for airflow.  Line the bottom with cardboard and fill with a thick layer of shredded newspaper and moisten with water, 1 quart of soil to help the composting process, and one pound of red wiggler worms.  Place the bin in a dark area like a pantry or closet in a convenient place for you to access every time you cook.  Place kitchen scraps daily.  A powerful worm bin can digest its own weight in worms, in ideal conditions, every two days!  The more worms, the more it can consume and turn into potent worm castings that you can use on container plants.

Growing and Planting an Italian Kitchen Garden

Italian cuisine is a mainstay in my household and is frequently on the the dinner menu.  I prepare so many meals for my family and my goto meal is spaghetti and meat sauce.  Boy was my family surprised when I changed it up and made tomato sauce fresh from the garden.  They loved it.  Now they ask for fresh tomato sauce all the time.

How did I grow these tomatoes to make unforgettable Italian tomato sauce you ask?  I planted my own italian Kitchen garden in my back yard.  In two small 4'x4' raised beds, I grew almost 100 lbs of heirloom tomatoes, basil, onions and peppers in one growing season.  Not only didi I make fresh marinara, but I made heirloom tomato salad with basil and my personal favorite, pesto sauce.

Plant FIles: Hostas

For me Hostas have been an unappreciated plant for a long time until recently.  They come in so many shapes, colors, and sizes.  I love looking at garden catalogs.  The varieties are almost dizzying. I have a few different varieties of hostas in my garden and I'm not alone.  Many curbside yards in my neighborhood proudly display a row of hostas.

The hostas' flowers start to bloom in early summer where I live in New England.  Hostas aren't usually grown for their flowers, you might never have noticed that hostas even have flowers.  Hostas thrive in shade,  require little or no maintenance, and little or no watering which has made them a hit in the home landscape.  They are great as a border plant or around trees.

Designing Edible and Sustainable Landscapes

On a recent trip to visit my family in Florida, I was struck by the many towns dealing with droughts. Signs strewn through many towns instructed people when they could water a lawn, if ever. At the same time, I saw all the beautifully manicured housing developments and golf courses being watered. I also knew that those green paradises were actually a mirage, turfs soaked in toxic petro chemicals. There is another way. It’s time for Americans to transform their lawns into edible landscapes. Even if you don’t give up your lawn, consider reducing its size, and converting it to an eco lawn using fescue grasses, and adding edibles around your landscape.  You'll be helping the environment and increasing the value of your home in the process. 

Design a City Orchard by planting Fruit Trees

Fall is a fantastic time to plant fruit trees.  About four years ago, I started doing just that and now have plums, pears, peaches, nectarines and apples. It takes a while for your trees to start bearing fruit, but it’s worth the wait.  One of the things I constantly promote in my videos is the importance of beautifying your landscapes, adding value to your property, and contributing to the greening of our planet. Never mind sending a check to some anonymous organization promising to offset your carbon footprint. I follow the ancient Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit in.” My mission now is to plant five new trees a year. 

Six Ways to win the Fight Against Garden Pests

Defending your crops from garden pests doesn’t have to be toxic or expensive or even a lot of work.  Here are some no-cost or low cost organic ways of keeping nematodes a worm like creature that feeds on your veggie roots destroying your plants, aphids a cluster of tiny greenish bugs that live in clusters under the leaves of your plants which suck the sap from the leaves and roots depleting the plant of its nutrients and destroying it in the process, slugs similar to a snail without the shell, feast on leafy greens making them look like Swiss cheese or disappear over night, and other small pests away from your vegetable garden. 

Fall is a Perfect time for an Asian Garden

There’s no better cure for the end-of-summer blues than extending your growing season. It’s as simple as planting cold weather crops. For me, that means a variety of Asian greens, which are great in stir fry and soup. (I have literally knocked snow off of my bok choy for beef stir fry.)  Chinese kale and most kale varieties also do extremely well, if covered, and can add hearty crunch to soups. Bok choy and pok choy are quick to germinate and grow, so I can get a full crop in before the ground freezes. Same goes for many lettuces. 

Growing Strawberries A delicious ground cover

Growing up, every year my mom would get me strawberry shortcake for my birthday.  The combination of spongy cake, whipped cream and fresh strawberry was a delicacy to me as a kid.  So it’s no wonder why my obsession with edible landscapes drew me to growing strawberries. Strawberries can grow in various climates and in most types of soil and growing your own strawberries can be quite rewarding. 

Growing Blueberries

Native to North America, this fruit has gotten a lot of good press this century due to it’s anti oxidant properties thought to reduce the risk of some cancers, but this summer delight has always been popular.

Before I grew my own blueberries, my family and I went to my in-laws place in New Hampshire and picked quarts of them from their high bush blue berry wall!  My daughter picks the ones down low, I pick the ones in the middle and my husband picks the ones up high.  These blueberries have been growing for decades however and it was a great selling point for the property when my in-laws purchased it.  So the first chance I got, I planted blueberries in my back yard.  As with many other fruits it takes a few growing seasons before you can get a good harvest, but once established it takes little maintenance to have a good quantity of fresh healthful blueberries.

Healthy Organic Soil and the Importance of PH

One of the basic principles of organic gardening, as preached by JJ Rodale, is that the soil itself must be a healthy ecosystem all by itself. If you have healthy soil, you will have healthy plants and thus the people will be healthy too. The equation isn't e=mc2 but, it is full of meaning, as it plays out its part in nature's web. Soil is full of millions of types of life, from MICRO bacterial all the way up to worms and hard shelled insects. As the manager of the eco-system it is my job as gardener to nurture my soil as well. Soil is the Key stone in the garden. I can not tell you how many times I have had shade or drought conditions, but powerfully rich soil and the plants and fruits still came out spectacularly. It is like the old Michael Jordan shoe commercial "Must be the Shoes (Soil)"

How to Build a Raised Bed. By Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl

Building a raised bed doesn’t have to be a weeklong construction project.  And don’t expect to spend much on it. (This one cost me just $40.)  You also won’t need much space. A 4-ft. by 4-ft. raised garden bed can supply an adult with a salad at lunch and a vegetable at dinner, for the entire growing season.

The use of raised beds in my system allows you to maximize your growing space. It also modularizes the garden and brings the garden closer to you, removing the back-breaking work. Raised beds are great for people with disabilities, as well, allowing them to get outside and be physical without having to go beyond what they are physically capable of. Raised beds are essential because in my system they house the chickens that fertilize and till the soil. Raised beds also allow you to extend your growing season by making it easy to create micro-climates using things called hoop houses or high tunnels.

Composting Kitchen Scraps with a Worm Bin

A worm bin is a perfect solution for anybody with a small patio or garden.  It also works well for condo dwellers where there are rules and regulations against composting. The worm castings (or worm ‘poo’) make the best natural fertilizer, and its power can be extended by brewing up worm tea to apply when watering all your plants. Not only is it great for your garden, but it will help reduce waste in landfills by getting your kitchen scraps to work for you and your edible landscape.

At home, I compost kitchen scraps, leaves, and other green matter. My neighbors bring me their leaves, and grass clippings even though I’ve encouraged them to compost the materials for themselves.  Then I convert the “waste” into energy. Goodbye, petrochemical poison. Hello, black gold.

Lingonberry in the Edible Landscape
(originally published by Stark Bros)

Have you ever heard of lingonberries?  People in Minnesota have known about it forever, you betcha! City Girl that I am, I’ve known about them for quite some time thanks to the Swedish company IKEA.   There you can buy the berry in every form imaginable as lingonberry concentrate, soda, jelly, jam, and more so I don’t have to tell you they are delicious.  Now anyone with a zone 7 or cooler can grow lingonberries right in their backyard thanks to Stark Brothers.  For me it is important to incorporate a variety of edible plants in my landscape and with all the areas of shade that I have, it’s near impossible to grow edibles now I’ve turned to lingonberries.

Mulching your Garden with Newspaper and Cocoa Mulch

As a square foot/bio intensive gardener, I don't have to worry about mulching very much at all. My plants are too close together and keep the soil shady. To keep my gardens as neat and fragrant as possible I love to compost the newspaper, using it as a mulch and weed prevention cloth. As the Dirt Diva says "Critics should be composted." And I agree. Building and preserving soil is a lot like making a layer cake, layer upon layer of organic material, pilling up and decomposing just like in nature, which is the basis of Pat Lanza's Lasagna Gardening method. Don't use colored and glossy paper. PUT that out for recycling pick up. I then top off the cake with my Cocoa Mulch, spreading it out thickly to keep the paper from blowing away, and off course adding a delicious smell to your garden, making it a magical and wondrous place.

Night Shade Plants

It's odd to think that the tomato and potato are cousins, both from the nightshade family. This makes sense when you look at the leaves of both plants, some types of tomatoes and potatoes even look alike. The heirloom tomato, Tiffen Mennonite, in the video's leaves are potato like, but the two plants couldn't be more different. To properly grow tomatoes they need to have a good amount of water, be supported, and get plenty of sun. Check out my Vertical Gardening series for great info on supporting plants. The plants in my garden get about eight hours of sunlight per day. Soil conditions should be rich and with a PH around 6-6.8.

Composting and Vermiculture

The compost bin I use in my video is the easiest and inexpensive type to make. Just purchase galvanized metal 4 feet tall by 5 feet long. I’m using a ½ inch mesh 19mm galvanized wire. I make a cylinder with it and attach the ends with the wire that is used and comes with the roll. It’s light weight so I can place it any where I need it on my lawn. I start filling the compost bin with all of the leaves that are around it on my lawn. What a great workout! I want to make sure that I include only leaves, pine needles, and small twigs. Large branches won’t compost as fast as the leaves and weeds may contain seeds that are not wanted in my compost... Kitchen scraps may attract unwanted pests. As the winter goes by the leaves will begin to decompose and turn into compost. As that happens you can continue adding more leaves. In a few months I can pop off the wire and spread out the compost on my lawn. It’s the perfect addition to kick start my lawn or garden in early spring. There are different types of compost bins you can make. Check out 2 other types I have around my house.

How to Plant a Three Sisters Garden

Native Americans planted corn, beans, and squash together, calling them the "three sisters". And there were good reasons to do this; they act as companion plants for each other.  I loved planting my Three Sisters Garden this year in a 4x8 raised bed, and my vegetables tasted so fresh. I also got my 11 year old involved in maintaining it.  It's a great way to plant healthful, nutritious vegetables for your family to enjoy.

Sweet Cherry Trees are a Great Addition to Every Home Garden for Fresh Eating (originally published by Stark Bros.)

Here are 4 Reasons you need to grow cherry trees

1. Beautiful cherry blossoms welcome in the spring.
2. Cherries are among the first fruit to ripen. (Prune only for size in late winter when the tree is dormant).
3. Cherries are great as healthy snack alternatives.

Tips for Growing Grapes
(originally published with Stark Bros)

No matter what your experience in gardening everyone can grow grapes in their backyard successfully. Let your grape vines grow over an arbor or trellis as a sunshade or keep trimmed for smaller spaces. This is an excellent low cost way to add value, beauty and summer shade to your patio or deck. Growing grapes is a long term commitment. It can take several years before your vines are mature enough to grow grapes and even longer for a bountiful harvest. Success begins by picking a sunny south facing location for your grape vines. In early spring, plant the grape vines near a vertical support such as a lattice fence, trellis, or arbor. Vines can grow 20 to 40 feet a year so this is a must.

Tomato Planting Tips

Tomatoes are not only the country's favorite plant to grow their mine too. I was originally known in my neighborhood as the tomato lady. Here are a few helpful tips:

• Tomato's need staking and it is best to stake them shortly after you plant them. You can tie the plant to the stake, make sure you do it loosly when the plant is young, or it may strangle and weaken the plant when it gets mature and fruit laden. There are endless ways to support tomatoes, from stakes, to cages, trellising, and I am always eperimenting with new ways to plant them.
• Plant your seedling a deeply as you can. It is okay to remove some of the lower branches. All area of the stem can produce new roots so don't worry.

My Almost Record Tomato

My system of urban gardening really works. This video is the proof. When talking about tomatoes it is the taste that really matters, not size, well sometimes size matters. Anyway, "My Almost Record Tomato" had been on my radar for quite a few weeks, it became part of my daily ritual to check to see how big it got overnight. Finally the day came to harvest the tomato. I couldn't wait another moment. The cameras were there so I could share it all with you. The tomato was a Tiffen Mennonite from my own seed collection. I missed the mark by one ounce of being the 8th largest tomato grown in Massachusetts. This year hopefully, your results will match and even surpass mine. Check out the video and see for yourself. Size really does matter(with veggies anyway).

Compost Tea

Compost tea is not meant for your cup and don’t try to mix in a spoonful of honey either. Compost tea is a simple and easy way to make a little bit of compost go along way. If you are gardening in an apartment or in small spaces, and only have enough room for a kitchen composter this is a great tip. Compost tea is simply inoculating water with beneficial bacteria and nutrients from your small compost supplies you can use it on many more plants than if you distributed its soil form.   To “brew,” take two cups of compost and wrap it in burlap.  Secure the goods or tea bag with a rubber bands and soak your tea bag in a 5 gallon bucket of water.  You can oxygenate the water by pumping air into it or simply circulating it by pushing around the burlaped mass. After 24 hours – and don’t soak it any longer – the beneficial bacteria created through compost will start multiplying.

Fighting Off Weed Invasions in Your Garden

Keeping a garden weed free is the number one thing that makes people give up on gardening. Weeds deplete the soil of nutrients and rob the soil of water; things your veggies need. Some people get discouraged when their neat little plans are ruined by the power of Mother Nature. Think of weeds not as intruders but as simply misplaced plants. Don’t let the weeds get you down, just follow a few of these strategies and the weeds will be in their proper place, not in your garden.

Vertical Gardening

Vertical gardening is a must in order to maximize your growing space when growing vining plants. Cucumbers, watermelons, pumpkins, and grapes all can be grown in small spaces by planting them along a fence, an arbor, or building a support yourself like the one featured in my video. My in-laws in New Hampshire grew watermelons a few years back and they were some of the best watermelons I ever tasted. From then on I was determined to grow watermelon in the city, but most vines grow the traditional way on the ground need a lot of space which we don't have in the city. I started building trellis for my garden beds and using chain link as the perfect support for heavy crops like watermelon and pumpkin. The best types are sugar baby or any small ice box (refrigerator) size watermelon variety.