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Chapter 1

Creating Your Garden Ecosystem

There are many things to consider when planning a garden. Location is everything, but not the only thing. Sure, it’s important to make sure that your garden will get enough sun (a minimum of six hours per day), but let’s talk about the other factors. Let’s talk about your garden ecosystem. After all, your garden is a community of living things, and, for it to flourish, they will all have to get along together.

Wherever your garden is located, be it on a balcony, on a patio, or in a backyard, you will want to create an environment that supports your efforts. Your garden’s ecosystem can provide shelter, windbreaks, and even pest-control assistance if you include a few key elements. From simple to more complex, the following components all play a role in that ecosystem.

A water source for pollinators and wildlife is part of your ecosystem.

Habitats

Established trees are an important part of your garden’s ecosystem. Not only do they absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen for a healthier planet, but they also provide a place for birds and insects to live. Ants and other insects crawl through the trees’ bark, and birds take advantage of that traffic. Birds build nests and lay their young or visit on their way to higher latitudes. Then they scavenge your garden for food, and, in the process, they provide pest-management services for you, gobbling up bugs and worms.

You can help provide a reason for birds to congregate in your garden by hanging bird feeders and seed cakes. Birdhouses, made from gourds or wood, provide a habitat as well. Many gardeners grow sunflowers, which develop dinner-plate-sized seedheads, to attract birds. While it’s true that these winged creatures will enjoy your sunflowers whether you want them to or not, the benefits of having birds in the garden generally outweigh the negative effects.

Bats

Bats, if you have them in your neck of the woods, help reduce the pest population by swooping through the sky at dusk like airborne vacuum cleaners, eating bugs in midflight. According to Bat Conservation International, bats consume “night-flying insects, including many of the most damaging agricultural pests… A single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour.”

Bats serve other purposes as well. Did you know that they are pollinators? As they drink nectar from flowers, they help pollinate many cacti and fruiting plants. As a bonus, they leave behind droppings called guano, which happens to be among the best fertilizers around. Bat droppings include 11–16 percent nitrogen, 8–12 percent phosphoric acid, and 2–3 percent potash—all components of healthy soil. Guano can also serve as a composting starter and a fungicide.

If you are reluctant to welcome bats into your world, this is a good time to let go of creepy bat stereotypes. With bat populations in serious decline, they need all the help they can get. You can install a bat house on a wall under the eaves of a home, garage, or shed to encourage bats to take up residence. Bat houses are narrow boxes with even narrower compartments inside (about ¾ inch [2 cm] deep) that allow bats a place of safe, dark shelter. In a study published in The Bat House Researcher in spring 2004, it was revealed that bats prefer larger bat houses (at least 20 inches [51 cm] wide x 25 inches [64 cm] high) that are painted and mounted on buildings rather than mounted on posts or trees. You can find several free plans for building your own bat house, along with tips for attracting bats, on the Bat Conservation International website, batcon.org.

Consider a bat house to attract this helpful animal to your garden.

Toads

Toads are another great addition, and pest consumer, for your garden. They consume slugs (yay!) and worms (such as nasty cutworms that mow down your kale plants before the seedlings ever reach harvesting size). Granted, toads don’t inhabit every climate zone, but where there is moisture and shelter, they often make a home. Make a toad house out of a terra-cotta pot by chipping off a wedge of the upper rim of the pot. Turn the pot over, nestle it into a grassy corner, and voilà! You have a toad house with a little entryway. Provide a water source, like a fountain or shallow pond, and toads will find your garden very desirable.

Bees

Bees are critically important to our garden ecosystem. They are responsible for pollinating a huge percentage of crops, constituting one out of every three bites of food we eat. Without bees, we wouldn’t have many of the fruits and vegetables we bring to the table. The presence of bees in your garden can boost yields by between 10 and 50 percent, according to independent studies on a variety of crops. Even crops that don’t require bees in order to set fruit appear to benefit. Cheryl Miller of Sustainable Harvest International reported on coffee farmers in Honduras for The Rodale Institute, explaining that “coffee plants are capable of self-pollination, so for a long time researchers did not think insects made much difference to the crop. But studies show that when bees pollinate coffee plants, yields can increase by more than 50 percent.”

A honey bee rests on a beekeeper’s arm.

Farmers hire beekeepers to bring hives to their fields, but urban beekeeping is gaining popularity with home gardeners. As colony collapse disorder (CCD) continues to decimate the world’s bee population (theories about what causes it range from cell phones to mites to pesticides), gardeners are taking the fight into their own hands by setting up beehives as part of their ecosystems. Some place hives on their roofs, while others situate their hives in corners of their backyards, pointing toward walls to direct bees upward on a path away from humans.

Geeky Gardening TiP:

Be One with the Bee

Bees only become aggressive if their hive is being threatened. Many gardeners enjoy tending their gardens while bees hover nearby. Bees come and go as they please, pollinating your vegetables and fruit trees, increasing yields, and leaving behind a legacy of bountiful harvests.

Build a Swarm Box for Bees

If you want to dive into urban beekeeping or invite bees into your ecosystem, start by attracting a swarm to your garden. It’s not as scary as it sounds. You can order bees by mail, but it’s expensive. It’s actually better to attract a swarm that may be passing through or one that frequents your yard already. When a swarm is looking for a new home, the bees are at the least aggressive stage in life because they don’t have a home or offspring to protect. A swarm box provides a temporary habitat (instead of inside your wall or water-meter box) in which bees can congregate. Once you’ve collected a swarm in the box, you (or, better yet, a local beekeeper) can transfer the colony to a proper hive that will live on your property.

HoneyLove (HoneyLove.org), a nonprofit urban beekeeping organization in Los Angeles, California, is on a mission to educate residents about keeping bees. HoneyLove was instrumental in the effort to legalize beekeeping in Los Angeles and spends countless hours rescuing bees from “unsupported” locations. If a homeowner finds a swarm living in his or her walls, HoneyLove is one of many organizations that will come and remove the colony without killing the bees. The founders of HoneyLove strive to find a home for the bees with a farmer or homeowner in an area where beekeeping is legal.

Basic swarm box

Rob McFarland of HoneyLove explains that “swarming happens when a thriving colony of bees has outgrown its home. The existing queen and 60 percent of the worker bees exit the hive in search of a new dark, hollow space to colonize, leaving the remaining bees with all the essentials to build the colony back up—honey, pollen, brood (baby bees), and a virgin queen.” Swarm boxes can be made from a plethora of materials, including untreated wood (no particle board, please), cardboard boxes, and even wicker baskets. The bees are looking for a hollow cavity with a capacity of between 8 and 10 1/2 gallons (30 and 40 L), which equates to a box about 10 inches (25 cm) high x 20 inches (51 cm) wide x 10 inches (25 cm) deep. Be sure to include a small access hole (about 1¼ inches [3 cm] in diameter) on one side of the box, near the bottom. You’ll also need a way to cover the hole once bees inhabit the box. You’ll screw rather than nail on the top of the box to make it easier to open the container when it’s full of bees.

Some sources suggest hanging foundationless frames inside the box. These are either strips of wood that sit along the top, inside the box (usually coated with a narrow line of beeswax to encourage bees to build a comb there), or wood frames that do not contain a starter sheet of beeswax. The box shown doesn’t use frames or strips.

A swarm of bees hangs from a tree branch.

Indigenous communities have made swarm boxes out of wicker baskets (such as small office-sized wastebaskets), each covered securely with a sheet of plywood on top. These baskets, as well as the more formal wooden boxes, can be attached to trees for awaiting bees. To do so, nail a flat piece of wood to the back of the swarm box that extends above the box for several inches (7 or 8 cm). Drill a ½-inch (1.25-cm) hole in the extension and hang it on a tree from a nail. You can also secure it on a thick branch. Either way, you will want to make it easy to remove the box when it is full of bees.

There are two other key ingredients in the swarm box: a cotton swab with a dab of lemongrass oil inside and a nearby source of water. Lemongrass mimics the scent of the queen’s pheromones, and bees get thirsty and will go elsewhere unless they have access to water. Check your swarm box weekly for a colony and, when it’s been colonized, get help moving the bees to a proper hive box—and then get ready for higher yields in the garden.

To encourage bees and other beneficial insects, grow beneficial flowers. What the heck are those, you ask? Let’s take a closer look.

Beneficial Flowers and Their Friends

Some beneficial flowers attract pollinators, such as bees and wasps, to the garden. Other types of flowers attract insect predators, such as parasitic wasps (about the size of a gnat) and praying mantises. Still another type of flower works like a trap crop, excreting an odor that attracts pests to the plant instead of your valuable crops. Calendula or nasturtiums, for example, are reliable trap crops, because they have a strong scent, and it isn’t uncommon to find them infested with aphids. Great! Leave those aphids right there. Now they aren’t destroying your broccoli plants. With trap crops, you can isolate pests to one area of your garden and avoid using sprays to control their populations.

Nasturtiums act as a trap crop to lure pests to their flowers instead of your veggies.

Calendula and hyacinth feed pollinators.

No More Pests?

Why not just wipe pests out altogether? Good question—and the answer is even better. If you eliminate pests completely, then the beneficial insects will have nothing to eat. Remember, your ecosystem is all about balance. Have the right balance of ingredients (in this case, pests versus beneficial insects), and your garden will achieve a balance all its own. You won’t have to work as hard to keep pests under control, and you’ll be able to enjoy more of your harvest in an unmolested state. We’ll discuss specific plants to include in your ecosystem in Chapter 9 in the Good Bugs versus Bad Bugs section. For now, just know that planting flowers can be beneficial to your garden’s health.

Where should you plant them? Just like trees, beneficial flowers function wonderfully as a hedge or border to your garden. Plant flowers around the perimeter to encourage insects to make a home there. Flowers can also be planted between crops to assist with pest control in planter beds. A combination of both scenarios will help ensure balance.

Nerd alert! A sundial watch and a compass ring can be handy, easy-to-carry garden tools.

Garden Orientation

Get out your compass; it’s time to determine the best orientation for your garden. If you live in the northern hemisphere, a south-facing garden is best (in the southern hemisphere, of course, the opposite is true). The sun rises in the east, and because the earth’s axis is tilted, the sun travels across the sky from east to west at a southerly angle. Therefore, if your garden is situated so that it is exposed to that southerly arc of the sun’s path, your garden will get the full-sun exposure—at least six hours per day—that is required to grow vegetables. Many times, situating a garden at the northernmost point of the yard allows for the best southerly exposure. If your yard is shadowed by trees or tall buildings, the best location for a garden may indeed be your front yard. The open streets often allow for unobstructed full-sun gardening.

In the winter, the sun’s arc is lower in the sky, so shadows from surrounding buildings or trees will be longer. Take this into account when planning out your location if you live in a climate where winter gardening is feasible. If the only space available gets sun in the summer but is in shadow in the winter, consider planting crops that do well in partial sunlight or shade during that time. Swiss chard, kale, strawberries, and many herbs will tolerate partial shade.

Another thing to consider when plotting out your planter beds or rows is their orientation. Again, full-sun exposure is the goal. If you lay out your beds or rows with the longest sides running east to west (yes, this is contrary to what some experts say), your plants will have equal access to that full southern exposure as the sun crosses the sky. For example, let’s say you have a 4- x 8-foot (1.2- x 2.4-m) raised bed. Orient the bed so that the long side, the 8-foot (2.4-m) length, runs from east to west. Why does this really matter? The answer lies in the next part of planning your garden’s orientation.

Geeky Gardening TiP:

Compass Alternative

If you don’t have a compass, open Google Maps and type in your address. The top of the results page, regardless of satellite or map view, always points north. Zoom in close enough to see your property, and you can assess what direction your garden faces.

Plant Placement

Once your garden is laid out, you can start planning what plants go where. This may seem obvious, but it’s a bit of a trick to ensure the best sun exposure for your plants. It’s time to think about the vegetables you want to grow in terms of their height. For best results, place tall and trellised plants toward the north, and shorter or trailing plants to the south. Again, in the southern hemisphere, these directions should be reversed.

 Tall and trellised crops: asparagus, corn, cucumbers, fava or bell beans, grains (such as wheat, quinoa, and oats), melons (see Chapter 8 on Keeping Order), peas, pole beans, and tomatoes

 Medium crops: most brassicas (such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, kale, collards), celery, eggplant, garlic, leeks, okra, onions, peppers, potatoes, shallots, summer squash (such as zucchini and yellow crookneck), and Swiss chard

 Short and trailing crops: arugula, most herbs, kohlrabi, lettuces, radishes, root crops (such as carrots, parsnips, and beets), spinach, watermelon, and winter squash (such as pumpkins and acorn squash)

 By placing shorter crops in front of (or to the south of) taller crops, all plants have access to full sun and won’t compete or overtake one another. Let’s take that same 4- x 8-foot (1.2- x 2.4-m) raised bed and plan out the crops to be planted here.

Note: Reverse this in the southern hemisphere.

Tallest to Shortest

Tall crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers, which can be trellised, are located in the back or at the north end of the raised bed. Medium crops, such as peppers, eggplant, and Swiss chard, are placed in front of the tallest crops, closer to the south. Finally, the shortest crops, like lettuces, spinach, carrots, radishes, and arugula, are placed in the southernmost part at the front of the raised bed. This allows all the vegetables to access full sun.

Strategically placed trellised cucumbers can be a source of shade for plants that need it.

Now, for the cool part—literally. This plant-placement method can also be used to strategize in hot weather to protect plants that can’t handle extreme temperatures in the summer months. For example, lettuces bolt to seed quickly in hot weather, making them bitter and inedible. You can strategically grow cucumbers on a trellis in the middle of the raised bed, in the medium row, and then plant lettuces to the north or behind the cucumbers in the shadows of the plants. Ta-daa! A cucumber sun umbrella. The lettuces will stay cooler during hotter weather and resist the urge to peter out so quickly.

Planting short or trailing crops to the south also has a benefit. When it comes to trailing crops like pumpkins and watermelons, they can take over your entire garden without much effort. Usually, these trailing crops tend to grow toward the sun, so by planting them toward the south end of the raised bed, the vines will gravitate southward, into your pathways, instead of consuming precious space in your raised bed. This will leave room for other crops without sacrificing an entire bed. Vigorous plants will still attempt to sprawl all over the place, but you can easily move the vines out of the way because they only attach to the ground at the roots. Note: Pumpkins can produce roots along the vine, but if you are diligent in redirecting vines before they anchor new roots, it won’t be a problem.

Special Considerations for Wildlife and Extreme Temperatures

If you live in foothills, mountainous areas, or recently developed areas where deer, raccoons, or ground-dwelling animals reside, you may need to take additional steps when setting up your garden. It’s possible you’ll need to construct fencing, underground barriers, or even a walk-in structure in order to protect your garden. If you’re going to put in all the effort to grow some of your own food, you might as well reap the benefit of being able to harvest it all. And let’s not forget household pets. A low barrier may not be enough to keep Scruffy from trampling your raised beds and eating your tomatoes (yep, they do that). Most of these protections will be discussed in Chapter 9 (Pest Control), but keep this in mind as you plan out your gardening area.

If your region experiences frost or high temperatures for extended periods of time, you may want to include overhead protection for your crops. Desert communities often use shade structures to protect their plants from scorching during hot summers. Simple metal frames or PVC hoops can be covered with shade cloth to block out 30 to 70 percent of sunlight. When temperatures drop, you can replace the shade cloth with insulated garden fabric. We’ll talk more about this in Chapter 2 (Garden Beds).