It's now late spring, and the weather in Southern California has been all over the place. One day it's cold and hazy. The next, we get 100 degrees, wind-swept afternoons. The "blood moon" of April 15 really must have brought some strange luck to our atmosphere! Something bizarre is occurring. In 3 months, just a few inches of rainfall, and we are in the midst of a real drought. Water conservation is in everyday conversation among Angelenos. Selecting drought-tolerant plants has become the neighborhood talk. But then there are people like me, who still want to grow glorious fruits and vegetables this season! And, so many factors involved in that, from the quality of seeds, to the quality of my soil. Of course, my composting efforts proved to be less than ideal. I am trying, but have yet to succeed. I have great space in my backyard, but naturally occurring sandy based soil. So, I got to thinking, instead of fighting with the soil, constantly amending it, I will just experiment with what is already in the ground. Here are some things I tried:
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| Using a trellis horizontally, from top to bottom, various seeds planted in various degrees of sandy soil. |
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| Squash seeds planted in the sandiest soil are actually germinating! |
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| Fennel seeds germinating in soil that was not amended this season. |
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| An experiment to see how seeds might grow in a box instead of the ground or a raised bed. So far, so good :) |
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