Action Oriented: Part 1

Small lot urban edible garden

In this series we are asking doomer optimists to give us a little taste of the kinds of actions they are taking in the face of the doom. The idea here is to start to map the breadth of the available activities out there that could get one started on a path toward something optimistic.

Just like our mini-manifestos, we all don’t have to agree about the best activities to pursue, or the ways in which we pursue them. What we agree on is that we should all be taking steps toward action.

It’s a coincidence that doomer optimism shortens to DO, but it could be our mantra, “do!”

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Small lot urban edible garden

Pasadena, CA

Prasan (dhanuraashi@)

When gardening on a small lot (5000 ft2), maximizing the use of space means having multiple functions overlap. The front yard has been constructed primarily as a playground for my daughter. A row of ficus microcarpa trees facing the street function both as a privacy hedge, and to block the sound of traffic. The hand built pergola to its North functions both as a shady picnic spot and a monkey bar set. Additionally, it provides near optimal filtered sun for most of the annual vegetables growing around its perimeter. In Southern California and most of the American Southwest, very few plants can actually tolerate the full sun that is so highly sought on the East Coast and in Europe, especially in summer. The trees that can do this in my garden are the ficus, the mulberry, and the jujube, all of which are incredibly heat tolerant given at least a weekly watering for the first 2-3 years. The mulberries themselves play a triple role - in the South facing front yard, they will provide summer shade to protect both people and the citrus plants, they provide fruit, and they are excellent for kids to climb on. Looking for multifunction trees is essential in a small space garden, especially for families with children such as mine.

Schematic of the front yard

A row of ficus microcarpa screens the street traffic

Permeable synthetic turf lines much of the front yard, which was put in before we started our gardening journey. This has proved both a blessing and a curse - it provides a great play surface, and conserves water - but limits what I can do.

The back garden was paved over by the previous owners, but is where we grow most of our annuals. Most are grown on soil directly laid on the concrete pavers. Provided proper irrigation and fertilization, most annuals, including tomatoes, beans, and even corn - can grow with 10-12 inches of soil. 

Corn growing in summer

Being that most of the garden is on concrete pavers, drip irrigation is not a suitable option. Additionally, drip imposes on its user the inclination to grow crops adjacent to each other. Since, like the front yard garden, the backyard must serve multiple functions, we wanted to maintain the courtyard design, of annual crops and fruit trees on the perimeter, while leaving the center open for social functions.

Backyard schematic

Conventional irrigation isn’t suitable for this kind of setup, and hand watering is infeasible in summer. A combination of approaches is used to irrigate this space. For the vegetable beds, we use buried clay pots, or ollas, which are made of unglazed clay and allow water to seep through the pores.

Komatsuna mustard irrigated by a buried olla

The second system used for fruit trees, vegetables, and other woody perennials is wick irrigation. Clay pots can be cracked by aggressive roots, and so are not suitable for tree crops. Wick irrigation relies on a thick nylon (or other non-organic material) braid to wick water from a reservoir. Plant roots typically grow towards water, and eventually embed themselves into the wick, sucking water from the reservoir on demand. For both the clay pots and the wick reservoirs, summer irrigation consists primarily of refilling containers. This kind of self-regulating system minimizes water waste while keeping plants healthy.

Wick irrigated brandywine tomato

The other useful structure used for planting is a movable planter. For this, I’ve used recycled plastic lumber (which does not rot) on top of heavy duty wheels (which can be purchased at any hardware store).

Movable planters built with recycled plastic lumber

Since the center area has no significant shade in the summer, even clay pot and wick irrigation are insufficient for certain types of plants (particularly citrus). Yet, placing citrus in shade makes for overly sour fruit. The solution of movable planters allows us to move citrus into the center in the spring, fall, and winter, while moving it back under the shade tree in the summer. Additionally, since the backyard is our primarily social space, we can also move trees out of the way for gatherings.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, select your trees wisely. Consider what you need from your trees, which are the most multifunctional living things in your garden, but the hardest to move once you’ve put them in. In the summer-dry climate of inland Southern California, most tree crops that thrive will those that can thrive in the Mediterranean (fig, pomegranate), or the dry-deciduous forests [jangal] of India (Pakistan mulberry, moringa, jujube). Both the moringa and the mulberry are particularly heat-tolerant and can look undisturbed even in the hottest time of year. In addition, they can provide valuable filtered shade for other crops in the summer, while losing their leaves and letting sunlight in in the winter. For those in the American Southwest, understand that when a plant requires full sun in much of our area, you should translate that to morning sun - afternoon shade.

To be clear, this is primarily a garden, not a homestead. I do not aim for self-sufficiency here. I work as an engineer in “Big Tech”, working on a product most readers almost certainly use, and am not reliant on my garden for food. But, like other doomer optimists, I’m skeptical of a society where human beings are driven by technology for technology’s sake. Instead, we should be the ones controlling technology in order to shape and improve the world. Technology should be put in service of the Earth, not the Earth destroyed for technology.

However, in order to do that, we need to have a sense of what is to be done. The garden is a part of the transformation of the home from a center of consumption to a center of production. A home ought to be a production facility - growing vegetables, baking bread, making cheese & yogurt - these are activities that distinguish a home from an extended stay resort. The aim is not to become self-sufficient, but to obtain a yield. And in obtaining a yield, to learn what it takes for a yield to be obtained and yet improve the land. The garden is what allows me to experiment with irrigation, with masonry, with wood. To apply engineering principles of redundancy, flexibility, careful trial and error to a physical task - in fact, to a task rooted very specifically on the exact physical space I happen to occupy. 

My first attempt at building with brick and mortar - water feature in progress

Redwood berry planter

It is important, I think, for children to see their parents work. In most office jobs, that work is invisible to children, and so they tend to see themselves as consumers. But a home with a garden involves work - work that children can help with, work that they can see their parents doing. To see work in progress allows them to imagine what kind of world is possible. For those considering beginning a garden, do not hesitate. Start small, improve one area at a time, and go from there. Good luck!

Cob garden wall built with my little assistant (when she was a toddler)