Gardening in Small Spaces

With shelter-in-place orders in effect, many parks and open space preserves are closed. Many of us are missing our green spaces and want to start our own at home. Some are feeling more distant from friends and family, and find solace in nurturing plants. Others may find self-sufficiency in growing plants for food. In normal times you could look outside the home: volunteer with Our City Forest, join a community garden, help out a friend with their yard, or try covert guerrilla gardening. With social distancing, however, those may be less appealing options.

Regardless of why you may want to start growing plants or a garden, you will need space to do it but maybe you don’t have a yard. Maybe you are renting a room or an apartment. You just might think you don’t have enough space. Well, no worries. There are options for you. It turns out that even in a small space you can grow a successful garden. Even a window or a balcony is sufficient for a start. Some people can make it work with just grow lights.

For a successful small space garden, be sure to choose plants that will do well in your environment. Consider the plants’ environment -- sunlight, humidity, wind, and temperatures.  Most likely, you will have plants in pots or boxes and the size of the container also influences the type of plants you can grow most successfully. Your capacity for plant maintenance is an important consideration as well. If you tend to move often, you will want to think about plants that can move more easily with you. I have a hardy aloe that moved with me half a dozen times! The last couple of times were harder as it had been transplanted to a much larger pot. Whatever plants you decide to get, research the best ways to grow them. 

I once tried to grow air plants in my bathroom, with the naive belief that the humidity from my shower alone would suffice for them to flourish. They did not, however, fare well. And showering more often didn’t help. The room simply did not stay humid enough long enough for them. They did much better after I read about air plant care and started giving them weekly soaks. 

Did you know that you can propagate basil by taking a stem leftover from the kitchen and place it in a jar of water?  Days later, you will see roots sprouting from the basil and, after 2 weeks, you can plant it in a small pot of soil. Eco friendly tip: reuse a plastic yogurt container, or one of those delivery/take-out food containers. Clear containers can be okay, but some plants don’t like sunlight on their roots. Personally, I like to see the root structure through a clear container. Use the appropriate compost mixture for best results. You may scoop some soil from outside, but it comes with risks -- it may not be as rich with nutrients, may contain competing weed seeds, may come with hungry bugs, or contain plant pathogens.

One year, I ran with this basil-growing plan. Every week, I pinched off a branch of basil and started propagating it and eventually I had a small forest of them growing on shelves by the window. At the end of the season, I froze the basil and used it throughout the next year. A plant stand or shelf can help expand your plant capacity within an area.

Introducing new plants into an indoor garden can come with risks. If bugs sneak in with the new plant, they may spread rapidly over your plants since their natural predators are outside. This is where plant social distancing comes into play. You can designate another space to quarantine your new plants for some time until you feel confident they aren’t harboring bugs or disease. This is something I learned the hard way after white flies and aphids wrecked my plants. Sometimes it is unavoidable if the bugs enter through an open window. Beware open windows!

Even potentially large plants can be grown in a small space. I started growing some loquat trees from seed after a friend gave me some of their fruit to try -- they’re tasty and grow well in the Bay Area. Keep in mind not all fruit trees grow true to seed or germinate readily in all weather. I kept the loquat trees outside growing on my apartment balcony. They grew well despite the heat and windy weather. On the other hand, an avocado tree I started could not tolerate the wind exposure and suffered. Over time the loquats stayed small as I kept them in small pots. Years later when I got some yard space, I finally planted them. They have since shaken their bonsai form and are flourishing.

Starting an Easy Pollinator Garden

A pollinator is any of the wonderful creatures that we rely on for our food, our flowers, and an abundance of other resources necessary for our welfare. Pollinators work by depositing pollen among flowers of the same species, which fertilizes the blossoms. This in turn catalyzes the formation of fruit, which contains the seeds that the plant needs in order to reproduce. Pollinators are the foundation of this natural cycle, and can come in the form of bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, and more! Because we depend on these creatures for our livelihood, it’s important that we make an effort to help them, especially since the bee population is in a state of decline.  

In the midst of a pandemic, you might be looking for a source of entertainment that can easily be incorporated into your daily routine and home. One activity that both helps pollinators and occupies you is planting a pollinator garden! Although gardening may seem like a daunting and dirty task, it is quite relaxing, with the added benefit of helping our natural world.

Some common, easy to grow pollinator flowers are calendula, oregano, and zinnia. These plants complement each other well, as they bloom during different seasons. This allows pollinators to have a steady supply of food throughout the year.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• Seed potting soil 

• Three pots (typically plastic with drainage holes at the bottom)

  • I used larger pots for the zinnia and alyssum because they do grow quite a bit

• Seeds for your flowers

The Process

1. Label your pots

   1. Makes it easier to keep  track of the plants

2. Put your soil in your pots

   1. Fill it up to where the line is (located near the top of the pot)

3. Sprinkle your seeds in the dirt, making sure that they are evenly spread out across the surface

4. Gently sprinkle some potting soil on top of the seeds until they are about a ¼ inch to ½ inch deep 

   1. Make sure not to put too much, as seeds are dependent on the sun to germinate

      1. This is especially important for the zinnias

Each plant has its own unique set of requirements needed to grow, such as the amount of sun and water, so I’ve made a chart for the beginning gardeners.

*If it is extremely hot or you notice the soil is very dry, feel free to mist them with water, making sure that the soil is made damp again

**During hot weather, make sure your oregano doesn’t dry out by putting it in the shade after about 4-5 hours of full sunlight

***Try to keep the soil damp for young plants

Some Guidelines:

• When watering, soil should be made damp, not soaking

• Try to water in the morning so the plants have time to dry off before nightfall

• Drainage: If the soil does not drain well, this could negatively impact your seedlings

  • Try to use pots with holes for draining

• Deadheading: Removing the dead flowers from their stems helps make way for increased flowering and longer blooms

• Avoid inorganic pesticides or herbicides

• Water at the base of the plant, so as to prevent any fungus from growing on the foliage

Your plants should have sprouted and grown a bit after three to four weeks. Here’s how mine look:

Zinnias

Oregano

Alyssum

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Websites used: 

Zinnias https://www.almanac.com/plant/zinnias

Oregano http://herbgardening.com/growingoregano.htm

Alyssum https://www.gardendesign.com/annuals/alyssum.html

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/index.shtml

https://diygardening.co.uk/help-bee-population/

The Remarkable Pat Pizzo

Patrick Pizzo is a man of many accomplishments. Pat created an acclaimed display of California native plants in his neighborhood that stretches for six-tenths of a mile. He continues to care for over 100 native oaks that he and his neighbors planted in 1994 with Our City Forest (OCF). He had a big role in restoring and improving Jeffrey Fontana and TJ Martin parks after Pacific Gas & Electric launched a campaign to cut down 140 trees. Pat is also a longtime Tree Amigo with OCF and a teacher--he is a retired professor of engineering materials at San José State University and presently a volunteer math tutor at Branham High School. If these accomplishments are not enough, Pat once received a Green Thumb Award from the Air Force for planting pumpkins at one of its bases.

Speaking with Pat about his many fascinating achievements.

Tim Fillpot, my fellow AmeriCorps Service Member and photographer, and I caught up with Pat near his home on Capitancillos Drive in Almaden. When we arrived, he was tending to his Native Plant Walk, a garden of shrubs native to California chaparral that he began planting in 2002 after retiring from SJSU. The garden follows the undeveloped side of Capitancillos across from his house. It is adjacent to a meadow that runs along the Guadalupe River and adds more color to the neighborhood with wild flowers. The garden showcases drought-resistant landscaping and provides gardeners with ideas for their own landscapes. As of March, 2009, the garden has some 110 different species, each neatly labeled.

Pat has added color and interest to the neighborhood with wild flowers, such as this fine example of Dendromecon harfordii (Island brush poppy).

As of March, 2009, the garden has some 110 different drought-tolerant, neatly-labeled species.

The garden is placed among a line of 126 native oaks, mostly Quercus agrifolia, i.e.,California Live Oak. The trees were planted in 1994 by Oak Canyon residents in cooperation with Our City Forest, which, at that time, was in its first year of operation. Pat participated in the planting, but that was only the beginning of his involvement with the oaks, which has spanned almost 23 years. Since their planting he has watered the trees, pruned them (by his count six times since 1994 and most recently just a few months ago), painted their lower trunks to prevent bleaching, and planted replacements when some of the original trees didn’t survive. In 2003, his daughter purchased a large wagon at Orchard Supply Hardware for him to transport water more easily to the trees and shrubs. He recalls, “I crammed the wagon with jugs of water and pulled it down the street.”  A few years later, Pat and his neighbors began connecting long hoses, which they attached to homeowners’ faucets along the watering route. During the drought in 2014, they stopped watering entirely. “The oaks are drought-resistant natives,” Pat says, “and it was time for them to be on their own.” They are managing their own lives just fine.

126 native trees line Capitancillos Drive near Pat's home, planted by Oak Canyon residents in cooperation with Our City Forest.

Pat is a California native himself. He was born and raised in Willow Glen (on Norval Way to be exact) and attended Willow Glen High School before moving on to San José State and Stanford. His interest in gardening came early.  When he was six years old he crawled through the hedge on the border of his family’s home and and asked permission from his neighbor to start a vegetable garden. “My plot was about 12’ X 12’, and I shared what I grew with the people next door.”

Recalling that his father planted trees on land he owned at Alma and Minnesota that served as a “ranch,” Pat says that gardening “must run in my family’s blood.” His father used a planting technique that most would consider unorthodox today: he seated bare-rooted young trees in muddy ground. Pat thinks “the method is probably European in origin, maybe German or Polish.” However unusual it may seem now, the method worked: the trees his father planted in the ground can still be seen today.

Pat with one of the oak trees for which he has proudly cared for nearly 23 years.

Later, when Pat was an Air Force officer at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento County, his father gave him a generous supply of pumpkin seeds. The military seems like an unlikely place for a gardener to indulge his or her passion, much less win an award for it, but Pat was an exception. He planted the seeds everywhere on the base: outside the chapel and PX, by the commanding general’s quarters, and along the runways. They grew famously, and the Air Force gave Pat a Green Thumb Award.

Thanks to Pat's efforts, many trees were saved and restored at the Jeffrey Fontana and TJ Martin Parks.

In 2010 PG&E began cutting down trees earmarked for removal at Jeffrey Fontana and TJ Martin parks. High voltage power lines run the 1.2 mile length of the parks, and PG&E had tired of pruning trees that eventually would grow into them. Residents in the area were outraged at the loss and responded by forming the Martin-Fontana Association for which Pat chaired the important Restoration and Improvement Committee. The upshot of the Association’s work was that it saved some of the threatened trees and partnered with Our City Forest in a succession of plantings to replace ones that had been lost. Dozens of native shrubs were planted as well, and PG&E even raised the height of its power lines to accommodate the new trees.

No doubt there are other instances in which Pat was an energetic advocate for the urban forest and open space (one is his opposition in 2008 to the commercial development of the San José Fairground site, which he feared would result in “an economically-challenged Santana Row”).  An infomercial host, in presenting the highlights of Pat’s work in the community, inevitably would say, “But wait! There’s more!”

And there is: Pat, as noted earlier, is a volunteer tutor at Branham High School. He also is the steward of 27 trees, half of which are Quercus douglasii (Blue oak), that Our City Forest helped plant in January 2016 along the fence by Branham High’s football field. Until the rains began last month, an OCF truck hauling the 500 gallon “Buffalo” came to BHS every other Friday.  Pat and a group of eight or ten students would meet the truck and draw water into five gallon buckets from the Buffalo. Each young tree then received its biweekly ration of three buckets.

Quercus douglasii overlooking the track and football field Branham High School.

One of the Branham High School students working with Pat to water trees near the football field.

I remarked to Pat how impressed I was with the students; they carry out their watering duties efficiently and earnestly.  He replied, “Yes! They make me feel good about our future.”

Photography by Timothy Fillpot

Update (January 7th, 2020):

It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our dear friend and exemplary Tree Amigo, Pat Pizzo. His passion for California native plants, our urban canopy, and our local parks was admired by many. He was known for gathering other community members to partake in planting trees alongside him and for rallying others around the cause of environmental stewardship. His many accomplishments and lasting impact on our community will surely be remembered amongst those who worked with him, and his legacy lives on in our urban landscape.

The staff, AmeriCorps Members, and board of Our City Forest are grateful to Pat and to the many other remarkable community members like him who continue to propel our mission forward and make our community greener and healthier for future generations.