Flower Street Urban Garden Tour

Flower Street Urban Garden's planter wall on 44th street overflowing with 
vibrant sweet potato vines.  These vines grew during the hottest part of the
summer in Phoenix on a west-facing block wall!

I have always wondered what laid behind the beautiful planter covered block wall on 44th Street near Thomas in Phoenix, so I jumped at the opportunity when I heard they (Flower Street Urban Gardens) were giving tours on Saturday.  The tour started in the front yard with Alex Billingsley  (the proprietor) explaining the thought that went behind the positioning of the gorgeous redwood raised beds.  He had waited for winter solstice and marked off where the house's shadow ended, and set up the raised beds just beyond that.  That way, even during the shortest days of winter, the garden beds would get the maximum amount of sunlight possible.

I always learn something useful when I go on a garden tour, but on this particular tour I learned A LOT! Alex was just chock full of useful information.

First was to beware when filling / amending  your fall garden beds with store-bought "organic" compost or mulch.  Watch out for ones that include "bio-solids" - another word for sewage-sludge!  Ewwwww!!!  Human waste actually isn't the worst part of sewage-sludge, what is really bad are all the toxins from auto repair shops, salons, prescription drugs, etc. that get washed into the sewers and then become concentrated in the sludge.
Two brands to steer clear of are Kellogs and Miracle-Gro.  For details see Sludge News.  A local company you can trust is Western Organics based right here in Phoenix selling under the brand names Garden Time, Nature's Way, OMNI, Organo and GRO-WELL Soils. When sorting through other brands, look for any warning to wear gloves while handling, which means they added sewage-sludge.  Any product with the OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) seal of approval on it is guaranteed to not contain sewage-sludge. 

The second nugget of info from Alex was regarding the use of bricks or cinder-block in constructing garden beds.  Some may contain "fly-ash" a byproduct from the coal production industry, containing heavy metals which over time may leach into your garden soil.  The EPA claims the amount is "negligible", but our EPA isn't as trustworthy as in years past.  The EPA has sadly and dangerously transitioned from being a regulator of industry into a partner of industry.  So buyer beware if you are buying bricks for your garden beds!

These vertical beds are on a south facing block wall
and are still going strong after a long hot Phoenix summer!

Back to the garden tour - I must admit that I had always been skeptical of vertical gardens doing well here in the Sonoran Desert.  My thinking was that the hot summer sun would heat up the block wall, and the heat radiating from the wall would bake and kill the soil and plants in the wall mounted bed.  But Alex explained that the vertical garden beds with their incorporated drip irrigation lines, actually cool the wall, and after seeing the lush growth in Alex's beds at the end of a long hot summer, I'm sold.

Flower Street Urban Gardens offers even more than their signature vertical garden beds.  They also build beautiful sturdy redwood raised beds (as seen in a few photos above) and offer garden planning, installation, planting, irrigation, and upkeep!

Being in a wheelchair, I just LOVE their vertical garden on wheels!
I could get my face and hands right in there
with the plants, bugs, blooms, and bees :-) 

 Also at the tour was Synergy Steel, with great looking steel trellises, steel planter boxes, and cute little chicken coops.  I almost bought a coop and I don't even have chickens!