Introduction to Edible Gardening in Encino

More Encino families are growing vegetables and fruits than ever. But it's harder than it looks, especially when temperatures soar to 95 degrees.

For my part, the first 5 years were amazing as I grew buckets of strawberries and tomatoes, eggplants and zucchinis and then it all came to an abupt end. No matter how much fertilizer and water I added, the result was disaster. I read later about "virgin gardens" and how it's never the same once the soil is depleted. Nowadays I use a lot of 18"x18" redwood panel boxes from Home Depot, and raised beds surrounded by redwood planks, with fresh enriched soil (the high quality kind, not simple planter mix) and lots of water in summer, especially for tomatoes, with up to 6 inches of mulch. I also strongly recommend composting - even if the quantities aren't huge, the soil is the richest you can find anywhere.

The boxes and pots have a great advantage in that they can be moved as the sun becomes too intense. I have them on the south-facing sides of the house and it's an easy matter to move them to catch more or less sun.