Hiatus...

Haven’t been back to write an update for quite some time now.  We have grass growing in the yard and the rain barrels are full.  Removed all of last year’s tomato plants so things are pretty much primed right now for beginning here in San Diego Spring.  The fact that it comes in December, you would think

a good thing, but I’m finding that getting started on the venture during the holidays is a little challenging.

As most of you know, I had a car accident about 2 months ago, to the tune of about $2300 in repairs.  Needless to say, the cost has set me back a bit on planning for a spring bounty of vegetables this year.  Still, I am hopeful that I can get started on the cheap and maybe just go with something a little less grandiose than I was at first planning.

So I am looking to borrow a roto tiller and still rip up a section of the yard and put in some good compost if I can get it from a friend in town who has an organic farm and lots of poop to spare.  J  Next venture, possibly for this weekend, will be setting up the composting barrels out behind the utility room.  Stay tuned, I promise more updates and photos soon.  In the meantime though, Happy Holidays!

As the rainy season starts in...

Finally got the rain barrells completed.  Friday was one of our wettest so far this year, and with promise of more precip on the way, I wanted to finally get these done!  We are in business folks!

Was some real work tro get the taps drilled and set in the bottom of each of these, but I eventually managed.  Some flex tubing on the rain gutters into the filters and a little work with a handsaw was all that remained.  With any luck, we will see how they work today as the marine layer heads back in from the coast with the promise of more precipitation here in San Diego.  That last picture is what remains of the tomato shrub.  If you can believe, here is what we started with mid season...

For projects moving into winter, just seeded and dried our winter squash crop.  Helps to dry the seeds in a plate of rice after cleaning them (thank you Bob for the suggestion!)...

And last but certainly not least, our winter salad greens...

UPDATE at 7:00pm... I have gone out to check the barrels after the day's rain and have discovered that we have collected about 40-50 gallons just in one day!!  That's nearly an entire barrel!

Rain Barrels

Finally go the rest of the supplies I needed to begin making the rain collection barrels.  Borrowed a few tools to get the job done and followed the instructions that I posted earlier.  It was relatively quick and easy to do.  All that remains now is drilling the taps, fitting the rain gutter downspouts, and propping the tanks up on cinder blocks and we should be in business!

Bob and Adam's Excellent Adventure

As a bit of a change up from my usual, this week I bring you a short interview with my buddies Bob Rebello and Adam Sattley from back home in Colorado.  This year, Bob and Adam grew an awesome home garden that I'd like to tell you all about...


Bruno:  Tell us a little about your inspiration for your urban farming project.
Bob:  Really, it comes down to tons of sun, too much time on our hands.

Bruno:  How large is your garden and what is your crop rotation and yield for this year?

Bob:  We have 3 separate gardens (not including containers and retaining walls that we’ve commandeered for food purposes. Square footage breaks down like this:

• 80 sq ft along the garage: tomatoes, peppers and spaghetti squash. This garden is perfect for growing tomatoes that thrive and heat and sun: It sits directly against the bright white garage wall; it faces due south; it's 100% sun all day; and it's built up from the ground using dark-colored brick that helps absorb heat. PLUS we live in freaking COLORADO where we get more than 300 days of sun each year! This was where we started our urban gardening in 2010.
• 100 sq ft corner garden: sunflowers, butternut squash, onions, corn, peas, beans
• 64 sq ft strawberry garden: 10 Ozark strawberry plants

As for crop rotation, I planted chrysanthemums in the garage garden over the winter and pulled them out before we tilled and amended the soil in May.

Bruno:  How large is your garden and what is your crop rotation and yield for this year?
Bob:  Last year, which was our first urban garden attempt at this house, we harvested 40 spaghetti squash, 300-400 celebrity tomatoes, and 30 peppers of different varieties (hot and sweet) all in our 4X20 garage garden. So far this season in all gardens combined, we have harvested 16 ears of corn (there was more but we just couldn’t keep up), probably a hundred beans and peas, 11 butternut squash, 5 mammoth sunflower heads, 36 Texas Sweet onions which are still ripening, 30 spaghetti squash, easily 200 cherry tomatoes, 40 Celebrity tomatoes, 30 Husky Gold tomatoes, 10 Ancho chili peppers, 15 Anaheim chili peppers, 10 purple bells, 15 yellow bells, and just a handful of strawberries since this is their first year) Basil, Rosemary, Dill, Parsley and other herbs were planted in containers and are continuing to provide fresh herbs whenever we want them.

Bruno:  What was your biggest pest challenge and how did you overcome it?
Bob:  Our biggest challenge was powdery mildew. Not exactly a pest and didn’t seem to hurt squash production, but it’s ugly and we just don’t like it.


(For those interested a completely organic way to treat this pest is a dilute solution of baking soda and water sprayed daily on the leaves until the mildew disappears) 

Bruno:  What novel approaches have you used to integrate gardening and living space in your home?
Bob:  Kind of the opposite thing happened: Gardening has allowed us to expand our living space outdoors. You can see individual pieces of art in each garden; and even a walkway right though the busy corner garden. Making the gardens eye-catching and walkable encourages us and our guests to get outside and enjoy them.

Bruno:  What is it about growing your own fresh food that you find most satisfying?

Bob:  The most satisfying thing about growing our own food is that it enhances our apocalypse preparedness. Seriously though, we saw that empty space and knew we could do better than dirt so we gave it a shot. Neither one of us had ever grown a garden before so the number one satisfying thing is knowing that we could grow something. Watering and weeding serve as mental respites for us with each in a pretty stressful job.  We both enjoy caring for the garden. Eating the food comes secondary to sharing the food with others. We take great joy in giving the fruits (and vegetables) of our labor to our friends and neighbors.

Bruno:  What have you learned about the value of organic gardening and sustainability in your experience?

Bob:  Whether organic or not, sustainability is key. Why grow grass when you can grow FOOD? Kentucky Bluegrass just seems silly to us.

Bruno:  Share one thing about your adventure in urban farming that you would like for others to know.

Bob:  If you only have one growing season, plant in stages. We planted everything at once because we were so excited to get everything in the ground. We had SO MANY beans, peas, corn, and tomatoes at the same time that we couldn’t pick it fast enough, let alone eat it.

For more information about Bob, please visit his awesome website.  Thank you Bob for your inspirational photos and input!  And tell Adam, Peanut and Olive we all said hello!

Makin' it rain!

So, step one on the experiment with rain water collection is complete!  Found a location in town that sells food grade 55 gallon plastic barrels for only $15 each!

And they are even green, how about that!  Next, a few more supplies from the local home and garden store, along with re-outfitting some of our downspouts and we should be in business just in time for the rain here in San Diego.  I will keep you posted on the progress, but for now, here is how we intend to build our rainwater collection system!  Wish me luck, photos soon!

Who are the farmers in your neighborhood?

Well folks, life has been a little busy the last couple of weeks, but we did want to check back in quickly to let you know that things are still proceeding.  We should have a contractor by in the next week or two to place some pipes for plumbing and drainage in the back yard.  After that, it should be prime time to have a long hard look at roto tilling up the back yard and laying down some weed and grass killing measures for the winter.  This will consist of pulling up all of the more invasive weeds currently growing and then covering the entire yard with a layer of cardboard and newspaper to block out sunlight and air, and hopefully kill off whatever else may try to grow for a bit.  Add in a little amended soil before and after that exercise, along with some deterent for the gophers and moles, and phase one should be complete (crosses fingers).

Next on the list once those first steps are taken will be some experiments with compost and with rainwater collection... more to come on that later!

For now though, in the inbetween times, here are some fun local gardens in our neighborhood, and one fantastic one we found on our trip to San Francisco last weekend!

This industrious urban farmer in our neighborhood has taken not only parts of his backyard, but has actually cultivated the median in front of his sidewalk with chard, squash, corn, and few other veggies!

And just around a few more corners in the neighborhood is our local Nieghborhood Cropshare, Vera House Community Garden

And finally, just a bit north of us, the incredible Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco, complete with classes in sustainability, local arts and crafts, and even a solar powered cell phone and laptop charging station!

The Citrus Grove

Okay, I will admit… I used to be one of those people who got a little irritated when crops “went missing” from our garden.  Whether it was the opossums helping themselves to our tomatoes, or neighbors plucking from our trees, I got a little upset.  Okay, no… a LOT upset!

I changed my tune though after reading a few books on Urban Farming.  In America, we so often have more food than we can possibly use.  Pair that with our rugged sense of autonomy and entitlement and, well, you get a bad, bad recipe in my opinion.  I’m glad I have the opportunity to untangle that with this experiment.  There will be opossums.  There will likely be gophers and birds and insects in large number!  Hell, I only recently got over my selfish homesteading with the skunks in my home!  But this much is true… there will be neighbors in awe of good things growing, there will be “Freegans” (I know, I have already seen and met a few), I am hoping there will be “Guerilla Gardeners” in abundance, and there will be neighbors in need.

And so, when I saw a young woman walking by our yard this morning, stopping briefly to look around before plucking three lemons from our absolutely over-burdened tree out front, I just smiled and waved and sent her the thumbs up when she blushed as she saw me in the kitchen window.  Hard to know whether she blushed because I was half naked or because she “got caught”.  J  The Farmer McGregor I was in the past might have run for a pellet gun and shouted “GIT OFF’N MAH LAND YEH FREELOADIN’ HIPPY!!”  But these days, I am considering placing a sign out front saying something to the effect of “Need a Lemon, Take a Lemon, Have a Lemon, Leave a Lemon”, and enrolling our trees (including an Apricot, not pictured here, but near the garden shed in previous posts) at this cool website… Neighborhood Fruit.

Lemons, Limes, and Oranges, oh my!

 

 Buddha Hand Citron out on the back of the property

Mineola in the front yard 

But if you happen by, help yourself to some citrus.  We have plenty.  And of course, there will always be zucchini!  Blooming AGAIN in fact. J

Zucchini never goes out of style... or bloom apparently!

I will work on my love of gophers next.  J

Harvest Festivities

We spent a beautiful day yesterday afternoon at Wild Willow Farm and Education Center in Imperial Beach for their 2nd annual Harvest Festival.  Check out their website, they have a lot of really cool, affordable classes on sustainable farming.  You can bet I will be at one in the near future!  Was a lot of fun to see this new CSA in Southern San Diego!  There was a cooking class, arts and crafts for the kids, potluck, farm tour, bonfire and a raffle drawing for some really cool prizes.  We didn't win, but we sure had a lot of fun!

Input / Output

Looking at what has changed already for us, Blue and I noticed something interesting and cool this morning.  It’s trash day in our neighborhood, so as we were hauling our "garbage" out to the curb, we took a look at our production.  Here is what we found…

That’s about a ¼ ratio for trash versus recycle folks!  Once we start composting, which is very much on the skids for the near future, we are hoping to green up that ratio even more.  For now, The City of San Diego picks up green waste for community composting every other week, which is wonderful.  Soon though, we will be keeping all of that great mulch and fertilzer for ourselves to cycle back into our own production. 
It just feels good!  And just look how good we look doing it!  :)

No logs required!

Or electricity for that matter.  :o)  As a strategy for surviving the great Southern California Power Outage of 2011 (7 whole hours, gasp!) we put up the storage shed, correctly this time.  Amazes me how people were so terrified and technology dependent.  Yet another reason to have a garden I suppose... produce in the ground doesn't spoil for lack of refrigeration!  That, and hobbies other than Facebook and SMS texting are just a good idea to have in general.  For me, it was perusing my new edition of The Old Farmer's Almanac, enjoying a little sun in the backyard, and counseling some of my more imaginative friends that no, infact, zombies do not exist and are not going to take over the world due to rolling blackouts in San Diego, and yes, you will survive not seeing True Blood just one night, I promise.  But for next time, come over to my house and I will put you to work.  Gardening keeps zombies and vampires away, it's true!  And if not, we can always shack up in the shed and threaten to beat them with logs like cavemen.  Ugh Ugh!

Shine on Harvest Moon

All the beans and tomato seeds have finally dried to perfection for next year’s planting, several days ahead of the appropriate Harvest Moon.  For reference, moldy fermented tomato pulp is about the worst smell in the world, but after rinsing and drying, it is all worth it.

I catalogued their photos as I went, looked up their varietal names at Tomato Growers Supply Company (dangerous place if you love tomatoes!!), and bought some small envelopes at the local art supply store.  Here, friends, is next year’s hopeful crop so far…

Along with these, I have sent out my requests to several wonderful seed catalogues, including Seed Savers Exchange, ElDorado  and Seeds of Change.  They should be arriving any day now and will make for some great winter (I feel guilty to even use that word in San Diego) planning for next year’s garden.

Blue and I have received our first friendly offer to co-op from a friend living in a small apartment in Mission Valley, so we have already seemingly embarked on our first crop share too.  This will come in very handy for those times when we plan to take a couple days vacation and need a cooperative farm-sitter… and vice versa for our buddies.

Our current planning has us looking into a 100-150 square foot area in the back yard where we would like to place our crops.  For the rest of the yard, we hope to borrow a roto-tiller and purchase or trade for some rich and beautiful amended soil from a friend in the business of Community Supported Agriculture, Jack Ford, our friend at TAJ Farms.  Jack has a wonderful livestock and dairy CSA in Valley Center and provides the most wonderful chicken, turkey, lamb, rabbit and pork you have ever laid eyes on.  The animals are all free range and humanely raised on all organic agriculture grown right on the farm.  Eggs and dairy, the best I have ever tasted.  Look him up and tell him we sent you, and watch for upcoming presentations of his on humane urban farming and agriculture in our community.

More to come soon on our plans for the yard and garden, including soil amendment, rain water collection, composting, and our final mapping out of space and how we intend to rip it all up and get it all ready!