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!