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!