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These 11 Easiest Vegetables to Grow Makes Gardening 10x Better
These 11 Easiest Vegetables to Grow Makes Gardening 10x Better
Posted on 2018-01-24 by Chris
What if I told you there are numerous easiest vegetables to grow that can make gardening 10X better and fun?
What’s more?
They require no special care or technical expertise.
You’d think there must be some hidden catch, right?
But there’s not. It’s absolutely true.
Today in this post, I’m going to walk you through 11 easiest vegetables to grow.
So, what makes some vegetables easier to grow than others? I’ve looked at four factors as follows;
1. The growing season – If a given vegetable has a short growing season, the growing becomes much easier.
2. Moisture requirement – as minimum as possible. Watering is a very difficult gardening task. Therefore, the little of it required the better.
3. Temperature – as flexible as possible.
4. Space – utilizes space efficiently.
Based on these four parameters, I’ve been able to come up with this list that can be used by both newbies as well as experienced gardeners.
Let’s jump in…
11 Easiest Vegetables to Grow
Potato
Potatoes are generally grown from seed potatoes – these are tubers specifically grown to be disease free and provide consistent and healthy plants. To be disease free, you should select the areas where seed potatoes are grown are with care.
Luckily, potatoes are so easy to grow, that gardeners end up with “accidental” potatoes every year!
Their growth is divided into five phases:
During the first phase, sprouts emerge from the seed potatoes and root growth begins.
During the second, photosynthesis begins as the plant develops leaves and branches.
In the third phase stolons develop from lower leaf axils on the stem and grow downwards into the ground and on these stolons new tubers develop as swellings of the stolon.
This phase is often (but not always) associated with flowering. Tuber formation halts when soil temperatures reach 27 °C; hence potatoes are considered a cool-season crop.
Tuber bulking occurs during the fourth phase, when the plant begins investing the majority of its resources in its newly formed tubers.
At this stage, several factors are critical to yield: optimal soil moisture and temperature, soil nutrient availability and balance, and resistance to pest attacks.
The final phase is maturation:
The plant canopy dies back, the tuber skins harden, and their sugars convert to starches – and then your potatoes are ready!
Read: 13 Easy to Grow Vertical Garden Plants
Lettuce
Generally grown as a hardy annual, lettuce is easily cultivated, although it requires relatively low temperatures to prevent it from flowering quickly.
Lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. It grows quick, is relatively convenient to harvest because you just have to simply snip the tops off the plants or select leaves as needed
It also takes up very little area. They are able to grow even in containers, possibly accompanied by flowers or tucked under taller plants.
Lettuces meant for the cutting of individual leaves are generally planted straight into the garden in thick rows.
Heading varieties of lettuces are commonly started in flats, then transplanted to individual spots, usually 20 to 36 cm (7.9 to 14.2 in) apart, in the garden after developing several leaves.
Lettuce spaced further apart receives more sunlight, which improves color and nutrient quantities in the leaves.
Lettuce grows best in full sun in loose, nitrogen-rich soils with a pH of between 6.0 and 6.8.
Heat generally prompts lettuce to bolt, with most varieties growing poorly above 24 °C; cool temperatures prompt better performance, with 16 to 18 °C being preferred and as low as 7 °C being tolerated.
Zucchini
Zucchini is very easy to cultivate in temperate climates. As such, it has a reputation among home gardeners for overwhelming production.
The part harvested as "zucchini" is the immature fruit, though the flowers, mature fruit, and leaves are eaten as well.
One good way to control overabundance is to harvest the flowers, which are an expensive delicacy in markets because of the difficulty in storing and transporting them.
The male flower is borne on the end of a stalk and is longer-lived.
While easy to grow, zucchini, like all squash, requires plentiful bees for pollination.
In areas of pollinator decline or high pesticide use, such as mosquito-spray districts, gardeners often experience fruit abortion, where the fruit begins to grow, then dries or rots.
This is due to an insufficient number of pollen grains delivered to the female flower. It can be corrected by hand pollination or by increasing the bee population.
Bok Choy
Bok choy (Brassica rapa) is also called Chinese cabbage.
This Chinese vegetable is a cool weather vegetable that grows best in spring and fall.
Growing bok choy is done from seed. Planting bok choy can be done by directly seeding the garden soil or by starting plants indoors until the weather is right for transplanting later.
Either way, when planting bok choy, germination occurs within seven to ten days.
Bok choy used to be limited to meals in Chinese restaurants, but these days you are just as likely to find it growing in backyard gardens.
It's a quick growing vegetable and there are a surprising number of varieties to try.
Takes relatively shorter time to mature. Depending on the variety and the weather, bok choy should be ready to harvest in 45 - 60 days.
eet
All beets grow best in fertile soil with a pH between 6.2 and 7.0. Water the prepared bed, and plant beet seeds half an inch deep and 2 inches apart, in rows spaced 12 inches apart.
Beet seeds germinate in five to 10 days if kept constantly moist. Repeated watering can cause some soils to crust on the surface, which can inhibit the emergence of seedlings.
Cover seeded rows with boards or burlap for a few days after planting to reduce surface crusting. This technique is also useful when planting beets for fall harvest in warm summer soil.
Just be sure to remove the covers as soon as the seedlings break the surface.
Scallion
Scallions grow so fast.
Actually, you can re-root scallions from the grocery store.
You may even have luck regrowing the ones you've used for cooking if you leave a couple of inches of stem attached to the roots.
You don't even have to plant them in the garden. Scallions will happily grow in a glass of water. When something is this ridiculously easy to grow, you might as well take every opportunity.
Read: Small Space Gardening: 14 Mind Blowing Ideas (#7 is my favorite)
Onion
Onions are best cultivated in fertile soils that are well-drained.
Sandy loams are good as they are low in sulphur, while clayey soils usually have a high sulphur content and produce pungent bulbs. Onions require a high level of nutrients in the soil.
Phosphorus is often present in sufficient quantities, but may be applied before planting because of its low level of availability in cold soils.
Nitrogen and potash can be applied at regular intervals during the growing season, the last application of nitrogen being at least four weeks before harvesting.
Bulbing onions are day-length sensitive; their bulbs begin growing only after the number of daylight hours has surpassed some minimal quantity.
Most traditional European onions are referred to as "long-day" onions, producing bulbs only after 14 hours or more of daylight occurs.
Southern European and North African varieties are often known as "intermediate-day" types, requiring only 12–13 hours of daylight to stimulate bulb formation.
Finally, "short-day" onions, which have been developed in more recent times, are planted in mild-winter areas in the autumn and form bulbs in the early spring, and require only 11–12 hours of daylight to stimulate bulb formation.
Onions are a cool-weather crop and can be grown in USDA zones 3 to 9. Hot temperatures or other stressful conditions cause them to "bolt", meaning that a flower stem begins to grow.
Ginger
The easiest way to get started growing ginger root is to get a few fresh rhizomes of someone who does grow ginger, at the time when the plant re-shoots anyway (early spring).
Otherwise just buy some at the shops at that time.
Make sure you select fresh, plump rhizomes.
Look for pieces with well developed "eyes" or growth buds. (The buds look like little horns at the end of a piece or "finger")
Some people recommend to soak the rhizomes in water over night. That's not a bad idea, since shop bought ginger might have been treated with a growth retardant.
Pea
Choose an open, weed-free site in full sun. Grow peas in a moist, fertile, well-drained soil.
Try to dig plenty of well-rotted compost into the soil several weeks before sowing to improve soil fertility and help retain moisture.
It's best to avoid sowing peas on cold, wet soils as they tend to rot away. If space is at a premium then try growing peas in containers or patio bags.
Provide supports - Peas produce tendrils to help them climb upwards.
Erect wire netting, or push upright twiggy sticks into the ground along the length of each trench to provide your peas with supports to cling to.
Water regularly- Once pea plants start to flower it's best to water thoroughly once a week to encourage good pod development.
You can reduce water loss by applying a thick mulch of well-rotted manure or compost to lock moisture into the soil.
Radish
Radishes are a fast-growing, annual, cool-season crop. The seed germinates in three to four days in moist conditions with soil temperatures between 18 and 29 °C.
Best quality roots are obtained under moderate day lengths with air temperatures in the range 10 to 18 °C.
Under average conditions, the crop matures in 3–4 weeks, but in colder weather, 6–7 weeks may be required.
Radishes grow best in full sun in light, sandy loams, with a soil pH 6.5 to 7.0, but for late-season crops, a clayey-loam is ideal. Soils that bake dry and form a crust in dry weather are unsuitable and can impair germination.
Harvesting periods can be extended by making repeat plantings, spaced a week or two apart. In warmer climates, radishes are normally planted in the autumn.
The depth at which seeds are planted affects the size of the root, from 1 cm (0.4 in) deep recommended for small radishes to 4 cm (1.6 in) for large radishes.
During the growing period, the crop needs to be thinned and weeds controlled, and irrigation may be required.
Swiss chard
Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) is an easy-to-grow, heat-resistant heirloom that does not bolt; it has a mild flavor.
Growing Swiss chard works best in rich, moist soil with a soil pH between 6.0 and 6.8. Plant about 12 to 18 inches apart in fertile soil, watering directly after planting.
Work nitrogen-rich amendments such as blood meal, cottonseed meal, feather meal, or composted manure into the ground before planting.
Other options include applying a timed-release vegetable food, such as 14-14-14, according to label directions, when planting and every couple of weeks during the growing season.
Like all vegetables, Swiss chard does best with a nice, even supply of water. Water regularly, applying 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week if it doesn’t rain.
You can measure the amount of water with a rain gauge in the garden.
Apply organic mulch such as compost, finely ground leaves, wheat straw, or finely ground bark to keep the soil cool and moist and to keep down weeds.
Mulching will also help keep the plant leaves clean, reducing the risk of disease.
Read: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening with Zero Skills
Kale
Kale is a leafy vegetable in the Brassica or Cole crop family.
It is usually grouped into the "Cooking Greens" category with collards, mustard and Swiss chard, but it is actually more of a non-heading cabbage, although much easier to grow than cabbage.
The leaves grow from a central stem that elongates as it grows. Kale is a powerhouse of nutrients and can be used as young, tender leaves or fully grown.
Kale can be grown as a cut and come again vegetable, so a few plants may be all you need.
The plants can be quite ornamental, with leaves that can be curly or tagged, purple or shades of green. It is considered a cool season vegetables and can handle some frost, when mature.
Carrot
Carrots are grown from seed and can take up to four months (120 days) to mature, but most cultivars mature within 70 to 80 days under the right conditions.
They grow best in full sun but tolerate some shade.
The optimum temperature is 16 to 21 °C. The ideal soil is deep, loose and well-drained, sandy or loamy, with a pH of 6.3 to 6.8.
Fertilizer should be applied according to soil type because the crop requires low levels of nitrogen, moderate phosphate and high potash.
Rich or rocky soils should be avoided, as these will cause the roots to become hairy and/or misshapen. Irrigation is applied when needed to keep the soil moist.
After sprouting, the crop is eventually thinned to a spacing of 8 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) and weeded to prevent competition beneath the soil.
Conclusion
You’ve just read about some of the easiest vegetables to grow.1
Now all you have to do is choose one, give it a try and before you know it, you’ll become an expert in even growing the complex ones.
Just take the first step.
New Haven Farms To Expand Healthful Garden Program
New Haven Farms To Expand Healthful Garden Program
By Esteban L. Hernandez
Published 3:53 pm, Sunday, January 14, 2018
hoto: Credit: New Haven Farms
NEW HAVEN—New Haven Farms will expand its popular incubator program this spring to include 25 additional families who will manage their own garden plot and have access to fresh produce.
New Haven Farms Executive Director Russell Moore said the program has grown every year since it launched in 2015. Two new incubator sites will be placed in Fair Haven on Stevens Street, near Shelter and Clay streets, and on Davenport Avenue in the Hill neighborhood.
Fair Haven’s site will support 15 families, while the Hill is expected to serve 10. The program currently has 50 families, a majority of whom are low-income residents.
Families first participate in a wellness program operated jointly by Fair Haven Community Health Center and NHF before joining the incubator program, which provides them a plot of land to build their own vegetable garden. The goal of the wellness program is to assist people in developing more healthful eating choices to address possible health concerns. The incubator garden allows participants to continue healthful habits learned through the wellness program.
“The significance of it is not just 25 families,” Moore said. “It’s that their family members will benefit from fresh produce.”
NHF works in partnership with the New Haven Land Trust and the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Foundation to fund the incubator program.
Moore recently visited the Fair Haven site. At the moment, it looks barren, with what he suspected were dead collard greens near the entrance. But the site will eventually be home to 15 additional families using the land, once seeding begins in March and the season starts in May.
New Haven Farms manager Jacqueline Maisonpierre, who helped to develop the incubator garden program in 2015, said the program fits well into NHF’s mission to, “promote health and community development through urban agriculture.”
The program has just about a 100 percent retention rate, though two families have moved out of the city, Maisonpierre said.
Moore said between the seven gardens, which together comprise just about one acre, New Haven Farms produced 18,000 pounds of produce. Providing produce for 50 families means more than 200 people receive help.
“We’re really getting people to change, to make large behavioral shifts in their lives so that they can live a healthier life and reduce their dependence on medication,” Maisonpierre said.
The incubator gardens teach families “that they have the powers to change their own health outcomes,” Maisonpierre said.
New Haven Land Trust Executive Director Justin Elicker said the trust supports 52 community gardens in New Haven. Elicker said NHF’s program teaches citizens how to be more healthy.
“This partnership was a great fit for both organizations,” Elicker said. “Graduates of the wellness programs have an ability to continue their connection to the community that they developed.”
Last fall, an NHF site near Ferry Street was the site of a robbery that left a seasonal worker injured. The man who was attacked is still working for NHF; Moore said the attack seemed to make his commitment to the organization even stronger.
The attack prompted a community meeting and increased police patrol. Added safety measures, including lights, were installed on a nearby post, and have helped with security, Moore said. He was happy with both the community and local law enforcement response to the incident.
“It was galvanizing,” Moore said.
The response seems to reflect what Moore said is another important effect from their gardening programs, which is people learning by example.
“One shining example can have a ripple effect throughout the community,” Moore said.
Reach Esteban L. Hernandez at 203-680-9901
Northeast Organic Farmers Coming Together at Rutgers This January
Northeast Organic Farmers Coming Together at Rutgers This January
By ADRIAN HYDE
January 17, 2018 at 11:35 AM
More than 50 workshops on food, farming, and gardening will be offered at the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ) Winter Conference at the Rutgers University Douglass Student Center, 100 George Street, New Brunswick.
The sessions run Jan. 27 and 27, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They'll include five tracks: crops, livestock, gardening, policy and urban farming.
Anyone interested in learning about local, organic and sustainable food, permaculture and related policy issues is invited to attend.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Regenerating Our Communities, Restoring Our Land,” and nationally-recognized speakers are coming in from all over the country. This year’s keynote is Mark Shepard author of Restoration Agriculture, which explains his approach to permaculture, as practiced at his New Forest Farm in Wisconsin.
In his work, Shepard makes the “whys and hows” of permaculture compelling and accessible, including its ability to sequester gigantic amounts of atmospheric carbon. He also explains clearly the tradeoffs between annual and perennial crops.
Don Huber, PhD, will speak in a double-session about his research on the harms of glyphosate, the world’s most ubiquitous pesticide. Along with the content of his presentations, Huber provides copious references to scholarly and scientific work on the subject.
Dan Kittredge, lifelong farmer and founder of the Bionutrient Food Association, will reveal his organization’s efforts to democratize testing for food quality in a completely open-source framework.
For several years, Kittredge has been a leader in efforts to produce more nutrient-dense, high-quality foods, and early successes in the BFA’s food testing strategy suggest exciting possibilities.
In addition to Mark Shepard, other nationally-recognized, expert permaculturists will be speaking, both individually and on the “PermaPanel.” There will be something for everyone, from topics of general interest to specific practices for experienced farmers.
For more information, please visit nofanj.org or contact NOFA-NJ at 908-371-1111.
Kimbal Musk Doubles Down On School Garden Effort
Learning gardens provide access to nutritious food and serve as educational tools at underserved schools. Photo courtesy of the Kitchen
Kimbal Musk Doubles Down On School Garden Effort
The Colorado 100 Fund is a $2.5 million effort toward creating 100 learning gardens in Colorado by 2020.
BY DALIAH SINGER | JANUARY 3, 2018
In 2011, Kimbal Musk, co-founder of the Kitchen (and brother of tech giant Elon Musk), decided it wasn’t enough serving real, local food at his family of restaurants. So he launched the Kitchen Community nonprofit with the goal of “empower[ing] kids and their families to build real food communities from the ground up.”
In practice, what that means is creating learning gardens—a garden as an outdoor classroom—in underserved, low-income schools across the country. Since the first opened in Denver in 2011, 450 learning gardens have been built across the country. Colorado, though, has begun lagging behind. The state currently has 55 learning gardens; Chicago has 150. But that will soon change: Musk recently announced theColorado 100 Fund, a $2.5 million initiative to increase the number of Centennial State learning gardens to 100 (in other words, adding 45 more) by the end of 2020. “We built our first [learning garden] in Denver,” says Courtney Walsh, Musk’s communications director. “We need to look at our own backyard…to really impact change.”
Kimbal Musk (right) and a student at a Kitchen Community learning garden in Los Angeles in 2015. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon for the Kitchen Community
According to the 2017 Kids Count report from the Colorado Children’s Campaign (CCC), 16 percent of Colorado children experienced food insecurity—“their access to adequate food was limited by lack of money and other resources”—between 2013 and 2015. In addition, many high-poverty neighborhoods are located in food deserts, meaning they have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods. That’s one of the reasons the CCC says, “…children growing up in low-income or food-insecure families are likely to…have challenges getting the nutrients they need for proper growth and development.”
School gardens can help reverse those concerns by exposing children to fruits and vegetables, teaching them where their food comes from, and encouraging healthy lifelong eating habits. At an elementary school, students might count the plants and learn their names. In middle and high school, the gardens become the foundation for a science class or a lesson in entrepreneurship (how to run a farm stand, for instance).
To accomplish the 100-garden goal, Musk formed a Leadership Circle comprised of prominent Coloradans who support his efforts to improve children’s health. Among them is Robin Luff, who also serves on the board of the Kitchen Community. “We’re there to talk about the importance of real food, of changing behaviors. We all believe that can happen when we have a really strong effort in a city,” Luff says. “It’s useful, and it’s lasting.”
Schools submit applications for learning gardens, and the district has to approve the Kitchen Community’s efforts. The nonprofit has already worked with the Denver Public Schools and the Poudre School District and will continue to do so; it expects to add some gardens in Jefferson County as part of the Colorado 100.
“One of the challenges in Colorado versus some of the other inner cities we’re working with is that we have this gorgeous landscape we look at every day,” Luff says, “and it’s really hard to imagine that some kids have never played in a stream or with sticks. [Determining how to] make a lasting impression in Denver is really important.”
One hundred learning gardens is a big enough number to convince people (the legislature, school boards) to pay more attention to the issue. “It becomes an ecosystem about learning about food,” Walsh says. “If you have 100, then you’re able to truly impact the community…and reach kids at all age levels.”
But don’t expect this work to stop once Musk and team reach 100. ”Kimbal’s overarching national goal is to build 1,000 learning gardens to ostensibly impact a million children,“ Walsh says. We have no doubt he’ll get there.
DALIAH SINGER, 5280 CONTRIBUTOR
Daliah Singer is an award-winning writer and editor based in Denver. You can find more of her work at daliahsinger.com.
Urban Farming: Lessons From Growing Power
Across the country, supporters grieved the loss of Growing Power, of its example, and of the hope it offered for scaling up urban farming as a sustainable model
Urban Farming: Lessons From Growing Power
By: MARY TURCK | December 30, 2017
Just a year ago, an article in Medium touted Will Allen as “the Godfather of Urban Farming, Who’s Breeding the Next Generation of People to Feed the World.” Allen, who started urban farming in Milwaukee in 1993, then moved on to Chicago, ended up with his Growing Power organization involved in urban farming projects around the world. Along the way, Allen won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2008 and was named one of Time Magazine’s 2010 Time 100.
Allen’s vision and his non-profit corporations focused on reimagining and rebuilding a food system in cities. Among its ambitious projects:
- aquaponic systems growing fish, watercress, and wheatgrass;
- rebuilding soil through composting and vermiculture, including a collection of supermarket wastes and use of red worm composting to turn them into soil;
- increasing productivity with intensive cultivation of food plants on small plots of land;
- sparking a passion for farming in urban youth and teaching them job skills to land jobs in the sustainable farming and food system;
- growing mass quantities of high-quality food and delivering it to people living in inner cities;
- modeling urban farming as a real and sustainable option for people around the world.
Then, in November 2017, Growing Power crashed. After years of running deficits and with more than half a million dollars in legal judgments against the organization, Allen resigned and the organization closed its doors.
New Urban Farming Organizations Sprouting
Across the country, supporters grieved the loss of Growing Power, of its example, and of the hope it offered for scaling up urban farming as a sustainable model. But the end of Growing Power does not mean the end of urban farming, not any more than a hard frost means the end of a garden. Instead, new plants have already begun to sprout.
In Milwaukee, Green Veterans Wisconsin plans to buy Growing Power’s shuttered headquarters, reclaiming it as “an urban farm school, co-op for small farmers and trauma resolution center.” Its mission: “to regenerate men and women who have served in the military for green jobs and green living.”
In Chicago, the Growing Power team has spun off into a new Urban Growers Collective, with a mission of “creating healing spaces through art and innovation rooted within the foundation of growing food.”
Less than a month after the end of Growing Power, it’s too soon to predict outcomes for either initiative, but they are only two of the seeds now growing.
Across the country, urban farming initiatives take multiple forms. Some focus more on producing nutritious, organic food, some more on the powerful therapeutic possibilities of connecting youth with growing, some on building community while feeding community, and some on creating a profitable business model.
Three Minnesota examples show combine focus on food, youth, and community:
Youth Farm MN, established in 1995 in Minneapolis, aims “to create an urban environment where youth could flourish physically, socially, and emotionally as they mature into young adults. Youth were the focus and food was the conduit.” After more than 20 years, Youth Farm engages more than 800 young people and works to build and feed community in five specific Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods.
Youth in the Dirt Group take pride in harvesting produce that they have grown themselves.
The Dirt Group’s motto is “Learning to Grow, Growing to Learn.” Its focus is on giving youth “an opportunity to experience social inclusion by being part of a safe, cohesive, structured group. Students feel pride and ownership in their collective efforts growing food together as they learn, practice, and master important life and social skills and make a difference in their communities by donating food they have grown to local food shelves and other such community organizations.” Its gardens are located in urban (Minneapolis, MN), small town, and rural settings.
The MNyou Youth Garden operates in the Minnesota city of Willmar (population about 20,000) on a plot of land and greenhouse provided by a local college. Its purpose is “to have minority youth, ages 15 to 24, research how to grow and maintain highly sought after vegetables then put that research to work. During their time in the project, the youth will develop entrepreneurial skills from working closely with mentors in local businesses on how to sell and market their products. They will also learn transferable job skills from experienced volunteers while receiving a minimum wage.”
Home-made signs mark the Dirt Group’s herb garden, and plots tended by small groups.
Connecting food, farming, youth, and community works for non-profit organizations that do not need to make urban farming turn a profit. Some other urban farming initiatives rely on heavy infusions of grants and donations or on rent-free use of city-owned or vacant lots. Profitability – or economic sustainability, in the progressive parlance – remains the most difficult problem for any kind of farming, urban or rural, small-scale or larger.
Money, or the lack of money, led to Growing Power’s demise. Does the blame lie with the high cost of organic food production? Or with the exponential growth of Growing Power, beyond the scale that could be effectively managed? Whatever the cause of its eventual dissolution, Growing Power gave a powerful inspiration to others to engage in agriculture that places a higher value on food and community than on profit. The seeds Will Allen planted will continue to flourish long after Growing Power’s end.
The Dangers of Urban Gardens
The problem is almost everything else: in the midst of the horticultural fever people have forgotten that urban agriculture has challenges that seriously compromise the food security of its crops. If we do not take this problem seriously, we will find ourselves promoting tasty, ecological toxins.
The Dangers of Urban Gardens
In recent years, every city worth its salt that has had a system of urban gardens. It's a very good idea: an almost perfect combination of green spaces, community activities and food education.
The problem is almost everything else: in the midst of the horticultural fever people have forgotten that urban agriculture has challenges that seriously compromise the food security of its crops. If we do not take this problem seriously, we will find ourselves promoting tasty, ecological toxins.
The dangers of urban gardens
A few years ago, the United States experienced a controversy that illustrates the problems and dangers that urban gardens can entail. Ryan Kuck, the director of Greengrow, an urban farm located in the industrial zone of Philadelphia since the eighties, said that his two newborn twins had high levels of lead in their blood due to the consumption of fruits and vegetables from their own garden.
Lead, for example, is especially harmful to children. In high concentrations it can have a very damaging effect on the nervous system and can cause mental retardation, developmental disorders or behavioral problems. According to the World Health Organization, in reality, there are no known safe levels of lead for children or adults: almost any concentration has detrimental effects on a lot of systems and parts of the body.
As Kuck himself acknowledged, "I was worried, but not surprised." The use of land in urban areas constantly changes with the city's cycles and development. A clear example is lead: for decades millions of cars used leaded fuels, thousands of buildings were painted with lead paint. Of course the soil of the cities is contaminated! There is pollution in the environment!
In addition, the plants we use in horticulture have the property of accumulating potentially toxic elements and compounds, such as heavy metals or derivatives of the use of hydrocarbons.
"The perfect salad"
That is, we are putting 'accumulators' of toxins in a contaminated soil. According to Andres Rodriguez, people are blindly planting gardens because of the urban gardens are fashionable. That is to say, they are installing the gardens without analyzing if the conditions of the land are suitable for cultivation (and, later, consumption).
According to Rodríguez, who investigates lead pollution in urban soils, despite their pedagogical and leisure potential, most urban gardens are a completely unnecessary ecological risk. They are also a sanitary risk. The scientific research that has been carried out on the subject supports it.
Natural = safe
The foods that enters the 'food circuit' is very controlled but there are few controls on the fruits and vegetables that we can find in urban gardens. It's paradoxical that the search for healthier foods has led us to producing food without any controls, cultivating it in contaminated lands and putting the health of those who consume it at risk.
These are not theories, the analyses that have been carried out in urban gardens in Madrid, as Rodriguez pointed out, are clear: land is not safe. Nothing justifies continuing with the projects to expand them if there are no minimum guarantees of security.
In addition, the data is so worrying that it seems inadvisable that the urban gardens movement should claim food security as one of its central ideas. It would be a pity if one of the most successful movements of community dynamism in recent years was lost due to health problems.
Source: magnet.xakata.com
Publication date: 11/22/2017
Farm Bill Discontent: Urban Ag Supporters want Changes
Danielle Marvit is production manager for Garden Dreams Urban Farm and Nursery in Pittsburgh. She has serious concerns about conventional agriculture. Here, she talks with journalists during the recent annual convention of the Society of Environmental Journalists in Pittsburgh. (Jonathan Knutson/Agweek)
Farm Bill Discontent: Urban Ag Supporters want Changes
By Jonathan Knutson / Agweek Staff Writer on Oct 16, 2017
PITTSBURGH — Sonia Finn, Danielle Marvit and Raqueeb Bey are passionate about agriculture. And they believe U.S. farming practices are dangerously off course and need to be corrected, starting with the 2018 farm bill.
"The farm bill isn't right for agriculture. People need to get involved and work to change it," Finn said.
Finn is chef and owner of Dinette restaurant in Pittsburgh. Marvit is production manager of Garden Dreams Urban Farm and Nursery in Pittsburgh. Bey is project director of Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-op, or BUGS-FPC, as the group calls itself.
They spoke with Agweek Oct. 4 at Garden Dreams Urban Farm and Nursery during the annual convention of the Society of Environmental Journalists. The event included a day-long session on the farm bill and urban agriculture; Finn, Marvit and Bey were among the presenters.
Though some in mainstream agriculture are skeptical of urban ag, attention is growing for the concept. U.S. local food sales totaled at least $12 billion in 2014, up from $5 billion in 2008, and experts anticipate the figure to reach $20 billion by 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Urban ag consists of "backyard, rooftop and balcony gardening, community gardening in vacant lots and parks, roadside urban fringe agriculture and livestock grazing in open space," according to USDA.
Urban ag has at least one powerful champion.
Michigan's Debbie Stabenow, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee and a key player in U.S. ag policy, last year introduced the Urban Agriculture Act of 2016. The proposal — at least some of which she hopes will be included in the 2018 farm bill — would increase research funding for urban ag, provide more access for urban farmers to USDA loans and risk management programs, and boost the development of urban farming cooperatives, among other things.
Get involved
Finn has both professional and personal interest in promoting urban ag; she grows much of the produce used by Dinette on the restaurant's roof and relies on local farms for as many ingredients as possible.
She's also determined to transform the farm bill, the centerpiece of federal food and agricultural policy. She's gone to Washington, D.C., repeatedly to lobby for her beliefs.
She insists that the existing farm bill — and mainstream ag in general — is tailored to the wants and needs of powerful corporate interests, not what's best for the overwhelming majority of Americans.
"Most people just don't understand how important the farm bill is," Finn said.
Marvit, for her part, is critical of much of America's conventionally raised food.
"It's not real food," she said.
The quarter-acre Garden Dreams Urban Garden and Nursery, established about a decade ago, seeks to promote urban ag, giving neighborhood residents more and healthier food options. It also wants to help community residents learn more about gardening and give them a peaceful place to visit.
The organic operation specializes in tomatoes, raising more than 70 varieties of tomato seedlings. It also has peppers, eggplant, flowers and other fruits and vegetables.
Local control
Bey stressed that urban agriculture gives residents of local neighborhoods greater influence over both their food supply and their lives in general.
"Neighborhoods need more control over what happens to them," Bey said.
Her own Pittsburgh neighborhood has been without a grocery store for decades, forcing its residents to travel several miles by bus to buy food, she said.
BUGS-FPC is establishing a 31,000-square-foot urban farm that will use hoop houses, also known as high tunnels, to grow food to sell at its farm stand and its farmers market, at restaurants and at a community cooperative grocery that it wants to open.
Though interest in, and awareness of, healthy food is growing, supporters of urban ag and local foods need to focus on improving the farm bill and making it friendlier to consumers, Finn said.
"It's just so important we do it," she said.
USDA's "urban agriculture toolkit" is a good starting place to learn more about urban ag:www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/urban-agriculture-toolkit.pdf.
Vertical Forests Are Returning Nature To Cities, One Skyscraper At A Time
Who on Earth decides to plant a forest on the side of skyscrapers? Architects, that’s who. Two bold designers working on opposite ends of the planet are actively designing farms, gardens and forests designed to live on massive residential buildings.
Vertical Forests Are Returning Nature To Cities, One Skyscraper At A Time
By Clayton Moore — Posted on September 23, 2017 1:00 pm
Stefano Borei Architett Vertial Forest
Who on Earth decides to plant a forest on the side of skyscrapers? Architects, that’s who. Two bold designers working on opposite ends of the planet are actively designing farms, gardens and forests designed to live on massive residential buildings. Far from simply putting a few houseplants in the office, these ambitious designs are meant to clean the air, reduce energy use to net zero, and maximize food production and quality of life.
LIFE IS SWEET IN THESE “VERTICAL FORESTS” IN MILAN, ITALY
One of these projects is already complete. The Bosco Verticale (“Vertical Forest” in Italian) is a dual skyscraper project designed by Stefano Boeri that is covered in more than 21,000 plants—a level of greenery equivalent to more than five acres of forest spread over more than 1,200 square meters.
The project has just been named one of the best tall buildings in the world. It’s a completely green design that even supports its own moderate ecosystem, including more than 20 species of birds. The massive amount of vegetation helps reduce Singapore’s moderate pollution and carbon dioxide, cleaning up the air. The plant life also diminishes noise, boosts oxygen in the air, and helps regulate the temperatures between the two towers. Internally, a complex irrigation system directs “used” water back onto the forested terraces to sustain the vegetation and reduce waste.
It’s a level of greenery equivalent to more than five acres of forest.
“Vertical Forest is a model for a sustainable residential building, a project for metropolitan reforestation contributing to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of expanding the city upon the territory,” Boeri noted on his website. “It is a model for vertical densification of nature within the city. Vertical Forest increases biodiversity, so it becomes both a magnet for and a symbol of the spontaneous re-colonization of the city by vegetation and by animal life.”
The concept earned his firm second place in the 2014 Emporis Skyscraper Award, beating out more than 120 competitors including The Leadenhall Building in the United Kingdom, the KKR Tower in Malaysia, and the Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower in Abu Dhabi. Only the WangJing SOHO triple skyscraper in Beijing bested the Boeri design, awarded for “its excellent energy efficiency and its distinctive design, which gives the complex a harmonious and organic momentum.”
But this completed design isn’t the only plant-accented project on Boeri’s plate; he has a portfolio of potential and ongoing projects around the world that use urbanized plant life to make the world better for the people who live and work in his buildings.
Boeri has announced plans for two Vertical Forest projects in Nanjing, China, as well as “Liuzhou Forest City,” in mainland China, the Wonderwoods residential tower in the Netherlands, and the sprawling Guizhou Mountain Forest Hotel in Southern China. His new “Tower of Cedars” in Lausanne, Switzerland is a 36-story tower that features nearly 20,000 plants and 100 trees to protect residents from pollution and dust.
“All these projects together are important for us,” Boeri told Mashable recently. “It’s very important to completely change how these new cities are developing. Urban forestation is one of the biggest issues for me in that context. That means parks, it means gardens, but it also means having buildings with trees.”
DESIGNING THE URBAN SKYFARM
Developing concurrently is one of the most dramatic building projects in the world. The Urban Skyfarm, designed by Brooklyn-based Aprilli Design Studio and to be located in Seoul, South Korea, will house nearly 25 acres of space for growing trees, tomatoes, and other sustainable crops.
The prototype building is modeled after the iconic design of a tree, with the “root,” “trunk,” “leaves,” and “branches” components to house different aspects of the sustainable farming operation.
The “trunk” of the Urban Skyfarm will contain an indoor hydroponic farm, while the “roots” provide a wide, environmentally friendly space for farmer’s markets and public events. On top of the tower, turbines provide enough power to fuel the building operations and farming spaces in a net-zero environment. The building will also capture rainwater and filter it through a synthetic wetland before returning it as fresh water to a nearby river.
The space could efficiently host more than 5,000 fruit trees.
“With the support of hydroponic farming technology, the space could efficiently host more than 5,000 fruit trees,” architects Steve Lee and Soon Yun Park recently told Fast Company. “Vertical farming is more than an issue of economical feasibility, since it can provide more trees than average urban parks, helping resolve urban environmental issues such as air pollution, water run-off and heat island effects, and bringing back balance to the urban ecology.”
Despite a location in crowded Seoul, the Urban Skyfarm will act as a living machine by producing renewable energy and giving residents improved air quality. Reproducing the biological structure of a tree gives the design certain advantages because it is light in weight but houses enough space to host a diverse range of farming activities. The design is also intended to reduce heat buildup, rain runoff, and carbon dioxide.
The architects believe that their design can support hundreds of environmental projects and experiments and serve as a future model as to how buildings are designed, built, and used.
“We hope the Urban Skyfarm can become part of the discussions as a prototype proposal,” Lee and Park said. “Vertical farming really is not only a great solution to future food shortage problems but a great strategy to address many environmental problems resulting from urbanization.
BUILDING GARDENS IN THE SKY
Boeri and Aprilli are the furthest along in these wild, green experiments, but there are plenty of other firms thinking about how arboreal and greenery-inspired designs can help make life better and more sustainable for residents and tenants around the world.
In Southeast Asia, Vo Trang Nghia Architects are building a huge complex in Ho Cho Minh City that will feature a 90,000-square-foot facility with a rooftop garden. The firm is also working with FPT University to build a tree-lined campus that will raise an elevated forest over the 14-square-mile site.
One Central Park in Sydney features massive creeping vines that climb the building’s face as well as nearly 200 native plant species.
Back on western shores, the Rolex corporation recently broke ground on its new Dallas-based headquarters, which features landscaped terraces and a tree-lined rooftop event space. The elegant design by architect Kengo Kuma was inspired by Japanese castles.
Under construction in Los Angeles is 670 Mesquit, a 2.6 million-square-foot mixed-use project that features two massive cubes that feature landscaped terraces. This is Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ first project in Los Angeles.
Other architects are pushing the envelope of what’s possible. Harmonia 57 is a building in Brazil designed by Triptyque that actually “breathes and sweats,” according to the designers. Plants embedded in porous concrete structures are watered with a mist that makes the building look like it’s returning to nature.
All this added greenery is a pleasant distraction from the densification of urban environments, but these designers are also redefining what it means to live in an urban landscape—and providing a fresh chance to build sustainable urban environments that help cut down on pollution while they simultaneously generate energy, biodiversity, and a breath of fresh air.
How Does the Hamptons Garden Grow? With a Lot of Paid Help
The hardest-worked muscles may be in the hand writing the checks: These lavish, made-to-order gardens can cost as much as $100,000, said Alec Gunn, a Manhattan landscape architect whose firm designs high-end residential, commercial and public-works projects throughout the country.
How Does the Hamptons Garden Grow? With a Lot of Paid Help
The vegetable garden of Alexandra Munroe and her husband, Robert Rosenkranz, in East Hampton, N.Y., is sheltered from the ocean winds by dunes covered with Rosa rugosa.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
By STACEY STOWE
SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. — The rigors of vegetable gardening, for most people, are humble and gritty: planting, weeding, dirtying knees, working up a sweat and maybe straining a back muscle or two.
But here on the gilded acres of Long Island’s East End, a different skill set often applies: hiring a landscape architect to design the garden, a gardener and crew to plant and pamper the beds, and sometimes even a chef to figure out what to do with the bushels of fresh produce. All that’s left is to pick the vegetables — though employees frequently do that, too.
The hardest-worked muscles may be in the hand writing the checks: These lavish, made-to-order gardens can cost as much as $100,000, said Alec Gunn, a Manhattan landscape architect whose firm designs high-end residential, commercial and public-works projects throughout the country.
The gardens that the chef Kevin Penner manages for a three-home compound in Bridgehampton, have a formal parterre design with gravel paths separating geometric planting beds, lined with trimmed boxwoods and filled with vegetables, flowers and herbs.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“And it is not the plants that are driving the cost,” Mr. Gunn said. One 2015 project of his in Southampton with a six-figure price tag includes an underground irrigation system, a potting shed, an orchard and a meadow for a cutting garden. Many gardens require expensive hedges or other barriers to protect them from ocean winds and the ubiquitous deer.
The bespoke vegetable garden, these days almost always organic, has become a particular object of desire in the Hamptons. More clients have commissioned elaborate gardens this summer than ever before, say members of the support staffs who toil on them.
“I put in 10 by July,” said Charles R. Dayton, the owner of an East Hampton landscaping company whose ancestors have owned and worked land here since 1640. “I get a kick out of it.”
About 500 farms remain on the fertile East End, even as more mansions crop up each summer on former potato fields. And the kitchen garden has been a tradition on Long Island estates since the 19th century. But today, growing your own produce is a much different enterprise on what has become some of the world’s most expensive real estate.
Two landscape architects said clients this summer had asked that their vegetables be picked, packaged and put on the Hampton Jitney for use in city kitchens. (The cost, $25 to $50 a parcel, is often more than for a passenger.) One gardener, Charlene Babinski, said she had installed a “juicing garden” for her client’s favorite liquid diets.
Then there are the hostess gifts and holiday honey for guests. “One client asked me to make 27 baskets of vegetables to give to her friends,” said Paul Hamilton, a Montauk farmer who plants and maintains seven luxe gardens.
Preserved vegetables from the garden of Carole Olshan and her husband, Morton, in East Hampton.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
What’s driving the gardening bug among the affluent, gardeners say, is their clients’ focus on “self-care” — a curious phrase for a pursuit that requires so much help. Mr. Gunn said the impulse includes a “moral component.”
“There’s so much wealth,” he said. “It’s ‘Let’s take something I’ve been fortunate to have and put it back into the environment. I want to do something to reduce what I’m taking.’ ”
Christopher LaGuardia, a landscape architect based in Water Mill who designs raised beds with black locust wood for vegetables and herbs, said his clients were interested in reducing their carbon footprint by producing vegetables that don’t need to be trucked in. “Plus, they are contributing to biodiversity, pollinators,” he said. “We discourage the big lawn.”
Cabbage growing in a garden designed and tended by Paul Hamilton in East Hampton.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
But others liken the professionally tended garden to a vintage car or a Hinckley yacht — yet another means of flaunting wealth.
“I think people have just run out of status symbols,” said Steven Gaines, whose 1998 book, “Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons,”tracked the peregrinations of its richest and most colorful residents. In the years since the book was published, said Mr. Gaines, who lives in Wainscott, in East Hampton, “it’s all gotten more intense — the competition has taken over in all sorts of peculiar ways.”
“God has given you too much money when you have someone else tend your vegetable garden,” he said.
FOR ALEXANDRA MUNROE, the senior curator of Asian art at the Guggenheim Museum, the roughly 5,000-square-foot vegetable garden — she calls it the Farm — just outside the 1928 neo-Palladian home she shares with her husband, Robert Rosenkranz, is “the center of the meal.”
“We feast here,” Ms. Munroe said, gesturing toward the flower-fringed vegetable garden nestled on a rise overlooking Georgica Jetty, on West End Road in East Hampton. In addition to a pool and tennis court, the property includes a billiards terrace and croquet green; a hedge of Rosa rugosa protects the garden from winds.
Mr. Hamilton plants, weeds, hand-waters and harvests the vegetable garden, while four other gardeners work on the remainder of the five-acre property, which has perennial beds, a meadow and woodland gardens designed by Ms. Munroe, who hosts self-guided tours.
Broccoli in Ms. Munroe’s East Hampton garden.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
She is known to get her hands dirty. But when she arrives at the house for the weekend, there is often a basket brimming with the garden’s harvest, arranged by Mr. Hamilton or the estate manager, Robert Deets.
“There is no greater thing than eating produce that’s still warm from the sun that has never seen a refrigerator,” Ms. Munroe said.
Iris Keitel, a retired music industry executive who lives in Manhattan and on Meadow Lane in Westhampton Beach, tore up her Har-Tru tennis court two years ago and hired the organic gardener Suzanne P. Ruggles to plant alliums, Green Zebra tomatoes and a cornucopia of vegetables. Ms. Ruggles does most of the work, but Ms. Keitel picks her own vegetables.
“My friends and I come here to play,” Ms. Keitel said, standing next to a patch of blooming cardoons that resembled a Dr. Seuss creation. Ms. Keitel, who had a bat house and a bee pollinator installed near the former center court, cooks recipes like cucumber gazpacho, rainbow radishes with butter, and zucchini fritters with those friends.
At the home of Carole Olshan and her husband, Morton, trumpet vines form an arch over a bench in kitchen garden of their private chef, John Hamilton.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
At the ivy-draped Further Lane home of Carole Olshan and her husband, Morton, Ms. Olshan said friends like to tour the vegetable garden designed and maintained by Mr. Hamilton and set off by a picket fence on meticulously landscaped grounds.
She said Mr. Hamilton had expanded her botanical knowledge. “We can’t call them weeds,” she said with a chuckle. “They’re native plants.”
The family chef, John Hamilton (no relation to Paul), creates meals around the seasonal offerings that Paul Hamilton brings in from the garden. A recent lunch included golden and Chioggia beets, sliced cucumbers and wasabi caviar. “I told Paul to cut the kale — so sick of it,” Ms. Olshan said.
A multicolored carpet of baby salad greens in the kitchen garden of the chef John Hamilton, at the Olshans’ home.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kevin Penner, a personal chef who headed the kitchens at Cittanuova and the 1770 House in East Hampton, manages 36 raised-bed gardens and berry bushes at a contemporary, three-home compound on Meadowlark Lane in Bridgehampton. The variety of heirloom vegetables and exotic herbs — from the buckler leaf sorrel he includes in salmon dishes to the La Ratte potatoes he uses to replicate Joël Robuchon’s potato purée — reflects Mr. Penner’s childhood on an Iowa farm and three decades as a professional cook.
“I have control over the quality of the product with this garden,” he said. “You can get lots of heirloom products, but, if you put it on a rail car the week before you get it, it’s not the same.”
Squash growing in geometric planting beds bordered by trimmed boxwood hedges in this vegetable garden in Bridgehampton.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
At his waterfront estate on Oregon Road in Cutchogue, on the North Fork, a hedge fund manager stocks a cold cellar and freezer with fingerling potatoes or sauces of Brandywine tomatoes from a large vegetable garden.
The manager, who asked that his name not be used because his fund forbids employees to speak to the news media, buys his stock from Sang Lee Farms in Peconic. He plants and harvests his crop himself and with William Lee, an owner of Sang Lee; other gardeners weed.
“I came out this morning, grabbed some shishito peppers and an onion for an omelet,” the manager said. “So convenient.”
Blackberries in a caged berry garden in Bridgehampton.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
One thing it is not is cost effective. “It’s a bad trade,” he said, chuckling, referring to his vegetable garden and orchard, designed by the landscape architect Stacy Paetzel, who recommended South Bay quartzite for the steps leading to the knoll-top garden and installed galvanized hardware cloth for the cedar fencing. A potting shed will include a soapstone sink and Moroccan tiles, and a raw concrete dining table will sit under a black cherry tree.
AT LEAST ONE VEGETABLE GARDEN of a high-profile Hampton resident is modest. The TV journalist Katie Couric grows a few plants each of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and potatoes in a 10-by-20-foot area facing the tennis court at her East Hampton home. She plants and harvests the patch herself, with the help of her landscaper.
At her East Hampton home, the TV journalist Katie Couric has a modest vegetable garden where, with some help, she grows tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, lettuces and herbs for use in her kitchen.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Cooking the vegetables for her daughters and sharing the bounty with friends, she said, is “a real treat for me.”
“Sometimes I bring produce to friends because I hate the idea of it not being used,” she said, adding with a laugh, “but I don’t do canning — that’s not my jam.”
If there is a gardener with star quality here, it may well be Paul Hamilton. The seven vegetable gardens he plants and maintains help supplement his other pursuits: playing guitar in a gypsy jazz band, surfing, and farming two acres that supply his clients and a stand in the Springs section of East Hampton, not far from Jackson Pollock’s former home.
The garden consultant Paul Hamilton and his son Walker with a day’s bounty, including squash, beets, carrots, kale, peppers and broccoli, all harvested from Ms. Munroe’s oceanside vegetable garden.
DANIEL GONZALEZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Mr. Hamilton, 57, who looks a little like James Taylor, is something of a guru for his wealthy clients, but he has a low-key style. He works barefoot, sometimes in an unbuttoned, well-worn shirt, sometimes with the help of his two sons and stepdaughter. There’s a palpable difference between his bohemian bearing and his bejeweled clients. But he accepts it pragmatically.
“Look, this is the economy out here,” he said. “These projects, these houses, are how most of us make a living.” With the blessing of those who hire him, he delivers surplus produce from their gardens to the East Hampton Senior Center.
Teaching the next generation to appreciate growing one’s own food is important for Ms. Babinski, a professional gardener whose family began operating a farm stand in Water Mill in the early 1970s.
“When a child pulls up a carrot from under the ground for the first time, you can’t beat that smile,” she said.
But Ms. Babinski said she had seen the initial excitement of a vegetable garden fade for some clients.
“They lose interest, though, after they’re planted,” she said. “It’s the same thing with the chickens. They say, ‘I have to have chickens, so I can tell my friends,’ but they end up giving the eggs to the help.”
Lawn Island Farms: Babylon Couple Turns Yards Into Crops
Lawn Island Farms: Babylon Couple Turns Yards Into Crops
Jim and Rosette Adams of Babylon are on a mission to bring locally grown food to Long Islanders tables, by growing it in their front yards.
The Adams’ fledgling company, Lawn Island Farms, has been growing produce and selling it to farmer’s markets and local businesses for about a year, but their unique approach has attracted national media attention. They tout the health benefits of locally grown vegetables.
“Unfortunately too many people don’t even realize how corrupted or compromised [their produce is],” Jim said, noting cancer-causing pesticides as one of the most pressing concerns related to factory farming.
Jim got the idea for the company after he met his wife, Rosette, in her home country of Uganda 10 years ago. There, he came to appreciate how she grew up in a culture of self-sustained farming.
“She has the experience from growing up in Uganda and I got to see, kind of, the world through her eyes when she came here and that changed me a lot,” Jim said.
This fresh perspective also alerted Jim to the perils of not knowing exactly where our food is coming from and how it’s being produced. After reading The Urban Farmer, he was inspired to begin farming locally. The book details how people can convert their property into a sustainable and profitable food source.
“There are over 40 million acres of lawn in North America,” the book’s website states. “In their current form, these unproductive expanses of grass represent a significant financial and environmental cost. However, viewed through a different lens, they can also be seen as a tremendous source of opportunity.”
Jim and Rosette brought this idea to Jack Jack’s Coffee House in Babylon, where owners Mike Sparacino and Vanessa Viola pointed them to a community farm behind St. Peter’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, effectively giving them the idea to launch Lawn Island Farms.
The Adams’ then hung a sign in that same coffee shop asking for anyone with enough land to let them convert their lawns into crops, which led them to Bay Shore resident Cassandra Trimarco.
For the price of $30 of produce a week as well as free landscaping, Ms. Trimarco allowed the Adams’ to transform the front lawn of her Hyman Avenue home into a miniature farm. The reactions of the community were varied, with some neighbors complaining that the lawn was now an eyesore.
“We did get, in the beginning, a lot of gossip going around,” Jim said of the initial controversy surrounding the converted lawn. But that attention was what would eventually raise their profile.
“That’s when CBS News and Fox came by,” he recalled. “That was the story, because it was controversial.”
Currently, the Adams’ hyper-local farming endeavor consists of the land behind St. Peter’s and Trimarco’s yard, with the produce being sold to the Bay Shore Farmer’s Market and the Sayville Farmer’s Market, as well as Henley’s Village Tavern in Bay Shore, Empowering Goods in Lindenhurst, as well as Jack Jack’s, where it all began.
Jim and Rosette have also begun to take a more tech savvy approach to their business. Lawn Island Farms can now be found on the Farmzie app, which seeks to create a network of small farmers and increase small farm sustainability. Users can connect to Lawn Island and buy produce directly from them. They also offer restaurants a grow-to-order option in order to better suit their specific needs.
Lawn Island Farms’ approach to local farming has garnered interest from people all over the island, with inquiries coming in from Patchogue, Port Jeff, Middle Island, Wading River and elsewhere. But at the moment, the Adams’ simply can’t meet the demand on their own.
“My plate is full, I’ve gotten a lot of offers which is amazing, but I hardly have time to even go look at them,” Jim said of the outpouring of requests they’ve received. That’s why they want others to take action and begin growing food on their own.
“I want more people to do it, because it’s not just about us and our business,” he said. “It’s about local food for the people.”
To learn more about converting your lawn into a sustainable food source check out the website of Jim and Rosette’s friend Linda Borghi, Farm-A-Yard.com
Glasgow’s Community Gardens: Sustainable Communities of Care
Glasgow’s Community Gardens: Sustainable Communities of Care
Community gardens are not yet embedded in place or institutions – their immediate future is precarious in many cases.
Dr John Crossan
Professor Deirdre Shaw
Professor Andrew Cumbers
Professor Robert McMaste
University of Glasgow 2015
Excerpt:
The potential for community gardening is high in old industrial cities where the loss of manufacturing industry has resulted in vast areas of unused spaces. Glasgow is a particularly pertinent case with 1300 hectares of vacant and derelict land, representing 4% of its total land area and comprising 925 individual sites. As a result over 60% of Glasgow City’s population lives within 500 metres, and over 90% within 1000 metres, of a derelict site. This is important when considering issues of social and environmental justice, as most of the vacant and derelict land can be found in the most deprived areas of the city, thus, disproportionately affecting the poorest citizens (see Map 1).
These communities “are already suffering from higher than expected rates of many diseases, do not enjoy long life expectancy, and have to bear the stress of poverty and other forms of deprivation” (Maantay 2012). As well as brownfield sites Glasgow’s community gardens are located on underused public and private green spaces. These include grassed areas, city meadows and locations within existing public parks.
A number of funding initiatives in recent years have made community gardening projects more accessible to Glasgow’s residents. Funding initiatives are geared towards a variety of outcomes. These include: initiatives aimed at ‘grassroots’ regeneration of derelict and underused city spaces; initiatives concerned with environmental sustainability, such as increasing biodiversity in the urban environment and increasing carbon catchment areas through tree planting and local food growing projects. Also pertinent to community gardens are a number of initiatives aimed at promoting healthy eating and “green-exercise”. The main organisations funding community gardens in Glasgow are listed in Table 1.
See paper.
Indoor Grow Gardens Bring Your Gardening Inside
Indoor Grow Gardens Bring Your Gardening Inside
By Kim Cook | AP August 8, 2017 | Home & Garden
A tasty salad of tender pea shoots. Handfuls of fragrant herbs for the stew. Snack veggies for lunch boxes.
Keeping a fresh supply of greens and herbs on hand can be challenging as the growing season winds down, or if you don’t have a garden. But now you can plop a planter anywhere in your house, set a few timers, and in about 10 days you’ll be nibbling greens like a contented rabbit. All year round.
There are a variety of indoor grow gardens on the market that come with everything you need: planter, planting medium, seeds, fertilizer and a high-intensity grow light. Smart tech and remote controls adjust lighting and moisture levels, so even if your thumb’s not the greenest, you can still find success.
Linnea and Tarren Wolfe of Vancouver, British Columbia, decided to design a home grower after watching their kids gobble up sunflower and pea-shoot microgreens “like potato chips.”
Their Urban Cultivator looks like a wine fridge. It comes as a free-standing unit, topped with a butcher block, or it can be installed under the counter and hooked up like a dishwasher. The company offers an extensive seed selection, but anything from your local garden center will grow. (www.urbancultivator.net )
Linnea Wolfe advises home gardeners to do some research into the benefits of the edible, immature greens known as microgreens.
“Most of them only take about 7 to 10 days to grow,” she says. “You can mass-consume them, and the health benefits are extraordinary.”
The indoor garden trend is part of a, well, growing movement, says New York landscape architect Janice Parker.
“The technology of these kits simplifies hydroponic gardening at its best, and makes it available to all,” she says. You don’t need a yard, or favorable weather.
“What a pleasure to have fresh herbs, flowers and vegetables, and experience a connection to nature no matter where you are,” says Parker.
She thinks these kits shouldn’t just be relegated to the kitchen.
“I’d put them anywhere — dining room tables and coffee tables come to mind. Or in ‘dead’ spaces that have no light or interest,” she says.
She recommends growing plants with both flavor and flair: “Chives, dill, rosemary, fennel, basil and nasturtiums all have gorgeous flowers and beautiful foliage”.
Miracle Gro’s line of Aerogarden indoor planters includes the Sprout, which is about the size of a coffee maker and suitable for herbs, as well as a larger model in which you could grow just about anything. Pre-packaged seed pods like lettuces, cherry tomatoes, herb blends and petunias come ready to pop in the planter. An LCD control panel helps adjust lighting and watering needs. (www.miraclegro.com )
Hydroponics – Future of Urban Food | CV Prakash | TEDxPESITBSC
Hydroponics – Future of Urban Food | CV Prakash | TEDxPESITBSC
Posted on August 16, 2017 by adminlfad
Simplified Hydroponics – Who Can Grow?
Where can you grow?
Why?
Grow Local, Eat Local.
Lt. Cdr CV Prakash is a former underwater weapons specialist of the elite Submarine arm of the Indian Navy.
Upon retirement CV learnt Hydroponics from the best of growers in Australia and is a pioneer in the field of Hydroponics in India. A hands-on Grower, Food Park designer, Auditor & Trainer in Hydroponics, CV’s “Pet Bharo Project” is credited for India’s first commercial hydroponically grown strawberries, spinach and herbs.
He is credited for building India’s first state-of-the-art Hydroponics Greenhouse and is one of the most widely read academic paper authors. His mission is clear- to bring simple yet sustainable technology that can help almost everybody grow clean, residue free, nutritious food. The best part about his technology being that it has very little entry barriers and reaches the poorest of the poor.
He believes that “it’s not enough to just have know how, but one must do how and show how”.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Posted in Hydroponics · Tagged English, Food, Gardening, Global issues, Health, india, plants, TEDxTalks
At A Chicago Embassy Suites, Sky Garden Is As Local As It Gets
At A Chicago Embassy Suites, Sky Garden Is As Local As It Gets
Tuesday August 8th, 2017 - 9:00AM
Sky Garden at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile
CHICAGO—The hotel industry has embraced the farm-to-table movement, so much so, it’s no longer a novel idea but a practical way to source fresh ingredients locally and strengthen the guest’s connection to the land. From an onsite rooftop garden to a vertical hydroponic farm, it’s as local as local food gets.
The Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile is taking the concept a step further by getting the food up close and personal with guests. The 455-all-suite hotel has turned its atrium into a greenhouse of sorts, to herald the arrival of its new Sky Garden and herb collection. Care to pinch a sprig of mint as you wheel your bags through the atrium? The hotel calls it a “direct to fork” approach.
“We have an amazing atrium with loads of natural light; it is one of the most striking features of the hotel. We were crafting a marketing message that would take that into account in our guest interactions," said Mike Rogers, director of sales & marketing for the hotel. Simultaneously, General Manager Konstantine Drosos attended a meeting on repurposing vacant buildings for urban farming. "When we put our heads together, we realized these were complementary concepts and could become something of an urban greenhouse, creating an opportunity for our guests to interact with a green space 365 days a year,” Rogers said. “Coinciding with our discussions on our greenhouse idea, we happened to be working with a client who does exactly this sort of thing—DIRTT Environmental Solutions. We approached them about feasibility, took a walk around their showroom and it took off from there.”
The Sky Garden was built by DIRTT Environmental Solutions, a provider specializing in prefabricated interior design components. DIRTT stands for “Do It Right This Time.” The company puts a strong focus on supporting the environment and people, as much as functional design, noted Rogers. The construction was customized to the hotel’s needs and specs and contains largely modular components, providing opportunities to evolve the space to keep it relevant.
“We wanted the Sky Garden to be a touchpoint, something for everyone to celebrate as they see fit rather than forcing it on our guests. For our chefs, this means herb-centric banquet menus and herb-focused enhancements to our cooked-to-order breakfast and evening reception,” he said. “While seasonality influences the primary components of our menus, the herbs themselves can be a consistent component adapted seasonally. For example, rosemary and watermelon agua fresca in summer can give way to rosemary biscuits in the winter.”
Unlike outdoor gardens, which are seasonal in many climates, the indoor Sky Garden promises to be a year round opportunity to engage with guests.
“There are two distinct trends that influenced this project. First, micro-sourcing is everywhere. We wanted to try to cut out the middle man and instead of farm-to-table, came up with a way to connect direct-to-fork across multiple touchpoints that fit within the Embassy Suites Brand Pillars. This presented opportunities with both our evening reception and our cooked-to-order breakfast,” he said. “Second, while there is an almost instinctual desire to eat 'al fresco,' the other trend we were keying on is the rooftop garden. In Chicago, these gardens are prevalent, but are also often inaccessible to guests and only in bloom for part of the year. The Sky Garden allows us to repurpose the atrium in a way that keeps it activated 365 days a year—come rain, snow, sleet or shine.”
Training associates how to share the Sky Garden with guests varies by department, with each group getting involved in a way that helps to connect the dots. Team gatherings were hosted in the atrium for sales, catering, concierge and culinary teams to ensure operational teams were involved and experienced the herbs, food and beverage. “To help take that story home—literally—and make it part of people’s lives, we gave out basil seeds to our housekeeping team. Our mantra to our clients and colleagues is to ‘cultivate your senses,’” Rogers said.
It’s not uncommon for a staff member to tear off pieces of mint or basil to highlight the smell and experience of the Sky Garden, which is there to activate all of the senses during a visit.
“We discourage actually eating the herbs directly, as they have not been washed or treated for consumption,” he said. “The fixture is permanent and we strategically located the herbs in the top two rows of the wall to ensure our younger guests wouldn’t be too tempted to get into things.”
A courtyard of faux bamboo in the hotel’s atrium has been turned into a real garden, but the story branches out in many directions from there.
“Whether it is the F&B experience onsite, a recipe to take home, or the DIY herb planters we hand out to our VIPs as gifts, there are so many ways to continue the story,” he said. “Philosophically, I have always felt herbs and the hospitality industry are a natural fit; the same way herbs enhance a dish, the right hotel team enhances people’s special moments, be it a wedding, vacation, key business meeting or any number of things. The Sky Garden is the embodiment of what we do at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown Magnificent Mile.”
—Corris Little
Grow, Eat, and Learn With Urban Roots
Grow, Eat, and Learn With Urban Roots
Want to learn more?
If interested in getting involved with Urban Roots, visit their website at urbanrootsgr.org or stop by their office and farm at 1316 Madison Ave SE Grand Rapids, MI 49507.
Megan Sarnacki
8/11/17 02:40pm - LOCAL LIFE
Founder and Executive Director of Urban Roots, Levi Gardner, shares his thoughts on what urban farming means to him and how the community can get involved.
/Urban Roots
/Urban Roots
As Founder and Executive Director of Urban Roots, what does an average day on the job look like?
/Urban Roots
I try to start most of my days with yoga if I can and then I have breakfast. I used to skip over those things and now I find that if I don’t do them in that order, my day doesn’t work out very well. After that, there’s no such thing as an average day. I could be spending some time with my staff imagining or executing programs or meeting with members of my board. Today, I will be working at two different gardens teaching classes and workshops. The thing that I love the most about being an executive director is I feel like the conductor of a symphony and all of the various pieces are playing together and the goal is harmony. So, whether that’s working on something that’s short term or seeing into what the long term goals are or developing or envisioning strategy, I get to do that and set the things in motion. Now, since it’s summer, I get to play as well so it’s a lot time growing, thinking, imagining, dreaming, teaching, and eating.
What is your favorite part about working for Urban Roots?
Because the job is taxing, it takes a lot from me and from my family. Through our mobile classroom program or occasionally here, we just have really beautiful moments of the simple things like weeding, watering, cultivation, or pruning, the things that got me started in all of this. Last week, we sifted our first batch of compost from our bike powered compost service and it was just beautiful. It’s those moments where I actually get to touch, taste, or see the things that we are doing and not just be at a desk. I did this because I didn’t want a desk job, but I still found myself relegated at a desk sometimes. So, any of the time where I can be doing the human work is the most fulfilling for me.
How did your compost collection service come about?
This neighborhood, this community, and this land has been subjected to what's called disinvestment, which means resources being pulled out. When we define resources we don’t only mean dollars, we mean intellectual capital, experiential capital, social capital, and natural capital, which can be in the form of soil fertility. One of the questions was how do we get more resources here while simultaneously addressing a problem and a need people have which is where do I throw my organic matter because just going to the trash and being burnt in the incinerator feels like a huge waste of resources. We looked at two different problems and thought there’s actually an opportunity here for us to collect and capture resources that we can compost. It’s absolutely beautiful. It’s just gorgeous and most people on their home scale wouldn’t be able to make that happen. We pick up compost once a week, and since launching the program in April we’re at about 4,500 pounds of waste. Our goal for 2018 is 100,000 pounds of waste. That’s what we really want to get to and thus far, the responses have been amazing for people to spend $4 to $5 a week to have their compost go to something that is not the trash and build soil fertility at an urban farm while teaching people. That’s success all the way around.
Why do you hold free, farm fresh dinners at your open houses?
When you say the words farm to table, often that means it’s a very elitist, exclusive club. There’s some amazing farm to table restaurants in town that we love, and they charge a good amount because they are worth it and they value their employees and farmers. Unfortunately, farm to table sometimes doesn’t mean everybody is invited. To invite our community whether that be volunteers, donors, literal neighborhood members, and collaborators to an event and do something as simple and benign, but also something as transformational as share a meal felt like a really good idea so we do three of them a year. Our next one is coming up Friday, August 25th, and it’s just a chance for people to go share a meal together. The last one we had 80 or so people come in, and again eating a meal is this thing we all do all the time and yet we feel as if it can be transformational on how we think about place, economy, soil and food. They’ve been beautiful and we’ve loved doing them.
What other activities can people do at the open houses?
One of the things we’ve invited people to do is to just walk around, learn, see, and visualize. We have a very specific way of doing things and we’re constantly learning, but we want to invite people into growing, eating, and learning together. The meals are a specific time to eat together, but we also want to invite people to grow and learn together so every question from “What does compost look like? What is soil fertility? What is interplanting? What are the appropriate planting and harvesting dates for x, y, z crop?” There’s so much of what we call ecological literacy or agricultural literacy, which is the same way people can be literate to read a book, a person can be literate to read a farm, and we want to invite people into not tilling up land, but rather harvesting them as spring greens and throwing them in a salad because they are absolutely delicious and they pop up anywhere there is cultivated ground. Those are the sorts of things that are beautiful and wonderful to learn together as a community, and we define community really broadly to mean anyone that grows, eats, or learns together with us.
Do many people come to your open houses asking how to start their own garden?
Yeah, oh all the time! To be honest, there are very few people who don’t want a garden. It’s deeply ingrained in the human experience to want to touch and taste things that are real, whether it be wine that is connected to the vineyard, a salad, or even eating an artisanal bread and knowing that has a story connected to wheat which has a story connected to a farm. We all want that, very few people want to eat something out of a box that has no story. We want to grow those things too. Somebody can tell you the value of a carrot is 25 cents, but to the kid who planted the seed, watered it, cultivated it, and harvested it that thing is worth a hundred dollars because it’s the most amazing thing ever. I say a hundred dollars only cause that’s as abstract to the kid as the value of growing the carrot because he or she knows that it’s valuable. A lot of people want to learn and we’re continuing to learn as well. It's been incredibly valuable and we want to grow and learn with our community.
How can people get involved at Urban Roots?
You know, there’s always something. We have group service learning where we have groups come out for a workshop or a work experience and then share a meal together. We have volunteers here all the time, whether it's hilling potatoes, repairing bio-boxes, or preparing land for a shed. One of the things that is beautiful about cultivation is that it’s in perpetuity. You’re always cultivating as opposed to construction where you build a thing and it's mostly done other than tweaks. Cultivation is constantly happening because nature is constantly emerging new things. There is always something to be done here and there’s always a way to learn more.
Why should groups come to Urban Roots for service learning?
The idea of service learning is a popular one that’s starting has emerged in the academic community, which says volunteerism is a one sided thing, it’s not a transactional relationship. What we’re understanding now is that actually everything is the opportunity to be able to serve and learn so it’s mutually beneficial. In ecological terms, we would say its symbiotic that there's a symbiosis, a relationship between the two things. Sometimes people will say, “Hey, we want to volunteer,” but we’ll say, “Actually, you don’t just want to volunteer because you don’t just want to give yourself. You want a mutually beneficial relationship, which means you invest in something and you have something invested into you.” That’s the most beautiful relationship. I was reading a book on happiness that said this research coming out of Harvard said that people don’t want to be underpaid or overpaid relationally. They want equitable payment and equitable relationships. People come here and they get to give us a small donation to cover the time and cost and like I said, a tour where they learn some things, a work experience where they can contribute to something, and then a meal. That’s a great experience to learn more about themselves, their humanity, and the earth and to contribute to something good.
What do you think the future holds for urban farms?
Cultivation, which is the ongoing working of the land, is a constantly unfolding process. There's something in ecology called dynamic stability, which seems like a contradiction in terms cause stability feels like it means something is not moving and dynamic means it's changing. An urban farm can contribute to the tapestry of dynamic stability for any metropolitan region, which means things are always changing, evolving, and moving, but hopefully a growth towards redemption, reconciliation, restoration of ourselves and other humans, of ourselves and the earth, and of ourselves and our food, sun, soil, and water. My hope for Urban Roots is that we can contribute to a Grand Rapids that is a thriving one and not just thriving for certain people and certain areas, but thriving for all people. It is our human right to have healthy water, healthy soil, healthy air, safe homes, and community joy, and whatever way an urban farm like Urban Roots can contribute to the tapestry we want to be a part of that. Thich Nhat Hanh, zen Buddhist monk, has an excerpt where he says that the garbage and the rose interare. When you are creating garbage, you can see the rose in it, and when you are growing the rose, you can see the garbage in it. He’s obviously talking about compost and organic matter, and literally last week I had a group of students where I held up what used to be banana peels, coffee grounds, and food scraps and put it on a carrot that in four weeks from now I will be eating. You’ve never seen the growth of something that is going to sustain your body in your trash in that way. As humans, we are incredibly complex and so much of industrialism has pushed us away from our humanity, rather than reconcile us with the things that make us humans, and my hope is that Urban Roots and urban farming in general can restore the beauty that is our humanity.
As a community farm, market, and education center, there is always something happening at Urban Roots. On August 17th, there will be a “Compost You Can Really Do” workshop from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., where you can learn all about how to decrease your waste. Three times a year, Urban Roots also hosts open houses where everyone is invited to learn more about the organization and share a free meal together. The next open house will be on August 25th from 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. and is kid and family friendly. On September 20th, Urban Roots will hold its first fundraising event on the farm. For $50, there will be a five-course meal made by Jeremy Paquin, the head chef from Grove, and it is a chance to gather together as a community and support Urban Roots.
About: Megan Sarnacki (Megan Sarnacki)
Megan is a student at Aquinas College studying Communications. She enjoys writing and learning about all aspects of entertainment, media, and culture.
Queen City Acres Makes A Go Of Urban Farming
Queen City Acres Makes A Go Of Urban Farming
Ethan Thompson at MetroRock SUZANNE PODHAIZE
Scrutinizing the house in front of me, I thought I must have the wrong address. Deep gray with bright orange and white accents and a kiddie pool in the pristine front yard, the place didn't look like it could be the urban farm I was looking for in Burlington's New North End. But then farmer Ethan Thompson, lean and bearded, rounded the corner. He was wearing a sage-colored shirt depicting a fist holding a spade and the words: "Resistance is growing."
And so is he. Thompson, 37, has a master's degree from the University of Vermont in community development and applied economics as well as a certificate in permaculture design from Yestermorrow Design/Build Schoolin Waitsfield. For years, he has been cultivating produce at two locations — this New North End backyard that belongs to some friends and his own home in the Old North End. He calls his enterprise Queen City Acres.
At first, the food was intended to feed his friends' family and his own. But last year, Thompson realized that it wasn't a viable hobby. "I was putting in a ton of time to manage the garden ... It was very weedy, and I didn't have the time to stay on top of it," he said. "It seemed like a dead end."
A Queen City Acres plot | SUZANNE PODHAIZER
Thompson was on the verge of quitting when he found a YouTube series on profitable urban farming. "I was sitting at the computer, and what popped up is this fellow who's making a living growing food in other people's backyards," he explained. "Seeing how other people had done it, I was finally able to envision how I might do it."
And so he founded Queen City Acres. Thompson expanded the main plot in the New North End to 4,000 square feet. Then, in the same neighborhood, a woman who had tended her garden for 30 years and wanted help offered him another, smaller plot.
Thompson grows several crops in his own yard, including pea and sunflower shoots and pink and gray oyster mushrooms. "People love [them]," he said. "I had no idea to what extent sales would be driven by mushrooms."
Thinking about how to find customers for his new business, Thompson realized that he'd need to get creative. "In the first year, I didn't feel like I could commit to even the smallest farmers market," he said. He wasn't sure he could reliably produce enough food, and he worried that his limited selection couldn't compete with bigger operations.
Therefore, Thompson opted for a pop-up market model. Every Thursday, he totes his food to MetroRock climbing center in Essex Junction and sells it in the lobby. On Friday, he does the same at Scout & Co. on North Avenue in Burlington, just around the corner from his home.
Why these locations? "I was relying on my closest community, which is the climbing community," said Thompson, who also works setting routes at MetroRock. And, he continued, "I wanted to connect to my next closest community, my neighbors."
Oyster mushrooms| SUZANNE PODHAIZER
Stopping by the local coffee shop for a few hours a week, he noted, was a better business proposition than delivering vegetables to people's homes or having them randomly swing by his place for a head of lettuce or pint of cherry tomatoes.
In February, Thompson began popping up at MetroRock with shoots to sell and a sign-up sheet for his farm stand community supported agriculture, or CSA, shares. Unlike shares he's received, he doesn't decide what to package up for people each week. Customers pay in the spring and receive that amount, plus a bonus percentage, as credit. Then they choose whatever they want from his selection, whenever they want it. "It's a totally flexible model," the farmer said.
Thompson wanted to avoid the problems he'd had participating in other CSAs. "I'd done CSAs for a number of years but stopped," he said. "I was getting more stuff than I could use and got stuff I wasn't interested in using."
In his research on this agricultural model nationwide, Thompson found that the average rate of retention for customers is only 50 percent. He guessed that other participants had issues similar to his. By giving his customers free choice, he hopes to keep them.
At first, Thompson said, his pop-ups were a little slow, especially the one at Scout & Co. "It rained the first eight Fridays I was out there, and there weren't many people walking around," he lamented. But his fortune changed when he began weekly posts on Front Porch Forum about what he was going to have on offer. "That seemed to make a huge difference," Thompson said.
On a recent Thursday at the MetroRock pickup, a steady trickle of people stopped by to check out the cartons of late-season strawberries, bags of mesclun mix and mustard greens, and piles of radishes and carrots. Thompson said that greens — which grow quickly and can be cut several times — are one of the mainstays of profitable urban farms, as are baby roots. Bulky items or veggies that have a longer growing season, such as potatoes, cabbages and corn, are best produced in more rural environments.
Christine Dong, who works at MetroRock's front desk, remarked that having Thompson pop up with veggies at the gym is a boon for climbers. "It's really beneficial — everyone here likes to eat local," she said. "I love having the seasonal produce ... the mushrooms, the greens."
Based on this year's success, Thompson hopes to expand his operation in 2018 by adding two more plots. And, he said, "I've got feelers out for some sort of indoor space for doing microgreens in the off-season, and for storage."
Cherry tomatoes SUZANNE PODHAIZER
For now, Thompson's main plot produces mostly baby greens such as mizuna, mesclun from High Mowing Organic Seeds and red Russian kale — another best seller. He also grows cherry tomatoes and a few unusual crops, such as Egyptian walking onions and shiso, a mint variety.
The friends who own the main plot have also allowed Thompson to build a simple wash station for cleaning and packing veggies and a walk-in cooler for storage, both critical to the operation. Without that infrastructure, he said, he wouldn't want to be a professional farmer.
The farmed plots, wash station and cooler have taken shape without changing the character of the neighborhoods in which he's farming. From the street, the houses appear typical. Only when you enter the backyards do you notice row after row of tiny greens poking through the soil, a pile of kale drying under fans below the wraparound porch and a helper packing up carrots for the market.
The biggest difference, Thompson surmised, is that folks in the surrounding houses — most of whom are his customers — as well as his climber friends at MetroRock, now know exactly where their food is coming from.
The original print version of this article was headlined "Food in the Hood"
Nine Tours Offered At The 20th Annual Detroit Tour of Urban Farms And Gardens
Nine Tours Offered At The 20th Annual Detroit Tour of Urban Farms And Gardens
MONDAY, JULY 24, 2017 | Plum Street Farm | MARVIN SHAOUNI
Detroit has an impressive number of urban farms -- over 1,500 according to Keep Growing Detroit -- a number that has grown significantly in recent years. But the the urban farm "movement" has been alive in the city for some time, as demonstrated by the fact that the 20th Annual Detroit Tour of Urban Gardens and Farms takes place August 2.
Presented by Keep Growing Detroit, patrons can take one of nine bus and bike tours organized by theme and location. For example, a west side bus tour, called "Making Institutional Change," will swing by D-Town Farm, Detroit Public School's Charles R. Drew Transition Center, and Knagg's Creek Farm to demonstrate "how farms are inspiring systemic changes in our community."
Other tours will highlight black-led farms, farms with a focus on youth development, the history of urban farming in Detroit, and more.
All the tours will begin in Eastern Market at 6:00 p.m. and last approximately two hours. Afterwards, there will be a reception with local produce cooked by local chefs.
Keep Growing Detroit, an urban agriculture organization dedicated to food sovereignty in Detroit, hopes to not only showcase these farms, but educate attendees about Detroit's food system.
"We demand healthy, green, affordable, fair, and culturally appropriate food that is grown and made by Detroiters for Detroiters," writes the organization in a press release. "Transforming our broken food system begins with ensuring there are places to grow food in every neighborhood in the city. Places where residents can dig their hands in the soil to cultivate a healthy relationship to food, learn healthy habits from family and neighbors, and nurture an economically viable city where residents are strong and thrive."
The 20th Annual Detroit Tour of Urban Gardens and Farms takes place August 2 at 6:00 p.m. Purchase tickets at the Eventbrite page.
In The Garden: Beth Mort of Zinnia Designs Helps People Grow Productive Gardens
In The Garden: Beth Mort of Zinnia Designs Helps People Grow Productive Gardens
Sat., July 29, 2017, noon
Beth Mort, founder of Zinnia Designs, helps clients design productive landscapes. (SUSAN MULVIHILL/SPECIAL TO THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
By Susan Mulvihill inthegarden@live.com
You can contact Beth Mort via email at beth.zinnia@gmail.com or visit her websites at zinniapermaculturedesign.com and www.snapdragonflowerfarm.com.
Beth Mort has been around gardening for as long as she can remember. Not only does she enjoy growing bountiful gardens, but teaching others how to do this as well.
“My mom and dad always kept a good-sized garden,” she recalled. “I caught my love for gardening from them and have never turned back because eating fresh food changes your whole perspective.”
When she headed off to Evergreen State College, she majored in botany.
“I probably would have gone down that track if I’d been able to find a full-time job,” she admitted.
She later earned a master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Eastern Washington University. But the turning point in Mort’s life occurred when two instructors from Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island gave a daylong workshop on permaculture, which is the development of sustainable agricultural ecosystems. That led her to complete an intensive Permaculture Design Certificate course at the homestead.
In 2015, she founded Zinnia Designs, with the goal of helping people produce a yield on their property.
“I’m more focused on edible landscaping but can also teach them how to set up and grow a dye garden or raise fiber-producing animals,” she said. “I want to show them how to be productive on their land in a way that is sustainable.”
She begins by having clients answer a short questionnaire.
“It’s a great way to get people thinking about the big picture: their vision of what their yard could be, what they perceive as obstacles, and what they want to get out of it,” Mort said.
If they decide to proceed, she does a site assessment to look at every aspect of their yard, including the factors they can control and ones they cannot. This includes itemizing which enhancements the yard will need, such as mulching, soil improvement, where to locate animals, the use of water, and choosing the best places to plant.
Once Mort has gathered the information she needs, she works on a conceptual design plan.
“I create a base map that includes a sector analysis of how sun, wind, water, animals and people move through the space, and zones denoting how the areas of the property are used and accessed,” she said.
Another service she offers is two-hour training sessions on skills such as growing edible crops, flowers, beekeeping, raising chickens or making compost.
“Building their confidence is No. 1,” she said. “Giving them the basic foundation and vernacular so they can start asking the right questions – and find what they’re looking for – is really important.
“Working with people and gardening together is an extension of that,” she said. “I want them to be comfortable working in the soil, getting used to working with plants, and to address problems rather than just reacting to them.”
Mort also grows and sells cut flowers at the Thursday Market in the South Perry district, located at 924 S. Perry St. In addition, she has established a “bouquet CSA” (community-supported agriculture) program through her companion venture, Snapdragon Flower Farm.
She believes strongly in the principles of permaculture and practices what she preaches.
“Permaculture includes us in nature, and nature in us,” she said. “It is a very logical, thoughtful and observant way of living in your space. It is a joy knowing that people want to grow things and interact with their landscapes.”
Susan Mulvihill is co-author of “Northwest Gardener’s Handbook” with Pat Munts. Contact her at Susan@susansinthegarden.com and follow her at facebook.com/susansinthegarden. View this week’s “Everyone Can Grow A Garden” video at youtube.com/c/susansinthegarden.
How to Start a Garden – The Ultimate Guide
How to Start a Garden – The Ultimate Guide
I have gardened for many, many years and have many, many books ranging from communing with nature spirits to controlling pests with their natural enemies.
What are the most important lessons I have learned over the years? How would I advise someone to begin for guaranteed success?
People garden with different objectives in mind.
Some are seeking a serene oasis, a time they can spend alone in nature, even if it is just a tiny plot on their urban lot. Many do not know of the serenity gardening brings until they have one.
Some simply want an ornamental garden, pretty landscaping to admire.
Some people just want tomatoes and basil for spaghetti sauce.
A widowed mother with three young children my primary goal was to grow fresh organic food we could eat during the growing season, enough to store for the winter, herbs to heal our illnesses and injuries and flowers to fill the house.
I didn’t have extra time on my hands to be weeding the garden every evening, which may be a peaceful mantra for some after a day at the office, but was a disastrous waste of time in my book.
Nor was I interested in scouring plant leaves for camouflaged sacs of insect eggs and pulling slimy caterpillars from tomato plants they were devouring at alarming speed.
So I read and experimented, experimented and read. And after many years I came to understand what it takes to start a garden that yields the crops I want with minimal effort.
Table of Contents
- Garden with Nature
- Follow the Sun
- Don’t Try to Keep Out what you Can’t Keep Out
- It’s All in the Soil
- Organizing the Garden
- Buying Seeds, Starters, Bulbs and Seedlings
- Companion Planting
- Supplies
- Glossary
Garden with Nature
The first rule is to garden with nature, not against it. What type of soil do you have? Is it sandy or is it clay or is it a mix? What is the acidic level? How long is your growing season? How hot does it get? How cold does it get? How much rain do you get?
You will want to select plants that thrive in your soil in your climate.
It’s not hard to do. There are thousands of plants out there. It is nothing to be bemoaned if for, example your soil is clay and you cannot easily grow potatoes, which prefer sand. Well, then grow corn, cabbage, squash, echinacea, and black-eyed susans.
Most leafy greens prefer a good rich soil and the clay stays cooler longer than sand so it extends the growing season for this cool-weather crop.
Too, there are many different purposes you can grow plants for apart from beauty and food. I have grown plants for natural dyes and fibers.
I have grown plants for making gifts like sunflower wreaths, table centerpieces or raspberry liqueur filled chocolates.
I have grown plants to make insect repellent, set broken bones, heal sprains and clear congestion.
So when you are considering the plants you can grow in your area, broaden your horizons.
A good place to find out what grows well in your region is your extension office. This is what they do and they are paid tax dollars to do it, so don’t hesitate to stop by or call them.
I had an extension agent spend an afternoon on my farm discussing the site I had in mind for my vineyard. It would have taken two years of college classes and many growing seasons to learn what I learned from her in one afternoon.
Be aware, however, that many of the university agricultural departments in part subsidizing extension offices are themselves subsidized by large agricultural corporations that profit from the sale of fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides.
Here, for example, is the 2017 Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide which recommends extensive spraying of pesticides on the very fruit you will be eating.
It is worth opening just to the first page to give you an idea of how much the university agriculture departments contribute to the knowledge base of extension offices.
Their advice may be skewed toward priorities antithetical to a sustainable view of the planet. Take what you need and ignore the rest.
Check around. There are probably co-ops of sustainable and organic farmers in your area happy to help as well.
Pick up a farmer’s almanac too.
Back to your soil. We will talk about the beauty of compost fertilizing your soil and breaking up dense clay clumps that deprive roots of needed oxygen and drown them in mud.
Compost can also augment your sandy soil with some substance so that water doesn’t just rapidly drain through the soil leaving your plants thirsty only moments after it’s rained. Although there are many varieties of potatoes: red, gold, white and blue, perhaps you don’t want to be eating potatoes until your ears fall off.
You can add sandy soil to clay soil and clay soil to sandy soil, but the truth is unless you change the soil’s ecosystem, which happens over time when you shovel in compost, the soil will probably ignore your efforts and return to its natural state.
So unlike many guides out there, I am not going to advise you to believe that you can actually do much to permanently change the soil by adding amendments.
I have heavily compacted soil around my side door that seems to have served as a construction debris dump when my cabin was built. Attempts to change the clay by adding some of the sandy soil from other parts of the yard proved futile.
I didn’t want to use my compost, reserving it for the garden. At last I found gypsum, renowned for being nontoxic and for breaking up clay. Although touted as natural and nontoxic, I am a mistrustful soul.
Still, I did not intend to grow a food crop there, so I wasn’t terribly concerned about an unknown negative effect on the soil. I figured the soil would heal itself once I got some healthy growth activity going.
The immediate results looked promising and some plants were able to struggle through, but the results were, as with all of the other soil amendments I have tried short of compost, short-term.
Our focus on composting will be to add nutrients to the soil, which is always good as plants will deplete the soil of nutrients as they grow.
Consider a forest floor. Fragrant with the aroma of decaying leaves, it is replete with nutrients. Rain and wind have worked to bring down twigs, leaves, and nuts from the trees and pummel them all back into the earth along with animal scat. Fungi and bacteria feeding on the plant life further the decomposition.
The forest floor becomes even richer and will yield fiddleheads and morel mushrooms for a divine Spring breakfast. Where the tree canopy is not too dense, berry bushes will take over in the summer.
Nature regenerates itself and that is what we will emulate in the garden.
Follow the Sun
Where are you going to place your site? And how large should it be?
First, what are you hoping for?
If this is an ornamental garden, go with the contours of your land. An excellent book to assist you here is Ann Lovejoy’s Organic Garden Design School, published by Rodale in 2001.
My advice here is going to focus on the small home garden that includes herbs and vegetables for the kitchen. I say small because that is how you should start out.
You can easily expand it once you know how much effort it is going to take and have identified what else you might like to grow in a single season.
Go out to your proposed site and take a look at where the sun is in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. Bear in mind that if it is winter, the arc of the sun is going to be a bit different than in the summer.
What you are trying to determine is where any trees might be in relation to the sun that might block your garden for periods of the day. You can use this to your advantage.
I like to plant leafy greens where they only get morning and evening sun and the blazing midday sun is blocked by a copse of tall evergreens. Direct sun makes lettuces bolt, that is, the center core shoots up to reach the sun, to the detriment of the tasty leaves that would otherwise grow.
If you have the luxury of a lot of land, by all means take a shovel and dig up the soil at a few different sites to see what you’ve got. The best soil is a mix of clay and sand, a rich loamy silt that will hold water and nutrients, without forming into hard clumps of mud. The acid level should be a pH between 5.5 and 7.5. It probably is, but a simple soil test kit from the garden center will conform this.
Do not at any cost choose a site humans have contaminated with poisons of any sort. That includes Round-up, termite spray, and debris from a burn pile. If you wouldn’t eat it by the forkful, you don’t want to grow edible plants in it. Plants absorb nutrients from the soil and they will absorb toxins as well.
Consider too, who might be living near your garden. You won’t be able to keep them out, but if you have rabbits living nearby, at least make them have to cross a broad open field if you can. This is something they are reluctant to do as it makes them visible to hawks and other predators.
To save work, you will want the garden near your compost and your kitchen and reachable by a water hose.
Don’t Try to Keep Out what you Can’t Keep Out
You might mistakenly believe the woodland creatures or those in the shrubbery of your suburban neighborhood to be of lower intelligence but trust me, they were actually born highly psychic and are greedily contemplating the abundance from your garden even now as you are indoors innocently planning it.
There are gadgets and gizmos and wives tales of many a fix to deter animals, but save your money and just nod kindly at the neighbor telling his tall tales. The scarecrow with the banging pans, the sensor flood lights, the hose blasting shots of cold water, the fox urine, the Irish Spring soap, the locks of cut hair… these things may cause a deer or groundhog to hesitate once, but the second time they will simply ignore it.
You might try a kinetic sculpture like one of these. You could strategically place bells on it to further terrify the foraging beasts.
Then even if it doesn’t work to deter deer or groundhogs, birds or rabbits, you will still have a cool piece of artwork to console you.
A lot of the advice about deterring animals appears to have a solid premise, but don’t be seduced. I have an entire book on deer proofing my garden by planting only plants that deer don’t eat.
But I have seen them eat them.
The other premise is that deer don’t like to be near plants with a pungent smell because it will mask the smell of any predators they are on high alert for. But I have seen them linger near the mint as they demolish the corn.
And I have seen them leap over posts freshly smeared with fox urine.
With much effort, I erected a slant fence around my vineyard upon the advice of a USDA pamphlet, indicating that tensile wire a foot apart at seven levels spanning a 75 degree plane confused deer. They wouldn’t jump it.
One of my gun-slinging neighbors showed up drunk one evening itching to shoot into the horde hovering patiently on the hill across from my vineyard waiting for me to finish my chores and leave.
In a deep Southern slurring drawl he argued, “But deer don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no optical illusions.”
Turns out he was right. Or if they did know anything about optical illusions, it was how to ignore them.
I do plant dark orange and gold French marigolds around the perimeter of my garden in the belief that the fragrance discourages rabbits. I don’t know if it does or not. This is the first year I have had a lot of rabbits, but the ground hogs beat them to the feast.
French marigolds do deter whiteflies from tomato plants though, and after they are fully established, they control nematodes, so along with their burst of color, they are welcome in my garden.
Your best defense against warm-blooded pests is a good fence and a smart, frisky, hunting dog that keeps vigil around the garden.
Your best offense is a catch and release trap. Or, uh, so I am hoping.
Turns out that the ancient androgynous groundhog who has been content living alone under the smokehouse these past sixteen years up and gave birth to a litter of strapping lusty sons.
Did you know that young groundhogs become teenagers and move out before their first summer is over? And that they each strike out and build a summer home and a winter home and multiple exits and entries to each?
And that throwing hot peppers and rocks down these holes does not discourage them at all? They just toss them right back out.
I can personally corroborate the veracity of much of Michael Pollan’s results in his war on woodchucks described in his garden manifesto, Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education, Garden Press, 2003, available through Amazon.
My farmstead is now littered with piles of rocks surrounding holes leading to long tunnels under each outbuilding and my cabin. It was after I was startled by the scratching awfully close to my dining table that I bought the trap.
I was already a bit put off that the ground hogs did not spare any of the five varieties of squash I had planted.
I had been particularly inspired by the previous summer’s crops of acorn squash and winter squash. They were tasty and lasted well into the winter months. So I got carried away and ordered five varieties.
I don’t mind sharing ten percent of the garden with my woodland neighbors, but I lose my will to share beyond that. Maybe if they helped with some of the work on the farm, I’d feel differently.
But when I heard that unnerving scratching, I mean how does an animal bury beneath a cellar? That ‘s when I started seriously shopping for a catch-and-release trap to be delivered as soon as Amazon could get it to me.
I caught that fat sucker too.
First thing I read when I was reading about how to trap a woodchuck was how much they like watermelon and wouldn’t you know, for the first time ever, I had a watermelon growing? Indeed it was tiny, but it was perfectly formed and showed tremendous promise.
It was growing just outside his door, the entry to the long sandy tunnel running beneath my house. He would have to step over it until he felt like eating it.
This perpetual threat was eating at me and I threw the juiciest produce I could conjure into that trap and set it immediately outside his hole.
I caught him not long after I set out the trap. Nervous that somehow the door would open, I put him in the back of the car and drove him to the abandoned farmstead in the hollow a couple miles down the road.
I drove pretty fast. The sun was setting behind the mountain and my imagination was at its peak.
Next I caught a possum. That scared me a bit as well.
He kept his very sharp teeth bared as he looked at me. His fur was matted with goo and blood and he had a wild look about him that made me uncomfortable.
The trap I bought is supposed to be humane. I’m not sure what happened, but there was some bloody hair pasted to the bottom piece of metal.
I don’t mind possums around, but I drove him out to the abandoned farmstead too, for practice and to rule out possibilities of revenge.
The next day when I woke it seemed like maybe the skunk and one of the groundhogs had got in a standoff during the night. This got me to thinking: what if I caught a skunk? What if I caught a skunk?
I couldn’t leave him in there and I had no idea how I’d get him out. I still don’t.
But it’s winter now and I’ve been traveling, so I am just going to have to ponder this one and redouble my efforts in the Spring if I want to reap the bounty from my garden.
It’s All in the Soil
Healthy soil hosts a web of life from tiny one-celled bacteria, fungi and protozoa to the more complex nematodes and small arthropods to earthworms, insects, and small vertebrates.
These organisms interact beneficially with plants.
By-products from growing roots and plant debris feed soil organisms. Soil organisms help plants by decomposing organic matter, cycling nutrients to make them more available to the plant, enhancing soil structure and porosity and controlling the populations of soil organisms, including crop pests.
Healthy soil means healthy plants.
The way to healthy soil is to add compost and not till the ecosystems, the webs of life, to shreds.
Buddhists, who do not believe in killing sentient creatures, manually crumble soil, so that earthworms are not killed.
Farmers use tractors pulling tillers and most gardeners use rototillers to turn the soil. I use a shovel rather than till.
Compost is just earth that has been made from decayed organic matter. It is called black gold because it is a sure-fire medium for producing healthy plants.
Nothing is more valuable to a gardener and it’s free. It solves the problems of what to do with dinner scraps and yard debris and it helps everything grow abundantly.
I have a pretty big compost pile that should steam but it doesn’t. Because I travel, I do not have animals, whose feces would go along way to heating up the pile, but eventually, I suppose the enormity of the weight helps a good deal, it creates lovely compost.
The compost pile requires turning with a pitchfork, the romance of which appeals to me whereas the actual doing it, does not. I highly recommend a compost tumbler.
This is a good video on how to make compost. The tumbler makes it even simpler.
I try to till and compost in the Fall, so that the soil is open to receive the compost and the compost is open to the winter snow and sun which help integrate it into the soil.
You will have to turn over the soil in Spring. Turning the soil aerates it. You need only shovel down about six or eight inches or till across the garden two or three times to get it to the consistency where it will allow germinating seeds to poke through. You can turn the compost into the soil again in early Spring.
Organizing the Garden
I would recommend a garden no larger than 25 x 30 feet to begin.
Most gardeners plant in neat rows as it is easier to weed.
Habitual walking (and of course driving heavy machinery) across the soil compacts it and makes it pretty much useless for growing anything but plantain, called by Native Americans, “white man’s footsteps.”
On the subject of weeds, you should understand the following.
Soil organisms are not distributed evenly about the soil. Each species exists where it can find the right amount of space, nutrients and moisture. This is generally around organic matter.
Thus, my sandy soil is as sterile as the desert away from plants.
But around roots there is a region called the rhizosphere where bacteria feeds from old plant cells and proteins and sugars released by the roots. Protozoa and nematodes feed on the bacteria. They cycle nutrients and help retain beneficial ones, change the structure of the soil to help the plant better access water and nutrients and suppress disease by feeding on pathogens and excreting metabolites toxic to them.
Gardeners weed to remove the competition for nutrients. However, root systems can interact in a synergistic way, providing nutrients for each other.
Tall weeds can also provide welcome shade to plants sensitive to the relentless rays of a midday blazing sun. So unless the weeds are blocking needed sun or overtaking my plants, that is, the weeds are strong and healthy and my plants weak and stunted, I let them do their thing.
If you are not going to use a rototiller and you don’t care that much about weeds that will grow among the rocks, you are not bound by the rules of symmetry and can plant in circles if you wish. You can make a rock or brick path in your garden to walk on. You can build rock walls or mounds of rock that retain moisture so crickets and small toads can live. They are priceless predators of insects who would otherwise forage your plants.
Lately I have been allowing narrow grass aisles to grow between my plots, but you do have to keep the grass down or it will attract too many grasshoppers. They will quickly devour a number of plants.
If you are more comfortable with straight rows and weeding as much as you can, by all means go for it.
Some say that a man’s footsteps are all a garden needs for fertility. Along the same line, a friend told me of an old man she knew with an abundant garden who took only one cup of water to feed his garden each evening. The point is, follow your passion and it will yield good things.
I like to intersperse flowers, herbs and vegetables and to follow companion planting suggestions.
Planting too much of a single crop creates an ecosystem vulnerable to pests and diseases of that crop and eradicates the natural system of checks and balances of a diverse ecosystem.
Over time, growing a single plant will also deplete the soil of the nutrients that plants needs. Farmers alternate their crops, often planting a cover crop that will add back in the nutrients the former planting has taken.
Certain pests like certain plants.
In your garden too, you should not plant the same crop in the same area. Last year’s pests are waiting.
Buying Seeds, Starters, Bulbs and Seedlings
I can’t say definitively where to buy seeds. I feel like I’ve had good luck and bad luck with every place from which I’ve bought.
And that’s not to say it was a problem with the seeds not germinating. It could be that birds ate the seed. Or that I pulled up the seedlings thinking they were weeds.
It’s an odd thing, and just one of many spellbinding revelations you will discover watching the world up close and personal, but almost identical plants will grow next to the seedlings you’ve planted.
After awhile, you can get cocky and think you know which one is which and before you know it, you’ve got a bitter weed growing rampant where the arugula would be if you hadn’t yanked it.
By the way, don’t be yanking plants. When you are old you might end up with very painful elbows on cold, damp days. Move as a dancer, with thought and balance.
I did grow a notable crop of amaranth, an edible red grain the Hopi also used for body paint from seeds I bought from Seeds of Change.
I also grew some very pretty Peruvian chili peppers a couple years in a row that glimmered like jewels in my garden. They were very hot and kept well dried for many years.
I think they were Peruvian. Maybe they were Bolivian. But they don’t carry them any more so it doesn’t matter.
I have also got some very cool sunflower seeds from them and good broomcorn seeds.
I like Peaceful Valley Seeds because they carry organic seeds.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Johnny’s Selected Seeds, but I think it’s just because they carry a xylene-free weatherproof marker, which is something otherwise impossible to find.
It’s a good idea to have a diagram of your proposed plantings before you start, but sometimes I also mark off the seeds as I plant them by writing their names on a popsicle stick and placing them at the edges of their little plot.
I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t have a xylene-free marker. Xylene gives me a spinning headache that makes me believe it is probably not a substance I want the rain to wash into my garden soil.
I’m not obsessive-compulsive, just circumspect. You will find if you breathe deeply and are open to sensing the world around you while you are gardening, you will become sensitive to the rhythms of the earth. You will feel rain approaching.
The reason the farmer’s almanac advises against planting root crops while the moon is waxing is because the moon is pulling the earth’s water closer to the surface during that phase, and root crops like depth and dryness. Plant them when the mood is waning and them gravitational forces are weaker.
The moment of their planting, as in astrological signs, makes an imprint upon their lives and influences their growth.
Biodynamic farmers also believe that the earth is part of a single organism, a living universe. They, too work with the energy fields of the planet for abundance, mixing plants in their compost known to have synergistic properties and making a fertilizer of compost tea at a particular favorable time in the earth’s rotation.
Back to seeds. I like to look through the catalogs with the cheesy graphics that come in the mail starting around January when it is cold and stark outside.
I have no idea how many times I have ordered and tried to plant a “crimson carpet.” Maybe I never did. I don’t have any.
I hope to this year.
I love the idea of heirloom seeds and get lost for hours on the websites for heirloom seeds thinking I will plant this or that.
Looks like there is a whole cult of people dedicated to preserving species, which is a pretty cool idea and makes me want to accept the few they divvy up to me and responsibly grow them and harvest their seeds.
But I also want to be an astronomer and a physicist and an enologist and a traveler and, well… you get the picture. I’m afraid I would not follow through and disappoint them.
Although I am truly afraid to ask anything about their origin, I can generally trust that the seeds I get in bulk at my farmers’ co-op will grow.
They are very practical farmers. I also trust in whatever seeds they have decided to stock in regular-size packets.
Their prices tend to be less than online stores too.
Chances are good there is a farmers’ co-op near you. Don’t be intimidated. You don’t have to wear overalls to go in there. You can tap their knowledge about a lot of things too.
They will generally only carry sound seed potatoes and onion sets that are going to grow well in your area.
So shop around and buy a good variety of seeds. If seedlings don’t come up in the time it says they will on the back of the package and you haven’t had super crazy out-of-season weather, then just plant something else there.
Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher born in A.D. 55, said, “Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.”
True now as it was then. Have back-up seeds.
Some plants, like lilies and rhubarb, grow from bulbs. You can get these, as well as seedlings, at the farmers’ co-op or a nursery.
You will want to buy seedlings for crops that require a longer growing season than you have or for crops you want a head-start on. Seedlings can grow in a greenhouse before the ground outside warms up enough to allow anything to sprout.
When you buy your seedlings, you will need to “harden them off,” which means to help them acclimate to the cold world so they don’t just freeze to death.
Plants by their nature need to be planted in the ground and do not like a lot of change. They easily die of transplant shock, so it is important to try to keep as much of the old soil on them as you can and introduce a similar environment if possible, added by a bit of fish emulsion or liquid B-12.
Keep them watered and out of the wind at first. Hardening off involves setting them outside for progressively more hours each day until they have been able to weather a few of the coldest nights you are getting.
Once they have proven strong enough to endure that, you can plant them in the garden.
Ask around and check customer reviews to learn about your local nurseries for buying seedlings.
Once you have been gardening awhile, you will learn to recognize an unhealthy plant and to look for certain types of pests hiding on them, but until then, you’ll just have to go to a reputable place and ask the person near you.
It’s not exactly easy to find organically grown seedlings. You can of course grow your own seedlings indoors. But unless you are around 24/7 or have greenhouse conditions in your home, it is a ridiculous amount of work.
I buy what I can get and hope the soil and sun detoxifies whatever the plant’s previous owner has done.
While we are on the subject of buying plants, if you don’t know I should explain the difference between annuals and perennials now.
Annuals are plants that you have to plant or grow from seed every year. If you leave annuals in the ground and let them grow long enough to produce seeds and those seeds drop to the ground, take hold and sprout the next season, you can let them grow there of course and that’s great.
But don’t count on that happening.
You can also collect the seeds from your annuals and try to use them the next year, but again, until you learn to recognize when seeds are ready to harvest and ideal storage and nurturing conditions, don’t count on this as a money-saver.
Perennials are plants that will weather your winter and just keep on growing. They may go dormant, that is, fall into a deep sleep during the winter months and look quite dead, but they will perk up in the Spring and sprout buds. Don’t dig them up.
This is true of a lot of herbs, like rosemary and marjoram, some flowers like lavender and all of the bulbs that I can think of.
Research what you want to figure out what to do. Bulbs multiply at their roots and can be pulled up and divided in the Spring. Replanted them with more space around them and, ta-da, you’ve got many more.
Companion Planting
When I am considering the year’s plantings, I usually look through an old thumbed-through book called Carrots Love Tomatoes written by Louise Riotte and published by Storey Communications in 1975. It is based upon observations of plants that grow better together, due to the nutrients their root systems exchange and because the pests they naturally attract are pests that control the population of pests of their companion.
Because they are healthy, they are less vulnerable to diseases too. Disease happens when a healthy plant is compromised, generally from insect attack or lack of nutrients.
Plants can be compromised from temperature and humidity or arid extremes. Disease comes looking then. A good companion plant can bolster strength in troubled times, so it’s a no-brainer to follow these principles and a lot of fun.
Anyway, that’s how I recommend beginning your plantings. After a few seasons, you will formulate your own conclusions about invisible interactions happening. You may find that chickweed likes lavender.
Or you may feel a little splash of color would be delightful between the meadows of basil you have planted and the garlic.
This video explores the beneficial effect of interspersing your food crops with flowers.
You will appreciate that you have cast dahlia seeds when you are mesmerized by the swan-like curvatures of the garlic, with their long needle-noses, astounded to find they are having dancing parties behind your back. They freeze in their new graceful positions when you turn to look.
You take photo after photo on the cell phone you should never garden with. And these photos you show your friends, though barely capturing the thin arc of the garlic are replete with colorful dahlias.
Many gardeners subscribe to companion planting principles.
When do you plant? Look in your farmer’s almanac. It will tell you what you can plant in your area when.
Cold weather crops that can be planted early include onions, potatoes, radishes and beets.
You can follow up with planting seeds for hardy greens and then the more delicate greens.
About then, the soil will have warmed up enough for the rest of the seeds to germinate and to accept your transplant of seedlings.
That’s not to say a late killing frost doesn’t come along and undo what you’ve done. Measures can be taken to save plants if you have warning. This might be something you want to research in advance.
Recommendations range from spraying a preparation with valerian to warm the plants to erecting a row cover.
Glossary
Annuals – Plants that die off at the end of a growing season. They must be planted anew every year
Companion Planting – The practice of planting sympathetic crops next to each other to improve crop yield.
Compost – Organic matter which has decayed and turned into rich soil
Perennials – Plants that live through the winter, though they often appear not to.
Seedlings – the first shoots of a plant’s growth. They are often grown in small cells until they are large enough and strong enough to plant in the garden.
Weeds – plants you are not intentionally growing.
Supplies
You need very little, apart from a composter and seeds or plants to garden. A good shovel, possibly a hoe, a trowel and good pruners are essential.
Take good care of your tools and make sure they are always clean. Be sensitive to what you are doing. If you cut off a diseased leaf, clean the shears with soap before you use them on another plant or you are likely to spread the disease. Keep them sharp so that your cuts are clean, not sloppy and tearing, thus weakening the plant.
It is important to be comfortable. I once only wore Japanese farmer pants, which were loose and made of light but durable cotton and had pockets in the knees where you could slide knee-pads, but I can’t find them for sale anymore.
If you find some, buy enough for the rest of your life.
Dirty as you are going to get it, I highly recommend the full coverage of a long-sleeve shirt. Not only does it protect you from the sun, but it will spare you the nasty sting of sweat bees if you dally in the garden a little too late in the morning.
So now that you look awesome and have a cool compost tumbler in your back yard, grab your shovel and trowel, maybe find a straw hat and head out to create a magical garden.
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Garden Battle: Quebec City Woman Told She Can't Grow Veggies in Her Front Yard
Chapier, who lives in the Quebec City borough of Charlesbourg, has been growing vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes and asparagus on her front lawn for years.
Garden Battle: Quebec City Woman Told She Can't Grow Veggies in Her Front Yard
Véronique Chapier has until Aug. 1 to comply with city's bylaws or will face fines
CBC News Posted: Jul 27, 2017 10:08 AM ET Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 10:10 AM ET
Véronique Chapier wants to grow vegetables on her front lawn, but her neighbours say her yard is a mess. (Cathy Senay/Radio-Canada)
Related Stories
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, and a Quebec City woman believes her front-lawn vegetable garden is a living work of art.
But Véronique Chapier's neighbours don't quite agree with that assessment. And neither does the city, which has informed her that her garden breaks a number of bylaws.
Chapier, who lives in the Quebec City borough of Charlesbourg, has been growing vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes and asparagus on her front lawn for years.
Her backyard is shady so she can't grow certain plants she wants to back there, she explained.
Chapier said she likes to use her garden as a way to teach children and others about what it takes to grow food. She also considers it to be something of a community initiative.
"I went to get some lettuce that was ready and it wasn't here, and I was happy about that," she said.
Her neighbours, however, think her work of art is just a mess and complained to the city.
Chapier now has days to move her garden to the backyard or side of her house, or face fines.
'Nothing aesthetic about it,' neighbour says
Two weeks ago, a city inspector informed Chapier that her garden breaks a number of rules, namely that:
- The vegetable garden can't be on her front lawn.
- Some plants are too tall and the landscaping is messy.
- Some are planted beyond her property line.
- There are wooden pallets and plastic containers on her lawn that constitute a nuisance.
Her neighbour Louisette Alain has reported the garden to the city once a year for the last three years. Alain says she has been trying to sell her house for two years and prospective buyers are put off by the garden.
She said she has no problem with it when it's maintained, but right now, "it's not a garden. There's nothing aesthetic about it."
Louisette Alain and Claude Aubut are Chapier's neighbours, and complained about her front-lawn vegetable garden to the city. (Radio-Canada)
Chapier's problem is reminiscent of a similar conflict from five years ago, when a Drummondville couple with a front-yard vegetable garden fought and succeeding in changing the city bylaw that prohibits the practice.
Such gardens are not allowed in Quebec City, Longueuil and Laval, but Montreal and Sherbrooke are OK with its residents growing food elsewhere than their backyards.
Chapier has already started moving her plants to the backyard and cleaning up. She has until Aug. 1 to finish the job, or her case could end up in court.
She said she is hoping the city will change the rules.
Marjorie Potvin, a spokesperson for the city, says though vegetable gardens at the front of residences are prohibited, they are tolerated as long as no one complains about them.
She said the city is looking into adopting a policy on urban agriculture, but there is no guarantee this issue will be part of it.