Urban Farming

[duxthe1]

The Mrs. and I decided this year to use our property to produce a lot of our own food. We already have chickens, ducks, and bunnies. This weekend I added 3 raised beds to the east facing front yard, two 12X4 and one 10X5. They're made of douglas fir 2X12s that I treated with a non toxic sealer called rain guard. The soil comes tomorrow and I'm anxious to start planting. I already have broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage and collards started. I'll sow radish, beets, turnip, lettuce, carrots, spinach, and chard in the coming weeks. I'm going to be using an intensive planting square foot gardening method.

Additionally I've got another plot in the back yard that overwintered as a chicken run that will be prepped as a garden for summer vegetables. Im adding 2 bee hives in a month and am building a hugelkultur planting bed as well. All of this on less than a 1/2 acre in the middle of suburbia.

So what are you guys growing?

[t walgamuth]

Cool! Is that your hearse too?

[duxthe1]

No its a neighbors. When I got the coupe I was glad to have the wagon on the street to get the hearse parked further down the street.

[TwitchKitty]

Herbs can be vegetables too. Don't get hung up on recipes. Use lots of whatever is growing well.

I ate lots of Basil last year. I should have eaten lots more.

Got my second bee installation yesterday. The first one is a few weeks old and appears to be doing well, fresh, new wax. I just took the feeder off of the first one.

[BAVBMW]

Hmmm... This year? Some various squash, carrots, radish, basil, lots of different peppers... I think that's about it for now. Not sure what else we'll try. We grow ours in livestock troughs, so kinda like container gardening and kinda raised beds. Some troughs have different soil types/mixes. Oh, and garlic, strawberries, and blueberries also.

MV

[sloride]

Looks like a good mix except for the carrots, never noticed any difference in store bought or home grown. Personally I don't eat many and they can be purchased very cheep. As stated earlier herbs, seasonings are quite expensive, along with peppers, hot and sweet and of course tomatoes which are much tastier than store bought hot house grown. On a limited amount of space grow the higher value crop, or when home grown is superior to store bought.

[barry12345]

I always enjoyed watching things we planted grow as a bonus. The wife wants a raised vegatable garden installed at the cottage. Used railway ties for a paremeter are getting harder to get your hands on locally unfortunatly. Any ideals of a practical substitute?

Groceries are getting ever more expensive and will continue to do so with the increasing costs of production and population plus the resulting obvious increasing demand.

We went through a long period where it just did not pay as it was so much easier to earn the cost of the vegatables. I now suspect a turning point is being reached where there is again a financial upside as well though.

I eventually gave it up based mostly on finding the time to keep the weeds down without spraying obnoxious chemicals ws not avalable .Today I am perhaps a little smarter and would attempt to control them other ways than just excessive hand labour.

[MTI]

Last year we grew the worlds most expensive Meyer Lemons, while the Mexican Lime (aka Key Lime) tree was a bust. Expensive due to acquisition cost, fertilizer, organic white fly treatment and irrigation. Luckily they're also serve as outdoor ornamental plants. We had enough bar drink and baking recipes to handle the Meyer harvest, but this is what usually happens to non-diversified urban "Green Acres" folks

[elchivito]

Nice looking beds. You'll be leaving firewood sized zucchinis on your neighbors' porches at night come late summer.

[kerry]

No offense intended but I see those raised beds springing up all over our neighborhood. For the life of me, I've never been able to figure out the advantage of dirt surrounded with expensive lumber versus dirt just left in the ground. I just plant my tomatoes in regular ground level dirt and they grow just fine.
I've been planting one Better Boy tomato seed per day in my little potting cups for the last month or so. They sit on the radiator in the front south facing window. Can't plant them permanently in the dirt until mid-May to avoid potential freezing. The first ones to mature will go into 5 gallon buckets and go outside in April but brought in when it freezes. After mid-May, the bucketed ones will go in the ground and by mid June the last maturing seedlings will go in the buckets where they will grow late in the summer and into the fall where they can be brought inside if it freezes.

[MTI]

Kerry, the elevated beds . . .

1) Easier to weed and protect from bambi and thumper gangs
2) Use only as much soil as the plant requires
3) Longer season, higher yeild
4) When you add wheels, mobility

[BAVBMW]

Originally Posted by kerry

No offense intended but I see those raised beds springing up all over our neighborhood. For the life of me, I've never been able to figure out the advantage of dirt surrounded with expensive lumber versus dirt just left in the ground. I just plant my tomatoes in regular ground level dirt and they grow just fine.
I've been planting one Better Boy tomato seed per day in my little potting cups for the last month or so. They sit on the radiator in the front south facing window. Can't plant them permanently in the dirt until mid-May to avoid potential freezing. The first ones to mature will go into 5 gallon buckets and go outside in April but brought in when it freezes. After mid-May, the bucketed ones will go in the ground and by mid June the last maturing seedlings will go in the buckets where they will grow late in the summer and into the fall where they can be brought inside if it freezes.

While I can't speak for everyone, some of the reasons we went with container/raised bed gardening are:

1) Better ability to control soil conditions, we have some tubs (as we call them) with very sandy soil for pants that prefer that, and others with acidic conditions.

2) The area we wanted to garden in was filed with rocks. Seemingly from a previous owners landscaping efforts, what appeared to be soil was actually ~1' of small river rock filled in with topsoil. Very frustrating to dig in.

3) Better ability to control watering. Both as far as keeping water contained, and tailoring to each tub's requirements.

4) Pest control has been easier, especially slug/snail concerns. Also keeps the dog from claiming any plants. Though it hasn't kept him from learning how to pick things he wants.

5) The raised position is easier on the back/hands/knees when it comes to working in the garden.

My father gardens in the ground, and does just fine that way, I have nothing against it, it just wasn't the best choice for us. I'd like to garden in an unused area in our front yard, but she has ideas that neighborhood kids will sneak up and eat our vegetables. He also has to space to rotate areas, and better access to mulch/compost/chicken ****. His garden usually works in conjunction with ours, providing a greater variety of produce for each household, while still allowing us to each have our favorites. For instance, rarely does a meal go by in our household that doesn't have at least one pepper in it, often one of each of a few varieties, while we might only use half a dozen tomatoes a year. My parents will grow a dozen tomato plants and use tomatoes quite a bit, but only a few jalapenos. Corn production is also better in his field, where there is space to grow enough. Same goes for wheat. But we have the grain mill, so...

MV

[kerry]

I can perhaps see the longer season in some parts of the country. Not around here. No bambis in the inner city. I don't understand the 'only as much soil' argument.

[MTI]

Different plants have different rooting depths.

[kerry]

My dirt goes all the way down.