My Yard Farm

The abundant rain of late has been good for all things green and growing. Here's how the little bed I started in the front yard looked on April 17:



Here's how it looks today -- the two basil plants have doubled in height and breadth (I'm out there daily pinching off the new leaf pairs to force the basil to expand its breadth) and the two pepper plants, stripped of their leaves by a rabbit (?) the night after being planted, are putting out new leaves. The spinach, beets, and two kinds of kale are all growing well -- especially the kale:



The little dogwood I planted last fall has been an interesting study. My neighbor got three dogwoods from the wooded property of a friend who lives in the country, and gave one to myself and my next door neighbor and kept one for himself. As a rule, dogwoods in the wild get "leggy" (grow tall and thin, reaching for sunlight that filters through the tree canopy). All three of our dogwoods looked the same when they were planted, but mine looks different: it has gotten bushy with leaves that are 2-3 times the size of the leaves on the other two. Here they are by comparison:

One of the neighbor trees:



The other neighbor tree:



My tree -- notice how much it has grown out instead of just up, and how thick the foliage is compared to the other two. Don't misunderstand -- this is not for bragging rights -- it's to demonstrate the power of food. I have fertilized (fed) my tree consistently since last fall, whereas my neighbors have not. I don't know that my tree is healthier, but it is certainly more robust looking -- which I'm taking as a vote for diligent feeding. The size of the leaves on this tree are amazing. The neighbor who provided the trees came over the other day and wanted to know why mine looked different from his, and I offered him the same liquid concoction I created that I've used to water mine:



Some more pics -- including the first (tiny) tomato:



The eggplants are about to flower:



The planter-spinach is already being eaten for supper (thanks for the seeds, Priscilla):



The little patch of Bordeaux spinach is growing:



The chard is doing great -- along with five volunteer tomato plants that have come up in the midst of the bed from last year's dropped tomatoes:



The container herbs and veggies are healthy:



Especially this tomato -- it seems to love its pot, though I need to prune the suckers to divert its energy into fruit:



And the tomatoes/peppers (bottom) and bean/pea (top) buckets are doing well (the parsley in the end bucket didn't make it, so I'll take this bucket down and move it among the containers so the beans can get plenty of sun):



Another shot:



Beans (don't know the variety) from my neighbor on the top, cherry tomato on the bottom:



So far I'm encouraged by this idea -- though the beans are ultimately going to suffer without more sunlight -- still thinking about a solution:



And yet more veggies to plant or give away -- these are from the seeds I started in the Winstrip tray. The seeds from my parents' yard in Alabama never made it, though I have saved the soil they were in. Who knows -- they might spring up someday:



There is such pleasure in being around healthy, growing gardens. A taste of Eden-past and neo-Eden to come.

New Urban Farming Documentary

Watch for a new documentary that is currently being screened at film festivals around the country. Called Homegrown, it tells the story of the Dervaes family (dad and three adult children) who turned their Pasadena, CA, one-fifth-acre lot into a fabulous urban farm. Here is the family's website (where you'll find numerous videos about this venture), and here is the trailer for the movie:

Do You Have a Personal Farmer?

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs were the first move to help consumers get personally connected to the food they eat. The next move—consistent with the YardFarms approach—are small companies that will come onto your property and design and maintain your own food gardens. You have a personal banker, personal chef, personal trainer, and personal coach—and now you can have your own personal gardener.

One such company is Seattle Urban Farm Company. See what they're doing here.

San Francisco Victory Gardens

Cool site on a cool movement in San Francisco.

From the home page:

Victory Gardens 2008+
(VG2008+) is a program of Garden for the Environment and the City of San Francisco's Department for the Environment. A two-year pilot project to support the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into organic food production areas, Victory Gardens 2008+ derives its title from, and build on, the successful nationwide Victory Garden programs of WWI and WWII. Victory Gardens 2008+, however, redefines "Victory" in the pressing context of urban sustainability. "Victory" is growing food at home for increased local food security and reducing the food miles associated with the average American meal.

Urban Gardens Increasing

This morning on the Today show there was a feature on the move toward "urban food gardens" (their term). They tied the movement directly to increasing food prices -- more and more people are doing small backgard, patio, or container gardens as well as larger plots. A Home Depot garden center spokesman said that more and more people are buying vegetable and fruit transplants instead of ornamental plants. They made reference to the Victory Garden movement popular during World Wars I and II when backyard gardens took pressure off the national food supply during those wars.

I may be wrong, but I don't see price-pressures on food changing in the future. If you're resisting beginning to grow your own food because you think this is a short-lived necessity, I would think again.

Encouraging Trend

Rob Johnston is the founder and chairman of (the employee-owned) Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine, and is one of the patriarchs of the organic/sustainable farming movement. Here is an excerpt from his latest email update -- a folksy, newsy epistle he sends out regularly. Rather than explain why I'm posting it I'll put the salient points in bold, red type. Attention scribes: There's even a chance to win a few dollars in a small gardening-related writing contest Rob is announcing, so sharpen your quills!

Vegetable Gardening Like It's the 1970's Again

1973 was a favorable time for me to start a seed company. The back-to-the-land movement was well under way in the US late in 1973 when the Arab Oil Embargo resulted in rapidly escalating gasoline prices and shortages. Americans adopted a kind of vocational motivation to plant a food-producing garden, a combination of cultural and economic security interests. "Maybe I'm going to have to know how to do this someday."

Coincidental with Reagan administration, the back-to-the-office movement began about 1981 and was well established by 1982. A decline in home vegetable gardening began then, and it continued through the 1990s. During the 2000s it hasn't seemed to be declining, but it hasn't been growing either. Through those 2 ½ decades our business with commercial growers grew to the lion's share of our total. But then last year we experienced a very small, but we thought real, turnaround in our home garden business, enough to make us think, Hey, maybe something is changing.

We had enough optimism from 2007 to plan for a modest growth in HG for 2008. Instead the HG volume so far this year has been substantially above last year. Other seed companies are doing well, too. Vegetables and tools and equipment are the biggest movers, suggesting that this is about growing food. It's also happening in Europe. I don't know yet about other places.

People have been asking me, How come? I think it's a convergence of a number of things including a strong interest in more local supply of food. For as long as I know we have been set on making the world a smaller place, but now - and it's a healing urge - many of us would rather make it become a bigger place again.

The increase in home vegetable gardening is being well publicized this spring, and normally the reason given is economic, like high gasoline prices and sticker shock at the supermarket. I think that these economics are a factor, but not the main factor. Home vegetable gardening was in decline or was static in the US, and I think in the whole "first world," throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and 2000s up through 2006. During those 25 years there were several bad periods economically, but there was no vegetable gardening increase in response to any of them. I think that the main motivation is quality of life, and a regaining of meaningful culture.

A small contest. In 500 words or less, where do you see this increase in home vegetable gardening going? Why? If we find your answer to be the most helpful or enlightening of all that we receive by May 16, we'll give you a credit for $200 that you can spend this year or next. Second place $100. Third place $50. Email me. I'll publish the winners next month. Thanks.

Wall Street Journal Covers Front-yard Farms

A guy that turned his front yard (and several of his neighbors' yards) into a mini-farm:

Sustainable Backyard

Another good example of what can be done in a backyard:

Backyard Bonanza

Great video on a small backyard food operation: 60 types of plantings including fruit trees, berries, all the standard veggies, plus chickens, rainwater system, compost, and vermicompost -- all on a 75' x 125' neighborhood lot. Excellent!