BLOOMTOWN

Urban farmer? Yup, I'm working three plots.

I've been doing more doing than blogging lately so I'd like to attempt to share a bit of what I've been working on.

Spring is a busy time in so many ways and this year is shaping up to be one of the busiest yet ... veg-garden-wise, that is. In this post, I want to set the stage a little bit for what I hope will be many posts chronicling my progress with growing more of our food. I've got several different gardens that I'm tending and want to give you an overview of the different sites so that there will be some additional context as I post through the season. I've set up photo albums for each garden and will be posting lots of photos as the season progresses.

My Kitchen Garden at Home: 2009 will be my fourth growing season in this garden which occupies our re-commissioned driveway, a narrow space less than 9 feet wide on the south side of my house. My goal was to create a beautiful, productive, and space-efficient kitchen garden. The fence was designed to be beautiful and functional. I grow "up" as much as possible, using the fence to support vining and trailing plants; maximizing vertical growing space in small gardens is essential. New this year: growing "down." I've added containers hanging from the eaves. Anything a cook would appreciate having right out the back door is a contender for including in this space. We're growing salad greens, peas, beans, a few tomatoes, berries and herbs for cooking such as basil, cilantro, mint, parsley and more.

The (Urban) Farm: I am co-farming with a friend on her property. We're doing production-oriented growing with an eye toward really making a dent in providing a fair amount of the food for our two households; both during the growing season but also with enough left over that we can preserve some of the harvest as well. This is not huge garden by some peoples standards, but it is by no means a small garden either; we have ten 4'  x 8' raised beds and we're adding about 60 feet of 2' wide in-ground rows this year. We started this venture last year, so 2009 will be our second growing season at this site. A photo album of this garden is here. Past post about this gardens development can be found here.

The Back 400: After being on the waiting list for a couple of years for a community garden plot, this year my name came up and I'm thrilled. Our garden is a 20 foot x 20 foot plot (20 x 20 = 400; the "back 400" ... get it?!) at the Cully Community Garden site in NE Portland. I'll be doing more production-oriented growing over there as well. 

Edibles ... the new Ornamental?: In addition to the "traditional" sites mentioned above, I'm going to be looking for ways to integrate ornamental edibles in creative and beautiful ways within the garden proper at home; anywhere and everywhere is fair game.

So why all this effort to grow our own? Most importantly, you can't beat homegrown for quality, freshness and flavor. But I'm also a strong believer in the environmental value of local food production and you can't get more local than growing your own. Plus, there's great satisfaction in knowing exactly what went into the food that we bring to our table especially with all the recent issues surrounding food safety. In my mind, it's definitely worth it and I'm having a blast doing it.

So, I hope you'll check back often to follow our progress. If you're also trying to grow more of your own food in your garden, leave a comment and let us all know what you're up to.

Podcast: Darcy Daniels talks bees with Glen Andresen

Darcy talks with Glen Andresen about urban beekeeping.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
Darcy Talks Bees with Glen Andresen

Thanks for talking with me Glen, you're the bee's knees!

See below for links and other information we promised in our podcast.

Plants for attracting and feeding bees & other pollinators:

• Plants for Pollinators in Oregon, a very thorough USDA publication specific to Oregon. See pages 15 to 20 for a table of plants.

Mason Bee Blocks:

Here's a good article from the Audubon Society on building a mason bee nesting block.

Or if you'd rather, you can purchase them ready-made from the Home Orchard Society.

Find out more about the classes that Glen's teaching this spring:

• Hardy Plant Society of Oregon (HPSO) Garden School, Mar 19 & 21, 2009, go here for more information and to register.
• Garden Fever, Mar 14, 2009, call the nursery to register.
• Livingscape Nursery, 2009 class list doesn't seem to be posted yet, so you might want to give them a call at the nursery.
• Urban Growth Bounty, a wonderful new series of classes offered by the City of Portland, Office of Sustainability. This is a really great range of offerings, well beyond beekeeping. You must check it out, now. Go here for dates & registration information.

Listen to Glen's radio program on KBOO; you can listen to his previous shows and subscribe to the RSS feed here.

If listeners would like to get in touch with Glen you can reach him via email at glen@pacifier.com.

And remember, one of the very best things we can do for our bees is to garden pesticide-free!

 

Bloomtown gets mention in Willamette Week

Bloomtown got a nod, two actually, in the most recent edition of Portland's Willamette Week print edition; the story is available online as well. The article, Getcha Hands in the Dirt, mentions this blog and our vegetable garden project here and the Nursery is mentioned here.

This week's paper has a pull out section called Habitat: The Dirty Hands Issue that is focusing on our ever-expanding interest in growing our own food. Even if it's just a bit in a few containers on a balcony or perhaps a more production-oriented venture, such as what Laurie and I have embarked upon that I've been blogging about here. Either way people seem to be tuning into the satisfaction of growing their own.

They've put together a great collection of resources ... check it out.

Master Recycler Plastic Roundups

Spring Master Recycler Plastics Roundup will take place on two Saturdays and four locations:

Saturday May 3rd 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. at two locations

• Southeast Portland: Floyd Light Middle School 10800 SE Washington MAP 
• North Portland: Hosted by Kaiser Permanente West Interstate 3325 N Interstate (Off Fremont and Overlook Park) MAP 

Saturday, May 17th 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at two locations:

• Lake Oswego: Co-hosted by Shorenstein Realty Services LP and Autodesk, Inc. 5400 Meadows rd. MAP 
• PCC Rock Creek PCC Rock Creek Campus 17705 NW Springville rd lot D MAP 

Click here to see what materials are accepted and how to prepare them for the Roundup

For more information email: Master Recyclers

Coop Call for Summer Urban Chicken Tour in Portland, Oregon

I don’t have chickens, but I would love to have a chicken or two – they’re all the rage ya know.

Although being the only egg-eater in our household, I don’t know that I could keep up with a busy laying hen. But having grown up on the farm, I surely know the difference between an industrial egg and a fresh egg from my own hen.

So maybe I'll go on the tour and see how others are doing it – heck, if I decide to put in a coop, I’ll bet my neighbors would be more than willing help out with excess eggs!

How about you? Are you keeping hens in the Portland area? If so, your coop might be just what this group is looking for.

COOP CALL INFO: Click on the graphic below to enlarge it for easier reading.
For more info contact them directly:
urbanchickens@gmail.com

WORKSHOP INFO: Or, perhaps you've been thinking about putting in a coop and you don't want to wait until the July tour to get the inside scoop. If you're anxious to learn more about raising chickens in the city now, you might consider attending the Urban Chicken Keeping Workshop that will be offered on February 12th. Follow the link for more information about that event.

Reduce Unwanted Catalogs & Junk Mail

This is a follow up to my previous post in which I bemoaned my eternal state of clutter. Like many of you, I get way, way, way too many catalogs and industry mags, the vast majority of which I didn’t request and will never use. While I do intentionally subscribe to a number of magazines, I try to keep my subscriptions to a manageable number and discontinue them when I find that I am not reading them regularly.

To help diminish this deluge of paper, my husband & I have recently registered with two services.

I first learned about Catalog Choice from a friend and I recently registered with this nonprofit, web-based organization dedicated to helping consumers reduce unwanted catalog deliveries. The way that it works is you register, free of charge, at www.catalogchoice.org and as you identify catalogs that you would like to discontinue receiving, you log on to the site, register your wishes; they then facilitate registering your request with the various retailers. The organization was recently featured by Bill Moyers on NPR; learn more here.

Another action we took recently was to register at www.41pounds.org , another service focused on helping to eliminate unwanted mail. This service does charge a $41 fee to subscribe to their service for 5 years, but according to their website more than a 1/3 of this fee goes to non-profit organizations such as environmental groups, schools, and youth groups.

A startling statistic from their site:

An average of 41 pounds of junk mail is sent to every adult citizen each year. Approximately 44% of this mail goes into a landfill unopened.

By taking these actions, we can make a positive impact on our environment; save trees, save water, reduce global warming!

Go here for more info on the environmental impact of junk mail.

2007 Metro Natural Gardening Tour

OMG what a day! My best estimate is that I had just shy of 800 visitors through the garden between 10am and 4pm.

Intense? Yes.

Invigorating? Yes.

Tiring? Well, I must confess, yes to that too.

It’s worth it though – I really believe in exposing people to my garden, which is created naturally, yet is lush, exuberant, and exciting. It helps people understand that you really can do a wow! garden without relying on chemicals. Metro is doing great work to raise people’s awareness about how what we do on our piece of land impacts our larger environment. Anything I can do to help is time well-spent.

Mark your calendar ...

February 10th, 2007 - 10 am to 3 pm

Grow Green - Become a Sustainable Gardener

The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon is hosting a day-long syposium  where you can learn about the environmental challenges facing Northwest gardeners, soil-food webs, integrated pest management, and water-wise designs. The day includes four fabulous speakers:

• Pramod Parajuli - Director of the PortlandInternational Initiative for Leadership in Ecology, Culture, and Learning
• Maurice Horn - from Joy Creek Nursery
• Jeff Lowenfels - author of Teaming with Microbes
• Jan McNeilan - OSU Extension Horticulturist, Oregon Master Gardener Coordinator

There will also be a resource fair where you can talk about "growing green" in your garden with representatives from local non-profit organizations and businesses committed to issues of sustainability.  Check out terrific information and products with people who have years of hands-on experience!

For more information contact the Hardy Plant Society - www.hardyplantsociety.org