Future House Farm

Glorious Complications

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:30:00 +0000

We need to re-rethink our city garden philosophy. This year the intensive companion planting got way out of control. Our approach, knowing that we would have oodles of farmers' markets and a CSA to rely on, was to focus our efforts on the diversity of our flowers and veggies, as opposed to looking for food storage sized production. In one of our smaller beds (4'x16') we managed to squeeze in 20+ varieties just in the first planting alone. Needless to say, things got a bit crowded and then spilled over into out of control.

We're still learning how to eat locally and sustainably in a city/town. This year our food has primarily come from four sources: half of a CSA share, with a fruit and egg share; our garden; our community garden plot; and the occasional farmers' market visit. The key to this kind of food consumption (is that the word I'm looking for) is knowing your inventory at every stage of the season. Now when I say "at every stage of the season" that makes it sound more complicated than it really is. Well no, scratch that, it is complicated; however the complications aren't because we're having to check our inventory often, it's because we need to plan really far in advance and calculate into our quantities food that we're not growing. Here's an example:

Our CSA starts in June. One of the first items we received were greens and lot of them. However, on our garden production end we can produce greens much sooner (and dammit, if we can have it, we want it). The tricky part, we discovered, is that once the CSA greens start coming in, and our garden is still churning them out, we end up having far more than we could possibly consume. I think at one point I was eating three to four salads a day. Now I love salads just as much as the next gardener, but holy hell that gets to be a bit much.

Now that we know this, our solution for next year may be to start a cooperative community plot, grow and share our greens there, and once the CSA kicks in, we can surrender the excess plot greens to our partners.

We're also going to redesign the way we use our backyard and community garden plots. The approach will be based on time spent in the garden. We can obviously get to our backyard space every day; so our plans are to grow items that we would want to access frequently or would need daily care (peas, beans, cherry tomatoes, etc.). The community garden plot we want to use for low maintenance, space hogging plants (paste tomatoes, winter squash, soup beans, and so on)

I'm guessing that we may have this system down in another season or two. In the meantime we'll keep taking notes, cussing (and laughing) at our mistakes, and hoping for solid weather.

Cool Resource

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:30:00 +0000

I was searching for some cold frame plans today and came across this great site. Its a giant list of agricultural building plans, all in pdf format.

New Fruit

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:49:00 +0000

This year we wanted to try some new varieties of fruits and veggies. Yellow Canary Melons (should all that be in caps?) were a must have after we tried some at last year's famers' market. The only bummer about these beauts is they are incredible space hogs; not good for a small city garden.

We're back from Ithaca and The Finger Lakes

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:19:00 +0000

I'm taking a break from a garden that needs some serious TLC. It's incredible how unruly a garden can get after just six days.

In the near future I'll try to give a full report of our trip, but until then, here are some of the highlight photos:

Businessman in Touch with Nature

Jude and I in front of Ithaca Falls

Meg, Jude, and I in front of Ithaca Falls

Sunset on Seneca Lake

Double Rainbow. Yep—look close, it's there

Seneca Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:27:00 +0000

Seneca Lake is amazing. We are currently in Geneva and we would highly recommend the place to anyone looking to get away from the hustle and bustle.

Photos to come shortly.

Learning to blog with an ipad

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 02:35:00 +0000

I haven't figured out how to post photos with an iPad, so until we get back to our desktops, please pardon the text only posts.

The three of us are in Ithaca. We're on our way to a lake house in Geneva and we wanted to break up the trip a bit. The original plan was to camp at Watkins Glen State Park, but we unfortunately got rained out.

A heads up: New York parks don't give rain checks if you call the day of. Maybe no parks in any states do, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

So plan B is Ithaca. Actually we were going to stop Ithaca for a bit tomorrow, but we decided to hell with it and made the town a larger part of our agenda. We sorry that we didn't get to see Watkins Glen or take Jude on his first camping trip, but as expected, Ithaca has not disappointed us. This place is fantastic.

Out and about

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:42:00 +0000

7 Walkers

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:22:00 +0000

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while may know, I have a bit of a thing for The Grateful Dead. I don't believe I'm a "Dead Head," though others might disagree, because I really don't know if I understand what it means to be one. But that's a completely different conversation than what I set out to discuss.

Bill Kruetzmann, who was the drummer for The Grateful Dead, is in a new band called 7 Walkers. Now typically I don't promote, nor do I really listen to, the bands that germinated from The Dead (another conversation not needing to happen here), but 7 Walkers—well—if you didn't know who Kruetzmann is, and you didn't listen to them on the internet, with all its experience-shaping links, you would never know there was a connection. Oh shit! and Robert Hunter is involved too. But that's not why I like them.

Listen to Chingo; and whether you're a Dead fan or not, think of it how you may.

More to follow

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:43:00 +0000

I'm not sure what my title is on this project, I think I'm an advisor or something; regardless, I think it's a project worth sharing. What you're looking at is the top of a storm water storage unit that will serve as a collection space for an underground water filter/rain garden. The student running this show will have a detailed post about the rain garden when it's completed. Until then, just think of this: during any single rain storm heavier than a drizzle, we will be able to fill a 1550 gallon cistern with water that is close to potable.

When the post is ready on my other blog I'll be sure to link it here as well.

Why heavy winds make me worry

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 22:14:00 +0000

This is a bean trellis I set up at my community garden plot. I made it with branches from the woods and twine I found laying around. There is a little sway to it, but nothing too much; the big concern is when the beans fill the strings and turn the trellis into a sail.

To be continued...

Striata D'Italia

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:08:00 +0000

Let's face it, whether you plant one zucchini seed or many, you're going to end up with a shitload of zucchini. Except for maybe one year when we got hit pretty bad by some squash vine borers, we have always had more zucchini than what can be eaten from typical everyday consumption (our excess is usually turned into soup and frozen for the winter).

The zucchini variety we've been using for a number of years has been the Striata D'Italia. There really wasn't any science behind our decision; we picked the Striata because it looked cool. Now that we're up to our eyeballs in these things, I am grateful that they're at least pleasing to look at.

No title necessary

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:31:00 +0000

Hello again.

Blog? What blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Hot. Busy. Baby. Etc.

Just in time

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:20:00 +0000

This morning, Jude and I went outside to chase a rabbit and survey the garden scene. After a night of heavy rain, the dirt was charcoal-black and the greens had the perk of Spring adolescence.

Yesterday, the three of us spent the majority of our morning pulling a few weeds and relocating various volunteers. We had a decent rain the night before, so working the dirt was a simple pleasure. After we got the soil ready, we mapped out the beds and planted our seeds. As it stands, everything is in except our tomatoes and peppers; those we'll harden off and plant next week. (About a week after that we'll start another round of greens.)

Shortly after we planted the last of the seeds and brought in the tools it started to rain again—it's supposed to be a wet one all week. We really couldn't have picked a better time to plant. The seeds are properly soaked and by Saturday the sun should be out to spark their germination.

Community Garden Build: Day 1 (Photo Dump)

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:43:00 +0000

Obviously a great deal of attention went to the construction of the pergola. I'll have more detailed photos when the build is over.

Seedy Business

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:31:00 +0000

The seeds are officially started. In our trays we have:

Tomatoes
Sweet Peppers
Hot Peppers
Lettuce
Kale
Collard Greens
Pak Choy
Onions
Leeks
Shallots
Cilantro
Dill
Alaska Shasta Daisy
Chives

I feel like I might be missing something—oh well. After we pick up more seed starting dirt, we'll probably start some more herbs and flowers.

Ground Breaking

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:22:00 +0000

On Thursday we broke ground for the school community garden.

This trellis sucks

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:06:00 +0000

The reason is quite simple really: shade. In the top photo I am standing on the south side of the trellis. Both years we used this design, the tomato plants on this side did quite well, the ones on the other did somewhat crappy.

The north side tomatoes were destined to be smaller than the other side just because it wasn't getting that true southern exposure, but the unforeseen problem actually turned out to be moisture related. By 11:00 in the morning, the sun would be blazing everything quite effectively. However, one morning (probably around 9:00) when I walked past the north side of the trellis, I noticed that the morning dew had not yet been evaporated; about a week later the same dewy leaves were turning brownish yellow and they eventually shriveled up. At the end of the season the north side tomatoes looked like trees from a Dr. Seuss book, tall scraggly trunks with bushy floppy tops. No good.

We've tried a lot of trellising techniques over the years and it looks like we'll be trying another this year. I believe that if we had the space we would stick with the last trellis from our Downingtown garden.

It had everything: plenty of air flow, plenty of sun, and plenty of support. The only problem is that it took up more room than we can sacrifice in our tiny backyard. Maybe we can develop a city version. Hmm.

Dispatches from the Metropolitan Yard-Farm

noreply@blogger.com (Meg) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:44:00 +0000

So, it looks like a certain city gardening family that we all know ~~and love~~ has recently trademarked the terms "urban homestead," "urban homesteading," and others. Now, they're shutting down blogs, Facebook pages, and other organizations that use those terms. Niiiice.

Kate @ Living the Frugal Life has written a much more concise account of the goings-on than I can right now. Make sure to check out her recent post on the issue as well as the Take Back Urban Home-steading(s) (heh) Facebook page.

By the way, be wary of the "news" stories linked from PTF's website—it looks like they're writing their own press releases and posting them to Yahoo News.

The Tomato Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:29:00 +0000

Last year we went a little overboard with our tomatoes—yes this is possible. As I said in an earlier post, a mistake we made when transitioning from a country garden to a city garden (stop thinking of mice) is that we didn't realize to feed ourselves from a small space it would still require the variety we had in a larger garden.

We did have quite the spread these past two years, but we had the quantities all wrong. Looking back I can't believe how much growing space we dedicated to tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, and hot peppers. Really, it was silly. Sure we grew a bumper crop of these four veggies, but harvests from other plants like peas, greens, squash, and other staples took a while before we had enough to make a meal.

So for the tomatoes (and I'll try to address the other garden hogs later) our plan will be to plant five varieties and try to keep them in half the space consumed in previous years. We'll see if this can satisfy our cravings and our desire to put some food by. One thing I should mention is that this year we have a partial share from a CSA to balance our production needs.

The five varieties of tomatoes will be:
Amish Paste - for sauces
Grandpa's Germans - for sauces, salads, and sandwiches
Black Cherry - for salads, pastas, and snacking
Peach - for salads and pastas
Yellow Brandywine - For sandwiches and snacking

There have been some questions regarding our trellises. We'll be bagging the old and developing new this year. In the next post or two I'll explain why we're making the change.

A little gem I found today

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 03:21:00 +0000

Check out African American Gardens Rooted in Tradition. It's a pretty cool multimedia thing the Pittsburgh Post-Gazett highlighted today about a book of photographs by Vaughn Sills titled Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens.

I really have no words to describe how real these gardens seem to me. I don't own the book yet, but I'm sure that I will soon.

Our seeds have arrived

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:13:00 +0000

We went strictly with Baker Creek seeds this year—there was no particular reason other than we dig their plant philosophy and we want to spread our business around. I believe the only plant items left to purchase for our garden this year are a pair of dwarf fruit trees. We will probably start some of our seeds in about five weeks.

I can't wait to try the black cherry tomato.

Variety vs Production

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:33:00 +0000

Something I learned last season is that a city garden designed for food production is pretty boring. We thought we wanted to plant a lot of a few things because it would allow us to put the excess by and eat from the garden through the winter. In some ways our strategy was a success, but without the variety to go along with it, we find ourselves wanting more of what we don't have.

We're putting together our seed order and the list is pretty long. Granted, there will be far more seeds than what could ever fit in our garden; but thankfully I'll be able to donate some to my school's community garden. To satisfy the volume lost, Meg has already set us up with a CSA that runs for a good portion of the year—and they also have eggs.

The garden will look different and hopefully it will invigorate our growing and eating inventiveness.

Blueberry

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:37:00 +0000

On Tuesday Meg gave birth to our son, Jude (aka Blueberry). He was born at home and everything went well. For anyone out there thinking about home birth, or knows someone who is, we strongly recommend it. But this post isn't about home births, it's about Meg and...

Jude.

When I find the words to truly express how cool this is—that is words other than love, love, love, love, love—I'll be sure to share.

In the meantime, stay warm, and have a fantastic holiday season.

Hiking, the Community Garden, and a Request

noreply@blogger.com (Kelly) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:23:00 +0000

Life is goin' good. Meg is in her third trimester and doing amazing. The photo above was taken about two weeks ago at Rickett's Glen.

This past weekend we went on a full-moon hike on the AT. On this trip we hooked up with a local AMC hike leader and made the four mile trek to the Pinnacle to watch the moon rise. The weather was beautiful and the view was stunning.

Work on the Community Garden is still going strong. The sketch above is what we may accomplish in the next five years. Right now we're just focused on year one.

This is a sketch of what we may have going in the Spring. I have a detailed look of the hex plot below. What we're looking for is something small with a shit load of wow.

I've started a blog for our project and if you would like to follow our progress and give us your suggestions (please), we'd greatly appreciate it. The new site began as a place to keep the committee updated, but I told them, and they agreed, that our garden would benefit if we could get the input of a larger audience.

For the time being, I will be posting at the new spot more often than here, but I will keep the baby, hiking, and backyard garden updates on the future house.