Category: Urban Gardening

Originally posted at LittleBigHarvest

 

First of all, let me just say that the video above gets me very excited! A group taking action, doing exactly the thing I dream of; growing food on empty lots. Though I dream most of the lot right across from my house, I have craned my neck , while driving, many times looking at all the empty lots scattered throughout this city. There are so, so many. Just sitting there, large swatches of grass and weeds, filled with so much potential. I have a crazy vision of each one of those empty lots becoming a food oasis, providing nutrition and community connections to neighborhoods all over my city. I need to find a way to get involved with this group, definitely.

 

Secondly, digging deeper and researching shows me that there are some real hurdles to successful urban gardening on empty lots.

 

Last summer we had a cookout with Craig’s family, and his mom’s boyfriend Tom came over. As we chatted by the gate in the backyard, I started talking about my pipe dream of owning the empty lot across the street. At that time I had a very ambitious mental picture of everything I’d do with that lot if it ever were mine to play with; fence it in, have chickens, a shed, different areas designated for different things. Maybe even a couple goats (I threw that in for the shock factor, even if I was only half kidding). I was basing a lot of my mental picture on a ‘map’ that I had studied, for hours on end, in the book Essential Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter.

 

Tom shot down the ideas rather quickly. “You can’t build a shed on an empty lot. Or a fence. Hell, you can’t even get access to water. How you gonna water your garden over there? How you planning to pull all that off?”

 

I cockily answered I’d just do it. Let someone try to come and tear it down or give me a ticket. I only half believed him when he started going on about codes, but it turns out he is absolutely correct. I found an article in Fort Wayne Monthly back in May that described exactly those codes Tom told me about.

 

Bottom line in the article: growing food is fine. Building anything, according to code, is not allowed on a lot that does not have a house on it.

 

I tried to find the article online, so I could copy and paste here, but it’s no where to be found. So I’ll tear the article out and put it in my garden binder, and here I’ll just highlight the parts that discuss city code (I thought about typing the whole article, but then my wrists heard the rumor and screamed in revolt).

 

Knowing that I have city codes to deal with hardly deters me, however. I don’t need fences or sheds to grow food. Just the ground. I’ve scaled my ambition down a bit to something more realistic to start with. If I can get the guts to even speak with my neighbor who owns the empty lot, I will ask her permission to simply grow a garden, nothing else. And, like this article alludes to, the codes are subject to appeal, and ultimately, change. If enough of us want and need to use empty lots to grow food within the city limits, and decide we need extras on those lots like tool sheds, fences, and water hookups, then there may just have to be some changes in the codes. I can feel the changes bubbling, and I’m thrilled that I’m not the only one ready to ride the waves!

 

From “Urban Gardens Grow” by Bonnie Blackburn in Fort Wayne Monthly:

 

“Scattered across the older parts of Fort Wayne are empty lots where homes and businesses once stood. Quite a bit of public expense (to clear condemned buildings and keep the lots mowed) and private effort (many good-hearted neighbors mow and tend to the lots before the public mowing crews can get there) goes toward keeping these lots from damaging their neighborhoods with blights, some places more effectively than others.”

 

“And then there are the people who see opportunity in these empty places, people like Clint Kelly and his merry band of gardeners in Better Fort Farms. To them, these forsaken lots offer the promise of fresh food, fresh air and fresh life, not to mention a delicious tomato or two.”

 

Hurdles to urban gardening on these empty lots? Indiana’s unpredictable weather, possibility of contaminated soil, and: “Zoning. The Catherine Kasper Place land was already zoned for agricultural purposes, which meant the group was able to put up a shed and a fence and add water taps. The plots owned by A Better Fort, however, have yet to receive that blessing. The group’s Clint Kelly said he anticipates zoning changes that will allow the work by this summer. ”

 

“Kim Bowman is the executive director of the combined Fort Wayne and Allen County land use managment office, within the county Department of Planning services. It’s her department that oversees zoning for the area.”

 

” ‘Urban gardens means different things to different people. I buy a property at a tax sale, I want to grow veggies or whatever, I can do that. If you can grow grass, then you can grow vegetables and that type of thing. Things start to shift when people want a water tap, or put up a shed or fence,’ Bowman said. ‘In the city, it’s different. In an urban area there are different rules because what you do impacts different people.’ ”

 

“There are no specific zoning laws that directly address community garden, Bowman said. The current rules say that gardens are permitted, as long as no structures or other improvements (such as water taps or electricity) are put onto a site that’s zoned residential without the proper zoning permits. However, a site without a standing house cannot have a shed or other improvements without zoning approval through the Board of Zoning Appeals.”

 

“There’s no doubt that more of these gardens are, shall we say, sprouting up. And with the growth in gardens will likely come a change in the rules, Bowman said. ‘It’s something we want to promote. We want to encourage urban gardening, but we have to make sure it’s compliant with our ordinance. It’s a great concept and a great idea, but when you start drilling down into it, it can get complicated.”

 

I have not had very good luck with transplanting peas, but peas are so much fun for kids to start inside. I found this cool tip in a book called How To Grow Food, and I think we will definitely try it! It may be too late to try it this year, for we can actually plant our peas directly at this point in the season. But I wanted to get this idea down for future reference so I wouldn’t forget.  –Andi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally posted by Andi at Little*Big*Harvest

Is this a sign that we planted our precious tomato seedlings a bit too early?

These plants have grown so big, that they began falling over last week. If you look carefully, you’ll see we had to rig a twine and tape system to hold them up against the window, along with wooden-skewer stilts tied to some of the stems to help hold them!

In the back of my mind, I often compare seedlings to children. You spend so much time nurturing them in their little nurseries during the late winter, like newborns. You fuss over them, worry about them, rejoice when they grow strong and tall, and lose sleep when they are having difficulties. Eventually the young plants you raised will be transplanted out in the world, where it will be up to them to prove productive and happy.

Well, if the analogy is applied to our tomatoes, they are teenagers–albeit late teens–who have outstayed their welcome home. They should have been out in the world on their own weeks ago. I will not kick them out, because the weather is still bitter at night (waiting for the ‘magic’ plant date of Mother’s Day). But wow. They are entirely too big to still be at home. We thought about getting out to the garden and setting up a cover system with pvc piping and plastic, but money is tight as well as time. We are going to hold out. When it comes time to transplant them, we’ll have to dig deep to provide some support to those long, long stems. I know that last year when it came time to transplant outside, our tomatoes were only about a third this tall. Another interesting development that these teenage behemoths are boasting? They are attempting to make tomatoes already! Look at one of the blooms I found.

In other Little Harvest news, we have decided to plant potatoes. This week we had a potato planting party!

There are so many great ideas for planting potatoes in small spaces. The trick is to keep covering them with soil or compost or rotting leaves/straw (whatever organic material you have on hand, basically) as they grow.  The same holds true whether planting in the ground or in a container. In order to keep burying the growing potatoes, you want to plant them at the bottom of something large. I have been on the lookout for the perfect large container for a few months. I wanted a washtub-style container, or whiskey barrel. Some old tires would have been great (stacking and filling with soil as the potatoes grow). But this giant white plastic pot will hopefully do the trick. I found it by chance at the dollar store at a deep discount, since it has a small crack at the top, which I knew would not effect our potato growing plans at all.

We have not purchased seed potatoes. I have already talked to a seasoned gardener in my family who has told me I MUST buy seed potatoes. Well, we had a bag of organic potatoes that were no longer fit for making lunch, and the sprouts coming out of them seemed to be begging to be put somewhere that they could keep growing. I have a stubborn streak, and being told I must do something a certain way only invites my effort to try a different (and cheaper) way!

 

Before heading outdoors, the kids and I examined the sprouty potatoes. “Gross” and “Weird” and “Scary” were the words I heard most as they touched and looked at the potatoes. I encouraged words like “Awesome” and “Amazing!” How amazing is it that these old potatoes want to grow into new ones?

We cut two of the sprouts off one of the potatoes, leaving some potato flesh with it. We put the rest of the potatoes in the cold garage, thinking we might find more places to plant them later. We then headed out (on a VERY windy day, mind you) and collected some compost. Oh, that rich, wonderful homemade soil! We marveled at the fact that each one of us remembered putting vegetable peelings, straw, and other old stuff, and here it was, transformed at the bottom of our compost ball.

 

You can see our unruly tomatoes hanging out in the window behind us!

 

About to blow away in the wind!!!

As I mentioned above, just a small amount of soil in the bottom of the pot will do. Place the potato bits in, sprouts faced up to the sky, and cover the sprouts with a thin layer of soil. As the sprouts grow through, add soil over the growing plant, leaving just a couple of green leaves poking out into the sun. In this way, the potato plant will grow up into the soil and create many roots. Lots of roots will eventually grow lots of potatoes!

We have high hopes for our new venture. If this proves successful, I’ll be on the lookout for suitable containers for more potato growing!

This Los Angeles family made an awesome video of their urban garden. It’s quick and fun, you’ve got to watch it! It’s proof that much food can be produced even in tiny, urban spaces.

 

 

Are you happily buying seeds and plants for this year’s garden? Please print the list in this article and keep it in your wallet. Every time a plant or seed packet calls your name (especially at big box garden centers), refer to the list and try to avoid these varieties. The most ideal thing to do is to know your seed source (I adore SeedSaversExchange and Baker’s Creek), but I also understand the allure of the beautiful seedlings and racks of seeds found everywhere in spring. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that my favorite dollar store seed (American Seed) is actually a Monsanto company. If you have leftover seeds, go ahead and plant them, but don’t buy any more if at all possible. It makes me sick just how many different ways Monsanto has tried to ‘own’ our food sources.

Scroll down for printable list of plants and seeds. Click on this LINK to see another great list of all seed companies owned by Monsanto, as well as a ‘safe’ list–you may be shocked by all the familiar names. 🙁 Keep yourself aware and informed about where your seeds/plants originate. Any way that we can all STOP supporting Monsanto, the better!

First of all, Monsanto or nobody else can actually OWN these varieties of seed, but as developers of some of these varieties and as suppliers of them under many different companies it can be hard to tell who owns what.  It does not stand to reason that any crop of these varieties growing today or anytime in the future will be genetically modified in any way.  Some of these varieties can be found without any continuing connection to Monsanto or Seminis but it is important to be a little more cautious with these.

If you are the type of gardener who purchases vegetable seeds or seedlings, including tomato plants from a local garden center, be mindful the varieties you choose. Conversely, you might be placing money into the hands of Monsanto Corporation. Below is the list of Seminis/Monsanto home-garden vegetable variations.  It’s often best to buy directly from seed farmers and companies that you can trust (you can find many of them here)

Print this list, and keep a copy in your wallet. Don’t be caught off guard the next time you impulse shop at a big-box garden center.

The seed varieties you have obtained as “heirlooms” from heirloom or organic seed companies are “NOT” GMO seeds, even though they are officially “owned” by Monsanto. As far as we know, the only GMO vegetable seeds available for sale today are new hybrid varieties of zucchini and summer squash, so be sure you order these from certified organic suppliers.

Please understand that Monsanto only owns the trademark names for these “heirloom” varieties. This stretegic move holds two advantages for Monsanto:

1.) prevents new companies from naming new varieties with these or very similar names.

2.) it is an effort to stop lucrative sales by these other companies trying to leverage the heirloom name and consumer loyalty for those heirloom varieties.

If you have left over seeds, do not be reluctant to plant them. Monsanto will only profit from customers purchasing these varieties from companies that are stocking seeds obtained directly from Monsanto or one of its distributors.

Beans: Aliconte, Brio, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Festina, Gina, Goldmine, Goldenchild, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Storm, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema

Broccoli: Coronado Crown, Major, Packman

Cabbage: Atlantis, Golden Acre, Headstart, Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty

Carrot: Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Koroda PS, Royal Chantenay, Sweetness III

Cauliflower: Cheddar, Minuteman

Cucumber: Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76, Mathilde, Moctezuma, Orient Express II, Peal, Poinsett 76, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega

Eggplant: Black Beauty, Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel, Lavender Touch, Twinkle, White Lightening

Hot Pepper: Anaheim TMR 23, Ancho Saint Martin, Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Caribbean Red, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichen Itza, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Habanero, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierro, Hungarian Yellow Wax Hot, Ixtapa X3R, Lapid, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Mucho Nacho brand of Grande, Nainari, Serrano del Sol brand of Tuxtlas, Super Chile, Tam Vera Cruz

Lettuce: Braveheart, Conquistador

Melon: Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno

Onion: Candy, Cannonball, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Vision

Pumpkin: Applachian, Harvest Moon, Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Phantom, Prize Winner, Rumbo, Snackface, Spirit, Spooktacular, Trickster

Spinach: Hellcat

Squash: Ambassador, Canesi, Clarita, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Papaya Pear, Peter Pan, Portofino, President, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM

Sweet Corn: Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obession, Passion, Temptation

Sweet Pepper: Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Biscayne, Blushing Beauty, Bounty, California Wonder 300, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Cubanelle W, Dumpling brand of Pritavit, Early Sunsation, Flexum, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West, King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight, Satsuma, Socrates, Super Heavyweight, Sweet Spot

Tomato: Amsterdam, Beefmaster, Betterboy, Big Beef, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Early Girl, Granny Smith, Health Kick, Husky Cherry Red, Jetsetter brand of Jack, Lemon Boy, Margharita, Margo, Marmande VF PS, Marmara, Patio, Phoenix, Poseidon 43, Roma VF, Royesta, Sun Sugar, Super Marzano, Sweet Baby Girl, Tiffany, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui

Watermelon: Apollo, Charleston Grey, Crimson Glory, Crimson Sweet, Eureka, Jade Star, Mickylee, Olympia

 

Noah the mini-gardener

 

 

Yes, I know. I’ve boasted for 2 growing seasons now that I don’t need a growlight. That by rotating my precious seedlings from windowsill to windowsill throughout the day to catch maximum sunlight, my seedlings have done just fine. But the sun has decided to absolutely disappear for much of the time the past few weeks, and it’s been bad news for my baby Amish Paste tomatoes. They began to droop, bend over, and in general look very, very sick.

 

 

very sad and droopy baby tomato

 

I panicked. My first ER action was to dose them with some fish emulsion, diluted (1 t. in about 4 cups of water). After watching them for over a day and seeing that didn’t give them a magic boost, I transplanted them all into larger spaces, in case their roots were not getting enough room to breathe.

 

before: tiny, messy homes

after: bigger and cleaner-looking rooms..ahhhhh

 

 

Start a gardening hobby and say goodbye to perfectly manicured nails

 

 

I gave them a day in their new, larger homes and still saw little improvement. It hit me, in a sudden ‘lightbulb’ moment, that the sunlight had not been strong at all for days.

 

I don’t have the cash to plunk out on some special growlight system (I’m saving pennies for other precious items, like a soaker hose). I thought to myself, ‘hey, I’ve got this florescent fixture over the kitchen sink…I wonder if it would help? I mean, how different is a regular florescent light from a special growlight available for substantial bucks at the garden center?’

 

After a quick search in the garage, I came up with a setup that would get my plants close to the light source. 2 five gallon buckets (which, incidentally, still smelled of the apples I stored in them during apple picking season–I had to stop for a moment to breathe in that wonderful nostalgia), a shelf borrowed from one of our toyshelves in the toyroom, and my seed container (appropriate use for that, or what!). I also found an empty food container of the right size to boost the seedlings up just a bit more–right up to the light.

 

 

 

This setup has worked wonders. Within one day under the lights, our plants grew noticeably,  and they looked happier and healthier. They have reached up toward those florescent photons like their little lives depended on it. The closer I can get those babies to the light the better–in fact I read it’s okay to let the leaves actually touch the light. The less effort the leaves have to make to get to the light, the more energy they can put into growing thicker instead of upwards.

 

I been putting the plants in the windowsills any day that we have strong sunlight, but those days have been very far and few between. So, they spend a lot of time under our little growlight system. I’ve had to remove the extra container by now, and soon will have to lower the plants even more, because they are growing so big.

 

Although it’s taken some getting used to, working around the baby tomatoes is not a big deal. I spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink, so I’m getting to know each plant by heart,  at my eye level. The light has always been a little too bright for me, and at just the right angle that my eyes hurt a bit when standing at the sink, but if it’s helping the plants survive, I’ve got new tolerance for it. Leaving it on for the plants has been a challenge–I’m one of those mamas who seems to be constantly turning off unneeded lights left on by someone. I have to stop myself as I reach to turn out that kitchen sink light…it is now serving a very good purpose! And, I didn’t have to go out and spend any more money that I don’t have on this gardening adventure.

 

Baby tomatoes keep me company while washing unending piles of dishes

 

Take a peek at how wonderful our tomatoes look now, after bigger pots, a little fish emulsion, and a week under our growlight:

 

 

 

Originally posted by Andi at LittleBigHarvest 

Big Orange Kitty watching over the babies

Small boy daydreaming next to the nursery

One of my goals right now is to become more and more separate from industrial food. Growing lots of tomatoes seems to be one of the easiest ways to start. I used to think of tomatoes and wonder how people could eat so many of them. People who grew them in their gardens would give them away by the bags-full. I thought..just how many salads and sandwiches can I eat to use all of these before they get mushy (which happens so very quickly)? I never realized the possibility of preserving them until I tried it and saw for myself how easy it is. (If mom reads this, she may have a thing or two to say to me, namely, “Oh come on, where were you while I canned all those tomatoes every summer?” Answer: Somewhere far away from the kitchen.)

 

What things do I buy routinely that I could be putting up from my own tomato plants? Tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, roasted and pureed tomatoes…ketchup, even! I obtained a food mill last summer and the ease of making sauce increased ten-fold. So far I’ve done nothing more than freeze the sauce and diced tomatoes in freezer containers, but canning is next on the list of attainable goals. We use a LOT of canned tomatoes in our family, not to mention all the ketchup we go through. If we could provide the majority of our own tomatoes to last the whole year, not just in those glorious pick-them-straight-from-the-vine-and-die-of-happiness summer days, I think that would be an amazing step in the right direction.

 

Here are some pics of our growing tomato seedlings. They are started from seed that I got from rareseeds.com. A heritage variety called Amish Paste. The claim is that they produce well and that they make excellent sauce, so here’s to hoping!

 

Also! This is our 3rd garden season starting our seeds without a growlight. Countless gardening sites assume that success will only come with growlights, but if I can do without, why not? I have big windowsills to hold the trays, and by rotating the seedlings throughout the day to catch as much sunlight as possible, they seem to do okay. In one of the following pics you’ll see that on very cold days, I put a space heater (on lowest setting) under the window to keep the babies from getting frostbite. 😉

Originally posted by Andi at LittleBigHarvest

 

It’s always hard to do…but it must be done. Culling the weakest sprouts so the hardiest one will grow into an amazing plant.

 

 

A little extra warmth on those frigid February/March mornings.

 

They eat up the sun and fill me with hope.