Commonwealth Club - The Urban Farming Movement

Always an entertaining and thought provoking venue, SF's Commonwealth Club is paneling a group of enterprising folk working to bring local food production back in urban environments.

The Urban Farming Movement
When: Wednesday, May 12 6:30pm
Where: 595 Market Street (conveniently kittycorner from 2 of the GardenHoe's offices)
Cost: $12 members, $20 non-m, $7 student

Panel guests:
Jason Mark, Co-manager, Alemany Farm; Editor-in-Chief, Earth Island Journal
Novella Carpenter, Author, Farm City
Christopher Burley, Founder, Hayes Valley Farm
David Gavrich (aka The Goat Whisperer), Founder, City Grazing
Sarah Rich, Writer; Editor; Co-founder, The Foodprint Project; Co-author, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century - Moderator

Springtime Garden

The garden, or what was left in it, fared pretty well over the winter. The favas are tall and producing well. I haven't harvested yet, but any day now. The leeks are too gorgeous to pull. The flowers are so pretty that I...just...can't...pick. I've purchased and planted lots of seedlings. Photos to follow. My garden is inundated with sow bugs. Everything I read says that they don't harm your garden, but my brand new summer squash was attacked. I say it was their doing and after cruising the internet found that they hate cayenne and oil so into the kitchen I go to create my Sow Bug Death Spray. I'll let you know how it goes.

sage

leek flower bud

fava pods

tall fava plants

An Apple A Day

Spring is here and husband and I were walking around Flowercraft and came upon the coolest tree ever. It's an apple tree with four different kinds of apples grafted onto the tree. I had read the following:

"All apple varieties should be considered self-incompatible, meaning that they cannot pollinate themselves or any flowers of the same apple variety. The highest quality fruit is harvested when cross-pollination occurs with a suitable pollinizer variety. You will need to plant at least two varieties of apple trees together in order to maximize fruit production and quality."

So having the four different varieties on one tree should solve that problem. We choose a lovely spot in the front yard and it seems to be doing great.

succulent pot

My 'other' garden is a succulent pot. It has a central top opening, and 4 lower openings where I've planted a variety of sedums and succulents, mixing in a blue/grey spectrum, to match the pot glazing.

Easy peasy, I'm actually SUPPOSED to let it dry between waterings!




Now THAT I can handle. And isn't this pretty?

bee maintenance

Upkeep update - it was time to remove the Queen's transport box and respace out the frames, to ensure proper 'bee space' that keeps the comb-making in line. Bees. I tell you, ya gotta keep on 'em. Worse than teenagers. [wink]



1. patient keeper, 2. prying up a frame, 3. busy bees

backyard bee bonanza begins!

And the adventure begins! After buying and prepping the hive (soy sealant, with no harmful VOCs) and lots of back-breaking work by Scott to prep the platform area in the yard, the bees arrived! We had a limited window in which to get them transferred from the shipping box to the hive, as a high wind advisory storm was brewing. The weather may have helped, actually, because the drizzly and chilly air probably dissuaded the agitated bees from getting too aggressive towards the guy whacking them outta their comfortably boxed cluster.



1. Box O'Bees, 2. LOTS of bees, 3. no paper OR plastic, 4. uncorking the bees

fleece lined sweatshirts

Harvested the first round of fava beans from the community garden. I hadn't been around for a few weeks, so was quite surprised to see they'd shot up to taller than 6 ft, and that fabulous 6-8 inch long pods were abundant.

Each pod holds 3-6 beans, ranging in size from large peas to the standard full 1-inch long favas. What surprised me most was the interior lining of the pods - they were like fleece-lined sweatshirts! Someone oughta look into fava pods as an eco-insulation material - these were at least an R-12!



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garden visitor

I've never been one for snakes. Never crossed their paths as a kid (Hawaii doesn't have them!) and still crawl out of my skin when I do now.

S found this one slinking it's way around the backyard garden, and while it was only as thick around as my thumb, I still got quite freaked out. But then I thought of the mice it might be keeping under control, and I started to warm up to the slithery thing.

But I'm still not touching it. [shudder]



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