Urban farming

[Jayna]

It looks like I'm not alone in being a garden enthusiast... anyone want to talk homesteading with me?

My mom was always an avid gardener, and taught gardening classes, so as soon as I had a home of my own I planted fruit trees and started cultivating a garden. This year has been one of my most lush gardens ever, and I think that once the tomatoes are gone I may be able to get some kale in and have greens through winter. I also got chickens this year, which I  adore so much! So far, with eight pullets, I'm getting about three eggs a day. I think two of my girls haven't started laying yet.

I think my yard is a bit maxed out at this point, but most of my young trees aren't really producing yet. When they are, I will have apples, apricots, cherries, pawpaws, figs, and persimmons, as well as grapes, raspberries, and blueberries.

I did get a pretty big apricot harvest this year, and dried most of them. I've got a bunch of tomatoes canned (the Cherokee Purple are incredible this year!) and will have a bunch more to go if we get one more week of sun... otherwise I'll can them green, with chilies.

I don't know what the heck to do with all these cucumbers! The beets at least can winter in the ground.

What's everyone else up to with their gardens?

[Opsa]

Funny you should ask...

I was all but neglecting mine until yesterday. I have four small raised veg beds between two long perennial flower borders. This summer I over-volunteered for a bunch of stuff in the area, and had to finally start saying "no" to offers, at least for a while!

I'm in US zone 7. My red and gold cherry tomatoes are still producing. My peppers have slowed down a lot, but are flowering. All my lettuces have bolted. Yesterday I finally got around to pulling the bolts. I sowed lettuce seeds, too- hoping for a late season. I've never started anything this late, so I don't really know what I'm doing, but I've heard it can be done.

I got an Heritage raspberry sprout this spring and yesterday I found 4 ripe raspberries on it, which I promptly ate. (I do organic gardening, so I didn't feel the need to wash them- it had just rained!) What a thrill. They were sweet and nice. There are a few more yet to ripen. I was surprised to se them, as it didn't expect the cane to produce anything the first year.

Today I went out and weeded the gravel between the raised beds, which really, really needed doing. I used one of those gravel raker things, which looks like a wedge-shaped metal loop hinged on the end of a stick. Works great, but doesn't get everything. The area looks much better, now, and I can get my wheelbarrow through places today that yesterday I could not.

What are some other good winter crops for the home garden?

[Bluenose]

Well I live on a very small block and so I have a few herbs planted - rosemary, marjoram, thyme, chives and garlic.  I grow a small lemon tree and a bay laurel plus a couple of blueberry plants (new) in large pots.  That's about it for productive gardening.  The remainder of our garden has been planted with Australian natives mostly smaller or dwarf forms and specifically chosen to attract birds into the garden - which they do very well - and to minimise water use.  We have achieved what Mrs Blue describes as a "faux natural" look.

[Opsa]

  Good one, Mrs. Blue!

We have a hedgerow around the edges of our garden for the birds. Of course, at this time of year (fall here in the northern hemi), I tend to have let a lot of things grow out to seed and it all looks quite... erm... natural.

[Pachyderm]

I am all about the natural. (No surprise, really, given what I do for a living )

The garden at the family home was the result of 20years of "militant neglect", but was awesome for invertebrates, hence birds, and the fact that my mother seems to feel the need to ensure that any living thing that strays within 100m of her gets fed, meant our little wildlife haven was very well populated. Didn't do much for the resale value, but I loved it...

[Jayna]

This was my first year really getting a good harvest from my raspberries, and I'm so excited as I have about two gallons of them in my freezer! Next year I'm hoping the blueberries will kick in. I also am an organic gardener (though tempted to spray for apple maggot next year, as the traps didn't work this year), and I think my garden appreciates that because it's rich with worms and the plants do very well. Almost too well... there's no room to walk out there.

I'm in zone 9 and thinking that for winter crops, kale, mustard, and collards are going to dominate my garden this year, with maybe a bed of spinach and one of lettuce. Turnips, onions, beets, peas, and carrots are also supposed to be good fall crops. I'm keeping my beets in the ground until it freezes, for beet greens (I love them!) I am not sure how to time my winter garden because after the tomatoes go south, I want to let my chickens in to clean out as many slugs as possible. Maybe I'll save the chickens until March.

[Opsa]

Hey! I was just reminded about sowing spinach today by a master gardener who says that he soaks the seeds, first. I put in a row just a couple of hours ago. I love fresh spinach!

You sound like you got a lot of raspberries! What kind did you plant?

[Jayna]

I have two varieties, and both are mystery plants... one a spineless variety taken from an old vacant lot right before the patch was obliterated by development, and one a spiny variety taken from the back yard of a house built in 1907... they could have been planted at any time. They are both excellent and have slightly different qualities of flavor, and one is earlier than the other, so I find they complement each other well. I originally had the patch on our southern fenceline, but after having an addition built I moved them to the south side of the house.

Also, I planted asparagus this summer, and I'm excited about getting to have a few shoots this spring!

[Opsa]

Aparagus- that's another one I'd like to try!

I like that you've rescued plants. I have a rescued Clematis (it was in the path of a mower when I begged it from the landlord) and a rescued white lilac bush that was being torn down. I love both of them.

[Jayna]

I'm huge on rescued plants, and plant and seed-trading! In fact, most of my front yard flowers came from scouring my neighborhood for seeds. Many of which I didn't know what they were when I took them, I just knew that they were thriving and they looked interesting. I have those, some crabapples, lilacs that I started from cuttings from my last house, sage from starts I took, and a bunch of lilies a friend gave me when she divided hers. Oh, and scattered irises that I was hoping would clump, but didn't. There's a lot more than that, actually, but I can't remember all of it. I think the only things I bought were the crabapples and the tulips, and maybe the thyme.

[Opsa]

Swapping is a large part of how I garden, too. I love this, because I am reminded of the person who gave me each plant. It's like having a garden of friends. Some of us Toadfish have sent each other seeds and plants.

[Jayna]

Aw. That's really sweet! The "Garden of friends", I mean.

[Jayna]

Well, it's finally gone and turned cold, and I don't think it's going to warm back up. Time to pick the last of the tomatoes that have half a chance to ripen in the kitchen, and can the green ones with the chilies and onions.

I think the beans are good for one last harvest and then they're gone too. The cucumbers might hold out until first frost. I have two little apples on my columnar apple tree, and my figs are but figlets.

I'm getting about three eggs a day from eight hens, though I think two of them aren't laying yet.

What's everyone else's gardens up to?

[Opsa]

I went and visited friends with chickens yesterday and theirs were laying fewer, too. I had no idea that they lay less eggs when the sunlight decreases! But I guess that makes sense. Sunlight is energy.

This week is still nice, but I think we're going to tank, temperature-wise, next week. Maybe even a light frost! Usually we don't get frost until Nov 1st or so. I have to start thinking about making room for the houseplants to come inside. Gotta re-pot some of them, too.

I'm watering my little sowed cool-weather rows, but it's too early to tell if they're going or not.

[Bluenose]

Well, I've finally gotten round to potting out the new blueberries in big (80 litre) blue cramic pots.  Have started on making a small garden outside the main bedroom window - because this is a paved area the garden will consist of pots with various succulants, the blueberries and some other things yet to be decided.  Also there will be a small water garden.  I will place some treated pine down as a border and fill the area with some red scoria to cover the concrete and make it look like a garden bed.

I've been planting out some garlic cloves that have started sprouting in the pantry.  I have found that when I do this although I usually only get small heads, they are absolutely full of flavour.

On the to-do list, I need to get some more mulch to top up the garden, most of the exisitng mulch has broken down and it is an absolute necessity before summer hits us to conserve water.  Also I have a couple of correas to plant out - they have lovely tubular flowers that are a big draw card for nectar feeding birds - we already have quite a lot of these lovely plants - and we find they do very well in our location.  Finally, I need to get in some "Castella toppings" (a form of reddish crushed rock) to finish off at last the paths round the back yard.  So there's no lack of things to do here.

Spring is well under way, the roses out the front are coming along well, we should be having the first flowers in a week or two.  Most of our eucalypts are in flower - the wattle birds are having "bird wars" over the flowers.  It's quite funny really, while one bird chases anther away from his favourite tree a third comes in and starts to plunder the resource.  Then some rainbow lorikeets come in to feeed and the wattle bird goes bererk - which the lorikeets totally ignore - eventually giving up and sits in the tree sulking making little "brrp" noises to himslef as if to say "rotten lorikeets, don't they know who owns this tree...  ratta fratter..."