Anyhoo, here's what our little urban farm is looking like these days...
This is our bush peas/potato raised bed. In the background are bush peas. In the foreground are several kinds of potatoes (white, red, and gold) planted using our in-the-pot method. Using this method for growing potatoes is great because when it comes time to harvest, just dump the pot upside down into the raised bed and there they all are. Very little digging needed. In the mid ground would be our russet and purple potato bed (between the potted potatoes and the bush peas). Using this method for growing potatoes, we just stuck potatoes in a trench and as they grow, we fill the trench in with dirt. This is an experiment for us this year. We wanna know which method yields more potatoes and which method is easier for me, the farmer.
Here's our sugar pole peas. They are having trouble because rollie pollies (pill bugs) had been devouring them since they emerged from the soil about a month ago. I never knew rollie pollies ate garden plantings but I saw it with my own eyes. Little buggers! I got even though and now my peas are doing real good. To get rid of rollie pollies, squash them between your fingers. Also, putting out Sluggo does the trick, too. The rest of this bed we planted carrots and some radishes, which haven't really come up yet (we just planted them).
This bed has onions around the outside, collards on the left half, a single kale on the right and then some chard on the right in the back. These greens will be real good. Just gotta watch out for that dadgum cabbage moth... he keeps layin' eggs on the collards and kale, which turn into little green caterpillars that eat holes into the crop. We go smush the eggs off the leaves about every 2 or 3 days or so. It's working pretty well so far.
Upper left under the row cover is spinach. My spinach kept getting chomped by something. Wouldn't you know, it was damn birds! I couldn't catch 'em, so I put on this row cover. Never used it before but it should let water and light through to the spinach and protect them from these spinach killers. The birds pretty much only eat the spinach....though they pulled out some of my walla walla onion starts about a month ago. Little buggers. Anyway, we've got 3 cabbages in the upper right, a line of dill down the center, and romaine lettuce on the bottom half of this bed. I guarantee this lettuce is real good. We've eaten some already.
Garlic and onions! We've been eating the onions and they're real good.
The back of this bed has a couple old-growth collards from last year. We are still eating from these two plants, mostly adding it to stir fry stuff. The rest of the bed is corn and beans. I just planted this bed a few days ago, so things really haven't popped up yet. Well, the beans are just poking through. They'll be real good when they're ready.
This is our raised bed out in the parking strip. We built this raised bed out of old sod. We planted several types of squash and a couple types of corn...and sunflowers. It should not only look cool, but it'll all taste real good, too. We planted this raised bed about 3 weeks ago.
Shallots and bulb onions are doing real well.
Bush peas. Hurry up and grow you little buggers!
Some broccoli and onions. These broccoli got off to a bit of a slow start but they can take their time 'cause they'll be real good when they're ready.
These broccoli were planted several weeks earlier and will be ready to eat first. They're just putting on their first flower now. They're right beside the green leaf lettuce.
Bok Choy on the left and the rest of the bed is planted with beets. Michele makes a real mean plate of beets.
This is an old horse watering trough with herbs and mixed lettuce/spinach, etc. The spinach in this trough has gotten huge. We have already eaten most of it but we replanted more seeds so more is on the way. It was real good. We should be able to enjoy lots of greens all summer and fall. We'll probably freeze some for winter, too.
A second watering trough with more greens. We eat a lot of greens. Don't curl your lip at these greens, they're real good.
New starts for our summer crops. I took them outside to soak up some sun. They like it! Represented here are various kinds of cucumber, zuchini, a squash, a runt tomato (which probably won't make it), WATER MELON!, canteloupe, three kinds of peppers, basil, and OKRA!!! I can't wait to devour a platter of homemade fried chicken, biscuits, fried okra, and water melon. There's no better meal.
Our greenhouse with tomato and eggplant inside. It's real warm and nice in there.
Baby peaches! I don't have a picture because I forgot to take one, but we also have baby nectarines!
Baby apples!
Baby strawberries!
Strawberry bed.
Another strawberry bed. Don't let the small bed size fool ya, they produce way more than we can eat! They're real good. We give extras to our neighbors. Last year we ate so many strawberries that we were feeling all strawberried out. But by November, we were real glad that we had frozen a few gallons of them for winter. Having homegrown berries during the winter is pretty cool.
Blueberries in the foreground, blackberries and raspberries in the background. They're all on their way to producing a lot of berries come summer time. Saying these plants produce more than we can eat is a under-statement. We practically beg the birds to eat more. We pick as much as we can but cannot get to them all because there are so many. We ate and ate and ate them during the summer last year and then also froze a couple gallons of berries for the winter. This year, we'll try to do a better job picking them to freeze for winter. These berries are real good.
This might look like a small blueberry patch, but it's real productive and boy are these things tasty! We put up a little fence to keep the dogs out of them until the plants are taller. This spring the plants are loaded with blooms. Hopefully they become loaded with blueberries.
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