Urban Farm

From Fancy Publications, the people who are known for Hobby Farm Magazine, comes a new publication. Its called, "Urban Farm, Sustainable City Living," and as the title and tag line suggest it is all about the city farmer. There have only been two issues published to date with three more planned for 2010.

I came across the premier issue late last fall while scanning the gardening section of the News stand in the Lonesdale Quay Market in North Vancouver. I have been keeping an eye out for the next issue and have finally found it.

Each issue so far has been jam packed with stories and editorials about many different aspects of Urban farming from produce and livestock to container and community gardens. Advice for any urban gardening in any situation. Following is a review of some from the Spring 2010 installment.

In "Pushing City Limits," fellow garden blogger Erik Knutzen takes us along as some Urban Farmer share the tribulations with city bylaws, including Tara Kalla of Silver Lake Farms in Los Angeles, California. She grows organic cut flowers to sell at farmers markets. Sometimes I can understand why people might have issues with someone having chickens in their yard, or even a large produce garden in the front yard. But you would think a large flower garden in your neighborhood wouldn't ruffle too many feathers. This is not the case with Tara Kalla and others. Learn how see and others have over come outdated laws.

Debbie Moors introduces us to Will Allen and Growing Power in the article, "P is for Prosper." The once professional basketball player turned gardener created the ultimate community gardening experience in Milwaukee 17 years ago. I won't get into much description, the article says it all.

In "Power to the People," Carol Ekarius gives an overview of the many different options for "greening" up and lowering your electric bill with options ranging from on and off grid.

These as well as articles about Gardening on a rental property, square foot gardening from its creator Mel Bartholomew, or how to use grey water from your washing machine to water your garden, make this issue a must read.

Subscriptions are not yet available so search the shelves of your favourite magazine rack, or check out their website.

Spring Kale

I managed to use my surprise day off to get some gardening done. Months ago I purchased seeds from Johnny's Seed Company, and put them into a drawer until last week when after eating my found treat and flipping through the new Johnny Catalog I decided it was time to pull out these packets of new life and make a plan for this years exploration of container gardening. Among the paper envelopes I found Winter Kale, something I bought with the intent of planting in the fall, but forgot about and now I am faced with a decision. Do I risk planting now in January and harvest before it get it gets to warm, potentially not harvesting a decent crop and wasting the seeds? Or do I save the seeds until next fall, potentially not having any of them sprout from being too old thereby wasting the seeds? I feel there is really only one thing to do at this stage, and that is to do both options. In the name of Garden Sciences I will attempt both and document the out come.

The first step I need was to find something to plant the Kale into and to give some organization to the East deck. Believe it or not this is an improvement. Two boxes went down into storage and some cardboard trays left over from berry picking last fall finally made the voyage to the recycling.

I decided to use the old Blender Pots to start with. These blender have burnt out motors. Instead of spending more money then they are worth to fix or throw them away, I have recycled them. Loosing the cord I made them into pots. The soil in them had dried out and compacted so much that I need to dump it into a pail, then mix some other soils from smaller pots to loosen up and improve soil quality. This will allow water to penetrate the soil, and for the soil to hold on to the water molecules better. This will ensure in part that enough water is available for the seeds in germinate and later for the roots to soak up to feed the plants.

This mixture was put back into the the Blender Pot and topped it off with Keefer's West Coast Planter Box/Container Soil Mix. I have used a lot of Keefer products in the past because they are local. Keefer Farm and Greenhouses has been family owned and operated in Richmond BC for more than 50 years. That means that these soils are extracted and treated right here in the lower mainland. Why is that important? The environmental impact of buying soil shipped from the other end of the country or from the US, or even overseas is enormous. I try to consider local products whenever possible. I even choose local over organic. Once the point of organic if it has travel 1500 Kms to get here right. I suggest finding a local source for all your soil needs. If you are in the lower mainland Keefer's products are available at Garden Works, David Hunter, and Maple Leaf Garden Centres.

With the new and improved soil in the pot I placed 3- 5

seeds on the top, then pushed them about 1/2 inch into the soil. After 4 weeks I will thin out the plants if necessary as they will crowd each other too much this close together. If this happens none will do very well and will likely be sick, which will attract unwanted insects like aphids. Health plants will not attract unwanted pests and act as a natural insect repellant. When I thin them I will transplant the unwanted Kale into other pots.

I repeated this process with two other Blender Pots and two other unused pots.

Cillian was eager to help out as much as possible. At my last home we had a portion of garden that he could play in. That is something we will have to work out in this unique gardening situation.

Once all five pots where plants with Kale seeds we water them using my new watering can from my father and mother in-law. Thank you very much!

Once these start to sprout I may plant a couple more pots, this way they can be harvested at different times.

Weekend come weekend go

I had great plans this last weekend for my balcony gardening. Life had other ideas. First the show I work on decided Saturday night would be the perfect time to catch up on some unfinished episodes. So thats a right off.

I used to have a fancy touch screen cell phone. A month or so ago I cracked said touch screen rendering it unusable. The phone still worked, just not the screen, limiting the functions. Not willing to pay for a new phone I decided to continue to use the phone as is. Until Wednesday of last week.

Working late in the pouring rain, the phone received enough moisture that worked into the cracks on the screen and into the phone... and then there was no longer a cell phone.

We have become one of those families that do not have a home phone. Suzanne and I both have our own cell phones and that is what we use. So with a broken cell phone I started to feel cut off from the world.

So instead of gardening I spent my Sunday shopping for a new cell phone and cell phone company. Not going to get into that, because I don't write this blog to promote anyone, but that is what happened to my weekend. I have a surprise day off tomorrow so maybe I will have some time for then.

Restart

Its a new year and time to decide what to do with the blog. Its always tough with this kind of thing when you have let it go for awhile.

Much had changed in 2009. When I started this blog I was renting a house in Kitsilano with a nice big yard open to all kinds of gardening possibilities. I was a husband and father of a two year old. I had a full time job as a Generator Operator in the film industry but was attempting to start a Organic Landscaping Company. I had some garden successes and some mishaps, but was having a great time.

I am still a husband and father, only now my son is 3. We have bought an apartment in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale area. We have traded our double lot on the flats, blocks from the beaches of the English Bay for double 2nd floor decks and the side of a mountain, blocks from the piers of the Burrard Inlet's North Shore.

In my last post I spoke of address my council about transforming our grounds into community gardens to be enjoyed by the tenants. My letter to council was not received until months later and was only addressed at the General Meeting, where the idea was in part rejected, but was agreed to pole for interest in the Minutes that was later distributed to the all the tenants. So far, no one has contacted me.

So what do I have if I do not have land. I am fortunate for a gardener without land. I have a south facing deck with lots of sun and an east facing deck mostly shaded by a Acorn tree. These two different environments create two different gardening opportunities. Best of both worlds really.

I still have my full time film job, but when we moved to a new area I had to make some decisions regarding my landscaping company. My original business plan was to find jobs close to home so as to reduce my carbon footprint by not driving all over the lower mainland from job to job. When I moved I had to decide whether or not to keep the limited clients I already had and still try to work in that area, or move the operation to North Vancouver completely. At that time I was contacted to bid on two other potential jobs, both very large and both interested in my different outlook. In the end Turned Leaf was not chosen for those jobs and I decided to drop my other clients in Kits. As far as the company goes, I have decided to stay where I am for the time being, we will see what the future holds.

So now what do I do with the blog. Do I start a new one, as this blog is named after my now closed landscape company? Or do I stay under this heading as I move into a new arena of gardening know as container gardening? It would be easy to start again as I only have the one follower and I haven't posted anything in months.

I still like the term, "Turned Leaf." As in a new leaf has already turned, and now it has turned again. What is gardening if not adjusting to new environmental needs and constantly turning new leaves again and again. So I will continue to blog under this heading.

I ask this of you. If you are reading this blog, let me know you are there. I dare not be so bold as to ask that you follow me, but I would love to hear your thoughts, questions, comments, advice or maybe even a little encouragement.

Thanks for stopping by and hopefully we can grow our gardens and selves together.

J

A new Community Garden

Now that I live in an apartment my love of Gardening is facing a new challenge, no land.  We have put our names in for plots at two nearby Community Gardens, though I am sure the list is long and not many people are giving up the plots they have. 

In the meantime I am dabbling with container gardening, so far with just a few plots and some of the plants I did not want to part with.  There will be more on that in the future.

Recently my new Strata Council had hired  some people to clean up the garden.  The gardens here were pretty full but balanced.  Just in need of a little weeding.  The first step the gardener took was to level the garden with a weed waker.  I mean the entire garden, gone to the ground.  blooms, stocks, even a rose.  And man was it left a mess.  It was a little shocking.  Then a week or so later a small backhoe showed up.  I had read in the council minutes that a backhoe was coming in to fix up the retaining wall.  Well when he was gone so was almost all the plant life in the garden.  The garden is now bare except three heather, which have dried up and died, and a couple other bushes.  They did spread a soil amender, I think it is most likely from the District of North Vancouver dump, a good product using green waste to compost and sell back at a good rate as soil amender.

I believe that the work to the gardens was not only totally unnecessary but also a complete waste of money.  It has opened an opportunity however.  I have written a letter to the Strata Council about turning the murdered garden into a community garden for the residence of the building.  If approved and there is enough interest I am offering my time and service to create a committee to outline the guidelines and such a garden and then get it underway.  I am hoping that this can become one of the main themes of my blog and help landless gardeners to do the same thing.

I will print off the letter and deliver it to the council tonight.  Wish me luck.

Old Man Cherry

When we first moved into our last home it was Sept 2006. In the back corner of our yard stood a great old cherry cherry. In a neighborhood where cherry trees line the streets, this was the grand daddy of the all, spending his retirement creating the cool shade of my back yard. He must stand 25 - 30 feet tall with a wide reach. This tree may not live much longer and the year we moved in there did not appear to have been much of a crop. There were no pits or stems on the ground or in the alley way under his stretched out limbs. The next year was much the same, no crop. In the summer of 07 I added some composted top soil underneath to start a small garden, and started a compost bin underneath as well. (Side note, a compost bin under a tree is not usually a good idea, but with the age of this cherry I don't expect its roots to grow up into the bin.)

I think that with those two steps combined with the dry spring and early summer, which allowed for more pollen to float around and find its way into the cherry blossoms, this year we got a bumper crop of delicious dark red cherries.The challenge of harvesting a cherry tree this age is the height. There are no branches low enough to reach the ground and I do not own a step ladder. I started on the roof of our carport the first day. The second day I tried to get a ladder in the alley before the neighboring produce store's multitude of delivery trucks started their daily pilgrimage of keeping the store stocked with fresh produce and clogging my alleyway. When the first truck did arrive I was up an extension ladder resting on an old tired arm that swayed with my every movement, with my wife holding the base and trying to maintain control over our 2 year old running around the hood in a diaper. The drivers offer their assistance.
Being able to get up on the truck gave me access to many branches with have to move a ladder around and I was able to fill two containers within 30 minutes.
We snacked on some, a pie was made and the rest went into the freezer to be enjoyed in the winter.

Our new home, an apartment you will learn more about in future posts, does not present the opportunity to pick cherries right in the back yard, but it did come with a deep freeze, so we have been making more trips to the farmers markets and u-pick berry farms and filling the freezer for winter. The next few years will bring a chance to learn many new things, like the art of freezing and container gardening. We are also gearing up to learn more about canning and preserving.

I hope you will continue to read and learn along with us.

Here today

Look at the size of this Cherry Laurel Hedge, Prunus laurocerasus. She stands proudly at about 12-ft and provides privacy and protection from the busy alley way behind this house.

Here it is from the alley. Other than needing a little trimming on the top nothing wrong with this old girl right?

Have a look at the side view. Nice and full, lush, think. A good sound barrier. Do you see the post of the carport on the right side? That represents the property line and here in lies the problem. The city has ordered it to be removed! I hated to do it, but when asked to quote the job I jumped right in. Most conventional companies would have brought in a backhoe and some chain saws and had that sucker down in a matter of a couple hours. Is this really the most cost efficient way. For the company yes, they can have the job done and move on to the next, completing 4 or 5 small jobs like this in a day.

But what about the cost on the environment. Those small little two stroke chainsaw motors give off more emissions then a mid sized car. Most backhoes are not much better.

Besides that, the equipment and operator could cost you between $1500 and $2000. The manual labour doesn't cost that much.

With those facts in mind, these are the tools that I brought to the job site. Saws, pruners, loppers, shovels, picks, and brooms.

No time to waste. We got right to it cutting back the branches and dragging them away.

We left a couple feet of trunk so we could have the leverage to remove the stumps. If most of the root ball is not removed the hedge will grow back, and very quickly.

After seeing this gnarly, twisted trunk one has to wonder if the hedge had been cut to the ground once before and this is shoot. That could be why the hedge itself is growing off the property.

The extensive roots made this job very challenging. One can certainly see the draw to use heavy equipment. But this is a choice of what's better for everyone, not just one person.

Besides reducing the carbon footprint that could have been made to remove this hedge, we wanted to make a difference another way as well. We wanted to reduce the impact this job would have on the local landfill. The city have Vancouver does have a good green waste program where materials are chipped and/or composted and used in local parks. But there is still a great burden put on the system not to mention the carbon foot print of the process. Trimmings are delivered to the transfer station, then pushed into a tractor trailer by a large loader, haul to the facility, chipped, loaded again, and hauled into the parks. The more material that we can keep on the property for reuse the better. We removed as many leaves as was possible in the time allotted. We filled this wheelbarrow and container as well as a black garbage can. These leaves can be saved and distributed into the compost through the year. We also cut any stocks that were straight enough and thick enough to be burnt in the fireplace for winter warmth. The ashes can then be mixed into the garden in the spring as a good source of potassium in the form of pot ash. These methods of reusing materials is the essence of sustainability.

By doing this we managed to reduce that 12 ft by 10 ft long Cherry Laurel hedge enough to fit into this trailer. I use a uHaul trailer instead of buying my own for 2 reasons. First, I do not yet need a trailer and the additional cost that goes with it, storage, insurance, repair etc. Not to mention the waste of materials that goes into making a new trailer. And a uHaul trailer is very affordable, $20 per day flat rate. When the time comes I will buy a used trailer to reduce my impact.

After a few weeks the owner decided to replace the Laurel with a Cedar Hedge, Thuja occidentalis, but not add any soil. The existing soil is not to bad after removing the Laurel, except it is loose and doesn't hold water very well.

We planted six Cedar about 2-ft apart stock to stock as the roots of the Cherry tree would allow. I then spread some of the leaves over the ground to protect from water evaporation in the soil and to add nutrients. We kept them wet for the first couple weeks, watering in the evening after the heat of the day. My son is seen here helping with the process.

A week or so after the Cedars where in the ground, Vancouver was hit with a heat wave and heavy water restrictions. I did my best to adhere to the restrictions and give the hedge ample water. I think two of them will need to be replaced but I will give them every chance to bounce back.