Soaking wet

This morning the soil was very wet from the heavy rain we had yesterday and last night. This week we've been cleaning up the garden and planting 

some broccoli, kale, chards, and leeks.  I didn't prepare any seeds inside this year. I also just threw in some seeds for beets, nasturtium, cosmos, and zinnias. I still need to get some seeds to plant arugula.

Today is nice I was able to enjoy my lounge chair with a fresh drink enjoying the black tulips, so elegant.

I am so ready for the summer. 

Anything exciting in your gardens ?

The mint is so prolific! We planted along the neighbors wall and the brick path. It doesn't need much to grow and is very invasive so we manage to contain it and it's still a lot of mint. There is no such thing as too much mint...

I couldn't resist sharing the picture of the dogwood blooming. We planted it on the neighbors sidewalk 

( it's a vacant lot so no one minded ) and this year is the first year it's blooming. We hope it will be big enough when they start to build a house so no one will dig it up. 

The harvest of the day, some greens for my lunch with a little viola and eggs from our beautiful ladies. 

I will shortly present you our 6 chickens.

The taste of pesto in my mouth the basil will be planted very soon.

April finally spring is here...

Hey!

I am thrilled to join Tend and share with you my urban farming experience.

My husband, Dan, and I live in a row house in Philadelphia and have a pretty big backyard for the city.
We've been keeping chickens for about 3 years.
After this long and cold winter I was ready for the spring. This winter I was growing another kind of plant, my newborn Chloe Rose. She is 3 and a half months old. I am happy to finally get some time outside in the backyard. Dan cleaned up a little and we are looking at damages from the cold we had. We lost a rosemary bush!  This year is exciting I am adding some fruit trees to my collection, I have been dreaming of an orchard but in the city...

a little bit wild

My garden is pretty different than my vision for it was early this spring, and from any previous year. It has taken me a while, but I am finally fully appreciating and enjoying it for what it has become. Instead of seeming haphazard and messy, it now seems full, textural, thriving and beautiful.

This year I have acted more on cues from my plants than from a preplanned idea. I have worked in defense from pests, and in response to things that might not have worked out as planned. As a result I feel like my garden is really thriving, more than ever! I've even been able to grow broccoli for the first time (not been easy here) and I have made it through a number of problems that came up this year.

When my kale started to suffer from root maggots, for example, I experimented with home remedies (I talked about one of those remedies here) and I quickly started to interplant with onions, arugula, rocket and nasturtium. I let calendula grow where ever it had self sown last year.

 When much of my first planting of carrots didn't come through, I re-planted in and amongst other plants that were already getting established. In the light shade of these other plants, germination was quick and easy, and I didn't have to water the "carrot bed" 3 times a day. 

The mix of flowering herbs and greens has added a lot of beauty to the veg patch. I didn't have to plant any calendula this year, yet there is an abundance. I have many volunteer ground cherry, fennel, chamomile, bean plants and more. I plan to let some of my arugula go to seed right in place this year, as I am loving the ease of this kind of self-planting, and the fun of the unexpected.

Though my studies haven't been super in-depth or intensive, my long time interests in permaculture, companion planting and high density gardening have no doubt had their inputs. It's been fun to see new ways of doing things take shape, and I am already feeling excited for next year, with my new knowledge and experience.

starts from seed & cold frame instructions

this year luke & i decided to start most of our vegetables, greens & herbs from seed for our spring garden & summer container garden. as we began germinating our seeds indoors & then moving them to our large window while snow was still on the ground, we realized this system just would not do. the starts looked lanky & certainly unhealthy.

once the snow passed, we decided a cold frame was the best solution for our situation, considering our lack of time & money.

luke began searching for the perfect cold frame design. we needed to be able to easily deconstruct our cold frame for our big move this summer. also, we needed a design that used what we had. once luke looked around, he came up with his own design for a working cold frame & is sharing it with us today!


luke's cold frame
supplies:
-four windows with no cracks
*three smaller windows (ours were 28" x 16") for the sides & a larger window (ours was 28" x 28") for the lid
- ply board cut to match the size of the small windows (ours was cut to 28" x 16")
-two hinges
-16 screw eyes
-4 metal rods that are close to the same height as the sides

directions:
1. i used four old windows found on the side of the road. the three smaller windows (28” x 16”) served as three sides of the cold frame & the larger windowpane (28” x 28”) served as the lid.

2. a piece of ply board was cut to match the size of the small windowpanes. then i attached the large windowpane to the ply board side with two hinges on both sides for easy opening & closing of the lid.

3. i then screwed large screw eyes into the inside corners of the small windowpanes (two per each side of the window), which aligned when i put the windows together to form the sides of the cold frame. to hold the four sides together, i slid metal rods through the eyelets of the screw eyes (there should be four eyelets per rod).

4. this design allows for easy deconstruction into four small sections. when deconstructing, simply pull the four metal rods that hold the sides together.

our cold frame has been very successful in helping to begin our starts from seed.

we have been taking full advantage of this success & gifting our small herbs to friends.
we hope you, too, will build your own cold frame for this upcoming growing season!