Another inch of rain...

Wishing for a white Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa? Had that rain last night been been snow we would have been digging out from under 8 to 12+ inches of snow this morning!

Think about that...

Happy Holidays

Today is the winter solstice here in B-more. You know, the shortest day of the year (or the longest night), first day of winter and all that. 60 yesterday, 60 today and above normal temps. forecasted through the break. My warm weather plants don't know whether to die or start to bloom, AGAIN!

I hope everyone has a safe, enjoyable, restful, and peaceful break. If you prefer it warm this time of year, go enjoy it!

Hard Frosts

Don't know if you noticed, but the last few mornings the windshields and grass have been covered in a fairly good frost. For those that hate to scrape or pre-warm their car in the morning before heading off to work, think of all the good frost is doing for our horseradish.

The leaves are really starting to die back, so I am hoping we'll be harvesting in the next few day and at least before winter break.

Stay tuned!

Seed Collecting

Today was E3 Friday and the E3 gardeners (a mix of Kindergartners thru 5th graders) harvested seeds from the pollinator garden and the Urganic farm. Seeds from marigolds, black-eyed Susans, purple cone flowers, and a first for GSB, Zinnias were harvested.

The seeds were placed into plastic bags and labeled. The seeds are now inside drying and will be further cleaned in the coming months.

After seed collection, the students played garden Bingo. 5 columns and 4 rows of discovery in and around he gardens. Amazingly a student found a harlequin bug still on the horseradish, even after two pretty good frosts these last two mornings. Little buggers!

It was amazing to see the kids all bundled up with black-eyed Susans, purple cone flower, and marigolds still in bloom (or re-bloom) in the gardens. It is December, right?

No snow!? Then let's make freezer jam

So, no snow for B-more! Oh so close. Western Maryland got 4 - 7" in places...

One thing about cold and gonna get cold for gardeners/farmers is you get caught up on reading and maintenance. Unless of course you have hoop houses and high tunnels, I don't know when y'all read or maintain anything.

So I am catching up on reading. I love periodicals; newspapers, trade papers, magazines, newsletters, etc. I am a bit older and haven't gotten used to digital reading, or blogs. I do like dog-earing and underlining and tearing out and holding - ironic that I blog, huh? Guess that is why I have four followers.

Any who, just finished reading a great article in Urban Farm July/August 2011 on Freezer Jam. What a cool concept. No cooking, just mashing and mixing and freezing or refrigerating. Sugar, instant fruit pectin, and fruit. Mash, mix, jar, and freeze for up to 1 year or use immediately from the 'fridge out to three weeks. I'm not super aware of copyright laws and in the interest of not stepping on toes go get the magazine or look up your own recipes.

Fresh fruit, you control sugar content and bingo, bango yummy spreads, ice-cream toppings, or yogurt infusions or whatever your creative mind can come up with.

I am always looking for ways to save my bounty. I have yet to learn how to can or hot jam. I do freeze and I do dry. The cool thing is that you can use fruit you have frozen in lieu of fresh - how about that for looking for some summer goodness in February!

Because I like to read and folks always ask what I want for Christmas or my b-day, I ask for subscriptions for the holidays and birthdays. If you like periodicals like me, here are some of my favorites you might consider asking for; Urban Farm (they have others in the series), Organic Gardening, Delmarva Farmer and Mid-Atlantic Grower (www.americanfarm.com), and Grit magazine. There are other good ones out there, visit a newsstand to try a few on.

Happy reading!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

So there is a chance of snow in the forecast late Wednesday into early Thursday morning. Right now we are 15 degrees above normal at 62 degrees. I don't know if we will be hearing sleigh bells ring anytime soon in B-more, but we are just fourteen days away from winter solstice.

I just started to read an article in Urban Farm magazine about container gardening. If you have read this blog at all you know I have a slight (tongue-in-cheek) interest in productive container gardens. Any who, in one of their large containers they produced nearly 5 pounds of carrots. 5 pounds!!!

Jealous...

Any who, they list container friendly root crops that are successful in containers so I will be sure to be experimenting. If you dig urban farming like I do check them out http://www.urbanfarmonline.com

Did I say let it snow?

Black-eyed Susans in bloom!

Yes, it is true. December 5th, 2011 and our black-eyed Susan's are thriving and in bloom again. This warm weather is something else. Highs in the 50's this past week-end and a high expected in the low 60's today. Even the fig tree is budding. I am curious if the peppers will start to bloom again.

This time last year we were days a way from skiing and Ski liberty had skiable snow on 90% of the mountain. We have lost pansies to this heat and have cool weather transplants leftover that I didn't think we could get to that are in great shape and ready to go in the ground.

You should also see the marigolds that are thriving in the garden - crazy I say!

Seed Catalogs

Speaking of seed catalogs, I receive a bunch of e-mail from folks I buy seeds from. I enjoy looking at all of the new offerings - from flowers, to fruits and veggies and everything in between. Burpee has just introduced some new hybrids for 2012 - http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/vegetable-collection-burpee-s-boost-prod002751.html?cid=EM_2011_11_30_TopNEW2012Introductions&

Burpee is one of those road trips I want to make. I guess that is a sign of age. First it was a road trip to Ocean City, then Atlantic City, then Las Vegas, then a foreign country or two and now Burpee. They are located just up the road in Pennsylvania. They have different events and of course lots of trial gardens. Maybe I'll get my act together this summer and go. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy their catalog and seeds.

Scared of winter coming?

As we head into December, below is a great link to follow through Organic Gardening magazine. Remember that gardening is not just a warm weather pursuit. We can glean much happiness from our winter gardens and yard and just the sheer excitement of the anticipation of the upcoming growing season can propel us through winter.

Seed catalogs, reviewing our journals, putting flower shows in our calendars, reading back issues of our favorite gardening mags, drooling over current issues and dreaming of what is possible in next year's garden are all fine ways to get through winter.

We will be starting seeds indoors and planting cool weather crops again before you can say snow, snow, go away...

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/gardeners-do-list-december?cm_mmc=OGNews-_-738456-_-11302011-_-gardeners_to_do_list_for_december

Sugar-snap peas

So, I mentioned before our first fall attempt at sugar-snap peas. They are going crazy. Big, healthy plants and huge, crisp, sweet, sugar-snap peas. I mean pods, 3 and 4 inches in length that are so delicious.

I also noticed sugar-snap peas growing in Front Porch Farmers farms that are doing equally as well. Very exciting.

Horseradish

I thought by now we would have had a hard frost or two or three which would have killed off my greens on the horseradish and I could start to harvest it. Not only have we not had those hard frosts, but it was 71 degrees yesterday. Some of my pansies are getting leggy and trees are budding.

And I thought global warming was a myth!?

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! It is a wonderful time of year to reflect upon life and all that makes this life a joy to live.

Also, here's to leftovers!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble...

According to Congress pizza to remain a vegetable - Food Fight!!!

So next year we will plant pizza plants and look forward to harvesting such a yummy, easy to eat veggie. Seriously though, I love pizza and believe it has a place in one's diet, but classified as a serving of a vegetable... I think we can and should do better.

So, here is the link to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution website as they watch nutritional standards and various lobbyists in Washington as they pertain to what is deliverable for U.S. school lunches. http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/news-content/playing-potato-pizza-politics.

I think it is important to know how food reaches your child in school and who you can talk to if you are concerned about the nutritional quality and healthfulness of that food.

In the mean time I'm going out for pizza! Bon Appetit!

Container Radishes

O.k., not so much. Maybe I took it a bit too extreme by dropping 3 or 4 seed into a 4" pot. I got greens and I got long, cylindrical, red taproot kind of things. They smell like radishes, they taste like radishes, but they don't look like the the bulbous kind of thing I am used to seeing.

But, then again, if I change my expectations this little experiment was a success!

Don't know until you try.

I'm a seed. I'm a seed too!

Kindergartners have been reading a book with the above title. One seed is a marigold seed, the other a pumpkin seed. As you can imagine the two seeds have quite the adventure - I won't spoil the story for you...

Anywho, this fall Kindergartners went to a farm to pick pumpkins, but they still had no idea what a marigold looked like (even though they are all around the school). So today we had them investigate the marigolds at school. They learned how seeds are formed within the flower, how to deadhead, how to harvest the seed, and how to plant the seed.

We planted two flats. One filled with seeds from the deadheads and one filled with seeds bought from Burpee. The students will watch and see which are the most prolific, and robust.

This should be a very fun experiment for these young scientists!

Sugar-snap peas

We have a great crop of sugar-snap peas going. This was our first attempt at a fall planting of sugar-snap peas at GSB and it is working out well. I am still disappointed at our low germination rates for sugar-snap peas - don't know what the problem could be. Both Burpee and Meyers' have performed equally poorly - so it must be something I am doing. The cool thing is that February is only 2 1/2 months away!!! Crazy, huh!?

A great raking link

Who knew there could be twelve rules for raking leaves? As the article says, start thinking about gathering for composting as those little nuggets fall!

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/twelve-rules-raking?cm_mmc=OGNews-_-725596-_-11092011-_-the_twelve_rules_of_raking

Straw for the strawberries and FREE harlequin bugs...

We brought in six big bales of straw to use as a blanket for the strawberries and pollinator garden. The transplanted strawberry daughters have really taken off and have even created a lot of their own offspring. We should have quite a crop of berries come June if all goes as planned. I'm sure the pollinator perennials won't mind the extra warmth, carbon, and soil structure.

We will be planting more pansies, spring bulbs, and mustard greens this E3 Friday in addition to our straw job. We should have quite the showing of spring bulbs in 2012 with this year's additions!!

Free harlequin bugs to a good home. Must have plenty of brassica to eat and have a love for invasive, damaging insects. Plenty of older bugs as well as juveniles and babies to pick from. I am sure they will be going quickly with the holidays approaching. Inquire within.

Cold, wet, snowy mix - Hot Chili and music

The chili was delicious, the music was great fun, and the turn-out fantastic on Saturday. We had fun talking over cups of chili, cornbread, pies, grits, and breads while it did its wintery mix thing outside. Highlighting The Front Porch Farmers was scaled back a bit to fit inside, but none the less fun.

You never know what fall weather may bring, that's for sure.

Snow?

O.k., the possibility of snow - we will see. E3 Friday students planted pansies on the church property and they look beautiful. The same beds will be getting spring bulbs later next week

Tomorrow is Chili Jamboree and should be a lot of fun. 1st one in the snow, though.

Insects find Front Porch Farmer spinach

It amazes me that insects have found and munched on spinach in Front Porch Farmers containers. I nnow that it really shouldn't surprise me, but it did (does). Simply amazing.

It is either the cabbage white or cabbage looper. Have not found a caterpillar, yet! Little buggers, I don't like them very much!

Radishes and Greens

Just for hoots I started some radishes and greens indoors a few weeks back and moved them outdoors last week. The are doing really well. I wasn't going to transplant the greens, but now I have changed my mind.

The radishes are supposed to do well in containers, so I think I will leave them in their small individual pots just to see what will happen.

You never know what you may get until you try.

I'm going to swing through this week and see how our front porch farmers are making out with their farms. The spinach I've seen looks great. I am curious to see how the new plants are doing.

Picking limes and seeing Mr. Okra

How cool is it to be able to pick a fresh lime from the tree in your backyard!? We were just in New Orleans this past week-end and did just that. The limes were so big and juicy and they smelled fantastic, even before you sliced them.

Biking between Bywater and the French Quarter you pass a few coffee roasters, artist's warehouses, and produce wholesalers. One morning we saw a beautifully painted pick-up being loaded with the day's produce. On each door was painted "Mr. Okra". I thought that was pretty neat especially because we grew okra at GSB for the first time this summer. I didn't get a chance to talk with Mr. Okra this trip, but I will take the time to do so on our next visit.

It was quite the experience to be in a sub-tropical environment. You get an entire new range of flora and fauna which was fun to experience.

Ricky Myer Day of Service

We had a fantastic day of service yesterday at GSB. We had an enthusiastic group from Civic Works lead by Maddy and Anna. This group moved yards of mulch in our play spaces, installed additional barriers to keep wood chips in the P.E. space. They helped us move our canoe garden, and cleared debris from a previous service project.

In the mean time, GSB families weeded our gardens, pulled tomatoes, harvested lots of peppers, eggplants, okra, sunflowers, cucumber, and even a strawberry or two. The families also planted pansies, and prepped the beds for cover crops and cool weather crops.

Thanks again Civic Works and crew and GSB families! Everything looks great.

Real Food Farm Truck Rocked B-E Today

The Real Food Farm Truck is back on Wednesdays at GSB from 3:30 to 4. It was a great turn out of customers that had a great variety of produce to choose from. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, turnips, beets, and fantastic greens.

The mustard greens and arugula are rockin' spicy. I am going to try a twist on an old favorite sandwich of mine - the BLT. Instead of lettuce I am going to use mustard greens! C'mon baby light my fire...

See ya at the RFF truck next Wednesday!

Real Food Farm and Front Porch Farmers in Belair-Edison

The Real Food Farm truck begins visiting Belair-Edison at The Green School of Baltimore this Wednesday. The truck will be parked in our parking lot at the corner of Brendan and Cardenas from 3:30 to 4 pm. We are very excited to have their new truck of fresh, local, seasonal food back at GSB!

All of the Front Porch Farmers now have their second round of container farms. All of our farmers now have cool weather seeds and transplants. I was excited to see the waining peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes still on the vine - they are all going to taste so good!

Bon Appétit!

Still hot and muggy - beautiful zinnias

It is the end of September and it is still very hot, sticky, muggy, wet

Sweet finds in the garden

I did a lot more cleaning in the gardens today. With the help of the 5th grade class we found another 5 cucumbers, bunches of peppers, tomatoes, and strawberries. The thing I love about ever-bearing strawberries is that they are ever-bearing and we are still, and will be until the first frost, eating strawberries! The strawberries spread an incredible amount in their new home this year. And, one very over-ripe cucumber was as big as a butternut squash and off-yellow in color. Edible? Don't know!

The canoe garden is cleaned out and ready for a new round of planting. All of the Front Porch Farm containers are prepped and ready for distribution.

BUGS program Chili Sauce

This is a great video by the kids at Living Classrooms BUGS program and Wide Angle Youth Video for making chili sauce! Check it out!

http://www.vimeo.com/14776103

Onions and Garlic sets and cover crops

Onion and garlic sets arrived at Meyers Seed Company yesterday. We had good luck with white and yellow onions last year and will be overwintering both this winter. We had bad luck again last year with garlic, but will try again this year.

We will also plant spinach, radishes, lettuce, swiss chard, and turnips. Other parts of the garden will receive cover crops consisting of annual rye, hairy vetch, and crimson clover.

Friday is the first day of fall!

A day in the grow room

We started pansies today to overwinter. I am going to try both the transplants and direct seed for overwintering to see how they both do. I also started swiss chard, which I will also try as a transplant and direct seed.

I also bought Champion radishes for direct seeding, but as I was reading the package it said they do well in containers too. So I immediately thought that I could use them in our Front Porch Farmer's containers. I was also curious to see how they might grow indoors. I have planted a couple of seeds in 4" transplant containers just to see what may happen.

Tomorrow is the BelHAIR Festival from 12 - 2 pm at the corner of Belair Rd. and Erdman Ave. Stop by and have some fun!

A clean garden, a clean slate

I've really enjoyed the fall and winter growing seasons the last two years. There is something satisfying about growing food when it is cool and cold...

We went and saw Cintia Cabib's "A Community of Gardeners" at the Creative Alliance last night. It was a very well done documentary about community gardens and gardeners in Washington D.C.. Though we use our gardens daily at GSB, it was nice to step back a be reminded of all the cool reasons to gardens and produce food as well as community. Gardens really do bridge gaps that may not have easy vehicles for bridging those gaps. Check it out - www.communityofgardeners.com

While the 5th grade was out taking measurements of the gardens I pulled up all the spent warm weather plants and squished a bunch of harlequin bugs! The harlequin's like the horseradish and spinach - argh! There was a harvest of tomato, sweet pepper, hot pepper, eggplant, okra, cucumber, and sunflowers. The birds have been eating ALOT of sunflowers seeds!

I just returned from Meyer Seed company and bought the following seeds: Pansy, beet, carrot, swiss chard, collards, kale, bibb lettuce, romaine lettuce, white chinese radish, and mustard. Can't wait to get planting. The radish and beets are said to be good in containers too, so I'll give them a try in there too. Meyer didn't have onion or garlic sets in yet.

I love the Meyer shopping experience. If you have never been you must go. They are at the corner of Caroline and Fleet in Fell's Point - check them out!

Cooler Temperatures = Cooler Crops!

The Belair-Edison Front Porch Farmers received their first installment of fall crops today. Each farmer received spinach or sugar-snap peas transplants and sugar-snap pea and spinach seeds. The farmers also received instructions for transitioning their farms from warm weather crops to cool weather crops.

All of the farmers also received a pre-measured dry mix of Miracle-gro for mixing one-gallon of liquid feed. Instructions were also left for going Urganic or staying Organic. Our farmers will be receiving a second container that will include cool weather leafy vegetables, onion and garlic sets as well as pansies for winter color, beauty and as a early spring pollinator attractor.

We continue to transition the garden at GSB from warm weather to cool weather crops. Okra, eggplant, tomatoes and peppers (sweet and hot) are still coming in. We will be starting spinach, chard, lettuces, onions, garlic, and pansies in the coming days and weeks. I'm sure we will find some interesting cool weather crop to experiment with!

Also, the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Annual Heritage Harvest Festival is this week-end in Virginia at a certain ex-President's home known as Monticello. It is cool and worth a road trip if you have never been. Look it up!

On the eve of a tragic anniversary...

Tomorrow is the 10 year anniversary of 9-11-2001.

I'm was an Air Force Aerospace Medical Technician and I am a Cold War veteran. For four years, I traveled around the world with and medically supported the 355th Tactical Fighter Squadron that flew A-10s out of Myrtle Beach, S.C.. At home at Myrtle Beach AFB, we practiced mass casualty exercises in case a civilian aircraft ever crashed on the runway we shared with commercial civilian flights, and were one of the first on the scene when one of our A-10s actually went down.

I saw my fair share of sacrifice, injury, pain, death and sorrow as well as deep patriotism and dedication to duty during our own missions and continuous preparation and practice for whatever an enemy might present the U.S.. And even with that, I still to this day, have a hard time wrapping my head around the pain caused for the people of those lost and the people of the USA and the people of the rest of the free world that day.

Kate and I are riding in the memorial ride around the Baltimore beltway tomorrow and it will surely be a day of deep reflection and remembrance.

Earthquake, Hurricanes, historic flooding...

What farmers have to do to create food!? What a last few weeks. We ended up with upward of 10 inches of rain at GSB. Our summer crops are holding up, but the tomatoes are literally busting at the seams with all this EXTRA water. The fall crops are enjoying the water, and I'm sure the new sugar-snap peas seedlings will enjoy next week's fall like weather.

Our Belair-Edison Front Porch Farmers have yet to receive their second boxes, but we have started some fall crops indoor for them. This coming week I will be delivering sugar-snap peas as well as onion and garlic sets and instructions on how to start to transition the Farms from summer to fall and winter crops.

Going Urganic

I posted this idea earlier in the month, but it has disappeared. So, here it is again.

We are going Urganic. Urganic is the concept of working toward being organic, but allows for the use of non-organic fertilizers. No pesticides and no herbicides will be used. We will practice as many organic practices as possible.

I found this year that our production isn't as high as it could be. We also started front porch farms in containers through out Belair-Edison that were all organic and also had minimal to no production.

In addition to being all organic, we were largely heirloom. I don't know how much of that combination played into our lack of optimal production.

So, Urganic we go. A little miracle-gro and some osmocote. The plants don't know the difference and the end product is safe to consume. Any fertilizer can be improperly applied, but when properly applied all fertilizers feed plants and will have no affect on local waterways.

So, I'm building this boat...

and I need a bunch of pairs of animals! Just kidding, but how about ALL this rain. Our sugar-snap peas are up in the garden and we have started a second planting.

Tomatoes are still coming in, peppers are doing well, and eggplants are ready to be harvested. We have a second watermelon which should be ready soon. We harvested our two pumpkins and six birdhouse gourds.

I'll be pulling the pumpkin and birdhouse gourd vines. We will be planting cool weather crops soon.

Enjoy all this liquid sunshine!

September 1st

Wow, I really notice the days getting shorter now. 8 o'clock and more dark than not... We are expecting a warmer than normal week-end so that will help the veggies keep producing.

Next week we will start some more outdoor cool weather crops. I am going to plant spinach in with the sugar-snap peas and see how they coexist. All of the indoor starts are up. I look forward to them getting their first set of true leaves, and them some size.

I didn't catch that mouse last night, but he/she ate well!

Ah finally, the first day of school

A picture perfect day for the students to return to school. After a great opening ceremony, the students got right to work - and were very excited to see their friends and favorite teachers. And boy how they have grown!!

The spinach, mesclun mix, and sugar-snap peas started a couple of days ago have already sprouted! The lettuce has one or two starts. The sugar-snap peas just planted in the garden have not sprouted.

Mice (or a mouse) found my sunflower heads drying in the grow room, but that is o.k. they have a sticky surprise waiting for them tonight!

The pumpkins are starting to turn orange, very exciting, while the tomatoes are very prolific. The peppers and eggplant have found their stride, and the sunflower heads are really starting to droop.

Too cool!

Fall crops started, clean-up after Irene complete, and going Urganic

Yesterday we started some of our fall crops. We cut down all of the sunflowers that were snapped in half after Irene passed through, trimmed up parts of tomato plants that ere damaged or not producing, and pulled up spent squash plants.

We planted our first round of sugar-snap peas, and started our fall salad boxes. In our boxes we have spinach (which we will also do outside and over-winter), lettuce, and a box of mesclun mix.

We are also going to do some root crops like carrots and radish and over-winter onions and garlic again.

I've coined a new word and concept and I want you to read it here first. Urganic - urganic is using organic methods, but allows for the use of properly applied non-organic fertilizers such as Miracle-Gro and Osmocote.

Organic is a wonderful ideal, much like enlightenment in Buddhism, but not necessarily achievable in one life time and definitely worth continuously working toward. We have been completely organic the last few years and this year went organic, and heirloom with many of our vegetables, and while production has been pretty good it could be a lot better. We also started completely organic micro-farms in containers on front porches in Belair-Edison and we have very healthy leaves and stems - and a bunch of hungry, frustrated farmers.

Feeding people while protecting the environment are both important ends. Non-organic fertilizers, properly applied achieve both and especially can help to maximize the feeding end.

So Urganic I go. No herbicides, no pesticides, but I am going to become good friends with Miracle-gro and/or Osmocote. I will continue to work toward organic and I am o.k. with not becoming an organic Buddha.

PUMPKINS

Irene was a menace, kind with rain, hard with sunflowers. Overall, however, things are alright.

We found a third HUGE pumpkin under the blown down vegetation - way cool!

I am excited to start planting and starting fall crops. Just found out that BCPSS just called off school for Monday - so it will be a planting day.

Hope everyone came out of Irene relatively unscathed - flooded basements and missing shingles are all good in a weird way...

Hello Irene

Well, now we have rain...

So, in the last two weeks we have had plenty of harvest - tomatoes, okra, squash, cucumber, and hot peppers. And we also lost crops to insects, rot, and children.

Our last garden we kept locked behind a 6ft fence and never had crop loss from humans. Our new garden is not locked, and not completely fenced, and the crop loss is getting annoying. I don't mind the pick and eat crowd so much, but the little gremlins that are picking and smashing is something else. A talk with the kids and a parent has not had the effect I hoped for. We'll see what happens as school starts up again, though these kids don't currently attend our school.

Ah, what to do!?

School starts Monday. Hope to get some new crops started this coming week. We had a volunteer day at school last week-end and spinach that had gone to seed that we were storing was accidentally thrown out. But lots of seed escaped and is now sprouting in our play areas!!! I'm too excited to see where the goes!

Are birdhouse gourds pollinated by moths?

So I'm at the Farm, watering after dark this evening and there are all these big white flowers that catch my eye. Why are those morning glory in bloom now, I wonder? Then I see that it is not morning glory, but that it is birdhouse gourd, how cool. Hey, why is the flower in bloom at night and big and white? As I spy the almost full moon, I wonder if it is to attract moths!?

Well, I don't have the answer right now, and I have not looked up the possibility online yet either. I hung out by the blossoms for a while and saw a moth flitting around, but never saw it land.

Pretty doggone cool!

More rain! Some crop damage from human pests

Another sprinkle passed through yesterday and we are up to about an inch of recent rainfall! Ah, crop loss - aggravating as it is some is avoidable and some is not.

Yesterday the city started to replace damaged sidewalk around the school. Unfortunately, three or four blocks were right in front of our main garden. More unfortunate was the lack of care the contractors took removing concrete to be replaced. Our Birdhouse gourds were damaged as were sunflower and black-eyed susan. We've asked the crew to be as careful as possible pouring the new concrete to minimize further damage. The perils of urban agriculture!

Found a lone harlequin bug today on my lone spinach plant - it is no longer with us (the bug, not the plant).

Harvested squash and tomatoes! The watermelon is getting quite big and pumpkins are really starting to stay on the vie and grow! The okra is going nuts as are the cucumbers. The eggplants have plenty of blooms but have not set any fruit.

I'm looking forward to the much cooler, less humid weather forecasted for the next few days.

1/2" of rain - I'll take it!

Finally, Mother Nature threw this old dog a bone and gave us some rain! Yipee! So much is going on in the garden. We have lots of tomatoes, squash, and birdhouse gourds. We have cucumber, a watermelon and pumpkins are forming and starting to stay on the vine.

Bees are so covered with sunflower pollen they can hardly fly around and the black-eyed susan's are robust! Figs are trying to get bigger and the strawberries are still sending out lots of daughters. The greens on the horseradish are huge (which I hope indicates huge roots!) and the eggplant continues to bloom, but has yet to set fruit.

Hopefully some forecasted cooler weather and rain will further help our plants rebound from the recent hot and dry spell.

Rain?

Rain? What is that anyway...

Wow, things are parched but watered. We could use a slight cool spell and some help from mother nature - just a little rain, not hurricane style, or gully washer style. Just a nice, soaking inch or two.

We have Okra. I found it today. I know I capitalized Okra and it shouldn't be, but I am excited. We have Okra. And more Okra blooms which look like marshmallow blooms, or hibiscus blooms - very pretty.

We also have tomato, squash, eggplant blossom, lots of pumpkin blossom, many peppers (hot and sweet), and lots of birdhouse gourds.

The flowers are gorgeous. Sunflower, marigold, all of the natives, cut and come again zinnia (remember, cut not pull), black-eyed susan. Did I mention we have figs growing?

The cukes and the watermelon or trying so hard.

Stop by and see all the bees, butterflies, and assorted pollinators at work, they make us look lazy!

Hot again

After a brief, but enjoyable, cool spell it has been very hot and humid the last couple of days. Near daily watering has been the norm. Everything look great. Harvested a huge squash and we have a bunch of birdhouse gourds growing. The hot peppers are coming into their own while the sunflowers grow taller daily.

The pumpkins are trying hard - we will see if we get any. The zebra tomatoes are doing well and the strawberries are loving the frequent watering. They are sending out so many daughters, way too cool. Blossom end rot seems to enjoy showing its ugliness - argh!

Folks have found the cut and come again zinnia... remember cut and they will come again, pull the plant out of the ground and they become one and done zinnia - just sayin'! Ahh, vermin!

Blossom End Rot (BER)

So you wanted to know, so did I. It seems it is caused by a lack of calcium uptake. The leading causes for the lack of calcium uptake seem to be; a lack of calcium in the soil, pH being out of optimum range, drought stress, or too much water.

SO, what is our problem? I don't know. We have had drought stress, in some containers we've had both drought stress and periods of too much water. pH seems to be o.k. We just moved the soil to the new farm this year - and as much as I meant to have it analysed after the move...

We are getting lots of green growth and forming flowers, so time will tell. Watering has become consistent and we are getting tomatoes, squash, and peppers - but we are also losing the same to BER. So far the Birdhouse gourds, pumpkin, and watermelon are the most negatively affected. Lots of flowers, lots of forming fruit - then nada...

Keep posted.

It was June, Now it is late July!!!!

Wow is it hot! Our 4th day in 100+ degree temps - though in some weird way I am enjoying the high humidity with this heat wave because the humidity is keeping the water in the soil from evaporating so quickly...

As usual we started our planting late this year in hopes of a greater fall harvest when the students return. I get anxious because other farmer's crops are coming in in droves and ours are just cranking up.

I don't get the whole blossom end-rot thing. One day, beautiful forming produce the next wilting, dying produce... argh! We are getting squash, cucumber, strawberries (few, small and sweet). Birdhouse gourds are forming as are pumpkins, watermelon, peppers and tomatoes. Eggplant are blooming, okra is growing but no blooms yet. We lost our one watermelon so far - blossom end-rot - is it possible?

Marigold, cut and come again zinnia, sunflower, black-eyed susan, cone flowers, weeds, and natives are all blooming. I love the morning glory on the fence but despise it within the garden.

Tomorrow I will tame (tie up) the tomatoes, and give the native/butterfly garden a good weeding. I weed while watering, but I need to give a good yank and cut to some pesky crawlers.

I have to remember less is more when planting - those measurements on the seed packets are important and I can't seem to get that in my head. They are so small - plants and seeds -when you start.

Our planters for Belair-Edison front porch farmers are suffering. They dry out so quickly and maybe too little food to start - we are organic, but I won't lie and say I don't think about a good dose of miracle grow right now - I know shame on me!

Any who - swat them skeeters and get to watering. see ya in the garden!

Vegetable are going in...

Friday I swapped out cool weather crops for warm weather crops in the canoe garden. Out with the lettuce and in with yellow squash, sweet peppers, and cucumber. Yum.

Thank goodness for the rain today. The rest of the farm will be getting warm weather transplants and direct sows this week. It is on!!!

If you live on Kentucky, Cardenas or Brendan remember to call into BENI to become a Belair-Edison Farmer. We are starting to plant that farm too this week.

See ya in the soil.

I am a Belair-Edison Farmer

The community partnership consisting of The Green School of Baltimore, Belair-Edison Neighborhoods, Inc., Blue Water Baltimore and Real Food Farms won a grant through Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc. to start a community front porch farm in Belair-Edison (B-E). This year 25 B-E households will receive containers, potting soil, vegetable plants, organic fertilizer, instruction and guidance to grow their own vegetables. Of the 25 households 10 will also have rain barrels installed to capture rainwater for their front porch farm, and keeping that water out of the storm drain system and watershed.

Starting in mid-July the residents and the partnership will meet once a week to swap veggies, watch and taste from cooking demonstrations, trade growing secrets or woes while enjoying each others company. Additionally, residents will be paired with 4th and 5th graders from The Green School of Baltimore. Residents will be keeping basic weather and production data that the students will compile and analyse. Lessons learned this year will be applied to next year's growing season. The students will also be bringing produce from their own farm that they keep up at school.

GSB is excited that their curriculum is spilling out into the neighborhood giving residents and students an opportunity to further interact in such a positive and social way.

Popcorn Party

Thankfully the planted popcorn is nowhere near ready or I would be having a popcorn party today - it is that hot! An early release day even. 98 yesterday, maybe that hot again today. The new plants are sooooooo stressed.

Hydration is the word of the day!

Where did a month go????

So much has been happening in this past month during this busy growing season. Here are some highlights:

- Cool weather and over-wintered crops are harvested.
- Spring goodness - strawberries, sugar-snap peas, lettuces, and radishes are prolific.
- 5th grade has been buying produce from Real Food Farm and running their own Farm Stand.
- Trays of seedlings in the grow room.

Look for these goodies in this year's garden: Tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, gourds, squash, sunflowers, eggplant, watermelon, okra (yup, I said it) sweet corn, herbs, black-eyed susan, lupine, marigolds and on and on are in the process of going in...

Stay tuned - more to come. Oh yeah, we could use a little rain, it is hot and dry!

Happy eARTth Day

Rain on Earth Day seems very fitting to me.

Stop by and see the amazing tulips the students planted last fall at school in the garden on the hill and over by the church. They are just stunning, and I thought the daffodils where good!?

The GSB school tree, which is a pink dogwood, is in full bloom as is the inspiration for the tree -the cherry tree which was planted in 1954 by one of the sisters who taught at the Shrine of the Little Flower in the courtyard in their inaugural year. The lone surviving azalea by the convent is getting ready to bloom, just as the forsythia is fading.

Speaking of nature, ask Mrs. Primm about the dueling osprey and bald eagle she witnessed Thursday afternoon over the lower Potomac River, absolutely amazing!!! What aeriel ballet...

Spinach Harvest

The school harvested the spinach we over-wintered last week. There was enough spinach for all 150 students to have a generous helping at lunch time. Our onions and garlic are doing well and the sugar-snap peas are doing well.

We still have not turned in our cover crops and they are getting quite big. We put mason bee boxes out but, haven't had a visitor yet at school. My bee boxes at home are filling rapidly. The daffodils and tulips are in full swing and our strawberry plants are looking good.

Weeds, seeds, and resources to the right

The portion of the garden that hosts our onions, garlic, sugar-snap peas and a bunch of spinach was weeded Monday. It is amazing how quickly the dreaded chore begins! Our basil has started to show - this was from the seed that we harvested from our basil last year. Very exciting. We are also going to start flowers, herbs and some veggies this week. The column to the right hosts a series of links that may help your enjoyment of urban food production, or be an educational resource for you. Some links will stay static, while some will change up! Click and see.

Clementine feeds the Green Gala 2011

If you don't have your tickets yet go get some!!! Clementine is catering this year's Gala. They are located just up the road from us on Harford road in Hamilton. We couldn't be more excited to have Clementine! As they say on their website: http://www.bmoreclementine.com/ - "We do fancypants comfort food..." "...We always use all-natural, hormone free meat and locally sourced produce for as long as it is avialable to us in Maryland. Our emphasis is on fresh and eclectic" Clementine sources produce from our friends at Real Food Farms throughout the year - you can't get much more local than that!

Tumblehome will be playing for your pleasure that night, so remember to bring your dancin' shoes - they always put on such a great show. Check them out at http://www.tumblehomeband.com/ !!!

See you at the Gala - for tix contact GSB at 410-488-5312.

Sugar-snaps, a canoe, soil, spinach, flowers and cover crops

The first round of sugar-snap peas have been planted and should be showing themselves soon. the canoe garden is back in place and students will be adding the soil in today. We plan on adding a nice top layer of soil, manure and leafmold once all of the old soil is back in the canoe.

The spinach that over-wintered is going gang busters, and the onions and garlic are showing signs of starting to regrow. Our pansies took a hard hit over the winter but, some are starting to flower. Daffodils and crocus are coming up as are the tulips - oh yeah!

The cover crops are really taking off so, we will be turning those in next week before they get too big!

Stop by and see all of the excitement - the changes will be coming quickly now so, don't delay!

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

If you haven't heard, Jamie Oliver has started a Food Revolution. Check out his initiative at www.jamieoliver.com/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/home. If you want to support his work sign the petition, and/or start your own food revolution today!

Happy eating and growing and living sustainably!

Crocus and daffodils and tree buds - oh my!

Exciting isn't it. I know, I am excited too! We move into gear this week and will start in earnest our garden preparations.

We are all so excited to get planting we can't stand it!

A lima bean experiment!

Our 5th graders are going to put urban farming to a hard-core test. The question is: Can we grow lima beans indoors? Conditions: we have good natural light, we have full-spectrum fluorescent light, we have adequate heat, lima beans have perfect flowers, so they are
self-pollinating, we can create breezes to move the pollen around...

So, can we grow lima beans indoors? The seedlings are up and have one or two sets of true leaves. We will transplant them next week, and provide a single string trellis for the limas to wind their way around.

Stay posted!

70's, then snow and cool weather planning

Sorry brassica, not this year. We had a terrible year with Harlequin bugs, stink bugs, white flies and cabbage worms. So we are forgoing the brassica family this year. No worries, however, there are many other exciting things that we will be planting this year.

We have early spring and late spring summer plans for the schoolyard farm. First we are going to try our hand at succession planting with our quicker yielding, cool weather crops. Then for a later harvest in the fall we won't begin planting our hot weather crops until mid-June or so.

We have some of our own seeds from previous crops of Indian corn and basil that we will try this year too.

We will be keeping lots of detailed data collection and this year and are looking to recruit some of our neighbors to do some matching-planting with our crops for extra data comparisons.

So come see the farm as it gets going and come Grow with The Green School of Baltimore this growing season!

A couple of farming films for a cold winter's day

I just found this great documentary film website called Snag Films www.snagfilms.com. "The future of food" addresses the issues around genetically modified and genetically engineered seed and, subsequently, food. "Ladies of the land" highlights four women that have dedicated their lives to "goats, grains, and greenbeans."

Enjoy!

Crops over the Winter

Our cover crops and over-wintered crops are holding up. Everything looks tired and frozen and the pansies look especially frozen! It will be interesting to see what happens as things start to thaw out in a few weeks.

It is exciting to think that we will be watching the groundhog in Pennsylvania soon enough who will be telling us about the rest of our winter! It is tough being a skier and gardener - do you hope for more or less winter!?

Our new garden spaces are littered with wind-blown tree debris, and some of the raised-bed lumber will need some TLC. In a few weeks, as the thaw begins, it will be time to start the chores (or labor of love).

We were teased a day or so ago with things to come and experienced temperatures in the high 40's. Remember a few short of months ago when we thought high 40's were cold?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said -

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." MLK, Jr.

Winter Dreaming

With the garden fully moved, we dream of the full potential of our new gardening spots. Plenty of room - an empty canvas waiting to be painted, and created. An expression of color and habitat and food - for us, for insects, for birds...

The seed catalogs are arriving, and the planning charts are being developed. The last frost date plotted, plant dates coordinated and grow room prepared.

Ah, the excitement that 20 degrees can bring!