Posts Tagged ‘square foot gardening’

11 Mar 2011

Inspiring, Educational…”Urban Gardening Tour” – with John Kohler

Tags: backyard , drip system , front yard , grow beds , grow your own food , how to do it , ideas , john kohler , living food , neighborhood , organic , square foot gardening , urban gardening , vertical , why , worms

15 Nov 2010

2010 Fall Food Forest and Growing Dome Update…

Posted by Jake. 6 Comments

Here’s a few videos from a couple of days ago…and some pictures from a few weeks before.

The main focus right now, has been spreading TONS of compost and mulching every bed with straw. Everyone is snuggled in for winter. I’ve also been planting a bunch of starts, like cold hardy leafy greens….and a BUNCH of garlic. It’s going to be a great winter!!

: The terraced beds, growing mixed veggies and herbs. Peppers, garlic, onion, basil, celery….BIG MIX

: Looking down through zone 3 (the terraced beds) into zone 4 (the dome zone and fig guild) Goji Berry growing in foreground.

: Entering the Dome Zone

: West side of the Growing Dome, mixed herbs and greens.

: Goji Berry grown from seed…she’s happy in the DOME!!!

: Entering Zone 5, the outer most zone. This zone is the apple and kiwi guild, with mixed veggies and herbs of all types. Oh…and chia seed! That’s pomegranate to the left.

: That’s chia seed to the right

: Walking down the middle path…through zone 5, calendula and kiwi are growing to the left.

: BIG Dino Kale taking over zone 5. Such a hardy plant…I’ll be wiping snow off it’s leaves this winter…no problem!!

: Mixed veggies, peppers, carrots, celery, kales of all types.

: CHIA HEAVEN!!!!

: Here’s the front yard food forest…zone 2. This is the almond and peach guild, surrounded my nitrogen fixing seabuckthorn bushes.

: Zone 3 upper most beds, TONS of parsley, my favorite green to munch and juice.

HAVE FUN GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD!!!! Year – ROUND…if you like!

Tags: backyard , chia seed , fall , food forest , four season , fruits , gardening , goji berry , grow food , learn how , micro climates , nuts , permaculture , prepare , seeds , square foot gardening , urban , vegetables , zones

24 Jan 2010

Amending the soil in the beds

Posted by Jake. No Comments

ALOHA…made this video a few months back..to share how I amended the SOIL in our square foot garden beds, after the summer crop. So..it’s a little old, but still relevant. I’ll be shooting some Winter updates soon..and show the GROWTH!! They’re all GROWING again..now that the sun is rising higher in it’s path each day. VERY grateful for the SUN!

The cold is fine..but no SUN…makes it hard to grow much at all!! Glad it’s back up there! Digging swales and planting seeds again!

SO many ways to tend your soil..this is just one of them. Hope everyone’s having fun tending to theirs. I’m going to keep playing around with different things like greensand, kelp, the list goes..on! Such a fun experiment..and the plants love you…and you feel LOVE…while playing with them!

Things used to amend the SOIL:

AZOMITE
(Great ROCK DUST that..adds trace minerals back..the worms love it!)

RED WIGGLERS
(Beautiful Bacteria!)

COMPOST
(make your own..throw some worms and Azomite in there..to help you work the pile..!)

OCEAN WATER
(diluted 2000)ppm …adds all “known” and ”unknown” trace minerals/ormus minerals back!

….for more info on SOIL…creating it…amending it and tending to it…

YOU’LL LOVE…both these books!! SO much info..the kind of books you can read over and over and over..and still catch new insights every time!!

Tags: amending garden beds , bird , bydynamic soil , fertile earth , Ocean Water , rock dust , sercrets of the soil , soil , square foot gardening , tompkins

2 Jun 2009

End of May Backyard Garden Update

Posted by Jake. 9 Comments

: Front side yard…we’re just beginning to plant fruit, nuts and berries…

We live in a typical urban development that can be found most anywhere..in the United States.

Here’s a quick tour of the backyard/frontyard grow operation as of the last week of May.

: View from the gate..looking into the backyard

EDIBLE FOOD ON THE PROPERTY.. LAST SUMMER (2008) = 0

EDIBLE FOOD ON THE PROPERTY.. so far.. THIS SUMMER (2009)

Apples Trees = 6
Peach Trees = 5
Apricot = 1
Cherry = 2
Asian Pear = 3
Pomegranate = 2
Almond = 2
Fig = 4
Lemon = 1
Lime = 1
Mango = 1
Avocado = 1
Blueberry = 5
Raspberry = 6
Strawberry = 10
Grape = 5
Gooseberry = 6
Serviceberry = 2
Wolfberry = 10
Blackberry = 5
Boysenberry = 1
Cherry Bush = 5
Currant (Red and Black) = 2
Aloe Vera = 20
Agave = 5
Prickley Pear = 1
(the trees are mostly dwarf and ultra dwarf varieties)

: Our first berries…blueberry and boysenberry

….and to go a long with this fruit, berry, nut tree list…..we experimenting with growing traditionals like corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, potatoes, onions, garlic, broccoli, cabbage…and tons of different herbs…some fun ones for our drinks like Stevia and Tulsi and Astragalus!!

: Here’s our first cucumber….ever! Growing happily in the dome.

but… our staple is the green leaves, for green smoothies, like kale, collard, lettuces, chard, and so on..so we’re learing to create microclimates to attempt to allow these more heat delicate crops to grow. We’re using arched PVC pipe with shade cloth draped over it in the summer time and construction plastic draped over it in the winter….it worked really well last winter!! Check out the “GROW GREENS YEAR ROUND“ post…to see what I mean.

: Here’s a few raised beds…..a lot cooler under the shade cloth for greens! The straw mulch really helps as well!

square foot gardens...blue hopi corn...and in the other box is the brassicas

square foot gardens...blue hopi corn...and in the other box... are the brassicas..kale, cabbage, broccoli, and LOTS of swiss chard!

The white cloth is AGRIBON..covering the Brassicas form invaders

The white cloth is AGRIBON..covering the Brassicas from invaders

No bugs munching on these leaves...

more greens/flowers and herbs coming up...

Far southwest corner of our property looking back up toward the gate.

Composting operation to the right...and looking east down the backard..you can see the vertical garden boxes.

Composting operation to the right...and looking east down the backyard..you can see the vertical grow boxes.

The vertical gardens.. the first two beds are tomatoes..vining up yellow twine..

First Mr. Stripey coming on....

For the last vertical bed...we're experimenting with nylon netting...muskmelons of all types are just peeking up. There's a stepping stone in the middle of each section, so we can step into the box and harvest from all sides.

I Spent most of May, like many gardeners… outside…taking advantage of the awesome warming weather…..which, before I started gardening and eating live foods, I never took too much notice of the weather….except how it affected my weekend or travel etc…

Now, I’m constantly observing its rythms and natural flows…..like the sun’s ever changing trajectory in the sky, and how it affects shadows in the garden etc….and I of course check weatherbug.com quite a bit!