- Author: Betty Homer
In September 2015, I attended the Urban Farm Tour organized by the Institute of Urban Homesteading located in Oakland, California. To clarify, these are not farms in the traditional sense, involving large swaths of acreage; but rather, people who try to incorporate agricultural concepts in their backyard by raising livestock, keeping beehives, and growing mostly edible plants rather than ornamentals. Because the sites are private residences, with rare exception, addresses for them will not be disclosed to preserve and protect the privacy interests of the urban farmer-homeowners.
This is the last Urban Farm entry for 2015, as this was the last urban farm I visited this year. I am featuring Green Grrrl Gardens, located in Hayward, California, which is owned by educator and artist, Mimi Dean. The lot size of Green Grrrl Gardens is .67 acre/29,185 square foot of which .2 acres/8,712 square feet is set aside for a vegetable garden and 1,200 square feet is used for urban farming (i.e., 25% of the total lot size). This property is unique in that it has a long-standing history of farming—first farmed in the late 1880s, and again, in the 1940s. Ms. Dean is in the process of lovingly restoring the property to its former glory, including making significant repairs to a historic barn located on-site. She has even created a private yoga studio inside her barn where she and her friends gather to practice.
Like other urban farms, Green Grrrl Gardens has a vegetable and flower garden, fruit trees, a native and drought-resistant habitat intended to attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Ms. Dean maintains a bamboo grove which serves as a source of building material and food.
What sets Green Grrl Gardens apart from other urban farms visited is Ms. Dean's incorporation of recycled art throughout her vegetable gardens and areas where she keeps her livestock (e.g., junk store chairs used as squash trellises). Ms. Dean and her artist friends known as the Trash Sistas, turn junk into works of art with an eye to reduce, reuse and recycle, which they sell to support their endeavors.
Although the aesthetics of Green Grrl Gardens may not be pleasing to everyone, there is a lot of heart, hipness and hospitality to this place such that it was a delight to visit.
- Author: Susan P Croissant
"Mint Edition" is a monthly newsletter from Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville. In the November 2015 issue, Rosemary Loveall-writes about the seminar she recently attended at Lake Merritt, Defining a New Northern California Landscape. Ideas to provide healthy, sustainable landscapes by rethinking how to garden in our area. Here's Rosemary's quote on one presentation entitled "Water-Wise Landscapes":
"Now, I use the term ‘water-wise' frequently, generally in terms of what types of plants are used in the landscaping and what kind of irrigation is used, but a watershed wise landscape uses the concept of working with the natural systems of the earth, as well as the man made constructs, to create a balanced sustainable system where you live. I always think of a watershed as something large that I look at on a map, but actually each of us lives in our own ‘watershed'. Our roofs, patios and decks, the amount of non permeable spaces, the slope of our property, all greatly affect our watershed."
How to build a rain garden. Which, of course, companions well with her consistent advocacy of building healthy soils. The new term at the conference was "a living soil sponge."
View her article at http://morningsunherbfarm.com/ssp/article1_nov2015
She provides an excerpt/link from The Drought Tolerant Garden Los Angeles County Handbook that has detailed instructions, including calculating water amounts coming from surfaces around your home. Along with other ideas.
You can access this link via her article or here: http://morningsunherbfarm.com/multimedia/docs/RainGarden.pdf
- Author: Trisha Rose
Monday morning and it has been raining since 6:30 this morning, took out the dogs early while just sprinkling. A guest showed up this morning so I actually had to pull out my umbrella, shook out the cobwebs first. Just thinking about how lovely the roses looked yesterday afternoon, now the weight of rain drops on the petals has quickly weighed down the blossoms and they have fallen over on their spindly stems. I may be imagining things but I don't recall so many roses falling over like this in the past. Could be a combination of our recent rains helping to push out these new blooms after such a long dry year, and the spindly stems most likely a result of so little water since last winter and no fertilizer as I didn't want to encourage growth. So many of the plants have pushed out flowers recently with the flush of rainy days as they try to complete their life cycles. The forecasted temperatures have already projected frost warning, but at least temps have been in the 50's with the rains in the past month.
This past May I decided to move the remaining succulents still in the ground near the front of the yard nearest the street. This area is unprotected from the day long sun which turns many succulents to crispy critters during the summer, then to mush in the winter as they melt with the freeze/frosts. The established Phormiums have done ok in this arid ground but the smaller Phormium transplants look pretty sorry as my friends from the south would say. Even the Echium resembles a Day of the Dead sculpture more than a healthy plant, and these plants are usually so hardy they can survive as edging for municipal parking lots.
For now I will keep my umbrella handy and leave the front drought tolerant plantings alone, it will be interesting to see the changes our rainy winter will bring.
- Author: Lanie Keystone
It all started in 2005 when my husband and I moved to the country in Grass Valley. It was a case of city folk longing to be country folk. So, we developed our little bit of paradise on 5 acres, starting by building
16 ( 4'x8') raised beds—yes, 16 of them! What were we thinking, you ask? We weren't. We were just convinced that lots of raised beds was an essential part of country living. And, we actually did quite well growing all the usual suspects for several years and having a wonderful time doing it. But then we began to wonder how much all of these home-grown delicacies were actually costing us. That's where this month's book comes in.
While we were in the midst of our madcap experiment with veggie gardening “on steroids”, I happened on one of the funniest, most entertaining and astute horticulture books I've read to date—
The $64 Tomato by William Alexander, 2006 (ISBN-13:978-156512-503-2). Mr. Alexander, unlike your innocent reviewer, had been a small-scale farmer for more than a quarter century. But we both had the same delicious dream of having a wonderful vegetable garden in the backyard—or, in our case, in the “back 40”. As the book's subtitle so perfectly sums up, The $64 Tomato: “How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent A Fortune, And Endured An Existential Crisis In The Quest Of The Perfect Garden.”
How many of us are guilty of this same quest? It's just that this “Don Quixote” of the gardening world actually decided to figure out how much financial damage he was doing along the way. When Alexander ran a cost-benefit analysis, adding up everything from the Havahart animal trap ($60 ) to the Velcro tomato wraps ($5 each), then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it came as a huge shock for him to learn that it cost an eye-popping $64 to grow each tomato.
But, it's the adventure-in-growing that makes his book so valuable. For, in this amusing and pointed account, Alexander gives superb advice about everything from leeks to lettuce, while asking such existential questions as, “What do our gardens tell us about ourselves? Do we get the gardens we deserve”? And, why does the groundhog have to take one bite from half a dozen tomatoes when any gardener would gladly give him six bites of just one?” What were his answers to these and other resonating questions? He just kept gardening and growing. And what was our answer to many of the same questions? We moved back to the city!
- Author: Toni Greer
Saturday, December 5th from 1:00-4:00 is our UC Master Gardeners Annual Wreath Workshop to be held at St. Mary's Church Parish Hall, 350 Stinson, Vacaville.
During this fun event we will also have our Marketplace with handcrafted items, most of which were crafted by Master Gardeners. The proceeds from this go toward UC Master Gardener program-Solano County.
Perhaps it's a gift you are looking for or a holiday adornment---we've got them!! Remember, this will be taking place while you are making your beautiful wreaths. The marketplace will only accept check or cash for your purchases. I say purchases, because last year several shoppers kept finding that perfect treasure over and over throughout the afternoon.
Remember, this event is for attendees of the Master Gardener Wreath Workshop and Master Gardeners too!! We also like to shop!
Come join us for a wonderful afternoon—food included. If you have questions or would like to sign up to attend, please contact Jennifer Baumbach at (707)389-0645 or jmbaumbach@ucanr.edu. Cost for the workshop is $50.00 per person.
Space is limited. Please remember this marketplace is cash or check only for your treasures.
We have such a wide variety of fun goodies. Hope to see you there!!
