Archive for the ‘In Your Backyard’ Category
Gearing Up to Grow Starts
picture from http://chiotsrun.com/
To really make use of our short growing season using starts is a great way to go. It’s easy to grow your own from seed. This weekend I am going to get out my supplies and plant some Dino kale and collards to put under cloches mid-March. Once those go in I will start squash and tomato seeds. (I always want to start tomatoes earlier but unless you have a lot of room, good grow lights and patience to repot, these plants can get really leggy.)
I use two mini greenhouses that I fill with newspaper pots planted with seeds. While you can use dirt from the garden I usually use sterile potting soil to cut down on mold and other organisms that can kill off young seedlings. Once everything is planted I water it, put the plastic cover on top and mist as needed until the seeds begin to sprout. Once this happens I take off the cover and put them in a west facing window. More…
Beacon Food Forest Update
Food Foresters, Friends and Neighbors,
www.beaconfoodforest@weebly.com or http://www.facebook.com/beaconfoodforest
While we can’t offer Beacon Hill grown popcorn this year, it is on our list of plants to grow at the Food Forest. We’ll make due with other organically grown corn this year, and an assortment of beverages suitable to the season. There will be an opportunity to purchase some small stocking stuffers and support both organizations.
So, join us! Admission is free, but donations will be accepted at the door (as will items for the local food bank). Let’s make this the first of many movie nights.
Yours cooking it slow and nutritious,
Friends of the Beacon Food Forest
Fun with Seattle Farm Co-op!
Want to barter?
Please join Seattle Farm Co-op’s Inaugural Membership Party and Harvest Bartering Event!
October 23rd from 5:30 PM to 9 PM at the Phinney Neighborhood Center (6532 Phinney Ave N).
BARTER: Start filling your larder with stuff to barter! Non-food (handmade knits, jewelry, art) items welcome. Have a skill or services to trade? The only rule: no money!
POTLUCK: Bring something homemade to share for dinner!
SQUARE DANCE: Kick up your heals and swing your partner. No experience necessary. Hosted by the Seattle Subversive Square Dance Society.
BOOK RELEASE: Be the first to own The Urban Farm Handbook. A local how to book from local authors. The Co-op will sell the book.
KIDS CORNER: fun kid crafts and activities hosted by the kids of Seattle’s 4H Cooped up in Seattle
BEER FUNDRAISER: Purchase a collectable bottomless pint glass and enjoy local beers.
MEMBERSHIP ROLLOUT: Become a member of the Seattle Farm Co-op.
BACKYARD BARTER WEBSITE KICK OFF!: Want to barter your extra crafts, harvest and services year round? Check out Backyard Barter’s new website and service to help connect folks with too many zucchinis with others who don’t have enough!
Edible Flowers
Many of the flowers that grace our yards are edible. They can be used as accents in a salad or as garnish on a main dish.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Purple chive
Planting a Winter Garden
I know thinking of winter now that we finally have summer seems crazy but now is actually a great time to plant a garden you can eat from as the dark days return.
From Ed Hume here’s how to do it and what to plant:
Many southern areas of the U.S. are actually more suited to winter crops, while some northern regions have to rely on cold frames, hot beds, or greenhouses.
The key to successful winter gardening is knowing the average date of the first killing frost in your region (for example late October in the Pacific Northwest). You then plant your winter crops early enough to let them reach their full maturity before that killing frost.
When it comes to vegetable and flower gardening, the climatic patterns of the lower elevation areas west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington, Oregon, Northwestern California, and British Columbia are quite suitable for Fall & Winter gardening. Winter low temperatures range from 35oF. to 45oF. with occasional cold continental arctic air outbreaks lowering it to +20oF. to 0oF. or so. The garden soil can freeze 3 or 4 inches deep for short periods, but the usual winters are not severe enough to damage carefully mulched winter vegetable plants.
Preventing Mosquito Proliferation
Summer’s here and the skeeters are back. The little lumps on my arms from a late picnic act as proof. Here’s an article from the Urban Farm that discusses the risks farmers and gardeners face during mosquito season and what measures will help prevent the spread of the pesky pests.
City gardeners and farmers know they can save money and help the environment by cultivating rain gardens or using rain barrels to collect water, but some worry that conserving water in these ways will form active breeding grounds for mosquitoes. These pesky insects do more than just disturb gardeners and urban livestock with their incessant buzzing and biting—mosquitoes may also carry dangerous diseases like West Nile virus.
Time for Potpourri
Rose petals and carnations
Potpourri is a combination of flowers and sometimes spices, used to lightly scent a room. I like using a combination of wild rose petals, carnations and lavender.
To make potpourri you can gather the flowers on a dry day and pile them loosely in a bowl or you can lay them out to dry then put them in mesh to hang in a closet or any other place you’d like to freshen up.
Palais de Poulet
Where's my chateau?
From the Sno-Valley Star here’s news on some lucky chickens living the high life.
Stairs to your apartment, plenty of protection to keep pesky neighbors away, a custom-made door with your silhouette on it and a pair of wheels to get you where you need to go.
Good news is, your house is cooooool. Bad news is, you’re still a chicken.
Tracy Belvill inspects a chicken coop she built for chickens to live in urban, moveable style. By Sebastian Moraga
Tracy Belvill builds these tricked-out chicken coops in her Snoqualmie back yard, and what began almost accidentally has turned into a budding cottage industry for her.
“This wasn’t like, ‘OK, I’m going to be an entrepreneur and think about an idea,’” she said. “This was personal, like building a vegetable garden, something for me. It just turned into something that other people would like to have.” More…
Seattle Times on Urban Ag
From the Seattle Times here are good Q and A’s on urban ag.
Urban food gardeners here in the Seattle area went through the same drill for decades. We chose our crops from the small list of usual suspects and then hoped for more sun for our tomato plants.
We still want more sun, but everything else has changed. Innovation and experimentation have overgrown the old limits on raising food in the city. Today we can raise more things using new methods, and our home food production might even involve a kick, a sting or a cuddle.
Keeping bees, chickens, goats and even ducks in the heart of the city no longer gets you labeled as a wacko. You do need to know what you’re doing, however, if you want to avoid wasting time and money, alienating your neighbors and making a big mess. More…
Please Help City Fruit with Big Give!
Tomorrow, June 23rd the Seattle Foundation will host the largest day of giving ever planned for King County through its online giving event to assist local non-profits. As part of Give Big, all participating organizations are eligible for “stretch dollars” as the Seattle Foundation will proportionally donate funds from their own donors. The more an individual charity raises through the Seattle Foundation’s website on that day – the greater their portion of stretch dollars.
Click here to learn more and donate. Even a little bit helps!
City-grown fruit is a resource for the entire community. City Fruit works neighborhood by neighborhood to help residential tree owners grow healthy fruit, to harvest and use what they can, and to share what they don’t need. Each year we harvest and donate more than 10,000 pounds of fruit to local, hungry people. City Fruit collaborates with others involved in local food production, climate protection, horticulture, food security and community-building to protect and optimize urban fruit trees.
City Fruit promotes the cultivation of urban fruit in order to nourish people, build community and protect the climate. We help tree owners grow healthy fruit, provide assistance in harvesting and preserving fruit, promote the sharing of extra fruit, and work to protect urban fruit trees.
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