Two months ago I had a brand new lighting setup and a hankering to test it out with some seeds so I sowed three packets that had been sitting around for a year: lithops, mixed succulents, and mixed cacti.
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Raising Baby Succulents
My Urban Garden
“Anyone anywhere can have a garden…”
Sound familiar? I was shocked when I heard the first line spoken by Carol Bowlby in this National Film Board of Canada film on urban gardening from 1984. Separated by birth and about thirty years, she and I. Watching the film was like watching myself go through my own garden chores and routines.
And just look at her usage of recycled wash buckets, milk jugs, and assorted “garbage” in building a thrifty and organic garden well before it was in the vernacular (or minds) of any of us new-style URBAN HOMESTEADERS. Carol had it going on back in 1984. I salute you, lady.
Carol’s yard is slightly larger than mine (I think. Still need to work out the math), but hearing about how self-sustaining she and her family are within the confines of this space makes me even more enthusiastic about achieving the goals we have for our new yard. The first is to never buy another leaf of lettuce or salad green, again. I’m absolutely confident we can achieve this as I have done very well in much smaller and harsher growing condition. And where Carol has set aside room in her yard for kids’ space, I will be making room for the many non-edible plants that I am passionate about.
Spring can’t come soon enough! I just want to be out there, hunched over and digging in the soil with the sun on my back, chirping birds and urban sounds as my soundtrack.
Addendum: Davin says that our yard is larger… at least what will end up being the growing portion. In the film, Carol says her total garden (the entire yard itself is larger) is 260 square feet. We just did the math and our entire yard is approximately 700 square feet. Friends, that is the size of the apartment we just left! Putting numbers to it really drives home how different the new space will be. This is very exciting, indeed.
Special thanks to reader Marie-Louise who sent in this link!
Leave a commentRepurposed for the Garden: Giant Nail
To the average person it’s just a gigantic, oversized nail, or a weapon of intimidation (who needs to carry a can of mace when you’ve got this up your sleeve, am I right?), but to me this is the perfect tool for making drainage holes in things that were not manufactured to function as plant pots.
A dremel or cordless drill, and a masonry bit is your best friend when it comes to making holes in terra cotta and ceramics, but a gigantic nail and a hammer is exactly what you need to effortlessly put holes into the bottom of recycled tin cans, metal buckets, busted watering cans, and creepy doll carriages.
Cost: $.89 brand new at my local hardware store. Or free if the roofing guys are slack and leave a bunch lying around where you could step on them and possibly develop tetanus. That’s how I acquired my previous giant nail. Fortunately, the part about stepping on the nail and developing tetanus is not true, but it COULD have happened.
Leave a commentSpigarello Leaf Broccoli
Photo of me in my community garden taken by Davin Risk.
Spigarello aka Spigariello is an old Italian heirloom leafy green that I grew last year. Some refer to it as broccoli rabe and others call it “leaf broccoli.” Both descriptions are apt. I’d put it somewhere between kale and broccoli.
The plant grows just like kale, but produces small broccoli-like florets late in the season. Every part of the plant is edible and tastes like broccoli. The new growth is tender enough to eat raw right off the plant. I sometimes munched on it as I worked.
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Build a D.I.Y Lighting System
When we moved, I abandoned the cobbled together grow light setup I had been struggling with for years in favour of beginning again with a much improved, bigger and badder system.
In the old place I had to stuff the grow light shelving system into a corner nook of my office. Consequently, it couldn’t be more than 2ft wide. Have you ever tried to buy a shop light that is only 2 feet wide? Good luck. Yes, they are available, but they are built in a boxy shape and are meant to be wired in as under-cabinet lighting. I had to do a bit of precarious electrical wiring in order to attached a plugin cord to my lights. Because they were mounted and stationary, I had to lift my seedlings up to receive the necessary amount of distance between them and the bulbs as they grew. This meant regularly adding and subtracting stacks of books that I had placed underneath flimsy trays that wobbled and spilled liquid whenever they were shifted.
As you can imagine, this method did not always work out well for the books.
And then there was the shape of the shop light boxes themselves. Boxy shapes with sides that come down straight don’t reflect light well. I made due, but the set up was what it was. At the time I was happy to take what I could get.
So when we moved I abandoned that mess of wires and spare parts with the dream of something less ramshackle in mind. And then… work, life, moving, stuff. Finally, it all came to a head during the Holidays when the unheated front porch froze and several plants that should not have been out there but had no where else to go, froze. I needed a lighting system stat.
Here’s what I built.
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Coming February 2012
New from Gayla Trail. Easy Growing: Organic Herbs and Edible Flowers from Small Spaces.
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Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces. The essential encouraging guide from Gayla Trail.
