Here in the North East the winter has been mild thus far and has allowed for me to do a few more clean ups to ready the gardens for the spring. Now is a good time to plan your vegetable garden. Remember it is good to rotate your crops so you do not burn out the soil of nutrients. It is good to add some dried chicken manure to the garden and other organic matter in March. Consult with your local garden supply center and ask them what they would recommend for preparing your vegetable garden.

HAPPY EARTH DAY

Please Get Back To The Garden!

Preparing The Vegetable Garden

Are you planning on having a vegetable garden in your urban backyard this year? You are not alone many Americans are doing it. Why even the White House has its own vegetable garden. Growing your own is fast becoming the new American trend and "sustainable" is the word to know. We are moving toward becoming a more Sustainable Society. We do this by conserving energy, composting, saving rain water; and growing our own fruits and vegetables. Why there is even a rapidly growing number of people raising chickens in their yards for eggs! Martha Stewart is doing it and sharing her eggs (well the chickens eggs of course) with her workers!

Oh, but this is about preparing the vegetable garden for this new growing season. So, lets begin at the beginning. Planning the garden on paper first is a good idea, so strongly recommended is going to a website like www.growveg.com or another similar site that provides tools for laying out your garden. First, decide how big you are going to make it and what type of garden it is going to be; beds, raised, container, etc. A little confused don't be, that is not the purpose of this article. Here at City Pastures we have been reviewing some books, websites, etc, to make it a little easier for you this year. A good resource book and less then twenty dollars to get you started is Small-Plot High-yield Gardening. One important note the author makes is, know how much food to grow for your family and what you like. Makes sense, right? So, plan.

Our urban farm here at City Pastures is approximately 600 square feet. We are growing fruits (blueberry, blackberry and red raspberry bushes), vegetables, herbs and flowers. We have planned a nice visually appealing and sustainable environment. Another important resource is your local garden supplies business. The workers here on Staten Island at Weisner's and at Schweitzers are very helpful. If you go when it isn't that crowded they will spend time with you and give you valuable information, so block out an hour. Many of these individuals have spent many hours studying and practicing in their field.

First, this spring we have cleaned and tilled our growing area. Next, we made divided our growing area in half with a 2' path down the center with planting beds (2'x4') on both sides. This helps with caring for the plants and rotating crops next year. Next, chicken manure and bone meal was applied only to the areas in the beds. We didn't want to feed the weeds. The chicken manure is high in nitrogen and adds back much depleted energy into the soil that was taken away by last year's crops. The bone meal is needed for vegetables that have skins (tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers). Again the good thing about having a planned garden is, next year you can rotate the crops which is good for preventing disease in gardens and some vegetables deplete soil of valuable nutrients more then others.

Secondly, we purchased our seeds from our local garden supply shop along with some starter planting materials (trays with plastic covers, starter soil, etc,). Starting plants from seeds is great to watch happening especially if you have children. At City Pastures we have a screen room that serves as our "green house" for starting our seeds. We already have lettuce, onion, bush bean, carrot, broccoli, etc. seedlings bursting out. Tomorrow we will plant about a dozen bush bean seedlings. Already, in the garden growing is spinach, collard greens and kale which are survivors from our late fall crop. It is amazing, they lived through our rough winter! It was great to experience this occurrence in our urban farm.

So, our best advice for now is, take the time to plan your garden and next year it will take you less time to get it started. Remember read, search the web and talk with your local garden supply people. Additionally, if you have neighbors who are planting talk with them and if you have a community garden visit. Gardeners love to talk and give advice. So, have fun and get dirty!

Next article will be about watering methods.

Extending The Growing Season-November Update

Here at City Pastures in Staten Island, New York we have extended our growing season in our outdoor and indoor gardens. Our indoor container garden is in our non heated screen house. The broccoli raab, lettuce, spinach and red pepper plants are doing well. The greens are coming along at a nice pace, while the pepper plant (which was brought in from our outside garden) is continuing to produce. The peppers are brilliant red colored that taste very sweet. They enjoy basking in the sunshine that fills their side of the screen house.

The outdoor garden is doing well. The rainy and unseasonably warm fall weather has extended the production of eggplants and peppers;while the broccoli plants continue to provide a generous yield. The Fall crop of kale,spinach,collard greens and lettuce are doing very well. We are looking forward to having our first Urban Garden Fall grown greens compliment our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Extending the growing season for the first time here at City Pastures has been both work and fun. The container garden experiment has been successful thus far, except for the spinach which appears not to like either our outdoor soil or indoor potting soil. The outdoor soil has too much clay and the indoor potting soil is not porous enough for this plant. Also, the Aphids have found their way to the broccoli raab inside the screen house and are being taken care daily with sprays of water. Regardless of a few rookie problems, the garden to table benefit is a great pleasure and we look forward to harvesting through early winter.

October 24 International Day of Climate Action-Get Involved

On Saturday October 24 you can take responsibility for your impact on the Global Climate. Join your community by participating in a local event or sponsor one in your home. There is information about 350.org and some great ideas for Saturday.

Here are some photos of 350.org events from around the World.

Urban Rain Water Harvesting

Large urban cities in the United States such as Seattle, Portland and New York City are using rain water harvesting for a variety of environmental reasons. Rain water harvesting, simply defined, is the process of catching and holding water. This process has its beginnings in ancient history that flows back to the Roman Empire. Romans used cisterns and aqueduct systems to catch and hold the rain water. The Romans used this water for various household activities such as laundry, bathing and watering their gardens. They were inventive enough to use water to create one of the earliest methods of air conditioning. However, the Romans were not the only ancient culture to harvest rain water, many of the South Asian and Mid-East countries used similar means for catch and hold.

 

Urban gardeners are utilizing this ancient principle of "catching and holding" rain water for use in their gardens and community gardens. Catching rain water rolling down the roofs and down leaders of their homes into barrels. This harvested rain water is used to water their gardens and lawns. This is one example of a small scale water harvesting system used by urban gardeners, however for larger areas there are more elaborate systems used for rain water collection.

There are many reasons to harvest rain water that are beneficial to an urban environment. Rain water flowing down our urban streets are collecting toxins (like petroleum and animal feces) on its way to sewer systems or storm drains. Reports indicate that some of our largest cities have great amounts of rain water running through their vastly complex sewer systems to treatment plants that are unable to handle the load. Therefore, urban gardeners catching and holding water are reducing the strain on these easily overloaded treatment plants. Additionally, harvesting rain water may also be helpful in preventing urban flooding and of benefit to areas that have little rainfall.

Harvesting rain water is an ancient method for catching and holding water, which is being harnessed by urban gardeners across the country for use in their gardens. It is useful for conserving home water usage, relieving stress on treatment plants and possibly reducing urban flooding. However, it is important to have an awareness of the ecology of your particular geographical location when considering whether to harvest rain water. If you live in area where there is a large concentration of industrial and manufacturing plants it would be prudent to restrict using harvested rain water to watering of flowers and lawns.

Combining Urban Garden and Regionally Grown Bounty In A Meal

At our local Green Market yesterday we purchased many fresh and vibrantly colored fruits and vegetables. Today we used the potatoes to accompany our Herb Rubbed grilled London Broil. With the potatoes we made delicious Garlic Mashed Potatoes with a sour cream and chive topping. The chives were picked fresh from our Herb Garden and then combined with the sour cream. We then spooned the topping softly atop the mashed potatoes. George's Herb Rub (see below) was rubbed into the London broil. The London Broil was then grilled outside on the barbecue . The Garlic Mashed Potatoes are a perfect partner for this herb rubbed grilled London Broil dish. It was also served with a fresh green salad which included ingredients that were purchased at the Green Market.

The freshness of the produce purchased at our local Green Market was a welcome to our table. A meal with out dessert is not complete. Honestly, we were not disappointed by the freshness and tastiness of our Green Market peach -blueberry pie and apple cider donuts.

So, if you are an Urban Gardener try combining the freshness of your harvest with regionally grown foods purchased at your local Green Market. The two compliment each other for a delightful garden to table family meal. Next week, I will be back at our local Green Market, how about you?

George's Steak Rub

1/2 teaspoon of fresh basil

1/2 teaspoon of fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon of coarse sea salt

1/4 teaspoon of peppercorns grounded

1/4 teaspoon of onion powder

1/4 teaspoon of cumin

1 tablespoon of Organic Canola oil

Combine the basil, parsley, salt , ground peppercorns, cumin and onion in a small bowl/mortar and with a pestle grind the ingredients into one another. Then place in a small container and add the oil. Allow the mixture to blend together for 5-15 minutes. Then take the steak and rub the

mixture into it. Grill outdoors. I found this a very tasty rub for Skirt Steak.