Late August/Early September Update on the Urban Farm

I tried growing yarrow from seed at the beginning of the summer
and it never came up. I found this plant at Lowe's for $5. It's perennial
 and helps keep pests away from plants.

August really was a crazy-busy month! I can't believe that fall is just around the corner. I know completely understand while schools in the pioneer/agrarian days were mostly open from harvest through until the planting begun. You needed all those extra hands to just get the work done.

One crookneck squash plant removed, two celery and a dozen
radishes put in.

I recently read an interesting article that in days gone by, summer was not for play and fun. How contrary to our current culture of summer vacations! No, summer was for planting...the partying happened once the harvest was in. Without the harvest, you didn't eat through the winter, so the party began once the canning, smoking and salting was complete.

This is my newest grow bed. A great suggestion from my
local hydroponics store! THIS is what urban farmers spend
their birthday money on!

We are a far cry from having enough through the winter, but it's a start. And by the local, organic farmer's market prices ($3-$4 per pound!), I estimate that I have already harvested about $100-$150 worth of food. I truly think that's a very low estimate, but I'm prone to exaggeration, so it's good for me to think small.

The peas are coming up!

But...the harvest has only just begun. In the last four weeks, I've planted 4 kinds of lettuce, peas, sugar snap pea pods, 3 varieties of kale, collards, green beans, 2 kinds of spinach, 4 different beets, a rainbow of chard, 5 kinds of radishes, parsley, as well as furiously and feverishly fought off cabbage worm from my cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage, green cabbage and bok choy.

The cauliflower is looking better after almost daily organic
insectisidal soap spraying,

I'm now also preparing my green houses and getting ready to repurpose my potato tubs for cold frames that will be placed near my kitchen door. I'm hoping to continue spinach, kale, collards and lettuces, well into December.

I found the plain wooden crate in a neighbor's trash pile, brought
it home, painted it purple, lined it with landscape fabric, and
planted bok choy & kale in it.

I've also been talking a lot with my local hydroponics store about how to cost-effectively start a flood and drain system in my basement as soon as the weather turns cold.

The tomatoes look very tired! I had way too many in the large
Smart Pot grow bed.

With every spent pepper, tomato, squash or zucchini plant that is pulled up, I immediately ask myself, what I can put in it's place. Depending upon the current phase of the moon, it's either a root crop or an above ground one. Without a definite cold-frame system in place, we're probably at the end of above ground planting in our area. So I've taken cuttings from my two favorite tomato plants and am attempting to propagate them so I can place them in my sunniest location inside, like I did last year. The harvest will be smaller and less frequent, but to have a vine-ripened tomato in February with 10 inches of snow on the ground is totally worth it!

I told the girls they could spray paint the outside
to make the compost bin look better.

I've also been trying to get my composting ramped up. It's time to start a second wormery and I've finally gotten some concrete blocks around the outdoor pile. I'm not the best at paying careful attention to the outdoor one, mainly because the mosquitos have been brutal this year. It's my goal to get it finished so that come Spring I'll have oodles of compost to supplement any purchases that need to be made.

So that's it for now. I'll leave you with a few photos of some of my harvests. I hope you've had a successful growing season and continue to grow as long as your local weather allows.