Green Roof Growers

Hive Comes Alive: January in Chicago + Low Tunnel Update

2012-01-27T15:29:00.000-06:00

Honeybee on basil

Aug 30, 2010

In Chicago it's 40 degree F on January 27, but bees and humans alike share a little joy in the strengthening full sun. That's all it takes.

I went to the roof, where it was 75 in the unheated greenhouse (it needs organizing, but today's not the day). I'd seen some real bee activity on my bee monitor downstairs and thought I'd grab a quick vid. But as I drew closer the bees signaled their dislike by sending out a couple of peevish scouts to push me back.

No harm done--they apparently just don't recognize me in the dead of winter as they do in summer. Wondering about that wooden post in the video? Just 7 days ago it was measuring snowfall (we ultimately got near 7 inches).

Downstairs, full sun on the hoop enclosure too--far too warm in there for cool-loving greens, so I opened it up.

Attaching a piece of conduit to the edge of the Agribon fabric (shown in this post) really does make it easy to lift the fabric as a single entity and rest it on top of the hoops. These plants were happy to just breathe.

What a joy seeing this deep green parsley popping out with all the other usual suspects--tatsoi, mustard, arugula, kale. I'm kind of winging this whole low tunnel effort. Fast Grow the Weeds gives me a clue:

I planted ... kale and salad greens back in late September. These will be completely harvested by late March and then I’ll convert this greenhouse into a seedling nursery.

Guess I'll follow suit.

But instead of thinking about it, I picked a salad.

All About Sub Irrigated Planters

2012-01-25T15:24:00.000-06:00

Nice job, Greenscaper Bob and Frieda Lim. Just the info people need as spring approaches...
TEDxManhattan: How to Cultivate a Logo from Sybil Dessau on Vimeo.

TEDxManhattan: How to Cultivate a Logo from Sybil Dessau on Vimeo.

Fresh Greens on a Snowy Day in Chicago

2012-01-20T16:14:00.000-06:00

Up on the roof, Art's new snow gauge shows we're nearing 5 inches here in Chicago, good insulation for the beehive (at left in the picture) we hope. Shot this on the monitor down here in our toasty warm living space after shoveling those same 5 inches across the breadth of our generous sidewalk. 17 degrees F outside. The snow is beautiful.

On the second floor, the cool-weather greens are thriving in their SIPs, if slowly in the chill.

And down here: salad!

Winter Garden Trial

2012-01-12T17:14:00.037-06:00

Today it was 25 degrees in Chicago. We expect to have a severe winter storm with 6" to 8" inches of snow by midnight. Yesterday it was 50 degrees and you wouldn't have known it was Jan 11th. Either way, our winter garden is still showing signs of life. Here's proof that you CAN grow a winter garden in Chicago. Growing anything makes me happy no matter what season it is.

Under the low tunnels the greens are doing well. I have to admit I'm a little nervous about the unusual amount of heavy snow we are going to get tonight, hoping the weight of the wet snow won't bring down the low tunnels.

Fancy red lettuce and spinach

Mache

Mustard Greens

Lactino Kale

Not everything faired as well... but that's ok. After-all, I have to remind myself that it's a winter garden trial.

The beginnings of a winter garden.
A different time. Another season.
October 23, 2011

What's in Chicken Feed?

2012-01-12T11:11:00.010-06:00

Several of my neighbors eat my chicken eggs, and one of them wanted to know what kind of chicken feed I use. Here's what I told her.

::::

They've been eating organic feed since they were two days old. Until six weeks ago it was a blend that relied on soy for its protein component (around 17% by weight). I've since switched to soy-free organic layer feed for two reasons.

First, because of the levels of omega3 fatty acids available in soy-free feed. Those fats make their way through the chicken and show up in the eggs. You might have seen the egg cartons in the supermarket that make statements about the eggs having omega3 fats. My eggs are now the same.

Because...

The protein in the soy-free ration now comes from flax meal, fish meal, and crab meal. Still organic, but has those good fats.

Also, I think letting the chickens forage for bugs in my sideyard can only help round out the nutritional value of the eggs.

The second, maybe equally important reason, is that soy may be harmful.

Originating in China, soybeans have been consumed by humans for thousands of years. It’s only been in the last century that the way we eat soy has changed dramatically. Fermentation is how soy was first prepared for eating. It was a side dish that complimented the rest of the meal. Raw soy is not fit for consumption and can be considered toxic. Today’s soy is processed in variety of methods (not fermented) which denatures the proteins and increases levels of carcinogens.

Soy is a prevalent ingredient in almost all processed foods. Those with a soy allergen (it’s one of the top eight food allergens for humans) know this best. It’s in fast-foods, baby food, processed meat, breads, etc. Unless you are very conscious of everything you eat, it is easy to consume an unregulated amount of soy products every day.

Perhaps you are not allergic to soy, here are some other findings that may be important to you. Soy is not a complete protein (as commonly believed), lacking some important amino acids. Soy foods can cause deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D. Soy increases levels of estrogen (possibly simulating the growth of related tumors) and decreases levels of testosterone. It has been related to pre-mature sexual development in females, and delayed development in males. Animal studies show soy foods causes infertility in animals.

Because soy is a prolific food allergen, the FDA requires it to be listed clearly as an ingredient in processed foods. At this time the FDA does not require meat, raised on soy feeds, to be disclosed. People highly allergic to soy are affected by this.

Soybean is the human choice for animal feed, thus covertly making it another avenue into our daily consumption of it. Chickens receive the highest level of exposure, and it is retained in their meat and eggs.

::::

The wholesaler is CFS Specialties located in Cashton, WI

You can find an image of the feed bag by choosing Poultry Rations from the menu on the left side of the page -- then click on No Soy poultry rations

The retailer is Backyard Chicken Run.

John, the owner, also sells some nice, though expensive, dog and cat foods. The best part of the deal is that "free" delivery is included in the price. That price, at least for chicken feed, was the same as I was paying at the previous supplier (The Feed Store in Summit, IL).

I think his business is well worth supporting.

:::

More on the nutritional and dietary fats found in chicken feed.

Urban Farm + Restaurant = Pleasant House

2012-01-05T13:00:00.011-06:00

One of the best things about whole rooftop gardening project is the number of interesting people I've met.

Art and Chelsea are a couple I think you'd like to know about. We were introduced a few years ago, thanks I think, to both of us appearing in Sky Full of Bacon videos. This latest video makes the connection between their urban farm/gardens and their restaurant Pleasant House Bakery.

Farm To Barstool from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.

Their food is fantastic. I'm not alone in thinking that--they've been winning plenty of accolades from food writers in the Chicago press as well as enthusiastic ratings from Yelpers.

964 West 31st Street
Chicago

(773) 523-7437

A Buddah's Hand

2011-12-31T16:38:00.015-06:00

This is a Buddha's hand, also known as Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis. I stumbled on it while at my local Jewel's store. Rob the nice produce manager (pictured above) told me they come from Asia and torn off a tip of one of it's fingers for a couple of shoppers to experience. The fragrance was truly amazing. While it doesn't have the juice or pulp you'd expect from a lemon it can be used for drinks, juicing, and to make candy. Can't wait to try one soon.

Starting Beekeeping?

2011-12-30T09:00:00.007-06:00

H2 and Art have had two hives, tended by beekeeper Noam, on their roof for the past couple of years. Since they started, I've been thinking about tending my own hives on my roof.

I'd like to have feral bees, ones that have by their very existence, shown that they have the genetics to survive without treatments, pesticides, or other human intervention. The philosophy is outlined in books like The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping, sites like Michael Bush's, and by the Backwards Beekeepers.

Here's a nice video of Backwards Beekeepers Kirkobeeo demonstrating how to capture a feral swarm.

I'd like to find a local beekeeping group that does this kind of work.

I'm not sure how interested I am in doing this -- bees don't have any special hold on my imagination, and I'm a little unsettled by the prospect of a steady dose of bee stings. Then again, I felt the same way about chickens this time last year, and look how well that experiment turned out.

Urban Beekeeping Video

2011-12-29T12:05:00.002-06:00

H2 sent me this link. I thought I'd share it with you.

The Agretti Chronicles

2011-12-28T03:33:00.026-06:00

We stared our agretti seeds in March and they sprouted in June.

Later in June, getting a foothold...

And on July 13...

I mostly nibbled on the raw agretti while tending the roof, letting it grow and looking toward fall for a robust seed harvest. By September it was setting seed nicely.

And in October, drying under cover in the sun-warmed greenhouse.

Won't be long before we're germinating it again in spring 2012. It did very well in a SIP, with easy access to water, but I'd like to also try direct-planting some seeds in the new raised bed.

Via Cherry Gal...

GROWING TIPS: Easy to grow. Plant as soon as ground can be worked and cover with 1/2" soil and space 4-6" apart, thinning to 8-12". This must be planted in cool weather. It will not germinate in warm soil. Germination in 7-10 days and you can start cutting from the plants when they reach 6-8" in height. Cut the green tops or sections - it will regrow (my favorite kind of green). Generally used in the Spring when leaves are tender.

Chickens as Pets?

2011-12-22T08:19:00.000-06:00

I don't see mine that way, but can understand why some people do. I'm partial to dogs. That said, they're very curious animals.

I'm still getting plenty of eggs. My dog can't do that.

Growing Cool-Weather Greens Indoors

2011-12-20T21:17:00.000-06:00

In Chicago, growing anything during the cold winter months makes us happy. Previous years we've experimented, with good success, in growing cool-weather greens upstairs in full-south light with auxiliary lights over the plants. One year we tried it without the lights.

This year, we're going to grow again without auxiliary electricity. We're using EEZY-GRO sub-irrigated pots we got at Menard's, a big-box store. Plants don't drink much in winter, growing slowly with no need for a large water reservoir.

The greens--tatsoi, kale, mustard, all the usual suspects--have a nice start. Somehow these little ones always taste sweetest.

A Low Tunnel for Greens in Fall-Winter-Spring

2011-12-20T21:10:00.000-06:00

The next logical step for the raised bed Art built for my birthday in spring 2011 was to structure a low tunnel over it so cool-weather greens can grow in winter...or at least thrive longer in fall and start earlier in spring.

We looked to Johnny's Seeds for the bits we'd need. First, a bender to turn conduit into hoops-- worthwhile, easy to use, and eminently shareable with your neighbors.

Art holds up hoops so I can visualize where we'll position them. Then he secures them. I need to be able to get inside to clip greens.

You can see the sun on that nice southern brick wall below, our neighbor's building. All credit to Eliot Coleman and his Four Season Harvest, which opened our eyes...

Eliot Coleman introduces the surprising fact that most of the United States has more winter sunshine than the south of France. He shows how North American gardeners can successfully use that sun to raise a wide variety of traditional winter vegetables in backyard cold frames and plastic covered tunnel greenhouses without supplementary heat.

Now for the Agribon, which we laid out on the deck to cut and then tossed over the arches.

We used these Johnny's snap clamps to attach the fabric to a long run of conduit to weigh down the edges.

The conduit concept worked well, and I hope to be able to lift the edge as a single unit when I want to get in there or give the plants some air.

The clamps also keep the fabric taut on the hoops, to hold snow.

I probably wouldn't purchase these plastic clamps again. In the cold weather they're difficult to manage and apply...even in not-so-cold weather they were a pain. Got to be an easier way.

First Chicago snow (late for us)

Dec 8-9, before I got the plastic on

Looks cozy in there

Art decided to make a low tunnel on the roof

for storing buckets in winter.

It might also come in handy this spring for starting seedlings.

Chickens Dig Compost

2011-12-18T08:14:00.002-06:00

They like to scratch in my compost bins.

They're remarkably docile. Happy to perch almost anywhere.

The Power of Compost

2011-12-16T10:48:00.003-06:00

Outside air temp = 25º F, Compost Pile Temp = 120º

I'm really interested in the work of Jean Pain.

Let’s look at Jean Pain’s methods and try to assess what sort of legacy he has left us as we enter the 21st century.

Pain lived in Provence and realized the limitations of what Alan Savory has called “brittle environments,” those characterized by extended seasonal drought. Absent herds of large animals to process the biomass into a form available to soil organisms, organic matter tended to cycle more often through fire than through earth, exaggerating the loss of carbon from soils already depleted and subject to high temperatures for much of the year. While Savory, and his intellectual predecessor Frenchman Andre Voisin, emphasized intensive grazing by herd animals, Pain faced a dry mountainous landscape where resinous plants were dominant. Unsuitable for most grazing animals, the brush-wood, which amounted to as much as 50 ton / hectare (20 ton / acre) was a huge reservoir of volatile fuel for an ever-increasing number of human-caused fires scourging the Mediterranean littoral (seashore).

A modern Prometheus, Pain sought to domesticate this demon for human use. His studies had revealed the essential mystery of humus and its role in soil fertility. The creation of long-chain carbon molecules by a biological alchemy made soils and the environments based on them, more supple, better capable of holding magic substance could be “cultured” by providing supportive conditions for bacteria and fungi to digest plant material: ample moisture, controlled atmosphere and temperature and the continuous diffusion of oxygen into the mass were sufficient.

But though the raw material was abundant in the Provencal forests, its collection required chainsaws and motorized transport, and its processing required grinding to increase the surface area and hasten breakdown. Collection and grinding required industrial fuels and machinery, albeit simple: trucks, tractors, power saws. How then to close this economic and energy loop? By capturing energy from the composting process.

I love how he took forest underbrush, and with the help of bacteria, made hot water, methane, electricity, and garden compost. The man was a genius.

Chickens in Early Winter

2011-12-11T11:10:00.004-06:00

It was 15º (F) last night. They seemed a little subdued when I let them out of the coop this morning, but were all frostbite free.

We've had no snow here until December 9th, unusual. H2 took these pictures a week or two before that.

Drying Out Potting Mix in Fall

2011-12-10T03:33:00.028-06:00

Like El over at Fast Grow the Weeds, we sometimes wonder if it's all been said before. Does anyone really care what we do with our SIP potting mix in autumn? Based on a few emails we've received, it's possible. The photo above, sadly bereft of green, tells the story: after the last harvest in early fall we dump all our 5-gallon SIPs and get the potting mix into the warm air and sun to dry it out as much as possible.

Look at all the roots at the bottom of this top bucket. Should they be freezing and then decomposing come spring? We reserve a bin for all this vegetative matter, load it up, and send it down to the compost heap.

Drying out the mix is a quiet practice done over time, but worth it for the health of the mix and next year's plants. We also rotate the potting mix so the same plants aren't growing in it the following year. If you're not growing on a roof (or even if you are), there are many ways to accomplish the same idea we show here.

By the way, earthbox instructions say you can plant and replant the following year without removing the mix. As you'll note from these photos, that's not possible with the smaller 5-gal SIPs. Roots end up occupying virtually all available space. As for our two adopted earthboxes, we empty them too, but in the spring.

Step by step...

1--Clip all top-growing foliage and compost it.

2--Turn SIPs on their sides to drain water from the reservoirs.

Once they're drained, I stand them up and remove the shower cap covering so the top can breathe. It's worth noting that over the period of weeks it takes to dry out potting mix you'll inevitably get some rain. Toss a tarp over the SIPs so they don't get soaked again.

3--Empty the top grow bucket into a large bin or onto a tarp.

We use a livestock watering trough with a hinged wooden lid Art made for it to keep rain out (check the first photo to see it). Below you'll see the glorious root system from one of our smaller SIPs. Jab at it with a shovel to loosen the mix and grab the stem at top and shake. A lot of mix will come off. You know what to do with the plant material...

Now you'll have some likely damp or even wet potting mix in your large trough.

4--Shovel out the damp mix and lay it into the bottom of plastic bins like these.

Or, if you're not growing on a roof as we are, you could just spread it out onto tarps. The key is to maintain a thin layer of mix, positioned so the sun gets at it. Once the top is dry, mix it up to expose the damp underlayer and keep at it until it's all dry.

Yes, it's a process. Once we get the mix dry in the smaller bins, we add more damp mix to it and re-expose to sun and air. Soon these bins fill up with dry mix. We then position on top a square piece of treated plywood with a brick to hold it down and keep rain out. Remember, it all stays on the roof over our Chicago winter.

5--Keep track of what grew where.

I emptied all the potting mix from the tomatoes and, once dried in the smaller bins, poured it all into the large trough. Next spring, when I'm ready to plant the young greens (around St Paddy's day), I'll start with the tomato mix in the trough--avoiding any potting mix that grew greens this year.

Someone (probably my snarky brother) asked: wouldn't it be easier to grow in the ground? The answer of course is yes, if you have a planting area that gets full sun.

But we don't.

SIPs are astonishingly productive and there are lots of approaches you could use to dry your potting mix. However you proceed, we recommend it.

Here's to a healthy growing season in 2012!

Homemade Arugula Pesto: In 3 Easy Steps

2011-12-05T17:08:00.049-06:00

Last week I was lucky to be gifted a pound of fresh organic Arugula grown at the Plant, a vertical farm in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. As a volunteer/intern it's a nice little perk for some fun work.

Here's how I preserved my precious pound of Arugula...

The key ingredients: Here's my fresh organic Arugula and some homegrown hardneck garlic which I harvested a few months ago. I like growing a garlic called "Music", it's easy to grow, stores well (for at least 9 months) and I love the intense flavor. Once you start growing your own garlic you'll never go back to the store bought stuff!

Arugula Pesto Ingredients:

4 cups of Arugula which is approximately a 1/2 lb.
1 cup shaved Asiago cheese
10 to 12 cloves of garlic with their skins on for toasting
1 cup of walnuts
1 fresh lemon
1 tsp. Kosher salt
Pepper to taste

Steps:

1) Toast walnuts in heavy pan till golden brown.

2) Separate garlic cloves with skins on and toast in a heavy pan for about 10 minutes, let cool, then remove skins.

3) Place all ingredients in a food processor and mix till smooth and creamy.

You can enjoy your pesto now or freeze it for later use. Here's how I prepared mine for the freezer:

I used styrofoam egg cartons to freeze my pesto. This works well when you don't have an extra ice cube tray handy.

I froze my pesto in the freezer overnight (10 hours) and the next morning I packaged them. I found that the pesto cubes released from the carton easily when you soaked the bottom in warm water for about 5 minutes. Egg cartons are also great for making ice cubes or freezing herbs.

You can also freeze your pesto in a plastic bag. Just lay it flat on a cookie sheet or small pan till frozen. It's easy to store, just break off what you need then place it back in the freezer.

Hope you'll try this delicious recipe. Thank you Carla for sharing your organic Arugula!

Homegrown, Hand-Rolled Cigars

2011-11-30T18:14:00.000-06:00

Tobacco varieties we grew

In response to a question about rolling cigars on this post, my brother Chris steps in to guest post. Take it away...

So after reading everything I could on the internet, and still not fully sure what I was doing, I decided to try my had at rolling a cigar.

First step - Create a form for the cigars to be pressed into to make a somewhat uniformly sized cigar.

Second step - Find a binder wrapper. This is the initial leaf that's used to wrap the filler to create your rough cigar. Even though we had 3 types of leaves, I found it was easiest just to find a leaf that was in good enough shape (no holes or tears, as well as being pliable enough roll).

Pause while H2 inserts a photo of Chris's first drying step--hung them in his garage (hi Elvis). When they started getting dry he moved the leaves to his cellar, where there's more humidity, keeping an eye out for mold, though none appeared. This photo illustrates how tobacco grows in different-sized leaves, some better for use as a wrapper. (It also illustrates how nice it is to have a garage to store stuff in.)

Third step - Filler. Some sites recommended cutting the filler to create a more uniform cigar. But I hate to chew a cigar with cut tobacco, so I opted to use the full leaf. I grabbed enough leaf, hoping it would fit in the mold. Wrapped that leaf in the wrapper (the initial roll needs to be pretty tight), glued it with egg white, and pressed it into the form. Some seemed a little loose, others I needed to really press in. I guess the correct amount of leaf comes from experience.

Fourth step - Pressure. After filling the form with 10 cigars, place a piece of wood on top and press. The cigars are left in the form for a few days to dry. Some sites say to put the forms in the oven on low for an hour to dry, but I just let them dry naturally.

Last step - Final wrap. For the final roll, I sprayed the leaves (probably should spray the leaves for the initial roll, too) with a sprayer and let them soak up the water. This made them much easier to work with. I had enough good leaves to make a smooth final wrap.

Postprandial Thanksgiving cigars

Growing Tobacco Using Sub Irrigation

2011-11-29T09:12:00.001-06:00

Quick update on growing tobacco in SIPs (sub irrigated planters), a project started by a friend this spring and carried forth by a village of curious folk.

Cut to the chase: tobacco loves sub irrigation.

Part of the harvest, drying upstairs, from our roof and Bruce's.

And on Thanksgiving, cigars to share, hand-rolled by my brother, who grew the same varieties in his in-ground organic garden...

Harvest for the World

2011-11-24T10:56:00.000-06:00

Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need
(or possibly 99%)

So dress me up for battle
When all I want is peace
Those of us who pay the price
come home with the least
And nation after nation
Are turning into beasts
When will there be a harvest for the world?

Most Store Honey Isn't Honey

2011-11-20T21:31:00.000-06:00

Real bees taking a break

from making real honey

on a hot hot Chicago summer night

Read this not-so-sweet report on adulterated honey:

"There is only one reason to ultra-filter honey and there's nothing good about it..."

Colossal Egg, Fairy Egg

2011-11-17T19:55:00.000-06:00

Outdoor life clearly suits Bruce's hens. They strut and scratch happily all over his yard, turning up the soil in his herb garden. Recently, a couple of oddities.

Last week:

the 91-gram egg

Complete with double yolk

Look at that giant!

Today, the 11.9-gram fairy egg

Tiny testament

to our 27-degree F low last night?

Let's crack the little guy open and see what we've got...

Mostly white,

with the faintest promise of a yolk

Jerry's SIP Report from Central Texas

2011-11-15T16:53:00.000-06:00

Hello again after too long. We've been drying our potting mix--more on those autumnal duties soon. But today, meet GRG reader Jerry from Central Texas...

We love when readers write to tell us how SIPs work where they live, and this report beautifully illustrates the water-sparing action of sub irrigation.

I became interested in SIPs because the idea of using less water appealed to me. With traditional container gardening it would be necessary to water a couple of times a day in a climate such as the one I live in. This year we have had 80 days of over 100 degrees and because of that very frequent watering would be necessary with other types of vegetable gardens.

Pity the peppers up front...weak, yellowing, and probably thirsty.

The ones in the foreground, in the raised beds, were planted the same day in early Sept. as the ones in the SIPs behind them. The 2 plants in the SIPs were about 3 times as large and had more peppers per plant. Also, I watered the plants in the raised bed at least twice as frequently. Here in central Texas we have had only one measurable rain since I planted the peppers.

Another aspect that I like about SIPs is that weeding is not necessary. Even though I mulch my raised beds I sometimes have very severe weeding problems. With the SIPs I only had to pull one blade of grass.

This...

...or this?

After this initial try with the SIPs I can see that they are the way to go in a climate such as we have here.

Jerry notes he's raising worms and wonders if he can use the vermicompost in SIPs. The answer is yes, if in limited fashion. Both Bruce and I have added a couple cups of worm castings to our SIPs with good results, so go for it. And thanks, Jerry, for checking in.

London Launches the First Farm:shop

2011-10-26T09:29:00.007-05:00

Using an empty retail space, Something & Son, a sustainable-living focused design practice is launching the first FARM:shop. Think chickens on the roof, fish tanks in the shopfront and live animals in the shop. They'll also grow fruits and veggies and serve food in the cafe downstairs. Like the space? It's available to rent for events too. All profit will go to teach people how to grow food. Would love one in Chicago!

Growing Food in Milk Crates

2011-10-24T17:42:00.000-05:00

These milk crates could easily be lined with an impermeable fabric and then sub irrigated. I like the manageable size and handles, ideal for moving into full sun anywhere. Read more here.

Last Harvest (Redux)

2011-10-19T15:22:00.000-05:00

One mo' harvest Oct 19. The beans are flourishing in a way they apparently couldn't during the wicked heat of summer. And note the tomatoes. When you learn what grows well for you where you live, pay attention.

In our case, Matina, from Reimer Seeds.

Planted on June 5, Matina produced through our bizarre summer and I just picked another dozen. And yes, next year we'll plant two of these. The flavor is just as the description says: as full-bodied as a larger tomato.

58 days. Lycopersicon esculentum. Plant produces good yields of 2 to 4 oz red tomatoes. The taste is so good it would normally only be found in huge beefsteak varieties. A very early producing variety that bears continuously throughout the season. Excellent for salads and sandwiches. This is a potato leaf strain. A heirloom variety from Germany.

They're predicting winds of up to 60 mph later today and we're already having gusts of 40 mph. Art went up this morning and removed the fabric cover from the gazebo. Prudent.

On my way to tie down random loose ends I visited this dino kale on the second floor windowsill, loving the chill and rain.

Up on the roof, Rooster Spur from SSE, another favorite and reliable producer. We dry and grind the peppers for use during winter.

Coming back downstairs with a box of fresh roof produce like this makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world.

Hens in the Hostas

2011-10-12T21:02:00.000-05:00

Bruce began letting the hens out of their coop this week to forage in the yard, and I walked over today to check the scene. Most invigorating to see these gorgeous Rhode Island Reds out and about.

Bottoms up as they scratch for bounty

They're not as eager as you might think to move from coop via the stoop to the growth. In fact, many stay behind. Bruce lifted these girls up.

Carl occasionally gets too close and then there's a sudden flurry of feathers.

But mainly he's on the hunt for chicken poo, garden snack supreme

Endless Summer, Precious Harvest

2011-10-11T18:31:00.001-05:00

Autumn harvests somehow seem the most precious, unlikely color in the fading fall light. On this full-moon Tuesday in Chicago it feels like endless summer in October.

Tom Skilling says our current warm spell will produce the longest stretch of late-season 70+ degree temps in 40 years...

Our extraordinary rain-free, late-season warm spell, which has dominated the past week, isn't over yet---but its days are definitely numbered! Highs in the 70s Tuesday and Wednesday will extend to ten the consecutive number of days which have reached or exceeded 70-degrees. That's the most to occur in October in nearly four decades. But sustaining that level of warmth at this time of year is difficult and signs of a significant pattern readjustment are coming into focus.

Tired of the Negativity

2011-10-10T20:28:00.001-05:00

Nicely done, Joaquin Nuño-Whelan!

Brilliant Yolks, Beautiful Omelets

2011-10-06T15:24:00.001-05:00

Look at the color of this omelet in process. There's simply no comparison between factory-raised eggs and the ones we get from Bruce's hens. According to the folks at Dragonwood....

What’s this mean for you? If you haven’t had them, true free-range eggs from chickens that roam around eating grass and crickets and worms and seeds are remarkable. For one thing, they have deep orange yolks, much more colorful than the pale yellow things you get in eggs you buy at the grocery store.

They’re so colorful because this varied diet gives them lots and lots of beta carotene, giving free range eggs much more beta carotene that regular USDA factory-farm eggs give you.

Save a few greens for the girls down the street from the accompanying stir-fry...

Tomatoes 2011

2011-09-29T17:54:00.000-05:00

Wind whipped, hail-damaged, and exposed to more than a week of 100-degree F temps, tomato season 2011 on our Chicago roof was one of extremes. Wish I'd taken the temperature during those hot-hot days and nights, as it likely reached 115 degrees up on the growing deck.

We ruminated about overwatering and blight, but in retrospect I'm satisfied with the explanation that tomatoes simply can't set fruit with high nighttime temperatures and big humidity. This photo shows the courageous plants on Sept 2, bedraggled but still producing a remarkable number of tomatoes in the more moderate weather.

And as much as we worry the weather, it was nothing like some of our fellow growers faced on the east coast.

Someone asked if, in light of the summer's tribulations, it was still worth growing tomatoes. Of course it is, for the return every gardener understands that has nothing to do with pounds of produce and everything to do with soul satisfaction.

Paying about $3 for two tomatoes at the farmers market one Sunday (between roof harvests) does sharpen the question. But in the end, for hunting and gathering food...there's no place like home.

Chicken Coop Tour Pictures

2011-09-28T10:23:00.006-05:00

This past Sunday my coop was one of 26 stops on a citywide tour. H2 came over and shot some pictures of the people who stopped by.

::::::::

I spent a fair amount of time securing the coop and run against predators. My friend Blake came up with an ingenious design for a raccoon proof latch on the nesting box that allows me to simply collect eggs. I bent the metal rod into shape; it works like a charm.

The idea is that the two spring loaded pins are farther apart than the armspan of a raccoon, so there's no way one could depress both latches at the same time. Conversely, it is an easy reach for a person, and designed to work well even while using gloves.

Pinching the moveable pin down to the fixed stop disengages the latch.

::::::

Here's a copy of the FAQ sheet I put out for the Coop Tour --

What Kind of Chickens Do I Have?
I have eight Rhode Island Reds, now 7 months old. They’re a popular choice for backyard flocks because of their egg-laying abilities and hardiness.

Is It Legal?
In Chicago, yes. The only relevant ordinances are prohibitions against noise and smell, as well as a ban on slaughtering. You can have as many as you like as long as they don't smell, make noise, and you don't slaughter them without the proper license. The smell is manageable with a supply of carbon material and the noise comes primarily from roosters, so they're out. If you want to eat your chickens, there are live poultry places in the city that will "process" your live chicken for you for a small fee.

Myself, I keep chickens for the eggs and the tiny ways they round out my life.

Where Did You Get Your Chickens?
This past February, I got them as two-day-old chicks from McMurray Hatchery in Iowa, costing about $3 each (including shipping). They came, via the US Post Office, in a 12" x 12" x 20" cardboard box that had one-inch air holes in it. Baby chicks can survive a couple days on the residual nutrients from their yolks, and thus can be shipped inexpensively. McMurray Hatchery has many different breeds to choose from--check them out online.

What Do They Eat?
The majority of their diet is a specially formulated organic Layer Ration containing soybean meal, corn, oats, wheat as well as several vitamins/trace elements, which costs about $ 0.60/pound from The Feed Store (located on Harlem Avenue just south of the Stevenson Expressway). Each of the chickens eats between 1/4 and 1/3 pound of feed per day. Combine that with the fact that, at this stage in their laying lives, they each average about 6 eggs per week. That breaks down to $ 0.18 - $0.24/egg, just for the feed.

I also give them all my kitchen scraps, especially greens from carrots, turnips, and beets, and with a few exceptions they eat it all. This lowers the feed cost as well as providing them with a richer diet and returning to me more compostable material. In addition, I give them all the weeds I pull from my yard.

How Many Eggs Do You Get?
They started laying smallish eggs, about 45 grams, at roughly age 5 months. Now they lay eggs in the low 50-gram range, considered "medium" by egg-grading standards. About once a week I get a double yolk, with the egg weighing over 75 grams, considered "jumbo." As they get older, their eggs will gradually get bigger, topping out at an average of 60 grams, or "extra large."

Each hen will lay roughly 1000 eggs in her lifetime, averaging nearly one daily from age 6 months to 18 months, eventually going down to one or two a week as she ages.

How Long Do They Live?
I've read as long as 12 years in rare instances. More common is 5 to 7 years.

Are Chickens Afraid of Humans?
On the contrary, many breeds are very social. I made an effort to acclimate them to human touch as they were growing up, encouraging visitors to pick them up and say hello. They still enjoy it now, as adults.

Don't You Need a Rooster to Get Eggs?
No. You need a rooster to fertilize an egg, from which a live chick hatches. My eggs, like almost all those you buy, are unfertilized. The hens don't know or care--they'll lay anyway. If I wanted to hatch new chicks, I'd need fertilized eggs.

Why Do the Hens Lay in the Same Nesting Box All the Time?
Left to her own devices, a hen will lay her eggs in the same dark, quiet spot every day until she gets a clutch of 5 or 6. When that happens, and if she is "broody," she’ll sit on them until they hatch (in about 20 days). Of course that couldn't happen here because none of the eggs are fertilized. Also, one of the characteristics of Rhode Island Reds is that they don't go broody, meaning they lay the egg and walk away (at which I point I collect the egg). Something important to consider if, like me, you're keeping chickens primarily for eggs.

What Happens to the Waste?
I use the Deep Litter Bedding method. This involves nothing more than adding to the chicken run handfuls of carbon, in my case coffee chaff (available free from any coffee house that roasts its own beans) and/or straw a couple times a week to absorb the accumulated waste. This keeps the smell almost non-existent, and the bedding ultimately becomes a large compost pile.

I do the same in the coop, but sweep the clumpy carbon/waste mixture out into the run once a month or so. I keep adding carbon until the bed is about 8 inches thick, which takes about a year, at which time I'll move it to my compost bin where it can finish “cooking.” Then it'll go onto my garden beds. In the meantime the chickens scratch and dig in the accumulated carbon/waste, effectively turning over and aerating their bed, causing it to compost even faster in place.

How Much Did the Coop and Run Cost?
I spent about $500 on materials and roughly 200 hours to build it. I came up with a design after looking online and reading several books that outlined what sort of design criteria should be addressed--i.e., number of square feet per bird required in coop and run, ventilation requirements, number and placement of nesting boxes, predator (raccoon) proofing, winterizing, water supply, electric needs (if any), ease of cleaning, and so on.

The coop is 48 square feet, the run is 120 square feet. Holding to the ratios suggested by experts, I could have up to 12 chickens in the space.

Do Chickens Make Noise?
Yes! Even though I don't have a rooster, the hens make several distinct noises, some of them quite loud. Most of the loud noise comes from hens wanting to go into a nesting box to lay and finding their preferred box occupied. They make a loud ba-gawk! ba-gawk! noise to announce their displeasure and the hen inside the nesting box (sometimes) screeches like a cat in heat, expressing her alarm. Eventually they double up, but there's a lot of drama along the way. I've taken to spraying the ba-gawkers with water from a squirt bottle. It seems to be having an effect.

I have read that you need just one nesting box for every four hens, so in theory this shouldn't be the issue. I've tried adding another box, but they won't use it.

What Is Your Daily Chicken Routine?
I refresh feed and water every 3 to 4 days. My waterer is an ordinary 5-gallon bucket with poultry nipples screwed into the bottom. The chickens drink by pecking at the nipple, releasing drops of water with each contact. This method keeps their water clean with minimum fuss. In winter I'll put a special heater with thermostat inside the bucket to keep ice from forming.

I collect eggs every day. Several of my neighbors welcome the eggs, as I can't eat them all. As a (hopefully) short-term project, I also spend an hour or so each day with my spray bottle trying to get the chickens not to ba-gawk so much. My immediate neighbors claim it doesn't bother them, but I don't want to abuse their good will.

A couple of times a week, or whenever I can smell excess ammonia, I add carbon in the form of coffee chaff.

What Happens to Chickens in the Winter?
They'll stay outdoors in their coop. It provides shelter from moisture and wind and they have down coats that they use to keep themselves warm. By puffing up their feathers, they loft up their down. Their egg production will drop as they spend more (food) energy staying warm rather than producing eggs.

Some people add a small light bulb to provide a little warmth on especially cold days. My understanding is that they don't need supplemental heat.

Can I See Your Chickens Online?
Yes, I write periodic updates on them at our rooftop vegetable blog, Green Roof Growers (google it).
....................................

Some great resources
Backyard Chickens.com

Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts google group

I highly recommend this book:
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow

Roofgrown Peppers

2011-09-23T18:28:00.000-05:00

Jimmy Nardello and Carmen peppers from our roof and Bruce's, before and after the broiler.

The O'Hare Airport Aeroponic Vegetable Garden

2011-09-21T17:10:00.014-05:00

O'Hare airport now has an aeroponic vertical garden in terminal 2 and 3 and the restaurants on site utilize the fresh produce. Check out the video below to learn more.

Salad to go please!

Mobile Garden Featured in Chicago's Art on Track

2011-09-21T08:35:00.001-05:00

Early Saturday, Joe Baldwin of the Mobile Garden Project stopped by to pick up a SIP-ful of rooster spur peppers, hauled down from its rooftop perch and sporting a fresh label, all set for her first CTA train ride.

Art on Track is a mobile art gallery on board a CTA train. The Art on Track train circles just the loop elevated track. The public is invited to board the train in order to view the art work. Art on Track takes place Saturday, September 17th between 5pm and 10pm.

More in-process pix at flickr. I like shots like these because you're reminded how stark the day-to-day version of these train cars actually is.

Mr Brown Thumb made a nice vid of Joe's completed train car. Well done!

Upgraded Fruit Fly Trap

2011-09-19T07:04:00.000-05:00

Doors open all summer, fresh produce being chopped all day...we gotcher fruit flies right here. When I started to see larvae in my easy fruit fly trap (at left) I knew it was time for a fresh start.

Debbie told me how to make the sleeker version from a recycled water bottle. Just slice and invert the top, add the elixir (water, cider vinegar, squirt of detergent), and make sure you tape the edge so they can't fly out.

Next time I'd put a rock in the bottom of the water bottle to provide some ballast.

WeI have a new batch of unfortunates already...

Sunflowers

2011-09-16T17:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a sunflower volunteer that sprang up from a random seed in our garden. The complexity is breathtaking.

One of the happiest flowers: swaying, dancing in the breeze, nodding their sunny faces. Apparently they're also volunteering for this heartbreaking duty at Fukushima ...

But there's also an effort to decontaminate and lift spirits. Fukushima is distributing 20m sunflower seeds to suck up the cesium radionuclides that have permeated the soil. The towering yellow flowers now adorn gardens, farm fields and roadside plots. Although they brighten the landscape, their stalks and petals concentrate the radioactivity and will later have to be burned or left to decompose in a controlled environment.

The sunflowers are the brainchild of Kouyuu Abe, a Zen monk who owns a temple just outside Fukushima city and is committed to the "fight against radiation". He allows people to dump the irradiated soil from their gardens on the hillside behind his temple, where it will be buried and covered with zeolite. He is also planning to decontaminate the forests with high pressure sprays so the leaves are less of a hazard when they fall in the autumn.

Windy City Coop Tour

2011-09-13T08:40:00.001-05:00

I decided to include my coop in this event*, taking place on Sunday, September 25th. There are 25 different sites, all private homes, where people are showing how they raise chickens in the city.

Chicago chicken keepers invite you to learn from their personal experiences with backyard chickens! Visit their coops and hens, ask questions, and take photos.

Make your own route and visit any or all of the 25 locations between 11AM and 2PM.

MAP of locations and site info

* Please respect the privacy of our Tour Hosts and Their Flocks by visiting only on the day and hours of the Tour.
* Children supervised by adults are welcome on the Tour.
* DO NOT BRING DOGS or other pets.
* Stay within the boundaries around homes and coops that Hosts designate for visitors.
* If a given yard is full when you arrive, you may be asked to wait momentarily until the crowd thins.
* Restrooms, drinking water, and snacks will not be provided by the sites on the Tour -- so plan accordingly and bring what you need with you.
* Street parking may be scarce. Consider taking public transit and/or riding a bike on the Tour!

Tour Passports will be on sale at each site for $3 while supplies last.
Windy City Coop Tour t-shirts (very limited edition) are also available while supplies last.

*Despite thinking that proclaiming that I keep chickens in the city has a Stuff White People Like vibe about it.

Planting Seeds for Winter Greens

2011-09-07T15:31:00.000-05:00

We've been seed-starting, hopeful for a big crop of beloved greens this fall and winter.

Used the re-purposed spinach box travel SIPs--with spinach box cloche to prompt germination. Upstairs on the second floor they get plenty of south light and the ever-busy autumn squirrels aren't tempted to dig around in them.

We'll grow greens upstairs indoors as in previous years, but also we'll try a low tunnel over the raised bed Art built this spring against the south wall of a building out back. The compost we filled it with had sunk with all our summer rain, so Art scooped out some rough compost to raise the level.

I laid it in and topped it with some bags of mushroom compost.

The Red Giant mustard (via Hudson Valley Seed Library) we seeded in this travel SIP practically sprang forth overnight.

Some of the other seeds germinated spottily.

I went up to the roof to investigate a few of the SIPs we'd let go to seed and found that this Wrinkled Crinkled Crumpled Cress (Wild Garden Seed) had re-seeded itself, so I brought the young starts down to the raised bed to plant, along with some tiny baby bok choy starts.

Still awaiting our collection bag on the roof: lettuces, kale, and collards that have produced copious seed pods.

The seeds started in the travel SIPs have beautifully developed root systems--sub irrigation works.

In the photo below, upper left is a couple rows of Perpetual Spinach Chard (Bountiful Gardens) that I direct seeded. This spinach/chard is my favorite new green tried in 2011. Also direct seeded some upland cress (Victory Seeds--from 3 years ago). Both came up nicely, though a few other seed types did not.

Click to enlarge: tiny plants establishing already, drinking in the cool temps (as are we) and awaiting their tunnel covering later this year. I started a bunch more seeds in travel SIPs (aka portable microgardens--click here to see how to plant) this morning, which I'll transplant in a couple weeks.

Anyone have a recommendation for approach on the tunnel?

Rhode Island Reds: A Portrait

2011-09-03T18:22:00.000-05:00

Such beautiful healthy girls, unperturbed by my opening their nesting box from the outside, via the egg-collection trap door.

And such individuals

Compare and contrast

We all know where this leads...

Folks This Ain't Normal: Joel Salatin, Polyface Farms

2011-09-02T11:27:00.001-05:00

I don't watch many vids, so special thanks to Bruce for the refer on this killer-good one. Sit back with Joe Salatin and ponder how cocked up the food system is, all the while hoping his perfectly titled book sells a million copies and starts a real debate.

ps: focusing on approving a pipeline for toxic tar sands seems like the very antithesis of this.

Touring the Roof Garden at Chicago's Schwab Rehab Hospital

2011-08-30T19:07:00.000-05:00

Sinai Health System here in Chicago includes both Mount Sinai Hospital and Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital. Here's a quick take of how Schwab's 10,000 square foot roof garden serves patients:

Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital's rooftop healing garden is an escape from the stress of the institutional environment, designed to meet the unique needs of rehabilitation patients. Therapists were active in the design process to ensure that the healing garden offered space for therapeutic activities; included design elements for sensory therapy; and was an inviting place for patients, families, and staff to relax during leisure time...evidence from other settings demonstrates that viewing or spending time in pleasant outdoor environments can reduce pain, anxiety, emotional distress, and complications.

Hooray for horticultural therapy (we're lucky to get ours closer to home).

If you've ever spent any time in a rehab place, you'll quickly grasp the benefits of this resource. From my own experience visiting my mother in a series of such care facilities, I'm certain these outdoor spaces are as vital to visitors as they are to residents. The freedom of patients and their guests to move out of the institutional setting and into fresh air is life-giving.

We enjoyed our visit last week to this peaceful space, thanks to our good friend Rob, who welcomed us during his lunch hour at Sinai and walked us over to the roof garden.

We strolled the gently curving banks of the stream...

...alive with thrashing koi.

Little Green Girl and a matching pink anemone.

We sat in the shade and had our picnic: rooftop tomato and basil salad, tomatillos, and cucumber cream cheese sammos made with Debbie's crisp cool homegrown Persian cukes.

More on Horticultural Therapy from Brenda Koverman, director of inpatient therapy, and an overview of the garden's structural particulars here:

Schwab’s Brenda Koverman reports that horticultural therapy will soon be a year-round program. “Speech and language pathologists are using the environmental setting to work on orientation and language as the patients maneuver through the park and garden. The space is also being used for memory skills, problem-solving, and pathfinding. Plus, simply working in the garden helps to develop standing balance and build hand strength.

Sinai's Mission. To improve the health of the individuals and communities we serve.
Sinai's Vision. To be the national model for the delivery of urban health care.

Both so clearly apparent up on this roof, where we saw a therapist working with a resident on a flower arrangement. "It's beautiful!" we called out. The patient smiled.

Mission accomplished, I'd say.

(Thanks to Debbie for sharing her photos)

Scoop in the Coop: Nesting Box Issues

2011-08-27T13:27:00.004-05:00

The final part of the video that H2 shot, it shows how a chicken wanting to lay an egg approaches a full nesting box.

My eight Rhode Island Reds have been laying for 7 weeks now. I'm happy with the number and size of their eggs; I'd also encourage anyone thinking about raising backyard chickens to seriously consider the breed. They've been a wonder, at times, to behold. I'm just trying to get a handle on the ba-gawking.

Equanimity

2011-08-27T10:52:00.000-05:00

Every gardener needs equanimity, and this photo shows the easy part of that.

Equanimity is operating from the state of supreme watchfulness without an iota of attachment or aversion...

More fresh eggs please, Bruce?

Scoop in the Coop: Behavior Modification

2011-08-24T13:14:00.004-05:00

This is the second part of H2's video showing what my chickens go through when they lay an egg. Part of that daily routine involves plenty of loud ba-gawking, something that I'm trying to discourage given how close my neighbors are to the coop. To make matters worse it goes on for 2-3 hours while all the chickens go through the nesting/laying cycle. Every day.

Two weeks after starting spraying them with water immediately after they make the noise, I think they've toned it down a bit.

None of the online chicken forums, nor the guidebooks that I've consulted, really address how loud chickens can be. In particular, Damerow's "Guide to Raising Chickens" makes no mention of my breed, Rhode Island Reds, being particularly noisy. The online conversation at places like Backyard Chickens isn't much better. The consensus is that placating neighbors with eggs is the answer. Another unsupported assertion is that the hens are doing a "happy" egg laying dance. Bull. They make the noise when they're alarmed or upset, as well as when they're nowhere near laying an egg.

August 2011 Rooftop Tomato Update

2011-08-22T19:11:00.000-05:00

Lower left, the Wapsipinicon peach (a beauty that's lightly fuzzed like a peach with a rose blush) and at lower right the indispensable Matina, flavorful, reliable. The small yellow cherry tomato is brilliantly sweet, and has been a steady producer. Plus, the first of the purple beans, Royalty Purple.

Most of our tomatoes have been on the small side, plenty for daily eating, fine flavor, and oh how we savor them.

Since we posted Aug 4 about the sad state of the tomatoes, I visited my brother's in-ground organic garden just outside the city. While he's got a harvest, it's not as robust as usual and the lower third of his plants are fried in the same way ours are. And just like ours, the top of the plants show good recovery, presumably due to the last several weeks of moderate summer weather.

So there are some tomatoes. Just not the piles a greedy gardener hopes for.

This was illuminating (via Washington State University extension):

Optimum fruit set occurs within a very narrow night temperature range of between 60° F and 70° F. When tomato plants experience night temperatures lower than 55° F or above 75° F, interference with the growth of pollen tubes prevents normal fertilization. The pollen may even become sterile, thus causing the blossoms to drop. High daytime temperatures, rain, or prolonged humid conditions also hamper good fruit set.

I think we had all that in Chicago this summer.

Still...

Scoop in the Coop: In Which Bruce Discusses Chicken Anatomy

2011-08-21T13:06:00.004-05:00

H2 came over and shot some video of my chickens as they were hanging around the coop and nesting boxes prior to laying their eggs.

Gail Damerow's "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" taught me how the dual purpose egg/crap canal works.

Over the course of a couple hours every morning, the chickens make a series of loud ba-gawking noises prior to laying an egg. In some cases this is because their preferred nesting box is already occupied and they refuse to use one of the other two boxes. Other times all the boxes are full and they don't want to double up, though they will eventually. While they work up the "courage" to move into an already occupied nest, they'll walk around the coop loudly ba-gawking. It's really loud. Really loud.

In the next part of this video you'll see how I'm trying to get them to stop making so much noise.

Undaunted by Extreme Heat: Tomtillos, Eggplant, Peppers, Melon (plus Yard-Long Beans)

2011-08-17T17:17:00.003-05:00

It would be an understatement to say the roof garden was tested by the weather this summer, especially the weeklong string of 100+ degree F days, bringing temps to near 120 degrees F up on the roof. But the tomatillos thrived, getting big and fat (note coin for scale).

I now think the heat drove our tomatoes to near extinction, but we'll post separately on that.

Today we're featuring roof-grown food in SIPs that thrived in 2011's extreme Chicago weather

Tomatillos
By the way, I learned something about why our tomatillos are so sweet from this site.

It's a key ingredient of Mexican salsa verde when harvested immature. When ripe, it turns from pale green to golden and the flavor is sweeter.

Aha! Harvested immature for salsa. Too late for that and no wonder they're sweet enough for our raw fruit in the morning. Tomatillos grew like crazy in an earthbox and are now turning yellow. Time to harvest them all.

Eggplant
Eggplant have been producing steadily all summer, these pingtung long and Listada among them, apparently unfazed by the extraordinary heat.

Of the three kinds, I'll admit a preference for the long ones based on their incredible ease of preparation: slice lengthwise, saute in coconut oil two minutes a side over medium-high heat, and enjoy. Or chop and add herbs. Or miso. Or etc.

Peppers
I guess it's no secret peppers love heat. Some of our sweet peppers bear a circular brown spot at their tips, testament to the large hail that came over the July 4 weekend.

Jimmy Nardello, hugely prolific

Carmen, excellent raw

or stuffed (last year w/refried beans and cheese)

Rooster Spur,

hot as the dickens

Little Bells, torn from the mother plant

by extreme wind

Melon
We're this/close to chilling and putting a knife to these...

This little icebox watermelon

is growing through its climbing grid

L to R: Rainbow sherbet, Golden midget, and not sure

Japanese icebox watermelon,

seeds from Debbie and Little Green Girl in a seed swap

Yard-long beans

A fun variety we received via Debbie and Little Green Girl in our seed swap way back in February when it was ten below. These babies steam up nice and tender. They're flavorful...and a hoot to watch grow.

The jasmine, too, loves its SIP and is climbing our arch, scenting the roof garden beautifully.

Debbie's Garden Tour: Melons

2011-08-15T14:10:00.019-05:00

The Melon Garden

Japanese Hime Kansen Melon

Tigger Melon

Japanese New Melon

Korean Ginkau Melon

Food from Friends and the Roof

2011-08-12T15:41:00.000-05:00

Bruce's Rhode Island Reds produce my favorite protein resource, with rich, deeply colored yolks. We're lucky to have the hens just down the block. First egg I cracked from the latest dozen was a double yolker.

Debbie sent along some lovely pungent garlic from her garden.

Along with the non-stop Jimmy Nardello peppers from the roof...anyone else spot a killer omelet on the horizon?

"Most often double yolk eggs are laid by young hens of productive egg laying breeds"

If you're feeling like a little double-yolk entertainment, check out this vid featuring English cake-maker Charlotte Matthews, who cracked 29 double-yolked eggs from a box of 30. Sorry for the spoiler...

A Children's Garden

2011-08-12T14:03:00.019-05:00

Last month I attended the AHS (American Horticulture Society) Children and Youth Symposium in Lansing Michigan. Attendees came from across the nation and as far as India. There were teachers, garden educators, Master Gardeners, horticulturist, scientist and more. We came from very different educational backgrounds but together we were like-minded people passionate about teaching and sharing our knowledge about plants and gardening to children and youth. During the 4-day symposium we enjoyed some interesting workshops, shared resources, networked, and took part in 3 field trips to some children’s gardens: Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden, Dow Children’s Garden and the Lena Meijer Children’s Garden.

I was inspired by the people I met, what I learned, and the garden visits. Here’s a recap of my favorites:

The Michigan 4-H Children’s Garden

The Michigan 4-H Children's Garden has over 56 individual garden themes built upon a mere half acre of land-- quite small in contrast to newer gardens designed for children but every inch is packed with creativity, inspiration, interactivity and fun. This seems to be one of the best ways to engage kids to learn about plants and gardening.

What’s 4-H stand for? The H’s stand for Head, Heart, Hands and Health... the whole person. It’s the largest out of school program in the nation and the clover logo and motto is to “Make The Best Better.” Their philosophy is “Learning by Doing.”

Jane Taylor the original curator of the 4-H Michigan Children's garden and horticulturist designed the garden in 1993 based on ideas and feedback from children. Today Dr. Norm Lownds the curator, and Jessica Wright, the education coordinator, provide educational programs to over 10,000 people each year including schools and families.

Thank you Jane Taylor (left) for blazing the trail. You have been inspiring and encouraged us to share our love of the garden with children.

Meet Dr. Nathen Phillips, who enjoyed playing a brilliant horticulturist and tour guide at the 4-H Children’s garden. Come fall, he’ll trade in his white lab coat and head back to school. He hopes to study Computer Science at MSU in the future. Nathen was very knowledgeable and showed us most of the unusual plants in the garden. Thanks for the fun tour Nathen. Loved your enthusiasm!

Here's a Quick Response code or QR code. These "techie" looking signs were sprinkled through-out the garden next to various plants. Attendees were given i-Pods (smart phones work too) pre-loaded with an app that scanned and read the code on the sign and then linked to a web page containing plant information. QR codes were originally created in Japan in 1994 by Toyota to quickly decode content. Who would ever think they would be so useful as a learning tool for a garden?

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt game. Players are given GPS trackers to help locate a cache/small box loaded with treasures within the garden. Only one rule: if you take something, you must leave something, and then you are required to write something about your visit in the log book. Geocaching apps are now available for select smart phone, I’ll have to check this out one day and leave some seeds in a cache.

One of the highlights of the garden was experiencing some unusual plants. Many of us were in awe and wonderment over a plant that smelled EXACTLY like peanut butter. The Melianthus “Honey Bush” plant may be consumed as a tea and our tour guide noted that the peanut butter essence has also been utilized in food products.

This beautiful plant, a Senna didymobotrya, smelled just like the buttered popcorn you get at the movies. I was tempted to taste it, but didn’t. I had some serious doubts that it wouldn't have tasted as good as it smelled.

Here’s an eyeball plant or an Spilanthes oleracea, placing the flower on your tongue can numb it. It's also been prescribed by herbalist for toothaches.

Do plants really pass gas? Guess this one does, and it’s highly flammable. Here’s proof that you shouldn’t hold a flame to it either.

If there’s one non-edible plant that I’ve probably take for granted, its gotta be a cotton plant. Seeing how each pod (top) can only produce a small amount of cotton (bottom) I began to ponder how many plants and pods would be needed to produce a medium size T-shirt. Anyone know?

I loved the little tea garden area where cups and saucers were surrounded by various types of herbs.

Across from the tea garden was the peanut butter and jelly sandwich planter-- peanuts plants on top with strawberries in the middle.

Here’s the very popular dance chime. Check out the video of how it works.

Jessica Wright (left) the education coordinator and teacher extraordinaire at the 4-H Children's Garden and Keri, a happy symposium attendee. Note: The bag on Keri's head was the result of an ice-breaker facilitated by Jessica, not a bad hair day.

Welcome to the Curiosity Classroom which is part of the 4- H Garden program. Dr. Norm Lownds is the mastermind behind the QR codes in the children's garden. He is also known as Dr. Norm, a super hero on kidscom.com which is a virtual world for kids that integrates plant science education, gardening, cooking, social networking and more for kids. He's helped develop the Kidscom.com site and holds on-line learning lab discussion (chats) on various topics. His commitment, energy and passion for teaching children is extremely creative.

The Butterfly Garden Workshop

Nancy Sale is a butterfly expert and generously shared her knowledge and expertise with us at one of many symposium workshops. We were shown beautiful caterpillars and cocoon, we learned about plants that attract butterflies, habitats, and grant resources to fund butterfly garden projects. I learned a great deal from the class and hope to grow some additional butterfly plants and certify my Monarch Butterfly Waystation next summer.

Here's Nancy looking for caterpillars on kolrabi.

I believe this is a Swallowtail queen. Look closely and you'll see a triple set of antennas.

This is a Monarch butterfly cocoon, it seems to resemble a nugget of jade and the gold detail like fine jewelry.

The Michigan Herb Association

On Friday night the Michigan Herb Association prepared and served us wonderful appetizers with herbs freshly picked from the 4-H Children’s garden. Beautifully prepared and presented, I enjoyed every morsel and also learned how to make cheese rosettes with a Girolle machine.

Cherry tomatoes, basil and marinated cheese on mini skewers. Beautiful!

Here are a few members of the Michigan Herb Association volunteers that made us the incredible appetizers. Thank you again ladies, the appetizers were amazing!

During the Friday cocktail hour a nice lady demonstrated how to uses a Girollo, a machine that makes beautiful cheese rosettes from Raclette, a handmade Swiss cheese. The Racette cheese from Black Star Farms in Sutton Bay Michigan was nothing like I had ever tasted... rich, creamy, smooth, velvety soft and wonderful served on top of fresh cut juicy apples slices!

The Dow Children's Garden

Coolest scarecrow I've ever seen!

Melissa Butkiewicz is a horticulturist at Dow Children's garden and also runs the Growin' Gardeners program, an award winning 10 week gardening program for families wanting to learn how to garden and grow their own food. The program currently has 84 garden plots and 270 participants: everyone learns the basics of plant growth, weed and insect control and the use of gardening tools.

Meet some mini Master Gardeners who have been involved with the Growin' Gardeners program for many years; they've enjoyed selecting different vegetables and herbs and growing them in their 4' X 4' garden bed.

Here are some of the 84 Growin' garden beds tended by over 270 gardeners, as a part of the program each family makes their own scarecrow.

The symposium came to a close after 4 days. Jane Taylor was the closing keynote speaker and was funny, spirited and compassionate. I think many of us felt fortunate to hear firsthand about her life's work with the 4-H Children's garden and to learn more about the children's nature movement that was started by Liberty Baily back in 1909. His book "The Nature-Study Idea" is now available and downloadable for free at google books.

Fern Culhane and Penny Colgan-Davis, my dorm buddies at the symposium, also blogged about Jane's work and the founders of the nature movement at pennyandferngardeningwithkids.blogspot.com.

I believe this planter summed up the purpose of our symposium and what we shared.

At Last, Tomatoes

2011-08-11T21:37:00.000-05:00

Julia Child, Cosmonaut Volkov, Matina, black cherry, and yellow cherry tomatoes of unknown origin.

First real harvest of the season, and a relatively small one, but given the trials of this summer especially welcome.

These arrived a couple weeks later than 2010. Ate the small ones tonight for supper with torn lemon basil. BLTs tomorrow.

As a line cook I worked with many years ago once said: It ain't love, but it ain't bad.

The Plant Chicago Open House

2011-08-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

Open house noon to 4 at The Plant this Saturday, Aug 13, with tours on the half hour. Plus, free food and beer.

Plant Chicago is a nonprofit dedicated to promote sustainable food production, entrepreneurship, and building reuse through education, research and development. To this end, Plant Chicago is repurposing a 93,500 sq. ft. retired meatpacking facility, The Plant, into a net-zero energy vertical farm. A complex and highly interrelated system, one-third of The Plant will hold aquaponic growing systems and the other two-thirds will incubate sustainable food businesses by offering low rent, low energy costs, and a licensed shared kitchen. The Plant will create 125 jobs in Chicago’s economically distressed Back of the Yards neighborhood – but, remarkably, these jobs will require no fossil fuel use. Instead, The Plant will divert over 6,500 tons of food waste from landfills each year to meet all of its heat and power needs.

Fresh-Dug Potatoes from Bruce's Roof--Cranberry Red

2011-08-07T14:01:00.000-05:00

My my my. I cannot begin to describe how creamy these gems are, fresh from the steamer (nestled in with some inferior farmer market potatoes).

But let's back up a sec. Occasional GRG blogger Brad shared some cranberry red seed potatoes with us in April. Bruce chitted them before planting.

Last day of July, my tobacca-harvesting pal Marc and I went over to cut down the plants Bruce had grown for the project.

And Bruce wondered aloud if the 'taters were ready, so we checked one of SIP bins.

As he dug around, he found a beauty.

But there were more to come...

A gorgeous bunch of cranberry red, gifted to me.

(Meanwhile, Carl monitors activity on the street from his post near the potato SIPs.)

So how did we enjoy the gumball-sized 'taters included in our bunch? With this bad pic, you'll see: after light steaming, we ate them lollipop style, rolled in French butter and kosher salt.

Life does not get better than that.

Easy Fruit Fly Trap

2011-08-05T19:29:00.000-05:00

It works. I now have a glass that's wicked with dead fruit flies at the bottom...

Mystery of the Rooftop Tomato Funk, 2011 Version

2011-08-04T18:29:00.000-05:00

As late as June 26 the tomatoes in the larger SIPs looked robust.

Because we planned to be away over the long 4th of July weekend, Art set up his excellent auto-watering system, a series of timers programmed for a daily fill of all our rooftop SIP reservoirs, including the large white ones, to overflowing. Ten days later, problems with the large-SIP tomatoes emerged.

Some yellowing on the Matina

...and other tomatoes in the large SIPs

Leaves curling

Purple pigmentation

And then we began a week of 100+ temps, which means it was likely closer to 115 degrees F on the roof. This was around July 17. I put up some sheets to shade the large-SIP tomatoes, Art helpfully pointing out that the sun, lower in the sky now, would still blast them.

He created a better sun block from some brand-new, garbage-picked shades with tiny holes for air flow. One thing I knew for certain: the auto-watering system was a dream, keeping me from having to go to the roof even in the relatively cooler early morning hours to water.

The tomatoes looked awful, not setting flowers and yellowing up even more. Beyond this, they just looked spindly and not right.

Pause for a quick historical note: I bleach-scrubbed all the SIPs this spring. Insult to injury, I blended brand new potting mix (peat and perlite) for the larger white tomato SIPs to avoid the risk of pathogens overwintering. And now the funk seemed only to affect those same white SIPs.

How do I know? Because a scant ten feet away, tomatoes planted in 5-gal yellow SIPs were holding their own and even thriving in the extreme heat.

I had a thought, based on something I'd read over at Greenscaper Bob's blog Inside Urban Green over the years and also after checking online tomato problem photos. It's possible, of course, that we had a couple concurrent issues, but what about overwatering as a cause for the decline in the large-reservoir tomato SIPs? Bob says unequivocally that SIPs can be overwatered. Had we been drowning the plants in the larger SIPs by using the automatic watering system to fill their deep reservoirs to capacity every day?

We untied one of the tomatoes and Art lifted out the top bucket. Lots of roots, that's for sure, all of them sitting in water.

I siphoned the liquid out of every reservoir and began adding a measured amount of water to each of them every day, an enormously time-consuming job for someone used to automatic watering, I assure you.

Then (duh) Art suggested drilling a hole lower down on the reservoir bucket. We could always plug it for next year if this experiment didn't work.

Added to all this...weirdly, not ALL of the large-reservoir SIP tomatoes were sickly. Here's a Valencia and the elegant Julia Child that seem OK.

How lucky to have five tomatoes planted in 5-gal SIPs, not only as a control group in this unanticipated and haphazard experiment, but also for harvesting and enjoying. Here are some shots of them on July 31--Valencia, Cosmonaut Volkov, and Matina among them.

Art used some scrap lumber to build a nice strong support for them. We don't have one on this SIP run, because we use it mostly for lower growing greens and vegetables that don't require support. Because Bruce grew so many beautiful tomato starts, I couldn't resist planting a few extras. Happy I did.

So how are the large SIPs doing with their smaller water reservoirs? Difficult to say. Because I'm an eternal optimist, I sometimes think I see a revival. This black cherry is producing, and appears a bit healthier at top. Same with the lovely small yellow tomato whose name is unknown to me (I hadn't realized I'd even planted a yellow tomato).

Thanks for reading the details of this tomato mystery. If you have thoughts on the situation, we'd be grateful to see them in comments. In the interim, we'll keep you posted.

I'm Worried, Aways in Love

2011-07-30T15:02:00.000-05:00

The old Wilco tune comes to mind when I ponder my connection to growing food. I started when I was 8, my first radishes igniting a slow-burn fuse on a lifetime love.

(BTW, what was up with the draperies back then?)

Why worried? Because I am always in love with what we grow and, more specifically, with eating it. But again this year the tomatoes aren't right and it feels personal. More precisely, some tomatoes on our roof are just fine and others are sickly. I have 50 years of experience. What's the problem? (Clearly that's rhetorical until I post details.)

For now let's focus on Saturday breakfast from all the food that's thriving on the roof, despite hail, inches and inches of rain, high winds, and that week of 100-degree temps.

Jimmy Nardello peppers, a Santa Fe Grande pepper for heat, the pingtung long and Listada eggplants and Matina tomatoes. Plus a whole bunch of chopped basil from the six varieties out front.

Here's a rain/wind-ripped branch of peppers called Little Bells. We've had roughly 11 inches of rain in 11 days, with bucketfuls falling all at once. And wind.

We chopped these sweet peppers for the melange. The power keeps going out too, twice in one week (make that three times--it just went down again). Last night's power went mostly-but-not-all out: weirdly down to 41 volts, enough to kill air conditioner, computer, and fridge, leaving us in cocktail-hour light, which would have been fun, but it was hot and who wants to open the freezer at that point for ice. I'm lucky to live with a nice guy equipped with a voltage meter.

Eggplant slices go into the cast iron pan, already slick with a hot film of coconut oil. Toward the end, I'll sprinkle the tomato halves with kosher salt and lay them face-down into the hot cast iron to warm.

A nice miso sauce on top and that's a breakfast I love.

Maybe I shouldn't worry so much...about wobbly electrical grids and confounding weather, wondering if we could feed ourselves in the face of shortages. But I do.

Rooftop Vegetable Lunch

2011-07-23T19:52:00.000-05:00

A small meal, but a lovely one.

Art put up a better sun block to shade the tomatoes, a majority of which appear to have some kind of funk, despite bleach-washing the SIPs and using fresh potting mix. Too sad to blog more about it now.

We got nearly 7 inches of rain last night in Chicago. Drastic weather changes are upon us.

Inescapable Heat in Chicago

2011-07-20T19:23:00.000-05:00

I can only guess how hot it is on the roof. Yesterday I put up an overhead block (sheets), but Art reminds me the sun is sinking lower in the sky and this tomato line-up will continue to get blasted by the south sun.

I was slightly heartened to note that we haven't had this kind of heat since 2005, before we started growing on the roof. Which doesn't do much for the stir-frying plants up there, but might indicate we need to consider further steps to shade the tomatoes.

The eggplant seem more heat-tolerant

The heat index — a measure of heat and humidity that quantifies how hot it feels — could reach dangerous levels between 105 and 110 degrees Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, according to the weather service.

First Harvest 2011: July 18 Eggplant, Tomato, Eggs

2011-07-19T05:55:00.003-05:00

Midsummer color, maximum flavor...a feast for the eyes and the belly. Yesterday for lunch: fresh eggs straight from Bruce's coop, first tomatoes, and quick-fried eggplant.

Tomatoes were Matina, from Reimer Seeds,

small but perfect.

Crayola colored eggplant

pingtung long (SSE) and Thai green (Bountiful Gardens)

The Thai green hid from me until I discovered it today.

Bruce talked about his thriving coop yesterday. When we visited Sunday, his carton held a diverse selection.

It was so hot, we all needed needed a drink...

The Chickens Are Laying Eggs

2011-07-18T13:09:00.001-05:00

Finally.

I've been getting two to three relatively small eggs a day since July 1st, when my flock of eight Rhode Island Reds were 21 weeks old. Over the next eight weeks they'll begin laying more, and bigger eggs, until they reach their maximum, theoretical, output of five or six 65 gram eggs per week per chicken.

I check the nesting box a couple times a day. Until my friend Blake makes a simple raccoon proof latch I'll continue to hold the door shut with a couple of drywall screws.

Since I'm taking eggs soon after they are laid, I leave a golf ball in each of the three nests to remind the chickens that this is the place to lay. Their impulse is to lay a clutch of 5 or 6 eggs in the same spot, then, if they're broody, to sit on the eggs for 20 days or so until they hatch. Not having a rooster, none of these eggs are fertilized, but the hens don't know that. Luckily my hens aren't broody so they lay the egg and walk away.

I've been weighing and recording the eggs. More out of curiosity than anything else.

I've always eaten store bought, and hence uniformly sized eggs, so I'm getting used to having a carton of differently sized eggs. As the hens mature I'm guessing that their eggs will become similarly sized.

So far I've made ice cream, scrambled eggs, and here, boiled.

If you have basic chicken questions, Backyard Chickens is a good online resource.

H2 here, adding a photo of our lunch today. The yolks are stunning, Bruce, and the flavor remarkably alive. Thank you! Next time I'll bring my $.

Little Green Girl Meets The Urban Worm Girl

2011-07-14T17:29:00.001-05:00

Photo by Debby Preiser

Last month Stephanie Davies- author of Composting Inside and Out came to our library to speak about composting. She has helped install hundreds of worm bins all over the country and has earned the nick-name Urban Worm Girl. You can visit her at urbanwormgirl.com.

Urban Worm Girl talked about how composting could naturally decompose organic materials fairly fast when landfills can take years to decompose garbage. She also talked about how 70% of our garbage each year could be worm food. She went over some ways to compost and how vermicomposting (worms composting) is better than normal compostings. She even told us that she tried feeding her worms dog poop and they LOVED it! YUCK!

Worm tea (made from worm castings)

At the end of the presentation we got to take some “worm tea” home. Worm tea is worm castings dissolved in dechlorinated water. I think all of the audience at the presentation were deeply persuaded to compost or at least understood why and how to compost.

Urban Worm Girl we LOVE your book!

Our worm bin is doing great thanks to what we learned from the Urban Worm Girl!

Kara

Growing Mushrooms

2011-07-14T07:46:00.003-05:00

Growing mushrooms have always be a mystery to me but this video seems to simplifies the process. If you're in Chicago check out the Illinois Mycological Association, they host mushroom hunts. http://www.illinoismyco.org

Derecho! and the July Roof Garden

2011-07-13T18:32:00.000-05:00

The derecho that slammed Chicago Monday morning brought winds of up to 75 mph. Our summer 2011 weather had already featured pummeling hail, evidence of which can be seen on the tobacco leaf at upper right in this photo.

Even the tough eggplant leaves show battle scars. Still, we feel lucky. While the derecho was over as quickly as it hit, it knocked out power to some 900,000 people. My sister north of Chicago remains without power three days later.

We made it through with a bunch of broken tomato leaf stems, despite my tying up our current crop more conscientiously than any previous year. I started this after early-season high winds snapped a Black Prince tomato in two at the main stem. The weather is weird, with string and scissors more necessary than ever.

On to some happier pix. Here's a Matina tomato (Reimer's Seeds) setting some nice early fruit. I love this tomato for our region. While larger fruit is nice, Matina's a reliable bearer...and always one of the first. Thanks to far-flung GRGer Russ for buying those first seeds.

A Valencia tomato (Johnny's Seeds) across the roof--click to enlarge. It's a beautiful thing to see fruit emerging from flower.

Rampant tomatillos shading out the okra in the adopted earthboxes

Nice crop forming up.

Jimmy Nardello peppers.

Little bells peppers proliferating.

This year I brought a jasmine plant to the roof and put it in a SIP (center below).

It took a while to establish but now scents the melon-pepper run like heaven. Remains to be seen if it will grow up the PVC arch I've guided it onto.

Here's our old friend agretti. Planted April 6, it's taking its time and I nibble judiciously, still hoping for seed for 2012.

The joker and jester lettuces from Wild Garden Seed are going to seed, and yet there's no detectable bitterness to the leaves. What a beautiful lettuce. Definitely growing it again next year.

The lettuce sits amongst the going-to-seed lineup.

Tomatoes are all flowering and moving toward fruit, though there's some leaf curl I'm not happy about (and I'm not showing you pictures of it either).

Pepper and melon run...

The cool-weather greens run, transformed to hold beans, tobacco, extra tomatoes, and Erik's Greek squash.

Once I knew a guy who said: What's lookin' good 'sides you, me, and the weatha? It's a beautiful, moderate summer day. How's your garden growing?

This Must Be The Place

2011-07-07T13:44:00.000-05:00

I just got a new digital camera after being without one for a couple weeks (making me feel like I lost an eye). This was after the one Art brought home went through an epic fail and had to be returned.

Speaking of epic, last week's hail apparently decimated our pal Nance Klehm's roof garden. Father north, Bruce's and ours fared better, though when we returned home from being away I noticed some big bruising on tiny tomatoes and flagging tomato leaves, and for both of us shredded tobacco leaves.

Pause for an old photo: from our first year growing in SIPs

Soon we'll have an update from Marc on the Tobacco Project.
Also, an update from Brad H on his balcony SIP garden.
And maybe some actual roof pix, since the tomatillos are forming their paper lanterns, the tomatoes are looking like the best crop in years, and the automatic plumbing system Art installed is innovative and perfect.
AND...Bruce has fresh eggs! Don't you want to see the color of the yolk?

Meantime, the incomparable David Byrne...

Growing a Bigger Garden

2011-06-28T20:15:00.031-05:00

Summer is finally here and things are really starting to grow after a very wet and stormy Chicago spring. Little Green Girl and I are most excited because we've increased the size of our garden, gone vertical, and added more SIPs.

Here's our original two 4" X 8" beds with a new strawberry bed in the middle. This year we've added a trellis to the back of each bed to grow small Asian melons and pole beans. We're maximizing the amount of food we can grow in the smallest amount of space. Love the challenge of growing vertical!

Little Green Girl is growing a pizza garden again but with beautiful Scarlett Runner beans trellised in the middle. There's also Cannellini beans, purple, yellow and green bush beans, assorted carrots including Parmex, Kaleidoscope, and some Jaune Du Doubs... a fancy name for yellow heirloom carrots from France!

Each year we try to grow something new and unusual, this year we discovered Tigger melons, a 1 lb. Asian melon that's bright yellow with brilliant red zig-zag stripes from Bakers Creek. Hope this one tastes as interesting as it looks.

Our middle bed has strawberries and Borage (good companion plants) with a double row of pole beans in the back, they'll provide a backdrop of fresh green color dotted with quaint white flowers as they fill up the trellis.

Finally, the family bed has herbs, 5 special heirloom tomatoes and sweet Korean Ginkaku melons from Kitazawaseeds.com, they're 1.5 lb melons that are supposed to be highly productive. We'll see how many our trellis will hold!

Carrots, kale, onions and beans are doing well.

In the back of the beds we've placed two 5 gallon yellow SIPs where the Asian melons will be grown.

Garlic planted last November have matured and scapes have been snipped. Further back are a few more SIPs. We've planted lemon cucumbers and more sweet melons that will trellis off the cyclone fence.

I'm experimenting with the idea of a portable trellis on top of a 5 gallon SIP.

Last year's tomato patch is now a little farmette, that's 4 long rows of heirloom tomatoes and peppers. Over 80+ heirloom seeds were carefully selected last winter, warm tea and seeds catalogs are what get gardeners through the winter!

Note the small garden to the right on the other side of the fence, I'm working on an edible landscape with artichokes, purple and white okra, tomatillios, some green and hopefully some purple, Borage with beautiful purple flowers, and some Green Zebra tomatoes.

Spending quality time with my tomatoes.

Here's Amish Deer Tongue lettuce. Thanks H2 for letting me know about this one, a wonderful cut and come again variety.

Heirloom potatoes from a GRG friend I've yet to meet. Thanks Brad and local urban garden blogger Cassandra West of Seeding Chicago for sharing your potato seeds.

Garlic scapes ready for a stir-fry in the wok.

Wild Arugula for Margaret, a dear friend without a garden.

Gardening is a lot of work and a lot of joy... here's homegrown kale (mushrooms store bought but considering growing them next year) sauteed in homemade garlic oil topped with fresh cut chives.

... then there are gifts from the garden that we never expect, like the 2 little creatures that Little Green Girl found at Peterson Gardens. She's adopted a couple of beautiful caterpillars found on a dill plant and has been feeding them fresh dill and parsley everyday, sometimes two times a day. She hopes that she can nurture and care for them till they grow in to butterflies. Will they grow into blackswallow tail butterflies? We hope to find out.

Living in the Present While the Future Beckons

2011-06-24T08:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't been posting much, if anything, to the blog. What time I do spend online has more to do with reading about/sharing words and images--that touch on artsy, political, economic, and social subjects--than taking the time to compose a blog post on what's happening in my little urban camp.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about --

If you'd like to see more links like this, you can add my Shared Reader page to your Google Reader. I've come to think of it as a kind of virtual collage, where I post bits and pieces from the internet that catch my eye.

If you're not familiar with Google Reader, I'd encourage you to use it; it's made my time online much more pleasant.

Summer Solstice on the Roof Farm and Friends Visit the Coop

2011-06-23T16:27:00.000-05:00

June 21 summer solstice quick roof walk...

In the Earthboxes, spring peas in decline,

tomatillos on the rise

Tomatoes are robust--

thank you, Bruce, for the healthy starts!

I direct-seeded a few types of beans and the Mystery Greek Squash from Root Simple. Thanks, Erik, for sharing the seeds. Each year we get powdery mildew on squash and cukes and I vow not to plant the following year. And each year I do.

I have this notion that squirrels are attracted to open soil (and some proof of that), so I laid some plastic netting over the direct-seeded SIPs to deter them.

Golden Midget watermelons are up, seeds via Debbie and Little Green Girl. Thanks, garden friends.

A visit the next day from Trish and her boys, who remembered everything we discussed last year about sub-irrigation growing and bees. JT, at left, shared even more about bees that he'd learned in school. He's going to be a natural beekeeper. And Alex chowed down on every single kind of greens we're growing. Excellent palate!

We walked to Bruce's

and got right into the coop...

...where the kids learned all about the hens

and their living arrangements

Summer's here.

Climate Change: Spend Four Minutes on This

2011-06-16T07:56:00.000-05:00

By Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org