Category Archives: Urban Farm

February Plantings, so far . . .

By Urban Farm, , , , , , ,

At this point, we have planted various tomatoes and peppers, cilantro, parsley, and basil, several types of kale and chard, and onions, in that order.

THE PROCESS:

Making soil blocks, first tiny ones, and placing tiny seeds in the depressed center of each one —

—

Soon the tiny blocks will be placed within a hole provided in larger blocks, but not yet . . .

The process is intricate, and not exactly suited for my tremulous 79-year-old hands. So I carry wood in for the stove —

— and did get to mix soil during one of our work parties (two each week, 10 to noon, Tuesday and Friday). 

On one of my trips to get wood during last week’s unusually cold spell, I noticed that goldfish are surviving the winter, under the ice, in one of our tiny ponds.

During that same cold spell, we brought lots of trays inside rather than keep a fire going in the greenhouse all night, and probably over-sprayed them, and maybe shouldn’t have put dark covers on them, for a bit of white mold had appeared on tops of the soil blocks. However, Daniel (our new garden manager, who used to run the IU Gardens) looked it up, and discovered that white mold — though we obviously need to dry them out a bit — is not bad. It’s green or black mold that you have to watch out for. 

Here we are (Aya, Annie, Daniel and Marita) discussing the situation, having brought the trays back out into the greenhouse again. 

Rather than using popsicle sticks to identify where and what seeds are in the trays, this year we decided to tape names on the sides of the trays.

Plus, Joseph is keeping notes . . .

It looks like we’re going to be planting more flowers this year. YES!

Meanwhile, it’s still only mid-February. Gardens fallow . . .

Here’s a shot of what the greenhouse looks like this morning. Nice and toasty in there, and notice the heat pad under the seedlings —

which are thriving to the point where we’re going to have to remove the covers of some of them soon.

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January 2020 work parties: CLEANING, PREPPING for new growing season

By Urban Farm

We hold two two-hour work parties each week, 10 AM to Noon, Tuesday and Friday, after taking most of December off, except for cleaning, sharpening, and oiling tools, which we do at some point at the end of each year. And, it’s cold out, so Marita gets a fire going two hours before we start.

(One or more podmates usually have prior commitments, so they make up their hours at other times. For example, Justin’s work commitments mean that he can’t ever make our work parties, so he took charge of getting new wood chips on all the paths the past few months.) And for the entire month of January, Annie was in Ireland, having been entrusted to deliver the kitty, Schulte, to her owner, Andreas, who left us after four years in late August for his new job as a college teacher.) 

Our first work party in January was devoted to completing the job of cleaning, sharpening and oiling tools. Joseph, Daniel and Marita in greenhouse.

We then started the process of cleaning and disinfecting walls, shelves, and trays. Here’s Aya, who got all the walls cleaned.

Daniel and Marita worked on the first trays we’ll need, those for cold weather seedlings, plus tomatoes.

Meanwhile, here in southcentral In-Diana (Goddess of the Woodlands), we are blessed/cursed with constant falling branches from various storms that whip fast-growing trees and bushes. We’ve already made one recent to a place which accepts them for mulching purposes, but needed to borrow a truck again for two more loads. Aya’s partner Chris came to the rescue, his old truck with a big bed that could handle the load. 

This was the first pile; notice the truck bed already seems almost full. 

Joseph and Aya took turns stomping it down.

Next, more cleaning inside. This time the back room, which also needed to be reorganized. Joseph, Aya, and I tackled that task.

 At last, all these weird power tools in one bucket . . .

What’s this? Aya and Joseph prepare to store it elsewhere.

What’s in the back of this shelf?

Meanwhile, Daniel and Marita start the process of making the kind of soil we use for soil blocks (a recipe from Eliot Coleman’s book, The New Organic Grower).

One final photo, look up, folks!

Next post: Starting Seeds in early February.

 

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UP FROM UNDER!

By Uncategorized, Urban Farm

From the Founder, Ann Kreilkamp:

It’s been nearly two years since anyone has posted on this website. Life in Green Acres Permaculture Village, as a tiny fractal of this astonishingly strange time on planet earth, has been unusually tumultuous, and yet fulfilling at the same time. This intentionally created little paradise, now over ten years old, is proving itself resilient, no matter what. Many tales to tell. Is there time and energy to tell them when life continues to roll along faster and faster, deeper and deeper? Our social media presence has obviously suffered. It’s time to resurrect that aspect of what we’re doing here, so that we can continue to offer vignettes of daily life in this tiny alternative cultural template for how to “grow community from the ground up.”

This post is the beginning. Tomorrow I will start to post pics of life in community now, as we begin our gardening season for 2022 in the greenhouse, dropping tiny potent seeds into the living soil.

Below: Tiger takes over my office . . .

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Green Acres Village: Let Us Transform Life in the Suburbs

By Urban Farm, Village, , , , , ,

Puppy Shadow and I walked our usual four miles early this morning, and then were stopped on a corner two blocks away from home by an open-faced man, just rolling out of the driveway to a very pristine-lawned home. He asks, do you live there, pointing to another manicured lawn. “No, I live in the jungle up the street.”

 

Read more: Green Acres Village: Let Us Transform Life in the Suburbs

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Life in Green Acres Permaculture Village, May 22, 2020

By Uncategorized, Urban Farm, Village, , , ,

Our regular twice-a-week, two-hour work party began at 10:30 this morning, and everybody who could joined in, one or two at each task, all directed by Cherisse (Rebecca), our Farm Manager for seven years. Plus, this morning, a young man, Daniel, joined us. Here he is (on the right), directed by Andreas, who himself had…

via Life in Green Acres Permaculture Village, May 22, 2020

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