Saturday Morning Poem

Do you see what I see

standing under the sky?

It’s underneath the bumblebee

that just passed you by.

It’s right above the London Rocket,

and nearly too small to see,

but there it is – I see it,

just above the Oak tree!

There’s a little verdin flying –

holding onto it fast

It’s on it that it’s riding –

as it swiftly graces past.

Perhaps it’s with the roses,

in the water on their leaves.

You can see it when it’s snowing,

or in the nests that sparrows weave.

It’s often found in earth –

as young roots search for life.

It’s there they’re given worth –

even when other’s give them strife.

Do you feel what I feel

standing under the sky?

Love is real –

It’s all around you –

Don’t let it pass you by. 

Urban Farming Externship - Week 11

I spent another fun Saturday morning with Suzanne yesterday - the owner of Vilardi Gardens. The first thing I wanted to ask her about was how all her plants were doing after our record-breaking rain on Monday. For those of you that didn't hear, it rained steadily all over Phoenix from about 2am to 10am, breaking records and causing flooding all over the valley. It was pretty intense; some commuters were stranded on their way to work and some workplaces shut down completely. Matt and I had just built a retractable shade for our garden the day before, and I had just planted my new babies from Suzanne! When I left for work Monday morning, some of them were under water:

Needless to say, I was pretty upset on Monday. I love the rain, but this was my first experience with flash flooding as a gardener. I was so sure that all my new plants were dead. 

One of the things Suzanne told me a couple of weeks ago that really stuck with me is that "plants want to live." Of course, I knew that, but I had never truly understood it. I thought of plants as delicate little beings that needed to be babied every day of their lives here in Arizona in order to survive. To some extent, in Phoenix at least, this is true; but what I'm realizing is that if you provide plants with what they need, they are pretty resilient. Here are some pictures of those plant starts today, a week later:

What I had done, was assume that since the rains wreaked havoc on our modern lives, that it was also going to wreak havoc on my plants. Not true. One day of record-breaking rain? Psh. Plants want to live. 

Back to this week's externship!

We planted lemongrass! It smelled so wonderful and I got so sucked into what I was doing that before I knew it, we had over 100 new plants done and it was time to go!

You can easily start lemongrass from one mother plant. One huge plant can be separated into countless smaller plants. Neat!

Here are some other pretty pictures from that day - I love all the zinnias!

This week completes my externship. I've learned so much! I will continue to post my outdoor projects on here and I'm also going to continue volunteering for Suzanne. I have to apologize for not posting instructions for the retractable shade. I have a feeling we'll make another in the future so I'll document it then - or maybe just post the instructions. It was super easy and less than $100! 

Thanks for joining me in my urban farming journey!

Happy planting! 

PS - My cover crop finally started to sprout after all that rain! ;) 

Urban Farming Externship - Week 10

What a busy week it's been! The vegetables I planted last weekend have been babied all week and they are doing great! One of the things I learned from Alex is that plants in Arizona really need their shade; so we put up umbrellas for the time being, but our next project is to get some shade cloth up. Here's a picture of those little guys: (kale, broccoli, Rainbow Chard, and Graffiti Cauliflower) 

This morning I woke up and headed out to Viliardi Gardens where I had the pleasure of working with the owner, Suzanne. I had a great time with her and learned a ton! I have to apologize for the lack of pictures, I got caught up in plant babies and forgot to take more. :) I labeled a few different plants, planted a couple of varieties of onion, started a few different varieties of nasturtium, and transplanted mint! 

I learned today that new mint plants can be started with just a couple of inches of root. This is why they say to always plant mint in it's own container - it can really take over your garden! I always wondered why they said that!

I also learned a bit more about Tulsi Basil. Tulsi is also referred to as Holy Basil, and it is one of the most sacred plants in Hinduism. Suzanne gave me two varieties of Tulsi - Krishna and Lakshmi - each named after an important Hindu god. It is said that they should be grown together near your home to bring prosperity to your family. I put my Krishna and Lakshmi Tulsi in the raised bed, but I'd like to get a special container for them in the future. 

Once I got home I finally got some plants in my wicking bed! I filled it with water, planted them, sprinkled a bit of organic fertilizer, then top watered them just because it was so dry. After I finished planting, I decided to top off the water in my bed. Judging by how much more water it took in, I'm guessing that the soil had already soaked up quite a bit! I'm hoping that means it's working! I'll post an update of their progress next week. 

Next Saturday I plan on working with Suzanne again. I'd also like to get some shade cloth up between now and then for the new babies. Until then, here's a picture of another happy, happy plant - my roses! All of my bushes have new growth and two of them are blooming again! I think that's the signal for the end of our summer and the beginning of fall. :)

Urban Farming Externship - Week 9

This week I began volunteering for Vilardi Gardens! They specialize in growing organic, edible plant starts for gardens. Their plant starts are available for purchase at several farmer's markets in the Phoenix area. They also supply local nurseries and even the Desert Botanical Garden. A link to their Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vilardi-Gardens/148632058518894

Today I met with Alex to help out at their booth in the Roadrunner Farmers' Market in Phoenix. I spent the first few minutes learning what types of plants they had for sale. You wouldn't think that there would be that much to grow in August in Arizona, but Alex proved me wrong! Vegetables ready to plant included cauliflower, kale, rainbow chard, cabbage, and broccoli. They also had a few handy planting guides ready to help convince us Arizonians that you really could grow vegetables in August! :) 

I also learned about all the different varieties of mint and basil! Orange mint turned out to be one of my favorites, but they also had lime and even pineapple. There was an entire table dedicated to basil. I didn't realize how many different varieties there were! One of my favorite teas is lavender tulsi; little did I know that tulsi is a form of basil. Neat! 

I had a lot of fun volunteering at the market. It was neat to connect to so many different people who care about growing and the food they eat. One young man even showed me pictures of the raised bed he just built; it was really great to interact with so many people with like interests, even if it was only briefly. This is something I'd definitely like to do more of in the future. 

Alex and his neighbor, who was there helping him out, were able to share a few great gardening tips for me. One thing I realized is that I need much more shade than I have right now. I think our next project should definitely be some type of retractable shade for our garden. I also learned about a neat type of spinach called Red Malabar Spinach. It's a type of vine spinach that grows great in Arizona. It grows most of the year, then dies back and re-seeds itself! It's also very pretty, with deep red veins - something I'll be getting for my garden! 

Of course, I couldn't leave without bringing new plant babies home with me. I picked up some Graffiti Cauliflower (it's purple!), broccoli, rainbow chard, kale, White Rain Lily, and some I'itol Onions. The onions have an interesting back story; they almost went extinct, but were brought back about 25 years ago and are now available in many places across Arizona and online. This is one of the reasons why conventional agriculture makes no sense to me. Why would you grow one field of one type of onion and leave your crop more susceptible to disease (which you prevent by dousing your field with pesticides and fungicides) when you could just grow tons of different varieties organically? Something is wrong with that system. It goes beyond pesticides, GMOs, and the loss of heirloom vegetables. It has to do with respect. What's going to happen to a society that lacks respect for its nurturer, Earth? 

Lets take care of her and not find out! :)

Anyway, I planted my new veggies in random openings in my flowerbed, since my wicking bed has the cover crop in it right now. (No sprouts yet!) So I'm interested to see how they do. I think I also finally learned my lesson about gloves - wear them. I have blisters again! Arg! Now grow, baby, grow! 

Urban Farming Externship - Week 8

This was the final week of work on my first wicking bed. I began by adding the compost and worm castings that we had, then I began sifting the native dirt I dug out for the reservoir to finish filling my bed. After filling it, I realized that I didn't have enough compost in it - the consistency was still very sandy - so I bought a bag of organic "Amend" soil to bring it to the consistency I wanted:

The final breakdown of the substrate looked somewhat like this:

• 5% Worm Castings (from our worm farm)
• 10% Organic Compost (a mix of our own and a store-bought bag)
• 10% Organic Plus Amend Soil
• 75% Native Arizona Soil (sifted)

After filling my bed, I sat and mixed the soil and compost with my bare hands. I did this for quite a while; connecting and feeling the dirt and watching the life all around it. It was a very zen-like experience, and a great way to relax after all the shoveling and sifting!

Next, I dug tiny little rows with my fingers and planted my cover crop seeds. I mentioned it in a previous post, but the cover crop I chose is a green manure mix from Johnny's Selected Seeds. It's a mix of winter rye, field pea, annual rye grass, hairy vetch, and crimson clover. The instructions say that it's great for mid to late summer seeding and that it'll germinate in 5-10 days. 

I filled the reservoir with water until it began to drain out and wished my little bed luck. 

I'm honestly a little nervous at this point. The worrier part of me keeps thinking "What if nothing happens?" or "What if I did something completely wrong and it doesn't work?" The optimistic part of me is super excited for all the organic vegetables I'm going to grow!

Thanks for following along with me during my little project! I'll post an update next week of how my bed is doing and what new projects or volunteer work I'm up to. 

Right now, my bath tub, lavender essential oil, and Epsom salts are calling my name. :) 

Urban Farming Externship - Week 7

Hi everyone! I was able to get a lot of work done outside this week. My mouth healed quickly and I was more than ready to go play in the sunshine! I began by adding the needed gravel to my bed. At the end of week 5, it still needed a couple more inches to get the gravel up to ground level. If you look to the bottom left of the picture below, I also added some little rocks outside my overflow pipe, just because it looked cute! (Maybe it's a fairy pool?!) 

Next, I cut a piece of weed barrier cloth to fit over the gravel, with a hole that fits around the watering pipe. This will help to separate the soil from the gravel. If the soil mixes with the water in the gravel, it could make the soil soggy and lead to root rot. 

After I put in the cloth, I began to add my substrate. I added a couple of inches of compost along with worm castings from our worm farm. My intention was to mix this with the soil dug out for the bed, however, I ran into a problem. 

We are in the middle of monsoon season in Arizona. The heavy rains made the pile of dirt I dug out hard and compact. I also saw that it was very rocky - something I didn't notice before. I reached out to my instructor, Torrie, for advice. Torrie recommended that I sift the dirt before putting it in our bed and mixing it with the compost we had. Though our native soils are sandy, rocky, and prone to compaction, they are rich in many nutrients needed for plant growth. Though it's a bit more work, I'd much rather use what the Earth has given me than go out and buy something else from another part of the country. 

To make the sifter, I used pieces of wood we had in our backyard along with screws and a staple gun that we had on hand. The only thing I had to buy was the hardware wire, which was relatively inexpensive:

I present: Arizona Soil Sifter!

Next week I will sift through the soil and remove any rocks and large debris. After that, I plan to plant a cover crop before finally planting some veggies! I did decide to hold off for a bit on the second bed. I want to make sure that the first wicking bed is functioning as it should before I put as much work into the second one. If there are improvements to be made, I'll update the necessary posts. 

Lastly, I'm finishing my project much quicker than I thought I would. My externship requires 25 hours of work, which gives me time to gain more hands-on experience in another area. I plan to do some volunteer work at a local urban farm - I'll keep you posted with updates! 

Thanks for reading! 

Urban Farming Externship - Week 6 (Quail!)

This week's externship work was limited to research, since I had my wisdom teeth removed on Friday. It went better than I expected, but my face is still quite swollen and sore, so no outside work for me. 

I wanted to look into what to do with the space on the side of our house. Originally, we wanted to get chickens, but the Mesa Arizona Chicken Ordinance states that chicken coops must be 75 feet away from another residence, which isn't possible for us. Our next idea was quail! Specifically, the coturnix quail:

Aren't they cute? Since they aren't native to Arizona and aren't as loud and messy as chickens can be, there aren't any strict regulations with keeping them. Here are some quick facts about the coturnix quail:

• First domesticated in Japan in the twelfth century.
• By the early 1900's they were widely raised in Japan for their meat and eggs. (However, we don't eat meat, so we'd be raising them for their eggs only.)
• An adult male weighs just 100-140 grams, while an adult female weighs 120-160 grams - much smaller than a chicken!
• They lay small, speckled eggs that usually weigh about ten grams.
• Hens usually lay about one egg a day. 
• Nutrition:

Hatch or Purchase?

You can raise and hatch your own quail, but this requires more of an investment. To hatch quail eggs you would need an incubator and a special brooder. I think, at least to begin, we'd rather purchase adult quail. I have seen quail for sale for between $3 and $5. 

Getting Started - Checklist

Regardless if you hatch your quail yourself or buy adults, once they are 5-7 weeks old they are ready to go outside. Here's a checklist of what we'd need to adopt adult coturnix quail:

1. Aviary - Your aviary should be fully enclosed and at least 6 feet tall, also, have at least 2 square feet of floor space per bird. 

2. Containers for both feed and water - Consider having more than one container for water, in case one runs out or dries up. 

3. Sand - They like to take sand baths!

4. Feed

5. Supplemental oyster shell to provide calcium. 

6. Wood chips for bedding.

7. Provide hiding and play spaces - wood planks or even cardboard boxes work well for this!

For further reading, there's an excellent article on raising and keeping quail here: http://www.squidoo.com/raise-coturnix-quail-for-eggs-meat-and-profit

Our goal right now is to complete the wicking beds and get some vegetables going. After that, I'll be sure to document us building an aviary and purchasing quail!

Urban Farming Externship - Week 5

This was the week of the gravel. We opted to clear out an unused space on the side of our house and use the gravel there. First, we had to clear the space of the weeds, debris, and random junk. Next, we shoveled the gravel into ten gallon buckets, which we then carried over to a setup I made with a plastic produce tray and a couple of bricks to rinse the gravel of dirt and leaves. Finally, after rinsing, the gravel was ready for the bed. 

By the end of it, I was soaking wet, covered in dirt, and sporting a legitimate farmer's tan! I'll admit, I was actually a little excited about the farmer's tan; it feel's really amazing to finally have a little piece of land that I can work with and connect to, and the silly-looking tan lines are a reminder of what's important to me - a connection with the Earth and learning to live a sustainable life. 

Here's a before-and-after of the space we cleared. I have so many ideas for what I want to do with it! Rows of veggies, quail, chickens, or even a quiet little reading nook! The space probably only gets a couple of hours of afternoon sun, so I'll have to take that into consideration when planning.

Here's a picture of the bed we filled. It still needs a bit more gravel for the overflow to work properly. I did fill it with water, and it seems to be functioning as it should. I'm actually glad I tested it as we added the gravel, because lots of little crickets had set up house in the pipe! 

Next week is the week of my wisdom teeth removal, so I'm not sure what it has in store for me as far as our project goes - but I'll post an update regardless. Blessings! 

Urban Farming Externship - Week 4

Well, it's week 4 and our project is starting to resemble more than two holes in the ground! We got the PVC watering system put together. It began with a trip to Ace Hardware where we bought the following:

• 25 feet of 4mm Heavy Duty Plastic Sheeting 
• 1 1/2 inch-1 1/2 inch-1/2 inch Tee (2)
• 1 1/2 inch Cap (2)
• 1 1/2 inch Elbow (2)
• 3 1/2 feet of 1 1/2 inch PVC (2)
• 1 1/2 feet of 1 1/2 inch PVC (2)
• 1 foot of 1 1/2 inch PVC (2)
• 1/2 foot of 1/2 inch PVC (2)

First, we lined the holes with the plastic sheeting, which we rolled out and cut into thirds:

Next, we assembled the PVC pieces, cut a small hole in the plastic for the overflow, and put them in. I will note that we ended up trimming each of the 1 foot PVC pieces quite a bit, but I would still recommend buying a foot, as the length will be largely determined by how perfect you dug your hole. After putting in the PVC system, we stapled the plastic sheeting to the wood to somewhat hold it together. It looks messy right now, but I'll trim it up once we put in the gravel. I wanted to leave plenty of slack just in case. 

YAY for wicking beds! 

...and here is the progress so far:

Our plan next week is to get the gravel in. I don't know that it's going to be a one-weekend project. We've had excessive heat warnings this past week and shoveling gravel will be hard work! We're going to start with some round-shaped gravel we have on the side of the house. There's quite a bit in a fairly large area, and I'd like to get it cleaned out anyway because it's the perfect place to grow rows of veggies that don't mind some shade! 

Week 6 may be a bit slow; I'm getting my wisdom teeth out that week and I have no idea how long it will take me to recover. I plan to sip on lots of fruit and veggie packed smoothies and juices to speed up recovery - wish me luck! :)

Lastly, and unrelated to my externship - I was finally able to get my hands dirty. Most of my spring flowers are toast since the heat hit, so I planted some pretty lantana that the bees are sure to love:

We also decided to turn over a corner of our yard to nature. I noticed some "weeds" and native trees pop up there, so we're going to just let them be. Birding is another of my hobbies, and I think they would appreciate some native trees and shrubs in our yard. :) 

Urban Farming Externship - Week 3

Well, my update this week isn't too exciting, but the digging is complete! We now have two nice 4 foot by 4 foot by 1 foot holes dug for our reservoirs. :) Now that the hard part is complete I'll get to have some real fun! (..and you'll get to see pictures that are a bit more interesting!) I did more research today on the specific parts needed for the piping. I attempted to go online and pick out all the parts in advance, but this proved to be an overwhelming task, so I jotted down a sketch of the individual parts to take in the store with me.

My main concern at this point is how we're going to put in the overflow since our reservoir is below ground. I came up with two options:

1. Put in the gravel in higher than ground level, drill a hole in the wood, and insert the overflow pipe there. This method would require the beds to be raised a bit more, perhaps another 3 inches or so. 

2. Put in the gravel only to ground level and dig out a little inlet (or outlet?) on the outside of the bed. We could insert an overflow pipe here, then stop watering once the water begins to drain out.

Here are my goals for next week:

• Purchase liner and all piping parts for the reservoir and assemble them.
• Find a free load of gravel for pick-up and bring it to our house. Most free loads that I see require you to bring a shovel and collect it yourself, so the shoveling may not be over just yet!

Here's a picture of the progress so far:

Urban Farming Externship - Week 2

Good News!

This week was all about digging since the reservoir portion of our wicking bed will be underground. I was shocked at how easy (by Arizona terms, that is!) that breaking up the ground and digging ended up being. I'm thinking that at one point someone had grass or other plants growing in our yard because the soil wasn't as compact as I was expecting. We're also right in the middle of monsoon season and we got one good storm before we began digging. Even with these helping factors, I had to water the ground quite a bit to help soften the soil. It's not something I was particularly happy to do, as water conservation is very important in the desert, but I went ahead and did it since it was a one-time thing.

I also did some research and compiled a list of materials that we're going to need in the coming weeks:

• Plastic Lining (Builder's Plastic)
• PVC Pipe and Elbow Joints
• Gravel
• Compost
• Soil
• Cover Crop Seeds
• Shade Cloth or Similar

We will probably buy the plastic lining, piping, and shade cloth from a hardware store. I think we'll be able to get gravel for free from Craig's List. We'll be able to get some compost from our worm farm, but we'll probably supplement it with compost bought at a nursery. We're going to mix that compost with the soil we dug out to install the reservoir. I ordered the cover crop seeds this week from Johnny's Selected Seeds. I picked a nitrogen fixation mix made up of winter rye, field peas, rye grass, crimson clover, and hairy vetch. Some of the cover crop will be edible, like the field peas! It's also very pretty. Here's a picture from the website:

Here's a picture of the reservoir for the first bed; it still needs a little more work. The reservoir will need to be a foot deep. It's that deep in the middle, but more work around the edges is needed. Next week we'll focus on finishing the reservoir for the first bed and beginning work on the second bed. 

Look at all that healthy dirt! Thank you, Mother Nature!

A picture of my exhausted self; digging in the July Arizona heat is no joke! Don't forget to drink lots and lots of water anytime you're doing outside work! 

Blessings to all! Look for an update next week! :) 

Urban Farming Externship

Hi All -

As some of you may know, I'm attending Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. I'm majoring in holistic nutrition and urban farming. As part of my urban farming program, I'm required to complete an urban farming externship by picking a project to do on my own so I have some real experience! I've chosen to prepare my raised beds to grow and harvest my own food by using the wicking method.

Wicking a raised bed is essentially creating a reservoir below the soil to water plants from below. It's a great idea for raised beds in Arizona, where I live. It prevents unnecessary evaporation that occurs when you water from the top.

In the coming weeks, I'll be posting a weekly update of my progress. My goals for next week are to break up the soil beneath the raised beds, research wicking methods, and create a supply list. I hope you enjoy my journey! Below is a "before" picture.

Much love!