Spring at Whiskerton

Whiskerton Garden is already looking great! Koto, our generous land and water-sharer, chopped down a maple and a pine tree that were on the perimeter of the garden. Because they were located on the South-end of the garden, several beds will get a lot more sunlight than last year! Koto chipped the trees, leaving us with the long-overdue wood chips I had been trying to find for months! The wood chips will provide a lot for the garden:

• Marrionerries will be much easier to maintain without weeds and grass growing tall and tangling into the vines.
• The garden will, as a whole, retain moisture and require less watering.
• Weed-suppression along paths.
• Keep people off of the beds.
• Woodchips slowly breakdown and provide habitat and food for healthy bacteria in the soil. With a healthy bacteria ecosystem in the soil, more nutrients become available for the plants.

In addition, the garden looks great with its defined, chipped paths that wind around. We also spread a lot of compost on some of the damaged, sandy beds. I can’t wait to see how it looks in a few months with cucurbits and alliums growing all over. I plan on using vertical space for growing all of the large cucurbits.

This time last year I had not even started volunteering for the collective. And already this year I have a plan, calendar, committed apprentices, and  starts growing in the greenhouse!

Hoop Bed at Mason Street Garden

In order to get an early start on some cold-tolerant crops, I installed a simple hoop bed. It is simply bent plastic tubes that I found covered by a sheet of plastic that I bought. I erected the hoop bed two weeks before planting in the soil in order to give the bed time to dry out. It rains so much in Portland that the soil often gets water-logged in the rainy months.

After two weeks of drying, I planted arugula, spinach and ruby chard, which are all cold-tolerant varieties, will grow throughout the long spring. On the rare sunny days, I open up the bed and give the plants some much needed direct sunlight. The plastic still lets UV light through, but does not provide the same solar energy as direct sunlight.

The plastic also keeps moisture in, so the beds practically never have to be watered. Only on hot and sunny days do the beds begin to dry out a little. One trick is to put a bucket of water inside the hoop bed so that it stays wet even on hotter days. 

North Mississippi and Failing Garden

This garden is located on a converted, badly mistreated backyard on North Mississippi Avenue in Portland, Oregon. With some leftover wood chips, leaves and a bunch of collected garden scraps, we transformed the yard into a functional and space-maximizing garden that will provide a good amount of food for the residents.

The keyhole shape of the wood-chipped pathways allows the gardener to reach everywhere in the garden while having maximum grow space.

We also turned and covered a compost pile that the resident's had been putting food scraps in for the last year (now under old table in order to keep somewhat dry from the terrible spring rains). In a few months, this will be ready to be used in the garden or left alone to grow squash and other cucurbits layer this year. Cucurbits like rich and warm soil and can be grown in "cool" or former compost beds. We started a new compost pile to use in the meantime in order to let the first one sit and decompose.

We put cardboard and leaves to protect the soil from direct contact with rain downpours which can deplete soils of their nutrients and change the PH. The leaves also decompose and provide nutrients and organic matter for the soil. The more leaves collected, the better!

Starting seeds in my house

Broccoli Sprouts

I started one tray of seeds indoors about two weeks ago in order to get a head start on the grow season. Portland's shorter warm season means many plants, especially tomatoes, need to be started indoors. I started broccoli, basil and tomatoes in my closet where I have hung two grow lights on a small shelf. It's nothing special, but I have lined tin foil above and along the sides to increase solar radiation. It's actually very bright and hurts my eyes if I stare into them too long - which I tend to do because it's fun to see the tiny sprouts growing. I can't believe they will give me so much food later!

Tomato sprouts

My tomato seeds finally started to sprout today! The broccoli sprouted several days ago, and the basil is barely peaking through. Feels good to have something growing in 2012!

Whiskerton Garden

Whiskerton Garden Map

I am the garden manager at Whiskerton Garden, which is part of the Urban Farm Collective. In 2012, Whiskerton garden is responsible for growing two plant families: Cucurbits and Alliums.

This year, the garden will be full of cucumber, pumpkin, squash and melon varieties as well as onions, scallions, garlic and leeks. In addition, we will grow some beans throughout the entire garden because beans fix nitrogen in the soil, which other plants need to grow fruit. Bean varieties are a yummy and beneficial plant that is essential in almost every garden.

Each plot in the Collective specializes in growing one or two plant families every year, which gets rotated on a master schedule. In 2011, Whiskerton garden grew the carrot and beet families.

The garden has a very interesting, permaculture-inspired garden bed design. The beds are shaped in a "keyhole" pattern in order to maximize grow space and reduce pathways. In addition to being beautifully designed, the shape allows for plants to grow together in companion guilds, mixing perennials and annuals, natives and non-natives, insectiary plants and mulch-producers, and fruits and veggies.