Ducks Move in at Whiskerton!

Through a connection with the Oregon Sustainable Land Trust, a parent organization of the Urban Farm Collective, I was given three ducks... two female and one male. They moved into Whiskerton Garden yesterday and have been getting to know their new surroundings.

They seem very content in the garden - plenty of yummy slugs and other bugs to eat! Ducks are excellent garden companions because they provide so many needs for the garden:

• They eat slugs and other insects that can be damaging to garden vegetables. Letting the ducks roam around the garden is one of the best slug management mechanisms.
• They will poo, which is an excellent nitrogen source for the beds. 
• They will provide eggs. There was an egg waiting for us after the first night! They will lay eggs from April - October, more in the beginning of the season. They are not as consistent as chickens for laying eggs (one of the reasons they are less commercial.

Other benefits of ducks:

• They are quieter than chickens - important to consider in urban locations like Whiskerton Garden. The neighbors may not be so excited to have a farm next door!
• They are less destructive on garden beds - they do not scratch like chickens do.

I look forward to learning more about ducks and updating more as I learn about how to best integrate them with the garden.

These three still need names... any ideas?!

Commercial Street Garden: 3 Years Later

In the house I used to live in, I was slowly converting the front garden to a no-maintenance garden, full of common weeds in the northwest. I was suddenly forced to move from the place three years ago and the garden has been left untouched since.

To my elation, the garden is full of flowers, creeping ground cover, bulbs, and two beautiful aspen trees I planted as tiny seedlings. Time truly is the most powerful force is this universe. The three-tiered terrace I created with urbanite rocks has disappeared behind dense, healthy foliage. The aspen threes are nearly 20 feet tall!

Mason Street Transplanting Starts

After about a month in smaller containers my starts were getting crowded... Or more specifically, their roots were. I could tell they were feeling cramped when leaves kept turning yellow, indication nutrient deficiency. They were also drying out quickly.

I transplanted the basil into long planters, perfect for the only south facing windows in my house. They will ride out the turbulent April and may indoors before getting planted outside in late may an early June.

I transplanted the broccoli outside, interspersed with Arugula and Chard seedlings I sowed directly outside a few weeks ago (It has mostly been slug food). The slugs seem to stay away from the broccoli for the most part - but there are a few new holes in some leaves every night.

My tomato starts are still in my grow room in my closet. They are the most sensitive, and still need UV lights 24 hours a day. They will go outside in June with the basil.

The Garden of Slugs

I am growing food for slugs.

Slugs are a problem for almost every garden in Portland. The wet spring provides the perfect climate for slugs to roam around the garden, eating all of the yummy new greens and Brassica starts typical for April gardens in the Northwest.

I have tried many techniques for preventing slugs:

• crushed egg shells - slugs don't slither across anything sharp, so they theoretically avoid the egg shells. The problem with this method is I do not have enough egg shells to surround my entire garden in a protective barrier. The egg shells also become ineffective quickly as they decompose into the soil.
• slug killers - I have tried lining my beds with natural slug killers. I have seen a few slugs caught in the pellets the next morning, but some still get through. I don't like have to put toxic things in the garden every night in order to keep the slugs away, so I never want to apply enough slug killer to actually work.
• beer cups - if you fill a cub w beer and place it in the garden, slugs will be attracted to it and fall in and then drown in the beer. This method works at catching slugs, but not all slugs. Many slugs are still happy to munch on the yummy starts
• The only method I have found effective is actually going out at night with a flashlight, picking the slugs off of each leaf, and smashing them under my foot. This method works - and is the one I am currently employing at the Mason St. Garden, but it's definitely not my preferred method. Since I started picking slugs off of the plants manually every night, my arugula, spinach and chard starts are starting to grow once again. How can a plant grow if its leaves are continually eaten?!

The slug solution I am working towards takes time. Too many slugs, like many pest, fungal, and bacteria problems for plants, is a result of an imbalanced ecosystem. I am gardening on devastated soil that does not have the proper soil profile full of healthy bacteria, fungus, and micro-organisms. With poor soils, it is hard to grow a diverse plant profile capable of performing multiple pest and disease control functions. Plants such as borrage, comfry, callendula (marigold), and nasturtium are four plans that help control slugs and other garden problems because they help balance the ecosystem and provide habitat for a more balanced and complete ecosystem. I will still have slugs in the garden, but they will be living happily in the comfry with plenty to eat. The best insecticide or fertilizer is a balanced ecosystem within the garden.

In order to move towards a balanced garden ecosystem and soil system is to add organic matter and to seed a variety of plants, that each perform different functions for my garden. Organic matter breaks down and provides food for bacteria, which break down nutrients in the soil and make them available to plants. A garden can never have too much organic matter! Composting, sheet mulching, woodchipping, and other sources of organic material have all been added to my garden this year in an attempt to improve the soil. This spring I am seeding numerous plants and flowers in addition to my vegetable varieties. It is good to plant a diversity of plants that each perform different functions within the ecosystem. For example, cucumbers grow well with arugula, which likes to grow under the cucumbers large leaves in the summer. Sunflowers can also be added to the system so that the cucumbers have a strong structure to grow up. The sunflower attracts insects that help pollinate everything and spread seeds around the garden.

As I get better systems set up, I hope I won't have to be the mass slug murderer that I am today. I don't wear that mask well!

Bedroom Starts Update

I started some basil, tomatoes and broccoli in my closet in my bedroom in mid march. The starts are doing well, but there have already been some misfortunes. Plants are so sensitive when they are young! Plants started indoors are also more sensitive than outdoor plants. Once planted outside - after hardening them off outside for a couple of hours a day - the starts toughen up. But until then, I have to be careful! I have been using a small candle heater to heat my starts, which are covered in a white blanket. The blanket and heater keep the plants warm while the white color maximizes light reflection for the starts.

Unfortunately, the heater has fallen a few times and singed some of the tomato and basil starts. Also, the tomato starts that were too close to the candle heater wilted. I guess it was too hot for them, which seems strange to me because it was not especially warm under the blanket - certainly not too warm!

I have also taken my starts outside when the sun pokes through the clouds and the temperature is above 60 degrees. There are mixed opinions about exposing starts to outdoor light and conditions so early, when they are used to artificial indoor settings. Giving plants small windows of what the real conditions are like outside helps them toughen up. However, it can also damage them if winds are too strong, the sun is particularly bright, or starts are exposed too early. My basil seems to be the only plant unhappy with some outdoor time. I started this basil early for basil, so the outdoor conditions may be too harsh for them still, even on nice warm April days.

The broccoli is starting to look better now, but last week they started turning yellow and losing leaves. Yellow bottom leaves usually indicates nitrogen deficiency, which makes sense in small plastic containers because brassicas are heavy feeders. I added some fertilizer and the yellow color has faded completely! The broccoli will be ready to be planted outside in a couple of weeks. I am waiting as long as possible because the slugs are so terrible this time of year. One slug could take out a whole broccoli start in one night! The slugs are my nemesis at the Mason St. garden.

Onion Starts in the UFC Greenhouse

In mid-march my garden apprentices and I planted hundreds of alliums (onions, leeks, scallions) for the Whiskerton Garden in the Urban Farm Collective. The starts look great after a couple of weeks! It's always a relief to have seeds starts growing.  I sometimes get moments of panic that nothing will grow and I will not contribute anything to the collective this year. But, with just some dirt, water, sun, and a little time, plants never fail to grow again the next year!

In the NW, where spring can run late into the year, it is important to get alliums started early. Most are longer-season crops that require a full grow season to get to maturity. Luckily, the Urban Farm Collective installed this large hoop house/greenhouse. It gets really warm in there during the day, which is perfect for alliums.