Rethinking spring

This week at Two Wheels Urban Farm

I realize this lovely spring is only going to last a few days before winter returns, but I'm really looking forward to warm weather sticking around for good! We have all of our seeds purchased and organized, and next week I will start sowing seeds indoors for spring transplants. I should also have a farmers' market update soon-- I'm excited to start selling produce and fresh flowers this summer. Stay tuned!

All this seed should keep me busy for a while!

Rethinking Spring

I returned on Sunday from my last vacation before the growing season starts, and it was a great trip! We ventured down into the Caribbean and I had a chance to tour around and check out tropical plants. I dreamed of what my urban farm might look like if it was in Jamaica or Key West-- bananas, plantains, bread fruit, all kinds of citrus, coconut, almond trees...

We visited local homes, parks, historical sites, and my favorite part was learning about the local trees and how they harvest and prepare the fruits.

We took a fantastic walking tour in Falmouth, Jamaica from a witty local named Erika. At the end of the tour she told us how 2016 had been the hottest on record in Jamaica, and from what I have read 2016 was the second hottest on record for the US. Interestingly, when we flew back to Milwaukee on February 19 it was a balmy 58 degrees-- if we had flown in the day before, it had been 67 degrees!

60 degree weather is a nice change!

So now I am wondering if I should adjust my planting schedule? For example, historically peppers are planted indoors on April 1 in this part of the country so they can be transplanted on June 1. In a more updated guide (one that I followed last year successfully), they recommend planting on March 4 and transplanting on May 13.

Should a grower trust the regional guides or push the dates because of an early, warm spring? Some things I think about:


1) Check out the land

Our home plots are at the bottom of a hill (where cold sinks) so that probably means we shouldn't push the dates too much. Is your land protected from wind and very sunny so that it warms up early? If so, you might be able to gain extra days. Raised beds also warm up faster than soil. And sandy soil warms up faster than soil with a lot of clay.

2) Protect the plants 

Another way to protect newly transplanted crops against an unusually cold night (or extend the season in general) is to cover the plants with a breathable row cover. Using a jar or a milk jug as a cloche overnight will also protect sensitive plants from frost.

Row cover can often protect down to 28F for early crops such as lettuce and spinach.

3) What is the value of transplanting early?

To someone hoping to be the first person to market with a red pepper, planting early might be a risk worth taking. But if you are growing to feed yourself and your family, you might not want to risk losing your plants to frost for the chance of an earlier harvest. Also, if you grow your own starts, it is less expensive to risk a plant than if you purchase plants from a nursery.

4) Take notes

Taking notes of when you plant/transplant will really help out next year. Even though our spring is coming earlier, from year to year the changes aren't that noticeable, so I am able to use the previous year or two as a guide. I make notes of what varieties and how many seeds I plant, when I plant indoors, when I transplant or direct seed outdoors, the protection I use to keep the plants warm (if I need to do that), and when and how much I harvest. I look back each spring to the year before and see what changes I can make and am also reminded of my own best practices.

5) You can always fall back on your local farmers' market

One nice thing about living in an area with a thriving farmers' market scene is that there are always veggies to buy and enjoy! If your tomatoes don't work out, or if you don't have the space to grow all of the varieties of peppers you enjoy, check out your local farmers' market. Local food eaten in season is fantastic!

Products for the discriminating urban farmer

Stitch Fix, My Beauty Box, Five Four Club, Styling On... these monthly clothing services keep popping up in my Facebook feed and on other internet marketing (likely because they know I am not up on the latest fashions). For those of you who can remember them, these services remind me of the Columbia House CD club!

But these mail order clothes services got me to thinking...what utilitarian, comfortable, functional, long-lasting items would I want to come in the mail? These clubs always ask about your current style preferences, so here is a list of some items I love. Anything on this list you like or need? Can you recommend any must-have products for me?


Good boots. Some people work in flip flops or bare feet or old tennis shoes, but I prefer to keep my toes fully enclosed. I've had some near misses (urban farming requires the use of hoes and harvest knifes, and there are always those pecking chickens) so my toes are safer in boots.

A good pair of rubber boots are perfect for winter or working in the chicken coop. This Servus pair was amazingly inexpensive at Blain's Farm and Fleet, but they have held up well.

For dry chores I love my Red Wing boots. They are comfy as a pair or sneakers.

Warm coat. Winter is cold and it's often chilly and rainy in the spring and fall. Also, urban farm chores are messy and I really don't want to wear my "town" jacket do messy work. It's good to have a dedicated chore coat.

A Carhartt Active Jac with quilted flannel is the perfect remedy for early morning chores in the cold months. They come in a large variety of women's and men's sizes and many colors.

Long-lasting tools. I've learned over the years that it never pays to have cheap tools. I buy inexpensive things when I need to, but when I can, I invest in products that will last a while and do the job well.

These are my favorite small, sharp, hand tools. The fixed blade Buck knife on the left is easy to clean and good for harvesting. The foldable Gerber knife is my "do everything" tool and is with me all the time. The Pampered Chef shears were stolen from my kitchen and have never gone back. They are super sharp and great for pruning tomatoes, among many things.

A sturdy bike. Living in the city allows me to run errands by bike. Being able to live a more sustainable life is one of the main reasons I chose to stay living in town and farm here.

This one can haul trailers of supplies or help me run quick grocery shopping errands. 

Little luxury. Not only does this wallet give someone a job and reuse a grain bag, every time I pull it out it reminds me of summer, of growing, of enjoying the harvest.

This is my splurge item-- a fair trade, Cambodian-made, recycled "Harvest" wallet from the Willy Street Co-Op. Although I bought it at the store, I'm pretty sure this is the website if you want one, too.

5 chicken lessons (see you in 2017!)

This is going to be my last post of 2016. I'm looking forward to spending the last half of December focusing on family and the holidays and hopefully enjoying some new, deep snow on my fat bike. I will, of course, still be tending to the urban farm's chickens and indoor plants, and starting in January I will officially kick off the new growing season, so there will be a lot to talk about next year!

So now for my chicken lessons learned:

1. Chickens hate snow. I let them outside to run around after we got a few inches the other day, and they immediately ran under the big evergreen tree and refused to walk back to their coop. (I chased them, caught them--eventually-- and carried them one by one over the irritating white stuff!). I'm glad that we built a covered run so they can get some sunlight and hang out snow-free.

Until we can find some hen-sized snow boots, the chickens aren't having anything to do with it.

2. Chickens love to stand on top of things. I now feel extra sorry for the factory farmed chickens who have to walk around on the ground all day. Chickens love being high up and playing queen of the hill. The "playground" equipment in their run should keep them more entertained over the winter and will hopefully keep them from trying to stand on top of their feeder.

This wood from a friend's cut tree works great!

3. Providing water in freezing temperatures is a challenge and having electricity in the coop really helps things out. We have finally settled on a system (until I can find a better one) where there are two sources of water. The first is a Hen Hydrator with a bucket heater. The water in the bucket stays thawed, but the nipples freeze overnight and don't thaw until quite a while after sunrise-- this doesn't mean that the day has to get warm, but when the sun comes up there is usually enough radiant energy to thaw them out. I'm going to really like this hydrator once spring arrives. It's easy to fill and see-through so you know how much water you have. It's also keeps the water source very clean!

FFA-approved (except, apparently, in freezing weather).

The backup system is a heavy, shallow, rubber bowl that I put fresh water into each morning before the sun comes up. This water (surprisingly) has been staying thawed throughout the day, even when the outside temperature stays well below freezing (see item #4). We'll see what happens when the high temperature is 0F. If it gets too cold I will remove the Hen Hydrator and put the bucket heater into the rubber bowl.

It doesn't stay as clean as the hydrator, but it won't tip over and if I need to put the bucket heater in it over the coldest winter days I can.

4. Coop winterizing is essential. We keep hardy breeds, but protecting their run from wind and snow has proved very worthwhile. The plastic not only keeps the run dry, but it's significantly warmer than outside in the wind. And since we have a source of electricity, a heating lamp can be used in the run if needed. I've also installed temporary weather stripping in the coop, so they can stay warm over the long, cold nights.

The run is covered on three sized by thick plastic sheeting. The hens like sunning in the open south side.

5. Hens like having a sand box. The chicken run is built over an old children's sand box, so the soil is very sandy in some areas. They hens love to take dust baths, and over time they dug a 6 inch hole in one spot. Today I filled it in with some new sand. This will give them something to dust with and dig around in over the long, snowy days when they'd rather be foraging for worms and grass in the yard.

I added new sand so they wouldn't dig themselves out of the run!

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Peace on Earth! See you back here in 2017!

Indoor/Outdoor

Last of the outdoor harvests

The upper Midwest is getting a very late start to winter this year, so I was able to harvest salad greens and kale through end of November! But it's freezing at night more consistently now, and this week our hardy Swiss chard finally gave in to the cold. So even though tomorrow is supposed to be up close to 50F, I'm calling it-- winter is here! Time to bring in the last of the fall veggies.

These are the Short 'n Sweet variety of carrot that does well in shallow beds or heavy soil. They are also very sweet and I like to roast them whole.

The hens love eating the leftovers and scraps! I'm also working to winterize the chicken run with plastic on the north and west sides to protect from wind and blowing snow.

Last of the outdoor greens. Frost-sweetened and delicious! I could use a double walled tunnel to continue to grow outdoors, but since I have the space and interest, I have decided to move production inside for the rest of the winter.

Oregano has been a very productive herb. It is very hardy, disease resistant, and saves beautifully. I harvested it today, picked off any bad leaves, washed it and air dried it on a towel.

Then I then bunched it up and hung it to dry. Once it's dry (a week or two), I'll break up the leaves with my fingers and put it in an airtight container.

Setting up and testing out the new indoor grow space

I've always had an interest in indoor growing-- greenhouses have been a part of my entire adult life until very recently. But since we currently don't have a greenhouse, I'm exploring indoor options. The main purpose of this growing space will be for seed starting. It will allow us to save money on plants (seeds are much cheaper to buy than seedlings) and will allow us to produce interesting and more well-adapted varieties on the urban farm.

The new lights reflect a lot of the light produced, saving energy and providing the bright light needed for young plants.

The test basil is looking good! I can't wait to eat it!

Another test is with tomato seeds/seedlings. We want to make sure our transplants next spring are sturdy and healthy, so I'm looking at different distances between plants and lights.

I've also started growing lettuce indoors for my own wintertime salads. Perhaps someday I'll be able to produce enough to sell. For now I'll share it with dinner guests! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! It's a great time of year to visit family, catch up with friends, or spend some time with yourself doing something that you love!

Expand-o-matic

As the summer winds down, I have been thinking about the future of the urban farm. My goal for next year is to produce enough vegetables to both feed my family and sell some at a local farmer's market.

I need more space!

I have a couple of options, in addition to the new raised beds I'm going to add next year...

1) Use land in other people's backyards. This would be the ideal way for me to keep my urban farm truly urban, while also putting someone's abandoned garden to good use or transforming lawn into something productive. Additionally, people who may want a vegetable garden-- but don't want to take care of one-- can enjoy the look of a garden along with eating fresh veggies grown right at home.

It might look something like this: I plant four plots in your back yard. You provide the chemical-free land and water and I do all the planting and maintenance. Two plots I harvest for me and two plots I harvest for you. (If you're interested in this option, please let me know!)

2) Rent or buy land. Buying an acreage is something we have been thinking about as a back-up plan. For now we could use the land for planting veggies and fruits and eventually build a house. I like living in the city, however, so this is an issue to overcome. Another option is renting land (an acre or less) and using it as my urban farm extension.


This week at the urban farm:

As I remove plants from the beds, some of them go to the chickens. In this photo they are enjoying a green bean plant. Most of the late pods I kept for next year's seed, but they got to enjoy eating these extra plants.

For the beds that are finished for the year I am using winter rye as a cover crop. This keeps the soil in place during the fall rains and adds organic material. It also suppresses weeds and just looks nice and lush!

Fall carrots are coming along.

Spinach and lettuce should grow well into the fall. I am planning to get some into the cold frame and see how far into the winter we can have salads.

Garden hacks to extend the growing season

The growing season around Madison is a mere 140 days (our grad school town, Raleigh, NC, gets 220 days). I have proposed moving to a warmer climate and have gotten the evil eye from my family. We do really love it here--even the snowy winters are a big draw for us. But I do need more time!

One problem I am currently dealing with is that it's time to plant tomatoes indoors and I am running out of room under my grow lights. I have a whole flat of lettuce that needs to move out to make room for my valuable tomato seedlings. After much reading this winter, I found some options for extending my season, and with these farm additions I can move some plants out and even start seeds outdoors now and could be harvesting cold-loving crops earlier in the spring and then again until Thanksgiving or later. Of course a heated greenhouse is ideal for growing year-round, but these are some easy, inexpensive options I'm trying out this year.


Cold Frame

A cold frame can be used for hardening off plants early in the year and growing veggies late into the fall. This project took a few hours, but other than buying the hinges, I was able to repurpose wood and other leftover supplies from my garage.

My new cold frame is built out of scrap wood and a used greenhouse panel (another option for the top would be an old window). To finish this frame, I'm going to paint the inside white to help reflect sunlight.

The plan for the cold frame was found in this book.

A thermometer helps monitor the environment inside the cold frame, since temperatures can really heat up on even a very cool but sunny day.

I placed the cold frame in a sunny spot facing south. When nights get really chilly this spring, my plan is to cover the cold frame with an old blanket and place a jug of hot water in the frame with the plants to slow the temperature drop overnight.


Hoop House

After building the cold frame, I decided to try additional cold weather growing options and see which ones worked best. According to the UW Extension, a hoop house can extend the growing season by 6-8 weeks, and I've noticed that most of the CSA farms around use them. My goal for the hoop house is to grow cool season veggies early in the spring (and then later in the fall), specifically the fresh spinach and salad greens I've been craving.

After I worried for several days about how to do it (I winged it since I didn't have written instructions for my specific plan) it turned out to be one of the easiest garden modifications I've made. The new hoop house sits over one of my 4' x 8' beds, and when the spring heats up it can be easily removed and stored away until fall.

The simple frame consists of 4 PVC pipes. The ground is soft right now, so I was able to drive them into the ground inside of the raised bed for stability. I made three hoops and used one across the top, and all of these were zip tied together. I also used wood stakes (two on each end) to add stability and keep the hoop house upright.

Hoops over the raised bed.

I found the plastic at my local farmer's co-op.

This is a temporary structure, so rocks hold down the plastic sheeting.

When the day heats up, the cover is easily rolled up and clipped.

Row Cover

Another trick I'm trying is row cover, which should provide protection down to 28F. I'm going to plant early in the community garden, and the row cover should hopefully provide some protection not only from cold weather, but also from hungry bunnies and birds. For early season crops like salad greens, the cover can be left on the plants 24/7 through harvest, which is a big bonus since I don't make it out the community garden every day. For especially cold nights, the row cover can also be used inside of the hoop house to add a second layer of protection.

Be sure to shop around. Prices vary widely depending on where you shop.