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!

Wine Country? Starting a midwest, urban vineyard (part 1)

Sometimes the urban farm is just one big experiment. Eventually I can see things settling down into a routine, but I don't really want that. I love trying out new things that may (or may not) work out.

My lovely next door neighbor brought me some grape cuttings from her work mate who had pruned his plants. She thought I might be the right person to take them and turn them into something useful. Of course I jumped at the chance to add grape vines to my collection of perennial fruit crops.

The grapes are a grab bag and all my friend knows about the vines is that they were cut from a mix of red, white and purple grapes originally purchased  from a local garden store, Jung's. The grapes in this Jung's pack are the winter hardy varieties Edelweiss (green grape), Fredonia (vigorous, Concord type), and Swenson Red (table grape). These plants cost about $8 each, so if these cuttings work out, this an easy way to get free grape vines. And as a big thank you, I am planning to share my plants with my neighbor so that she, too, can have a vineyard in her yard. Now we need to find some good wine and jelly recipes!

Rather than following one technique I found, I combined a few rooting ideas that I could do easily in my kitchen.

I chose cuttings that had at least 2 or 3 good buds.

The cuttings were trimmed to 12-14 inches.

Using a sharp knife I trimmed the bark back at the bottom end, about 1/2 inch.

The ends were then dipped into a generic rooting hormone-- my local mega hardware store had only one brand to select, Take Root.

Cuttings were placed into tap water. The water was changed every couple of days.

27 cuttings, and hoping for roots. If all of them work, we'll have $216 worth of grape vines.


Time Passes...3 weeks later...

At 3 weeks more than half of the cuttings have large, healthy roots. The others looks like roots could still be forming.

I mixed up a soil approximately half sand and half peat moss.

I found these biodegradable pots (next to the peat pots) made from cow manure, a renewable resource--living here in Wisconsin where we have an overabundance of cow manure, I'm glad they have another new use for it!

The plants growing separately in pots will give the roots more room to grow.

16 cuttings were potted. After a few weeks in the pot I will transplant them outdoors (if the other 11 cuttings grow roots, I will pot them up as well).

In part 2 of this post I hope to talk about my planting and trellising plan. If anyone has any grape trellis experience or ideas, please leave them in the comments section!

Do what you love; love what you do

I've been really busy this week planting, transplanting, weeding, mowing, finishing up projects, and eating salads, so I haven't started anything new. What I have been doing is thinking about luck and jobs and happiness. I used to think that people who loved their work were lucky, but I am now convinced that most people work hard to find a position in life that makes them get out of bed singing.

I am so happy with my new work that I forget what day it is and don't mind popping out of bed early in the morning. Last Sunday I was hanging out with some good friends talking about how nice it was that it was Saturday night. In my mind it felt like an evening to have fun and celebrate-- in the past I was afflicted with a "Monday dread" that often started as early as Sunday morning, and now I don't always know (or care) what day it is.

It is time well spent to work towards finding something you love to do that fits into the life you want to have. Money is certainly important (my friends and family can tell you that I am a planner and a saver and I love to stretch my dime!). That said, if taking a pay cut or having one person in a relationship step away from a paying job makes everyone happier and more sane, then it's well worth it. Life it too darn short to dread Mondays and waste every Sunday being unhappy. 


A week at the urban farm in photos

We've had a really cool May, but I think the raspberry harvest will be just fine.

Radish season is almost over (until fall) but salad greens are still going strong!

I transplanted these teeny tiny tomatoes a few days early and protected them from frost with mason jars. Many people's tomatoes have died, so I am feeling lucky to have waited.

As of this week, the gardens at home are mostly planted. Peppers, okra, winter squash, and other hot weather veggies will go in at the end of May.

The solar powered automatic coop door is a hit with the humans!

Farmer's Market Find of the Week

I like to see what's hot at the farmer's market (both to think about what I might sell someday and also to find the value of what I am working on). This delicious 16 oz. jar of spicy sweet pickles was $5.25.

Spring is getting real around here

Ok, I admit there are still several inches of snow on the ground, but now is the time to start thinking about planting (actually, the summer veggie growing season started about 2 weeks ago!). In my first years of gardening I made the mistake of waiting until the first warm, sunny, true spring day (probably mid-May here in Wisconsin) to decide to plant. Because I was so late getting started, I hurried to the home and garden store, or worse, a big box home improvement store, to buy whatever veggie plants they had left over (since everyone else in town suddenly also had spring fever-- it is highly contagious). The veggie plants I bought were expensive and likely not the ideal varieties for my region. For this farmer who loves a little thrill, they were probably also very boring varieties. Pick up any seed catalog and you'll see just how many fun options you have.

Fast forward a few seasons... this year I am continuing a system I started last year:

• buy seeds early
• for long-season crops, plant them indoors on time 
• transplant or direct seed outdoors as early as possible

These practices allow me to not only plant unique or delicious varieties that will grow well in Wisconsin, but by planting early I can extend my growing season and maximize on my rotations (early crops, mid/late season crops, and fall crops).

Right now my system is not so fancy: shelves in a bright, southern window with a few grow lights hung to provide extra light in the morning and evenings. In the future I want to build one of these babies:



But for now, I'll work with what I have. I started some onions two weeks ago (in the back) and my current batch of microgreens (in the front):



I ran across the very handy University of Wisconsin's regional planting guide (starting on page 5) that lets me know when to start different plants indoors and outdoors. It is fantastic and I'm not sure how I grew vegetables without it. I would guess most locations have a similar resource (in the US, a good first step would be to check with your local university extension agent).

For the second year in a row I am also writing down the varieties I grow, how many seeds I start, and what the germination percentage is. This is helpful for next year to know how much to plant and whether I should plant extra seeds to get the desired number of plants. Some notes from 2015:



I'm also trying out the kindergarten thrifty urban farmer paper cup method of starting seeds. I may need to transfer them to larger pots at some point, but I know some seeds won't germinate, and some plants will germinate that I won't need, and so this is a very cheap and easy way to get things started.



So March is here and my first year of urban farming full time is off to a good start! I planted those onions on Valentine's Day, and today I started the peppers and eggplant. And although fat biking on the local pond is a ton of fun, I am ready for the snow to melt!