Collaboration Chronicles

I’ll be hosting a workshop at my apartment this Saturday to teach how to extract honey from frames and put in jars. The process is really simple, but I thought it would be a great excuse to hang out with people and talk about gardening and urban beekeeping.

So, if you’re interested in tasting some San Francisco honey right from the comb before it goes into jars, stop by my place this Saturday.

450 S. Van Ness, #1
SF, CA 94103

This weekend I hosted a garden party at my house. Coby, Mei and Pat showed up to help out. Pat and my backyard is half concrete and half earth. Pat helped me finish off the fence by nailing it to the existing posts. Those are going to have to be changed next season. Coby and Mei helped pull out the top half of the compost and cut down ivy and all of the overgrowth on the south side of the garden, which can be used for the now 6 dogs that live in our building. The plan is to clear out the three smaller patches for the dogs, because that one sliver is hardly enough for them to play in.

After that, I sat down and took an account of the state of seeds. I have tons of various seeds hanging out, some I’ve saved from things that have grown, and most others I’ve purchased. Figuring out what to plan and how is the next challenge with planning.

When I first started gardening, I didn’t know what to do really (when, how, where, why?), so I found a recommended gardening book. This has totally saved my garden:

I knew that I wanted to plant the following because of the season:

• Artichoke
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Chard
• Potatos
• Onions
• Leeks
• Garlic
• Beets
• Carrots
• Radish
• Parsnips
• Peas
• Lima Beans
• Strawberry
• Parsley, Rosemary and Oregano
• Tea herbs and other flowers to help with insect control

There were missing seeds, so I made a trip to Flowercraft with Pat. There, we got seeds for onions, leeks and some more kale. We also got seedlings for artichoke, cauliflower, cabbages and rosemary. When we got back, I planted the seedlings in appropriate spots and watered them. They’re all around where Mei had planted her strawberry plant. Then Pat and I started seedlings for Luciano Kale, onions, leeks, two other types of kale and oregano. All of these need at least three and up to 12 weeks indoors before they’re transplanted into spring soil. This seems to work out perfectly for San Francisco’s weather.

Lastly, I put parsnip and parsley seeds in water over night, which I planted the next day. I put all of the parsley into pots and the parsnip out of the way of the bigger plants and perennials, so that I can dig them up when they’re ready. Parsnips need about 3″ of clearance between mature plants, so I planted them in triangles and took up a 2 sq. ft. area, where if all germinate and grow, we’ll have 23 parsnips in a season. I think that’s enough for two people to eat with friends .