Collaboration Chronicles

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 .

Beth was asked today by her coworker about the possibility of having some of us at Fog City Gardens to help with planning and implementing a vegetable garden at her father’s house while he’s away on vacation.

Anders in Fog City's 'LakeShore' Garden

While the six of us currently involved are not experts, we have had some success with planting.  I’m seriously looking forward to helping someone in the community plant more veggies (I asked for fruits, flowers and shrubs for bees, too).

Our goals at Fog City Gardens is to promote community through garden planning, implementation, seed sharing and other things related to gardening.  Secondary to this is giving back to the community is another way.  Ideas we have are to provide a personal CSA, give extras to the community or schools or to host a frequent dinner party with things we’ve grown.  I like the last one best, because it gives everyone in the community a chance to see what their neighbors are up to “back there”.

If I pull off this bee hive thing, there will be some community honey to share with people that I’m really looking forward to.  I may have to stick with beer, cheese and veggies for now.

After a friend sent me a link to Freelance Farmers website, and after all of the talk of the Slow Food Nation event that happened last weekend in San Francisco, I was inspired to search and find out more about this French Intensive gardening method I was hearing about.  After reading about it a bit on the internet, I found a reference to this book, which led me to a garden supply store in Palo Alto.

When I measured my garden, I realized that I had attempted to garden on about 400 sq. ft. of earth to very limited success.  Yeah, I got a lot of lettuce, but I couldn’t keep up with the supply!  Also, I found that I hadn’t dug down deep enough, added any nutrients or compost, and over watered my seeds before they even germinated.  This was bad news.  I only wanted to try this method on 100 sq. ft., and I had a 16′x16′ plot which could easily be fenced off, raised a bit, and shared with someone else.

So I called my friend Anders, who was looking for land in the city that he could garden on.  His back yard is a porch with some home made containers.  We surveyed what we needed to buy in terms of irrigation, fencing, raised box wood, nails, tools, etc.  We also talked about seeds, plants, and fertilizer.  We decided to check out Common Ground in Palo Alto to see what they had to say about soils, seeds, etc.

Saturday morning (before the Slow Food Nation event I had tickets for), Anders, his girlfriend Anna and I went down the Peninsula and met some really happy people.  I bought the book everyone was talking about, looked at fertilizers, talked about methods and what to do at this time of the year.

Anders and I spent about $400 total on fencing, hoses, fittings, nails, 1″x2″ “fence posts”, seeds, and fertilizer.  The only thing we didn’t get were tacks for the fence, and compost (which we should be able to get for free from the Alemany Farm).

Sunday morning (not so bright and early) I started double digging.  I thought we could get through the whole 16′x16′ plot in a few hours.  Boy was I wrong.  After trying different ways to get 1′ of topsoil out of the ground, I traded tilling and digging until I got that far down.  Then I started using a pick axe.  Then Anders showed up, and after two hours of really intense digging, I removed 4 cubic feet of soil…1/4 of one row.  We had 16 total rows to get through.  Later on, we realized that the corner I was working in was the most compacted soil in my back yard.

Anyway, after using different tools, we found out that Anders was better with a shovel, and I was better with the axe.  Neither of us liked the other tool, so we traded off running down the rows digging or removing soil.  We finished three rows, got some lunch, came back to finish another three rows, and my original 16′x6′ plot that was for me to use was dug.  We still have 10′x16′ to do, but Anders says he probably won’t double dig that part.  Eventually, I’d like to.

What we had after the first day (we added stones and bricks to the walk way).

Then we put up some fence posts and 6″ wood I got for free on Craigslist to make “raised bed”.  Now I have to get compost, spread it, spread fertilizer, hook up irrigation hoses, and plant some seeds before I can make any more progress.

To-do’s beyond that: build another compost heap for the winter; finish tilling/digging the rest of the plot; clean up the path ways so we can make gates and doors in the fence, and; build an automated irrigation system which is connected to a weather station that can water the garden automatically.