The 2017 growing season is underway.  I had started a ton of seedlings to have as teaching tools for the many seed starting workshops that I have done in the last month or so. ( 10 classes on seed starting this season).   The first seeds were sown under the lights in my office seed start growing station in January.

Lettuce and Broccoli starts on 1/23, germination occurred two days after sowing.

At about a week or so of age, when the seedlings were at the true leaf stage of one or two leaves, I divided them and transplanted into cell packs.

11 days from sowing.

The seedlings were allowed to grow in 1″ cells for another couple weeks.  We had a really nice warm up lately and I knew I was going to be out of the office for a while for a conference so I took them to The Urban Farm to transplant.  I picked a bed to use that was close to the parking lot to make use of the nice warm microclimate that the blacktop would provide.  I had looked at the forecast to see the 60 degrees was going to go back to closer to normal.  The first thing to do was terminate the cover crop to get a planting area.

Turned winter rye under with a garden fork. At this stage will provide a nitrogen boost.

The soil was awesome at this point.  It had broken down further, was very friable and a nice dark color.  Extremely easy to work, I could plant with my fingers and did not need a trowel.

I spaced the plants for planned harvest.  The lettuce was on the edge and was on about 7″ centers.  The broccoli alternated with lettuce on 10″ centers.  As I harvest lettuce every other head, the remaining heads have room to get bigger, and when the lettuce comes out completely the broccoli can have that whole side of the bed to expand.  The leaves will quickly make a canopy over the soil making a nice microclimate to shade the soil to conserve moisture and help prevent weed germination.  Basic bio-intensive principals.

The whole bed was covered with medium weight row cover.  This will allow water, air and 90% of sunlight to penetrate to the plants while providing frost protection as well as predator (deer and rabbit) protection in this time of little forage.

Row cover loose on top of the seedlings. I will raise it up with hoops when I get some free time!

Now I need to see how the seedlings grow.  If you remember back when the growing medium was added I had concerns of chlorosis as the pH of the growing medium was a little too sweet.  The cover crop and ammonium sulfate should have corrected it, but I want proof before the May 1st target date.  If everything goes well we should be able to start private sales of this produce in a few weeks.

So on a sunny 60 degree day in late November (I know, right?), Sam, Brad and I finished the paths around The Urban Farm and are now done with Phase II construction.   The target for growing will be to sow some seed like spinach, lettuce, carrots, radishes and peas in March of 2017 to prepare for vegetable sales on May 1 for the Senior Farmer’s Market Voucher Program, and to hopefully have some extra for public sale and inclusion into Meals on Wheels and lunches at the Senior Center.

Special THANKS! to Athens Hocking Recycling Center for some more donated mulch.  I took some pics for you all to enjoy.

Phase I, the herb bed, is doing great. It is still being harvested for use in the Kitchen

The winter rye cover crop is starting to germinate. Hoping it gets enough root growth to survive the winter

See you all in the spring.

We built six raised beds as our starting point for growing vegetables next spring.  Each bed is 4′ x 12′ and 8 inches tall.  The math works out to about 32 cubit feet of soil per bed, with a cubic yard being 27 cubic feet, we need over 7 cubic yards of fill material.

I wanted to get a good head start on organic material as increasing soil organic matter over time can take years, but I did not want to put all my eggs in one dirt basket, so I went with two different compost options,  one a commercial blend and the other a municipal yard waste blend.  We used the municipal blend here at the Children’s Educational Garden at the fairgrounds and while it is a dynamite additive to soil,  when I planted into it straight away,  some plants did not look happy,  showing a symptom called chlorosis, or yellowing of the leaves.  That means the product needs something done to it to smooth out any rough edges.   That is my main concern, making sure I correct any needed deficiencies before planting season.

The first was the compost created at Athens-Hocking Recycling Center.  Sam and I wanted to purchase from them as they have been so gracious with donations of mulch for this project as well as the What a Waste Project.  This material is made from food scraps they collect regionally from homes and businesses that keeps this waste from a landfill and turns it into a salable product by mixing it with wood mulch, turning it, then shredding it down.

Here is a close up of the finished product, some cover crop seeds are visible:

You know me,  I have to soil test it:

Pretty impressive numbers.  High organic content,  lots of nutrients.  You can still see some wood pieces as well as some egg shells if you look close.  It is an excellent soil amendment  The problem with using it straight is the alkaline pH of 7.7 can cause some problems with certain nutrients being available right away.   The soil test states to add sulfur to combat that.

Next up is municipal yard waste from the City of Logan.   They very graciously donated to this project and Sam and I are grateful.  They take collected yard waste and pile it up and it sits there for years, slowly breaking down.  Here is a close up:

Not bad looking stuff,  still some bits and pieces.  The soil test results:

Very similar numbers noted here.  High organic matter,  lots of nutrients,  same alkaline pH.  I did the same with both.   Added ammonium sulfate fertilizer then sowed cover crop seed.

Ammonium sulfate has  both sulfur, to correct the pH and some nitrogen to help both the cover crops grow and help the soil bacteria break down the residual carbon bits.  My hope is that the fertilizer, the cover crops and the winter will combine to help both of these growing media get to a good point for vegetables by April.

Sam and I want to say THANKS!!!! to the City of Logan for generously donating a huge dump truck of compost that we will be able to use to grow vegetables for years.  

As we progress through fall and the growing season slowly comes to an end I thought I would give an update on several projects that I have been working on over the last few months.

First up is the Children’s Educational Garden here at the fairgrounds:

The garden is still doing great.  Tons of cherry tomatoes and peppers still.  Some shell beans left from the green bean bushes.  Parsley and onions as well.   Feel free to come down to the fairgrounds and help yourself, especially if your tomatoes are done as we have lots.

In a few weeks when frost has killed most of the leftover summer veggies we will plant cover crops in the raised beds.  It is the same blend as last year which turned out great.  Rye, clover and vetch from Walnut Creek Seeds.

72.5% Winter Cereal Rye
12% Crimson clover
11.9% Hairy Vetch

Next up is The Urban Farm:

The perennial herb garden is doing great.  We finally got some rain and it has cooled off.

The site we have selected for the raised beds could not be much better.  South face, full sun, aligns east to west. Perfect.

Last update is the accessible raised beds from the What a Waste project.  The veggies did great and they got a major harvest.  Fall is definitely a great time to grow vegetables.

I will have a bigger update on The Urban Farm at Southeast Ohio Regional Kitchen in a few weeks.