Vertical Gardening Experiments

One of the best ways to increase harvest as well as maximize garden space is to grow upward.  Fencing, trellis material, bamboo poles, etc all have a small ground footprint but allow plants to use the vertical instead of just the horizontal.  In the various gardens here in Hocking I have some small experiments going on that I wanted to share.  Hopefully these give you some ideas to take home.

First up is The Urban Farm:

One of my favorite trellis items is cattle panel.  It is not expensive,  will last longer than me, and I am not sure I can break it.  I cut a 16 foot length in half.  I can do a four foot high trellis 8 foot long or an 8 foot high trellis four foot long.  Here is a couple ideas.  The trellis is zip tied at the top in a steep triangle shape.

Sugar snap peas almost completely covering the cattle panel. I thick plant pea seed way past recommendations. This is possible because I know the compost medium I planted in has some serious fertility to handle the nutrient need

Same concept with tomatoes. Can reach through the panel to harvest tomatoes easily. Will bear a ton of weight without any problems. Clip the zip ties at the end of the season to store the panel.

Next up is Bishop Educational Gardens:

If you missed last week’s Edible Landscaping – Beauty and the Feast workshop you did not get a chance to see the amazingly cool raised beds constructed by a relative of our Hocking County volunteer superstar Andy J.

Seriously. Raised beds made from hardwood facings from logging. Genius. Why did I not think of that?

It is tough to tell from this pic but there are three tiers of height. From L to R, eggplant and peppers, tomatoes, then planted pole beans. This will grow up to be a wall of colors, shapes, and textures that are edible. It is a one side view when standing on the road at the left. The trellis will be bamboo poles sourced from the grounds.

 

Last up is The Children’s Garden at the fairgrounds:

I showed you recently how I am doing tomatoes planted with espalier technique on chain link fence.  That will be dynamite I am hoping.  My other vertical experiments are with pole beans using two types of support; one living and one telephone.

Pole beans, var. Christmas Lima, from my friend Sarolin from saved seed here in Logan. They will be able to grow up the telephone pole support wire freely. I am curious to see how high they get.

This is a sunflower plant. I planted pole beans around the base of the plant. They will have a symbiotic relationship. The beans will use the flower as support while providing nutrition to the flower from nitrogen fixing.

I have two support wires for the telephone pole in front of my office to use. This one is getting seeded with pole black beans from Hocking County saved seed from my gardener/chicken friend Beth M.

Lastly. This is a mouse melon plant. It produces grape sized fruit that look like watermelon. This plant is in the ground by the telephone support wire that have the lima beans. This plant will also benefit from nitrogen fixing from the pole beans.

Hopefully you get some ideas to use in your garden.  The trellis/support will allow me to use limited space for maximum harvest over the course of the season.

 

Tomato Planting Time

I took the opportunity to plant tomatoes at two different locations that I help maintain here in Hocking.   My target date for tomato planting is usually around Memorial Day.   That avoids almost any chance of a late frost as well as allows the critical soil warming tomatoes need.  Tomato plants will stop uptake of nutrients from their roots if temps are too low.   That is also why I told folks to hold off planting in April even though we had some great weather.   The past week had very high temps for most of the week(perfect to warm soil), then moderate temps with rain for the ten days following.  Perfect to plant and then have a good source of water for the new transplants.

First up was the Children’s Educational Garden here at the fairgrounds.  Here is the spot:

Four raised beds filled with compost. Great sun exposure, up against chain link fence.

Last year I planted a couple cherry tomatoes and then trellised them along the fence.  It worked great.  I tied the vines horizontally in a modified espalier technique.  It allowed tremendous production and I was able to keep the vines at kid level so they could easily harvest.

Building on that I started seedlings for six different colors of cherry tomato in my seed start grow station.  That will give us way more that can possibly be eaten but I was looking for a colorful effect.   I am a little worried about following tomatoes with tomatoes in back to back years and not following correct rotation.  I will only be able to do an every other year rotate.  I do heavily mulch and we reapply compost.  I will keep a close eye for disease.  Cherry tomatoes have shown they can out grow the blight so I am not super worried.

L -> R: White, Red, Chocolate, Orange, Green and Yellow.

The mulch is mission critical.  It smothers weeds, keeps the soil cool(not cold), prevents moisture loss as well as provides a barrier to the fungal spores in the soil that splash on the leaves and cause most of the tomato diseases.  That is why I had to wait until the soil warmed.  The mulch would have slowed warm up.

 

Next up The Urban Farm:

We are planning to use 2 of our 6 beds in tomatoes.  One of each of the two different growing media.  I want to see how they do in comparison.  The trellis method here is different.  I am using cattle panel that are zip tied into a steep triangle.  This will allow easy harvest and the panel will last years.

dark soil is a mark of lots of organic matter.

Tomatoes are one of the only plants that should be buried deeper than where they were growing in their container.  This is because they will grow roots off the stem below the ground which makes a stronger plant. I pinched off the lower branches and leaves and planted them in 10 inch deep holes.  Then comes the mulch.  I put about 3-4 inches deep hay around the plants.  I will add more as the plants grow.

14 plants per bed, 28 tomatoes total.

The asphalt next to the right side bed will keep the heat in.  This might hurt the plant in high summer heat.  I put cherry tomatoes in that bed as they do less blossom drop due to heat.  Now I just need to get my home plants in.

Urban Farm Spring Update

It is amazing to me to see the old pictures of when we first started the raised beds.

Now we have some fertile growing media and are in full swing for spring harvest.  The cover crops have been terminated and mowed and are getting ready for tomatoes, beans, and peppers.  It is still too early to plant those, but not too early to get the space ready to go.

 

I got the trellis up for the sugar snaps and if the deer do not eat them we will have a fine harvest.  I am using cattle panel as my trellis as it will last for many seasons.  I am going to do the same when I trellis the tomatoes.  I mulched with hay to keep the weeds down and the soil moist for this cool season crop

 

Carrots take quite some time to germinate and get started but they are coming on now and will be part of the produce boxes for the seniors in a month or two.  I will start lots more later in the season.

Senior Farmer’s Market voucher season starts this week and I am hoping to add radishes to the spinach, lettuce and broccoli.

The Urban Farm – April Update

So my last post back on April 2nd showed snow on the raised beds.   We had planted about 40 or so transplants to take advantage of an early warm up then put some row cover season extension over the plants for protection.  Lettuce and broccoli are generally cold tolerant but the weather was in the teens for an extended period of time plus I did not have time to set my low tunnel up correctly so I was thinking we would have some loss.  And we did.  But not too bad.

First week of April after hard long hard freeze period

 

No worries.  We pulled dead plants and put in new ones.  That is why you have a seed start grow station at your house and you plant every two weeks.  Having a dozen plants ready each week or two ensures a steady stream of produce.  We had nice weather with decent rainfall and it shows.

Here is that same bed a couple weeks later.

Lettuce is interplanted with broccoli and cauliflower.  We will harvest the largest heads to allow the smaller heads to get bigger as the broccoli and cauliflower grow to maturity.  We have about 30 heads of lettuce going in a separate part of the farm for later on.

I need to find a few hours this week to work at the farm.  The peas are coming up and if the bunnies and deer do not eat them they will need a trellis in a week or two.  Targeted harvest for sugar snap peas is early June.

Spring Planting at The Urban Farm

So,  back on February 26th, I did a post on how we had started planting at the farm.  I had started a ton of seedlings for various seed starting classes and they needed to get into the ground.  The weather had been beautiful which was not typical for late winter around here.

Then we got some actual winter.  Sam and I put row cover over the seedlings and then doubled up on it for further season extension weather protection.  If it had been spinach under the cover I would have had zero worries but baby lettuce and baby broccoli do not tolerate multiple days in the teens, even under cover so we lost about 25% of the plants from the cold snap. It did not help that I did not have time to put hoops under the cover.  That would have held the fabric up higher and helped the microclimate.  It did help that I had planted right next to the driveway so the asphalt would soak up and release heat locally.

No worries.  The best part of having your own seed starting grow station is the ability to have plants ready to go into the ground every two weeks.  We had started dozens more lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower seeds.  I figured it would take me hours to plant but then Sam and a bunch of her co-workers at The Southeast Ohio Regional Kitchen came out with her and we planted everything plus turned over two more beds of cover crop in an hours.  Big Thanks to them!!!

We filled the whole bed and replaced any dead planting.  Started more under the lights as well.

Covered them up and had some nice rain a couple days later.  I will check on them this week.  Cover will stay to protect for deer plus we have some cold nights still.

 

Speaking of cover crop the rye is going like crazy and will take off towards three and four feet tall here shortly.

(gallery pic credits: Naomi S.)

Planting has started at The Urban Farm

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.

Seed Starting with the Logan Hocking High School Nursery and Greenhouse Program

Mr. Delong invited me to come speak to the students on seed starting to the LHHS FFA Greenhouse and Nursery Program.  Seed Starting is one of my favorite things and one of the things that anyone can do at home to tremendously maximize food production for their family.

I brought a bunch of seeds for cold weather specific vegetables and herbs.  I know the 60 degree weather has folks thinking tomatoes, but we are not there yet.

The students planted seed of all of the varieties in flats, watered the flats and put them under the lights.   Germination will be about 3-5 days for most of these plants.

photo credit: A. Delong

 

A week later I went back.  I brought some seedlings I had planted prior as the student seedlings were only a week old.  Good timing for thinning, but seedlings need to be at the true leaf stage to transplant and these seedlings were at the seed leaf stage.

 

I will head back in a couple weeks to continue the process.  The students will be growing some transplants for use at The Urban Farm. I am grateful for that.  Whatever we cannot sell from the farm goes right into The Southeast Ohio Regional Kitchen for donation to hungry folk.

Right now the seedlings need to get a little older, then transplanted into cell packs and left to be watered and fertilized for several more weeks.  If you are interested in seed starting, I have a Seed Starting Workshop at Bishop Educational Gardens coming up soon.

Hocking County 2017 Ag Days

Ag Days will be held at the Hocking County Fairgrounds on the weekend of April 8th and 9th.   Extension will have several events, programs and presentations during the festival.

First up is the Pie Baking Contest

Do you have what it takes to take down the CHAMP????

2016 Champ Anna

Details:

Do you have what it takes?

The Hocking County 4-H Youth Board will hold a Pie Bake-Off on Saturday, April 8 as part of Ag Days. Pies should be brought to the Youth Center, located on the Hocking County Fairgrounds before 9:15 AM on April 8. Judging begins at 9:30 AM with 1st, 2nd and 3rd places being awarded. All pies must be in a disposable container. The winning pies will be auctioned at 10 AM.  All types of pies will be accepted. Please call OSU Extension at 740-385-3222 for more information. All pies/proceeds benefit the Hocking Co. Youth Board.

 

Two other events on Saturday at Ag Days are:

  • Hocking County Farm Bureau  Workers Comp credits are available by attending a two hour presentation in the Soil and Water Room from 10 – Noon
    • First Hour 10 – 11 “Updates on The Veterinary Feed Directive”
    • Second Hour 11-12 Ag Safety.
    • Anyone can attend either or both hours,  for full credit for Farm Bureau, both hours need attended.
  • Pollinators for Vegetables – For kids of all ages
    • 1 – 2pm,  at the Children’s Education Garden.   We will be planting some seeds for both veggies and pollinators and have some pollinator seed packets to hand out as well.

 

Hoping that we do not have a blizzard for Ag Days like last year!!  Looking forward to seeing everyone there.