Buying The Farm

Grafting heirloom tomato plants onto disease-resistant tomato plants. I need a closer-up view of the cuts that are needed, but holy cow this is a Very Cool Thing.

Grafting Greenhouse tomatoes.

I’m into the exciting phase of my first garden: Seeds are starting (or, in the case of the edamame, ready for high school already!) and the weather’s been beautiful. We’re getting closer to the actual planting!

The bag gardening method I’m adopting, while faddish, hasn’t developed as deep a literature for things like plant spacing. My research has involved a lot of bouncing between sites. Luckily, though, one result was this website.

The concept is to plant at least one container of vegetables, and they’ve very helpfully prepared short, illustrated cheat sheets for some commonly-grown plants. Not everything is on here, but for amateurs like myself, it’s an excellent primer.

http://www.onepotpledge.org/getgrowing.html

Yesterday I let slip that I’m planning my first actual garden. It occurred to me that I hadn’t explained how this came about!

In a fit of new year’s resolve, I spent the first week of January visiting dozens of gardening websites, one of which linked to Sharing Backyards – a North American take on the much bigger, much more entrenched Landshare program, which – though huge in Britain – hasn’t yet taken root in Canada. (I’m exhausting my gardening metaphors, here.)

Sharing Backyards offered more locations in Toronto than I expected, but was pretty woeful in the suburbs, where I live. Lo and behold, though, there was one listing not 10 minutes’ walk down the street from me, and the homeowner and I hit it off immediately. The backyard isn’t huge, but as first-time gardeners and first-time backyard lenders, we agreed it’d be more than enough for experimenting, and we’re both excited for Spring.

http://sharingbackyards.com/

Mother Earth News offers this handy online garden planner. I’m sure, for experienced gardeners, it’s a bit too simplistic, but for pale green thumbs like me it’s very useful. You can lay out your garden and have a list of sowing/planting/harvest times generated automatically. Not everything is represented, and it’d be nice to have some companion planting suggestions (dos and don’ts!), but for one just starting out this is a nice little resource.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx

I’d read about Mangelwurtzels (say that three times fast) a few years ago, and am still intrigued by them. They’re a species of beet which, historically and by the suggestion of my local seed catalogue, are fit for animal fodder, not human consumption. Some investigation shows that people do grow them for home use, and one shares a tip about forcing their leaves for a nice gourmet entree.

This is an interwsting thread to me as I have been growing them for a few years now for my own consumption.

Incidently, I found out by accident that if the stored roots are left to sprout in a covered container, the blanched shoots produce a gourmet sprouting dish.

http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1095.html

I’m investigating sharing a space with a local homeowner. She’s got a few fruit trees but most of the ground is in shade. I found this list of shade-happy plants which gives me some hope our potential crop won’t be entirely composed of microgreens.

**EDIT** Turns out she’s a he, and the shade isn’t as bad as I thought. Still, plenty of space to put shade-tolerant kale!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/shade-tolerant-vegetables-zm0z11zsto.aspx

Aquaponics meets utilitarian Scandinavian design. I like this, though I wonder if the fish it can hold would be enough for good eatin’.

http://www.conceptualdevices.com/2011/06/malthus-a-meal-a-day-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-about-the-food-and-love-the-population-bomb/

The home I’m considering buying has a concrete backyard, so the idea of container gardening is suddenly very appealing. I was trying to search for crops that would work well in a sub irrigated planter, and it occurred to me that EarthBox would probably be a great source for this info. I have no intention of spending the kind of coin they ask for their planters, but it’s a good guide on what kind of crops will grow.

http://www.earthbox.com/resources/what-to-grow/

“No power tools needed” always gets my attention, and I love the simplicity of these vertical supports.

http://www.insideurbangreen.org/2009/11/garden-update.html

There are all sorts of variations on this theme, but I love being delighted by new ideas: One of the videos linked to here shows a garden made out of kitty litter bins. They’d be the ideal height and width for square foot gardening (at least when supported by self-watering) and are readily available. “Farming asphalt” is really brought to life.

http://www.insideurbangreen.org/diy-sub-irrigation/