December 30, 2003 link
I posted my last photos from 2003. I also updated the 2003 harvest page. I grew about 45 pounds (20 Kg) of food. Using the lessons I’ve learned in 2003, I think I can get close to 100 pounds in 2004.
Most of the heavy production this year came from radishes, tomatoes and carrots. Next year, I want to add squash, pumpkins, corn and beans into the mix. These four should be considerably heavier.
December 17, 2003 link
Several friends have helpfully passed along an article about lead poisoning in urban gardens. According to the study, Chicago residential gardens could contain potentially hazardous amounts of lead. Since lead contamination comes from old housepaint and gasoline fumes, gardens located near building sites or roadways are especially vulnerable.
An article in the Chicago Tribune recommends moving your garden away from the building (which can be difficult in dense urban areas), or using raised beds filled with fresh soil (which can be difficult when dealing with large gardens).
In my situation, neither of these solutions is possible or practical. Nor is quitting the garden—I’m committed to urban growing as a long-time project.
In the Spring, I will get my soil tested for lead. I will take several samples from different corners of the yard. If my soil contains dangerous levels of lead, then I will search for a different location. Hopefully, everything will look okay.
This is also important to keep in mind when I decide to purchase a house.
This is a discouraging setback for me—not only because my own garden is potentially jeopardized—but because I am such a strong proponent of urban food growing. The threat of lead poisoning almost makes me wonder if food growing is best left to the “experts”—out in the country, far away from the poisoned backyards of ordinary city folks.
December 1, 2003 link
I still have an entire row of carrots in the ground. Despite the cool wintery weather, they are okay. I pulled a few up yesterday, and they taste delicious. I wonder how long they will survive—can I keep them there deep into the winter?
As winter approaches, it feels great that the garden continues to reward my efforts.
November 12, 2003 link
After the frantic pace of harvest season, I decided to take a break. Actually, it wasn’t much of a decision. I took a break—period. Other things—such as college football, my career and being lazy—have taken precedence. Now it’s time to get back outside and clean-up the yard. Stay tuned for some super-exciting updates about yard-work!
October 14, 2003 link
Last week, The Christian Science Monitor ran an article about the changing demographics of America’s farmers. In the past 20 years, the number of young farmers (under 35 years old) has dwindled from 50% to about 25% of all farmers. It is not apparent who will take the place of the retiring seniors.
Predictably, the article focuses on agriculture as a rural concern—which it largely is. When we think of farms, we generally think of vast isolated fields. But I believe this approach underscores a fundamental cause of farming’s current problems—the cultural divide between city and country.
Our current food system consists of a complete separation between farms and city-dwellers. Food is grown in the country, then shipped to consumers in urban areas. Most of us experience farms through the window of a car or airplane. Food production takes place at a distance, not tied into the physical fabric of our daily lives.
The CS Monitor article implies the question: why don’t rural kids stay on the farm? I think this is the wrong question. I don’t blame rural kids for moving to the city. The professional, social and cultural opportunities offered by the city are wonderful things. And the best way to handle our growing population is to concentrate ourselves in cities, not by spreading ourselves all over the countryside.
Okay—so I am a big proponent of urban life. Even if I wasn’t, cities and towns are still the inescapable centers of American civilization. Despite our cherished ideals about America, we can’t return to our rural roots. If we are going to solve the farming crisis, we need to start in the cities.
Why do we have such a separation between city and country? This trend began with industrialization, and continues today. But in today’s cleaner, healthier world, what purpose does it serve? Why can’t we integrate agriculture into the physical fabric of our urban areas?
We can. Even in a metropolis like Chicago, there are thousands of acres of vacant land. There are thousands of acres of under-used parks. There are thousands of acres of unkempt backyards. And there are thousands of acres of ornamental plantings—which are nice, but unproductive. What if people harnessed even a small portion of this soil potential to raise plants and animals?
I don’t understand yet how this would happen. Some of it would be non-profit neighborhood gardens, but I hope that most of it would be commercially-viable market gardens. Regardless, I sincerely believe there is no shortage of land, and no shortage of energetic citizens and entrepreneurs. We can’t raise all our food in this manner, but we can definitely take steps towards a closer integration between city-folks and food.
We’re conditioned to think of agriculture as a rural thing. I look forward to the day when skyscrapers and strawberries can be raised side-by-side.
October 13, 2003 link
I finally got around to making pesto from my big stand of basil. I tossed it all in a blender with some garlic and olive oil. I ate some for dinner that night, then froze the rest in ice cube trays.
I also made some pasta sauce, which is delicious. Tomatoes, onions and peppers from my garden were cooked together with various herbs. I froze the pasta sauce in serving-size plastic containers. Guess what I’ll be eating this fall/winter. That’s right—pasta.
September 25, 2003 link
Things are winding down for the season, mostly. I’ve been cleaning up the garden, thinking about winter projects and planning ahead for next year. The tomatoes are producing like crazy before cold weather comes. I’ve been up to my ears in carrots, and half of them are still in the ground. I keep checking my skin for an orangey hue—I hear large amounts of carrots will change your skin tone.
There are so many collards that I’ll never be able to eat them all. Can you freeze collards? And are frozen greens good for anything besides soup?
My parents visited earlier this month. With great pride, I served them carrots, tomatoes, collard greens, cucumbers and peppers. They were impressed, I think. Since moving to the Colorado desert, they haven’t been able to grow a garden like they used to. They enjoyed the experience so much that they spent an entire afternoon pulling weeds while I was at the office.
September 9, 2003 link
Despite the late start and their diminutive size, the okra plants are producing pods. Last night, I dunked a few in cornmeal and fried ‘em in hot oil. Nice. I think okra are a good thing to try growing again in the future. They’re not exactly easy to find around these parts.
September 8, 2003 link
Sharon kindly alerted me to an important fact about onions: they are biennial. What does this mean? It means they have a two-year life cycle. The first year, they form an underground bulb, which is the part we eat. The second year, they create a flower stalk and produce seeds.
I planted lots of onions this year. About half of them formed big bulbs (4-5 inches in diameter). The others—for whatever reason—formed smaller bulbs that were kinda disappointing (less than 2 inches in diameter). Originally, I thought I could save the smaller bulbs and replant them next Spring. After hearing Sharon’s advice…that changes everything. If I replant them, I will just end up with flowering onions, not bigger bulbs.
I’m glad she gave me advance warning before I found out the hard way. Not that flowering onions would be the End Of The World, but you know.
September 7, 2003 link
The word on the street tells me that the September 8 issue of Time magazine (the “What’s Next” issue) has a short photo-caption about gardening becoming cool among urban hipsters. Can anybody out there confirm this? I don’t need confirmation that gardening is cool, thank you. But can somebody email me the actual text used in the magazine? Newstands around here are already displaying the September 15 issue.
September 6, 2003 link
Garden writer Don Engebretson gives props to Chicago in his latest Renegade Gardener column:
Chicago is distinguishing itself as a city that, horticulturally speaking, gets it. The city hired the planet’s hottest garden designer, Dutchman Piet Oudolf, founder of the New Wave Planting school of design, to design and install the hundreds of large planters and hanging baskets that brighten downtown.
Besides the renowned downtown planters, Don also cites examples of Chicagoland private gardens and calls the Chicago Botanic Garden “one of the most astonishingly beautiful, majestic, inspiring plots of land you’ll find anywhere in America.”
He might have also mentioned our extensive lakefront park system or the recent Greentown initiative. In addition, Chicago just hosted the First North American Green Roof Conference, which allowed us to show-off our city hall rooftop garden.
Many people are surprised that a metropolis like Chicago could be recognized for its pioneering environmental initiatives. We’re lucky enough to have a mayor who is steadfastly dedicated to integrating nature into our public spaces. (However, others claim that Mayor Daley ignores other social issues because he is so focused on the environment.) I think Chicago is starting to live-up to its old motto, “Urbs in Hortis”, which means “City in a Garden”.
I hope Chicago will someday get widespread recognition for its burgeoning network of neighborhood food production. We’re not ready for primetime yet, but we’re getting bigger and better every season.
September 3, 2003 link
September is here, and things are winding down. It’s a good time to step back and see how everything played-out for Season #1. Some plantings were less successful than I hoped; others were more successful. I learned some valuable lessons, which I can carry over to next season. Already, I’m starting to think about how I can correct 2003’s mistakes, and make next year’s garden even better.
But 2003 wasn’t just about mistakes. Overall, The Experiment was wildly successful. It continues to provide many pounds of food, and hours of enjoyable outdoor activity. Surveying the garden today, it’s almost impossible to remember the snarled mess of weeds that were here last September. It has changed so much.
Here’s the rundown:
- Tomatoes: Oh yeah. Plenty of big juicy ones. I grew 12 plants. The vertical growing system worked well—it saved lots of space, and made it much easier to reach in and pick the ‘toes.
- Sweet Peppers: Still ripening, but almost ready. I grew seven plants, which ended up 3-4 feet tall. Each one produced 5-6 peppers so far.
- Hot Pepppers: Only one Jalapeno survived the Spring transplanting. The “garden salsa” fared much better. Plenty of 6-inch long tangy peppers.
- Collards: Probably the least fussy, most productive thing I grew. The leaves are enormous, and they should keep growing until the frost.
- Green Beans: Didn’t make it. Next year they’ll get a sunnier spot.
- Radishes: Yeah baby. It seemed like I was eating those babies all Spring, and I’ve still got a few bags of radish greens in my freezer. I recently planted a Fall crop of radishes…and the seed packet still isn’t empty! A little pack of seeds goes a loooong way.
- Zucchini: Had a brief moment of glory, but then caught a disease and shriveled up. I still managed to eat and freeze plenty of big zukes. Maybe it’s better this way. I was just starting to get tired of them. Zucchini have a reputation for overwhelming production.
- Lettuce: Delicious while it lasted. The coolness of June helped the lettuce survive longer.
- Broccoli: Disappointing. In March, I started the broccoli in seed flats. I planted it outside in mid-Spring, but it never really did anything. It grew for awhile, then just stopped. It didn’t die—it just stopped developing. Whatever.
- Raspberries: I didn’t know I had them until I discovered the berries. Over the coming years, they will expand to become a major facet of the garden. I’m working on plans to develop a thin system of berry hedges that will wind through the garden—like the arms of an octopus.
- Parsley, Cilantro, Arugula: Big lush patches that will hopefully drop seeds and establish themselves permanently.
- Basil: Gigantic. I need to chop them down and make pesto, pronto.
- Onions: Range from 3-5 inches in diameter. I pulled them up, and they’re curing on my back porch. You have to dry them before storing them, or they will continue growing. The smaller ones will be saved and replanted next Spring. Overall, I’m not too excited about onions, and I probably won’t buy any more sets.
- Carrots: Big and delicious. Still harvesting, but looks to be over ten pounds. I planted them as an after-thought, but the carrots really proved their worthiness.
- Eggplant, Okra, Chickpea: Due to a late start, the plants are small. They are slow growers. I think I might still get a few fruits from them. Otherwise, I’ll try again next year.
- Cucumber, Pumpkin: Not enough sun. Next year will be better.
- Rosemary, Sage: Might not make it through the Winter. When the time comes, I’ll give them a warm blanket of mulch and hope for the best.
Wow. Looking back at this list, I realize how much I’ve accomplished. See for yourself: 1, 2, 3, 4.
