February 09 - Rain damage

Oi, oi, oi.

Talk about lessons learned....

Pay attention to your materials!

I bought all the PVC for this greenhouse at a recycled place and did not noticed that one on the PVC tubes was of a thiner gauge than the rest. This caused it to bend with the heat of the summer which caused a dent on the hoop allowing it to collect rain water. The weight from the rain water was so much that basically collapsed the entire structure. And this is what we were left with.

We had to clean out the mess. So much for my trying to be green using recycled PVC, now I was left with a pile of bent and unusable PVC.

Lesson learned: sometimes we can be greener by picking an appropriate material that will last longer rather than a refurbished material.

Rob swept the roof of the adjacent building and we used those pine needles as added mulch for the greenhouse area.

Got to love a strong man not afraid of hello kitty tattoos
And he said he had a zome idea in mind to replace the greenhouse.....

This is the sketch up model

This is the scale model

We also built a key hole planter.

A keyhole planter offers as its main advantage the ability to tend your beds from the one position. You literally work from within the bed and rotate to access every inch of it. Plus, the bed is raised so you don't need to get on your knees when conducting your gardening tasks.

Keyhole gardens are named such because in their most simple design they are round with one path leading from the perimeter to a slightly enlarged open center. The major goal of this layout is to minimize walking areas and maximize growing areas, and the keyhole name alludes to the fact that from above this design looks like the metal keyhole plate on a door. The access trail typically enters from the south so as to admit sunlight and good ventilation for the plants.

Keyhole gardens are more appealing to gardeners and visitors, because on top of their functionality the also provide little hideaways for sitting with a tranquil heart used for mediation and reflection.

January 2009 -Winter veggies

Our soil work in October worked wonders!

Our winter veggies are looking incredible, check this out:

It is really starting to look like a farm- can you believe this is in the middle of Berkeley?

Onions

Garlic and favas

Lettuce and chard

Lettuce and spinach

Mustard winter greens- The best!

First sign of spring coming- Snap peas!

Kale and chard

Purple Kale

So many delicious greens

This was the special potato patch. Potatoes like a less organic soil and more aerated so we added layers of straw to this area.

October 08-Harvest, Chicken Tractor and Building Composting

Our October work party was really fun and really productive.

We harvested two buckets of cherry tomatoes and a few other veggies, but given how late we had started and the low organic matter in our soils the harvest was not as bountiful as we had hoped for but we had a plan for next season-Build the soil!

Cherry tomatoes

Purple broccoli

We built a chicken tractor!

What Is A Chicken Tractor?

A chicken tractor is a movable chicken cage, allowing you to keep your chickens under control while still moving them around the yard.

Why Would I Want One?

-Have your chickens till and weed your yard

-Buy less food for your chickens

-Eliminate your need for petroleum-baed fertilizers

-and, last but not least: make your chickens happy!

The chickens are all the left over veggies and bugs while removing the soil and fertilizing it.

It was quit the entertainment for the kids too.

After the chickens finished with one bed we moved them to another and with the added fertilizer we were ready to plant our winter veggies.

Dan was a great help clearing out this area for the plant nursery staging area.

The other project that we started was building our own soils. We realized that the soil we had bought was not rich enough so we started our own compost.

Composting is simply decomposed organic material. The decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for enriching garden soil. Invertebrates (insects and earthworms), and microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) help in transforming the material into compost. It is the way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the volume of garbage needlessly sent to landfills for disposal. It's easy to learn how to compost

Yard and food wastes make up approximately 30% of the waste stream in the United States. Composting most of these waste streams would reduce the amount of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) requiring disposal by almost one fourth, while at the same time provide a nutrient-rich soil amendment. Compost added to gardens improves soil structure, texture, aeration, and water retention. When mixed with compost, clay soils are lightened, and sandy soils retain water better. Mixing compost with soil also contributes to erosion control, soil fertility, proper pH balance, and healthy root development in plants.

Composting is a dynamic process which will occur quickly or slowly, depending on the process used and the skill with which it is executed. A neglected pile of organic waste will inevitably decompose, but slowly. This has been referred to as "passive composting," because little maintenance is performed. Fast or "active" composting can be completed in two to six weeks. This method requires three key activities; 1) "aeration," by turning the compost pile, 2) moisture, and 3) the proper carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio. Attention to these elements will raise the temperature to around 130=-140=, and ensure rapid decomposition

We build our compost by adding one layer of food scraps and one layer of dry garden waste, some times adding straw to increase the C:N ration, and as you see Giancarlo in this pictures we turn it about every 3 months and water it. Our worms and micro organism in the compost are really happy.

Like father like son

This are the newly planted winter veggies. We covered them with chicken wire mesh to prevent cats peeing on the soil and squirrels digging their walnuts.

September 08- Fertilizing Trees

There were a few existing fruit trees in the garden that Matt and Jane had planted when they first moved there. The trees needed a lot of care, punning and mulching.

The existing fruit trees are apricots, two different kinds of plums, mayer lemons, tree different apples and a volunteer peach. Except for the peach they are all delicious!

We got the organic compost for free from the City of Berkeley. Even though the City claims that their compost is tested and is all good Giancarlo doesn't trust it to be used on our annual veggies, you can never be sure what people put on their compost pile, but it was good enough to be used to fertilize the trees. Harmful metals, if existing, would not reach the fruit in a tree.

We follow the same principle of sheet mulching around the base of the tree. Adding the compost around the base of the trunk.

This should help the trees out for next season

Our veggies are starting to produce

Mini pumpkin

Tomatoes and basil

Japanese cucumber

Zucchinis

We also planted a few wild flowers, even though it was really late in the season and they didn't grow that much, they made a lot of seeds for next year.

August 08 - Hoop house Shade

We came back to continue our work on the hoop house.

Took off the plastic to add the shade.

Giancarlo found a black shade tarp and we used that as the shade.

It worked pretty well.

We attached the tarp to the bamboo with zip ties.

Folded the ends of the tarp to keep the entrance clear.

And put the plastic back on

It still got hot but it was more manageable

It worked out pretty well

Thank you Kate and Andreas!

And here is the progress of our summer veggies.