Pittsburgh Garden Experiment

Hey Everyone,  Here's a few pictures and a short description of our first season at Red Door Farm in West End Pittsburgh, PA. 

We started with about 1/3 acre of grass.  There were a couple small spots with Invasive plants, and the soil wasn't in the best shape.  Overall, we're happy with the improvements to this property, and will continue to work on the biodiversity by adding more perennial edibles, medicinals and wildlife attractors.  Besides being a productive farm, we hope to create a nice place to relax for Nick, the owner of Red Door Farm.

Below are some images with descriptions of the project in only one growing season.

Here's the farm in April 09.  This was just after the ground thawed and we started digging the permanent beds.  The soil was about 45-50 degrees at this point.  We dug everything by hand with the help of a PGE potluck work party.  Thanks for everyone who helped, and the delicious lunch by Nick!

We stripped the sod in small chunks (about 6" x 6").  We piled them upside-down on the side of the garden for composting.  We brought in about  7 cu. yds. of soil from AgRecycle.  It was a 3/8" mix of 60% topsoil and 40%organic humus.  The soil has performed pretty well, but has some drainage problems.  Next time I think I'll try a 25% organic mix.  We plan to fix the drainage problem by mixing in some sand, rock dust, and compost tea soaks that will build biological activity.  Prepping the soil fully will take about 2 growing seasons.

We received a full chemical soil test from Timberleaf Soil Testing.  They are one of the few chemical labs that offer organic suggestions for your soil.  We were a little high in heavy metals, and low in organic content.  We plan to work on the soil structure with a combination of no-till mulching, cover-cropping, and compost tea applications.

 

This is a picture of the beds in June 09.  Our summer crops were planted late, but they are popping up pretty fast in this picture.  We planted in a hexagonal pattern with spacing according to Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. 

We had some weed problems with the imported soil.  We noticed purslane popping up in 2 beds.  We pulled it by hand and it was a nice addition to some summer salads.  There is also persistent Japanese knotweed with seems to have been seeding in the back of the yard for a number of years.  The disturbed soil made it easy for new plants to pop up.  We've been pulling the small ones (less than 12" tall) and eating them as a control technique.  The big one in the back (pictures coming soon) has been chopped every 2-3 weeks throughout the season.  We attempted to dig it up and realized that the rhizome (horizontally-growing root) is over 6" in diameter and over 15' long.

 

 

Heres a picture from July 09.  The garden is almost in full bloom.  We built trellises for the tomatoes (in the background) with wooden posts and steel cable.  The beans and cucumbers are trellised with a wooden frame and a twine net. 

The fence is made of wooden posts and plastic netting that's zip-tied to steel cable.  We've since learned that rabbits can chew through the fence, so we're switching to welded wire fence that's bent outwards to prevent animals from getting under it (hopefully post about that soon).  Thanks Gene at Neo Terra for the idea!

In the foreground, we planted a strong-scented annual flower mixture to improve aesthetics, and act as a deer deterrant.  We've noticed that they really love the raspberries in the front by the house.

 

 

He'res a picture of the gate leading from the house into the garden.  There are some small rhubarb plants in pots.  You can see the matching back gate in the background ready to be hung on its hinges.

 

We added a matching gate to the back for easier entrance to the road for bringing supplies in and out.  You can see our compost pile on the left.  We had a couple squash plants in the compost pile (they love nutrient rich mixtures).

 

We'll end it on a picture from the West End Overlook about 1/2 mile from the farm.

 

Thanks for reading, I'll post more updates soon on winter growing and the new fence design.

 

I bought my house in February of this year. It is Point Breeze near the Frick Park Entrance. Here is what the back yard looked like. What you cannot see very well in these pictures is the significant slope, flat space and slope again.

It's a pretty big yard, this picture is from the back porch. This picture is facing south.

 

Here is another picture looking from the back of the lot towards the house, and this of course is facing north. English ivy is clinging to the house at this point, and there is an awful lot of grass.

 

 

so...

 

 

To get vegetables started we did a really weak version of sheet mulch, one layer of cardboard and some landscape fabric to capture the heat. We made four 8'x8' beds.

Also in this picture you can see the watering bags around the fruit trees (apple, peach, sweet cherry, and nectarine) and some old green roof trays strategically placed to kill some grass.  In the back you can see my pallet compost bin on the left and an Earth Machine compost bin to the back right. The raspberries are sort of visible halfway up the picture on the fence.

Same stage of growth looking out the dining room window. You can see the hill a bit better from this perspective.

 

 

Now....

 

 

After quite a few blisters and several days of digging...

These are pretty recent photos, you can see the watering bags and the trees.  I am trying to establish a guild under the trees comprised of chives, comfrey, lavender, and yarrow as the perennials, and nasturtiums, red clover, and borage as the annuals. The cedar mulch in the bottom right is a bed that is home to two blueberries and a couple hardy kiwis which are being trained along the chain link fence.

Another similar view.  The blueberries are Reka and Chippewa. The kiwis are Anna. The Cherry is Black Giant. The apple is MacIntosh. The peach is Red Haven. The nectarine is Fantasia Red. The strawberries are Quinault.

Around the stone steps that were dug into the hill we planted a combination of brass buttons and creeping thyme. You can see the comfrey right under the peach tree on the left.  I bought these as bare root cuttings and they filled out to this size in under a month. The comfrey is the Bocking 14 cultivar and doesn't produce viable seed, eliminating the invasiveness of this useful herb.

 

This is what we have done so far in the 5 months we have owned the house. In the works are an asparagus bed, a little pond, a large pergola, and I am planning to do hugelkultur beds where the vegetable plots are using some bushy material I cut out from the front.

 

I can't wait until next year when everything starts filling out and we are able to harvest some fruit!

 

If you have any questions or comments please let me know!

Jean Pain

Jean Pain (1930 – 1981) was a French innovator who developed a compost based bioenergy system that produced 100% of his energy needs. He heated water to 60 degrees celsius at a rate of 4 litres a minute which he used for washing and heating. He also distilled enough methane to run an electricity generator, cooking elements, and power his truck. This method of creating usable energy from composting materials has come to be known as Jean Pain Composting, or the Jean Pain Method.

 

Jean Pain On Wikipedia

 

Video - Jean Pain "The Power Of Compost"

 

Hey guys,

Not sure if you know about Mayor Fetterman in Braddock, but he's great for urban agriculture in Pittsburgh.  I've met him and heard him talk a few times.

I saw him wednesday night on the Colbert Report, and today I recieved an email from a friend with the Post Gazette link.

 

Check it out:

Mayor John video clip from the Colbert Report

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Mayor takes needy Braddock's story nationwide

 

If you haven't seen this one, it is worth the time.  Definately inspirational! Forgive me if this has previously been posted.

Peace.

Troy

 

OK this is a personal rant about my thoughts on lawns and our organized destruction of the urban/suburban environment.  Please comment with your thoughts on lawns.

First I'll start with some reasons for and the place of lawns but then follow with discussion on why I think lawns are idiotic, and we should get rid of them in favor of biodiversity and productive landscapes.

Don't get me wrong.  Lawns have their place:  golf fairways, football, rugby and parks all are great places for lawns.  However outside of sports and recreational areas, lawns are a threat to our health and wealth, literally. Here are some reasons against lawns:  lawns waste money,  lawns waste time, lawn care pollutes.

We spend a ton of money on lawns.  Even in my tiny suburb of Pittsburgh, there isn't a sunny day that doesn't humm with the sound of my tax dollars as well as my neighbors' hard earned income burned in a lawnmower, leafblower, chainsaw, hedgetrimmer or some other high-powered weapon of lawn destruction.  Go out to the country and it's the same thing. Only out there people have tractors for lawnmowers and spend thousands of dollars on mowing acres of lawn.  We are facing $5 / gallon gasoline by the end of 2011, and run-away climate change. Is it only me that wonders why we must attack our surroundings with machines?  Are we really that stressed that we have to take it out violently on our front yards?

On one hand, all of this money spent is paying for a market of "landscapers"  who seem to spend every waking minute burning some form of fossil fuels.  These are jobs, and this is a rough economy I'm sure, but every one of these jobs and more could be put into orchards, coppice forests, pollinator gardens and bee boxes, rain barrel installations, and many more.  All of these jobs would produce a income producing product without burning fossil fuels.  Hmmm.

Speaking of that humming of lawn destruction.  Ever wonder how much time people spend in their lawns dumping poisons, attacking nature with gas engines, and otherwise disturbing the order of things?  If everyone quit mowing their lawns and took a break or a nap, maybe we could get along better...Just a suggestion.  How many days did you lose to lawn work last season?  Weren't they the best days of the year to be inhaling gas fumes and tearing apart living tissue?

All of the "lawn care" chemicals, fertilizers, and fungicides leave our soil in pretty rough shape.  With no biology left, and no roots to hold it, increasing runoff water starts to pollute the surrounding areas without natural cleaning.  The lack of retention causes flash floods, and in Pittsburgh the soil starts slipping downhill.  This erosion and water pollution along with air pollution of small engines, and sound corrupting our peace make it hard to appreciate the quiet and deliberate design of natural forest systems.

But at least you get to look at short, parched, sunburned grass leaves.  That's beauty, right?.   Then we spend money on drinking water to resusitate the poorly rooted plants.  We are literally pouring recently chemically polluted drinking water into the storm drains and watersheds to keep our lawns alive when they thoroughly want to die.   Suburbanites grow lawns in the desert too.  Why?

Alternatively: trees, perennial herbs, rocks, and swales would passively regulate the water and temperature with no external inputs.  In this sense, spreading lawns across America is actually helping contribute to our loss of climate control. 

"Lawn's looking good today neighbor. You have conquered your soil to the edge of death and starvation.  You have tossed the life of topsoil to the wind while managing to burn through excessive amounts of gas and drinking water.  Then you poured poison on it.  Well done.  Take that nature."            <3 Jeff

OK so what is this all for?  I've heard two suggestions:

One was that we hold this aesthetic from our days from the African Savanna where trees and low grass happen naturally.  Until an elephant knocks the tree down in favor of forage grass.  Grasslands only occur naturally where there is disturbance, due to animals, fire, or lawnmower abuse.  In our geographic location, the natural succession would be to forest, so cut the lawn we must to keep the aesthetic of a savanna with large foraging animals. 

The second suggestion was that a lawn is a status symbol from the days when you would have had a huge sheep flock to forage a large lawn.  Large lawns mean that you are wealthy.  I think this also has some merit because considering how wasteful lawns and suburbs are, it fits right in with the American plan for "conspicuous consumption" as a way of demonstrating wealth.

Bottom line:  lawns are the fashion right now.  The lawn economy is based in a fashion that was sold to us.  Like the economy that it built, lawn fashion is also phantom and volitile.  For any reasons, if it is a question of aesthetic, the predominant belief semas to be that a large short lawn is a good, beautiful thing. 

This is a question of fashion, but I believe we can change it.  We must help create a positive vision of a life without lawns:  a life with cleaner water & air, quieter streets, healthier ecosystems, and productive jobs.  By standing out and turning each of our lawns into a backyard oasis for wildlife, food production, herbs, forest farming or any other type of natural landscape, we will continue the trend towards the tipping point where people might get it.

If anyone wants any ideas on what to do besides lawns, send me a message.  Be safe out there.

End of Rant. Thanks :)

Our friend Rose Lord has a weekly email garden newsletter, Angels In My Garden, which tracks garden activities throughout the season for the beginner gardener.  Check out the link here:

http://www.makegardensnotwar.com/Angelsinmygarden.htm

 

 

Western PA Mushroom Club:  Indiana Chapter.

I'm thinking....Pittsburgh Chapter?

A friend used my place and myself for a video project he needed for school, and it's now posted on youtube.  The video was filmed spring and summer 2008, and I'm still making progress and able to live a frugal existance on land, but not yet totally from it food wise.  It's been an uphill battle with limited funds, friends, and interest, but I do love being the 7th generation to garden in the hollow.

Check out the video @ youtube - Wiggi's Greenhouse

Isaac

Hey All,

Even though we don't usually like Cleveland, they have a few cool projects going on.  Check out George Jones Farm . They host classes and workshops. 

There's a permaculture design course there in August.  It's 93 hours long.  Is it worth $1000?