While my son napped I went out and got to work.  Carefully removing the last ripe and nearly ripe fruit from the tomatoes, squash, pepper and egg plant plants.  Then when done I removed the plants and chopped them up to add to that compost salad at the back of the garden.  I know, it will be warm again next week, but some plants aren’t worth messing with after the first frost.  Those that are, I left behind. 

It was a bittersweet parting of ways this year as the garden had not produced as well as it had in past years.  It wasn’t the worst year ever and it certainly was not the best.  It was, however, still a good year.  It was  a year of firsts and that makes it better than any year.  It also makes it hard to say goodbye.

It was the first year I used raised beds and it was the first real summer in the garden for Baby G.  This was where he had his first birthday.   It was where he learned that a Praying Mantis can be ferocious and pill bugs can roll up.  He learned that basil, dill and sage taste good and nasturtiums were spicy.  He found out that grasshoppers were bad and often saw the bottom of Papa’s shoe and he learned earwigs are the bane of the garden and snails are fun to throw.   Best of all he learned  that there is more to this world than Nickelodeon and Noggin.  Dirt can be fun. <Photo 5>  I will never forget the day when after watching me pick tomatoes for about 5 minutes my son started pointing out the rest of the ripe ones.  He knew the green tomatoes had to wait a little longer.  Not bad for 15 months old!

In the coming weeks the little guy and I will spend more time in the garden as we get the beds ready for next year.  We’ll spread the fall leaves on the beds and cover them under blankets of composted mulch.  Letting the plants of years past feed us in the future.  The lifecycle of the garden is wonderful and I love sharing it with him. Just as my father and mother had with me and as their father’s an mother’s had with them. 

In the end I just want my son to learn where food comes from and not just where you buy it. That is more important to me than anything else and something I learned very early on as a child.  By the time I was five I had grown gardens, caught fish, watched my favorite goat go to slaughter and watched our ducks go from the pond to the dinner table.  Heck, I even knew how to castrate a goat. 

So off we go.  Planning next year.  Garden 2010, the year when the chicken coop goes in and my boy finds out where eggs, thighs, wings, breasts and legs come from.  This should be good.

“If you watch your plants and listen to them, they will tell you what they need and where they should go.” He said.  “Look at that sagebrush over there.”  As we loomed over the sagebrush he pointed to the ground around it’s base and said, “see, it makes it’s own mulch, the leaves fall to the ground and branches grow in such a way to trap them around it.  It doesn’t need a lot of water and you don’t need to give it a lot of water because it traps the water it needs under that mulch.”  “just like a cactus expands to hold the water it needs and if you over water it, it will pop and die.”

While I love my plants I never really payed such attention to them.  I placed them where I wanted them, watered and fertalized (organically) them and would get frustated when they would die anyway.  Wondering always if it was because I was working organically and not doing it right.  What was really happening was that I was not “listening to my garden.”  Those plants that would self sow and come up five feet from where I really wanted them to be were only moving to a better place in the garden.  Maybe not better for my “plan”, but better for their survival. 

So, rather than go on and on here (which I could easily do), I want to leave you with this.  If you “listen” to your garden and do what it asks you, you will see huge success, beautiful flowers and more produce.  Your plants produce EVERYTHING they need and will create the environments they need to survive (if you are growing natives, non natives have a hard time adapting to new climates).  You will do less work and you will have happier plants. If they want to pick up and move, let them.  Relax and enjoy nature.

Photo Source:  by khenigar via Flickr Creative Commons

Now I have no problem with urban farms, I don’t care if my neighbors want a cow, a couple of goats and 6 chickens.  I think it is a wonderful thing and I welcome another gardener to share my bounty with in trade for a couple of eggs. I have been gardening my enitre life and while I raised farm animals as a child I will stay away from them all (with the exception of chickens) on my little .15 acre plot in the heart of the city.   What bothers me is the thought that this isn’t all for real.  I can’t believe that these overnight farmers are going to stay farmers and that their converted lawns will still be gardens in 5 years.  I think the days of watering grass will be returning as soon as it looks like you can move up to a bigger home and make a profit.  Buyers certainly won’t want to step on cow pies when they are examining your curb appeal. 

So, what do you think?  I want to know.  Do you think this current trend to urban farms is going to outlast the recession?  Are all these newfound gardeners, farmers and new urbanists going to last.? Will farmers markets continue to boom and will you still be able to find heirloom tomatoes in your local Albertson’s?  Or do you think that as soon as it is over we will be back to Hummers, Lawns and Friday night pizza?  I hope the answer is that it will last this time.  That, unlike the Freedom Gardens of yesterday, we will continue this new (old) trend and see it through the rest of time.

So here it is, my finished product, and following is a detailed account of how I did it.

I started this project like I do most.    I Googled the term “build your own compost tumbler“.  Frankly, there were a lot of plans, but they were all far too complicated and expensive to build as well.  A compost tumbler should not need $100 in parts to build on top of the cost of the barrel you will be using!

Anyway, in the picture to the left you see 5 food grade barrels that I got from a friend and client that recently bought a house from me.  You see, they bought the house and it came with rain barrels.  They didn’t want them (shudder), so I willingly took them off of their hands.  Three I used for their intended purpose, one I gave to a neighbor and one I saved for compost.

the one I saved had only one large hole cut out for a downspout and was perfect otherwise.  I then purchased three 4 foot sections of 1 1/2 inch galvanized pipe, four 1 foot sections of pipe, 2 elbows and 2 tees.  Total cost so far, including the free barrel, of $35.00, or probably about $65.00 if you were to buy a barrel. The pipes came from a recycler.

The next step was to drill a 1 3/4 inch hole in the center of each end of the barrel so that I could slide one of the 4 foot pipes through the center.  I then ran the pipe through the hole and connected an elbow to each end and then the other two long sections of pipe were connected, like legs, to the elbow.  At the bottom of those two sections I connected the tees and then connected the four 1 foot sections of the pipe to each of the tees, like feet.  Lastly, I buried the feet about two feet underground for stability and to bring the tumbler to the right height.

Notice the legs buried in the ground in the photo above.  This made it very stable and I needed no special connectors to help me turn the barrel on the pipe.  It rotates smoothly and the pipe through the center helps to break up the compost as you tumble it.

The final step was to cut out the door.  I drilled four holes in each corner and then used a keyhole saw to cut out the door.  You will notice in the pictures that the holes were rather large.  I did this because I did not cut any other holes and these will provide for ventilation.  I then installed two brass hinges and a slide latch to keep it closed.

If I were to do it differently I would use a hasp instead of a slide latch.  The slide latch slips out while turning and the door opens.  That is a problem, so I had to bungee it.

Below is a photo of the inside full of future compost.  Good luck in building your own and I hope this helps!

There is a new trend in the world and it is an exciting trend to me.  People are growing their own vegetables again!  From the die hard gardeners to the White House and everywhere in between American’s are picking up their shovels and their rakes and growing again!

It isn’t so new to me since I have had a garden everywhere I ever lived, but to many they are hearkening back to something their grandma did or perhaps, great grandma did.  Many don’t know where to start or what to do and that is where folks like Salt Lake City’s D&L Urban Farms come in. 

D&L Urban Farms is a new thing for us here in Salt Lake City and they are filling a niche that has been filled in other major cities recently.  That niche helps people who want to garden, but don’t know how, get started.  D&L Urban Farms designs, builds, and manages edible gardens which are tailored to each client’s needs and available  space. Whether you live in a single-family home with a big backyard or in a studio apartment with only a balcony, D&L Urban Farms can help you grow your own vegetables and herbs.

Maybe you know what to do, but want to.  Perhaps you have the gumption, but not the time.  D&L is also there for you.  You can design it, lay it out and they can manage it.

“Our mission is: To provide our clients with a sustainable, organic, and local food source,” says Mike Lewis, co-owner and founder of D&L Urban Farms.

Prices are varied based on needs, space, plants and maintenance requirements and can vary greatly.  D&L will come out take a look at what you have and provide you a bid.

If you want more information, please feel free to contact D&L directly. If you live outside of Salt Lake City, check in your local area.  These places are springing up everywhere.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

This started a while back with a campaign to get the president to dig up some lawn for a garden.  A cult following came along for a little video and a big dream over eattheview.org.

Now it has happened! They are planting a garden at the White House. It is such exciting news and just one more little thing that will help to bring a local, sustainable, healthy lifestyle back into vogue. Read more over at the New York Times.

The Clintons grew some vegetables in pots on the roof of the White House. But the Obamas’ garden will have 55 varieties of vegetables — from a wish list of the kitchen staff — grown from organic seedlings started at the executive mansion’s greenhouses.

The Obamas will feed their love of Mexican food with cilantro, tomatilloes and hot peppers. Lettuces will include red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic. There will be spinach, chard, collards and black kale. For desserts, there will be a patch of berries. And herbs will include some more unusual varieties, like anise hyssop and Thai basil. A White House carpenter who is a beekeeper will tend two hives for honey.

Total cost for the seeds, mulch, etc., is $200.

Source: New York Times

Photo: via mental.masal through Creative Commons

Before you poo poo the idea as crazy I suggest that you jump over his site and check it out.  There are two models available, one generates 3500 watts of power and the other generates 5 KW! I definitely like this better than the generator that takes garbage to generate power.  I know that you can quickly run out of garbage at the  work site (especially at a zero-waste site) or on a camping trip, plus you do not need supplemental diesel fuel at all.

Now for those who also say that you are wasting fuel by driving around to charge it, think about construction workers who drive to the site everyday.  This would be a great option for them.  Also, what if you built this into a motor home, news van or personal vehicle?  A vehicle already being driven anyway.  Another plus for construction sites is that you can use corded instead of cordless tools with no generator fumes and no need to buy countless cordless tool batteries, thus reducing garbage in the landfill and pull on the electrical grid.

A New Concept in Generator Power

The POWERWAGON is a brand new, portable trailer power generator that provides clean, quiet and renewable energy wherever it is needed most. The POWERWAGON series of generators takes battery-run generators to a whole new level.  The POWERWAGON 5000 watt power system can supply enough electricity to run a home or construction site with no emissions, virtually no noise, and no storage of fuel, maintenance, oil changes, etc. – providing a sensational value.

Mounted on a rugged, extra heavy duty trailer, The POWERWAGON can be driven almost anywhere and recharges as you drive – making it perfect for applications ranging from emergency preparation/humanitarian aid and construction jobsite use to recreation and home back-up power.  Built for reliability and toughness, it excels in the most extreme conditions.

What sets The POWERWAGON apart from other power generators?

•Clean & Safe – 100% emission free with no carbon monoxide, the top reason for power generator related deaths reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

•Low Cost & Maintenance – no fuel or oil consumption provides cost efficiency.

•No Noise – 100% silent, eliminating one of the major complaints associated with construction.

Source:  Power Wagon

So what caused my rambling comment and drove me to write this post?  It was the combination of these paragraphs over at Jetson Green:

That said, if someone mentions they’re building a second home, the typical environmentalist will most certainly pounce.  It’s a common, knee-jerk reaction, but tell me you don’t find some truth in Lou’s statement:

Building a cabin, I’m finding, can be a lever into a middle-aged man’s rural fantasies. Second homes are an American obsession, partly — maybe mainly — because of the chance they give us to live a second life, one that may be truer to our real selves than the first that we live out of necessity.

A place to get away and enjoy nature.  Maybe even respect nature and realize how important the environment actually is.  Maybe even get back to nature because our first homes don’t really do the job.  Lou tells us why he’s building a cabin, and we can’t blame him either.  He seems to be going at it the right way, that’s for sure.

Image source CC from Flickr user johnylive

Currently I live an abbreviated version of my ideal life.  A 15×40 organic garden in my back yard serves as my farm and my home is my version of the cabin I would really want to live in, but really is nothing like the home of my dreams.  Sure, I like it well enough and I live in it now, but if I could do what I really wanted to do, it would be different for sure.  Read on to see how.

If I had life my way I would live on a paid off 40 acre swath of land in a home that I built myself out of trees that needed to be thinned from my land. I would raise a cow for milk and meat along with a couple of sheep and goats. It would have a creek for trout and power generation and would feed into and out of a pond. Duck, geese and chickens would populate the grounds with the guinea fowl and peacocks.  A little corral of goats and sheep would finish off the mini farm.  All of these animals would serve an organic purpose, an educational purpose for my children and would provide, the milk, cheese, eggs and meat that we would need for us and to sell.

Image source CC from Flickr user Ilovebutter.

Moving along I would reserve enough of the acreage for organic gardens that would create enough food for the family and enough to sell to keep us in the necessities that the land did not provide. It would be off grid of-course and fully self sustaining.  The land not needed to sustain us would sit as a respite from everything in the world and would remain in it’s natural state as a playground and laboratory for my children.

Sure it would be a lot of work, but the land is paid for and sustains itself, so it would be my work.  I wouldn’t have to leave everyday to commute to a job I hate to pay for and a life that I really don’t want.  It isn’t even that far fetched for me.  As a child my parents owned a 25 room motor court.  In the back we had the acreage, the animals and the garden along with the untouched land for my playground and laboratory.  I had chores and I actually enjoyed them.  Well, most of them.  I hated spreading goat manure on the lawn for fertilizer.  I cried over that job.

This life isn’t that far away for any of us and isn’t even that far back in our families.  My grandparents mostly lived life this way and my great grandparents absolutely lived life this way.  To get there it would just take the guts to make a major change and the money to buy 40 acres outright.

So there you have it.  My dream life.  What is yours?

So since this is my first blog feature dedicated solely to gardening I am going to feature a blogger and gardener who is new to gardening and organic gardening. The blogger being Nate and the blog being SLC Veggies.

So what makes SLC Vegies so amazing? Well, let’s start with the determination of the blog founder, Nate. He is building a garden from scratch where the only things that existed before was a weed and grass filled lot and an asphalt driveway. Better yet, he has never done anything like this before. Even better yet he has a toddler and is fulfilling a residency at a local hospital. So, if anything, all that should tell you a lot. If he has time, we all definitely have time.

I am a descendant of farmers on both sides of my family, but I’m only just learning how to grow my own food. Join me for the adventure.

So apart from busily pounding up asphalt, creating a compost heap from scratch and laying out next years plots, what else is he doing? Nate is creating a gardening club in the Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City, which you can find here at Garden the Avenues.com.

I have been gardening ever since I can remember and I know that while I am amazed at the determination and creativity that Nate has employed. He truly is an inspiration to experienced gardeners and the beginners. You will absolutely find his site educational, informative and entertaining. If he can’t make you get up and garden, I don’t know who will.

So what is so great about TerraCycle? The products are made from garbage, packaged in garbage and shipped in garbage. The products re-use waste that would otherwise clog our landfills and to top it all off, you can collect the garbage through your schools, groups, or charitable organizations and GET PAID to send that garbage to TerraCycle.

So what does TerraCycle do with all of this garbage? They take it from the landfill and turn it into useable everyday products. Products like the fertilizer I mentioned above and more. Backpacks, pens, notebooks, cleaners, firelogs, shopping bags and more!

If you want to know where to purchase their products in your area click here for a store in your area or here to purchase them online.

Image: Terracycle