Fresh construction on the farm.

Before we get really deep in planting time, we decided to add another box to our Northern territory. We usually grow tomatoes and peppers in this area. But a couple things have come up in the last year. One is that with all the construction done last summer there's an abundance of dirt that we need to contain. And second, we want to grow fresh lettuce again and it will need to grow it in a new box with new dirt. So with confidence, Farmer No. 1 cut out the wood to fill up the area perfectly. Oops. Never round up, measure twice, cut once.

We leveled the ground, added two inches of gravel for drainage, and put the wood walls in place.
Next we'll add new dirt with compost and plant!

Nick's Secret

A month ago we spotted freshly turned soil in Nick the Farmer's plot of land. Looking closer we spotted feathers everywhere. This bag could be a secret of his success.

Spring Cleanup

Over the weekend, Farmer No. 2 excavated 6 months of cat nasty. Thank you NYC Department of Sanitation. We spent time turning and conditioning the soil… and of course covering it up again… all to get ready for the first planting later in the month. We are also redoing the weed cloth surrounding the boxes.

Soil Testing

One thing that we never did till now is get our soil tested by a reliable source. Early on we tested the pH but that doesn't tell you much, only if plants will grow there. Who knows what's in there. The latest superfund winner, The Gowanus Canal, is only a half mile away (down a big hill).

So, we took samples from different parts of the farm and sent the specimen off to the Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Lab at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to get results.

It took a few weeks, but what a wealth of information. The report goes over the soil pH, phosphorous content, organic matter, nitrogen… all of which the farm checks in as super. 

What we really interests us is the lead content. There's been a lot of chitter chatter about eating food from contaminated soil so we had to get ours fact checked. Our lead content came in at 45ppm which falls in the 'low medium' category. Now, it would be easy to say that if there's any lead at all in the soil you shouldn't eat anything from it but lead occurs naturally in soil. Also, a recent discovery is that some the lead resides in the plant leafs, not the fruit. So tomatoes, figs, grapes, peppers are all harmless to eat because we eat the fruits. On the other hand lettuce, herbs, beet greens, root vegetables should be grown in pots or containers since we eat the leaves.

If you are doing any farming at all you should know what's going on in the soil.

Filling the Pots

Over the weekend we dumped out all our pots on a tarp to mix in fresh new potting mix.
Farm friend Charlene stopped by to help out with labeling.
For now we are keeping the herbs in pots. This keeps them closer to the door for easy access when we are cooking.
We are starting to address the eyesore of a neighbor by working on a border beautification project.

Our Dirt

The farm spent the weekend prepping our dirt.
Famer No. 2 turning the dirt.
Farmer No. 1 mixes compost and soil conditioner to the soil.

We built two new boxes (Farm Boxes No. 3 and 4) this year. Here Farmer No. 2 fills the box with our new super soil.

Farm Boxes No1 and No2

The farm recently purchased Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomen. And while Mel does overly state his accomplishments (the originator of gardens in a box?) and he writes in the third person, this book does have worthwhile information about building boxes for plants. We like the aesthetics of the boxes but they are also practical for controlling soil quality and temperature. We bought 400lbs. of soil and manure to fill the boxes and also mixed compost from Kimberly in there as well.

Update: Kimberly the Composter

Kimberly, our fat little composting bin, has been hard at work since March 1. The compost should be ready but it has been a learning process on how to get the balance right between green (living/nitrogen) and brown matter (dead/carbon). Right now, between the farm waste and kitchen scraps there is so much more green waste than brown so we've been using shredded newspaper as the carbon source.
Farmer No. 2 cuts up the expired broccoli to feed to Kimberly. Chopping up the waste speeds up the process by exposing more surface area to micro-organisms. 

Local Italian Farmer Gives Tomato Tips

Our neighbor, Nick, is an actual farmer from Italy, and occasionally he shouts gardening tips over the chain link fence that divides our gardens. One day he launched a very heavy black plastic bag over the fence. He explained, in his thick Italian accent, that the secret to his prize tomato plants is chicken poop...and he thoughtfully saved us a big bag. How exciting...and scary...but we trust this man's wisdom, so we took his advice. Here are Nick's step-by-step instructions (translated from broken italian/english) for using chicken poop in your tomato garden... just don't ask us where to buy it.

Step 1: Dig holes at least 12" deep where you plan to plant your tomatoes.

Step 2: Open bag of chicken poop. Here is the kind Nick uses.

Step 3: Add a few shovels to each hole. Cover up with dirt and mark the spots for later planting.

We will keep you updated. If this raises any alarm, please post a comment.

1500 Worm Eggs